Weekend in Chiang Mai

Sunday morning - I'm sitting at breakfast with my little cup of tea at the Riverside House, a quaint hotel along the river in Chiang Mai. Surrounded by Europeans and Aussies, I just understood a bit of the French that some couples were speaking next to me. :) I love it. My round table is next to the fountain, behind the small pool, and half-outdoors/half-indoors. This is lovely.

I thought this would be a good time to document my weekend.  Read the pictures of my time in Chiang Mai and know that "A picture is worth a thousand words," and my heart is grateful.  

he was my favorite.  who knew ostriches had personalities?

The Escalator of Doom

Don't let the title fool you... I am NOT exaggerating.  There really is an escalator of doom in Thailand.

*note - there are many long sentences in this post.  I normally don't do that, but they were needed for dramatic effect in my story.  Let this old picture be your reference point, and keep in mind that what you see is just the beginning of the escalator ramp, and it reaches a steeper slope about where I was standing to take this photo.

There's a store here called Big C, it's the Thai version of Walmart.  I mentioned Big C a few posts back in a story about pushing my grocery cart straight through the cashier's line without stopping.  I guess I was overwhelmed or something that day.  I blamed everything at that time on jet-lag.  =D

I went back to Big C this weekend with my friend Cindy.  We split ways to do our shopping and agreed to meet again downstairs at the food court.

d o w n s t a i r s  :) 

I'm not a fan of Walmart, but I guess one good thing about it is that it's all on one level (at least it is in Texas).  The first time I shopped at Big C, I was with P'Oy who showed me how to attach my shopping cart wheels to the little ridges in the escalator ramp, only she did it for me that time.  They have a special escalator just for the carts, and I remember the first time I went down it, I slipped and P'Oy said, "Mmm, yes you have to wear good shoes when you shop here."  

Welp!  Forgot that part!  Also guess I didn't pay close enough attention to how she got the cart's wheels onto the little ridges of the ramp.  

::sigh::  Here we go again - 

I waited at the top of the escalator to watch someone go ahead of me, so that I'd REALLY make sure my buggy got securely onto the ridges.  Two cute, young Thai ladies pushed their cart onto the ramp and just lightly held onto it as they continued their conversation and sailed effortlessly down the escalator.  

Me next. 

This was the only pic online I could find of this scene.  

[Okay picture Buddy the Elf discovering the escalator.  Remember how he stands frozen, legs as far apart as he could get them with a look of fright on his face?]  

Yeah.  ::sigh:: 

I rolled my cart onto the escalator with confidence.  Those Thai ladies made that look easy! I can do this!  No, no, I can't.  [head hangs low as I type]  As soon as I stepped onto the escalator, I realized that my cart's wheels DID NOT in fact land properly on the ridges and I had to use the weight of my entire body to quickly grab my cart with both hands as it started rolling forward, the front of it beginning to angle toward one side, and it is BY A MIRACLE OF GOD that it didn't hit the ladies in front of me.  You know when you're skiing downhill, and for some reason one ski starts to angle toward one side and you're like "what? stay parallel, what's going on?"  or you need to let go of your steering wheel for just a moment but the axle is off and your car starts drifting to one side?  That's how I felt with my shopping cart - slowly [QUICKLY] losing control of my full, heavy shopping cart down an escalator ramp while I'm trying to stay at a standstill because of the Thai ladies about 2 feet in front of me.  

So I'm grabbing my cart with both hands, every muscle in my core and arms are already at work, when my shoes slip.  oh.dang. I need to make sure and mention that this all happens in about 7 seconds.  This is when I begin praying, "Lord, omg pleeeeeeeze don't let me fall pleeeeeeeze don't let me run into those ladies, pleeeeeeze don't let me make a giant scene in this over-crowded grocery store!"  I'm BY MYSELF with a full shopping cart because I got mine AND Nellie's groceries, I already have a death grip on the cart and now I have to let go with one hand so I can hold my body up and keep me AND my cart from rolling down the ramp.   I moved quickly so now I have one death grip on my caddywompus cart with my left arm just about to come out of socket it's stretched so far, and the other hand is grasping the side rail; my legs are spread AS far apart as they'll go (don't forget I'm in modest little Thailand), my feet are at all sorts of weird angles to keep my cutesy sandals from slipping, and my caddywompus full cart is INCHES from the people in front of me.  CAN YOU PICTURE IT???  Y'all, it was HILARIOUS.  ABSOLUTELY hilarious, and of course I was all alone laughing out loud, of course I was.  And you know when you laugh hard, your muscles go loose and you have no more control over them.  This movie kept playing in my mind of a white girl slipping flat on her back while trying to keep a grip on her shopping cart as she falls, but landing underneath the shopping cart, releasing it down an escalator ramp and taking out the two Asian ladies in front of her, sending their full shopping cart to go soaring down the ramp, both carts taking out WHOEVER and WHATEVER poor thing happens to be in the way at the bottom, all three ladies sliding down the ramp behind the carts.  

It could have been DISASTROUS.

Well that would've been the story of my LIFE in all of my international travel.  I can only imagine what the people on the other "down" escalator next to mine were thinking.  

Maybe I just shouldn't shop at Big C anymore.  

But I will not be defeated.  

... I forgot to buy some towels... 

Until next time Big C....    {insert triumphant Indiana Jones theme song} 

Thankfulness Changes Things

Sometimes I write blogs that I don't post for the public.    Because sometimes it just feels good to write like I am about to share things with the world, but then I don't.  I re-read a post that I wrote a few weeks ago and at the bottom of that post, I wrote 

Thankfulness changes things.  

Because it does.  So right now even though I'm SOOOO missing familiarity, I'm thinking that even now, thankfulness will change my emotions, right?  

Today I thought, "Does contentment have to be something learned?"  Maybe - but then when I first arrived in Thailand, even though I was by myself for 4 days, I was so content.  I didn't have to learn how to be content right away when I got here, I just was.  I was filled with the joy of the Lord.  After 5 weeks though, now I'm thinking, "yeah, I may need to learn how to be content here... and practice thankfulness."  

Missing boutiques on Camp Bowie today

and Sunday afternoons at The Modern 

Chuy's salsa

and salads that I trust....

Just want a piece of dark chocolate

and to drive with the radio on

really just to drive. 

I feel like I've had some identity issues since I got here.  I am who God made me to be.  It's hard to try to replicate your routines in a new country, you just can't.  I don't necessarily want to, I want to learn how to be like a Thai.  :)  But I'm definitely having to adjust more than I thought I would here.  In planning how to "adjust" and "get settled" before I left the states, I thought I had a good plan from what I learned in Kenya.  

Go ahead and buy a yoga mat, some free weights, continue to eat raw vegetables and just buy a veggie wash, don't worry what people think if you follow all the latest styles; if you want to wear all that jewelry, then wear all that jewelry; find a coffee shop for relaxing, run for at least 10 minutes a day, drink a cup of tea every morning.  Listen to your music as loud as you can get it sometimes.

You see I had all these plans of keeping enough normalcy that I wouldn't have many problems adjusting.  

::sigh:: 

dear kt.  

Then my hair happened.  For some reason my hair finally got big when I LEFT Texas.  Even in my pageant days, my hair didn't get this big.  People have been so sweet telling me how they think it's cute no matter what - that really is sweet, and you know what - it does make me feel better.  But not being able to brush my hair without it looking like Rafiki has just messed with my entire identity.  

My fear is in the Lord.  My hope is in the Lord.  My fear is in the Lord.  My hope is in the Lord.  

I keeping thinking "I'll just embrace it, this will be new and fun!"  And I don't mind having big, curly hair here - I LIKE it.  But it's just another one of those things that I have to adjust to, and it's taking longer than I hoped to just figure out how to fix my own hair.  I didn't expect something small [BIG] like that to affect me.  It's adding to the emotions of missing familiarity, perhaps because it is a daily thing.  

Time to practice thankfulness:  

I can't believe I live less than 5 minutes from one of the most beautiful garden views I've ever seen. 

I'm so glad Nellie's here  

These little Asian lamps in my room are perfect

teachers at the school all seem to have compassion on one another, wow

Still can't get enough of the gorgeous green foliage everywhere

simplicity is freeing 
Thai food is really good 
i have fun shopping at the local farmer's market 
my bicycle has a basket and i ride it past rice fields with mountains in the distance at sunset.  --- seriously?  i thought that only happened in movies.  

Good practice.  That did make me feel better.  =)  You should try it, too.  

  

This Time Last Year

Tunes: World Mandate 2011 (look it up)
Mood: Retrospective/Thankful/blown away....

Preface:
In prayer tonight, I was reminded through someone that my identity is in Christ.  In christ.  Not in the sicknesses I have, nor in how quickly I can recover from sickness, nor the location where I live; nor is it in my past year or how people see me through my blog or as a teacher...  I have been made whole and complete in Christ, and in Christ, I am a new creation - the old has gone and the new has come.  I am covered by Jesus, He waves a banner over me called Love, and I am secure in Him.  And these are not just things I've read and will repeat now.  These are things I've experienced, and they are truth.  


Coming up in Texas is a conference on prayer and intercession for the nations of the earth.  I went last year and can't believe the journey that began that weekend.

It wasn't something that came out of an awesome conference, although listening to the album compiled from worship that weekend, I'm thinkin "ya, kt, listen to these songs - you needed these this year.  aren't you glad you knew them? and girl, isn't that always such a rich, life-giving conference?"

I have great memories from that weekend, great.  I already felt like I was on the ride of my life last September and couldn't wait to see what the big finale would be.

little.
did.
i.
know.

This post doesn't have to do with Thailand, it's just me writing thoughts since I've been sick and at home for 3 days (BAD BUG, baaaad bug).  This is part of my story and how I got to Thailand, though.   

I drove down to the conference with my friend Larinda, who I always end up laughing with hysterically.  This drive was no different.  I felt INTENSE pain in my upper back, so I bought some of those sticky heating pads to stick to my back during the drive.  Well the sticky heating pad was hilarious in itself (consider it's typical use).  And here I was trying to put one on my upper back, whilst driving next to one semi-truck after another, who could totally see into our little Ford Escape.  It took some magic to get one on my back without revealing too much for the semi-driver men and while Larinda was trying to keep her hands on the wheel down I-35 in the rain.
ANYWAY
I thought my upper back pain was due to the most stressful start to any school year one should never have... not the case.

Larinda and I got to stay that weekend with our friend, Janette, who lives in England.  She's precious.  I had some good prayer time alone, God revealed some beauty and some purpose, and I spent sweet time with people who are dear to me.

Then on Sunday, I developed a fever and had lymph nodes sticking out of my neck the size of rocks.  LITERALLY.  Dr. Martha can attest to this (my friend in med. school).
Three days later I was awake all night throwing up (hey, that happened this week, too!), so I went to the doctor who really thought I had Mono, but my tests were negative.

It wasn't until a month later, after some more crazy stress at school and in my personal life that I woke up one morning and couldn't move.  It took 5 minutes for me to be able to fall out of bed and crawl to my bathroom (I still thought I could take a shower at this point), but when I fell down after trying to stand up, I said, "This is not good."  (le duh, kt.  le.duh.)  I think I actually said that out loud.  My aunt was at my apartment within 20 minutes and the nice ER people at Harris confirmed that I had Epstein Barr Virus (Monoooooo).  I had not only continued working in a first grade classroom with Mono, but had emotions going up and down every other day and was trying to fix everything by myself.  

So what happens when we try to fix it all ourselves? 

the ground falls out from beneath us. 

not always, but most of the time. 

again, the word literally fits so well here.  Because literally, I couldn't really walk and when I did, I was hunched over because I couldn't stand up.  After 2 days of what I thought would be recovery in my happy little apartment, I ended up back in the ER with suspected pneumonia (praise God it wasn't), but instead I had just picked up Bronchitis and a bacterial infection.  Sweet Harris Hospital security guard was getting to know me by this point - he wheeled me all the way past the waiting room.  :)  

Ended up moving home with my parents that weekend in Mid-October and stayed through December.    

This past July (that's right, almost a year later), I found out that last September, my system was perfectly set up for severe infection.  It was just waiting on the right virus to overtake it.  That's a good chapter, check back for that one - I think the information will blow your mind and subvert your thinking on food and medicine, like it did mine.     


Now - To those of you who saw me in my ZOMBIEST MOMENTS OF LIFE, thank you for still being my friends.  :)    and for taking care of me in my zombie days, for bringing me zombie chocolates and for sending zombie flowers, for writing sweet zombie cards and for praying LIVING prayers (I just can't write zombie-prayers, y'all, tha' just don't feel righ').  

Nellie got to see me in zombie-mode this week with this bad bug.  Now we's ti-ight!  Shout-out to Tanya, Julie, Pattie, Mandy, and P'Oy for also making me feel so taken care of this week, and to Rutha & Eric for praying over me and my room.  :)  Awesome family here in Thailand.     

Re-reading this after writing it, my heart is made grateful all over again for the ways God was directing my steps, even when I couldn't see where I was going.  This is also part of why I'm so happy to be in Thailand today.  Life is funny.  Why do we worry?  

=)  

kt & nellie

After just a few days together in Chiang Rai, I wondered if anybody was praying for me & Nellie to have good conversations - because we seemed to just talk and talk and have so much to talk about!  

And we still do!  I have been SO BLESSED by her!  Besides being a little piece of home, I'm very thankful to have someone that feels like a sister here.  We get along so well, make decisions the same way, and have agreed on just about everything (if not all things... I can't think of anything we haven't agreed on yet, but I mean we're not the same person so surely there's something).  Maybe she doesn't laugh at New Girl...or have a thing for Robert Redford (he'll forever be Hubble to me)...or agree that there's always room for dessert...Ahhhh I NEED TO GO CHECK, THESE THINGS COULD BE DETRIMENTAL TO OUR SISTERHOOD!  

Kidding of course.  We have shared many laughs and provided many laughs.  And while we're still getting acclimated to Thailand and acquainted with each other, we can already finish one another's sentences.  With cookies in her mouth last week, Nellie mumbled to me just with sounds, no words, and I responded to her with a complete understanding while our friend watched and listened in confusion.  

Did all of you CFer's know we would get along so well and did you know we're so similar??  I think it's HILARIOUS.  

It just is.     

You just never know how your life is going to turn out, and how people who enter into your life will be used.  I had no idea when I drove Nellie home from karaoke last January (yep) that we'd be living in Thailand together just 7 months later.  

Gosh I can't believe I live in Thailand.  

I believe God gives us people we need at the times that we need them.  [Candid now] In considering the move to Thailand and sensing peace in going, I prayed, "Lord, but sometimes I am lonely now... why would I move to another country where I don't know anybody NOR do I know the language??  I won't have my people or my home, I love my apartment and I'll miss Magnolia Street...."  

Like I've said before, He is faithful, He is faithful, He is faithful.  

bike ride around the university's lake 

Nellie & I were deciding this week whether or not to move into a house, and after thinking and praying about it for a few days, we ended up having the same thoughts and feelings about it.  We're staying in the dorm for now and are happy with it.  =)  We live next to a precious family with 3 boys, one is in my class.  We are a 1 to 5 minute walk to a few restaurants and a convenient store, a 5 minute bike ride to a university with a gorgeous lake and garden, a 17 minute bike ride to school, and we live just a walk down the street from some of our friends and co-teachers.  

We're getting better at creating meals in a place where we really can't read the labels on most things, and we help each other keep a balance on our new lives in a different culture.  

Rice field across from
a restaurant on our street 

View from our balcony
at a resort for our school's staff retreat 

I am thankful for many things lately.  Nellie's friendship is absolutely one of them.  

But most importantly right now, I am thankful that Nellie feels the same way I do about spiders.  

RUN AND HIDE (after taking a picture of course)

AND PRAY IT DISAPPEARS IN THE MORNING

NO BUT SERIOUSLY WHAT THE HECK KIND OF SPIDER IS THAT

Buying a Swimsuit in Thailand

When I found out we might be swimming on our staff retreat last week, I asked P'Phon where I could get a swimsuit.  She offered to take me to the mall, so we went to a sports store.  The mall looked and felt just like an American mall.  P'Phon planned on taking her kids swimming after we bought my swimsuit, so I planned on going with them.

Well in case you're reading this and don't actually ever see me, I typically shop in the petite section.  I happen to be the shortest person in my entire family (relatives included).

But here in Asia, I wear a large and possibly an XL.  Picking up the "Small" swimsuit was like picking up an XXS in the Juniors department at one of the malls in America.

Humbling.

I tried on several swimsuits (I was getting ambitious even with the mediums I tried on) and found a very colorful one that fits well and I actually love how cheery the print is.  Swimsuits here are not like in America... They're very modest.  The girls typically wear skirts (mine's about halfway between my knees and hips), and my swimsuit happens to have a tank-top like top.  I actually really like it.

Well.  I pick out my swimsuit & find P'Phon, and she says, "KT you need a swim cap."  Whaaaa??  You mean I'm gonna stuff all my BIG hair inside a spandex cap?  And I mean BIG.  I didn't know my hair even got so big, or so curly.  Seriously, my hair has never been this curly in my life.  I'm finally adjusting to the change & learning to appreciate the humidity that comes with living in a beautiful, tropical climate.  I'll have to get a pic, you just won't even believe.  I feel so..."Dallas."  I kind of like it.  *kindof*  I'm sure I'll get used it.

or I'll just shave my head.

But anyway, swim caps are required to swim at the university pool where P'Phon & P'Oy go swimming.  This is the pool:

It's. gorgeous.  Please notice the platforms in the first picture.   

Then think about what those platforms are for. 

Then remember little kt who gets water in her nose just about every time she goes underwater.  

Annnnd...here we go: 

P'Phon picks out a cap for me to match my swimsuit and says, "Ok now you need goggles." 

"Oh no, I don't ever open my eyes underwater, I'll be fine." 

"But you swim without getting water in your eyes?  and look it is a nose plug." 

"Well, I usually just swim leisurely at home.  Do you not?" 

"OH NO! P'Phon (she doesn't say 'me,' it's precious and iloveit) swims for exercise, want to lose pounds."  

Oh, well then, I can do that.  (the pic above was taken about 5 days before we went shopping.  obviously something hadn't registered in my brain yet regarding "going swimming").  "Okay let's pick out some goggles."  I got pink ones, they're s'cute.  Sa Cute.  SQT.  (if you know what that's from, we may be kindred spirits).  

Turns out - when P'Phon & P'Oy "go swimming" they literally "GO SWIMMING," unlike the way I've always "gone swimming," which should rather be called "go lay in the pool and float, and maybe sort-of swim a few backyard-pool laps with a koozie in hand."  We ended up running out of time to GOSWIMMINGINTHEOLYMPICSIZEDPOOL, so to keep the kids from being too disappointed, we let them pick a place for dinner. 

McDonald's it was.  Something got lost in translation & I ended up with a Big Mac instead of a single-patty cheeseburger.  Oh, the travesty [irony].  Replaced swimminginanolympicsizedpool with eatingaBigMac.  hahaha.  

Friday evening, P'Phon & P'Oy picked us up to finally go swimming (Nellie came with us this time).  P'Oy and I ran for a few miles around the university's track before swimming, and then we definitely did swim across the standard Olympic pool.  I made it 3/4 of one lap before getting entirely too much water inside my head, but after a 5-minute break to drain all the pool water out of my nose, I continued to swim and finished 3.5 laps (350 Meters).  Nellie made it much farther than me, and P'Phon swam her full 20 laps.  Wow, I am inspired.  

I'm gonna come home from Thailand in great shape if I keep exercising with these ladies.  And people are gonna be like, "oh my gosh, kt, when did you become such a good swimmer."  And I'm gonna say, "Oh ya know, I just trained in an Olympic-sized pool in Thailand."  

or maybe I'll say, "Ohh, we would just GOSWIMMING in Thailand sometimes on hot days."  And only those who've read this post will know what "go swimming" really means to me now.  :)  

I love my new friends, and I love my new city.  Do you love my new outfit?   

Sweet Morning

Sweet morning today....  Have to write my thoughts before I forget.  :)

A few of the families and singles here gathered at Eric & Rutha Ebelings home today for Sunday worship.  :)  The picture to the right is of me & Nellie with Rutha (crosstimbers ministry) & Leneigh (leneighjanette), a friend of the Ebelings who came to Thailand with them.  *Read their blogs listed on the right.  I already love these ladies.  It's a blessing & a unique thing to feel like you are connected to people who you met just a few days ago.

It's because of God.

"So we, who are many, are one body in Christ...."  Romans 12:5

The Ebelings are dear friends of several couples at Christ Fellowship - I believe they all went to ACU together (Rutha if you read this & I'm wrong, please clarify!).  When I met them on Thursday at our first teacher orientation, Eric came up to hug me saying, "Hi Katieee, I hear you love people we love!"  IT'S TRUE.  We love the same people at home in Texas, so I feel like I already know this family.  We share the same "DNA," as Lexi called it.

Eric led our little service this morning, and it felt like Life Group - even had an icebreaker.  ;)  CFer's (Christ Fellowship family = CFer's) - think of the spiritually richest time you've experienced with your Life Group, and then imagine you are on the other side of the world with them, in a country that's 90% Buddhist, where you don't know the language, you just met each other for the first time a few days ago... and multiply that richness by about 10.  That's what this morning was like.

There is something different about worshiping Jesus in a country where churches are not on every corner...  You go deep quickly, because you need to.  It was that way in Kenya, too.  In significant seasons of my life, I don't know if I'm just more sensitive to the Holy Spirit or if God just speaks to me more often.  Or maybe, I become stripped of distraction and independence and can just see and hear God more clearly, and this kind of relationship with Him IS ACTUALLY accessible even when my circumstances are simple and steady.  I think it's the latter, especially since Jamey (my pastor at home) says it all the time.  ;)  I'm learning, Jamey!  

Moving to Thailand would be one of those significant seasons.  Ha!  OBVI, kt.  I am full of faith right now.  FULL.  Every prayer seems to have a quick, clear, awesome response from the Lord, and my soul is so grateful.  I needed this.  It does not always happen.  But maybe more than just ME NEEDING this, I love it because it's just that much more REAL for others.  Specific words or pictures from the Lord that speak right to peoples' hearts, and then they meet Jesus in just the ways that they need.  The mysteries of God are infinite, but so, so cool.

Eric planned to start this morning by reading Psalm 95, and his daughter spoke up and said, "oh that's what I was going to read!"  See?  Super cool.  We then sang the psalm (it's an old hymn, I'd never actually heard it).  A few people had some things to share as they heard God speaking, and they all seemed to be in a theme regarding the Psalms...  Then Chandel spoke up and said that as she & Julie Pennington were planning some things for chapel (Christian school, we have chapel :) they decided to go through the Psalms for this year.

Today was our first Sunday meeting together, and that's why this was so cool.  We didn't know each other before this week, but God is binding us together for His purposes in Thailand and at our school.  This is one of the unique things about being in the body of Christ.  ILOVEIT.  And I'm thankful to be a part of it.

So you probably wonder why I posted a picture of paintings at the top of the page.
The red dirt in Thailand surrrre leaves a mark.  Even Shout-Wipes don't get this mud out.
We each dipped our fingers in the red mud mixed with some water, and painted a picture of the mark we want to leave here.
Beautiful.
Can you guess which ones are mine & Nellie's?  They may not be what you think....


Posts to look for....

• my home!
• my school!
• my new housemate/travel buddy/SISTER!  (Nellie)