A few weeks ago, Stephen offhandedly said he might create a new face for his Pebble watch that would use Burmese. It seemed a little ambitious.

A few days after that, on one of our Sabbath afternoons, he said he was going to work on this. Again, it seemed a little far-fetched to me: write your own coded system to have your little watch tell you the time in Burmese? There are so many things in this sentence I don’t really understand…

And then a few hours later, he showed me this!

What?! I have no idea how he did it. But I’m pretty impressed.

Oh, and we are eating ice cream because the shop in town had mint chocolate chip as their June flavor-of-the-month! What?! Unfortunately, we don’t go there that often, so we didn’t learn this until 15 June, at which point we began significantly increasing our visits. Pretty sure we went more times in the last two weeks than we have since the shop opened a couple years ago…

But, hey, my husband is awesome. He deserves it 😉

We found ourselves back in Bangkok this weekend, this time to meet a team that brought us two fifty-pound bags of treasures! Here are the highs & lows of our little jaunt.

Low: Our lives here require us to travel often, whether it is for paperwork, rest, medical, visiting “home”, teaching; the list goes on. Travel, in and of itself, is a low.

High: We made it to the airport before the team did! We also found all 36 of them.

High: We got two huge bags of goodies! This includes two studio monitors that Stephen bought with a grant for a new project coming soon—more on that later, but just know that this is a dream long in the making, and we are really excited to see it coming together tangibly.

Low: As the team was splitting into four teams to go in different directions, it was discovered that they had picked up an extra bag that wasn’t theirs. Since they had to go catch a flight, Stephen & I offered to turn it in for them. This was a bad idea.

Low: I was tempted to just leave it, but we decided we should do the right thing and return it. This was a bad idea.

Low: When we went to the desk, they were very concerned that we had a bag that wasn’t ours and we didn’t have a boarding pass. Ultimately, I’ll just say they took Stephen back behind security and ended up charging us $15 for the whole scenario. It is scary to have people suspicious of you in an airport.

Low: Once we finally left the airport, we realized that two huge bags of fifty pounds each plus a backpack of our clothes for this trip is a lot to get on the subway. For an hour.

Low: Two huge bags of fifty pounds each plus a backpack is a lot to get to the hotel just one kilometer from the subway station. The wheels also happened to not be great quality and quit on us at the airport, leaving us to drag all hundred pounds of goodies as a dead weight down the street in the blazing sun.

Low: We arrived very, very sweaty.

Low: We couldn’t find the hotel, but were greeted by a security worker asking us very rapidly if we were staying at C U Inn Bangkok, which we were. He then smiled and pointed down this creepy alleyway.We drug our bags down said alleyway, muttering something to each other about possibly being robbed but hoping it might reveal this really lovely hotel we saw online. We were not robbed, nor did we find a beautiful hotel entrance. He led us to an unmarked door with glazed glass and we ridiculously followed him inside, muttering something to each other about the new possibility of dying.

High: It was the hotel! And it was beautiful! A great deal, a great experience, and named C U Inn Bangkok, which is a pretty impressive play on words for someone’s second language. We might comment on Agoda that they should not lead people in through the alley…

High: The amazing bag of goodies revealed things well worth the kilometer walk of death!

High: We rested. This is so difficult in Mae Sot, let alone when our house is our ministry. It was so nice to sleep in a comfortable bed with an oh-so-soft comforter around me in paid-for aircon (which means Stephen has it low). I can’t tell you how nice it was to sleep and not wake up to children outside the window! While I love the children outside the window, the screaming games are a brutal wake up call. So are the street dog fights in the middle of the night. …It was just really nice to sleep really well.

High: This guy. He’s the best travel companion. We have fun together and we laugh.

High: We went to purchase a used item for Stephen’s big we-will-announce-it-soon project, and the store owner had forgotten we were coming. It was not packed nor ready for us, but he offered to ship it to us in Mae Sot for free! This is one less thing to get on the bus with us and one step closer to this project happening, so that’s a win.

Low: Chatachuk Park. I really don’t like this place. First, let me tell you this: Chatachuk Park is right by the bus station we arrive into in Bangkok. On the other side of it is a subway station to the rest of the city, including the airport. Three or four times in the past, we have attempted to walk from the bus station through Chatachuk Park to the subway station to save money on a taxi. Every time we have failed. The park is a maze, with very, very few entrances and exits. Sometimes, we couldn’t figure out how to get in the park, and ended up walking many kilometers around it. Other times we got in but then couldn’t get out. After multiple “adventures” of walking, sweating, carrying huge amounts of luggage, and ultimately failing, we usually end up in a taxi. Or back where we started.  (As you can tell, the walking, sweating, & carrying luggage is a very common theme to our Bangkok trips.) We have since agreed together that we will never try to walk through Chatachuk Park, but we will pay the taxi whatever he would like. Despite what Google maps tells us, this is not a good short-cut plan.
This trip, our hotel is near to the bus station and Chatachuk Park. We thought we’d head out this morning and enjoy a run in the park in the middle of the city.  The park begins approximately 40 meters outside of our hotel, but it is gated, so we started to walk along the fence to find an entrance. It should be close, right? They want you to be able to get in, right? Or maybe not. We had to walk 1 kilometer along the park fence, eyeing the park from the outside, before we could get in. We also couldn’t even climb the fence because there is a moat around the park. A gated, moated park? Who is trying to get in here that it requires this much protection?So I’m done with Chatachuk.

High: Pala Pizza, a little stop just off of the subway, where we had an amazing little dinner! We loved the brie & speck pizza, plus a five-cheese that included brie & gorgonzola. So delicious.

High: We made buttons at a kids activity table Ford had sponsored!

Low: We tried all weekend to contact a friend from the community who is now living in Bangkok, hoping to meet her for dinner. We called Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, plus text messages and attempts to send her money to her phone in case she couldn’t call us back. We didn’t hear anything until early Sunday morning, at which point we had multiple miscommunications and couldn’t determine where in Bangkok she lived—in the actually city, or just within an hour? “Bangkok” is a very loose term in our neighborhood. Anyway, it didn’t work. This was a pretty big disappointment.

High:

High: We went to Chinatown on our last morning in search of two odd little electronic pieces Stephen needs for his project. It was such a fun adventure to spend two hours wondering around Chinatown, asking store after store if they carried this random, tiny little piece. They often said no, but go ____. So we went ____ and they said to go _____. We did this many, many times, and then we found this guy. He understood exactly what we wanted and knew exactly where it was in his very full, very oddly organized store. It was a great morning.

Low: Our bus ride back was probably the worst we’ve had in nearly five years. Cockroaches were crawling out of the hardware in front of us and at our feet, but after killing three within five minutes we decided it was a lost cause. We also had the worst driver yet, which made sleeping very difficult for both fear and generally feeling like you were tipping repeatedly. We both arrived to Mae Sot exhausted and nauseous.

High: A morning nap when you are really, truly exhausted is really rewarding, so we enjoyed that before diving back into life by taking someone to the hospital and welcoming the kids into our home!

We’re still studying language. Have we mentioned that? It’s a big part of our lives.

I read a quote this week, “The best language learners are those who continue on no matter how discouraging their experience.”

I think that might be talking about us.

Even if language really doesn’t come too naturally to you, but you just keep going and going, you are the best!  …I think it’s kind of a lie, but it somehow keeps me studying day after day, so that’s okay.

Here are some updates on our language learning experience.

I have recently switched to studying Burmese, so I try to study my Karen for a little while every week or so, and then I use it with friends or neighbors a few times a week at least. The rest of the time I am studying Burmese and trying to use that with other neighbors and in the market.

I have found one thing very encouraging: my brain is incredibly capable. Not me, mind you–but my brain. It does a really incredible job of separating the concepts and alphabets. Once I truly have Burmese memorized and “catalogued” if you will, I can quite easily pick out the right phrase and just the right time, or choose to read it in the correct language. I feel like I am truly not forgetting the Karen I need to know, but rather adding to it.

I can see why people say their third language is much easier to learn. When I was first trying to learn Karen, it was like I was being given all this information day after day, but I didn’t know where to put it. It didn’t fit into my pre-existing categories, if you will, because I suppose I never got that far or truly tried with French in high school. For Burmese, I am finding that my brain naturally knows exactly where to put it, like I now have a bookshelf for languages in my brain. It goes there, it stays there, and it is very, very well organized. The human brain is incredible. And this gives me hope that with many, many hours and years of hard work, it is possible!

Meanwhile, Stephen continues to study Burmese, just a few miles ahead of me. He is really great at reading and is getting braver and braver to use new phrases and communicate an idea to our neighbors, or in the market, or at a restaurant. It is fun to see people discover he can read and begin to understand.

It may seem simple to say he can read and write, but let me tell you this: the Burmese alphabet is one of the craziest I’ve ever seen or encountered. Our teacher is an extremely highly-educated guy. He is truly incredible on a lot fronts–we actually just found him in a book in Bangkok last week! He is a writer, so he knows Burmese language. He teaches us the correct way for publishing, for common writing, and for colloquial speaking. And when we don’t understand the idea, he teaches us the English grammar first and then teaches us the parallel in Burmese. Truly. He gives us English lessons in addition to our Burmese. He is an astoundingly smart guy.

And he still has trouble teaching all the elements of the Burmese alphabet. He has trouble explaining certain pieces, or we’ll “discover” a new letter…months later. Stephen will come home with a new letter that didn’t fit into the four alphabets: consonants, vowels & tones, final consonants, and combined symbols. Oh, and the list of literary-specific letters and styles. And then the newly-discovered “this is a rarely used letter” that we have to sort where to put that in our notes and brain library.

That said, Stephen is a great student. His teacher has declared him “his hardest working student!” And that is absolutely no lie. Stephen works so hard to understand and utilize something that really doesn’t come naturally to him. He even makes files like these:

Seriously? It is super helpful for me, as I come down the same road behind him, and it also just makes me proud to see him work so hard!  I am praying that God blesses this abundantly, and brings so many good conversations and great relationships through this language.

After he makes all of his notes and flash cards and who-knows-what, he has our teacher go over all of it to make sure it is correct. Last week, after seeing the newest collection and extensive note-taking, he asked if Stephen was planning on publishing a book!

So we’re still studying. But that means we’re also still hopeful!

After a few years of celebrating birthdays in Mae Sot, it seemed a good opportunity to try something new! So for my golden birthday this year, we headed off to a few days in Bangkok. {And I’m now able to post about it being back from the village for a few days over the weekend!} We’ve only really experienced in the city in passing, usually because we’re there for medical reasons or traveling through.

But we decided to explore the bits and bobs of the city, and really loved it.

We stayed at hotel right on the public transit system, so it was easy to get around and stay relatively cool in the insane April heat of Bangkok. Our hotel also had a little golf cart that offered you a ride to the station just down the road, and since Stephen quoted the golf cart bit from his favorite Parks & Recreation episode “Park Safety” every time we rode, I looked forward this little jaunt. If you haven’t seen this episode, you probably should go find it on Netflix.

We took public transit to some of our favorite sorts of places.

The best used bookstore we’ve found in Thailand yet! Three floors of used English books, sorted by genre and alphabetized by author. And you probably aren’t reading that sentence with the excitement I am writing it with! We found a hoard of books, including a book on Burma with our Burmese teacher & neighbor in it!

Stephen got to visit this store, a chain of music & recording stores in Bangkok. He has stalked their website since we landed in Thailand, and he certainly loved both of our visits while we were in town. 🙂

Stephen did some research and found a little candy factory–really a kiosk in a mall, but a factory to me! They make the candy on-site so you can watch. My family has an odd quirk of visiting more factories than I could name, so I grew up loving seeing where things come from. This was a highlight of the trip for me!

{mixing in colors and flavors}

{shaping and layering int into a giant design}

{rolling it out into a small rope, then chopping it into bites}

{and sharing with the crowd!}

We also enjoyed good coffee over books while we could!

One day we visited the Bangkok Art & Culture Center and loved it! I don’t have any pictures, but we really enjoyed seeing a few exhibits of photographs all over Thailand done by local artists. We also visited a number of shops selling the work of local artists.

And we visited a few malls, because so much of the good food in the city is in malls. Not a great atmosphere, but we really did enjoy our Western food…and this surprisingly life-like wax figure of Tom.

Our two favorite restaurants were not in malls and a little difficult to track down. They included an eclair speciality shop with an incredible French chef, and a cute little Mediterranean restaurant.

We discovered board game cafe–perhaps a new rising trend you’ve heard of?–and decided to try it out! For about $5 each we could stay as long as we liked and try out a wall of board games!

Our last big adventure was a bicycle tour of the city.

It was a night ride, so we met at the shop at 5:30pm and then returned at 10pm. In the meantime, we bicycled along the river and crossed by ferry. We visited two temples, including the largest in Bangkok, and the 24-hour flower market.

Now selling flowers every Friday and loving them, I really loved the flower market! It was just block after block of beautiful flowers and gorgeous colors, all at the most incredible prices. These bunches of roses–four or five dozen–sold for just $1.50! This is mind boggling to me.

The temples were different styles than those we’ve seen in Chiang Mai and Mae Sot, as they are all from different time periods and historical influences. It is always so intriguing to see the details and culture, but also nice to be there at night, while they were mostly empty. We were free to observe without intruding.

As always, it is such fun to explore a little more of where we live and take advantage of the crazy fact that we do live here! So thankful for a hubs that took the time to help coordinate and plan, was willing to ride a night bus to the city, and always pushes us to more fun 🙂

While we were stateside, some new neighbors moved in. Kelvin & Laura–or “Kelavin” and “Laawla” according to the kids–are Canadians that moved to Mae Sot as a couple last August, after marrying in July.  Kelvin has been in different areas around Thailand for nearly four years, and Laura is new to this continent.

And they are a pretty lovely couple. {You can see their website here and read a recent blog that Laura wrote. I have read and re-read it, as I mourn the ants & heat and pray once again for God to make this beautiful.}

We met them shortly after they arrived and became friends, I think from Stephen & I telling each other, “We should hang out with them; I think we’ll be friends,” while they were telling each other the same thing.

We were all right! We became friends last year and then, in the way God works, they decided to move next door to us in February.

{In the above duplex, our house is on the right and Kelvin & Laura’s in on the left.}

And it has become a community experiment.

Stephen and I have been in a community experiment for years, really. Our entire lives as we currently know them started over a football game in the street and a few Memory games on our porch. And it has grown into one community experiment after another: in medical emergencies; in floods; on sick days and birthdays; at funerals and weddings; in going to school and sharing meals; in sharing games and space; in learning new trades and skills and languages; in sorting through trash and discovering new treasures. It has been a very interesting community experiment between a young American couple and a community of Burmese families.

Then it expanded with two new foreigners on the block. They have different perspectives and fresh ideas. They are new faces and additional hands! They speak our language and are learning new ones with us.

I was a little nervous. It seemed…vulnerable. I really love this community around us. What if they loved Laura & Kelvin more? What if they were better at this than I was? What if we didn’t really get along?

It was a bit of a journey for me stateside as I prayed through this. As I prayed through the fact that we had prayed for this: for people to join us! For friendships and community with other foreigners; for help in our community.

And God answered!

We are still learning. We are just taking a step or two at time and talking things through. We are experimenting with different aspects of living life together: we are sharing meals and sharing vehicles. We are sharing a washing machine and printer and internet; even a new power tool we both needed! We are helping each other out and checking in on each other.

Sometimes it feels like college, when we pass a fresh baked loaf of bread over the wall or walk next door for a movie night. When I fell sick this week, Laura sent over soup and popsicles and nail polish.

When our microwave broke and they had an extra, they left one on our counter as a present, allowing us to give ours away to another neighbor.

What a great little community circle.

It is still an experiment, and we aren’t really sure where it will go. But we aren’t really sure about that for a lot of things in the community around us!  It’s been really fun, and we’re really thankful they are here. They came|arrived|were sent at just the right time, because our God is so good!