China: First Ten Days

Ah page one. One thing I love about my journal or my computer or most notepads is that I can always count on there being an empty page. It is my canvas. Although I can’t fit 1000 words on one page, I can certainly paint a picture with 1000 words. Writers are always depicted as staring at their blank page in horror, stuck with writers block and no ideas. But whenever I see a blank page, I see an opportunity to make something great, something that no one has ever created before, something new. And to me, new has always meant exciting. But exciting does not always mean good.



I didn't take this beautiful picture, but I did stand in this
 exact spot and take a similar picture in the rain.

I have been in China for 10 days now, although it seems like, no, it has seemed like 10 days. I arrived early on a Friday morning in yet another brand new city. I had my two bags and 50 yuan, which is about $8. I had very vague directions on how to get to the Shanghai Zoo via subway. But most importantly, I had my adventurous spirit—something that has shaped my way of thinking in more than one way during this oversees adventure to inspiring Asia.

After I exchanged my Cambodian Riel for the yuans, I headed in the direction of nowhere, looking for this subway. I found it, bought my little ticket, and tried to find something resembling a map that could tell me where this zoo was. Now, China is different from other southeastern Asian countries in that no one here really needs to speak English, so not many of them do. Like in the United States, we don’t rely on our knowledge of other languages to help us speak to tourists because tourists rely on their knowledge of English to speak to us. (It’s ok, I would have had to reread that sentence too.) So it kind of is in China, well at least in Shanghai, that people don’t speak English because there isn’t a raging tourist business. This is not helpful for the English speaking foreigner, but I’ve braved other foreign cities and I’ve done just fine. The details are very boring, but I made it to the zoo without having to go backwards at all! I did have to get off a couple times to make sure I was going the right way, but I was proud that I had made it essentially across the entire city of Shanghai on my own. I wish I could have seen it, but I was underground the whole time.

So, mission accomplished, I made it to the zoo! Not really though, because I had to contact my contact in Shanghai, and to do that I needed that thing that makes our worlds go ‘round, wifi! That is not an easy thing to find for free in Shanghai, so I literally wondered around the zoo area with my bags in one hand and my phone in the other, desperately looking for wifi so I could message this woman, named Jane. I enjoyed walking though, first, because the weather was so nice! It was cloudy but not raining, and there was a light breeze so I was almost a bit chilly. Another thing I immediately noticed was how clean the streets were! Of course, compared to the US, the streets are dirty, but compared to Thailand and Cambodia, it spotless. I really enjoyed that unnecessarily long walk.

Suddenly, I found something very settling and familiar: FamilyMart. It just felt good to see one of those again after leaving Thailand. And believe it or not, that’s where I found my wifi. So I called Jane on this app she told me to get that apparently everyone in China uses. I tried to explain where I was and she told me to meet her back at the zoo. So bags in hand, I headed for the zoo when oddly enough, I heard my name. Very confused, I turned around and saw a woman standing at the bank I had just passes wearing a black and white polka dot blouse with jeans and a green vest and sunglasses. Even after seeing this person, I was utterly confused because I had never seen her before and she knew who I was. So I started quickly searching my mind to see if I knew of anyone who would be in Shanghai…nothing. Finally she took her sunglasses off and it was, in fact, Jane. Relieved, I gave her a hug and told her how happy I was to see her after having wondered the streets of Shanghai for a good two hours. We had already been introduced on skype, so we dispensed with the pleasantries and got right to business: lunch and the hotel.

We walked about a block and we arrived at the hotel. Jane said it was the only hotel with a license to accept foreign guests and she used the word “special” to describe this establishment’s decorations. We went inside and did the usual passport exchange with the front desk and walked to the room. Her description was indeed accurate. And the words I would use to describe it wouldn’t truly do it any justice, but I will say there was a mirror over the bed and the silhouette of a girl dancing on a pole on the wall. After getting everything settled, we headed out for lunch. Jane asked me what I wanted to eat and I just blurted out McDonalds. I don’t even think I knew what I was saying. Immediately I corrected myself and asked what kinds of restaurants were around. We ended up going to a noodle place and I got some fried noodles with pork. I was so hungry though I think I would have eaten anything. It was either delicious because I was starving, or because it was actually delicious. I think that’s the only time in my adult life I ate so sloppily I got food all over my shirt. Jane had to leave before I finished for a meeting, so partly embarrassed by my shirt, and partly from exhaustion, I trekked back to the hotel for a long post travel nap. (I would just like to point out that ‘nap’ is the 999^th word in this post, so I almost painted the picture of day 1 in 1000 words, and it did take longer than one Microsoft Word page.)

I woke from my very peaceful nap in the high class brothel with mirrors over my bed at around 4pm. Rested and happy, I prepared for my evening with Jane. We were going out to dinner and then she was taking me to her favorite bar run by a Californian. We ate at what looked like a really nice restaurant to me, and we ordered a bunch of food and just picked what we liked. I like that style of ordering at a restaurant, but if there’s a lot of people, it becomes crowded and messy. My favorite was the fried pork dumplings dipped in vinegar. I thought it sounded strange too, but it was the perfect complement to the moist, but slightly crunchy dumplings.

SIDEBAR: When I was in Cambodia, I got my Netflix working and I solely watched cooking shows. One thing I picked up from one of them was the challenge to describe food without using words like delicious, yummy, amazing, fantastic, and other words like that. Top chefs from around the world told me through Netflix that those words do not describe the taste of food and should not be used! So I challenge you to describe foods you eat without using those words. It’s a lot harder than you think sometimes!

Anyway, back to the story. We finished dinner and headed to “The 60’s Bar.” I really wanted a dirty vodka martini, but they had no idea what that was so I just got a margarita. And here’s a picture of me taking a sip and looking like it tastes very strange. Photo cred to Jane. And then I went back to the fancy hotel for some more sleep. The next morning Jane and I got breakfast and headed to the train station, which is conveniently located next to the airport, and looks almost exactly like an airport. It was also even more crowded than an airport. So we waited in line and got my ticket and some free water and said our goodbyes. I feel like people are always leaving me places with little direction. But it’s ok because it’s always an adventure.

So I waited for my train with all my luggage, a little confused as to why I hadn’t checked it anywhere, but I found out later that’s not necessary because the train is lightning fast! I think the fastest we were going was 150mph. It showed the speed on a ticker at the front of the car, but it was in kph so I had to convert it. What would have taken a two hour drive took us 30 minutes to the small town outside of Hangzhou called (I can’t remember the name). When I got off the train and walked out of the station, Jonathan and Joanna were standing there holding a sign with my name on it. Jonathan ran up and hugged me and I knew immediately that this was going to work out.

We went back to the car and drove to Joanna’s brother-in-law’s house in a smallish town 30 minutes outside the city. The house looked regular, but the inside was spectacular! Huge glass chandeliers hanging from the tiered ceilings, exquisite marble floors, and…a piano! I was so happy I could have cried. I had told Joanna before that I played piano, but that I hadn’t even seen one in 7 months. I sat down on the velvet bench and my fingers just went. All the songs I had ever learned, and some that I even forgot, came back to me and it was like I had never stopped playing. That may have been that happiest I’d been in a long, long time. I don’t even remember anything else that happened that day.

That’s a lie because I actually do remember dinner. I was told earlier that day that we’d be eating outside, and I thought, great! It’s such a nice day outside; that will be nice! But they meant we would be eating OUT. We went to a very fancy restaurant that was like an old hotel that had been converted into a restaurant. You booked a room that had a big table and then in the “lobby” we looked at samples of all the dishes and marked which ones we wanted. In China, it’s traditional to order a bunch of food and share it all. That way I got to try a little bit of everything! Some things were very good and others were not. I’ve gotten pretty used to sitting with a bunch of people that are not conversing in English. I’ve also gotten pretty good at knowing when they’re talking about me. Which means I also had to get good at being ok with the fact that people are talking about me right in front of me, and not in English. It’s uncomfortable at first, but you start to not care after a while. It’s a great lesson in self-esteem!

After dinner, we drove back to the house where I’d be staying. It was magnificent. The epitome of a modern mansion plus the elegance of the traditional chandeliers and marble floors made it feel modern, but homey. I was then introduced to Ayi, the maid. Ayi is Chinese for either maid, aunt, or what you would call a strange old woman. So she’s a maid called maid. All the cool people in China have an Ayi. My family had this Ayi for the last two months. And at that moment we met, I had no opinion of her, but that changed as the weeks went by. I could probably write a whole book on how to deal with your Ayi after all the encounters and situations I had been in with her even in the first ten days. Anyways, I was shown to my room that had a nice big closet and a floor to ceiling window that covered a whole wall! I love those! I settled in a little and went downstairs to talk to Joanna and Jonathan for a bit before we went to bed.

The next week was smooth and easy. Matthew, the youngest, was still at the grandparents’ house and Jonathan and Joanna were spending the week at their apartment in the city. So it was just good quality time in the giant house with Ayi. My opinion of her still changes daily. It’s an emotional roller coaster. But the thing that kept me sane was my open mind. This is by far the most important thing to equip yourself with when visiting another country, whether it’s drab and disgusting or mighty and magnificent, you must have an open mind, because things are always different when you’re not at home.

Thankfully, my new family also had this open mind, and tried to accommodate as much of my own culture and daily life as I transitioned into this new environment. For example, Chinese people do not traditionally have drinks during meals, because there’s almost always soup. But as an American, I gotta have my cold drink during my meals. In my American and family culture, I grew up drinking cold milk with breakfast, water or sweat tea for lunch, and one of either of those for dinner! So the options of hot water or nothing didn’t really appeal to me. But my open mind told me to play along and just drink the hot water. Even though the only reason I would have drunken hot water in America would be nothing. I just thought, “Hey, I’m in a different country, in someone else’s house eating at their table, so the polite thing to do is just go with it!” I mean, if someone visiting from China in the US asked me for some chop sticks when we sat down for dinner, I would be a little confused. Especially if we were eating something as American as grilled chicken and mashed potatoes! So it’s always important to remember that you’re in a FIREIGN place, and they do FOREIGN things. Plus, who knows? You might enjoy potatoes cut in the shape of fries, but boiled instead of fried, and sloppily eating them with chop sticks!

The great thing about time is that you get very used to all the things you’ve been doing differently. Sometimes so much so, that it takes you a second to remember how you used to do things. But that’s all part of settling in, and it’s nice to normalize some of the non-normal habits I’ve picked up since I got here. So household habits, check! Language is still on the to-do list. I have two Chinese classes per week. On Tuesday I have grammar and structure, and Friday I have speaking. I’ve always been told that English is the hardest language to learn—then I started learning Chinese. English may have more rules and exceptions, but Chinese is much more complicated. The hardest thing for me is remembering how to position my tongue in my mouth to make the correct pronunciation, because many of the sounds are very similar. I’ve taken English, French, and Spanish, but Chinese is, by far, the most difficult. But I have a whole year to learn, so who knows how proficient I’ll be at it after a few months. Again, I have to remember to have an open mind.

So far, these ten days have been great, and I’ve enjoyed myself immensely. I’ve already learned more than I thought I would have in ten days. And I already feel like I’m part of this new family and I’m excited to see where this adventure takes all of us! And although it pains me to do so, this paragraph will only have four sentences. Now five. Now it’s a real paragraph! Sorry about that, but it’s against English writing to have a paragraph with less than five sentences.

I Might Have to Change the Name of This Blog...

It's really amazing how things change so quickly in your life. The unexpected twists and turns in the wonderful story of life have never ceased to amaze and surprise me. I feel so blessed to have all these different experiences throughout my life that continue to teach me valuable lessons in so many different areas. So, today ends the Cambodia chapter in my story. Even this short month in Phnom Penh has brought many new challenges and many new successes that I can happily add to my experience repertoire.

I found out I can get completely lost in a foreign city that doesn't speak English and successfully, although slowly, find my way home. I learned that Corgis are the most promiscuous pooch in Cambodia AND Thailand because they have the most mixes wandering the streets.  I've had multiple money issues that God has happily lent a hand in. And multiple physical issues that he has also helped me with. I guess the lesson that should be learned from all of these situations is that you HAVE to trust God. There's a very fine line between being a good steward of your possessions and resources to solve problems, and letting go of everything and letting God solve your problems. And I think that is one of the most valuable lessons I've learned in my last (almost) 7 months in southeast Asia.

But the time for southeast has ended, and the time for China has begun! During this year of the goat, I believe, I will be the private tutor of two young Chinese boys in the small town of Hangzhou. It only has 4 million people. So small. I will stay with the family and help with the boys while the parents are out at work while teaching them English, probably some cooking, and lots of compassion. I'm really looking forward to this very unique experience.

I was just thinking the other day about how in Thailand, I was making money, but things weren't free. And then in Cambodia, I wasn't making money, and things aren't free. And now in China, I will be making money AND things are free! (Because the family will pay for literally everything for me in China.) It's a weird turn of financial events and I'm thankful to say I think I've been through all the possible scenarios of income and thing.

Here's a nice picture of where I'll be living for the next year so you can all see how difficult my life will be! Its a bit blurry but isn't it beautiful!? And clean!? I'm really excited about the clean part. I think I might have to change the name of this blog...

Zach and Ellie

Apparently its National Sibling Day in the US. In Cambodia we're all gearing up for the week long holiday of Khmer New Year, where almost everyone gets the entire week off work. There isn't a single American holiday that gives us any more than like 3 days off. Unless you work in hospitality, then you never get any holidays ever. But back to this sibling thing...

A few years back when I went to college, part 1, I couldn't stand being away from my family! Missing family dinners and watching sports on Saturday while grilling the whole time was not the easiest thing to endure. I love all my family very much, but the two that I'm hardest on and most protective of are my siblings. Zach's been around for 22 years making my life more interesting. I was about to say he took the spotlight off of me when it came to getting in trouble, but that's not true.

Zach is always very careful. He respects authority in a way I can't fully understand. I hope over the years, I've hardened him a little on that subject, but he's still more obedient than I am. He always took punishment MUCH more seriously than I did. I remember during the pre-Ellie years when we were always getting in trouble together. We were literally partners in crime, and not in the fun way we usually say that. I was probably always the instigator and just dragged Zach down with me. It seemed like every Sunday on the way home from church, Zach and I would do something that upset Dad and he would inform us that we would each be getting seven swats when we got home. To Zach, this was like hearing he was about to get his leg torn off. The very thought of getting any swats was torture for him. And when the time finally came, I could hear from the guest room Zach screaming like he was actually getting his leg torn off. I've always respected his respect of authority, but I've never agreed with it. I'm just more of a rebel I guess. But he was my very first friend and I will love him forever for that.

Ellie, on the other hand, is sneaky like me. When she told Dad she was riding her bike for an hour or so, she was really riding to Subway and eating sandwiches. That's something I totally would have done, and I probably did some form of that in my high school years. One thing I love about Ellie is that even though she's my little sister and little sisters usually need protecting, she doesn't need any! She's ferocious and independent and isn't spending most of her time looking for a guy, which makes it a ton easier for Zach and me. One thing I miss about Ellie is when we would go get food and just talk. Sometimes it was a milk shake at Chickfila and sometimes it was cheese dip at Happy Mexican. Either way, I miss having that time with her every once in a while. She was my friend I could talk to about anything, and I know she would never tell anyone else. She probably has most of my secrets.

I hope I've always set at least just an example for them, whether it was good or bad, since you can learn from both. I've known them and loved them and watched them grow up for their whole lives, and unlike everyone's Facebook posts, I haven't loved every minute of it. There were times we all hated each other! Although we all have our own personal fighting styles, here's what I admire about Zach's and Ellie's.

Zach, like I said, is very careful. He only seizes power in a situation when he knows he can get it. And when he gets it, there's absolutely no way for anyone to get it back. That's annoying for me because I can get a little risky with my power moves. And when one way doesn't work, the tide shifts, and I'm at his mercy. He's smart like that.

Fights with Ellie are different because 1, she's a girl, and 2, she's the youngest. She has two people on her side that will always intervene on her behalf: Mom and Dad. It's a sneaky tactic, because no matter who started it, Ellie usually ends it, and it's Zach or me who ends up getting the "please be nice to Ellie" talk from the parents. Every time that happens I get this feeling she's somewhere listening and smiling maniacally. She always picks the winning side, which makes her a winner.

I've always wondered what it would be like if we teamed up against the parents because we outnumber them! I don't know why we never thought of that. But I love when the three of us team up. Even if just two of us are on a team, that team will probably win. Because we're all fighters, we're all smart, and we're extremely likeable. So here's to you, Zach and Ellie! May we continue to dominate the cousins, and always have each other's backs!

Dear Single Person

I've been thinking a lot about Jesus' mission this week, obviously because Easter is tomorrow. I've also been thinking a lot about how I'm getting older. One of my Cambodia friends turned 30 something this week and he's single. When I realized that, I remembered that all my grandparents AND my parents were all married by the time they were my age. In fact, they were probably closer to my brother's age when they got married. So for the briefest second, I felt unaccomplished. I mean I'm not even in a serious relationship right now. I haven't been in one for over 5 years! That made me feel more unaccomplished.

But then I started to think about my mission. Jesus' mission started when he was 30 and lasted for only 3 years. And when his mission was finished, God took him back home. His mission didn't include a wife. Neither did Paul's. That made me feel a little better. Over the past couple of years, I've come to the conclusion that I'm mostly ok with my singleness. God is in control of my life and if I don't have a partner right now, that must be part of the plan. So I'm ok with that. Plus being single has a lot of perks! I don't have to pay for dates and gifts and stuff, which is good because I really love buying things for people. It's something I've had to stop doing ever since I had to start providing for myself here in Asia. And I think that it's nice that I only have to worry about myself.

But sometimes I do something dangerous; I think about the future. When I finally understood marriage years ago, I dreamed of having a wife so that I would have someone to share this amazing journey with. Sure, single people are more wealthy, but they don't have that special person. And that's ok! I know some people who's mission hasn't included a spouse and they're doing great! I guess this post is turning into me reassuring myself that it's ok to be single. That's what all of the single people say probably. At the meetings we raise our right hands and say, "it's ok to be single!"

One of my favorite sermons was last year's Christian Life Conference when Barton Kimbro spoke about singleness. But I still struggle to be ok with it. When I look at the big picture I literally and truly am ok with it. But when I think about myself this time next year, I ponder in dismay about whether it will be another single year. Single year number 6! All my friends back home are getting married. One guy I knew from college who's Zach's age is having a baby! Don't even get me started on that!

In preparation for this single post, I gathered the 4 most important books in my life, the Bible (duh) and my three journals I've been writing in since 2002. They all have very important things to say about being single. Journal 1 (2002-2011) has stories about PDS and Lizzy Willson babysitting and riding to the Edge with Megan Warner. It's also full of stories of my ex girlfriends. It reminds me of all the good relationship lessons I've learned over the years.

Journal 2 (2011-2014) is much more comprehensive. There were 0 relationships during that time. Good thing too, because those were some of the hardest years of my life. Girlfriends would have only complicated things. You might say it's a how-to book on what not to do in your early 20s. By the time you get to Journal 3 (2014-current), its like you're reading the life of a whole new person! Calm, collected, and mature.

In 1 Corinthians, Paul says to stay single! Not typically the words single people want to hear from the Bible. He says that getting married causes you to become anxious about worldly things. He even says that he who marries does well, but he who refrains from marriage will do even better. What the heck!? Don't the single people wish Sandy would preach on that more often? This is what I think Paul means by what seems like crazy talk in the eyes of the singles. First, let's look at similarities.

• Is being married good? Apparently; I can't speak from experience.
• Is being single good? Yes!
• Does God have missions for people that include a spouse? Yes.
• Does God have missions for people that include them staying single forever? Yes.
• Do married people have many struggles? Absolutely!
• Do single people have many struggles? Of course!

But what Paul is saying here is that as a single, you can devote your full attention to pleasing God. You can stay out all night preaching and get thrown in jail like Paul did on more than one occasion. But if he had a wife, man would she be upset with him if he kept getting arrested for preaching all the time! His attention would have to be divided between pleasing his wife and pleasing God. Of course, it's absolutely not wrong to please both, but you see, singles are have much more flexibility in their missions than couples. We have a unique opportunity to devote all of ourselves to our mission! So be excited about that! There are ways we can make a difference that couples cannot!

It's a weird subject, singleness as opposed to being married. We're not used to the Bible telling us that one thing is great and the other is ok, if you want to. So this is how I try to think about it after I think too hard about it: don't focus on finding a spouse. Focus on your singleness. Because if God's plan for you includes a partner, he will provide him or her! And let me tell you, God can find a MUCH better person for you than you can. I have more friends than I can count that spend so much of their time looking for the one. But what if you spend all your life looking and never find them? What a significant waste of time that is!

Here's my metaphor. Pretend you want to read this book. Many of your friends have read it. Some of your friends are about to read it. You don't have it, but you want to get it very badly. Only one book store has this book, and they choose who gets this book and who doesn't. No one asks for the book, it's just given out. And all of this is common knowledge. Regardless, you spend a whole year doing nothing but try to get your hands on this book. But its pointless because of everything I just told you. Why would you waste a whole year trying to get something that's out of your control? That just seems stupid!

What if, instead, you just lived your life like you normally would for that year? Then the next year, suddenly, you were chosen to receive the book! That's fantastic! And guess what? You didn't have to spend any time looking for it or waiting for it! That's how I think we as Christians should approach marriage from a single standpoint. It's not something we need, but if we get it, that's great! And even if we never get it, that's still just as great, because either way, we are fulfilling God's purpose for us on earth. Just like my favorite verse Psalm 138:8 says, "the LORD will fulfill his purpose for me." Whether it's as 1, or as 2.

Off to Cambodia!

Let me start off this story by saying that even though I knew God had a plan, I am still a weak, sinful human with weak, sinful human doubts. So it’s Tuesday morning at 6:00am and I just woke up to start cleaning and packing. My van to Bangkok leaves every hour starting at 4am, but I’ve chosen the noon van because check in at my hotel is at 2pm and that gives me just enough time to get to Bangkok! To my surprise, cleaning and packing only took about 45 minutes, so I spend the rest of the day driving around reminiscing on what could be my last day in Thailand. Also, since my previous motorbike wound had almost completely healed and had already completely closed up (meaning no scabs or anything), I was especially determined not to get in a wreck. Even more determined than I usually am, which is still pretty determined. To save you the suspense, I didn’t get in another wreck. I went to my favorite restaurant and got a good last chicken fried rice for the great low price of about $1.20.

So then I got all my bags down the stairs and across the rocky driveway of my previous apartment and walked the 200 yards to the van place. I paid my 360 baht and waited for the van. It didn’t get there til around 12:20, but that’s expected in Thailand. The van looked empty from the outside, but it was full on the inside! They put my huge bag in the first row and put me next to it. I thought, “Well this is great! My own row!” We stopped 30 minutes later and picked up two more people. So now I was sitting in the half a seat with my bag on one side and a rather large man on the other. I thought the van was full, but we picked up 6 more people on our way to Bangkok. It was like a clown car in there! I tried to sleep, but it was impossible.

Finally, we arrived at the bus station in Bangkok and I finally got to stretch. Not being able to straighten my legs for 3 and a half hours is like torture for me. Oh yeah, and it took 3 and a half hours to get there, not the simple, easy 2. So I got my bags together and found a taxi to take me to the hotel. The driver didn’t speak any English so I tried to call my agent and he called someone else to translate. He got there first so I hung up. I talked to this guy on the phone and told him where I needed to go. He said 800 baht. I was a little confused. All the taxis have meters and they told us in training to never agree upon a price with a taxi driver. So I asked, what about the meter? He said, “Ok 500.” I was still confused and I asked about the meter again. He replied, “Ok 350.” At this point something amazing happened, my brain moved faster than normal and I realized that the distance I was from the hotel was certainly much more than 350 baht. So I agreed. See how the tables were turned and I ripped off the taxi driver?? I felt so accomplished. Also, this way, if the driver got lost, I didn’t have to pay for that too.

So after driving for about 30 minutes we made it to the hotel. It was way off the main road and in a much more rural part of Bangkok. The taxi dropped me off and I looked for anyone. There was no one at reception and no one else anywhere else. So I waited. Finally a lady who spoke no English started talking to me in Thai and I had no idea what she was saying. She went and got the owner or manager or whatever. She was this old Thai lady who spoke perfect English. Now that’s something you don’t normally see in Thailand. But she got everything sorted out and took me to my room.

It was small, but I expected that. I sat on the bed. It was like it was sitting on a rock. The plus side of rock hard mattresses is that you can put drinks on it and they won’t fall over! But it took me forever to fall asleep on it. I woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and there was a good sized brown recluse just sitting next to the toilet. I looked at the shower and it was pretty much falling apart. A hotel critic would have had a field day at this place! The blankets at the end of the bed were damp (gross) so I used my sheets I had in my bag. Thank goodness I brought those! Finally, 3:30 came and I woke up, packed, and went down to get in my taxi. We drove around what seemed like an airport maze to get to the departure gates. I thought the airport would be empty at 4am, but it wasn’t! It was packed!

I waited in the check-in line for 30 minutes and when I finally got there, my bag weighed too much. Of course. So I went off to the side to put some of the heavier things in my carry on. And after I had struggled for minutes in front of all these people to close my carry on, my checked bag still weighed 4 kilos over the limit. I had no choice but to pay the fee, which is a ridiculous 500 baht per kilo over. So I paid 2000 baht. That was great. I still had to pay for the Cambodian visa and the hotel I had booked in Cambodia until I found a more permanent place to live.

At immigration, the officer informed me that I had overstayed my visa. I told him that’s why I’m at the airport right now leaving. He told me there was a fee. Of course. 1000 baht. I’m pretty sure the fee is less than that, but I wasn’t really in a position to argue with an immigration officer. I moped over to my gate and waited for the plane.

Oh, my ticket said seat 2A and I hadn’t paid anything extra so I thought maybe I was bumped to first class for some reason! No, this plane didn’t have first class. It was coach all the way down. The only seats that were remotely similar to first class were the front row seats and the exit row seats. Oddly enough, they were also treated like first class—they got their snacks first. It was fine though since the flight was only an hour. I had the whole row to myself and I got a huge can of coke and took a nap.

We arrived at the Phnom Penh airport. I was anxious because I only had Thai baht in my wallet and I had left my passport sized photo that I needed for my visa in my checked bag. I literally had no idea what I would do because I was arriving with many other people who were also getting a visa at the airport and I always hate being that guy who’s unprepared and holding the line up. My face lit up when I saw an ATM. I thought maybe I could eliminate one of these visa problems by getting some good old USD. But that ATM didn’t understand me, nor I it. So I was back where I started. There were a few men standing around in their uniforms so I thought maybe they could somehow help me. I went up to the first one and told showed him all my application forms and explained that I only had Thai baht and that I didn’t have a photo. (I read online that they scam people without photos and make them pay a lot of money to get them taken at the airport, so I was a little nervous about that.) He looked at my applications and asked for my money. I have him 1000 baht, or $30, and my passport and he pointed at a bench in the corner and asked me to wait.

I waited for around 3 minutes and he came back with my passport and opened it up to a page that had a huge sticker that said CAMDOBIA on it. He said, “All good!” I looked at my passport and it was a visa! The man pointed me in the direction of the passport control counter and I excitedly went off to enter the Kingdom of Cambodia! Weird how turned what was supposed to be the most nerve racking and stressful part of the trip into an easy, easy transition. He is indeed good.

With $30 in hand, I found a tuk-tuk driver to take me to the hotel that I had booked earlier. It was the same hotel that we stayed in when I was here last June, so it felt comfortable. Even on the ride there, the cool morning air sparked my memory of this place, and I felt like I was at home—somewhere where I felt comfortable. I don’t know if it was the fact that there are gas stations at every corner or that USD is a regular form of currency here, but it felt like I was back home.

I got settled at the hotel and took a walk to our favorite coffee place down the street where I got a delicious mango passion smoothie for the very regular price of $3.75. I guess cheapness stays in Thailand. After that amazingness, I thanked God for guiding my trip like I knew he would, despite my doubts, and fell into a deep, relaxing sleep for the rest of the day.

Lord of the Flies of Thailand and Other Stories

This has, without a doubt, been the longest 13 days of my life. This was suppose to be easy! Quick! But it just turned out to be another challenge to overcome. It's been a while so let me catch you up...

Last month I had to make exams for my...450 students. Thankfully, the textbook I use has a website, and that website has a final exam! So I just send the link to my boss and she sent it to the copy guy. The final test is 3 pages, front and back, so that's technically 2700 pages of test. True to Thai form, I received these tests on the day I was planning on giving them. They weren't stapled, just put in a pile for each page. For the first class, I just made the three piles of pages on my desk at the front of the classroom and told the students to come pick up one of each sheet. Explaining to them how to put them order is another story.

First I help up my copy of their exam and pointed to the big words at the top of the page that read, "PAGE 1." Then I did the same thing for PAGE 3 and PAGE 5. I held them up in order so that one could clearly see that the order was 1, 3, 5. If that wasn't enough drew a picture of a piece of paper on the board and wrote PAGE 1 where it would appear on the actual test. Then I drew another piece of paper behind that one and wrote PAGE 3, and then another with PAGE 5. So now I had appealed to all the learning types to try to explain that you must put your test in order before you turn it in. Now you might be thinking, "how does he know who the test belongs to if they have Thai names?"

After everyone got their test I got everyone's attention and told them to write their NAME, NUMBER, and CLASS on the top of their paper. The only thing I really needed was their number, because that's what's in my grade book. Then, again, I wrote that on the board on the pieces of paper I had originally drawn to explain the page order. Simple enough, right?

To my great dismay, there were students who put page 4 on top and didn't write their number anywhere. Some even stapled their whole exam out of order with no name or number at all! Sometimes I worry about the well-being of some of these children.

After a week of doing this over and over and over, I finally had all the exams. So first things first, I went through and made sure all of them were stapled. I decided I would grade page by page, instead of test by test. So that's what I did. I put on some music without lyrics so I could pay attention, I got out my answer key if I needed to look up any answers, I lounged on my bed, and graded those bad boys. Grading is not as easy as it sounds. Especially when you're splashing red pen ink all over 2700 pages of tests. Let me break it down for you so you know how amazing I am. Each student had 6 pages of fill in the blank, matching, and short answer. You could probably take this test and make a 100 in less than 5 minutes. Each class has between 35 and 40 students. I teach grades 4-6 and each grade has 4 different classes. See, its really overwhelming when you look at it like that! Its also overwhelming when you look at a giant stack of papers on your desk knowing that you have to look at every single one of them. It is a horror I would not wish on anyone.

But that finally finished and then I just had to record them and give my records to my boss. So easy and so simple. It really was. And do you know what I did after that? I threw all those tests away. Because there is no recycling in Thailand. Just garbage. As I walked to the nearest trash can with a giant handful of papers, I thought to myself that I could probably make a good sized tree with all the paper I was about to throw away. And when I looked down at it from the rim of the trash can, it looked smaller, so I felt better.

So then the school year was over!! I got to sleep in and it was magnificent! But there arose a new problem: the flies. Now my apartment is clean, for a guy's place. There aren't piles of trash lining the walls or anything. Just my pile of plastic bags from 7/11 and FamilyMart and my tiny trash can that I lined with a garbage bag. It started out with just one little fly. And I killed it because I'm a pretty great fly-killer. But then two more arose in it's place! And when I killed those two, four more appeared! It was become a problem. To myself, I blamed it on the people who live next door. Here's the story with that.

Each couple of rooms share a drainage system. Meaning our two shower and sink and toilet drains converge somewhere in between our bathrooms and flow down into oblivion. This setup means that either side can smell whatever is happening on the other side. So these smells range from Listerine to vomit to number 2, with a mixture sometimes. Air fresheners here are extremely over priced, so I reluctantly bought some incense in hopes that it would mask these questionable bathroom smells. It did, but now my apartment smells like incense. Funny how that works.

Anyway, I was at the big store the other day and I was walking down the aisle, quickly, as I always do in a store. And out of the corner of my eye I caught a row of repellants and the likes. I perused and found one that said in English, "Kill Mosquitoes and Housefly." I thought this was perfect because my house in infected with housefly. So I bought it. It smells like a lotion my mom used to wear so that was a nice surprise. (Don't worry, mom, its a flower scented spray. Your lotion doesn't smell like housefly killer spray.) This spray doesn't have great distance, so I have to get right up in their face with it. This is not an easy task because they fly around so fast! So I lay in wait until I can see them and then PPPSSSSHHHHHH!!!! I spray them! But unlike the saying on the bottle, it does not kill housefly, only shoots them down. So then I have to kill them with my hand. Which makes their deaths all the more satisfying.

Recently I have had the opportunity to consider a number of changes over here in the land of smiles. Schools in China have been contacting me for interviews and the impending doom of another visa trip was fast approaching. I'm not sure how much money I'll be making for the one week I worked in March, and I wouldn't have a job here until May. So there was a lot to think about. Should I take these jobs in China? Should I do my visa trip and come back here and try to find a summer job? Should I go to Cambodia and see my friends from World Relief?

As an introvert, I am always thinking, and sometimes I just want the thinking to stop! So I went on a drive; that usually puts my thoughts in order. (I wish I could say it clears my head, but my head never stops working.) On this drive I took a moment to be thankful. God has blessed me immensely over the past 5 months (wow!). I can't even begin to describe how vividly He has shown himself to me since I've been in Thailand. Then I thought about how little money I have and how much I needed. But as I've said before, God isn't about to stop taking care of me. In my whole life up to now, I had never been in a situation where I had to put ALL my trust in God. There's always been a backup plan or a safety net of some kind. I couldn't put my faith in my job, because my job was over. I couldn't put my faith in my money, because it was fading away. I couldn't put my faith in my stuff, because my stuff was sold months ago! There was literally only one thing I had to put my faith in.

It made me think, how much differently would we live our lives if we put all our faith in Jesus? The thing is, Jesus is the only one who can save you from an eternity separated from God. But how much do we believe that? We put so much time and energy into these other things like work or school or money, but they can't save us! It's almost foolish of us. Actually, its totally foolish of us. When we are on the brink of death, we will not be saying to ourselves, "Wow, good thing I have all that money or I don't know if I'd be going to heaven!" or "Thank goodness I made all A's in high school!" Silly things like that. In the end, it's not our mortal "stuff" that saves us, it's our faith in God.

In situations like mine, it's easy to put my faith in God because I have no other choice. But the question is, will we choose to do it even when we think we have other options? Shouldn't it be easy to trust the Creator of the Universe with anything? It's harder than you think, but the outcome is always so much better than you think. Remember, if God is for us, who (or what) can be against us?

The Close of Semester 2, 2015

Hello Reader! I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you what it's like to be a teacher in Thailand at the end of the school year.

Earlier this week, My 5-6 grade supervisor, Pui,told me that I needed to give my final exams next week. This came as a total shock and surprise because I was under the impression that I had until the second to last week of March to accomplish this. Apparently not. Every semester, I am required to have any number of grades that equals 50 points. Since my predecessor did the first semester, I only need 50 points worth of work from each of my students in 4th through 6th grade. So this week was all about final grades that weren't the final exam, but also trying to explain to my students that their final exam would be next week. I cheated and used Google translator on my laptop to tell them this.

There's no worksheets provided for me, so I just made up some exercises for my students to do for a grade this week. Now its very interesting how the turning in works. In the United States, students who do the best usually turn their work in last, but in Thailand, its the other way around. The students who actually know what they're doing turn their work in first, and the kids turn in their work last. On the plus side, this means I grade the smarter students last and it restores my faith in my students that they actually understand what we're doing.

In 4th grade, their worksheet was a series of subjects paired with actions, like "she/go shopping." The object is to write a sentence in the future, using the phrase "going to," while also correctly using subject-verb agreement. So the answer would be, "She is going to go shopping." So easy!! The smarter students get this almost instantly and turn their papers in within 10. The more distracted students take longer, but eventually turn their work in. The slower, but motivated students turn their work in about 30 minutes later. And the stupid ones turn their work in last or not at all. Half of these students have only copied, "she/go shopping,"and the other prompts without the answer. EVEN THOUGH I have explained this at least three times in front of the class AND their smart Thai friends have explained it to them in Thai. I literally don't know what to do with them. They obviously know they don't understand, but they don't come ask me or their friends to explain it. Sometimes I cringe when I write their 1/10 score on my grade sheet because I like them so much and I want them to do well, or I grin maniacally as I write their 1/10 because they deserve it because they never pay attention in class!

5th and 6th grades are a little bit better. And I mean it when I saw a little bit. Maybe two or three more students get a decent grade because only a few more of them who pay attention compared to the 4th graders. But still, there are those geniuses who think its more important to get silly puddy all over their hands than to do their work. Whenever I catch a student doing this, which is literally every class, I walk up to their desk and hold out my hand. By this time they have placed it in their desk and play stupid acting like they have no idea what I'm asking for. I stand there waiting for them to put it in my hands. and when they do, I, making sure everyone can see, throw it out the window, where it hopefully lands in some grassy dirt, meaning it can never be used again.

This week has been chocked full of trying my best to take up papers and grading them and then inputting them into my grade book that I have to turn in at the end of next week. I even enlisted some of my 6th grade students to help me grade and sort most of my papers for extra credit. I was hoping that someone my less smart students would opt in, but, alas, only the smart ones thought they needed extra credit. I was given 50 points for this semester, so I divided them into two tests worth 10 points and the final exam worth 30 points. Even though sometimes its very hard, I have to award some students with 0 points.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, the way the Thai school system works, when a student fails the midterm or final, they have one more chance to take it. If this second chance results in less than a 50/100, they automatically get half credit and therefore move on to the next grade, regardless of motivation or conviction. This is how kids move from grade to grade, and end up in my classes forevermore. They all end up graduating and either moving to esteemed universities across Thailand or to their father's vendor cart. As a teacher, I can always tell which ones will go on to be street vendors, and which ones will go on to be doctors and lawyers. Each job is respectable, but earn very different salaries. I just hope they realize at this young age which one they would be happier with.