Rice Grains

Wow, I entered the new week feeling worn out, but not from studying. This time, I'm afraid it was my studies that suffered! Friday evening I finally met up with a Thai gal who has been wanting to meet with me to learn to speak better English. I told her she already speaks really good English, but she wants to learn even more because she is manager in a Japanese business that makes pre-packaged food. Since it is an international company, she needs to have good English comprehension.

We had a delightful time together--ate ice cream at Swenson's, then ate supper after that at the food court in the mall. I felt quite Thai, walking around the mall linked arm-in-arm with her! And she insisted on driving me home instead me taking a bus or a taxi! I am hoping we can stay in touch, but once again, busy schedules could easily conflict.

Saturday evening I ate supper with Michelle, a girl with EMM. She is actually from my home area in PA, and she and I have some mutual acquaintances. She has been in Thailand as long as I have, but she was in a different part. Now she has moved to Bangkok to work in a ministry there.

On Sunday afternoon, I attended a barbecue held at the home of a fellow language student. Berni is Austrian, but she is married to a man from Argentina. They are wonderful people and have 2 really sweet children. Other guests at the barbecue were mostly others from Argentina, so most of the conversation was in Spanish! One of the other guests happened to be an ambassador.:0 In addition to the Spanish speaking people, one other language student, along with his family, was invited.

The food was great! We had our choice of steak, pork, or chicken in addition to fresh garden salads, potato salad, and salsa. Dessert included warm apple crisp with ice cream. Oh my! Once again I think I ate too much! But it was a really good time! Below are pictures of the party.

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It feels as though I haven't given much of an update on my life lately; so here goes! Today I passed my midterm for module 3--and I PASSED!!! Yea! I have been enjoying this repeat module more in several ways. I have already had the material once, so the second time around, I already have notes to follow as the teacher talks. Plus this teacher is not assigning nearly so much homework as my previous teacher. Also, the teaching style of my current instructor is more relaxed. So I have been grateful for these blessings.

I have also just filled out an application at the school to receive some private tutoring in addition to the regular classes. I very much need practice listening and speaking. If I do that, it would probably be two days per week, 2 hours per day. Hopefully I won't be worn out those days! It would mean that two days a week I would have 6 hours of language instruction!

This coming Sunday, I plan to attend a barbecue at the home of Bernie, one of the language students at the ULS. Bernie is an amazing woman--very hospitable and very good at language. She is Austrian, so German is her first language; but she married a man from Argentina, so she calls Spanish her second language. But she also certainly speaks English quite well. Oh, and somewhere along the line she had lived in France and knows some French; and she lived in Turkey, so picked up some Turkish. Now it is Thai! Her husband, I believe, has a job with the Argentinian embassy here in Thailand. I am looking forward to seeing what this party is like!

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I've been wanting to do a blog on some of the aspects of Thai culture which are not completely foreign to American culture, but they have their own little twist. So here goes!

Ronald McDonald does the "wai"

Why not try the McRice Burger?

Shopping for chips? Try Lays Nori Seaweed flavor.

If you want to do a fish fry, there's plenty of fish in the seafodd section! Or they'll even do the work for you!

If you decide to grill your own fish, you shouldn't run out of options for frying oil. There is just as much on the other side of the aisle.

Instead of tanning creams, why not try whitening cream instead? White is beautiful!

WELL, is that my Toyota? I believe Nathan turned it into a hot pink taxi!

And here is my favorite example of Thai English:) I'm told that later on someone handwrote an apology on the sign!

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Today at the end of school, I rode the elevator down with a group of Thai people who decided to invite me to lunch with them. They turned out to be staff of the Church of Christ in Thailand, the organization who is in charge of my school.

I discovered that the CCT is an umbrella organization for several different denominations, including Presbyterian, Baptist, and Adventist. I don't remember the other denominations. The two older gentlemen had both heard of Mennonites before; I think that is a first since I have been in Thailand.

At any rate, we ate at a restaurant featuring many specialties from southern Thailand. I received an education on some of the herbs that are grown and eaten here. I was also told that over 50 varieties of bananas grow in Thailand. For dessert we had some finger bananas, long slender fruit that had a sweet, mild flavor. These bananas honestly looked a bit like fingers! We also had gingko fruit for dessert; I was told this is good for your eyes as well as your memory. I think I had better have a daily dose or two of gingko!

Below is a picture of the group. One of the gentleman happened to be the just retired general secretary of the CCT. The other gentleman is the current moderator. The lady to my right is 81 years old and teaches theology at their university part-time. She spent a portion of her life as a delegate to the World Council of Churches and, accordingly, has travelled quite widely. The younger girl is the daughter of the former general secretary. She speaks fluent English, and has just returned from college in Boston, Massachussetts. She is presently working for Thai TV acting in commercials and Thai soap operas!:)

Sheesh, I never know what I will get into next! I am grateful for opportunities like these.

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Here's the promised entry about Malaysia. The original purpose of the trip was to apply for a student visa, and that mission was successful. But in the meantime, it was suggested that maybe I could extend the time to include a bit of vacation after my 3 grueling months of language training. So that's what I did. I am grateful that my friend and teammate, Trish, accompanied me on my journey. Vacations are much more fun with someone than alone! I think I will try to attach a bunch of pictures with brief explanations rather than write long boring paragraphs! So here goes!

When we arrived in Penang, we discovered that the main way to reach our hotel which, by the way, was located on top of the 800-meter Penang Hill, was by a slow cable car. Each trip took 30 minutes.

When we arrived at the Bellevue Hotel at the top, we were rewarded with a beautiful view of the island--Georgetown, the water, and the mainland.

The garden and restaurant, one of the places where we could view the island.

At the top of the hill were also a Hindu temple...

...a mosque...

...an aviary garden.

One day Trish and I explored the mountainside trails--no map available--kept dead ending into barking dogs. Knees hurt from putting on the brakes, but we made it to the bottom intact! Following are some sights on the mountainside.

Wild flowers...

...orange groves...

...dahlia "farms"...

...general mountainside views of farming areas...

...motorcycles driving down steep, narrow, winding paths...

...viewing Georgetown close to the bottom.

At the bottom we discovered a WONDERFUL shop selling yoghurt drinks!

Another day after we left the Thai embassy, we took a taxi to the famed Botanical Gardens with waterfalls. We never found the real waterfalls--discovered they were off limits--would've needed to get permission from some water department to make the trek. But we saw other interesting sights...

We took a path from the gardens back up Penang Hill to our motel. Oh My! Talk about steep! I think it took us 2-3 hours total. We were exhausted, but the exercise was great!

We eventually connected with the jeep track and took that the rest of the way back to the hotel. Still VERY steep!

That evening I believe was the evening we splurged on a meal at the hotel's restaurant and enjoyed the night view of Georgetown.

And that is a very summarized version of our time in Penang. We spent some time in town as well, visiting Little India, a mosque, a Chinese temple, historic sites, a museum, etc. But I think my highlights were the times spent in nature.

Posted by Sharon Rice at 07:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I wanted to do two blogs tonight, but I am running out of time. So I will save my Malaysia blog for another day. It was a wonderfully refreshing time.

As for New Year's celebration, Trish and I decided to head downtown Bangkok to experience a Thai celebration. We found something big happening at a mall complex known as Central World plaza. So we bought the cheapest expensive tickets we could find and went to sit down about 5:00--way early.

What a cacophony of NOISE!! There were many different bands playing, pretty much back to back with each other. But Trish and I sat and enjoyed a meal and watched people and the band. To make a long story short, about 10:00 PM, the Thai girls sitting next to us tapped us on the shoulder and and told us we needed to go home now, that there was a bomb scare, or something like that.

Trish and I weren't entirely sure we believed them. Not too many people were leaving; most were still sitting or casually strolling around. But the girls insisted, and we finally decided they were serious when we realized all the bands had quit playing and were beginning to pack up. But nothing was being done in a very hurried fashion--sure didn't feel like there was a bomb scare.

So Trish and I casually ambled on our way, stopped to ask a policeman how to get the BTS sky train station from there, and we were on our way. We even stopped to take some pictures of New Year's/Christmas decorations on the way.

It wasn't till the next day when we heard the real news. I thank God for His care of us. We were at the big celebration where they say a bomb actually went off, though we never knew it. Or maybe that's the one that went off at midnight??? We were gone before then.

At my apartment we stayed up and watched fireworks from my window. Color was shooting from all directions. It was fun! Anyone who knows me knows that of course I had to try to catch the fireworks on my camera. I'll include a couple of those.

New Year's Day Candice and Trish treated me to a tasty birthday cake and then we went to Central Bang Na mall, where we ate an American meal, including a WONDERFUL salad complete with hardboiled quail egg, and then watched a movie in the theater there: The Holiday. We had a really great time--what a wonderful way to celebrate my birthday away from home! Friends are great!

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