Thailand

Koh Kred.

One of my new favorite places in the world.

Friday night, two of my house-mates, Casey and Grace, and I headed to Thailand for the weekend. We arrived in Bangkok and went straight to a hotel to meet Grace's Thai friends who were having a drink to celebrate a spiritual birthday. After a morning devo at a pretty little park in the city and breakfast at a hole-in-the-wall type restaurant (with delicious food, of course), we saw much of the city from our boat ride up the river. Nong (far right), Anna (far left ), and Nu took us north of Bangkok to the province of Nanthaburi. The six of us crammed into a tuk tuk which took us to a small market. I bought a hat for my grandmother, walked through the sand-filled rice bag walkway, and took a ferry boat just across the Chao Phraya river. I had no idea that I would spend the day in a charming pottery village on the water.


We walked around the market on the island and then had Thai green curry on the water. And then, we rented bikes for 40 baht and explored the island! It was so relaxing and beautiful to breahe fresh air and see so much nature. It is hard to explain how awesome it was so I'll just show you!


I definitely hope return one day and rent a little bungalow on the water for a few days. Thursday I'm heading to Siem Reep for 3 days! Right now, I'm at the pool grading papers and relaxing with Kendra from Kenya. No school until Monday!!

I am one lucky girl ;)

First month in Asia: Quick update of this month :)

So, as you can tell, I am not a very good blogger. It has taken me a month to post something. August has flown by leaving behind a whirl of yummy foods, tuk tuk price haggling, class full of screaming toddlers, new friends, and complete lack of Khmer language knowledge. I've been really blessed with the ability to live off of a half-day schedule and have my afternoons free to enjoy being abroad and volunteer. I could spend the next 7 days sitting here typing if I were to even attempt to explain all of the things going on in Cambodia right now.

School: I am teaching an internationally diverse group of 20 children who don't speak English and I love it. They are so cute! My classroom:Church: So giving and welcoming. Everything is in Khmer but there is interpretation via headphones, which is great. A week ago I was welcomed into the Teen Ministry with a giant card full of pictures and names of some of the teens... it is going to come in very handy.

Sisters of Charity: The Senior Teacher at my school introduced me to one of the very needy orphanages here. It is about a 20 min walk from my place and the 23 children there are absolutely precious. It is run by a group of Catholic nuns and all but 2 of the kids are under the age of 5. I don't even know where to begin talking about this because it is very overwhelming and is a constant reminder of how many needs there are. I am really praying for the adoption laws and all that jazz to be mended up so that these little ones can have the hope of having a family. I am very inspired by them and I love them so much already. It just breaks my heart to know they they have no chance for a normal future free of prostitution, gangs, and suicide. I've been told that 1 in every 10 orphans commit suicide. Hope that's not true.

Villa 21: Pretty awesome. Especially Casey, of coursssseee. This week, another teen worker, Ah Houy, just moved into our floor. Gerlinda had a band come over for dinner tonight so we had yummy Philippine (sp?) food for dinner.

Packing

Monday morning I will be taking off for Phnom Phen, Cambodia to teach pre-school, volunteer, and grow a ton. I am so incredibly excited to spend the next school year there. I have to admit, though, that I am already homesick and missing my family and friends.

Today I spent the entire day clearing out my room and packing... it has never taken me so long to pack two suitcases before. I almost fell over earlier this week when I noticed that the international checked-baggage allowance for my flight is only one suitcase. That isn't happening though lol I'm definetely bringing a second one.

Can't wait to see how it goes!