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| xanga is dead i think probably.
i do have a new blog that i've been a bit more active on.
check it:
sarah.e.knepper::chasing the holiday at the sea | | |
| neung: i am going to beijing, china, in 6 days. i am so.so.so excited. i also am in need of a coat, because it is snowy there. haha. yay. i will update you on how that goes.
song: i am FINISHED with my school year! how did that happen? we have school this week to file grades and stuff, but basically i'll be hanging out and watching lots of movies. yum.
sam: LOST owns me. did you SEE the episode from last week?! how do they keep this stuff coming? i LOVE it. and i miss my lost family tremendously. watching the episodes on my computer does not compare to watching them in that cram packed living room with mystery meat and flatbreads and salads and mexican coffee. family, if you read this, don't forget about me. :)
see: seriously, seriously, i wish i could put dreds in my hair. my friend jack has the most ah.mazing dreds i have ever seen. i lust after them.
ha: sia- 'lentil' 'soon we'll be found'. yael naim 'far far' 'yashanti' 'levater'. sara bareilles 'between the lines'.
these are my musical obsessions of late.
hok: mark driscoll. if you don't know of him, he is the pastor of mars hill church in seattle (COMPLETELY unrelated to rob bell's mars hill). driscoll is an incredible man of God, a missiologist who is reaching seattle in an unprecendented way, and a preacher of God's word that challenges me every.time. currently his sermon series is based on questions that people posted and voted on. the series is entitled 'religion saves and nine other misconceptions.' it.is.brilliant. you can subscribe to his podcast (audio or video) through itunes, or download the files at marshillchurch.org. check out the ones on predestination (wittily titled 'duck duck damn!') and grace. he's deep. my faith has grown in leaps and bound due to his great insight and wisdom.
jet: in that light, i have learned SO MUCH this month about FREEDOM. freedom from sin, freedom from the law ... i cannot get out of galatians and romans. i keep reading and re-reading them and falling more and more in love with all that is in there. our God is SO GOOD. wow. wow.wow.wow.
bad: i have a 'regular' starbucks. so regular, that i have made friends with the employee (nook, nim, petch...) and they greet me by name and know my regular order. pretty much it's like 'cheers'. and i love it.
gow: last week amy and i were walking down the street to the busstop. in bangkok it is normal for lots of garbage bags to get piled up next to a tree or something and a truck comes around occasionally to pick them up. it is also normal to see a rat or two run out of the sewer or crawl around in said garbage. on this night, however, as we passed one such 'typical' pile of garbage, i noticed one such 'typical' rat ... and then another, and another, and another.... there were easily 15-20 rats on this garbage. literally 6 inches from my feet. and as they saw us they started towards us. i am not making this up. rats do not bother me. but a herd of them coming at me made me feel rather naseous. whoooboy.
sip: really i just wanted to get to sip so you could see all the numbers from 1-10. do your best in pronouncing them, as the tones are VERY important and can't be shown via text. for example, 'ha' (5) if inflected wrong is a curse word. (also it's common for people to text or write '555' to each other to indicate laughing ... you know, '555'='hahaha' :)
this is a long one. enjoy it. probably won't see another for a while. | | |
| how mellowdramatic.
i think january was one of the best months of my whole entire life, to be honest:
-- i fit here. i just came to this realization, and it is overwhelming and scary and amazing.
-- i have a family here. interestingly enough, most of this 'family' claims no faith in jesus christ, yet i have experienced great love, acceptance, kindness, grace, encouragement from these people. this is a tricky thing, and it confuses and suprises and challenges me.
-- my birthday (thanks for all the well-wishes) was so.good. 'the family' took me for dinner outside on bean bags. there were lots of cakes, lots of singing, lots of pedicures, and one darn good gift. it was all unexpected and so perfect.
-- hua hin and pala-u are some gorgeous places. if i'm not too lazy i'll put up a picture.
-- yael naim. an israeli singer who is my new obsession. if you live in america you hear her song on an apple advert. i do not live in america, however, and just happened to stumble onto her music, and have fallen in love. (the rest of her album is nothing like the song on the advert, fyi. it is .... beautiful. sad and disturbing and foreign.)
-- an essay on self-reliance by ralph waldo emerson is kicking me in the face. and i love it.
yet ... january went out like a lion and february came in like a rabid wolverine:
-- wednesday it downpoured. it only rains here during rainy season - which was 4 months ago. it rained so much, however, that our entire campus flooded and we had to take off our socks and shoes and roll up our pants to get to class and lunch. (mm playing in sewage water...yummy). the popular opinion is that thailand was crying, causing a great rain (check out here if you don't understand why everyone is crying over here)
-- this week all of hell has broken loose among teachers. some very clear lines have been drawn, and there has been a lot of accusations, defenses, and untruths flying around. yesterday was a heated day for me, resulting in a few tears in the bathroom before class, and a lot of confrontation. monday should be... interesting.
that's life of late. for the 4 of you who read this. ha.
'with consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. he may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. speak what you think now in hard words, and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict everything you said today "ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood" is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? pythagoras was misunderstood, and socrates, and jesus, and luther, and copernicus, and galileo, and newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. to be great is to be misunderstood.' .emerson.
chew on that. | | |
| three weeks at home went much too quickly. but it was w o n d e r f u l. loved every moment of it.
now i'm back in smoggy and humid bangkok... got back sunday and hit the ground SPRINTING:
--straight back to school monday at 730
--trying to get 300 sixth and seventh graders refocused and reinterested in math
--finding my way around a brand new building ... 6 floors with no lift. it's my new workout plan.
--reconnecting with the friends and coworkers i haven't seen in 3 weeks
--going for coffee EVERY day after school in an effort to beat jetlag
--being assigned a class to teach at our open house in a couple weeks that parents will sit in on .. oh crap
--having looong conversations about:
1.zen buddhism
2.parallel universes and the possible coexistance of a genesis creation and continual conscious nirvana state, all because of some theoretical math and physics proofs (what the ...?!)
3.scientology
(please note: i was far from prepared for any of the aforementioned conversations. i really need to study more)
i'm glad to be back. overwhelmed by the great spiritual battles, but encouraged that our God brought me here, and is in complete control.
... all to his glory ... | | |
| hello. from york, pennsylvania, usa.
good to be home.
notes:
1. i l o a t h e jetlag. 100 percent. loathe it. i'm trying to hard to beat it, but i seem to be awake somehow or another every morning at 330. what.the.heck.
2. it is not as cold as i thought (in other words, i am surviving without longunderwear) i love walking outside and breathing cold air deep into my lungs. i missed that feeling.
3. since arriving in york, i've been in a mall everyday. haha. feels just like thailand...
4. (if you aren't a fiction reader, skip this one) i finished the 8th and final book in the dune series today. it was a tremendously bittersweet moment: i could not wait to see where the story would end, but i hate that there's nothing left for me to find out about these characters. ah. what to do now? i desparately need another good story. i bought the first of 'the dark materials triology' by pullman today and i hope i love it. any other suggestions?
5. it's weird to look at my siblings and realize they are growing up. my brother has a girlfriend, my sister is driving, my baby sister is solving algebra equations like it's her job ... what is happening?
6. tomorrow=stacie fay.
7. next weekend=katrina, tim&andrea, the artrips.
8. tonight i drove to the bookstore, bought 3 books and a coffee, and drove home in 30 minutes. this is less time than it takes to travel the 5miles from my apartment to the skytrain (which is then followed by 20 minutes on the skytrain to the bookstore). this is one reason i love america.
time to try to sleep. tomorrow is full of taking the sister to school, b a k i n g all morning, and stacie fay time.
'...i hope you're happy in the end...i hope you're happy my friend ...' | | |
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