Whew… the past two weeks have been full of lots of fun things :) Here are some of the highlights:
6/30
Souper Tuesday got a bit washed out tonight, but it was still a good turnout in the end :) The rain started pouring around 6pm and didn’t stop until 7:30 or so. Five or six Thai students braved the storm, so it was a good time just to get to know them better and share a meal. After the storm had passed, more students came for games, worship, and discussion. We talked about brothers and sisters and how we are all family at Grapevine. Afterward, we played cards for a while just hanging out and talking. I’m excited to see lots of new faces to Grapevine that are continuing to come back.
7/1
Happy 4th of July! :D We had a big American Independence Day celebration this evening. Although there weren’t many students at the party to begin with, it was hopping by the time fireworks started! Thankfully the Lord held off the rain, and we were able to have a great display of color and loud noise :P We told the apartment manager we were going to be setting the fireworks off, but we failed to tell the families that have recently built shacks across the pond… they weren’t too thrilled. But nevertheless, it was totally worth it! We had watermelon, chili fries, and funnel cakes as well as some face painting, patriotic music, and line dancing. Dave (I met him earlier today) came to the party as well as my freshmen friends Fang and Fa(a)ng! It was the first time that my friends from SIIT came to a Grapevine event :) I also had the opportunity to meet quite a few new people and build better relationships with the friends I have already made. I also played the longest game of Uno ever with three people from Norway and four from Thailand. It was another great evening staying late at Grapevine playing games!
7/2
I was sitting outside today before going to class, and I saw one of the girls that goes to Grapevine named Par today at school. I ate a mid morning snack with her and her friends name Art, Bu, and Kwan. They are all Chemical Engineers and reminded me a lot of friends at Tech :) I look forward to getting to know them better and hopefully seeing them around Grapevine sometime. Also, I finally met a few people in my Transportation Engineering class! My professor was 20 minutes late to class which gave me a chance to talk to the few people that were on time. Then later he split the class into two groups to work on a problem. I thought it was a pretty dumb decision because it is impossible to work with 15 people on a relatively simple problem, but hey, I got to meet some more students! I think making friends in class is one of the hardest things for me to do. Hopefully I will meet some more students over the next few weeks that I can study with for midterms – or rather use midterm studying as an excuse to hang out with them :P
7/3
Yay for meeting new people! I ate lunch with another exchange student from Germany named Leon. While doing so, another one of my friends named Raymond sat down near us and introduced me to his friends, Aum and Oud. Playing badminton this afternoon also lent itself to meeting more students. As things become a little more routine, I’ll hopefully be able to form deeper friendships with them. And finally, we finished off the evening with a meeting at the Coley’s house with the student leaders in Grapevine about a new idea called Branches… more details to come on this later :)
7/4
So today was awesome! I went with my friend Fang, her mom, and her brother Feun (who goes to a Christian university in Bangkok… I need to ask Fang more about it), to buy her a laptop. We went to this convention center where they were having a computer expo of sorts with lots of different brands and vendors. She was able to get a nice Samsung laptop with lots of free accessories for around $600! But getting to spend time with Fang, her mom, and her brother was much better than the laptop :D It took a long time to get to the center, look around, and then finally buying the laptop, all of which allowed me plenty of time to talk to Fang. We at lunch in the food court afterwards and then headed to her aunt and uncle’s house. They live in another part of Bangkok so we took two different buses which again gave us lots of time to talk. When we finally got to their home, they were very hospitable. Her uncle is a professor of architecture at a university and they were very excited to hear that I went to Georgia Tech. They kept commenting on how good of a student I must be, and her aunt gave me a purse from northern Thailand just because “good students deserve good gifts” :D It’s amusing hearing people from halfway around the world talk about how great Georgia Tech is. But anyway, they took me to get knitting needles and yarn, and then we all went out to dinner. Although it was a little awkward at times because I didn’t quite know what to say or how to respond, it was a great time spent with Fang and her family. I thank God for the opportunities I have to build relationships with my Thai friends in any situation.
When I got back to campus later that evening, I went to a restaurant with Julia and Earland, a guy from Norway. It is always exciting to be able to spend time with them and just discuss the differences between so many different cultures all around the world.
7/8
I got to school early this morning so that I could call my parents, and after I was finished two of my friends JanJao and Dear walked by. I went to sit with them while they ate breakfast where we talked about boys, relationships, and traveling. Both of them are hoping to do a work abroad program next summer in the States. In addition, they plan on finding American boyfriends :P
7/7
We didn’t have Souper Tuesday tonight because Buddhist Lent Day is tomorrow. Instead we went to the main canteen and had dinner with any of our Thai friends that were free. Afterward, we went back to Grapevine and watched Kung Fu Panda :D One of the new students at Grapevine named Long came by with one of his friends and watched the end of the movie with us. I pray that as the semester progresses, people will feel more at home just to stop by Grapevine whenever the lights are on and join in with whatever is going on. It’s awesome to see that happening even with people who have only been two or three times, especially when they bring their friends along!
7/9
Matt, Chris, and I had dinner with Goi (on staff) and the Thai student leaders Bank, Milk, and Jen. Since we don’t see them often outside of structured Grapevine events, it was good just to sit and eat with them. We talked about our boyfriends/girlfriends and some of the differences in dating between the two cultures. As time goes on, I look forward to learning a lot from them about being a Christian in a Buddhist nation. I also pray that I can be an encouragement to their faith in God.
