And so it begins...

On Monday night, we had a little "get to know you" night, and we played little games to get to know the people in the group. Then we got separated into teams and we had a scavenger hunt thing around our villa (aka neighborhood). I had Gabie (from Costa Rica), Paul (From Australia), Jerome (From New Zealand), and Yoyo (From Thailand). We all ran around and had a good time, and we came in second place so that was great.

Yesterday was the first day of class. We just went through some of the basics of school and the expectations they have for us. It was a lot more than I expected. We have journals that we have to follow a certain format and turn in each week, memory verses, and three book reports for the entire time. So it was a lot of information, but helpful. Then they put us back into our teams from the night before and gave us a map and instructions to go out in the community around our villa to have a scavenger hunt. We had a list of everything we had to take pictures of in four different locations. First we went to MegaBangna which is the big mall right by our villa, that also has Ikea, we had to take a few pictures there like one in Ikea, one on a playground, and one at a karoke store. Then we were to get on a a bus and head to Central Mall. This is where the trouble began.

Ready to start our adventure!

My team left first and we were only in Mega for 15 minutes, and we had two hours to complete the tasks. So we were outside Mega waiting for a bus when Yoyo asked another Thai where to go to catch a bus, and they told us to walk to the bus stop. So we walked, and walked, and walked. Mind you, we were walking on the side of a 4 lane highway. FINALLY we found the bus stop and got on a bus and went to central where we took some pictures of us with instruments, one with the roller coaster in the back and even saw some of the staff there spying on us. Next we were told to get off at Index Mall and find "Fah Burger" and we walked down the highway again for like 20 minutes and never found it, but it was after Index Mall it was behind it. It was getting closer to the time we needed to get back, but we wanted to make it to our last stop. It was the market at Ram 2, which I had been two times before. Our task was to take a picture with the moto taxi men, go to the YWAM Bangkok base and take a picture with a man named Paw Pan there and then go into the market find some fried bugs and take a video of two of our team mates eating them.

Music store picture!

Gabie and I decided to do it. I have eaten bugs before, but never in Thailand! I was actually excited. We picked out the silk worms, and they throw them in oil with curry and then give them to you nice and warm. So Gabie and I popped them in. I was expecting them to crunchy, but they were soft and and chewy, which was gross at first but I liked the flavor of them so I ate a few, but then I realized I was eating bugs so I stopped. We got back around 6:15 which was 45 minutes after the time we were supposed to get there, but it was okay. Then we all made slideshows of our videos and pictures, and my team tied for last place which was dumb, because ours was awesome. But its okay because the experience was awesome.

Today has been a hard day. I have really being missing home and just wanting to go back. We had class again and we had two people come from the Bangkok Leadership Team come share with us a little. One thing the lady told us, which really stuck with me was "Live here, be here.God has placed these people, this place in your life right now because He knows what is best for your current season of life." I don't need to worry about missing stuff back in Charlotte, because I know the plan that God has for me on this trip is amazing and it far exceeds anything that home has for my right now. That is a big encouragement that will lsat me for the rest of this trip, and the rest of my life.