Amo, Amas, Amat... No, wait! English...

Michael here.

Ah, the newness of it all. Then again... what did we expect? Getting married, having a new home in a new country with a new job, new food, a new culture, and a new language-- it'e enough to overwhelm anybody. So far we have survived with only a couple minimal breakdowns. We bounce back quickly, though. One really doesn't realize the power of familiar things in a foreign country unless he/she has experienced it him/herself. When we first arrived at our house, I was a little scared about all the things we needed to do to it to make it feel a little more like home for us. I didn't know where to start. Luckily, Summer is amazing at organizing stuff. When we started, we plugged in Summer's computer and turned on the iTunes. Ahhhhh!!! The familiar sounds of home. It was revitalizing. Now our house is starting to turn into a home. There's still a little way to go, but I'm sure we'll be sinking in in no time.

Just because everything is new, however, doesn't mean we don't like it. Thai culture, people, and food are amazing! We have really soaked it up. I'm anxious to learn more and feel less like a fish out of water, but I know that will come in time. The language is looking like my biggest hurdle. I would love to learn it. It is so difficult, though! With all the tones that we are not used to in English, it makes for a difficult lesson. I'm hoping my proclivity toward languages will kick in and make things a little easier. Speaking of difficult languages, I've never really thought about how to make English simple. It's hard! Especially when you have to teach it. We are just now getting into teaching our classes, and we have nothing to go off of. There are some books with activity suggestions and such things, but there is no curriculum. We don't even know how much they know. How do you even ask someone who doesn't know English how much he/she knows? This will be quite the ride.

Please let everyone who might want to hear from us know about this blog. We haven't collected an e-mail list. We've been a little busy (in case you haven't noticed) :-) Feel free to e-mail us as well. We will try to write short individual notes and responses to your letters. We love you, and if you ever want to visit, just let us know.

~M (and S)