Rice Grains

UP...and DOWN....UP...and DOWN..... May I be honest and say that is the story of my life right now? I seem never to know when I will be UP and when I will be DOWN. I would be ready for that stage to be over, but I will need to ride that one out I think.:)

I experienced some intense aloneness a couple weeks back. I asked for prayer, and then last week I experienced a VERY busy week with a variety of people. I was so busy I had little time to study. But I was so happy to be with people I didn't care too much. Then Monday (yesterday) I had a test in language class, and BOOM! I hit bottom; I was CERTAIN I had flunked big time. Amost nothing on the test made sense to me, I left a couple questions blank, and I guessed on the majority of the rest.

So I went home and had a pity party for me, myself, and I. Then I made myself call a lady named Dang (Dahng) to eat supper with her. She lives on my street and we ran into each other at a little restaurant shop. She took me out to eat at a nice restaurant not far from our neighborhood. She brought her 15-year-old son along, and her 26-year-old son met us at the restaurant.

It turned out that the older son is a Christian but Dang remains a Buddhist. I told her if she ever wants to study the Bible I would be happy to study with her. She said her family and friends would be sad if she became a Christian. I don't know what will happen, but I do know she wants to meet with me again sometime. And I also know that our conversation re-energized me and reminded me of why I am here.

This morning Khruu (teacher) Arindra returned our tests to us, and I found that she had marked very little wrong on my test. HOW that happened, I don't know! Reminds me of high school chemistry and geometry which I never understood very well but managed to pull off A's and B's in spite of little understanding.

After class today I turned in my application for a 6 month student visa through ULS (Union Language School) and paid tuition in full for those 6 months--nonrefundable. So now I am "locked into" studying here for 6 months. But I have a peace about it even if I end up repeating some modules (not that I WANT to!). Next module focuses on reading and writing Thai script; I understand it is quite difficult. OK, fine, so the first two modules have been difficult for me; how much more difficult can it get?? :)

As I was entering the elevator to leave the school, I met my Korean classmates returning to school. They grabbed my arm and took me back inside where they were studying and doing homework for the class. So I did my homework with them! And now I am at an internet cafe without access to any of my pictures; therefore, you will have to be content with words only today.:)

I plan now to go home and study the lesson guide we were given today. It is 3:02 PM according to the computer, and I probably will not get home much before 5:00 PM tonight.