Goodbye from Mexico

Okay, everyone, I'm leaving Mexico tomorrow. Thank you all so much for your prayers and encouragement while I've been down here. I'll see some of you tomorrow! Bye!

Just a Quick Note from Thailand

Not so much time to write, but I thought I'd write a quick update just to say I'm still so alive and well and things are great around here! In about an hour, I'm going with about 10 other interns (from Payap and the other church) to the border with Burma to get renewed visas! Yay! Please pray that our trip goes well without too many adventures!!
Okay so a few things that have been going on in the past week or so...

• I have now had several students in more than one class, and this past week I've had three very fun (but I'm not sure how educational : P) classes. All were totally unplanned beforehand, with extra people (people not signed up for that class)...One of them I taught with Casey, and the story is way too long to tell now, but it was interesting discussion, to say the least! And in the other two, I pretty much just had them tell stories, draw pictures, and have fun!
• A couple more fun questions/comments from people:
  Is your arm hair naturally blonde, or do you make it like that? (this person went on to tell me that she liked my arm hair...hmmmm)
  Are you afraid of getting fat? Several people have said this, and I'm not sure exactly what it means....I think I just won't ask!
• The first time I've ever heard someone decline playing leapfrog for religious reasons--Tum was wearing a Buddha icon around his neck and didn't want to disrespect that.
• Having an eight-year-old crazily energetic girl from church try to teach me colors and other random Thai words!
  
• My friend View decided to go jogging with me on Saturday...she speaks like 10 word of English and I speak like 5 words of Thai...it was an interesting experience, but pretty fun!
• I went to go see Harry Potter 5 last Wednesday! Yay! I had fun, but it was such a weird feeling after it was over--leaving the magical world of Hogwarts and realizing that I'm still in Thailand!
  
• Yesterday we went rafting on bamboo rafts! Fun, but a bit scary...I went on a raft with Bank, May, and Mark...and we crashed so many times, Bank's hand got bruised and really swollen, May was terrified the whole time because she can't swim, Mark got pulled under the water at one point, I saw the hugest centipede imaginable and had a lovely big spider crawling on me, and Bank's cell phone and camera died...but we all survived and had a good time!! : D
• Last Thursday we made Mexican food for cell group and some of the Thai people were complaining that our hot sauce was too spicy!!!
• Last night, after everyone left, we had to clean up a whole bunch of food and junk that people had just left in the kitchen...and then we were cleaning out the fridges...and then Casey and I were about to throw out the chocolate "icing" we had made earlier (it turned out to be pretty nasty because we didn't have powdered sugar), but instead of throwing it away we had a chocolate icing fight, making a huge mess, filling the building with the aroma of chocolate, and having a super good time!

Well, I think that's the highlights...maybe...I hope you all have a great week! Please keep praying for all of us and our friends! Especially pray for students who haven't really built relationships with people besides interns yet...pray that they can be friends with the Thai Christians and keep coming around even when we're all gone!

The wheels on the bus go round and round (in Mexico, I don´t know anything about buses in Thailand)

Wow, the time has really flown by! I have learned so much more Spanish than I would have thought possible, and still have huge amounts left to learn. I´m in the mood for a light hearted blog, so here are some random interesting things that have happened in or around buses during our trip:

• Carissa pushed a man off of a bus because he was bothering us (every time we tell this story people look at us with new respect)
• We took the wrong bus once and a nice lady helped us—I´m convinced she was sent by God. She let us get of the bus with her and told us which bus to take, grabbed her kids from kindergarten and waited with us until the bus came. She even told a fellow passenger to help us get off at the right spot. We thanked her a lot and I hugged her goodbye.
• We took the wrong bus a different time and then had to wait 20 minutes for the next bus
• We took the right bus and still had to wait 20 minutes
• We tried to take the bus from the wrong spot
• We tried to take the bus from the right spot and had to wait 20 minutes, only to find out that the 300 bus route no longer exists
• The bus throws us completely into the air when we got over bumps sometimes
• I frequently get pushed into other seats while I´m trying to walk, hence many bruises on my legs (Carissa´s not as clumsy)
• Not actually a bus, but once we rode home from church with 12 people and a parrot
• Then later we rode from a different church to a park with 18 people in a different minivan
• Waiting for buses + wet streets = occasionally getting splashed with street water
• I met two girls from North Carolina and had a long conversation with them
• We didn´t know which bus to take or where to get off and we asked people and they helped us (this happens a lot)
• We didn´t know which bus to take or where to get off and we asked people and they didn´t help us (this also happens sometimes)
• We tried a new bus route to school today and liked it.

Okay, that´s all pretty boring, but I promise I´m write more substantial stuff later. I love you all!

Marcella

Marissa is Learning New Things...Every Day!

So three more weeks have flown past without any blogging by me...Sorry again, y'all!!!
A lot has happened, and I am so in love with this place, and it's so crazy to think that I'm leaving in three weeks!
Okay so this is not going to be very well organized, but here I go...

Some recent activities:

• English Camp a couple of weeks ago for our English students--It went really well! We got to know several people better because of it, had a ton of fun and bonding time with people, and some people possibly learned some English!
• New commitment to going out to jog in the mornings...yes, I'm confessing that I haven't been very good about that until the past two weeks! But it's actually been pretty cool--I usually see several people I know and get to say hey.
• Marvin, the Australian apprentice, left for Germany to spend time with his grandparents for a month...so I won't see him again before I leave! Sad!
• Last week (Thursday), a group from Boerne, Texas came and they'll be here until Tuesday...so this past week has been especially crazy and filled with activity!
• On Saturday we went to a really cool waterfall...The rocks are not slippery at all, so you can walk up and down easily! It's a strange feeling, walking on a surface covered by rushing water, but so so so neat!
• Thailand Fourth of July party! We had a party with tons of people from both Christian zones and the Boerne group...I ate one hotdog, but I must admit that I didn't enjoy it quite as much as the papaya salad that I went and ate later!
• I learned how to write my name in Thai! Yay!

Some really cool firsts:

• First experiences with live Thai music! Several of the guys that hang out around here are in a band, and last Monday I went with them to their practice. And had tons of fun! It was pretty loud, but sounded great. And then on Friday night we went to hear them perform at Freshy Camp for law majors. In addition to learning a bit more about Thai music, it has been great to get to know these guys a bit better. They're good at English and love spending time around here, playing guitar, chilling, and asking questions...so they've gotten to be pretty good friends with us and come to cell group and other activities!
• First Fried Thai Bugs!!! Yay! On Friday I ate a fried bamboo worm and something that looked like a wasp...They weren't the greatest ever, but I didn't die!
• First Student to come twice! Wednesday was a very special day for me because, for the first time since I've been here, I had a student come for a second time. Her name is Nan, a hotel & tourism major in her third year, and apparently I haven't scared her off yet! I've had about 14 students total, but they are all either really busy, shy, or forgetful...so they aren't very consistent about coming to English class...It's been good to have time in the afternoons to just be downstairs and hang out with whoever comes around, but it's also nice to know that I have at least one person who will come!
• First visit inside a Buddhist temple (wat). On Saturday I joined the Texas group for orientation, which included going to look at different temples. So my group went inside the oldest temple in Chiang Mai (Wat Chang Man). It was an interesting experience, to say the least--going into a place of worship as a tourist, with a couple of Buddhist students as guides...walking in there with them and seeing them go and bow down and pray to a gold statue of Buddha...I wonder what goes through their minds when they join us for the first time in our worship...
• First time to watch a movie (well, part of a movie) totally NOT in English. One night several of the Thai kids decided to watch The Classic, a Korean movie, dubbed in Thai...
  Since there wasn't anyone else around, I watched about half an hour of it with them...even though I didn't know exactly what was going on, it was pretty funny to watch and guess!

Great questions I've been asked:

• Are you half Thai?
  My name sounds really similar to a Thai name, so I've started introducing myself with that name. So people always comment on the fact that I have a Thai name, and one girl looked very puzzled and asked me if I'm half Thai! And I laughed....
• Why are you so big?
  This guy named Bob was shocked when he found out that I'm only 18, so he asked me why I'm so "big"...and then speculated that it's all the hamburgers in America...
  It's so funny to have people think that I'm older here! Definitely not what I'm used to...
• Are you slim?
  I honestly have no idea what my friend Nok meant by that one, but it made me laugh a whole lot!!
• Why are you white?
  Uhmmm...because of DNA?!?

Interesting conversations and interactions:

• One of the new girls around here, Wiew, came with her friend Dome...they're both pharmacy majors, studying English with Mark. Wiew is really shy, but Mark discovered that she and I are exactly the same age--same day, same year! There have been a couple of times when I have gotten up and been on my way either to jog around campus or to go get breakfast and then ran into Wiew, waiting by her dorm for Dome to come and walk with her to class. Those times have been pretty cool random opportunities to wait with her for a while and try to talk (with the little English that she knows and a tiny tiny bit of Thai)!
• Speaking of people I see when I go out jogging, one time this week I saw two of our new friends, Bank and May, while I was out getting sweaty and gross. I hadn't really talked to them much, but it turned out that later on (that day or the next), Casey and I hung out with them for a long time at the milk shop, and they really enjoyed talking with her! It's really cool to see that even though I did't have much to say to Bank, he connected with Casey really well (they're both crazy and love to laugh! : D)
• People are a bit more straightforward about some things here. For example, I have been told things like "I like your skin color," "I like your hair better this way than that way," "You look fat," and "You're cute" by people that I barely know. It seems kinda weird at times, but I'm getting used to it!
• Sunday night, Walking Street (huge once-a-week market):
  I was walking around with Pun when we were suddenly greeted enthusiastically by five giggling university students (from another college, not Payap) who needed to interview an English-speaking foreigner for a class. So I got interviewed a couple of times, with a whole lot of laughing and asking them to repeat so many questions! Well then we decided that, since they needed one more person, we could go find someone else from our group for them...well....we walked...and walked...and talked and laughed some more...and walked...and then finally we found Adam, so they interviewed him, told him he is handsome and smart, and said good bye...
• Conversations with Ball (pronounced Bon): He is the crazy funny guitar player in the band, and occasionally he starts asking questions and talking so much! His English is pretty good, and he works a lot to improve it (possibly to impress his girlfriend, who is from Australia)...anyway...we have had conversations about difficult English words to pronounce, his family history, how to say "not funny" in Thai (which inevitably makes people laugh when I try to say it), and hair. That's right, we had a long conversation about how we care for our hair, how often we get it cut, etc...this guy has shoulder length hair, styled in layers once a month! Crazy kid!
• Today I explained (or tried to explain) the difference between "every day" and "everyday" to some Thai people...I don't know why I even tried! : P
• I've been so blessed by getting to know the Christians here, and hearing their stories. Every Thursday at cell group we have people share their testimonies with us, which has been so so so amazing! It's also been wonderful to have Casey and Erika around! I've learned so much from them and definitely enjoyed friendship with them!

Prayer Requests:

• All of these new people!!! For the really new ones to build closer relationships with everyone...and for the people who have been around for a while to be more interested in learning about God! We always have a lot of visitors in cell group, some Sunday morning, and one kid even came to a prayer time we had last Wednesday! Also, there are several girls going through "the red book" (a Bible study for people learning about Christianity) with some of the Thai Christians!
• Pun, a very sweet Christian girl, is having a very stressful time right now. Her mother just found out she has cancer and wants Pun to quit school to go take care of her as she goes through treatment.
• For all of us to stay motivated, not get worn out or distracted!

Thank you all so much for your prayers and encouragement!