Happy New Year!

Miklos and Ester

New Years Eve lunch with cousins Miklos and Ester.  

It has been a big year for Daniel and I.  We celebrated our one year anniversary.  We bought a house in Vermont.  We left the pink house in Oakland. We moved to Thailand. Daniel started teaching. I started teaching again. We didn't go to Burningman. Dear friends had babies, dear friends are getting married!  We spent Christmas in Budapest with Daniel's lovely family.  It's been a really busy and really rich year!  Above all I feel a huge amount of gratitude and grace surrounding us.  More than ever in my life I am thankful for our community and the love of friends and family and my amazing loving husband!

Train to Vienna

So classy.

Seen around Budapest while on the hunt for Channukah candles

Puppet Theater in Budapest

You can see all the children visitors have left their own art made by swinging the fire alarm handle. We both loved this.



Daniel and I went to see a puppet show at 10:30 am on a Friday morning. The show was made by lovely Kate, from Poland. We met her in a gallery the day before and got on the topic of puppetry and making puppet shows and she asked, "Do you know Eric Bass?" and we both laughed! Daniel has worked with Eric on puppet shows and he is a dear friend from Vermont. In fact he kindly opened his home to us while we made preparations for our wedding last fall. Kate worked with Eric while he did a show in Poland. We were delighted to meet Kate and go see her show in Budapest. A show of love and war and love conquering all.

Gastronomical Budapest or "How We Gained Ten Pounds"

Fishing Village in Ko Chang

This post is now a little out of date but the internet has not been cooperating the last few times I tried to update the blog. Life on the hill in Thailand does not always have reliable internet service. This was a most delicious fish.

Thank God!

Jumping up and down in Thailand for OBAMA!!!!!!

underwater

The sensation of being underwater for me was otherworldly or how I imagine being in space might be. If I thought about it too much it was not right, foreign and strange but also lovely to be a visitor in that place. I felt an amazing sense of discovery that this is part of the planet I live on. So many unfamiliar things to see.
Daniel liked getting up really close to the corals and looking at all the details. I liked sitting in one place and looking into the vast chalky blue - this tableau was amazing feeling. I was moved too to see another diver in this deep space and the silver air bubbles rising to the surface. We did two dives, both for an hour. In our conversations with other divers they kept saying how quick an hour underwater feels. I felt like we must be like bulls in a china shop down there and the minutes crept by.

off the beach for a hike

my sweetheart

Sunset in Ko Chang

Friend at the beach

One of the best parts for me about being at the beach is the way time slows down and the day gets occupied by watching crabs scurry about and the like.

Ko Chang

Bangkok

We didn't take very many pictures in Bangkok. A reason to go back. I love Bangkok. It is a city of great contrast. Since we only had a day this time we actually stayed pretty close to home for most of our time and enjoyed our private balcony overlooking the river watching life go by. Wat Po was right behind our small hotel. We went to see the giant sleeping gold Buddha and make 108 wishes. We debated -was it best to make 108 different wishes or the same one over and over? We'll let you know.

On the water taxi for an afternoon adventure. We went to Siam Paragon for some serious window shopping.

Our private balcony. We were very happy here and both had a hard time leaving. It was easy to imagine a life in Bangkok living on the water watching tug boats pull barges past and listening to the sounds of an alive waterway. Knowing there was a beach waiting for us was a pretty good incentive to get up early and fly south.

The view at night from our balcony. Directly across from our balcony stood Wat Arun on guard.