Well I am back in St. Louis now. And boy, have the last few weeks been a whirlwind. First, I want to thank all of you for asing Dad for my and Emily's safe return. For a while we were afraid we would not be able to leave Thailand because of the political unrest. Many of you have probably heard on the news how the airport in Bangkok, had been shut down for days by protesters. So we were just hanging tight asking Dad that it will open up by the time we were supposed to fly to Bangkok on the 4th of December. It was looking like if the airports didn't open up immediately they wouldn't open until January. Our supervisors suggested we find tickets straight out of Chiang Mai and the sooner the better. So, we left Chiang Mai Friday the 5th at 8:30am flew to Taipei, Taiwan for 18 hours then flew to Osaka, Japan for 2 hours, then Detroit for 8 hours and finally arrived Saturday night the 6th at 8:30pm after basically 48 hours of travel. Thank you very much for talking to Dad for us. I saw many of you last Sunday and so many told me how you had been thinking of us during our travels. We are home!
Well, our last few days in Chiang Mai were full of sad goodbyes as well as lots of laughs. Though we were excited about seeing family and friends, there is still part of us that was sad to leave Chiang Mai. We have invested ourselves so much here the past six months and we will miss so many things about Thailand, especially the deep friendships we have made. It was sad as Emily and I pulled the garage door down for the last time on the community center where we had lived, taught English, and hosted many parties during our 6 months in Thailand.
We spent our last night at our supervisors' house. Our friend Ekk came over too and gave Emily
and me shirts he painted that say "I love Chiang Mai". But we already miss Quintin and Kim and their two kids, Kati and Nathaniel. They were amazing and we learned so much from them. They took us to the airport early Friday morning and then five of our close freinds met us to say goodbyes. This was a lot of fun. Our friend, Len, was camera happy and used my camera to get some funny pictures. The one above shows Nan, Kwan, Katie, and Len trying to keep me from leaving. Oh I miss them. They all made me swear I would get on msn messenger so we could talk.
Our last Monday in Thailand, we said our goodbyes in Maewang. I gave my host mom my bike and she was thrilled since both of theirs have no brakes and maybe one pedal per bike. Our host parents bought a traditional shirt for our dads and a traditional skirt for our moms. It was precious when Khun May Saa (our host mom) grabbed us by the arms and just started crying as she said goodbye. Emily and I can't wait to call them on Skype once we get to school in January. I can't wait to say "Sawasdee jaew, khun por may, gin kaw laew ka jaew? Leuksaw kitteung Por May mak mak leuy!" (Hello Father Mother, have you eaten rice yet? Your daughters are missing you so much.) Honestly, Quintin could not have picked a better host family for us. They truly consider us their two daughters and so does the whole village. I'm almost in tears writing this. We just felt so loved and taken care of, even after we moved out of their house.
That same day, our team hosted 2 Christmas parties at the two different schools where we taught. We taught Chrismas songs in Thai and English, crafts, games, and The Story. The children loved it. This was a bittersweet day for Emily and me since we had taught at these schools every week for six months. We remembered when the kids had written "i love you" and their phone numbers on our hands, when they laughed at the crazy farang teachers as we taught them how to disco to the Abba song S.O.S. (their request mind you). So many memories. This little girl, Benz, was one who broke into tears during one of our Stories about Dad. She would always hold my 
hand while we played games and her face would just light up constantly. The girls below are a few of the roudy first and second graders at Sarapee. We were teaching them Hark the Herald Angels Sing. Reading Thai is IMPOSSIBLE and takes about 2 years to learn so I just read a phonetics version (what Thais call Karaoke language). These kids were helping me read Thai so I could sing with them. And all the 3rd-6th grade students at Sarapee showered Emily and me with fresh flowers and handwritten cards. They all said "I love you sir" it was so sweet and quite comical; some of the boys' drawings of us.....wow! 
Another neat thing we started is penpal letters. 33 students from St. Louis now have Thai penpals at Trimit and Sarapee schools in Maewang. Here is my brother's penpal at Trimit who is a novice and studying to be a monk. So here we have Flook the monk writing to my brother Luke. Please ask Dad that He will use these penpals to sow seeds. The other picture is a letter one of the boys at Sarapee wrote that has a picture of Buddha on the cover. One of the kids wrote "my best friend is Buddha" on one of their letters. But also many wrote "teaching the American students how to say hello in Thai", etc. I can't wait to now give out the letters to the students here. 
Our team threw a huge going away party/Thanksgiving party for us. We invited all our Thai friends and had a huge turnout. Around 40+ Thais showed up. Our supervisor said that this was a dream of theirs to one day have that many people come to our community center and here they did to say goodbye. At one point Quintin opened up the floor for anyone to share about how they knew us and and any words they wanted to leave with us. We had many friends stand up and through tears explain to everyone how we had touched them. This was amazing and humbling to see what Dad had done through us
and through all of our friends at home talking to Dad. Several friends shared about studying The Book with us. It was a sad, sweet, and exciting time, full of many emotions.That night our friend Toey spent the night and we had a wonderful time swapping our favorite songs and explaining what they meant to us. Oh, I am so so thankful for email, msn, and facebook now. Because since I have returned I have gotten a long email from Toey and it feels like we can still share hearts even miles and miles apart. At that party we exchanged facebook names and email addresses with many of our friends and now our "walls" on facebook are decorated with messages in broken English and half in Thai. Reading them takes me back to Thailand and makes me miss it.
I did want to tell you a little bit about one of the festivals we went to with our friends during the last few weeks of our stay. Loy Krathong is the lantern festival. It is a festival with many spiritual ties as well as some Buddhist influences.We went to MaeJo outside of Chiang Mai with a large group of friends. Many of our friends lit lanterns. Here is Nan, Kwan, and Biew lighting one. Our friend Toey explained that many people light lanterns in order to pay respect to Buddha. As the lantern passes through the heavens it pays respect. I think others believe that it is a way of sending their hopes and dreams up. You go to this festival and the sky is filled with
millions of paper lanterns. It is beautiful and heavy as well. Later on in the week we went to a parade by the river. Since we were mainly a group of people who loved Dad we did not go float the krathongs. Nan and Kwan were disappointed that they never floated these banana boats on the river. They said that when you go to this festival you must float one of these boats made of banana leaves with flowers incense and candles on it in order to pay respect and appease the river goddess. Also, there is an aspect of sending your sins or bad things away on these boats. Some people place fingernail clippings or hair clippings on their krathongs in order to send a part of themselves on this little floating flower arrangement. Lastly, I must tell you of one of our largest projects that we completed before we finished our term in THailand. As a part of our degree we wrote an in depth ethnography study of the Khon Muang People of Northern Thailand. This was a 38 page single spaced document that Emily and I wrote based on six months of research. With our printed notes attached it was over 60 pages. It was a lot of hard work, but I am very glad we did it. Our supervisor is excited about having this to share with future students and volunteers that come and work with him. Please ask Dad that this be something that can help the work here.
--------------------------Ok, so what am I up to now?------------------------------------
Well, re-entry went quite smoothly. Although I look quite quirky as I bow to the lady at the Northwest counter in the airport, as well as every time I say thank you. I also find myself answering my brother in Thai. Probably the hardest thing is trying to speak Spanish now. Our friends in Guatemala called and whereas I usually have no trouble talking with them for a long time in Spanish, this time was hard, because instead of saying gracias, I was saying kawp khun ka. and instead of si for yes, I was answering chai ka. So my languages are now a mess ;) Other than those few things I have had none of the reverse culture shock I usually have when coming home from Guatemala. 
I do feel that in many ways my heart is still with the Thai people. I was so excited to go to a Thai restaurant and have a conversation with the cook complimenting her on the Thai food I've been craving. I am really talking to Dad about finding a Thai community in St. Louis with whom to connect, but for the mean time I've connected some with the growing Burmese community in St. Louis. I am excited about working with Oasis, a foundation that helps refugees in the St. Louis area. Last Saturday I went with Michael and my family and we delivered cookies, food, and Christmas gifts to Song a refugee from the Chin state in Burma. He had lived in a refugee camp in Thailand and is asking Dad that his brother and sister can come soon. Another family we are getting to know is absolutely delightful. They are also from Burma and have lived here for one year (unlike Song who has been here just a few months). I am so excited about this opportunity. I plan to stay very involved till I go back to SBU in January to finish my bachelors. After I graduate in May, I hope to start volunteering at Oasis more regularly. I have always had a heart for refugees. Maybe after I complete a degree in Nursing in 2010 I can be more involved in healthcare in the refugee community.
It has been wonderful to spend time with family and friends. I now see eye-to-eye with my 12-year-old brother Luke which is weird, and Grace and I are catching up on 6 months of girl talk. Probably most exciting is that.....I am engaged now. Michael proposed and of course I said yes. So, I am getting married in July! I am very glad for a 6 week break before getting back to school. So for the time being, we are spending time together, volunteering together at Oasis and who knows maybe we'll even get some swing dancing lessons in.
Thank you all for all of your support and encouragement. It has been an amazing six months partnering in this with you. We have learned so much and have seen so much happen. I cannot wait to see all of you and talk to you. If you ever want to hear stories or see pictures, I have LOTS to share.
Sawasdii ka tuk khon, pop gun mai ka. Goodbye everyone. I will "see you a new."
