Sooooo much better than No Thai

After nearly 48 hours of traveling, I FINALLY arrived in Korat yesterday afternoon. When I arrived at the house, the girls had written me a lovely note, complete with a map of Thailand:

Most of my first day here was spent around the house, except for when we went to "The Mall" (a mall literally called "The Mall") to go grocery shopping. Parking was insane! People are SUPPOSED to double park! The people that park not in parking spots leave their cars in neutral and security guards walk around and push the cars around so that people can get out. Since I don't have to deal with that every time I go to the mall, I mostly found it humorous. I wish I had taken a picture so I could fully communicate the insanity.

I tried my best last night to stay awake until a normal time so I could try to beat the jet lag. I was exhausted yesterday even on the bus ride back to Korat from Bangkok (12pm to 3pm...definitely NOT bed time) but somehow managed to stay awake until 11 last night and slept until about 9 am today, ready for my first full day in Korat!

There wasn't a ton of activity until the afternoon, when I went into The Centre for the first time with Cory. There aren't any students this week because all of the universities are on holiday, so The Centre took a break. I did get to meet the rest of the staff at The Centre. This one has only been open for a few months (the one in Chiang Mai has been open for 16 years!), so they're working on establishing themselves still and there are only 4 staff members. Side note- recently, a team of staff from Ohio State was here and they painted one of the rooms at The Centre with a block M. Awesome.  Anyway, the staff just gave me a small orientation about Thai culture and religion and I got introduced to the curriculum for the English classes. I'll be teaching a class of 3 students starting on Monday. It's funny, because one of my students will be the woman from whom I am getting Thai lessons (5 hours a week!).

I'm definitely still getting into the swing of things. I did, however, try real Thai food for the first time today. Oh my goodness. SOOOOOO much better than No Thai. I'm not longer worried about becoming addicted to No Thai this summer because it just won't even compare. I had fried rice, and let me tell you, I had no idea something so simple could be this good. I even took a picture of it:

The restaurant we ate in was a typical Thai restaurant, open-air essentially covered by tarps. I took a few pictures of it as well:

Notice the 7-11 in the background. They're all over in Thailand. Who would have thought?? Keep praying for me, and I can't wait to share with you more of what God does this month!