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?