Back to school

I've been back in NZ for about 3 weeks now. On the way back to Palmerston North where my school is, we stopped in Rotorua and Taupo. The towns are on the way here, so Eddie, me and another friend stopped there and went to some cool places. We play what they call "The Luge" and "skyswing" at the place called "Skyline Sky rides". It was a good day because the weather was so nice. We bought a combo ticket for 1 gondola and 5 rides of the luge plus 1 skyswing. The luge has 3 tracks starts from scenic track, intermediate track and advanced track. Of course! I did them all and I did the advanced one twice. Actually, if u buy a small combo set, it's enough. You'd get 2 rides of the luge though the rest is the same. I did 5 rides, so it turned out kinda boring. Then we stopped to look at the gorgeous Huka Fall in Taupo and then here I am back to school in Palmy. (See the road trip pictures on facebook-album 'CM-NZ').

First week of school was quite crazy for me. not that I have many classes, but I had to contact many people for general stuff like room check-in, putting my luggage in the luggage room, too many pillows and blanket on my bed, my new student ID...etc. I went to class just once coz the lecturers were not ready. Then why did they start on April 14!!!? I should have extended my ticket more and stayed for Songkran festival in Chiang Mai :(

Anyway, at the moment it's week 2 here. I handed in my assignment on time after I had forgotten about it during the 4 months break.This semester is gonna be a lot more challenging for me because some of the lecturers have been replaced. So, the styles of teaching are different. I have 4 lecturers...1 is a young Japanese female( i had her last semester as well)...2 old, kiwis, male, monotone and soft voice and another one is old, British, anti-American. I just had class with this last one yesterday and he made my friends and I speak "proper English". He asked "what do u call those in between sentences?" I said "Transition words", he said "right, but that's what Americans say...We English say "Linking words"!!?? Another time, the word 'management' which he asked each of us to say it. So, usually...i shouldn't have any problems saying that word as 'mae-nage-ment' but he said "no no u say 'ma-nij-ment' -_-" sigh.........

However, i think it's gonna be such an interesting term for me here. I'm willing to pick up a bit of each accent :) Coming back here this time is not as hard as the first time because I have friends now. Alright, just wanna drop a note about the first weeks here before I get too 'bi-zee' again.

Beginning April

In front of Annie's house
We are proud to be born in the land of smile!
They cooked for me, of course! and their house is very nice.

I'm now back to NZ on April 6. My flight ws long and tiring so i didn't even care to take a good shot of sunrise in Sydney. I've been staying with Annie in Tauranga for a couple days already and I will be heading down to Palmerston North on the 11th because my school starts on Monday 14. aww....I miss Songkran in Chiamg Mai, will be there next year! Anyway, I just found out that I have homework to hand in on April18!!! Dang it!! how did i forget about this!? I texted my friends in school, they also forgot about it..-_-'

Let's not think about it now, I want to finish this update before things get crazy again. Well, I went to sit in a class at South Pacific Bible College taught by David Nelson. It was quite hard to follow but it seemed interesting to me. It was good to see Annie, Eddie, Joshua and P'Neung, the guy from Soi4. They and their friends in Tauranga make me feel comfortable because they are the family in Christ.

Flashback of March

Ron's making Gahn a tattoo!
Amp & I at Starbucks
P'Pui & I at the airport
My farewell at cell group; Wah was in charge of "One Another Time", she told everyone to put make up on me because that'd make me look older and people wouldn't think I'm under 18. So, evryone got do one thing on my face, my nails or my hair. This is how I looked after all with Ohng and Wah.

Me & Ron

This entry is a flashback for what has happened in March. I wanted to update the blog at least once a month but things got crazy and time has gone by so fast (ตดยังไม่ทันหายเหม็นเลย 555).

Nothing much going on in the beginning of the month. I tried to stay home as much as I could because I knew I would be gone for 10 days for Cambodia trip. I guess Cambodia was probably the highlight of the month, so I suggest you to go see http://www.payapchristianzone.com/ for more picture and information. The reason is because I'm the one who gathered pictures from my camera and from other people like P'Pui, Gahn, Julie, and Titan. I also write the description for events, so it takes a lot of thinking and energy for me to write in English. Hope you don't mind to go see good pictures and read some good stories. :)

Other than the things I've written on the Payap website. I'd like to share something. Here, there's a picture of me and another boy in the black t-shirt. A friend of mine gave me that t-shirt but the day i met this boy...he was wearing a sweater. Gahn and I asked him if he feels hot and why didn't he wear a t-shirt. He said he didn't have one. He would probably grab that sweater from where people donate stuff or maybe from his siblings. So, I took him to the guest house I was staying and gave him the shirt. He is a quiet, shy but seems mature than his age to me. While Gahn, Ron (his name), and I were walking back to the place we had activities for the kids, he stopped walking and softly said "thank you". I knew that it could have been hard for him to say it out loud for whatever reason. Then we asked him if we could record his voice because we wanted to learn a bit of Khmer language. So, me and Gahn would say things in English and he would say it in Khmer. We showed him the handbook we got for the camp. It contains simple Khmer in phonetics but we were not sure how to pronounce, that is why we recorded his voice. So, we asked him to read the Khmer hoping that we'd the right pronunciation...he looked at us and said "I can't read." I was stunned...not feeling amazed but feeling so stupid. How did I not know that he doesn't go to school or he might but studies in Khmer not learning any written stuff in English. So, we stopped and we took him to play games with other kids.

That was one of the things that has been stuck in my mind for the rest of the month till now. I shared with the Payap group during the "home group sharing time" while we were in Cambodia that Cambodia was not in my plan...I didn't have money to come...but God has taken care of this problem. I told the group that the next problem was I had been so dried since I was in NZ, so I felt like I didn't have anything to pour out to other people, especially these street kids but God has been faithful to me. I didn't have to try hard to go to the kids, they came to me, hugged me and played with me. Moreover, I've witnessed the love i received from brothers and sisters from other countries, so I'd count that those are the ones to pour out their "cups of cold water" for me.

I've been blessed by joining this "Angkor of Faith2" camp.

I got back to Thailand and I realized that I should be more thankful for what I have here in the beautiful country...the easy life style, smiles from strangers, the hot weather (not too bad), good food, easy transportation...etc. I spent a bit more time with my family and friends. I went to get massage, eat some more good food, to Chiang Rai...just to hang out with Ae, one of my bffs, oh...oil massage...weird but i guess i'd do it again! ;p

I had a great time at the farewell at cell group, girls night out and photo night out on the bridge. My last night in CM...I packed and went to bed at 3 a.m. and woke up at 5 a.m. My parents picked me up at the zone and went to the airport. My flight was the first flight from CM-BKK...I didn't want people to wake up early and send me off but they came anyway. It was a very short good-bye because I heard the announcement about changing the gate or something, so I said bye to the aggies, P'Ying, P'Julie and my parents. I was sitting there waiting and then P'Pui called and told me to go back out to say good bye to her. So, i went and took a picture with her. It was funny because she came late but I got to take a picture with her and I didn't get to take one with my parents and those who came earlier. I arrived BKK at 8 a.m. and walked around, sat, went on the internet...for a couple hours...then Amp came to have lunch with me. I had a great time talking and we played nintendo games on my laptop inside Starbucks!! ha ha ha! My plane left BKK-SYD at 6 p.m. I thanked Amp for coming all the way from her place to the airport..just to be with me. The journey after the plane left BKK, I'd leave it in the air and you can follow me up on the next entry. Have a good day reading! ;)