Great year

I love my students....love them, love them, love them.

I normally have seven (such a change from last year's 15), but on the day this picture was taken one was in Australia, one was in Brazil and one was sick.

Jonny, the livliest kid of the bunch!!! His English has really taken off. I'm so proud of him.

Diana, the xenaphobic (not exaggerating) child who now invites me into her airplane everyday on the playground :)

Pyetra, my favorite (though I love them all yada yada). Notice the green crayon in my hand. I've officially become a preschool teacher! haha

Labeling the parts of the body with a little embellished pink, curly hair by order of the kids.

I just love it when they crowd around me!

The majority of the team. Notice the picture on the screen. That's me with my two Brazilians.

Thailand!

During my two week break for Christmas and New Year's I traveled to Thailand with a few friends. It was an a-ma-zing trip, despite a few speed bumps here and there. I will sadly only be recording the shorter version because a lot happens in two weeks that I don't have the memory or time really to relay. If I see you this summer I'd be happy to fill you in.

We landed in Bangkok on Saturday, the 2oth and stayed there for a couple of days. Bangkok is a very spread out city. I never felt like I saw it. I kept asking, "Where is Bangkok?" and I was there three different times throughout the two weeks (in transit to other islands, flying home, etc.) So Bangkok wasn't quite what I had expected, but enjoyable nonetheless. We went to the floating market which I believe is pretty well-known. We woke up at 4am to get there before 7:30am because we were told that's when it closes. Well, that was a lie...or perhaps a miscommunication. I think the man meant it OPENS at 7:30 because we were most indubitably the first customers they had that morning. People were bathing in their underwear as we floated by.

I digress. The floating market is a community of people who have built houses on this huge lake and travel in boats around their community. It's a pretty popular tourist destination. We were able to buy food from people in boats beside us. We stopped at a few places for souvenirs. Very neat experience. I would recommend visiting there no matter the hour.

From Bangkok we traveled to the west coast to an island called Elephant Island, or Koh Chang as it's called in Thai. It was really pretty there. Very homey. Not too much Spring Break action happening. We had a really cool hotel on the beach with a balcony where we played cards a lot. While there though, I got in a pretty bad motorbike accident on Christmas Eve. I discovered my nerves were exposed due to the wreck. Needless to say, I was in severe pain the remaining week and a half. Plus my whole right leg was atrocious looking when you added around 200 mosquito bites to a burned and bloody leg. (Seriously, there were so many bites we couldn't count them. They attacked the night I wrecked because I couldn't put the sheets over my leg due to the pain.) Aside from that, which really affected the entire trip, I liked the island. It was my favorite part of the trip all in all.

From Koh Chang we went back up to Bangkok on a bus for eight hours, then immediately switched to another bus which took us 17 hours south to Krabi. We stayed there the last five nights. It was pretty there as well, but our bungalow was a little dirty and the beach wasn't as pretty. However, we took boat rides out everyday to other islands which were gorgeous. Did you ever see the film "The Beach" with Leonardo DiCaprio? Well yeah, that's where we went one day. (above picture) We snorkeled a lot and ate great, cheap food. Our meals were less than two dollars. The fruit smoothies were incredible too. So much better than Chinese food. We ate like kings!

We were able to ride elephants in Krabi. To me it's one of those things I'm glad I have experienced, but once is definitely enough. As is a half hour. No need to overdo it. New Year's Eve was spent on the beach watching people send up wish lanterns. They were basically illuminated potato sacks. It made for a cool effect as hundreds of them floated over the sea.

Thai people are so nice!! It was really hard coming back to China with a good attitude after being in that culture.


I guess that's Thailand then. Really short version, but the highlights. Oh! I rode an elephant. That was cool. I would recommend visiting Thailand for sure. It has a very laid back atmosphere and a lot of people spoke English..at least where we were. Very relaxing two weeks, minus the bike injury.

Xianzai (now)

This is the song I've been rocking out to lately. I recently rocked out to this one in Thailand which I ardently mean to write about this week.


Where We Belong
by Hillsong

There is no height or depth
Neither life nor death
That can take me from all that I find
Here now in Your glory Lord
No other powers or love
The things of now or to come
There's nothing on earth in this life
That could ever separate us Lord

Your love is never-ending
To your hands we surrender
Where all our sins are washed away
Your grace beyond reason
Has paid for our freedom
We're made alive in You

We run to Your throne
Where we belong
Every heart will sing
That Jesus is Lord
Casting all else aside
For the joy of our Christ
Let Your glory fall
Our hearts are filled with Your fire

No other powers or love
The things of now or to come
There's nothing on earth in this life
That could ever separate us Lord

Your love is never ending
To your hands we surrender
Where all our sins are washed away
Your grace beyond reason
Has paid for our freedom
We're made alive in You

We run to Your throne
Where we belong
Every heart will sing
That Jesus is Lord
Casting all else aside
For the joy of our Christ
Let Your glory fall
Our hearts are filled with Your fire


No matter what we've done, no matter how many times, we belong at His feet. At least that's what I'm learning about xianzai.