loving you too much so much very much right now!

I LOVE Thai music! Right now this is my favorite song! I just thought that I would post it on here so you could all get a little taste of what modern Thai culture is like. Getting ready for school tomorrow. It is our last full week before Christmas break! And then we go back to our regular school hours. It will be nice because this extra hour everyday is EXHAUSTING! Enjoy the music! :) -and yes, that is English they are speaking half way through!

back to the grind...

So day 2 of school is almost complete! I am exhausted and worn out and a little bit sick! I have had my air conditioning on really cold at night because I want to burrow in my blanket and pretend that it is winter. I think this winter weather has given me a cold though because my throat is screaming and my nose has been sneezing all day. I feel like I was run over by a truck. I guess this means the AC is going back to normal. I will just put cut-out snowflakes around my room to make it feel like winter now! :)

So almost all of my students are back. Yesterday I was missing 8 and today I am only missing 5! One of my students did not return this semester. Which is sad but also really nice because he was a handful and the whole class dynamic is more relaxed now. AND it means I only have 25 instead of 26 students because I was given two new students this semester! The new boy I got has already slapped a student and gotten his name on the board and missed break time- and he has only been here a day and a half! We will see what the future holds with him!

Until December break our school day is extended one extra hour to make up some of the lost days. That means that I teach from 8-4:40 and I tutor before and after school. It will only make December break so much sweeter because I definitely think that I will need the rest. I was contemplating going to an island for Christmas but staying home and sleeping sounds pretty wonderful right now!

Well I have to go prepare things for the Christmas program, Christmas decorating contest, and Father's Day ceremony. It is the King's Birthday next Monday so we do not have school. It is our last day off for the entire year so I plan to enjoy it! :) Keep well North American family! Thailand is busy but it is so nice to see my students again and to be working! I even missed the school lunches a little bit...but only a little! :)

the end is near!

We have had more scares and rumors about school being postponed even further...there was even a nasty rumor flying around that we would be out of school until December 13th...luckily that was all it was- a rumor! We are officially starting on the 21st! I am so excited! I forget what it is even like to teach! We now have all our vacation days taken away AND an extra hour added onto our school days to make up for all the time that we missed. It means that our school day (until the middle of December at least) will be from 8:00-4:40. Its a LONG day but we have a lot of lost ground to cover so it will be good! I was very productive today so I am starting to feel like myself again, like I have a purpose! :)

Tomorrow all the girls are taking a field trip to IKEA. They just put one in- it is about 3-4 hours from here but it is our last hurrah before the whirl of school consumes us! I am gonna look for some sweet canisters and who knows what else! I have a house to shop for! :) Tonight I am babysitting for a couple on campus. They have a Christmas tree and stockings hung up and I am listening to Christmas as I type this. It's nice to be in the holiday spirit! I can't believe that Thanksgiving is next week! We are having a big staff Thanksgiving dinner next Saturday. It should be a really fun/relaxing time! Everyone is bringing a dish and we are all chipping in for a turkey. We have so much to be thankful for this year!

On Saturday some friends and I are going downtown to build some water bottle rafts for flood victims to use to get themselves and their belongings out of their houses. It should be a good time! We are going to go to a local church in the afternoon then that is a bilingual church. Every aspect of their service is in both English in Thai. Its a neat environment and I think it will be a good way to spend our last Saturday of "freedom!" As much as I am looking forward to starting school I am not disillusioned about how much work it is going to be!

i take it all back!

change of schedule again! school now does not start until the 21st....we are all getting frustrated around here and we could use some bolstering prayers! Forget having a countdown to Christmas break, in my house we have started a countdown until class starts again!

almost back to normal

Well we got to escape for a little bit to the beautiful island of Koh Chang. The water was warm, clean, and beautiful! We were there for 5 days, and I am pretty sure that we did not leave the water the entire five days! We would go to the beach around 9, go right in the water, and not leave it until about 5 when we went back to our place. It was so beautiful and relaxing! One day we went snorkeling and we saw a sting ray jump out of the water and many exotic fish. It was beautiful! I had a lot of fun and came back very refreshed!

When we got back from the beach it was nice to see that all the water in the streets from the sewer over flowing had gone back down and the school down the street from us that was completely underwater is now completely dry! Rainy season is over and the days have been sunny and breezy! We made it through the worst without getting flooded! The only way we can get flooded now is if one of the dykes break or the sandbags don't hold. I was told today that I could "de-flood" my classroom though which is a relief. We moved all our furniture back in our house too so it feels more like a home again! School starts again on the 15th. It will be so nice to be able to get back into the classroom with my students! I miss them and I miss teaching them! The grocery stores have food again. I even saw bottles of water on the shelves! :) Life is returning back to normal here at GES.

Even though God was good in protecting us though, there are so many people who did not end up as lucky as us. So many people are without homes and possessions. I heard about a Thai woman yesterday who travels to visit Thai women in other countries to teach them how to do Bible studies. She is in Germany right now and has been in contact with her neighbors who say that they have nothing left. Everything has been ruined. She said that even though her house is flooded and destroyed, she is not going to come back home to take care of it, she is going to stay and finish her work in Germany. On the walkways that go over the roads, there are so many homeless and hurting people who have been sleeping there because they have no where else that is dry to go. Please pray for the hurting and homeless here! May they see God working even in their pain and loss!