Let's do this! Let's get katie married!

Hello friends! It's time to sit down and relax with a nice new blog post from the Curreys!

Last weekend was a crazy one. Most of you probably already know that Isaac and I went back to the good ole U.S.A. for my twin sister's wedding in Chicago on September 19th.

It was a weekend of fun, frivolity and other "f" words.................like friends!

We're still recovering from jet lag back here in Thailand but it was well worth the trip. We left at midnight on Wednesday the 17th of September and arrived on Thursday morning in Chicago. Basically every second was full of stuff to do. As soon as we landed, I went to Walmart with my mom to try to get 100 lbs (our free luggage allowance) worth of groceries that we can't really get in Thailand. Hooray for refried beans and granola bars. Isaac and my dad had some bonding time on the golf course. I'm sure he wishes he was at the store with me and mom to get the other stuff. I don't know what the boys talked about while they golfed but it was probably something about women being annoying....I think that's what men talk about when they golf.

After the day's fun we drove up to Highland Park (a nice suburb of Chicago) to meet my sister, her fiance, and his family. It was cool to meet the new in-laws and it was also nice to see my sister again. Although Isaac and I were exhausted. For all of those who have seen us in jet lag mode you know that we are zero fun. I know, I know you're also thinking "But Becky, you're ALWAYS zero fun!" hahahahah you're hilarious mom!

On friday I got to meet up with some of my old high school friends, and when I say old high school friends I don't mean 30 year olds who can't graduate 12th grade (although I'm sure they're fun to hang out with too) I mean that we were friends a little while ago when I was in high school waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in 2000-ish. Anyhoo it was wonderful to hang out with them again. I was especially happy to see Diane Mitchell again who I haven't seen in about 2 and half years. Fun times. Later that night we went to a townie bar in Homewood (the town I grew up in) and Isaac had to listen to this guy Steve tell him about 10 times "Seriously dude, it was nice to meet you! SERIOUSLY!" I guess he wanted to make sure to drive the point home......or he was drunk. Either way, it was a wonderful moment.

Friday night we had the rehearsal for the wedding AND I got a caramel apple! It was awesome! Later that night we went to rehearsal dinner and Scott's mom (katie's new mother-in-law) got emotional and cried a lot and then came and talked to me and Isaac. She's a super close talker and likes to press her face against yours whilst talking to you. It was awkward but I felt oddly close to her.....hmmm......I think I'm going to try to talk to more people that way.

Scott's brother and best man and my escort. Isaac was jealous.

The beautiful and HUGE church.

Saturday I had to wake up at the butt crack of dawn to get my hair did with the other bridesmaids and katie. Isaac got to sleep. Then we headed downtown to get ready for the wedding. Katie got married in this beautiful Catholic church and I didn't know any of the rules like how to take communion or when to hand her flowers but I think otherwise the ceremony went great. Katie looked beautiful and Scott was ravishing, as well.

After the wedding we drove around in the limo and took pictures at Wrigley Field, some park, and at a beach in Evanston. Then we went to the reception which was in this art gallery. Very swanky. I missed the cake cutting but everything else was great. My speech made people laugh, and cry, and I think someone threw up but that could've been from something else. (The video of the speech shall be posted soon).

After the wedding and reception Isaac and I went to a hotel and crashed for a few hours and then had to leave early for the airport to catch our flight back to Thailand. It was quite the whirlwind of a weekend. All told, we were in transit for 50 hours and were in Illinois for about 72. I'm still waking up in the middle of the night hungry but that should pass soon.

In other news, Isaac and I are going to the mountains this weekend to reflect on life and to get away from the craziness that is Bangkok. Hopefully we won't get too far from civilization because Isaac needs to check his football scores. More stories to come! Or we'll just write a bunch of garbage......just like this post :) Sorry folks, I'm too tired to be funny!

Thailand Traffic

Becky and I were on the way to get some lunch near our house when we ran into an unexpected road block. These suckers just walked out from this row of bushes that I foolishly thought contained them. I guess they just cross teh street as they please.

I would love to blog more but, we are out the door for a crazy three days in Chicago and then back to Thailand. We are excited we get to spend the time with family and are pumped that Katie and Scott are finally tying the knot.

love iBeck

Elbows

No stiches needed, just some tape. First basketball injury of the year.

All Up In My Grill

Our new toy! We had Erin over for some burgers. Dessert is on the grill (monkey bananas). Fall is a hard time to live away from the USA with football going on, this makes it a little easier.

Samet Redux

There are times when Thailand really ticks me off, and then there are times that really love it. Last weekend definately fell into the latter category. Something about being able to spend the weekend on a tropical beach will do that I suppose.

Becky and I ventured to samet last April when I had a long weekend from korea. This time was much different. Of course my favorite difference was that we were married this go around...so I didn't have to wear pants in the room. The other big difference was that instead of just the two of us, there were about 20 teachers there. That makes throwing the football and frisbee way more fun. Of course, the camera that I packed was out of battery and I forgot the charger. Let me appologize to those of you looking forward to seeing me in my speedo, sorry. Here are some pictures that other people took though.

Crazy beach dogs surrounded us at dinner one night. I thought there was about to be a fight until one of the fire throwers/breathers came over and broke it up. And yes, you did read that sentence correctly.

One more thing, because Becky was really proud of this. The first night we went out Becky and I were challenged to a dance off. I would have said that we were the underdogs, but this thing wasn't even close. I never even knew that I was capable of that level of domination. I guess that marriage has made Becky and I that much more powerful!!! I'll see if I can hunt down some pictures.

In other news, we will be heading back to re good 'ol USA in less than two weeks for Katie and Scott's wedding (Becky's sis). We are excited to see family, less excited to spend 45 hours on a plane in a five day period. Worth it though.

We are having some maid issues. Ok, I realize it's rediculous to even mention that, but, I'm gonna anyway. This is actually our second maid. Our first maid was a disaster! She basically just didn't clean.

Our house was prrrry dirry because no one had lived in it for a year. The first time she came she just becky was home. When I got home I was like "where is the maid?" becky was in our room because it's just weird laying on the couch while someone cleans your house. Well, becky thought that she was still here because she had only been there an hour. Turns out shed taken our laundry and was done for the day. I was ticked because our house was still filthy. On top of that, she asked becky for more money because she had to do extra work the first time.

Now I was really ticked. I don't mind paying for something, but I want it to be done. But, we thought we would give her one more chance.

When she next came a few days later, I came home from work and she was ironing our clothes. So far so good. As I am walking up though, one of our neighbors who speaks English tells me, "she wants you to pay 15 baht a shirt" (about 50 cents).

"OK, just hang ok a minute." I walk into the house and into the bathroom and it it still just dirty. We are talking obvious stuff here, like gekko poop on the ledges of stuff. I get the English speaking neighbor and was like, why is this still dirty. At this point another lady, yes there were three women there (plus a kid) all in my house. Anyway, this other lady starts cleaning and I start laughing and tell her, " it's not your job."

So now, we have a lady who is not only doing a terrible job, but appears to be outsourcing! And she wants to charge extra. So I payed her and fired her.

Our maid now is pretty good. She comes for like four hours. The only problem is that she comes while we are there and that she kinds sucks at laundry. For some reason our clothes smell like they have been left in the washer too long. This is a smell that as a bachelor I was quite familiar with, so I am ready for that to stop. We think it might be the rain though because she hangs them outside to dry (under our back porch). We are working on a solution.

Toto, we're not in Seoul anymore.

OK, first, let me just apologize for the stream of conscience that was Becky's last post. As a English teacher (first time this year), I will work with her on the important writing trait of organization, and then we will begin to work on presentation.

We are through two weeks of school and are beginning to get into a groove. We had a parent teacher day this morning (Saturday) which was mostly good. We had a chance to get some work done between meeting with the parents.

The people in Bangkok are really different from the people in Korea. Expats, that is. Let me share a fun story that might further illustrate this point.

At dinner the Friday before school began, Becky and I went out to eat with some friends. One of the couple there had their daughter with them, grade 7. This is important because she was there while one of the guys was making sure everyone knew to come back on Saturday because "we gonna play 'get f**k*d'". As this guy was leaving, he once again was reminding the 7th grade girls mom and her boyfriend to come Saturday to play "get f'd".

Now the best part. Immediately following the invitation, the girl says, "Ooooooh! I just found out...you are my VALUES teacher!" Yes, that's right. Now, you might be thinking one would realize the contradiction here but... he says, "Awesome, I hope you are ready for the amazing experience that is my class." And that, you just cannot make up.

Follow up. This last weekend we were at a BBQ at a friends house and the values teacher and the girl were both there. Again, some language was flowing and this time the girl says, "Hey, your my values teacher, you can't talk like that." So, finally realizing the error of his ways, he responds, "I'm not your teacher right now."

The lesson here kids is that values just don't apply outside of the classroom. Also, you could take away that people have different sets of values and what one deems as acceptable might not be so for someone else. What do I take...irony.

Changing gears.

Marital Bliss - How Isaac's life is different now.

Instead of eating popcorn or ramen or a frozen soft pretzel for dinner, I now eat delicious homemade food courtesy of my beautiful wife. Tonight, county chicken, which is yellow curr(e)y, vegetables, raisins, peanuts and overall deliciousness. Sadly, I am still skinny, sorry Mom.

Coming soon. Honeymoon pictures (PG rated). This Old House (our new home).

Now leave a comment so we are encouraged to write more often. Feedback is key to encouragement.

Love Becky and Isaac

Settling

No I'm not talking about settling for a spouse! I'm talking about settling in to our new dong (that means neighborhood in Korean, get your mind out of the gutter!) I finally have time (aka I don't feel like planning my classes) to post some MUCH desired info about the Currey family move to a house in Thailand. As some of you may have already known I (Becky) used to live in a cute little condo in a cute little neighborhood with restaurants and lakes and a pool and Thai people and now, after wedded bliss, Isaac and I decided that the condo was too small to contain our love (also we wanted to move closer to school so that we could sleep an extra hour) so we moved to a house in a similar type of neighborhood except there are no restaurants and it's much smaller and all of our neighbors are Thai and there are dogs and children EVERYWHERE. AND we're pretty far away from civilization. BUT we do have a motorcyle that is supposed to work except the guy who sold it to us forgot to leave the key.....and it leaks gas. Needless to say, Isaac and I are enjoying our evening strolls....and morning strolls......and afternoon strolls.......and pretty much anytime strolls because walking is the only way we can get out of our neighborhood. We're settling into the new place. We just got a counch and I think we're going to get a tv today. Hopefully the internets will work soon too because we've had to resort to talking to eachother since we don't have tv or internet. It's not pretty. In all seriousness, it hasn't been that bad, but it will be nice to feel like we have some sort of connection to people back in the States and other places that aren't strolling distance. School starts on Monday and I feel good about my classes since I taught the same ones last year. Isaac......well that's another story. It seems like everyone got together and tried to string the most random assortment of classes to give him to teach. He's teaching priests how to speak English; He's teaching non-Thai students Thai studies (good thing he has so much experience in Thailand); and he's teaching 7th and 8th grade Humanities which is sorta like English and Social Studies combined. I think he'll do a great job but it's definitely a lot of different preps to have to deal with in addition to having to deal with being married to ME! I think he'll be ok though. Just keep him in your thoughts and prayers. Ok I'm sure you all have more important things to do like ironing or watching paint dry so I'm gonna end this mess. We miss you all and are looking forward to seeing you again! Unless you work with us in which case we DON'T miss you! :)

Love,
iBeck

P.S. More summer pics to come if the internets are working at our house