The Land of a Thousand Smiles

Hello again everyone!

I'm not going to apologize again for taking so long to blog. I think everybody gets the idea. :)

Everything's going very well over here. The school is rolling right along. We're getting pretty close to mid-terms, which means the school year is almost a fourth over. (That's a crazy thought.) It's set up this year where the Feast of Tabernacles marks the end of the first semester, and we all get a three week break! My parents are coming over here for the Feast, so I'm super excited about that! They're only going to be able to stay for a little less than two weeks, but I'm hoping to go do a little travelling during my extra time off. I might go visit some hill tribe villages with one of the students. My visa requires that I leave the country every 90 days, so I get to take my first visa run at the end of August. I guess we're going to either Cambodia or Laos. I'll get to go be a tourist for about a week then, so I'll definitely have some good pictures to blog then!

Speaking of pictures, I'll get to what everybody likes anyways...

[Brad (Emporia State), Ben (Legacy), Sir Nathaniel, and Mike (Emporia State)]

I have two new loves in my life: ice cream and Thai massage. Either the weather or lack of dairy in my diet makes me crave the ice cream. If you know me at all, you shouldn't be surprised at my love of massage. Ben and I randomly met the manager (Ping) and one of the workers (Sii) from this parlor, so they hooked us up on a discount. I guess that appealed to my "slightly Semitic" nature.

This was some art from a place called "The Rasta Bar" in Chiang Mai. Rasta music is pretty big here. They had a lot of really cool art here, so I took a few shots. I really like the top one. It was kind of like a lamp sitting off in a dark corner. The lizard monk seemed pretty approriate for Thailand, too.

Speaking of lizards, I saw this little guy running across the floor of the teacher house. I think they're actually full grown because they look different from the geckos. And yes... that's "The Bling" that's being used for size comparison. If anybody would like a genuine Rolex with diamonds straight from the Night Bazaar, send me 20 bucks and I can make it happen. On second though, send me three grand.

This guy is incredible. Enough said. I've seen him twice. I met him and come to find out, he actually owns the place he plays at in Chiang Mai. His band does some really good covers of Jimi, Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughn, etc. Somebody told me later that he used to tour with Clapton. I'm not sure about this, but I don't doubt it. I've got some video, but I guess I'll just have to share that when I get back to the States.

Aj. Nathan trying not to look silly playing soccer with these guys. We play almost every day, so I'm getting the hang of it again. We're actually playing our first full field game today against the Kachin church, so I'm pretty excited about that. As long as I don't get slide tackled and tear my ACL...

My apartment building. The birds are cute, but can you say, "Fire hazard"...?

It doesn't get much happier than that. This could make a good postcard, maybe....

Here I go with trees again... this one just seemed really neat. It's right down the road from the school. I'd never seen moss formations like that.

Once again... for my ladies.

This thing is really cool. It's an old hotel that never got finished. It's essentially an 11 or 12-story abandoned concrete building. For some reason they just quit mid-construction. Its not far from the school, either, so I've made it up there a couple times. I like to climb it and watch the sunset. It's a pretty incredible view from up there. It's still rainy season, though, so I'm going to wait to post pictures from up there when its not cloudy and pictures turn out better. I'm sure you're as excited as I am.

The sad thing is... most of the helmets at Legacy actually fit her better than me.

This was a pretty awesome experience. Ben met these people randomly in town a while back. They speak about as much English as we do Thai, but we still had a blast hanging out with them one Sunday. We just sat around on the floor and ate all day essentially. Then we went out to the lake and ate some more. Then back to their little house and sat around singing Thai karaoke... and eating. I got some pretty funny video of the Karaoke, too. Anyways... It was a lot of fun and good practice for our Thai and their English. We wound up staying like 9 hours and had to pry ourselves away so I could do lesson plans for the next day.

We caught a Muay Thai kickboxing event with the Emporia State students. That was pretty cool. One guy caught a pretty vicious knee to the head and was out like the fat kid in dodgeball. I think that was the first time I'd ever seen somebody knocked out close-up. The cabaret show afterwards was a bit disturbing, though. All the Thai girls dancing around singing in bikinis turned out to not be Thai girls dancing around singing in bikinis. We left pretty directly and that didn't make the photo archive. :)

[Dr. Dusti Howell (Emporia State), and Charly Dixon (Emporia State)]

Quick note about shooting pool in Thailand. All of the tables I've seen have small snooker-sized balls, rounded pockets, and tiny little thin cues. But, strangely, I've yet to see the first snooker setup. It makes for really long games of 8-ball.

I'm drawing a blank here... just looked cool at the time.

We had an awesome 4th of July shindig for the students out at the farm. Fireworks, 1/3 pound burgers (one of the best I've ever had), 20 kilos of ice cream, games... the works. Unfortunately, my camera batteries died right after I took this picture of somebody waving around a sparkler. I was so excited to use my fireworks setting on my camera for the first time, too! What a bummer...

Well that's all for now. I'm going to try to make a conscious effort to take some pictures of the food around here for the next post. Everyone keeps asking me about the food, so I'll see what I can do.

I have no idea what I'm going to be doing after next March. I'm kicking around a few ideas and trying to make some plans eventually, but I really have no clue! I know a lot of my friends are stuggling with the same issues right now trying to decide "what to do with their lives." The only advice I can give and encouragement for myself is from the Sermon on the Mount:

Jesus tells us not to worry about our lives. He tells us not to worry about how to get rich, what we're going to eat, what we're going to drink, what we're going to wear, etc. But instead he promises us that if we "...seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." (Matt. 6:33-34)

So I guess I'm just asking that my friends and family continue to pray for me to have the faith and patience to follow this and make the right decision when the time comes, and I'll definitely do the same for you!

They call Thailand "The Land of a Thousand Smiles." I'm afraid I'm gonna have to call "Shenanigans!" on that. I've seen way more than a thousand people smiling all the time around here. It's so refreshing and humbling to see so many people smiling all the time with not "much" to be happy about. I just hope I can pick up some of that attitude and bring back a contageous smile when I finally make it home. Maybe just the thought of me taking cold showers, eating fish heads, and trying to be an English teacher can bring a few smiles across the miles already! :)

I miss you all very much, but I'm also still having an incredible time here. Thanks to all those who've sent me emails with updates from back home... it means a lot! :)

~Nathan Kimmons

Chiang Mai, Thailand, July 20, 2008