Eating Pad Thai: Wind chimes and barking dogs

It has been exactly 3 days and 2 nights since I've arrive in the Land of Smiles and well, it's kept me smiling. Every night I go to sleep to sound of barking dogs - which are as many as taxis in New York, and I wake up to the beautiful sound of my neighbors wind chimes and to the sound of hoses spraying house plants. Toto, we're not in NJ anymore. :)

From NJ:

To Thailand:

It's been awesome. As soon as I landed in Thailand Sunday morning, I went straight to the New City Community Church service (MTW church plant) and worshipped with a variety of people: MTW missionaries, YWAM missionaries, and native Thai, and myself. Despite my 2 day old airplane clothes, God's presence broke through the smell and I knew that I was exactly where I was supposed to be. There's something really comforting about that. :) After a long day at the church, we visited a local park, went grocery shopping and I did myself a favor and knocked out at 7pm - only to wake up at 12am, clean and go back to sleep at 2am. Here's my room:

What has been a really great blessing is that there is another intern who also arrived the same day I did, and she's my housemate! We're pretty much doing everything together! It's weird because she's younger than some of my old youth group students but I guess because of our context, I don't really feel like she's younger...until we start talking about college and stuff (which she has yet to go...) haha...i am old~ But she's been a great blessing - we're a lot alike, and she's fun...so I love it. We're taking language classes together and it's been so much fun learning together - otherwise, practicing tonal sounds and vowels would just sound like a dying horse...which at this point, I do sound like one, but it's just more fun when you can laugh at yourself and at another. I wish I could record it! it's too hilarious.

Something else that's been a real great blessing is spending time with one of the full-time missionary families here. They have 3 gorgeous children age: 7, 4, 2. And what an answer to prayer! For those of you who know me well, you know that I was devastated to leave my beautiful and awesome and lovely niece - especially devastated that I would miss this special stage in her life where she will begin to articulate her speech, put sentences together and be awesome. Something I was praying for was a baby about the same age as M, who I could just play with, love and follow the developmental stage. Well, I'm so happy to announce that the 2 year old in this family is only a day, ONE DAY, older than M and is also learning bilingually - so development wise, I feel like I've found a supplement to hold me over until I see M. Hahaha..is that bad? He's a boy and adorable! Blonde hair, blue eyes... :) I've already offered to babysit, and they've already accepted my offer. hahaha

Tuesdays are my days off, so we ventured to downtown Bangkok today, which is actually not as close as I thought...it's literally a bus ride, train ride, and another bus ride over...the area I live and work in is Bangkok, but this city is HUGE...the area I live in is somewhat on the outskirts, and because of a flood that recently passed by, the roads are all ripped up and its really dusty here!
This is the street/area where the church is located

This is the street where my home is, and my home!

Anyway, downtown was fun - we went to a few museums: The Jim Thompson House and the Bangkok Arts and Culture Center

This here is a Song Tao - which is my main mode of transportation...It literally means 2 benches, and that's literally what it is, and it sits on top of a back up truck. Haha...it's 8 Baht for one ride which is about 25 cents. awesome huh??? It takes me to the market, to other people's homes, to the park and those are the only places I've been so far...but it's so much fun too ride!!!!