I've been a busy girl lately. Here's a summary:

-I went with Nan and her Chinese friends from university to the Ancient City, a replica of the old Thailand. You can ride a bike around the mini city and check out all these old-looking buildings and beautiful gardens. On the way there, we got into a car accident (Rung was driving)--a truck to our left turned right into the front of our pickup. We were all fine (thank God! Nan and I were squished in the front seat without seat belts, right where the truck hit) but our car wasn't great. Rung had to figure out insurance and go to a car shop, and the rest of us continued on by taxi.

-Our cell group sang "God is so good" at church in four languages--Sebuano, Thai, English, and Swahili. It's fun having so many cultures represented in one group.

-I ate barbecue at this big restaurant nearby. It was a buffet-style dinner where you get your own raw meat (including seafood in tanks) and then cook it at a little grill/boiler thing at your table. Awesome!! I'm amazed that with all the random meats I was cooking myself, I didn't get sick at all. My stomach has been a great little trooper so far, and I'm really grateful.

-Some of my students took me to Kogkret island, a pretty place known for Thai desserts, pottery, and woodworking. None of them had been there before, either, so it was fun for them to see it for the first time. We took a boat around the island, ate a lot, and explored. I loved spending time with Puky, Nok, Aom, and Aom's husband and baby girl. I kept forgetting that I don't speak the same language as them, and I'd start to ask something complicated like "What would you have done if you hadn't gotten into engineering?" and realize all those verb phrases are too much. I'm constantly impressed with and blessed by Thai people--everyone I have met has been welcoming, generous, hard-working, polite, helpful, and fun. I think I may have found the ideal people group. By the way, see my previous post to check out pictures!

-Rung and I went to the market one day and got all the ingredients for Ethel to make us Filipino food for lunch. We had squid, shrimp, fish, and a bunch of veggies, all cooked various ways (this is where technical jargon fails me). I have been eating SO much, especially on weekends (during the week I guess I'm hidden away working on my creative writing class all day, and I just snack on random things). I had squid four times within 48 hours. And of course rice or noodles and fish or pork for almost every meal. There is so much variety it's overwhelming! I think Thai food is perfect. It tastes great, even to foreigners, there's something for everyone, and no matter how much you eat, you don't gain weight.

-I've been putting in about 7 hours of planning for every day of my creative writing class. Now I not only admire my friends who've gone overseas to teach for a year but I'm pretty much in awe of them. Going thousands of miles away from everyone and everything familiar + lesson planning (sometimes from scratch) + lesson planning in ESL = Wow. I wish I could have a refresher of all the grammar and writing classes I took in college. I never thought I'd say this, but thank you Dr. Black for advanced grammar. If only I could remember how to tree sentences....

-Some biggish news: Isaac is arriving April 3 :) :) Can't remember if I mentioned that yet. His application still has to be approved, but I think it will be ok ;) ALSO, Martha is moving to Seattle this fall!!!! Oh, the sweet possibility of living in the same state as her. It's too much to bear :)

-Thai lessons are going pretty well. I have one now--have to run!