Right now, Emily and I are at NIVA continuing with the enrollment process. I am sitting in the boardroom at Emily's new school writing this update as she sits in another room writing the English and Mathematics entrance exams. However, 5 minutes after arriving, I realized I forgot/lost/left my phone in the taxi! I have no idea what firm it was or any other identifying characteristics other than it has my phone in it. The secretary here tried calling but it is on vibrate and of course the driver could not hear it. Well, she persisted and finally, he answered! He was back at our condo complex, and he left my phone at the concierge desk! Thank God, thank Thai and thank the secretary here at NIVA. Bad day gone good.
We are going to establish a school routine for next week and ongoing. Emily will take the Niva shuttle to school in the morning (I'm going to walk to school). At the end of the day, Emmy will walk to my school and do homework etc., and then we will walk home together. I have shared the route on my Google page...please have a look.
Pictures to follow.
Beginning to feel settled. We have a few Thai phrases already: Swaddie-ka (good morning), Come Cume ka (thank you). For the men in the crowd, you replace "ka" with "kop".
Wednesday, 7 August 2013
HOME
We have an address!!
We live at Baan Navatara. I think you can Google it for pictures. We are having our internet connected Friday August 9, so I will be uploading pictures of schools, home and stuff this weekend.
It is a cute little one bedroom condo. Fully furnished (Air Conditioning, Queen bed, double sofa-bed, t.v., dishes, appliances, bedding - brand new in package and a washing machine located on the balcony!). We unpacked last night and are quite satisfied with the place. It has really cool shelving units that we want to duplicate when we get back home.
The complex is extremely secure. There are a total of 6 buildings and access is restricted by pass-key to your building and your floor. I will post the address in English and y'all can start sending us mail because we have our own mailbox too.
The grounds are immaculate and very pretty. There is a pool, but not a rectangular one (you'll see in the pics) and a gym on-site. We spent 1/2 hour at the gym this morning and had a quick dip before starting the day.
Talk to you soon,
Nicole and Emily
Home-less, weary travellers no more!
We live at Baan Navatara. I think you can Google it for pictures. We are having our internet connected Friday August 9, so I will be uploading pictures of schools, home and stuff this weekend.
It is a cute little one bedroom condo. Fully furnished (Air Conditioning, Queen bed, double sofa-bed, t.v., dishes, appliances, bedding - brand new in package and a washing machine located on the balcony!). We unpacked last night and are quite satisfied with the place. It has really cool shelving units that we want to duplicate when we get back home.
The complex is extremely secure. There are a total of 6 buildings and access is restricted by pass-key to your building and your floor. I will post the address in English and y'all can start sending us mail because we have our own mailbox too.
The grounds are immaculate and very pretty. There is a pool, but not a rectangular one (you'll see in the pics) and a gym on-site. We spent 1/2 hour at the gym this morning and had a quick dip before starting the day.
Talk to you soon,
Nicole and Emily
Home-less, weary travellers no more!
Tuesday, 6 August 2013
Arrival!
OMG!
This was the longest trip ever! Toronto to Vancouver: easy flight, but if you wanted headphones, movie or food, you had to buy it - credit only - we didn't.
Arrived in Vancouver at 9:00am their time (1:00pm our time). 4 hour wait in Vancouver airport: very pleasant. We walked around, played cards and had Timmies lunch (apparently THIS was our last Timmies).
Flight from Vancouver to Shanghai: soooo long - 12 hours. We left at 1:20pm Vancouver time Sunday afternoon. I have no idea what happened to time while we were in the air. But we were able to sleep for a couple of hours. Shanghai airport was very depressing and not a little smelly. Glad to be out of there.
Arrived in Thailand at 12:35am Tuesday morning but one of our bags stayed in Vancouver! Oh God.
First day in Thailand we spent in the mall getting phones and an outfit for Emily (it was her bag that stayed behind). We decided to check in to the Town in Town hotel for the second night because the bed and shower at the apartment were quite uncomfortable. We spent two hours walking up and down the streets by the hotel just taking in the sights and sounds.
We are going apartment hunting tomorrow and going to enroll Emmy in NIVA school.
We have to search for free ways to talk to all of you because texting internationally is very expensive. As soon as we find stuff, I'll post info here.
It's still Tuesday 10:45pm and although we have slept only 10 hours in the past 87 hours, we are not really sleepy. Crazy!
ps The photo is of a stall door in the Shanghai public washroom...in case you were in any doubt about what to do! hahahahaha
This was the longest trip ever! Toronto to Vancouver: easy flight, but if you wanted headphones, movie or food, you had to buy it - credit only - we didn't.
Arrived in Vancouver at 9:00am their time (1:00pm our time). 4 hour wait in Vancouver airport: very pleasant. We walked around, played cards and had Timmies lunch (apparently THIS was our last Timmies).
Flight from Vancouver to Shanghai: soooo long - 12 hours. We left at 1:20pm Vancouver time Sunday afternoon. I have no idea what happened to time while we were in the air. But we were able to sleep for a couple of hours. Shanghai airport was very depressing and not a little smelly. Glad to be out of there.
Arrived in Thailand at 12:35am Tuesday morning but one of our bags stayed in Vancouver! Oh God.
First day in Thailand we spent in the mall getting phones and an outfit for Emily (it was her bag that stayed behind). We decided to check in to the Town in Town hotel for the second night because the bed and shower at the apartment were quite uncomfortable. We spent two hours walking up and down the streets by the hotel just taking in the sights and sounds.
We are going apartment hunting tomorrow and going to enroll Emmy in NIVA school.
We have to search for free ways to talk to all of you because texting internationally is very expensive. As soon as we find stuff, I'll post info here.
It's still Tuesday 10:45pm and although we have slept only 10 hours in the past 87 hours, we are not really sleepy. Crazy!
ps The photo is of a stall door in the Shanghai public washroom...in case you were in any doubt about what to do! hahahahaha
Sunday, 4 August 2013
Cheers!
After an all-nighter, the boys drove us to the airport at 4:30am! Yes people, apparently 4:30 comes twice/day...who knew? We arrived safely and fortunately did not have to pay extra for our 65lb bags (x3). We are currently waiting for boarding and have sat down to our last Timmies for a while.
Next stop...Vancouver. Talk to you soon,
The weary but excited travellers.
ps, yes tears were shed at the goodbye.
Next stop...Vancouver. Talk to you soon,
The weary but excited travellers.
ps, yes tears were shed at the goodbye.
Friday, 2 August 2013
First and Foremost....
Hey people,
This is post 1 of ? to chronicle our one year in Thailand.
Because I am creating this first post while sitting in my livingroom in Pickering, there will not be any pictures (nor anything of real interest). However, it IS interactive. You my dear friends must tell me if you have access to this thing. I will post a link or whatever to facebook. If you get it and read this post, please let me know by posting a comment.
Nicole
ps ideas for content will be appreciated.
Here we go........
This is post 1 of ? to chronicle our one year in Thailand.
Because I am creating this first post while sitting in my livingroom in Pickering, there will not be any pictures (nor anything of real interest). However, it IS interactive. You my dear friends must tell me if you have access to this thing. I will post a link or whatever to facebook. If you get it and read this post, please let me know by posting a comment.
Nicole
ps ideas for content will be appreciated.
Here we go........
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