Welcome to Bangkok!

Well, I am finally in Thailand. We flew from Houston 11:30 Monday morning to L.A., then to Taipei, Taiwan, and then to Bangkok, where we arrived at the church at about 4AM Wednesday. As of Saturday morning I am still trying to get a regular sleep schedule, as we are ahead of Texas by exactly 12 hours. It was a very strange feeling to race against the sunrise, so that we stayed in the daylight for probably around 24 hours or so.

We have an orientation today where I get to meet my students for the summer, so I am really excited, and right now I am off to get my class room and everything ready for this afternoon!

Meet the team

The last few meetings we had as a team were mainly logistical stuff, but May 26th is the day we leave, and I'll be back in the states August 18th. Here is the blog we have set as a team, go watch the video and meet the team (:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVSRkyboElI

Thank You!

So I feel very privileged, because of how everyone has responded to my letter. I will eventually send out thank you letters to let you know what I have received.

The meeting last Thursday was more an update rather than preparation for the trip. Justin bought plane tickets last week, so I will have exact dates soon, but right now I know I will be in Thailand for almost three months. I was asked over spring break about any shots I needed, and I hadn't heard anything about that. Evidently it had not come up yet because we don't need any, so one less thing to worry about.

Conner, Tori, and Micah came to College Station this weekend and hopefully Morgan and I did ok showing them what we like about this place.

Irving for Spring Break!

I'm in Irving till probably March 22nd, so send me a call (:

I want to be more specific about concrete ways I am preparing for the trip. We have a team meeting every Thursday to go over things Justin, the team leader, thinks we need for the trip. I will try to update every Friday if only to document to remind myself of what we went over.

This last Thursday, we went to a Thai cuisine place to kind of prepare us for some kinds of things we'll be eating.

Before that, there was a missions retreat the the weekend of March 6-8. Everyone who is going on a mission this summer with the AFC was required to be there. A lot of it was team building, getting to know the people I will be with this summer. There was also worship time, and then everyone interviewed individually with Kelly and Tracy, two adults who know what is needed on the trip and want a grasp of our perspective of the trip. That was all Friday night. The next morning we came early for breakfast where we video conferenced with one of their missionaries in South America and learned about his perspective of missions. Tracy, Kelly, and his wife Sarah also spent the morning basiclly teaching us to be "tough, flexible, and optimistic" this summer. One thing everyone stressed is to eat what you are offered so we don't offend any host.

This weekend was when I found out I definitely chose the right trip. At one point there was 6 of us going to Bangkok, but at the missions retreat we found out 3 of them couldn't go. So now it is me, Justin Kern leading, and Rachel, who lives in Leander. Less people means more work for me, because we will still have the same number of students learning English, just less people to teach them.

Basic Thai language lesson

(Click the notes to see them better)
Justin Kern, the group leader, made this cheat sheet to give us some basic Thai to work on. As of right now, without looking at the paper, I can count to ten, greet someone, and ask if what I just said was right.

I just wanted to get this on here to let you see something I'm working on, and this will help me organize things I learn and need to remember. I really just thought the Thai writing looked cool.

You're In the Right Place!

Hey, thanks for checking up on me. This will be my blog for updating information and pictures geared towards summer 2009 when I head to Bangkok, Thailand. Thank you to everyone helping me on the way!