Chinese New Year Expat Style

Chris feeding the dragon money for luck.

After spending the day with Angela we met up with a family from the States. My chiropractor back in Colorado told me she had a cousin living in Bangkok. So before we left she got me in touch with her cousin who invited us to stay at her house the next time we were in Bangkok. We thought this would be a good weekend because her neighborhood was having a big Chinese New Year celebration! Tricia and her family were very welcoming to us and made us feel right at home! They showed us around Bangkok Saturday morning and took us to the US Embassy grocery store where we were able to buy some American food! We stocked up on tortillas, cheese, spaghetti O's, salsa, macaroni and cheese, pickles, hamburger buns and a whole bunch of other items we were missing! You can't find anything like that in Korat and only sometimes in Bangkok (but if you do it's much more expensive than at home). The Embassy always carries these items, but unfortunately we can't go there on our own. We weren't really supposed to buy anything since neither of us work for the Embassy. Luckily, Tricia has an Embassy card so she hooked us up (if any of you happen to work for the US Embassy, disregard that last paragraph). :)

After shopping we went to her kids international school where we watched her sons baseball game! We even had hot dogs and nachos at the snack bar! We noticed the teams were sponsored by oil companies and Tricia's son's team was sponsored by Schlumberger (Chris' brother Devin works for them!)

That night was the Chinese New Year party! They had dragons, acrobats, delicious Chinese food and we got to meet a lot of Tricia's neighbors from all over the world (they live in an all expat community). Chris and I sat in a group talking with people from the Netherlands, New Zealand and South Africa! It was really fun listening to their stories and experiences. Tricia also introduced us to an American couple who are about our age. Their names are Matt and Monica and they are really nice. Monica's parents live in Longmont and her mother actually does payroll for Chris' company so she knew of Chris. She also has a younger sister who went to high school with Chris' cousin Kelly! It's amazing how small of a world this really is!

Sunday morning we met Matt and Monica and went for a walk around a lake near their house and stopped at Starbucks (yes, it truly is everywhere) for breakfast. On the way back to Tricia's house we went to have massages! Tricia's daughter and I had foot/reflexology massages, Chris had an oil massage, and Tricia's son had a Thai massage. It was nice and relaxing and only cost $6 each for over an hour!