Here, There, and Everywhere

This past month has been such a wirlwind. Who am I joking the past 6 months have been a wirlwind...and I don't think it is going to slow down anytime soon! Last month Vietnam celebrated Tet holiday, which means that I had a lot of time on my hands...so I decided to travel the world. Ok not really, but I did get to see Thailand and Cambodia! Sandy and I started our holiday off by going down to Ho Chi Minh City to visit Thai, Sandy's best friend here. He works as a tour guide on the Mekong Delta and he took us around the delta. It was so relaxing and really warm. Which was so nice from cold Vinh!!!

Then I met up with my friend Erin to go to Phuket, Thailand for a few days. I know Erin from the training in Hanoi that all of the new teacher to ELI had to do before the school year started. It was so great to be able to catch up with her. We both made it through our first semesters of teaching and were excited to take a little break and relax!




While we were there we definitly soaked up some sun. Which was nice for me since I hadn't seen the sun in a couple of months. But you know the phrase too much of a good thing? That is definitly what happened to me. The sun and I have a love hate relationship. All I can say is that I should have listened to my mom and put on more sunscrean because i got so burned! One day I will learn.

While we were there we took a boat tour down to the Phi Phi Islands. I was so in awe of what our father can create! The ocean was so blue and the sand of the beaches were so white. It was really beautiful. But with all good things our time came to an end in Phuket and we headed off to Chiang Mai, Thailand for the annual confernece that ELI puts on every year for all of the teachers in China, Mongolia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos (it is called ATC).

At ATC there were about 600 people that met up in Chiang Mai for fellowship and encouragment. I have to say it was pretty weird to go from only having one other follower (Sandy) to fellowship with 600 other people. I really enjoyed singing with everyone. Most of the time I just stood in awe and listened to everyone lift up the father's name. Every day a differnt country gave a report of what is going on in their country. I was so encouraged to hear all that is going on! In the picture above some of the women of team Vietnam and Jesse dressed up in our Ao Dia for Vietnam day at conference. In my unbiased opinion we were the best looking country at conference. I left Chiang Mai encouraged and excited for this coming semester.

In Chiang Mai I also had some time to do some fun things. It was good to see some of my friends that teach in Vietnam but they are too far away for me to visit. So we got to spend some time together during conference. We visited a night safari and an elephant camp. It was really fun going to the elephant camp. There were elephants there that could dance, play soccer, and even paint. My freind Jenny who teaches in Dalat and I got to ride on an elephant through the jungle. While I wouldn't want that to be my main means of transportation, it was a lot of fun!

I also got a chance to visit Erin in Cambodia with my friends that teach in Dalat. I will put up some pictures of that later. Now I am back in Vinh and ready for the term to begin. I start teaching on Monday and I am really excited to see all of my students again. I will be teaching the same students that I had last semester, which is good because they already know me. This semester I have lots of goals for myself like cooking more, running more, and learning more Vietnamese. But I think the goal that I am most focused on is learning how to listen to where the father is leading me. I am ready to see what all this term has in store...you never know what will happen in Vinh!