Hurray!

I received an email from my mom today, telling me that she bought plane tickets for herself, my dad, and my little sister Lauren to come and visit after Christmas (well, they will leave Christmas Day, so I guess it is after Christmas.)

I've been realizing that part of my love of traveling and seeing new places involves sharing it with the people I love. Before I studied in Thailand during my junior year of college, almost all of my traveling was with my family. It has been strange to love a place so much and have my family not completely understand what it is like. I'm so excited that they're coming because now they will get to experience a culture that is very new to them but familiar to me.

Here is a list of things I want to do with my family (I really like lists):

- go to the island Koh Chang and stay at a beachfront resort
- spend a day snorkeling among gorgeous coral reefs
- go elephant riding and bamboo rafting in the jungles north of Chiang Mai
- visit Wat Suan Dok and have them meet Phra Tong, my old supervisor
- go out to dinner at Riverside and listen to jazz along the Ping River
- take them to the university and show them my office and classrooms
- go to Doi Suthep and watch the sunset from the top of the mountain
- take them to a Kantoke dinner (a traditional Northern Thai experience) and watch my dad try to dance the "Rhun Thai"
- go to Kat Luuang, the daymarket, and make them eat roasted cockroaches (or at least look at them)
- walk from the Faculty of Humanities to see the house that I lived in with my host family
- go to the Thanoon Khun Doon and experience the madness of the Sunday Walking Street

That is just the beginning. So let that be inspiration to all of you... if you come and visit me, I promise that we will do fun/exciting/culturally important things.