moving . .. finally

Well, the day has come. All of my grades are turned in, everything in my house has been packed, sold, given away, or thrown away, and all my keys have been turned in. My life in Chiangrai has come to a close, yet it doesn't seem real. Since I've been going to Bangkok for fun trips quite often, it kinda feels like I'm just going on a trip again, even though the preparation for this one has taken a week and been filled with goodbye parties.

Everyone in Chiangrai has been amazing. This past week has been filled with parties! Wed night was 2 teachers from CRU, Thurs night was my roomie's b-day, Fri night was CRU, Sat afternoon was the church staff, Sat night was some friends and I, Sun night was another friend's b-day, Mon afternoon was another department at CRU, Mon night my landlord and her boyfriend made me an amazing meal, and Tues afternoon some friends and I went to our favorite coffee house/cafe one last time. I swear I'm not going to eat for a week! haha. I am sad to say goodbye to people here, but it is time for me to move on to Bangkok. I know everyone here is in good hands (as well as God's hands) and I don't have to worry or be scared for them. I also know I will see them again, since I will still be in Thailand and Chiangrai is an AMAZING vacation spot :D.

Looking forward, I will be arriving in Bangkok on Wednesday morning and will get to move immediately into my new place. My landlord is great and he's already planning small projects (fixing things/decorating) to make the place feel more homie. He's got the fixing part and I'm taking care of the decorating, so together we should be able to do some nice work :) haha. I will have a few weeks to get everything set up in the house, learn the campus, and learn my way around Bangkok, which will be VERY nice. I have to do visa stuff on Thursday (and maybe Friday) and then I will begin meeting staff and teaching mid to late October. I will be teaching 2 subjects, but teaching 21 hours. I have 2 Writing 1 classes and 4 Foundations 3 classes. That just means more teaching and less planning, which is what I was hoping for. I have also been given books :D. That is VERY exciting for me since for the past year I have been creating all of my own lessons from course descriptions. It was a great learning experience, but I'm very ready for materials.

I promise to include pictures on my next post. I hope this finds you all very well :). Have a wonderful day.

Photo blog

Here are some pictures I found of Bangok on the internet. This will give you a better idea of where I'll be living. Quite different from Chiangrai.

Grand Palace at night

Beautiful!

Bangkok developments

Hello! I went to Bangkok this past weekend to sign my contract and it was wonderful. I signed my contract as well as found out my entire schedule for teaching, the courses I'll be teaching, as well as books. I had no idea I'd leave with all of that in my hands. It makes me feel so much better :). I will be teaching 21 hours (much more than now), but I am only teaching 2 subjects. I am teaching Writing 1 and English Foundations 3. That is great because I'll only have to prepare for 2 classes, even though I'm teaching a lot more hours than normal. In Chiangrai, I was not teaching very much, but I had to create my entire lessons from scratch every week. Also, I will no longer be teaching 3 hour classes. YEAH! 3 hour classes are very hard to plan for and I would rather see my students several times a week instead of only once a week. So, just another good thing about moving to Bangkok. I will be moving to Bangkok on the 26th of this month (9 days), so please pray that everything will move smoothly as I have to pack up all of my things and figure out how I'm getting down there.

I also got to see the house I will be staying in and it is nicer than I expected. I already have decorating ideas running through my head. It is 3 stories and has 2 bedrooms, 3 small bathrooms, and a kitchen. It is not as pretty as the house I have now, but to find this in Bangkok for the amount of money I'm paying is a true blessing from God. It is completely furnished as well. It belongs to my friend's grandmother, so he got me a great deal. As of now I do not have pictures, but I will put some up soon after I get settled in. If you would like my address, please e-mail me. I don't want to post it for all to see. haha.

On a fun note, I got to stay with Ting and her family. Ting was an exchange student who stayed with my parents and I during my senior year of high school. She's extremely excited that I'm teaching at Kasetsart University because she is a senior at this university! We will get to meet and have lunch quite often. I may also be teaching some of her friends, but I won't be teaching her. In some ways that is good since she and I are so close. It would be difficult to be her teacher because I've been like her sister for 5 years. My building is not very far from her building either (she is a computer engineering major). Pray that she will come to know God. She may start coming to church with me. I was also able to hang out with several other Christian friends and I'm reminded of how blessed I am to have friends who are willing to help me in so many ways. God is amazing.

Please pray that I will be able to find my way around Bangkok easily as I am a little intimidated by it. It's the same way I felt when I moved to Chicago, but Bangkok is NOT a grid like most American cities, so it presents a slightly larger challenge. :) Also, the public transportation isn't quite as good as Chicago (which was amazing), but I already know the skytrain and subway fairly well (from past visits) and I really want to learn the busses because they are so much cheaper than taxis. God has completely provided everything I've needed thus far and I know He will continue to do so. It is a big change, but exciting as well :).

Goodbye party

My students are so sweet. Today, after I gave them their final exam, they surprised me by giving me a going away party. They had a lot of snacks, fruit, cake, and drinks. We took a lot of pictures, talked a little bit, and ate. There was a small icing fight as we began putting it on people's faces. I was excited because several of them told me they didn't understand grammar before, but after my class, it makes sense. :) They actually learned something!!!! It will be sad to say goodbye to them, however, no matter when I leave, I will be saying goodbye to students. Obviously, since it was a surprise party, I didn't have my camera. However, they have my e-mail address and should be sending me pictures. When they send them to me, I'll post them. I'm still amazed at the relationships that are formed simply because I'm their teacher and they can see I care about them. Praise God. :)

Prayer for a Friend

Lord I lift my friend to You.
I've done all that I know to do.
I lift my friend, to You.
In complicated circumstances with clouded view.
Lord I lift my friend up to You.
I fear that I won’t have the words that he needs to hear.
I pray for Your wisdom , oh God.
And a heart that's sincere.
And Lord I lift my friend up to You.
Lord I lift my friend to You.
Though he's my best friend in the world, I know he means much more to You.
I want so much to help him, but this is something he has to do.
Lord I lift my friend up to You.
There's a way that seems so right to him.
But You know where that leads.
He's becoming a puppet of the world.
Too blind to see the strain.
And Lord I lift my friend up to You.
Lord I lift my friend to You.
I've done all that I know to do.
I lift my friend, to You.

These lyrics hit me hard. I'm such a fixer and I hate seeing my friends learn the hard way (as I usually do). I hate pain coming into my friends lives, but I forget how difficult circumstances, dumb choices, and pain has shaped my life and brought me closer to God. I pray for the wisdom to know when to speak and when to shut up. God is so much stronger than I am and has bigger plans than I do.

Me? MC? Yup!

Well, I can't believe I only have another month in Chiangrai. There are still so many details to get taken care of! Please remember I need someone to be willing to drive to Bangkok with me (preferably a Thai person), visa issues need to be taken care of, and I need housing issues to be finalized.

In more exciting news, I got the opportunity to be the MC for a pretty big speech competition. There were students from 9 or 10 universities who came to CRU this past Friday to deliver speeches on 3 topics: 1) Children need to enjoy thier childhood, so they should not have too much pressure to do extremely well in school, 2) What adverse affects has the internet had on Thai youth and what practical steps can be taken to fix those adverse affects, and 3) Thai universities do not prepare their students for the challenges of the real world. I

t was my first time to be an MC and I'm sure it showed. Between pronouncing Thai names, reading a script (that I wasn't sure how closely I had to follow until the heat of the moment), and additions to the script that no one told me about, it was an interesting day. However, it was another wonderful learning experience as to how things are conducted in Thailand that I have now tucked under my belt. I will be much more prepared if I'm ever asked to fill this position again. In addition, several of those putting on the speech competition also work at KU (the university I will be teaching at). It was good to get to meet them. Everyone I have met from this university have been very nice and excited that I am coming to teach there. I'm looking forward to the new adventure, yet there are always nervous feelings as well.

Many of the speeches were quite good. I was also surprised that out of the top 4 finalists, only one of them was from Bangkok. Those who study in Bangkok are generally assumed to be the best, yet 3 students proved them wrong. Sadly, none of my students were in the top 4, yet the students from CRU were not as well prepared as the others. Those who won truly deserved to win.

Currently, I am writing the final exams for my students and preparing a review session for our final classes together. Everything seems to be happening so fast! My students have been wonderful and they were all sad to hear I am leaving. I will miss them, but I'm also looking forward to all the students and people I will get to meet in Bangkok. Thank you all for your prayers and support.

Just for fun, I've put some random pictures up for y'all to look at.

I took this picture one night after it finished raining. I think it's so beautiful!

These are so good! And straight from the farm. I love this market.

One of the many Buddha statues in one of the many temples here.