Hello to family and friends across the ocean! I made it safely back to Thailand, though I did have a little excitement on the way. I had a scheduled 4 hour layover in Tokyo that turned into an 8 hour layover when they announced that there was a mechanical problem with the engine. Of course, they announced this after we had circled back to Tokyo after being in the air for an hour. With a broken engine. Fun times.

By the time I made it home from the airport, it was 4:30 in the morning, and orientation was set for 8:30. Needless to say, I was just a bit tired, but thankfully not too much due to the sleep I was able to get on the plane.
This year is definitely already different from last year. I have a new apartment with my roommates, and it’s much nicer than where we were staying before. Best points: no mosquitoes, no traffic noise, and praise the Lord no karaoke! My room is very cute, and I am already starting to feel settled in it. We also have a living room area that needs a lot of work, but I have a vision of it being great once it’s finished.

So far, I have only seen Thai friends who either work on campus or own shops down the soi, but I’ve been welcomed back pretty warmly. P Nee, especially has been missed. I get my coffee at her shop every morning, eat there at least once or twice a week, and she helps me with my Thai. I’m a slow learner, but she’s pretty patient with my stumbling to learn single phrases.

School starts on Tuesday, so I have been busy trying to get everything together. Fortunately, I don’t have a whole lot to do in my room because the awesome Kru Som has already set it up into center areas. The only thing I have left to do is the morning calendar area. One project that I’ve undertaken is creating alphabet cards to go on the top of my boards. They turned out very cute, if I may say so myself. I am finally getting my schedule today, so I can work on the actual lesson planning portion, which I’m very excited about.

A number of years ago, I had a conversation with someone about how we always have enough time for what is important to us. None of us have the luxury of saying that we do not have time for something. We do. All of us have the same number of hours in the day. No one gets more hours than anyone else (unless you fly east across the Pacific and cross the date line, of course!). Now, how people fill those hours differs greatly, and there are different levels of responsibility, but the truth remains that you will always have enough time for what you make a priority.

So here’s the point. I don’t like this truth. I want to be able to say that I just didn’t have enough time to do all that I wanted to do. It’s not true. What is true is that I placed other things as having more import. In my 2 months in the States, I was able to see many of my friends and spend some good quality time with my parents and my sister and her family. It was great. I also was able to finish a few projects hanging over my head, and run a few errands that needed to be accomplished. Were there things I did not do that I wanted to? Of course, but to be honest, it’s unlikely that I would get around to them if I’d been back longer simply because I did not make them important. Another few months probably would not change that.
I can’t really complain, though. I was able to two weddings, see who I needed to see, and spend at least some time with those I love. Those who made the time to see me saw me, and that spoke volumes.
Now to manage my time here in Thailand so that I’m prioritizing what needs to be prioritized. May this be another year glorifying to God.