Let's Talk Thai...and Wedding Bells!!!!

Soooooooooooooooooooooooo….as you all know by now yours truly is a Ford-to-be!!! And the story goes…

Last summer, Justin and I began planning out December trip to Thailand. Wanting to stay away from the sketchiness of major cities on mainland Thailand, we decided to be bougie/bougee/bujie/??? (bourgeoisie) and check out Koh Samui (à la Meet The Parents). All the arrangements were made and we were off to a vacation from cold gray Japan. We flew from different airports so he landed hours before I did. When I arrived at the airport, I scanned the arrival meeting point for his happy, shiny face, but he wasn’t there. Instead there was a man with a sign* who was waiting to drive me to the resort. We chit chatted on the way, and I picked his brain for information on places to shop, swim, and how much things cost on the island. When we pulled up to the hotel, Justin was standing on the stairs. I still don’t understand why he was still wearing winter clothes but he looked nice. The staff greeted me, gave me a wreath of flowers, and we sat down in the lobby/reception area. One of the staff was standing there recording with Justin’s camera** while we talked…weird. I ordered and orange juice and we sat down and talked about my flight, etc. I noticed that he kept putting his hand on the pocket opposite of me.

“So, how does it feel to be in Thailand?”

"Great"“How does it feel to the in Thailand with your boyfriend?”
"Ummmm...great."

“…how about your fiancé?”

"Huh!"

“I didn’t want to do this like this, but I’m going to try this down on one knee thing…[assuming the ‘proposal position…and action]…Tiffany, will you marry me?”
“Yes, of course!” That’s when the waterworks began.

*See **for *the twist in the plot!

**Now there’s a back story to this tale of wedded bliss-to-be. The reason the woman was standing there with the camera is that Justin put together a movie to document the engagement. The film began in July of last year when he was in the States for school. As far as I knew, he was in Rhode Island. However, he took a trip to Atlanta where he spoke with my parents and bought the ring!!! A number of our friends and family were in on it since July!!! We have this joke about how he can never surprise me, but he got me this time. There were signs EVERYWHERE but I didn’t notice any of them…literally! *The sign that the man at the airport said Tiffany Ford, but I didn’t notice. I just saw the name of the resort and Justin’s name so I hopped in the car. I also received an accidental email which is also documented in the movie. I’m thinking DVDs will be given as favors to the wedding guests.

As for the rest of the days in Thailand, we had a GREAT TIME:

Tearing up the resort’s super expensive breakfast

Visiting Buddhas

Eating Thai food at real restauraunts (dogs under the table and all)

Walking on the beach…the water was CHILLY!


Riding elephants

Pretending to be models...as usual!
Snorkeling while being stung by microscopic thingies in the water...OUCH!

Hiking up mountains

Getting suits made

Eating at a dinner dance show...forgot to get a picture of how cute we were! SHOOT! Dodging tourist traps...getting pants altered for the low low...again no pictures for those...next time!
Checking out the Thai night life and talking to cabaret lady boys! Haggling taxi fare
and generally living it up!!!

Black Girls About Town: Part Un...

Tis the season to be jolly…and Black…hehehe. I contacted the Black women in the area so that we could have an outing in the city. There were only four of us be we had a good time. The plan was for us to go to this big mall on the outskirts of town but two of them (the tall two) had a meeting in the city so we went with them. Rewind: The week before I had been contacted my one of the teachers who lives in my building about being on the cover of the local foreigner magazine. A designer had been sitting next to her in a waiting room and asked her if she wanted to do it. She said yes, so the designer asked if she had a friend who contrasted her well. She thought of me…hehehe. Fast Forward: The meeting we went to was the planning meeting for the photo shoot. Apparently the design team had contacted the two who were with us about being on the cover. So it looks like there was a gap in communication between the designer and the magazine. I wasn’t upset though because it’s good to see some brown faces are gonna be on it anyway. At their shoot, the editor asked them for my information. They want me to do one of their covers…we’ll see. After the meeting we headed out to an amazing Italian restaurant per the recommendation of the editor. The food was sooooooooo good. This is the closest to Italian food that I’ve gotten since I’ve been here…o wait, with the exception of the restaurant in Hiroshima that Michelle and I went to last November. After dinner, we headed to a game center to take some purikura (silly photo booth pictures) before heading home. We’ll have to do it again soon.