สวัสดี

Of the two of us, Justin is definitely the skilled language learner. He pretty much taught himself Farsi on his mission! One of his favorite tools was a Farsi phrasebook, so naturally we had to get the Thai one. (We also own the Mandarin Chinese one..are we addicted to languages? Not one bit..)

  It's pretty great! Thai is tonal (oh joy..) so to help with that aspect of the language we bought an app for Justin's phone from the same company. It's the equivalent of this book with less phrases, but at least it will help us with pronunciation until we are able to read it on our own. We'll only be there for three months so it will take a lot of practice and exposure to the language on our part to pick it up. Language is such a crucial part of any culture and we're excited to learn. So far we've learned "Hello" "How are you doing?" and "Good, thanks"

Favorite thing about the cover: monk in the orange robe wearing glasses and holding an umbrella. That's modern Thailand, apparently? ;)

Airplanes

Ran across this quote on ILP's Facebook page today. I went to China with them as a volunteer English teacher, and I found it quite fitting..

"There are only two emotions in a plane: boredom and terror" - Orson Welles

So true right?? Except I have to add 'nausea' in there..without going into too much detail, I will just say that I tend to puke on airplanes. As in 4/14 of the flights I have taken in the past couple of years have ended unfavorably. ..Okay that doesn't sound too bad, but still, those 10 times of non-sickness were each major victories on their own! A couple of nights ago I could finally own up to the fact that I get sick on airplanes first because of the movements of the plane...I don't even like roller coasters, people! And second because I am terrified. Like, every time I get on a plane I think I'm going to either perish or end up on the island like the cast of LOST. It took me a long time to admit this. I'm not scared of flying to the point that I won't do it or I hyperventilate; it's just a quiet sense of impending doom...that I get every time. It's ridiculous! I'm confident that KNOWING the problem will help me get over it. And it will be a huge help to have my husband there helping me relax, assuring me that we aren't going to die, and making me laugh. That always helps!


Reasons internationals flights are cool?


It's sort of like being babysat. There are times set aside as dinnertime where every person is fed a boxed meal, a time designated as "bedtime" when lights are turned off and everything is quiet (but good luck sleeping!).


Little pillows and thin blankets that weird you out at first but then become essential to your comfort by the end of an 11 or 12 hour flight.


MOVIES. Watch as many as you can to pass the time!


I feel the most comfortable in big planes, so these massive airplanes seating 6 people in the center aisle and 3 on each side are a huge relief to me. I just feel like they are least likely to be go down with the bigger they are! Have you ever been on a Delta Connection flight? Those little planes could be thrown off course with a teeny gust of wind!




Moral of the story: flights are necessary evils, but I vow to get better at them this trip! As if I had a choice..haha

Marriage and Visas and Tigers, Oh My!

We're finally married!! Well we have been for almost four weeks now, but now that the huge project of planning everything for a wedding is over, we're looking ahead to Thailand and starting to get REALLY excited. We are about $400 away from paying the trip off (woohoo!), the semester is almost over, we're (hopefully) going to be able to apply for and get our Visas in time, and we are definitely going to hold baby tigers in Thailand.

We went to a training meeting the other day that got us really pumped. Here are some tidbits of cultural stuff we learned:

• There are no chopsticks in Thailand. Bummer!
  
• Elephants are supposedly raised on farms, and you can just walk up to the farmers and ask to go on an elephant ride. I'll believe this one when it happens!
• Thai currency is called 'baht,' and there are 31 bahts to 1 US dollar
• We're probably going to get pro at badminton
• Past volunteers have ridden ostriches!
• We'll visit waterfalls, gardens, and temples on the weekends
  
• Thai culture is based on seniority, so when two people meet, the younger of the two bows to the older.
• The time difference between Utah and Thailand is 13 hours. So basically add an hour to our time and switch it to the AM if you're in PM, or vice versa
  

..and that's a random list but it's all I can remember. We're excited to have some amazing cultural experiences, pick up the language, take lots of pictures, and go to church in Thailand! All of that and more in less than a month!

Source

The countdown begins to May 8th!