First Days in Thailand

So, I've been in Thailand for a couple days now! I will try to keep these first impressions short with a good amount of bullets!

- There are 8 kids -- 1 girl and 7 boys. Two are 4 years old, one is 3, and 5 are two! They have warmed up to me at different speeds. The oldest boy spent Sunday morning before church trying on my sunglasses (I wouldn't let him try my seeing glasses) and showing me all of the English alphapet letters that he knows -- he still does have some trouble identifying a couple letters. At church, the 3 year old told Kathleen that he was scared of me (she says it is very like him) but the next time I saw him, he ran up to me and gave me a huge hug! The kids are testing me everytime I do something new at the home so tonight should be fun -- it's the first time I'm putting them to bed!

- Kathleen is being really good about not wanting to let my teaching experience/ability/training go to waste. I'm meeting (hopefully tomorrow) with the 2 other westerners and one Thai staff (they've been the ones doing "teaching time") to set some goals for the kids' learning for the next 6 months. Then everything that we do can be in pursuit of reaching those goals rather than just doing something because it sounds neat! :)

- I've moved into my apartment -- It reminds me of a hotel/dorm room. There's a big room with a bed, wardrobe, and vanity table and then a bathroom and a small deck/patio area. I did some shopping with one of the other western girls and then spent all afternoon-early evening yesterday shopping by myself. I went all over town on the taxi-like things and spent all of about 300 American dollars on 2 chairs, an end table, a little room divider, a cupboard that I will use for my pantry, some misc. small items, a cell phone, and a fridge! Luckily the store where I bought the cupboard and fridge delivered it free of charge!

- I started language study today. I will be tutored 4 days a week, 2 hours each day. My head physically hurt after today's lesson! But, my teacher said that she was impressed and that I was doing well!

- The orphanage group is heading up to Chiang Rai (2 hour drive) on Saturday so that we can see how other orphanage houses are set up -- we're really close to finding or building a new place because the house where we are right now is in horrible condition!

I am going to try to get pictures up as soon as I can. I won't have internet on my computer in my room until I move up to the 3rd floor at the beginning of August so I am going to have to use the "Internet Cafe" here in the basement of the apartment building.