Merry Christmas!!

My first Christmas in Malaysia... no snow, no fireplace, but still a fabulous time! I spent Christmas day with some good friends here... We had way too much to eat, (as you do...) played games, and had some good fellowship with each other. Boxing day came, and worked off all those extra calories by helping Jasmane move house! Today we did some more moving, and unpacking.. it was fun - amazing what a few women together can accomplish in only a few hours! (We used the guys for their muscles:))

Now it's time for just chilling, staying up late, sleeping in all morning, napping in the afternoon... aaahh.. the life! I'm going to Kuala Lumpur with some girlfriends for the day - a quick Ikea run - 4 hours driving there then 4 hours back - the same day!! (I'll be sleeping in the back.. not driving!) It will be a fun shopping day:) Then next week I head off to Bangkok and Chaing Mai in Thailand for a week. I'll be heading to Bangkok with Lana for 2 nights then meeting up with Jasmane and Shauna in ChaingMai - there's a Joyce Meyer conference up there we're going to check out, as well as the Hillsong band! Plus we'll be riding elephants and doing lots of shopping of course! Really looking forward to it!

Lana and I Christmas day

What a spread!

King of Thailand's birthday reception

On Friday night, I went to this birthday reception for the king of Thailand... His great grandson goes to our school (He's in Jasmane's class) and this child's father is the consular general for Thailand - here in Penang. So.. a few of us went to this "do" the other night! A few speeches, a toast to the king (he wasn't there - he was celebrating in Bangkok) and after we all said "long live the king", we were able to indulge at a buffet full of amazing Thai food - Pad thai, green curry, mango sticky rice - a few of my personal favourites!

Hong Kong

I just got back on Sunday from a quick trip to Hong Kong. I attended a conference for school - ICEC - a conference for international Christian school teachers. It was a great conference and I learned a lot of new stuff that I can implement in my classroom. But the more exciting part of the trip was the sightseeing ;) There were 8 of us from Dalat that went, and we enjoyed being taken out on a boat around Hong Kong harbour, as well as a wonderful dinner at Jumbo restaurant - a famous floating restaurant in Aberdeen harbour, by a guy who used to attend Dalat and is well known in the community. He works and has lived in Hong Kong for a long time, and showed great generosity toward us!
I also got to go up the Peak - a famous look out point in the city, as well as do some great shopping!! It was surprisingly VERY cold (for us Malaysians anyway!)there, and I had to go out and buy a fleece the second day so I didn't freeze! I think it got down to about 10 or 12 degrees(?)
Anyway, this week I was brought back to reality and hit the deck running with work... Lots to do these last few weeks of school!

Out group from school at the conference

On the boat on the way to dinner...

The floating restaurant