our house

I still haven't gotten around to posting pictures of the inside of our place, but here is what the outside looks like. The Khmae word for home is "p-tay-ah." Our house in Khmae would be "p-tay-ah you-ng."

When I drive we park the car inside on the ground floor, it is what would normally be the living room. This is the typical Khmae way, no garages, just park on the first floor on top of the marble tile (for real). Kenyon and I live in the apartment with all the plants on the balcony, that is considered the first floor.

There are two floors above us with single ladies. I spend a lot of time with these ladies. I even share an office with the lady who lives on the third floor, Lesley. We are seriously doing life together - work, home, and we have even started a ladies cell group that meets every other Saturday morning. I don't think I've lived this closely with anyone (other than my husband) since college. Lesley arrived about a month after us. I knew we'd be sharing an office and I knew there was a possibility she would be moving in to the apartment above ours.

Before Lesley arrived I said to a friend of mine, "I don't know this Lesley person, but I hope we get along or else life here could be difficult." Turns out, we get along really well. At the recent regional meetings we were assigned as roommates, it was great. A couple of weeks ago we had a girl's weekend in Bangkok and even opted to share a room though it wasn't necessary. We are planning a trip to Vietnam with her brother and my dad in January and another girl's weekend sometime in the future in Siem Reap. I am so grateful for Lesley's friendship. This picture is one from our weekend in Bangkok while shopping at the markets.

Tomorrow is Christmas, Kenyon and I will be spending Christmas in p-tay-ah you-ng. Now you can picture what the outside looks like. No white Christmas for us, it will be a sunny-living-in-the-tropics-now kind of Christmas!