Lots of new people!

Three fun stories from the past two days :D

1) Yesterday (Tuesday) was a Thai girl named Jen's birthday. During our celebration for her we ordered a dessert with 6 different scoops of ice cream and little cake rolls on top. I'm not sure where the idea originated, but somehow we ended up all feeding the person to our left a spoonful of ice cream. Each transaction was a bit awkward but the ones with a guy feeding another guy were the best. Finally at the end, Matt decided to feed Jen one last big scoop of ice cream with a cake on top which ultimately failed with Bank catching the sticky mess in his hand :)

2) So education is looked upon highly in Thai culture and most "educational premises" require "proper dress". At Thammasat University, the uniform is a white button down shirt, black skirt or pants, and a black/brown belt with a flashy buckle. A somewhat acceptable alternative to wearing the uniform is to have a shop jacket with your school's colors and emblem. This coveted piece of clothing allows you to wear jeans and a t-shirt as long as you have it on in some form or fashion. Also, because they don't want everyone having one of these jackets (especially not the freshmen), it has become sort of a black market type deal. Seniors usually pass on their jackets to underclassmen or you have to know someone to help to find the person who can make you one. So anyway, we ventured yesterday with one of the Thai students named Bank to find the guy who sells the jackets. We were sent to multiple buildings in which no one knew what we were looking for or suggested that we try looking in the bookstore. Finally we found a guard who knew what room we were looking for and she led us through one building and down a walkway to what looked like a janitors closet. The room had two doors with no windows and a padlock on one of the doors. The guard's master key was unable to unlock the doorknob on the un-padlocked door and out of no where, a guy walks up to us with a key. He led us into the room where there was a rack of shop jackets in each of the sizes. We tried them on, told him what size and school we wanted, and handed him the 580 baht (outrageously priced compared to most clothing items here). He proceeded to put them in opaque bags which we assume were so people didn't see us walking out of the room with these jackets. We aren't sure what this guy does, if he is employed at the school, or how he has a janitors closet of sorts in an academic building, but apparently he moves around each year and has a pretty lucrative business. Although I'm sure they are just trying to keep it a secret from the freshmen, it definitely felt like a drug deal :D

3) And the best thing about the past two days has been meeting a big group of freshmen today. Lilly came up to me in the library today after I was talking to another Thai student and asked where I was from. She participated in an exchange program in high school and lived with a family in Minnesota. The couple met in Savannah, GA so they had named their daughter Savannah. A few minutes into our conversation a group of her friends joined us. Fang, JJ, Na, Mint, and a couple of other names I can't remember invited me to eat lunch with them. She ordered rice and chicken (my staple food items) for me and we I had a good time meeting even more people. The best thing about meeting freshmen is that they have only known the people they hang out with a week or so, and therefore they are more willing to meet new people. Perhaps Lilly wanted to know where I had gotten my shop jacket as well :P But nevertheless, I ran into them a few more times throughout the day and am planning on going shopping with JJ on Saturday. I pray that God will continue to give me opportunities to meet new people and develop relationships I have already started in the last few days.

Prayer Requests:
- Kickoff Party at Grapevine Wednesday, June 17th
- Advertising for the party on Monday and Tuesday nights
- Safe return for the staff this coming weekend
- Acclimation to Thai culture
- Opportunities to build relationships everywhere we go