starting to get over jet lag

Last night was the first night that I slept all the way through! It was great. I slept from 10 p.m. until 6 a.m., and then I got up and went running at the beach. Unfortunately, a dog ran after me and started barking, which I didn't appreciate too much. Yesterday I went running at the beach in the pouring rain, which wasn't so great. It rained so hard it hurt, so I didn't stay out for long. It's been raining so much that almost every pair of shoes I have here is wet. Flip-flops are the best bet, since they dry quickly. Socks are pointless.

I don't think I wrote much about the church last time, so I'm posting a picture of it. It seems to be a very traditional style church. It was cool, because there was a Canadian visiting pastor who preached (he's lived in Thailand for 7 years already, so he preached in Thai). He was here w/ another Canadian guy who's in language school in Chiang Mai. There was translation, but it was hard to understand, and then the songs and prayers weren't translated. But I enjoyed Sunday school; it was a small group, and the Canadian pastor sat next to me and translated. What I really like about the church is that they eat together after the service (every week). It's a good time for fellowship.

This morning I bought multi-grain bread at the German bakery just down the road. It was the first piece of bread I'd eaten since I've been here, and it sure was good! I had Nutella and peanut butter on it. Yum. It was kind of expensive but worth it. I'm just not keen on eating rice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (yet, anyway). So I think it will be worth the few extra baht to buy a loaf of bread per week. Tonight, Benz took us out for a welcome dinner for me and Paul. We had "farang" food (foreign food). It was a lovely restaurant w/ all kinds of dishes- German, Swedish, Italian, American, Thai. And I really enjoy our group. I'm including a picture of them; it's not the best picture, but anyway, these are the people that I spend most of my time with. From left to right: me, Paul, May, Benz, Taan, Ping. And the other pic is of Surin Beach in Phuket.

Paul's teaching me a few chords on the guitar, so maybe soon I'll be able to play some praise songs! Since we have so few people here at the center, it's probably not a bad idea to have a couple people who can play guitar. I'm trying to start figure out lesson plans, which is not an easy task! At this point, I have no idea where to start, so I'm looking through the books and some of the previous lessons that are saved on the computers here. I think we've worked out who will be teaching which levels, and we'll be teaching two classes each (2x a week) at a hotel and then at the Step Ahead Center I'll be teaching two more and Paul one more. This was kinda long, signing off for now.