The Life and Times of the Sullivan Family: March 2012

It's hard to believe that after nearly two years here in Thailand, it's time for us to move on. We will definitely miss our students, but we are glad to be done with our current school, and on to a new chapter in life. We will be traveling in Europe in April and May, and I'm not sure how much access we will have to the Internet, so I may not get to update the blog for a while, but at the end of May, we will arrive back in the States. What will we do there, you may ask? Well, we don't entirely know, and we would really appreciate your prayers for guidance. John is applying for two different schools, one in CA, one in MO, and we are not sure yet which one he will choose. After we get there, of course, we will both have to find jobs, and everything that comes with moving, but we feel the Lord's hand with us, and we know he will lead us to the right place.

With only a little over a week left in this country, we start to notice again the small things that have become common place to us. We are no longer surprised when we see tiny babies riding on motorbikes, or a makeshift kitchen doing great business in the middle of the street. Although we have had a hard time here, there are a lot of things that we will miss, and as we approach the time to say goodbye, those things really stand out to us.

We will miss:

our friends from small group, Bible study, and church
cheap Thai food
Thai massage ($6 hour massage, anyone?)
our motorbike
pre-cut, delicious, tropical fruit (I can't believe that in the States, they make you cut your own pineapple and peel your own mangoes!)
being a part of a truly multi-cultural group of people, and being surrounded by people from so many countries. We are friends with people from the UK, Ireland, the Caribbean, Holland, Kenya, Botswana, South Africa, Iran, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Honduras, and Canada. And we love it!
our students
how easy and cheap it is to go our to a nice meal
teaching, I really think we will. It has been so nice to see the progress that the students make throughout the year, and to try to develop relationships with them, however little they may speak. Do we want to teach ESL for the rest of our lives? Not sure. But it has been a wonderful experience! (And John's grammar has improved thanks to it :) )

Dinner with small group at Beirut, a Lebanese restaurant downtown.

One of our usual places for lunch. These ladies make a delicious somtam (a spicy salad made from green papayas, and one of the most common dishes here)

Dinner at Crepes and Co. with some fellow teachers. We bought our bike for the price of a meal, so we sold it to Bobby for the price of a meal. Happy feelings all around...