On August 23rd, we were released from quarantine and launched into our new life! The first day was a whirlwind of signing papers, touring campus, getting SIM cards, seeing our apartment, and shopping for necessities at the crazy Mega Bangna. Malls are a really big deal here and host everything from grocery shopping to shipping, ice-skating and bowling.
We are renting a 40 square meter (spacious after hotel quarantine) studio on ICS’s campus. The best feature of the apartment is its proximity to campus and to a place called The Garage, a cafeteria-like space full of semi-permanent restaurants that cook up all sorts of amazing street food on the ground floor of the next-door complex’s parking deck. We have great fun eating in the open air while chatting with teachers/students/families.
The J Side
Jonathan jumped right into the classroom and his current course load includes AP Art, 2D Design, 3D Design, and Marketing Design Studio. The biggest challenge has been refreshing his ceramics skills, as the first unit of 3D is an introduction to wheel throwing. It takes a lot to keep a pottery studio running efficiently, so one of his first tasks was taking apart a Pug Mill that had dried solid so students could start recycling clay.
The L Side
Lyndsey’s first week was devoted to setting up the Preg apartment and figuring out practical challenges of life in a new country, but quickly jumped into her role with Imagine Thailand Foundation and even as a substitute teacher at ICS! She is also leading a 9th grade small group and mentoring an 11th grader. She had a great meeting with the country director of Imagine Thailand, who plays a very hands-on role in Mae Sot (where Lyndsey plans to conduct on-site field work). Lyndsey’s is excited about developing a maternal nutrition curriculum, but almost more for the research, relationship building, analysis, and development it will take to create a culturally-acceptable and context-specific program. She desires to teach high school students, Burmese refugee women, and hospital/clinic staff how mothers and their infants can attain sufficient nutrition, affordably and conveniently.
In the evenings J+L enjoy working out and exploring surroundings. Lyndsey has been doing workout classes with a group of ladies and Jonathan has been running and rock climbing with coworkers. We love swimming laps together at the school’s pool, a great way to exercise and escape the heat. On the weekends we have been building friendships in fun ways and exploring incredible outdoor markets (check out the blog post for more). We found a great church, dove into their marriage class, and got connected with a small group!
Please let us know how you are doing and what’s going on in your life!
