Hello! The packing has begun! We have already sent 3 pretty big plastic boxes to Arm's parents' house and we have 3 or 4 cardboard boxes here waiting to be filled. I'm actually not sure if we'll fill all of them up or not, but we'll see how many we get in the end. As usual, I'm waiting until the very end to take the few pictures off the walls that we have since I HATE bare walls. Once we get a house, I don't want ANY white walls hahaha. Things have been going fairly smoothly and it's caused me to start thinking of how our lives are going to change when we're in the states and I've come up with some pretty funny reverse culture shock aspects of American culture that I'm going to have to get used to. I'll share some of them with you for a funny note on this blog.
1) Grocery Shopping: You have NO idea how easy it is to get good, healthy food on the street in Bangkok, especially around our apartment, plus, it's all cheap! There's a restaurant on the first floor of our apartment, one at the top of our street, and two more one street over from us. If we get tired of that, there's several places in the grocery store where our church is. Plus, if we need any toiletries, etc. Arm is at church every day which is in a store that carries all of that, so he just picks it up on his way home. I think my mom's going to have some teaching to do as far as the basics to keep in a refridgerator as well as saving money techniques and websites. If you have any great coupon websites or any money saving techniques, please share them!
2) 13 million to 10,863: That's quite a jump in population! We're used to having 7-11s, public transportation, walking everywhere, movie theaters and a large variety of restaurants within 20 minutes of us and lights on all the time. That's definitely going to be an adjustment! Arm really enjoys the country life, but also really enjoys the convenience of city life, and ever since college, I've been a city girl, so it's going to take us a little while to adjust, but I think it will be a breathe of fresh air at the same time.
3) Spirit Houses to Crosses: A change that I feel will be very welcome is we will be leaving behind living in a Buddhist culture and moving to one where Christianity is well known. While I know churches, etc. have their problems and no one's perfect, I'm not dreading the fact that we won't have to attend anymore Buddhist ceremonies or funerals because I can't think of anything more depressing. There's also other aspects of Budhist culture that will be nice to leave behind as well.
4) Left to Right: In Thailand, we drive on the left side of the road and in the USA, we drive on the right side of the road. Since I don't really drive in Thailand, I'm always sitting in the same seat. I remember the last time I was in the states in May 2007, I drove on the wrong side of the road 3 times, but never got in an accident (Praise God!). It's a little confusing when turning hahaha. This will be more of a battle for Arm, however, he might do better than I will. hahaha.
5) 1 to 4: While there are slight changes in the weather from burning hot, to wet, to bearable, it's not quite as much of a change as we have in the states, however, even though I'm not a fan of cold weather, I'm looking forward to some more changes in the weather, because many days it seems like every day is the same here, even if it really is Christmas or Easter, etc.
6) Apartment to house: Currently, Arm and I are living in a one room apartment and to be honest, the walls are closing in hahaha. It will be nice when we get to my parents' house and eventually in our own apartment/house and be able to go to another room if Arm wants to watch a movie I don't want to watch or not trip over cords that stretches from our "living room" to our washing machine or to have to pick everything up all the time or else we can't walk easily. We love spending time together and it's not horrible, but it will be nice to have some extra space and a kitchen to cook in!
7) Selection: Shopping will definitely be more fun in the states because although there is a wide selection in Bangkok of many things, there's only so many that I can wear or buy. At least half of the lotion here is whitening lotion, which I really don't need, my feet are about 1/2" too big for the shoes even in high scale department stores, and even though I'm a size 6 now, clothing is still a challenge. Oddly enough, it seems as if I'm either too big or too small for all the clothes here now as well as it's all a bubbly style that isn't even slightly form fitting, which just doesn't flatter me. I'm SO excited to hit the clearance racks and Payless Shoes!
I hope you've enjoyed a little windown into our world as you see how our lives are going to change. Please pray for us as we're going through all of these changes and even more than we can see right now. We know God is walking through us in all of this and we trust Him and we covet your prayers and thoughts as well. Please pray for us to sell a few things that we're trying to sell. May God bless you and keep you in His ways.
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