Learning Thai

Here are the pictures of our house that some of you have been asking for! I hope this will help you picture our life here a little better. It's amazing how fast it's begun to feel like home. Click on the pictures for a larger view.

This is our front entry. Thais don't wear shoes in the house, so there is always a pile of sandals right here. I'm trying out growing some orchids although I don't know much about it yet. They are beautiful and amazingly cheap. Claire likes to ride her new bike out front here.

Veranda in the front of the house. We like to sit out here in the evenings because there is a little breeze and neighbors or landlords sometimes join us. I'm having fun collecting plants. Our landlady brought me some new ones- she said the one by the door is supposed to bring us good luck in money!

Here is the living room. The downstairs is basically one large, tiled room, with stairs going up the middle. The other end of this room has our desk and the girls toys. The downstairs bathroom is off this room - you can see the door in the picture. Our team is beginning to meet here every other week.

Another veiw of our living room. We can't wait to get our boxes of books we sent from the states to fill up our bookcase. Claire is getting tired of the books we brought with us! We don't understand much of what is going on on Thai TV!

This is the kitchen. When we came it was basically the counter with shelves underneath and the sink. We bought the shelves, fridge, coffee maker, toaster, and hotplate. I also recently got a rice cooker since we eat so much rice. I do my cooking on the hotplate so far. We usually eat one at least one meal a day in the neighborhood- it's actually cheaper to eat out than cook at home.

This is our dining room area. The furniture in here (the table/bench and writing desk and lamp in the background) are all from our landlords. The benches are super heavy- very hard to move!

Our bedroom. We just got our curtains this week. I always have to have my one red room in the house, so this is it!

More bedroom.

This is the girls' room. They ordered Pooh curtains. They have a dresser the same as ours. I couldn't get a camera angle in there to get a better pic. They sleep on a mattress on the floor which we gather is typical for kids here.

The girls/guests bathroom. Claire takes cold showers and Eliza takes cold baths in here. They are getting used to it but it can be quite a shock!
The guest room isn't furnished yet so I didn't include pics of that. We also have a back patio with the washer and portable clothes racks for hanging clothes and where the girls like to play in the hose.

-Candice