Crazy, busy, awesome..

I visited a beautiful sunflower field

So the title of my post pretty much sums up the past week. There are so many things going on and I feel like my head is going to explode..in a good way of course. I know I haven't written in a long time, but I promise it's not because I'm being lazy!!

My two classes are wonderful. I feel like I'm becoming closer to them everyday. Plus it's really neat to have two different classes because every group gives me a different experience. Some of our favorite things to do in class are play games and sing. Even though they're mostly all adults, they still get into the singing and the games--it's quite cute. Last week we played the game "telephone", the one where you whisper a sentence in the ear of the person next to you and it goes around until the last person has to repeat it. Well it's a difficult game for people who speak English, but even harder for people who speak English as a second language. As you can imagine, there was much laughter and confusion as we played. After a while, they all persuaded me into letting them say a Thai sentence. It was all good until they told me that I had to play too.........yeah....So I had to listen to the person next to me whisper a Thai sentence in my ear. Literally all I heard was, "Wa yaa wa wa ya nom wa wa ya." I tried my best to say it exactly the way I heard it...apparently it wasn't good enough. They didn't understand me at all. Everyone was laughing so hard that we had tears coming down our faces. It was great.

Bowling with my students!!

The nice part about my 1 pm class is that most of them are young and have a lot of free time since they are on summer vacation. The other day, I took a few of them bowling for the first time. It was hilarious. The funny thing about Thai culture is that most of them are timid and aren't encouraged to try new things, so most of my students have never gone bowling before. It was so cute and fun to try and teach them (with my awesome bowling skills....not. I think I scored 65 points), and see them get better as we continued to play. In level 1, every student has to write 3 essays. After bowling, one of the girls wrote her essay about the friends she has made at SES and that she really loves spending time with her teacher outside of class. It seriously warmed my heart to know that even though I'm exhausted, my students are being encouraged.

My dedicated class hard at work :)

I'm really excited because tomorrow, Caitlin and I are going to attempt cooking for some of our friends...we're going to make Fettuccine Alfredo. We'll see how it turns out! I don't know..but it should be interesting for sure because we only have two electric burner things..I can't wait to cook my own food! I never thought I'd miss cooking, but the idea of being able to make what I want when I want is something that we take for granted. Most people don't cook/don't even have a kitchen! It's crazy! Eating out is nice, but sometimes it's nice to just be home.

yeah..I learned how to play the ukelele.

Also, I have a prayer request. Before I came to Thailand, I applied to Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. I hoped to major in TESOL (teaching English as a second language). I kind of said in my mind that either I would get into Moody or would come back to Thailand and do some ministry here for a longer period of time. Well, a few weeks ago, I found out that I was not accepted to Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, but I was accepted to the Moody campus in Spokane, Washington. That was definitely a change in direction for me. Plus they don't offer TESOL. I also found out that I can't get a long term visa in Thailand unless I have a 4 year degree..so I'm kind of stuck and don't know what to do. Not only that, but I have to send a confirmation to Moody with a pretty large deposit BEFORE I get home. I just don't know what to do. I talked to some people about coming back to Thailand and studying at the international school really close to SES (they offer TESOL). I would just ask that if you think about it, could you pray for me for direction and confirmation about what I'm supposed to do? I think I assumed that coming to Thailand would make more clear to me what I'm supposed to do...but it hasn't at all. All I know now is that I love Thailand and the people and could see myself living here someday. I really appreciate you all! Please remember Caitlin and I in your prayers, and also our students. The most important thing we want is for them to hear about Jesus. Thank you all so much!

-Bethany