Ooops! It's been a little too long since the last blog

A lot has happened since my last blog. I moved to Southern Thailand in the second week of June. Haven't had a lot of time to settle in though. I started training and working at my new job about 2 days after I moved. The new school had 2 weeks left in their school year so I thought it would be good to start getting used to the environment, the students and the parents and staff. I officially start again at the end of Aug. After I finished school again, I took a spontaneous trip with my new housemate to Phuket where we had a room that literally opened onto the beach. So we relaxed for two days. Then I came back, packed up and went to China for 2 weeks. I had already planned to return to the two social welfare centers that I volunteered at last summer being a teacher at the summer camp for the orphans. I was surprised and pleased that the kids remembered me at both sites. One thing I have found is important when volunteering with orphans is that returning means a lot to them. A lot of people do short term missions and its helpful. However, its difficult for kids to attach to someone and then have them leave, never to return. I don't want to be that person. I also enjoy being with the kids at these sites. A new site is opening quite soon in another city so maybe in the future, I'll have 3 sites to volunteer at. I find it a lot more fulfilling in the summer to give my time to the orphans and hang out in a China for a few weeks than to sit at home and veg out for weeks on end.

Petronas Towers

I ended up with an unexpected trip to Malaysia this summer as well. When changing jobs, it means I need a new visa to go with the new job. It is typical that getting a new visa means going to an embassy outside of Thailand and then returning with the new visa. It's also risky especially in a country under martial law. But thankfully, God is bigger than all that. I ended up sharing the trip with another friend who also needed a visa and so it became a mini vacay with visits to the embassy. I've never been to Malaysia and this time I ended up in Kuala Lumpur. It's a large city. I was able to see the Petronas Towers which are quite well known as well as Chinatown and Petaling Street which were near our hotel. It was a short trip and I returned with my new visa.
Now I'm doing summer break again only this time I will spend the next 3 weeks doing readings for work, relaxing, settling in finally and anything else that comes my way.