Arrived.

Guess who is in Thailand!? I still can't quite believe it. I arrived at the Denver airport at 4:30 a.m. July 11th and arrived in Chiang Mai at 11:30 a.m. on July 12th. Plane rides were long but not too bad, just tried to catch up on some sleep- not all that successful. Got to chat with some chill people and ate uh 'wonderful' airplane food, yum. Three of us arrived in Chiang Mai on the same flight and were taken back to the guest house where we are staying for the next few days. We have great accommodations right now. Each of us have our own room with our own bed, shower, toilet... all the luxuries. When we got in, me and Elle (a girl on the team) were just stoked to be here so sleeping was not the first thing on our minds. So, at 1 a.m, we decided to go get a little feel for Chiang Mai and walk around. Don't worry family, we asked, they said it was safe to go, and we stayed in busy areas- not dark allies. Elle's first words of our walk were "there's some religious girl here," little did she know she was referring to me haha. She said she enjoy's picking people's minds so was excited, so we had some good chats walking around and enjoying the nightlife here. The term 'religious girl' is so, well, annoying to me ha. A friend I met on the plane used the same term. People should start saying something like "There's a girl here who really loves Jesus"- I would gladly take that title. I have decided that the title really doesn't matter, as long as the reflection is the same. I pray for courage, faith and endurance as I continually meet people of differing views and opinions. The great thing is that everyone I have met is very open-minded and curious, not judgmental or condemning. We got back to the guest house, got some sleep and got up this morning to find some breakfast. We really dove into the Thai culture with a french toast breakfast :). Today then consisted of venturing around, program orientation and a Monk Chat. Earlier, a few of us went into a Buddhist temple which was cool. After orientation, we all wanted to go to a Monk Chat and talk to them some about, well, Buddhism and monk lifestyle and whatever we wanted. So we took a half hour walk to the chat and spent an hour and a half talking to a group of about 15 monks. From everything we'd heard, monks definitely didn't fit our stereotype. They were incredibly friendly and social and glad to have us. We all just talked and asked them questions and they asked us some as well, it was a cool experience and I learned more about their religion and culture. For instance, we learned that because feet are the dirty, unholy part of your body, pointing them at anyone or anything is rude and disrespectful. I have odd sitting habits, believe it or not, like putting my feet up and whatnot, so it is definitely something I have to be conscious of. Our tentative schedule for this next week or so is girl's shelter on Monday, mountainside village on Tuesday, stay there for 5 days, then Monday and Tuesday off. Our team consists of 5 people, 4 girls and 1 guy. We all get along fine, 4 of us are from the U.S and one from Canada. I am excited to get to know the team more and chat with them in the weeks to come. Although my family would love me to come back now, I am already super jealous that everyone here is staying at least 5 weeks in Thailand. But that's okay, thank you Lord for the time I have. So far, getting to have time easing into the program and just venturing around has been great and a nice transition, I am also ready to start the program! That's really all I have for right now, Thailand is great, the food is great and the language is difficult. Tomorrow we start our Thai language classes, it will be interesting. But I am excited to be able to communicate a little bit better. The time here is 9:47 p.m.- no idea what time it is at home. I will probably not give many updates since I did not bring a computer or anything along, but will comfort my family as often as I am able. One day down.

Be Bold. Patient. 

K