Birthday Hurray

So yah 21, lets start this out by saying that since I cant drink as my friends yall are all obligated to have one for me now. No but in all honesty it has been a great day. I got a phone call from my family in the States, my facebook wall was overrun, and my Thai friends did some really cool things for me. None the less I would be lying if I said it wasn't a little weird celebrating my birthday on the far side of the world.

Kelsey and Maria our interns from Reach are leaving tomorrow, its going to be really sad loosing part of our team. I cannot imagine what it is going to be like when December rolls around and it comes time to go back.

This is going to be a buisy month, this weekend we are headed to the Ancient City, the next weekend its Cambodia, and the weekend after that I think its our weekend beach trip. Add midterms into that equation and time might get scarce, but I will try to keep the updates coming. Thanks to everyone who helped to brighten my birthday you really made it a good one.

Poetry without words

We just got back from downtown, we had all gone to an English worship service that Ja has connections with. It was ok but I dunno maybe its something with me but parts of it felt really insincere. I guess it just really bothers me when people tell me im not worshiping because I refuse to degrade my personal worship with a dance that I neither know or want to participate in. These things would have felt really normal to me a few years back but I haven't really had to deal with it in so long it was like a ghost from the past that was very unwelcome. Past the objections with the manner in which the music was lead the rest of it was good. The message was simple but well laid out and the people were great.

After Newsong we went to the most incredible jazz bar for dinner. It did kind of bother me that we were sitting in a bar and I wasn't allowed to have a beer, but it was worth it. The bar had a beautiful smokey depth to its decor. The walls were strewn with of modern art but it mingled with ancient horns and tins. The band was great; something in Jazz music just doesn't translate to a recording. All the notes are still there but it just doesn't capture the soul and heart behind them completely. Listening to it was like poetry with no words, it skipped language and went strait into you.

Adding that ontop of a pair of really relaxing days and this has to be one of my highest points in the trip so far. The last few days I've been able to really feel like I was accomplishing things as well. Within my self and exterior things. But at the same time as I wright these words I can feel the chaos behind the curtain. Pray for peace and continued growth, but internal and with furthering my goals here in Thailand.

La Gloria Cubana

We just got back from hanging out at Jen and Andys. On Sunday between church and teaching english I had a few hours to kill so a few of us went to a mall called the Emporium. I picked up a bunch of Cuban cigars for everyone and we just had a great time hanging out and smoking. The simple relaxing of back home is something that I do miss and it was really nice to get to just chill with everyone here.

House sitting for Greg was great, the only real complication came when a friend told us that a Taxi would definitely not be able to find the house from the address. Fortunately she knew how to get there and was gracious enough however to ride with us in the taxi while I took notes for return trips. Saturday night before church all six of us stayed the night at Gregs, it was a really fun bonding time. I also got to cook chicken parmesan, it was a really great night.

Earlier in the week some friends invited us to go with them to ride waverunners. It was really expensive (ok so 8 dollars for a half hour of wave running has gotten expensive to me) but its hard to not justify spending the money when the whole reason we are here is to build relationships with people. It was also an interesting wake up to the fact that the people we are making friends with in class are the top tier in the socio-economic strata of Thailand. Talking to Nat about SIIT he told me that there is a saying about the people from our college. "Everyone is rich, good looking, and a jackass." Im still not sure what to think about that, but it made me think. The fact that I a poor college student from middle class America but seemed to not even notice that I was a part of the social elite in this country is something that I haven't thought through completely but doesn't sit well right now either. On some levels I feel like a spoiled kid who has just realized that he is selfish and immature but is not really ready to let anything go either because he is having to much fun. But on some levels I haven't even begun to understand anything about this revelation.

Well enough of this for now, 4 am is to late to be pseudo-philosophical anyway.

Ninja Banditos and Relaxation

We just finished the filming on an announcement video for grapejam, and I have to say im really excited about this one. Travis was a burglars breaking intop grape vine to make fun of the fact that Gregs house got broken into so many times while he was on furlow. There is still a ton left to do before tomorrow night but im excited about learning the video editing as well.

On Sunday I went with a group and we all got Thai massages. It was incredible. The chance to fully relax in a peaceful environment was just what all of us needed. Bangkok is an amazing place but peace and relaxation are not the easiest things to find. But the best part was definitely the fact that I can afford an hour long massage; it came out to 250 baht which is right at $6. Try finding that in the states.

I am going to be house sitting for Greg while the leaders are on retreat over the weekend. The whole 5 break-ins thing has him rightfully spooked. So this should be a really nice relaxing weekend to look forward to as well

Balancing

For those of you who are following this trek I apologize that the posts have dropped off in frequency as of late. However I fear that this is the way that it is going to be. It is difficult to maintain the balance between staying in the moment and focus on the tasks at hand, having time to relax and unwind, and maintain all of my proper correspondence with friends and family back home. However I am going to make sure that updates do make it to you all at least once and hopefully two or more times a week because I am very excited to share what I am getting to do hear in Thailand, and the support I get from all of you is incredible. Moving on.

This week has been a relay good one. Relationships with Thai friends have really progressed. I really feel like I can begin to call some people friends, and not just people that I've gotten to know a little bit. It was a little bit discouraging to not be around for either of my brothers birthdays but I did at manage to call or email them.

One of the neatest things that I got to do over the week was going to JJ market. It is a huge market in downtown Bangkok that sells everything from T-shirts to pets to plants to musical instruments. And thats just the part we managed to find out way through. A market is a very different experience than any other type of shopping and it was really fun to get to experience such a huge and famous one even if several team members had to leave because they were getting claustrophobic in the crowds.

tomorrow I should be filming our announcement video for GrapeJam. Im going to be eating one of the hottest peppers in Thailand and then seeing if I can go longer than a Thai before I have to drink or eat anything to stop the burn. So, hopefully I can learn to edit video before Tuesday. Well thats all I have time for now.

Team and Thai

I have started this post several times already, each time it went a different direction. Life here is great I am getting to know allot of Thai people and I think that the freindships that i have in this team are gowing to a point of real trust. There is allot to be said for trust, with out it you never realy become much more that social relations, very freindly aqaintances realy. This is something that i need to develop much more with the Thai I am getting to know as well. I dont realy feel like I realy have begun to move past that semiformal stage of testing and awkwardness with any Thai people into something more substantial. But i press on (twords bed at the moment). Adeau

One Month....Wow

Hello from Bangkok, things have begun to settle into a routine here on the weekdays. On one hand it is nice, on the other hand im just not sure what to thing of bangkok begining to have a routine feal. Amy came back into town last night. For those of you who havnt been following the whole blog Amy was one of the first Thai freinds that I made and she taught me to speak my first Thai. It was fun to get to see her and show her that i wasnt slacking off on my Thai after she left. Uh-oh has done a good job with our tutoring but i need to put more time aside to study. Im getting a handle on most of the realy hard pronunciations but now the real issues with memoriation kick in.

Its strange to think that one month ago today I got to Bangkok, time is flying.

Miss the Kitchen

No huge updates today. Lets see, i found a place where you can order macaronie and cheese, its not normal american macaronie and cheese but its not half bad either. The food situation is a bit frustrating to me, I do realy like Thai food. However i am used to cooking for myself, and i realy dont have a kitchen at all here. The grapevine kitchen is avalable for us to use, but not before 4pm so unless im cooking dinner as a planned event its not actualy usefull to me at all. This may sound like a small grype even a blessing to some of you. But i use cooking as a stress release, and with it taken away im going to have to find some new outlets or im going to have problems soon. So those of you that pray for me back home pray for that.

Despite this entry sounding negative the past couple of days have been great. On sunday we played pickup football and socker at church. Jesse had his birthday sunday as well so we went out for pizza for dinner, always a nice treat. Everything is going well with classes to, i actualy have a class this semester that i like, (a rare occurance no matter where I am) so school is great. Well its almost midnight hear, so im out.