Dear Charles #10,
ive got a couple stories for you today. ive been meaning to write on here for a few days and just havent gotten to it, so redemption is coming. i hope youre not overwhelmed.
a few weeks ago me and kyndra got some dinner in the market and brought it home to eat while we watched a movie. this has happened a few times, and every time we mentioned how we should really get some sort of coffee table to set our stuff on, so we dont have to keep straining our backs by going up and down off the floor to eat our dinner. so last weekend we finally took action and bought a little table at a store down the street from us. we got it for 200 baht, which is a flippin steal, but the only problem was that it was SUPER ugly. we figured we could just buy some paint and make it all pretty. but this is not the point of the story. the real story comes at the store when we went to buy the table.
alright so this store is like...how do i even describe it... there is just..stuff...everywhere. if ever i have use the word 'stuff' and meant it for what it truly means, this is that time. its the kind of place that you walk in with the purpose of getting one thing (after finding it) but walk out with just a bunch of...stuff...you discovered you needed once you walked in. apparently when i went the first time, i needed a DOREMAN alarm clock, green hangers, and a little box full of q-tips...of course its all justified when you can say that you bought all of those things for about 4 dollars total. (you should be so jealous right now that youre not living here)
ANYWAYS, so me and kyndra went back to this store last weekend to pick up the table we found to be greeted by the 'employees' of the store (im still not totally convinced they werent just a couple of teenagers who waltzed in looking important). they were two guys, young, 'thai hip', which means they had the same hair cut and wore trendy shirts, and honestly...a little sleezy. the way that stores work (most stores) is, when you go in a worker from the store starts following you in toe, wherever you go...i think just in case you have questions, but its honestly the most annoying thing in the world. youre just trying to look around and they are like breathing down your neck. *shiver*
so in this store one of the guys was doing that, we picked out our table and he brought it to the front for us and the guy at the check out counter started talking to us in thai. well mostly kyndra, cause im not that good. so he's taking our money, and looks at kyndra and says " did you two come to thailand for boyfriends?" and kyndra's like, "no, we work at different ministries" so the guys like, "oh...well how old are you two?"
so kyndra tells them and then both of the guys look at me and are like "oh we're 18 too..." so i was like "oh..thats....cool" then they laughed and asked us if we wanted to be their girlfriends......
so we quickly left after many awkward looks and refusals, to these...'oh-so-tempting' thai boys.
in thailand its pretty common to meet someone and the order of the conversation to be..hi, how are you, whats your name, are you married or do you have a boyfriend? which of course makes your self esteem fly through the roof when you have to tell people youre single 3 or 4 times a day and they make a huge deal out of it. "oh you sing-gul! but you so bootifull! why you sing-gul? you shou' nod be sing-gul bootifull gurl!" but then again you get to hear how beautiful you are all the time too so...i guess its a fair trade.
the other story is short, and just sort of a funny, like, i just had to stop and laugh at the situation i was in, sort of story. so last weekend, me and kyndra, and a few other friends went out to this bar/restaurant with the owner of the coffee shop, P'Lut. it was a fun night, we had good food, and there was live music and drunk thai people kept wanting to talk to the table of 'farangs'..naturally...so on our way home a few of us rode in one car and a few in another. i rode with P'Lut and Ae, and we were gonna drop Ae off at her house and then meet the other car at the coffee shop and then go home. so after we dropped Ae off me and P'Lut were in the car, talking casually in tinglish (thai english), when P'Lut turns on his CD player, to none other then his 'romantic ballads of the 90s" CD. if you knew this man, this would be SO funny to you right now. a 40-something, jolly thai man who speaks little english, and this is his favorite CD.
so once i got passed the shock, i proceeded to sing with him. this is when i stopped and laughed at my situation. here i am...an 18 year old girl in a country that is foreign to me, riding home in a pick up truck with P'Lut, singing my heart out with him to 'endless love' hahaha. it was a great time none the less, it was just..funny to me. a kind of situation i would never expect myself to be in.
so ive had 'endless love' stuck in my head all week, me and kyndra painted our ugly coffee table, and all is well with the world. plus me and kyndra are going on a juice fast for the next few days, which im actually really looking forward to. or maybe just the fat dinner im gonna eat when its over....
im STOKED for my mom and kyle to visit...only a few days now til they get here! i'll tell about how much they are enjoying themselves next week :) -anna
Monday, February 23, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Dear Charles #9,
God has been teaching me a lot of cool stuff lately. its hard to keep it all under control in my brain.
i knew that i would change here, but i didnt think that i would feel it. i feel my thoughts shifting to different things, i feel my attitude becoming different in different situations, i feel myself acting differently to adults, when i meet people, and in the way i understand and learn. they're not bad differences, theyre just...different. i think the word im looking for is, perspective? my perspective is different with certain things.
the thing that has come up time and time again is worship. it started a few weeks ago when i visited a thai church with a friend of mine. all the songs were in thai, along with the message. so during worship the band started playing a song, whose tune i recognized. it turned out to be..."days of elijah". so i stood there..the only farang in the whole place belting the song in english while everyone else sang it in thai. my friend leaned into me to hear it and asked me to teach her the english later on. it hit me during the middle of the chorus, that worship is one of the most beautiful things in the world. at least to me. here was two teenage girls, singing the same song, crying out to the lord, but in different languages.
its not as if i never thought about other cultures praising God in their own way, but it was the first time i had really experienced it first time like that. it gave me goose-bumps. to God its the same...its his children delighting in him, worshipping him, and praising his name. it doesnt matter what language, or how you stand, or dance, its just...worship.
it came up a few other times in the following days with different services i went to, hearing thai people worshipping, and praying. i just love hearing it, and even though i cant understand it fully..being content that God is being given the glory. its such a wonderful feeling on contentment.
other then that, my thai is coming along pretty good. my thai teacher Pi Phorn (pronounced paun) is very proud of me :) she said i have a natural speaking ability that she rarely sees in her students. so...you know, im pretty much the best. kyndra teaches me little phrases too, commonly used things for average conversation, so does Pi Lute, the owner of the coffee shop we spend a lot of our time at. i so wish you could meet him, he is so great.
im getting anxious for my mom and brother to get here. im so excited for them so just see where i live, and experience my life here. eat the food and go to the same places. oooo im getting all 'tummy nervous'. the good kind...right mom? :)
i'll write more later about how stuff is at school...but im teaching a class in a few minutes and dont have time to write it all right now. until next time then -anna
God has been teaching me a lot of cool stuff lately. its hard to keep it all under control in my brain.
i knew that i would change here, but i didnt think that i would feel it. i feel my thoughts shifting to different things, i feel my attitude becoming different in different situations, i feel myself acting differently to adults, when i meet people, and in the way i understand and learn. they're not bad differences, theyre just...different. i think the word im looking for is, perspective? my perspective is different with certain things.
the thing that has come up time and time again is worship. it started a few weeks ago when i visited a thai church with a friend of mine. all the songs were in thai, along with the message. so during worship the band started playing a song, whose tune i recognized. it turned out to be..."days of elijah". so i stood there..the only farang in the whole place belting the song in english while everyone else sang it in thai. my friend leaned into me to hear it and asked me to teach her the english later on. it hit me during the middle of the chorus, that worship is one of the most beautiful things in the world. at least to me. here was two teenage girls, singing the same song, crying out to the lord, but in different languages.
its not as if i never thought about other cultures praising God in their own way, but it was the first time i had really experienced it first time like that. it gave me goose-bumps. to God its the same...its his children delighting in him, worshipping him, and praising his name. it doesnt matter what language, or how you stand, or dance, its just...worship.
it came up a few other times in the following days with different services i went to, hearing thai people worshipping, and praying. i just love hearing it, and even though i cant understand it fully..being content that God is being given the glory. its such a wonderful feeling on contentment.
other then that, my thai is coming along pretty good. my thai teacher Pi Phorn (pronounced paun) is very proud of me :) she said i have a natural speaking ability that she rarely sees in her students. so...you know, im pretty much the best. kyndra teaches me little phrases too, commonly used things for average conversation, so does Pi Lute, the owner of the coffee shop we spend a lot of our time at. i so wish you could meet him, he is so great.
im getting anxious for my mom and brother to get here. im so excited for them so just see where i live, and experience my life here. eat the food and go to the same places. oooo im getting all 'tummy nervous'. the good kind...right mom? :)
i'll write more later about how stuff is at school...but im teaching a class in a few minutes and dont have time to write it all right now. until next time then -anna
Monday, February 9, 2009
Dear Charles, #8
hey there! im sorry its been so long since ive posted anything. im sure youre just chomping at the bit to find out what ive been up to huh? well in all honesty not much has happened since i posted last. no big stuff that is...im just living life day to day here. im to a point where this doesnt feel like something im doing for just a sort bit, but that this is what im doing with my life right now, so updating what ive been up to feels a little silly. does that make sense? like you wouldnt write someone about your everyday stuff cause to you its just...normal.
but i will try my best to write about just the normal stuff too, cause in some respects that can be just as exciting cause to you its not normal. this really does make sense if you really think about it. trust me.
school like i said has just become my schedule, its what im used to now. my adventures with esther are becoming, well, fun. i look forward to meeting with her now. in the beginning i wasnt used to the way she acted or talked but now that i know its what shes like its really quite enduring. she told me the other day halfway through her math lesson that she was beginning to quite like math, and i asked her if it was because she had such an awesome teacher like me, and she point blank told me "no its just cause its getting easier" I looked exaggeratedly disappointed, so she came over and patted my hand and said "but youre a good teacher too" so all was well with the world again.
at lunch time here i choose not to eat with the teachers. it makes me feel too...teachery. so i go and eat with the elementary boys and the ESL middle and high schoolers. we all eat at a table outside the main building where we have meetings and stuff, and so far that has become my favorite part of the day. the boys are so funny to talk and listen to. today we had a joke telling session and i was peeing my pants laughing at hearing these ESL kids tell jokes with their 'in progress' english. they were so sure of the jokes they were telling but they were coming out so wrong. hahaha it was great.
i also get told by them what things im doing wrong according to thai culture, so thats good. nothing like getting it straight from a middle schooler.
theres this one little guy named jeremy. im not sure if ive mentioned him yet, but he's a 4th grader from holland, and as un-biased as possible he is my favorite student here. he gives me a real hard time and i gave him a hard time back. we joke around all the time, but its based on thinking the other is really cool. cause we have those moments too, like a few weeks ago the elementary was having what they call a 'poetry party' where they recite poems they've been memorizing for the rest of the school during lunch.
i came right as they were starting and sat on the floor next to jeremy and we were chattin in between people's performances, i kept telling him that they were going to pick his name next and he kept saying they wouldnt, and every time it wasnt him he would look up at me and stick his tongue out and be like 'told ya' so it went on and on till his name finally got called, the second it got called he looked up at me and, man i wish you could have seen the look he gave me. so i jabbed him and was like 'ooooo jeere--emmmyy. go dude!" so he made his way up to the front of everyone looking really nervous, and right before he started he looked over at me and i gave him a huge smile and he started.
it was the funnest feeling, i felt like i was his mother or something. i was so proud of him. throughout his poem he would look at me every now and then and just get this huge smile and have to shake his head to remember where he was. if you knew this kid you might be able to understand a little better why that was so special. i think because of the kind of relationship we have it was so fun to have a moment where i felt so proud of him and i could tell he wanted to do good, for me almost. its hard to explain but it was really fun. of course the second it was over he came and jumped on me and it was back to the big sister/little brother relationship we're so good at.
things with my house mate kyndra are only getting better. i was telling my mom in an email awhile ago, i almost wish it wasnt going as good as it was cause now im going to compare any future room or house mate to her and just be disappointed by them. i think it might have to do with the fact that shes older than me, so i dont have to even think about worrying about there being drama or anything like that. we just have a good time together. we're good buds now :) this past weekend we spent all saturday hangin out and running errands in town. we stopped for lunch and got some pizza at this american restaurant in town and it was....oh my gosh, so good. we had decided after watching so much 'friends' and seeing joey and chandler constantly getting pizzas that it looked to good not to get.
the owner of the coffee shop, Pi Lute asked me and kyndra and kyndra's best friend Ae to come to dinner with him and his daughter and a few others a couple nights ago. we went to this thai restaurant that was like...a buffet, but all the food is raw and they give you cooking stands to cook it yourself. it was SO delicious. pork and chicken and shrimp and yummy thai noodles and rice. i sorta forgot to eat a little cause i was so focused on cooking the food, but when i remembered it was so good. i got full really fast and everyone else just kept eating..i was just like 'how are you people still eating?!" and they all told me i just hadnt been trained on how to eat yet. i guess thai people just eat really slow and little bits at a time, so meals last a lot longer.
in all dinner was great though, Pi Lute brought a bottle of wine and we all enjoyed it while just talking. well i was mostly listening cause my thai is not so good, but they were able to teach me a couple of good phrases which is always good.
so hopefully something a little more exciting will happen comin up so i can impress you guys again but until then...you get to hear about my boring thai life that im already used to. i love that im used to it though, it feels like ive been here for ages and im so thankful that God has blessed me with the ability to be comfortable almost any place i go. i have realized that it is sorta un-commom to just get thrown into a situation and be stoked on whatever happens, but being here has been just like that. ive begun to miss home quite a bit and thinking about being there again is a nice thought, but i know how hard it will be to leave here. especially after another 4 or 5 months.
so often i find myself having to say goodbye to a great experience, and thinking back on it fondly, which in some regards is good cause i know it means ive been able to experience a lot of really really cool things, but on the same hand...it doesnt get any easier each time to have to leave something ive come to love and start anew with something else. so part of me wants to just stay here now for a long time and think fondly of things at home but accept that this is what im doing now so that i wont have to eventually say goodbye. *sigh*
the biggest things ive been working on though is realizing that all of those experiences and people that i fell in love with were all because they were centered around God. God was the cause of all the happiness i felt, so i shouldnt miss those so much necessarily, but realize i can have just as amazing an experience anywhere else because its the same God, and he loves me the same way and blesses me just as much in different ways.
ok so i blabbed on and on about nothing really, and it wasnt very funny. i apologize, but i told you some may not be so funny :/ sorry friends. i'll write soon i hope. let me know if there's anything specific you want to know about, im sure there are things you wonder that i dont know you even care to know about so i dont write about them. any requests?
hey there! im sorry its been so long since ive posted anything. im sure youre just chomping at the bit to find out what ive been up to huh? well in all honesty not much has happened since i posted last. no big stuff that is...im just living life day to day here. im to a point where this doesnt feel like something im doing for just a sort bit, but that this is what im doing with my life right now, so updating what ive been up to feels a little silly. does that make sense? like you wouldnt write someone about your everyday stuff cause to you its just...normal.
but i will try my best to write about just the normal stuff too, cause in some respects that can be just as exciting cause to you its not normal. this really does make sense if you really think about it. trust me.
school like i said has just become my schedule, its what im used to now. my adventures with esther are becoming, well, fun. i look forward to meeting with her now. in the beginning i wasnt used to the way she acted or talked but now that i know its what shes like its really quite enduring. she told me the other day halfway through her math lesson that she was beginning to quite like math, and i asked her if it was because she had such an awesome teacher like me, and she point blank told me "no its just cause its getting easier" I looked exaggeratedly disappointed, so she came over and patted my hand and said "but youre a good teacher too" so all was well with the world again.
at lunch time here i choose not to eat with the teachers. it makes me feel too...teachery. so i go and eat with the elementary boys and the ESL middle and high schoolers. we all eat at a table outside the main building where we have meetings and stuff, and so far that has become my favorite part of the day. the boys are so funny to talk and listen to. today we had a joke telling session and i was peeing my pants laughing at hearing these ESL kids tell jokes with their 'in progress' english. they were so sure of the jokes they were telling but they were coming out so wrong. hahaha it was great.
i also get told by them what things im doing wrong according to thai culture, so thats good. nothing like getting it straight from a middle schooler.
theres this one little guy named jeremy. im not sure if ive mentioned him yet, but he's a 4th grader from holland, and as un-biased as possible he is my favorite student here. he gives me a real hard time and i gave him a hard time back. we joke around all the time, but its based on thinking the other is really cool. cause we have those moments too, like a few weeks ago the elementary was having what they call a 'poetry party' where they recite poems they've been memorizing for the rest of the school during lunch.
i came right as they were starting and sat on the floor next to jeremy and we were chattin in between people's performances, i kept telling him that they were going to pick his name next and he kept saying they wouldnt, and every time it wasnt him he would look up at me and stick his tongue out and be like 'told ya' so it went on and on till his name finally got called, the second it got called he looked up at me and, man i wish you could have seen the look he gave me. so i jabbed him and was like 'ooooo jeere--emmmyy. go dude!" so he made his way up to the front of everyone looking really nervous, and right before he started he looked over at me and i gave him a huge smile and he started.
it was the funnest feeling, i felt like i was his mother or something. i was so proud of him. throughout his poem he would look at me every now and then and just get this huge smile and have to shake his head to remember where he was. if you knew this kid you might be able to understand a little better why that was so special. i think because of the kind of relationship we have it was so fun to have a moment where i felt so proud of him and i could tell he wanted to do good, for me almost. its hard to explain but it was really fun. of course the second it was over he came and jumped on me and it was back to the big sister/little brother relationship we're so good at.
things with my house mate kyndra are only getting better. i was telling my mom in an email awhile ago, i almost wish it wasnt going as good as it was cause now im going to compare any future room or house mate to her and just be disappointed by them. i think it might have to do with the fact that shes older than me, so i dont have to even think about worrying about there being drama or anything like that. we just have a good time together. we're good buds now :) this past weekend we spent all saturday hangin out and running errands in town. we stopped for lunch and got some pizza at this american restaurant in town and it was....oh my gosh, so good. we had decided after watching so much 'friends' and seeing joey and chandler constantly getting pizzas that it looked to good not to get.
the owner of the coffee shop, Pi Lute asked me and kyndra and kyndra's best friend Ae to come to dinner with him and his daughter and a few others a couple nights ago. we went to this thai restaurant that was like...a buffet, but all the food is raw and they give you cooking stands to cook it yourself. it was SO delicious. pork and chicken and shrimp and yummy thai noodles and rice. i sorta forgot to eat a little cause i was so focused on cooking the food, but when i remembered it was so good. i got full really fast and everyone else just kept eating..i was just like 'how are you people still eating?!" and they all told me i just hadnt been trained on how to eat yet. i guess thai people just eat really slow and little bits at a time, so meals last a lot longer.
in all dinner was great though, Pi Lute brought a bottle of wine and we all enjoyed it while just talking. well i was mostly listening cause my thai is not so good, but they were able to teach me a couple of good phrases which is always good.
so hopefully something a little more exciting will happen comin up so i can impress you guys again but until then...you get to hear about my boring thai life that im already used to. i love that im used to it though, it feels like ive been here for ages and im so thankful that God has blessed me with the ability to be comfortable almost any place i go. i have realized that it is sorta un-commom to just get thrown into a situation and be stoked on whatever happens, but being here has been just like that. ive begun to miss home quite a bit and thinking about being there again is a nice thought, but i know how hard it will be to leave here. especially after another 4 or 5 months.
so often i find myself having to say goodbye to a great experience, and thinking back on it fondly, which in some regards is good cause i know it means ive been able to experience a lot of really really cool things, but on the same hand...it doesnt get any easier each time to have to leave something ive come to love and start anew with something else. so part of me wants to just stay here now for a long time and think fondly of things at home but accept that this is what im doing now so that i wont have to eventually say goodbye. *sigh*
the biggest things ive been working on though is realizing that all of those experiences and people that i fell in love with were all because they were centered around God. God was the cause of all the happiness i felt, so i shouldnt miss those so much necessarily, but realize i can have just as amazing an experience anywhere else because its the same God, and he loves me the same way and blesses me just as much in different ways.
ok so i blabbed on and on about nothing really, and it wasnt very funny. i apologize, but i told you some may not be so funny :/ sorry friends. i'll write soon i hope. let me know if there's anything specific you want to know about, im sure there are things you wonder that i dont know you even care to know about so i dont write about them. any requests?
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