Well, it has been over a week since my departure from Winnipeg, so perhaps its a good time to send an update. I have made it to Thailand. Here I am- finally! After all of these years of seeing 'traveling to teach in Asia' in the distance, it has finally come. Its kind of crazy. A little different than I expected, but I am finding myself full of thankfulness. Thankful that God knows my heart and my love for music (my current position at the school is the official 'music teacher'!! I am overwhelmed with gratitude), thankful to be at the school that is within walking distance of my apartment, thankful for the people with whom I am living and working. I know that there is lots of learning and growing for me and so much that lies just around the corner. I've only known about this practicum for a few years, but the Lord has seen it and knows exactly where He's leading me.
But a travel update: our flight came in to Bangkok in the wee hours of the morning on April 30th. The jet lag was bearable, although the flight over here was killer difficult. Out of the 24 hours+ that we traveled, I don't think I got more than 3-4 hours of sleep. It was just very difficult. So the group of us that traveled together were all exhausted when we got here at like 3:30 in the morning. But I moved all my stuff into my apartment and made it as homey as was possible with what I had. I think the only thing that I would love to have is pictures of my family and friends up on display, as I did not bring any. Apparently we aren't allowed to stick anything to the walls, so I would need to put picture frames on my shelves. I have quite a few, so that's nice. But boy oh boy, the beds here are HARD. Its like sleeping on a box spring. Luckily, the girl that I bought furniture from last year left 3 mattress pads for me, so they help and make the bed much more tolerable. :)
Its actually hard to believe that I'm in Bangkok. A little surreal maybe. The culture is so different, but not a crazy shock. I've spent this first week and a bit just around my neighborhood and my practicum school took us all out of town to do a team-building weekend, which was a lot of fun. The food is great! Lots of spice- as expected, but I believe that my tolerance level is going up slowly as I have spice for both lunch and dinner every day. Its kind of awesome. Every day is an adventure of what to eat. Since Bangkok is a city of about 6 million, there is never a shortage of people set up on the street with their food that they are selling. There's this one lady that sets up her trolley cart right near our apartments and she sells the sweetest watermelon one could ask for. I usually get a bag of cut up watermelon and pinapple for about 60 cents Canadian. :) Its pretty sweet. We have to buy all of our food off of the street vendors as we don't have kitchens in our apartments (for bug reasons!).
In terms of my placement for my practicum, I've been slowly finding my way around the Lertlah school at which I'll be working. The music room is large and its all mine! One half of the room is set up with little keyboards for the kids and the other half is open space (for the younger years to sing/dance/draw and the band to set up and play). The room kind of smells just because of the hot humidity and I guess because it has been shut down for so many months while the kids were on summer break. I'm beginning to start my planning for this next year. Pray for wisdom from the Lord. Its a little overwhelming and I know that I will need His help.
I know it has only been a week but I'm already missing the way it was so easy to encounter the Lord (with so many believers around me) and so easy to talk about His ways. I haven't been able to search the city for a church yet as we've been gone for the weekends, but I'm hoping that I find it soon. Here, people don't understand things the same way. Its primarily a Buddhist culture and the Thai way is very different than the Western way. The language barrier is also difficult for communication and interaction with the Thai people. Please pray for connection for my heart. Thanks.
On the upside, I bought a guitar at the local market/shopping centre. For 3,000 baht, which is equivalent to $90 Canadian. And its really nice. I've already played it many times. The only thing is that the walls, ceilings and floors of this apartment are very thin... some people were saying that they liked my playing (and they were on the 2nd or 3rd floor)- eep! :P Oh well, what can ya do.
Well, that's all I have for now. I hope you will send me updates from your end of the nation too! Its refreshing to hear about my friends' lives back in Canada. Its a weird thing to travel, you almost think that life goes on pause when you are over here, but it doesn't. So, your updates in any way are so nice. Thanks!
Much love
