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October was a really full month and went by really fast. I’ll be uploading my pictures pretty soon, but in the meantime, here’s an idea of what happened.

We took the train to Ko Samui. The beach was amazing and our little bungalows were right on the water. We biked around the island one day and got to go kayaking too.
As Steph and I were leaving Ko Samui to head to Phuket to fly to Malaysia, I tripped and fell on the pier. You’d think that it’d be fine, but I sliced a huge chunk off of my toe and have been to 4 hospitals since.
Malaysia was amazing! I love Kuala Lumpur! It was a really nice and chill city. We saw the Petronus Towers and fell in love with the food in Little India. We also visited our first Mosque.
Steph and I are fanatics about tea, which explains why we would spend 7 hours in a freezing cold bus on horribly windy roads to spend an hour and a half having afternoon tea at a real tea plantation in the Cameron Highlands of Malaysia. That’s right, a real plantation. It was better than Disney World.
Back to Bangkok, and the new airport is amazing, even if their overpriced taxi policy stinks.
Jesse and I left for our volunteer club trip to what we thought was Chiang Mai by train. It was actually just in the Chiang Mai province - a 16 hour 3rd class train ride follwoed by 6+ hours in the back of a big truck that held about 45 people. Nice…
The volunteer trip was wonderful! We stayed with a family in a small hill tribe village (which turned out the be Christian!) and a lot of them did not speak Thai. We built a room for the school. It’s really adorable with the children and flowers we painted on the side. We made a ton of new friends. Jesse harvested rice one day, and I learned to weave a purse (really hard). 
Instead of going straight back to Bangkok, we split up the trip home by staying in Chiang Mai for 2 nights with Steph and her mom. We rode elephants and got to play with a baby elephant at the elephant nursery! 
Next was Sukothai, an ancient capital of Thailand. We stayed in a traditional teak house, which was really cool. We rode our bikes around the ruins and then bought little kratongs for the Loi Kratong festival (for the full moon). A kratong is a small little boat (or float) made of banana leaves and flower that holds a candle and incense. The lake at Sukothai was full of little lights from the boats; it was gorgeous. We also bought a little hot air ballon made of paper. We lit the paper underneath, and as it filled up with air it floated into the sky. They stay lit for a long time. It was great! I bought another teapot…
After another long bus ride we arrived back in Rangsit to celebrate Loi Kratong again, but this time it was at Thammasat with all of our friends.
I had minor surgery on my toe yesterday. It was awful. I’m in pain. They cut off part of my toenail and part of my toe which nad not healed correctly. They gave me two shots in my toe to numb it. I have never had a shot hurt, but that was horrible. Jesse let me squeeze his hand (and cry). Apparently I’m allergic to vicodine. I found that one out this morning around 4 am, when, for the second time, I got really, really sick from it. It’s scary; my body goes all numb, shaky, and tingly and my arms start cramping, my hands tighten and cramp and I can’t loosen them and I was burning up and shivering. I have to go back to Bumrungrad Hospital today for a check up. Atleast it’s a nice hospital. I get service immediately and they are very attentive and the place is just really nice. If I ever get hurt again I’m flying right back to Thailand.

5 and a half weeks left - that’s pretty crazy! Thank you to everyone for all of your prayers and kind words to me about my grandmother. It really means more than you know.

Now I have to look into reapplying to Tech…

If you commented on this article and now it’s gone, I’m sorry. It’s because my site was spammed.

I am going to be out of town for awhile, so don’t be surprised if you don’t get any updates or responses to messages any time soon. Where am I going, you ask?

Today at 7:30 pm I am taking the sleeper train to Surat Thani. It’s like an 11 hour trip.
When we get there tomorrow morning we will take a bus to the pier and then a ferry to Ko Samui! We will be sleeping in adorable little bungalows on the beach! Steph and I will be there until sometime on Sunday, when we will be leaving for Phuket for 1 night. We are only going to Phuket because we have a flight out of Phuket on Monday (the around noon. We’re flying to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and will be staying in this cute joint for 4 nights. On Friday the 20th, Steph is heading to Singapore to meet a friend and I’ll be heading back to Bangkok (to the brand new airport) to get ready really fast for my trip to Chiang Mai. Just for kicks, the airport’s name is Suvarnabhumi, and it’s pronounced “Suwanapum.” Nice, huh? On Sunday the 22nd, Jesse and I will be taking another really long train trip up to a small village in the Chiang Mai province in northern Thailand for an 11 day trip with the Thammasat and SIIT volunteer club. We’ll be doing construction and other cultural activities. I’m not exactly sure what those are yet, but they talked about picking rice and helping make silk. It should be awesome. After that, I’ll be meeting up with Stephanie and her mom in Chiang Mai to ride some elephants and then it’s off to Suhkothai to explore the ruins and celebrate the Loy Kratong festival. We will be getting back the first week of November.

Yes, it’s rather chaotic. The only problem is that my little camera seems to be broken. This is the one with the largest memory card and it’s small enough to have on me while we do construction. The lens won’t open. If it doesn’t get fixed (fix itself) it could be a huge problem.

Anyway, please pray that we will have a safe and awesome vacation! I love you all!

Hey guys! I just sent out an email update, but for those of you whose address I don’t have, here’s some of it:

The first semester is coming to an end, and finals are starting next week.  It’s really hard to believe that I am half way through with my trip!  We had the last Grapejam of the semester last night and will be starting up again with a big costume party after the October break.  Everyone is busy studying for finals, but attendance is still going well at Grapejam and Café English.  Music at Grapejam has been tons of fun. Last night our friend Yim played guitar and sang, and the American students sang “My Life is in You, Lord” in Thai and the Thai students sang it in English.  We usually have atleast one song from our Thai friends in addition to the songs that Andy (a team member) sings.  It was so much fun! We recently had a talent show full of singing, dancing, and some funny skits. It lasted so long, and even our first timers joined in on the fun. The Grapevine recently took a 1-day trip to Rayong, a nearby beach as well. It was gorgeous, and everyone had a great time.

With the month long break coming up, everyone has been making vacation plans. We are taking a 12-hour sleeper train to Ko Samui, an island in the Gulf of Thailand for a few nights and then Stephanie and I are going to Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia for 4 days. After that we all have separate plans. Some of us are heading to Roi Et in eastern Thailand with Muang Thai Church to teach English, and others are taking the train up north to Mae Hong Son or Chiang Mai for a volunteer construction trip with a club from school. I’ll be going to Chiang Mai for 11 days with my classmate, White, and maybe 50 other Thammasat University students. The trip sounds like it will be wonderful, with every other day being construction work on a multipurpose room for the village. When we aren’t doing construction, we will be doing other cultural activities. Last year’s group made baskets, picked rice, and helped make silk. It’s going to be an amazing experience and a great chance to make new friends and practice speaking Thai!

God recently taught us a very funny lesson about humility that I think you’ll enjoy. This whole semester we have had one group at the SIIT picnic tables and another group at the Student Center for Fun On Campus. Until yesterday, we have only had 1 Thai student join us at the SC building, and that was Beau, a regular at Grapevine. Even though we had card games and passed out brownies around the area, no one would be our friends.  Greg decided to make a sign in Thai that said “Do not be afraid! We are kind hearted farang and we have had our vaccinations. Come play games with us!” Yes, it looked desperate, but after a semester of people just looking at us, what did we have to lose? At first we just got some laughs as people passed by, but then this one guy came over and asked if he could play a game too. His name was Sea, and as soon as he sat down, 6 of his friends came running over and sat down too! It was the coolest thing ever! They were all freshmen in Accounting and Commerce. At one point it was Greg, Michal Ruth and I with 11 Thai students, all playing Skip Bo and eating brownies. It was the greatest “God is so amazing” moment ever. It just goes to show what can happen when we get over our pride (we had this idea about a month ago but we thought it’d be embarrassing) and listen to God.

I have posted lots of new pictures on my Flickr page and you should definitely check them out! Here are a few I think you’ll enjoy.