The Shed-yule!

Today was just such a great day! Aside from the fact that the government in Thailand is in a bit of shambles, there are a lot of good things to report. For one, it's December already and I can hardly believe it. The weather has cooled down quite a lot for us with chilly 68 degree mornings and comfortably warm 83 degree afternoons and evenings. For the Thai's this is practically freezing and everyone walks around with sweaters and jackets on-no joke! Last night I was fiddling around with my computer and managed to completely mess it up to the point where I didn't have internet and then did long enough to call CougarNet and have them help me.


There are so many things planned this month that I can't wait for. At school we have a Christmas dinner planned along with a show that consists of performances by students and our teachers. We were all divided into regional teams, so we are on team America doing a Thai-school rendition of the 12 Days of Christmas. Then, my teacher is teaching all the girls on our team traditional Thai dance. It's so fun! We practice during our breaks and of course our teacher makes it look so easy and graceful. A lot of the hand gestures require you to bend your wrists and fingers into nearly impossible positions, but it's still fun to learn. We don't get the cool outfits though.


Also at school, one of our teachers is getting married to one of the other students in January and a lot of us students are invited to their wedding in Hua Hin so we are starting to make plans to carpool there together. They are so excited, and we are excited for them as well. They are an older couple and neither have ever been married before. She is Thai and he is Swiss.


This Friday the 5th, we have off of school because it is the King's birthday, which is a major holiday here filled with parades and all sorts of celebrations. It will be like a sea of yellow this Friday. Next Tuesday we have another day off because it is Constitution Day that day. Hmm...I wonder if this day will be celebrated in the future.

On the 13th of December we get to go to the Bang Na daycare for the first time to meet all the children there and help out with their Christmas program.


In other news, I was able to get in touch with someone I knew from my first year at Concordia and find out that she and the people she is travelling with are fine, despite being stranded in Thailand for 2 weeks longer than they planned. I had been worried that they were stranded at the airport this whole time and found out that the Thai tourism board is taking care of them and housing them in a hotel in town. So that's good news!


On the 21st we are having a Christmas celebration at Concordia Lutheran Church Phongphet, and we have a whole agenda planned, including dressing Pastor Bob up as Rudolf and having all the other "missionary group" people sing Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer. That's our addition of American humour!


The next day on the 22nd the LCMS and CWEFT people are going to the north near Burma I think, to a refugee camp to share Christmas with the people there. That will be very exciting I'm sure! I think we wither come back Christmas Eve or Day.

I feel like I am missing something else, but I'm sure I will bring it up eventually. Now it's time for homework!