Kim and Jeremy in Thailand

Yesterday at Thai class we were discussing who is a 'farang', or foreigner. According to Thai standards, farang really just means big nose. So myself and Laura, who is also a European mutt of sorts, are definitely farangs. Sam, however, being Philipino, is not a farang. We asked about Africans, and they are farangs because they have curly hair. It was quite an amusing discussion!

This weekend I got to spend a lot of time at the Thai markets! Yesterday, Saturday, I went with some friends to the Wararot (sounds kind of like water-road) Market. It's mainly a Thai market-very few tourists, and they sell mostly clothing, purses, & other everyday type things. It's an enormous market, and we walked around for three hours and didn't even come close to seeing it all. It was neat to see all the brightly colored materials that they use, and several places were selling traditional hilltribe crafts. We bought a few neat little gifts for people there. I was also excited to finally find grajiap there, which is the dried flower from the okra plant. You can boil it and make a drink, similar to making tea, but the drink tastes almost like a juice. I really like it and was excited to find some flowers to make my own!

Then today Jeremy and I went to Ban Tawai. It's another not-so-touristy market nearby, although there were more farangs (foreigners) there than at Wararot. Ban Tawai specializes in carved wood-everything from keychains, to wall hangings, to life-sized wooden elephants. We picked up some more Christmas gifts for people there and just enjoyed walking around the market.

Now we're stopping by school on our way home to take care of a few internet things. In about an hour, we'll head off to church. It starts at 4:15pm here, which is 4:15am central time. So when all of you wake up and think church is too early, you can think about us having church in the middle of the night for you!

Last night, Sam, Angela, Gene & Linda (Angela's parents), Jeremy & I led worship at Chiang Mai Community Church. It went really well, and it was really something special to be leading worship again with Angela and Sam. It was only a little over a year ago that we were leading worship together at First Baptist Church in Wheaton, and at the time, only Sam had any plans to come to Thailand. It's amazing how God works!

Today, the computer services department had our monthly lunch meeting. We went to Duke's, which is a fantastic American restaurant in downtown Chiang Mai. Jeremy had a giant cajun cheeseburger, and I had a calzone that was twice as large as I could eat. We even got dessert-carrot cake and cheesecake. It was absolutely wonderful!! We were the only ones in the restaurant, and actually talked to the owner for awhile about some computer problems he's having. It was a really nice lunch.

Now, off to grading. I have about ten minutes to finish my quarter grading to meet the deadline today!

Today marks the end of the first quarter of school here at Grace. I've got a lot of grading to do to get grades turned in first thing Monday morning. Last night, Holly & I went to the mall and had a 'grading party' at Black Canyon Coffee. Holly teaches algebra so she also has quite a bit to do, and Black Canyon won out over Starbuck's because they had bigger tables. It was enjoyable and we were productive, but there's still more to do.

Tonight we're going over to the Fishers' to practice music. We're leading worship together at church this Sunday, which I think will be a really neat experience. Tomorrow, about 16 staff ladies from Grace are spending the day at Lampang, which is a ceramics/pottery area. All the products are handmade right there, and there are apparently quite a few shops. It should be a fun experience.

Also, there are new pictures up in the gallery! There are pictures of our drive to school and a few random and fun snapshots from our time here in Thailand. Enjoy!

On Saturday, Angela and I went out and saw the floods. We were trying to get to McDonald's, but instead all we saw was flooding. The amount of water here is just incredible. The Christian bookstore downtown has five FEET of water inside. And neighborhoods several kilometers away from the river have feet of water in them. Many of the roads were flooded-we had to turn back because we couldn't get through in a car. It was so sad to see the homes that are obviously owned by poorer people here in Thailand literally halfway underwater. I don't know where these people are living now or what kind of loss they have sustained, but we know that for some people, they have lost almost everything. I wish I had pictures to show you.

We aren't sure if our church was officially cancelled, but it's built on a hill right next to the river. The church is probably dry, but we didn't think that there was any way we could get there without a boat. So we had our own church service this weekend, listening to a sermon tape from one of the Fishers' supporting churches in California. Then we had dinner at Mike's-Jeremy had wanted American food and they have some great burgers there. It was a good meal!