Oh hey, Thailand :]

For all those who may have been wondering, I am safely here in Thailand. After an 8 hour flight to Singapore, a 4-hr layover and 2 hour flight to Thailand with a 30 minute drive to Bangkapei, we finally arrived. Adjustment happened pretty quickly which was a blessing, but it is still a definite adjustment from Japan (orderly, structured, and cool) to Thailand (not very structured, and very warm).

First day of class

After we arrived, we began our English teacher training and cultural orientation and have also been venturing out to markets and various places around where we live at the mission house. Two days ago, we kick started our English teaching and are teaching in pairs of two spread out amongst four different levels. Alicia and I are teaching Level 1 from 7-9 a.m. every Mon-Thurs. Their English is more basic which can be difficult in communication while teaching.

At one of the many markets

Summary after three days: I absolutely love our class. The students are so great and I am really excited to hangout with them after class and get to know them as they help introduce us to the Thai culture and hopefully the beach and lots of other markets and favorite locations of theirs. Yesterday after class, we went with four of our eleven students to have breakfast and they took us to Foodland and today, we went out with five of our students, some of which didn't come yesterday.

Today we (Alicia and I) start helping with the kids program, teaching them very basic conversational English for about an hour and a half. Because we are only teaching one regular level English class and our other members teach 2 classes a day, we have a kids program that we will be leading/helping with every Thursday and Friday.



Love and miss you all and I hope that you are staying warm! :]

Had some corn in honor of my Iowan roots

 A few firsts:
1. I have had guava, papaya, and kumquat while being in Thailand
2. I have never been so thankful for hot summers at camp that have prepared me for this.
3. I have never smelled so many different smells in the span of a block.

A few prayer requests would be:
1. That we can continue to build relationships with the people here.
2. That our team can continue to bond
3. Patience with other people and students. It can definitely be a challenge to be around people 24/7, especially with number 4.
4. Energy. The heat tends to suck up our energy and teaching at 7 a.m. after having completely adjusted to the time difference is also harder some days than others.