First, hello from Thailand!
Second, sorry this has taken so very long for me to update.
I don't have a ton of time so I will try my best to do a quick update to get everyone up to speed on the situation and whats going on with me on this side of the world.
All 52 of us met in Detroit for a staging orientation which was helpful to get some of the logistical suff out of the way. The next day we left for a grueling day of flights. After crossing the international date line and 21 hours of flying we arrived in Bangkok to a fabulous welcome of orchid leis and big smiles. We then took a bus 2 hours away to the provence of Sing Buri.
The first two days of Pre Service Training (PST) were full of a ton of information about safety. language (it's actually going very well), and home says with the host families...which included demonstrations on how to do laundry, chance while wearing a pasin, and use a squat toilet.
Today was the best day so far. We met with the vice govener of the provence and had to introduce ourselves in Thai (name, last name, and where we were from city, state and america). I should mention that we only learned how to say that yesterday afternoon. Needless to say, we're all rockstars and nailed it. After that we took a huge group photo with all of the important people from the community.
Next we went to the Hub site (where we'll all be meeting during our home stays for lessons) and got our bikes! We got the serious hook up: brand new mountain bikes, helmets, locks, pump...the works! Not only did we get new stuff but we got to spend the whole day biking and hanging out. It was a very needed almost-free-day.
I just bought a cell phone and it's time for dinner and shopping. I'll add photos as soon as i have a spare few minutes. Thanks for following along! it going to be a great story!
Second, sorry this has taken so very long for me to update.
I don't have a ton of time so I will try my best to do a quick update to get everyone up to speed on the situation and whats going on with me on this side of the world.
All 52 of us met in Detroit for a staging orientation which was helpful to get some of the logistical suff out of the way. The next day we left for a grueling day of flights. After crossing the international date line and 21 hours of flying we arrived in Bangkok to a fabulous welcome of orchid leis and big smiles. We then took a bus 2 hours away to the provence of Sing Buri.
The first two days of Pre Service Training (PST) were full of a ton of information about safety. language (it's actually going very well), and home says with the host families...which included demonstrations on how to do laundry, chance while wearing a pasin, and use a squat toilet.
Today was the best day so far. We met with the vice govener of the provence and had to introduce ourselves in Thai (name, last name, and where we were from city, state and america). I should mention that we only learned how to say that yesterday afternoon. Needless to say, we're all rockstars and nailed it. After that we took a huge group photo with all of the important people from the community.
Next we went to the Hub site (where we'll all be meeting during our home stays for lessons) and got our bikes! We got the serious hook up: brand new mountain bikes, helmets, locks, pump...the works! Not only did we get new stuff but we got to spend the whole day biking and hanging out. It was a very needed almost-free-day.
I just bought a cell phone and it's time for dinner and shopping. I'll add photos as soon as i have a spare few minutes. Thanks for following along! it going to be a great story!
