The lights are up in Bangkok

Merry Christmas! I know it's early. 

I have some news. I didn't get the job at the SAT preparation center. I'm hopeful that something else will turn up.

The Speech

The 5th of December was His Majesty the King of Thailand's 78th birthday. He gave an annual speech the day before which was similar to the State of the Union speech that our President delivers. I was one of the many guests present. I saw the King drive himself and get out of his Lexus. My friend who is a missionary translated some of the speech while we watched it on TV.

The most important guest was the Prime Minister of Thailand, but he received a few sharp remarks. The King said he himself is not infallible, and that he welcomes comments and even criticism. In fact, it is against Thailand's law to make negative comments about the monarchy. However, the King pardons people who comment all the time. The King told the Prime Minister to drop the lawsuits he filed against people of the media who criticize him. I'm waiting to hear if the Prime Minister dropped them. There are rumors that he will.

There are lots of lights up in Bangkok to celebrate the King's birthday. There are also decorations for Christmas. Bangkok's malls have picked up the capitalist spirit of the Christmas holiday quite well.

Take care.

Thankful

While I've been in Thailand, Thanksgiving has snuck up on me. I haven't thought about it much. I actually scheduled an interview for the same day. Then the lady that works for the company called me yesterday to see if we could reschedule. She's American, and she forgot too. So I said, "Oh yeah. Okay. How about Friday?" So I made reservations for my friends and I to eat at Outback Steakhouse that night.

Americans are passionate about Thanksgiving. We love spending time with family, eating turkey and passing out from drowsiness caused by eating so much while watching sports on tv. Thai people and others wonder why we want turkey so much. It's not a holiday that will be adopted here anytime soon. And without the non-stop onslaught of commercials advertising the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and the Dallas Cowboys game, I forgot about it until now. But Thanksgiving isn't just an American thing. Did you know that Canada has it's own Thanksgiving? It's the second Monday in October. The harvest time in Canada is earlier and the holiday has a different history than the American one. If you would like to know the history check out this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving
Maybe next October I'll try watching some Candadian football and eating a turkey sandwich. Sounds good, ay?

I wish I could be at the dinner table in Waco. It's not possible to eat turkey with my family this year, but I'm thankful for them and many other things. God bless you.

Job interview and other things

I am going to interview for a job at a SAT preparation center in Bangkok called Elite of Bangkok. www.eliteprep.com The interview will probably be on November 24th. I have sent my resume to an online database on Ajarn.com as well. I have also been looking at the UN Volunteer site, and I offered to help a newsletter published by a non-profit group called D-Pal. They will e-mail me a rough draft, and I'll make corrections by e-mail. I won't get paid for this.

Tan will interview for a flight attendant job on Saturday. She expects hundreds of other girls to also tryout for Quatar Airlines.

My friend Robert, who is a refugee from the Congo, is going to move to America, Lord willing. He has been disappointed before, but this might be the month he finally gets to go. All the paperwork has been processed. He is waiting for Congress to sign a Bill to let more refugees enter the country. They usually sign it every month, but they didn't last month because of the refugees created by the hurricane.