Plan B may now be Plan A?

Oh what a life I lead! Things just keep getting more and more interesting. I want to talk about the Thailand trip for a bit, which will lead quite nicely into an update on decisions and how I'm working on things for getting into the missions field, which will also lead pretty nicely into some projections on the future and some things coming up. So for this post, I'm breaking up my sections...but the way they should be broken up. The whole point of my blog: Past, Present, and Future. And just for the heck of it...since I'm still on a bit of a Hannah Montana high...she may be working her way back in this post somewhere. (Somehow...I'm learning some great life lessons from Disney Channel shows and Bible lessons from Kidstreet - the children's ministry at church). Alright...let's get started!

Past
I've been looking forward for so long to do some writing about my trip to Thailand back in 2010. And now here I am...all ready to talk about it...and I don't know where to begin. I guess before we even get to the trip itself, I need to back up and give some info.

Back in 2008, my church in Ohio (Grace Community Church in Fremont) made an announcement. My family had begun going to Grace in about 2000. Shortly after beginning to attend there, Grace began one of their first giving campaigns. This one was to raise funds to build an addition onto the current building. The main point of this addition? We needed a bigger auditorium. The new space was going to house a 1,000(ish) seat auditorium, a new nursery, coffee bar, a classroom or two, and a few other features. A couple years later, that was done. Then a few years after that, with the growth of children's classes and needing more space...we added an addition onto the "new" addition to have a new choir room, a few more classrooms, and an extension of the current lobby. With all these renevations and additions, Grace was doing booming business (I'd like to take a minute and just say that all of these facts, figures, and desicions are not necessarily 100% accurate...it's just based on what my then teenage mind remembers now in my 20s. Please don't quote me for facts or figures or get mad if I get some details wrong. My memory may not be THAT good). But they still wanted to do something even more...but this time...maybe not in Ohio...or even the US for that matter. They wanted to do soemthing international. We joined forces with an organization called Asia's Hope which (at the time) provided orphan homes for orphaned children in Thailand and Cambodia (Asia's Hope now has grown and is also building orphanages in India as well). With the help of sponsoring churches, basically the church raises the money, sends it to Asia's Hope, and then we get to see what God does with our money.

Now, up to this point, I really didn't pay much attention to that stuff. In 2008, I was finishing up my freshman year of college and starting my sophomore year. That was a year filled with changes in friendships. I didn't have any idea what was going on in Thailand or how any of this was working out. I wouldn't be "into" that kind of thing for another year or two.

As I continued my studies in college to be a teacher (middle school math and language arts...don't even ask questions as to why...everyone has their own gifts...and none of us are alike) I also began getting into the classroom more and more. As I spent different semesters in different classrooms, I was starting to realize in just a few years since I had been in middle school, how much the education system seemed to have changed. So many children are diagnosed with ADD each year...and this actually became a bit of a talking point with many throughout several classes. Emphasis is put on group projects and cooperative learning...as I'm remembering taking tests on 100-something vocab words in Mr. Hollenback's history class freshman year and writing down tons of notes in Mr. Smith's Algebra II class in high school. So why is it now a big push for cooperative learning and interactive learning. Lecture-style teaching is mostly what I remember. But as I go into all these different classrooms...I notice something. Kids just don't care about their learning. They'd rather read subtitles on a movie than a book. Yes, I believe in creative songs and dances to learn things (I still can name all 50 states...in alphabetical order...thanks to a song we sang in 7th grade choir...and School House Rock is the only way I remember the preamble to the Constitution). Sometimes I would wonder if I chose the right profession...and I'd always come back to the same answer: yes I chose the right profession.

In late 2009, as we were preparing for the Christmas season, Grace started including in their announcements slides at church, some things from the Thailand orphanages. There would be a scanned copy of holiday cards that some of the kids made...followed by a quick picture and bio of each orphan. For me, this was the first time I remember actually seeing RESULTS from our orphanages. These bios would include statements from the children about how much they LOVE SCHOOL, love to be able to learn, to learn English, to learn about the Bible. I remember standing at church one Sunday reading through these when it hit me: I want to teach THOSE children. These are the ones that actually WANT to learn. Not because the law requires it...but because they truely want to. I wasn't sure if or how that would ever happen...but that's what I wanted to do.

The answer to that came a couple months later. In February of 2010 (or around that time) the announcement was made at church that they'd be making a trip to visit the orphanages in Thailand that summer...and this time they would be taking a team from the church (the last couple times it was only one of the pastors that went). I wrote down some quick info about it, and started thinking. A week or so later, I was on the phone with my mom and mentioned about the Thailand announcement...and then told her I wanted to go. They scheduled an info meeting about the trip...that I couldn't go to due to sorority events going on at college. My mom went for me...gave me the application and her words of wisdom (go ahead and apply...and we'll see what happens). Sometime in March-ish...I found out that I would be on the team to Thailand. Preparations began.

The trip was to happen in June. As we all know, though...my normal life was still happening as well, though. Around the same time of all this trip stuff...I had a pretty bad falling out with one of my best friends (long story...not going there right now) and other stressers on my plate to deal with. I was excited for the trip...but by the end of the semester...I was pretty worn down. Thankfully, due to some interesting circumstances...my relationship with my friend was rekindled and we had one of the most crazy summers together...complete with the "death" of my neon blue Dodge Neon (on the side of Rt. 20...while we were driving), trips to Put-In-Bay and Lakeside, sleepovers, and a bunch of other stuff.

Finally the trip came. (pictures will be included in here) We flew out of Detroit, Michigan and took an overnight flight to Paris, France. However, we ended up staying in Paris for an extra 12 hours due to "engine failure" of sorts on our connecting flight that was to take us to the capital city of Thailand: Bangkok.

 (This was our place to stay in Paris)

 If all had gone right, we would have ended up in Chiang Mai two days later according to our time...and sometime at night. But due to the extra time we had to spend in Paris, we ended up getting there sometime in the late morning the next day. We went to our hotel, which was costing us maybe about $60 per night in American money...but seemed more like a resort. (Picture above...a map of the resort we stayed at). I think it will be easier to just tell the rest of the story with pictures. Please note: this is a highly abbreviated version of the trip. Remember...I was there for 5 days...and there's only 10 pictures on here of over 500 I took while there.

 Dinner the first night. I worried my stomach wasn't going to like foreign meat...so I went for all veggies!

 All of the kids from the orphanages...I think we've now added a few more.

 The next morning, we took the kids out to a pool to go swimming. I guess I didn't think there would be anywhere in Thailand with CLEAN water...so I neglected to bring my bathing suit. However, after being in airports for 2 days traveling...and not really having a good change of clothes or a shower in a couple days...my traveling clothes smelled pretty bad. So...I went swimming in those! The rest of the day was spent with the kids at the orphanage, and a "small" shopping trip to buy them some essentials: like cups, shoes, and new towels.

 The next day (Sunday) after church, we had a baptism for all of these kids (plus pastors/leaders in this pic)

 The next day we did some tourist-y things like go to an elephant show! The elephants had a mini version of the Olympics. They played soccer, painted, played dead...pretty much all their tricks that they had. (Hence the flags drawn on each elephant...they represented a different country of the Olympics!)

 And then we got to take pictures with the elephants. And in case you want to know...the undersides of an elephant's snout is VERY prickly and tickled!

 After the elephants, we saw a snake show. Just put all the pieces together: 7 women and 2 men as the only audience? And you end up with a very tense hour of girly shrieks, a few faces hiding...and even a prank of what appeared to be a snake being thrown into the audience. (By the way...all the snakes in this show could easily have killed someone. The ones in the picture I believe are King Cobra's)

 This was the most amazing of all the stops we made. You see, the orphans we take in are from the Northern Thailand hill tribe villages. I'll post a nice Thailand history lesson in a later post...but put simply...these children don't grow up in the greatest of conditions. And then...to add to the matter...Thailand has a very high child trafficking rate. Put it all together and you end up with hundreds of children who are dealing with health conditions, deceased parents, and either need to be put in an orphanage...or run the risk of ending up part of the child trafficking. The picture above is showing a home in one of the hill tribe villages. Looks more like a set from either the "Swiss Family Robinson" or another one of those movies. But really, this is where they live and where the kids grew up.

 On our last day, we spent some final time with the children on the grounds of our hotel...which also had a botanical-style garden, a few animals, a park, lots of paths to walk around (oh yeah...and it also had a spa...I can say I have officially had a REAL Thai massage!) This was during our last round of worship with the kids as we were preparing to tell them that our visit was coming to an end and we'd be going back to the US the next day.

 And finally, the little girl who made an impact on me at the end of the trip. Her name is Pim. We learned a little bit about her and her family from church before coming on the trip. She's probably near the same age as my niece, Satori. I had sworn to myself that no matter what, I did not want to get too attached to any one child on this trip. I just knew returning home was going to be difficult if I did. I enjoyed spending time with ALL of the kids. But on that last night, each child said good-bye. Then a few came around for a 2nd round of good byes. And as other members of our team were saying hard good-byes to children they had made a  bond with...and I'm standing there...this little one comes SPRINTING straight to me...jumped in my arms...and refused to let go..even after we told them we had to leave. I may not have felt like I got attached to any one child...but this kid is one of the lasting memories that I have from that trip.

(Okay...that section ended up being a LOT longer than I expected. I'll try to make the next two sections a little shorter. Be glad it was only 10 pics...and not the 500+ I still have...lol)

Present
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I've been in a bit of a pickle when it comes to finding a new job for next school year. I've applied numerous places, done many interviews...and rarely hear back from anyplace. The last post I posted, I did mention some new ideas about going to Virginia and either looking for jobs there, or possibly working on a masters degree. After posting that post, I had a conversation with my mom because I was all excited about that idea. It didn't feel like it flew too well with mom (if I'm going to work on an online master's degree...I can do it anywhere...doesn't have to be in Virginia...and...what will a master's degree in "Missional Studies" do for me?) After getting off the phone with her, I was checking my email to find that she had sent me an email a few days earlier after my first post with some mommy advice in it. Somewhere between the phone call, the email, and the fact that me and sleep are not getting along very well...and I keep losing!...something in me started to change. I started realizing that maybe...going back home to Ohio wasn't that scary of an idea after all.

As I began reflecting on the last year...I realized that (and I'm going to make this my comeback to a lot of things) although I still LOVE my church and the people in it here in North Carolina...that's about the only positive thing I can find from being here. I started looking, at all the things that I left in Ohio...thinking I'd find a way to work it in NC...and now realizing...I didn't. Like Zumba. In March 2011, I became a trained Zumba instructor. I began working and subbing into some Zumba classes at the YMCA that I had started taking Zumba in. No, it wasn't really ever paid...but I DID get to take class for free since I was an "instructor" at the YMCA. I thought when I moved here I'd have no problem finding a place to take Zumba classes. I tried out 3 different classes...but nothing really felt right. I even have 2 Zumba games for the Nintnedo Wii I bought myself in November. But let's face it. Zumba is so much more exciting when you have people to do it with. That's where weight loss motivation comes from. And then there's boys. I was hoping to find love in the south. Instead I found a couple addictions to shows on Netflix.

I'm not saying all this to be a pity party for me. I'm saying this because maybe I do miss Ohio more than I'm leading on to. So earlier this week, I started doing something a little different. I started looking in Ohio for jobs and ideas. Because really...I think I'm okay with moving back home. I came, I tried, but this just wasn't right for me right now. While looking around in Ohio, I also came up with another idea. I started checking out the University of Findlay and their TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) and Bilingual Education master's program. I've spent a few different nights looking at the program...and seriously...it looks amazing. I thought TESOL was just going to be a lot of crazy English and linguistics classes. But it's more than that. There's even one class that is specifically about teaching abroad...where you get to teach abroad for part of the class. Not gonna lie...the program looks amazing! So I filled out the application on Thursday.


Okay...so to wrap this up, let me tie Hannah into this someplace. Haha. Here it is, I'm actually about to finish the last 3 episodes of watching the full series through of Hannah Montana for the 2nd time. I forced myself last night to quit watching for long enough to attempt to read a book. In the last few episodes of the show, Hannah/Miley sings a couple seemingly "farewell" songs...in the show geared towards the changes that were going to be happening between her and her best friend. One of the songs, though, has really grabbed my heart and been in my head for a long time. Instead of trying to explain it...I'm just going to put in part of the lyrics at the end here. In a way...this how I feel like moving back to Ohio is going to feel like over the next month or so. As I've been telling a few people that I'm looking into grad school back in Ohio...so far it's been received with much support and people telling me that TESOL is right up my alley, or they can see that as a really good fit for me. All very good responses. I may not completely agree with everything Miley Cyrus is doing with her look and life right now...but these lyrics are a pretty good description of me at the moment.

I always knew after all these years
There'd be laughter there'd be tears
But never thought that I'd walk away
With so much joy but so much pain
And it's so hard to say goodbye
 
But yesterday's gone we gotta keep moving on
I'm so thankful for the moments so glad I got to know ya
The times that we had I'll keep like a photograph
And hold you in my heart forever
I'll always remember you