Here's me with a bunch of our new friends, waiting for the fireworks.

Here's our whole group on the beach.

Our group wasn't that big, about 30 people plus staff, but we managed to have a birthday or anniversary every day that we were there. So we also had a different kind of cake every day to celebrate! This is Laurie celebrating her birthday.

Here are a few of our staff leaders, Joe, Jamie, and Bob. Jamie, in the center, is the person who contacted us back in April. He and his wife had been at Grace for the last five years, and he did a lot to help us get there so quickly.

This is Judy, Grace International School's future librarian, and me.

Here is a group of ladies from training. Wendy, second from the left, is also going to Grace. And Anita, second from the right, is Jamie's wife, so she had also been in Thailand for the last five years.

We did all sorts of activities to prepare for cross cultural experiences. Here, our assignment was to peel and eat a whole mango, using only our hands. The idea was to not make a mess, but that didn't exactly happen!

This group had to figure out how to shoot a blowgun and hit a target.

This was a game in which half of us were a culture that had a certain way of life, and everyone traded money according to a specific system and language. The other half had to come in and try to figure out how to communicate with the 'natives' and function in their society.