Retreats, Talks, and Tennant attempts

I hope that this post will prove that, no, the bite did not in fact succeed in killing me. ;) It's healing well now, though I still have a large black spot on the tip of my nose where it is still healing. Fortunately, my nose is back to its regular size and no longer painful. The antibiotics I am on are very good, though they have a few nasty side effects. I'll be very happy when I'm done with them in a few days. The sensitivity to the sun is not fun, but it's the crazy dreams that really get to me.

Today, I got back from our annual staff retreat to Pattaya. It's a great time to get to know our Thai staff more as ell as bond more as a team. I really bonded with my friend, Kru Nee, who is the office administrator. Kru Nee is older, but very sweet, and I really love her. She is also definitely the person to know if you need anything! When my friend, Ellen, visited last Christmas, Kru Nee was the one who arranged our train tickets.

My favorite part about hanging out with Kru Nee this weekend was when we were able to talk about God's will in our lives. We were talking about plans for returning, and she was reiterating that she thinks I should stay for 10 years. I laughed and told her that it was up to God. In a semi-rare moment of seriousness, she asked me what I meant by that. She said that every year, farang (foreign) teachers would say that it was up to God but she wasn't sure what it meant. I tried to explain that when I pray and listen to God, He can show me where He wants me to be and what He wants me to be doing. I told her how my own plan for my life was so small. All I wanted was to be a married housewife with children. That was my dream. Praise the Lord, He had bigger dreams for me, and praise Him further for His patience and persistence when I stubbornly resisted Him. I finished by telling Kru Nee that if God tells me to stay in Thailand, I will stay and be happy. If He tells me to go to another country, I will go and still be happy. If He tells me to return to the States, He may need to do a bit of work in me, but I will still be happy, because He is happiness. There is no way to fully explain the joy and peace that comes from knowing that you are exactly where God wants you to be doing exactly what he wants you to do. It far surpasses any dream I could dream for myself.

Well, we returned back to the school this afternoon, giving us the rest of the day and tomorrow for a weekend. Love it! My roommates and I decided to go see a movie and get some dinner. I jokingly threw out the suggestion of Fright Night, simply because David Tennant is in it and I wanted to see him. (For those who don't know, David Tennant is the new love of my moment. His acting is incredible and I just can't get enough.) Anyway, my roommates agreed, though I have no idea why, really, other than that there is not much else that is playing at the moment. So, we got to the theater and got some dinner. Eunice bought the tickets while we got the food, and she bought a ticket for the 3:20 showing. Just a few moments later, a guy came back and said that he had to exchange our tickets for the 4:50 showing for some reason. We had nothing else planned, so it was fine. When we got to the theater, we sat through the obligatory commercials and previews for about 20 minutes, stood for the king's anthem, and started the movie. We hadn't even gotten to the title showing before they shut the movie off and turned on the lights. We sat there for a bit wondering what was going on. The guys at the door said it would just be a few minutes, so e settled in and did our normal chatter, mostly about the ridiculousness of the situation. Another fifteen minutes or so later, they restarted the movie. It was fuzzy and kept going in and out of focus. It played for about a minute before it stopped and the lights came on again. Finally, about five minutes later it started to play again, creating a feeling not unlike Groundhog Day when you already know what will happen next. So, the movie is finally playing and it's in focus and we've seen more than the first five minutes...and it's in Thai. Yes, it is dubbed over with a Thai soundtrack.

We left.

As we were leaving, we talked to the assistant manager who wrote on our tickets so that we can redeem them to see it again some other day without having to pay for the tickets all over again. Here's to delayed gratification! All I can say is that the acting better be worth the trouble! I'm expecting cheesiness and cheep shots that I can make fun of. We shall see. We shall see.