First few days

Well, our schedule here has been pretty busy so far, but I finally got a few hours before my next activity to write about my experiences so far.
Yesterday (Wednesday) we had to wake up pretty early to leave at 8:00. We drove to another missionary's house for the best french toast breakfast I've had. He also had fresh mango, pineapple, and bananas. There were 3 of the missionaries that we will be working with there, and about 8 Thai students (some are thai interns working with us this summer). We had a bible study and David Allen spoke to us some encouraging words about our work this summer. Afterwards, we all went to a coffee shop called Wawee and had some question and answer time with the missionaries. They are putting a lot of time and effort into us interns and care a lot about our work here.
We had a short orientation retreat last night that we got back from today. It was the coolest place I've been in Thailand so far. It was the 5 girl interns, Robert Reagan our missionary, 3 Thai girls, and 1 Thai guy. We had to drive about 45 minutes away where we would take a boat ride down a lake where we stayed on a house boat. I've never heard of these before, but its like a small house on a lot of bamboo sticks in the lake. Well this house has about 5 extra rooms for visitors to come and stay in. They were very small, with screen windows so you could hear everything that went on outside.
Side note- I don't think I've mentioned the bathrooms yet here in Thailand. Unless you're in a nice place, the bathrooms are usually the same. Instead of flushing a toilet, they have buckets of water that you have to pour down the toilet instead. Next to the toilet is a spray nozzel where you can take showers. Its very cramped, but its their way of life.
Anyways, the houseboat was really neat, we jumped in the lake last night and had some fun swimming, ate dinner and went to bed around 8:30 (most of us are still jet-lagged). Unfortunately, since I am still not completely on this time, I woke up at 3:30 AM and couldn't go back to sleep. Around 5:30 I decided to change into what I was going to wear today, so I reach out for my shorts and a huge cockroach jumped out of them. I screamed and "accidentally" woke everyone else up. I'm sure they forgave me.
We had an hour of quiet time this morning. It was great, because our rooms overlooked a mountain range and it was beautiful. We also had another equipping time this morning and learned that we will be heading up an English camp on Monday for a small village on one of the mountains. That should be fun.
We came back today and ate lunch next to where I'm staying. It was 25 baht, about 85 cents for the meal- VERY cheap, but not cheap to them. Tonight we have "cell group", like a lifegroup or devotional group with the Thai students.
As you can tell, it's been quite an experience so far. A lot of new cultural things to get used to. For example, we take our shoes off anytime we are about to go inside. You cannot pick your teeth without covering your mouth. They drive on the left side of the road.
I love all of these differences from America. I love being in this new place. I love how the Thai people accept us and want to learn more about what we believe. I know God is going to bless this summer and do some great things through us.
Until next time!!!