A Mid January in Wiang Sa

Hello to all of my devoted familyees. After much confusion and chaos over Dads heart, he rests well and unharmed; slightly higher medicated. Thank God he is OK he has given much in his life and I love him.

I have experienced much in Thailand over the course of the last few months and have gotten used to several different facts. First of which is that Americans are very picky over what they eat, I am glad for this. Although I am less picky now, as I realized last night that I was casually snacking on cow, or pork, intestines, liver and all the other inexpensive parts of animals that make your breath smell rancid, I cant wait to eat a nice big juicy steak when I get back home with my family in March; hold the organs. The picturesque scenery of the wonderful little village that I live in has given way to even more wonderful surprises. Again, while snaking on organs, my Friend Payoon [40 years old] gave me his watch; this watch having been given to him by a prominent doctor in Nan city, as well as an important social figure for the town. The wonderful unselfish nature of my Friend here in Wiang Sa will be difficult to say goodbye to. However, I must digress, for, like so many other times, I ,must be off to another country, maybe a new continent. I am planning for Latin America, however, I may wind up staying in Asia perhaps Japan, or Korea (South of course).

I Love you all

Merry CHristmas One and All

So wadt dee, Krup!

I thought it necessary to give my one page update of the past year to all of you, my friends and family, on this most joyous of occasions upon which we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

This past year, in retrospect, has been one of learning for me. Some things learned in positive ways and other things have been learned in negatively reinforcing lessons. I could hardly believe that the end of my tenure with the Air Force had come; however it did, officially in early February. I was hardly able to say good bye to my wonderful friends Matthew Ayers, and Jonathan Mitchell. I enrolled in college with Liberty University, which is Jerry Falwell's school, in a distance learning business degree program. I have been working steadily at this new project of mine and plan on following up with either a masters in business(MBA) or a degree in law and focus on the business law. I still have an uncanny drive to form some kind of business the only problem is one question, "what?" After finally saying goodbye to an atempt at the entertainment industry, I had a short period of time in which I went to college and searched for a job, in which I became an automobile salesman. In this line of work, in which I only stayed a mere month and a half, I succeeded quite admirably at it, becoming near top salesman in my first month. During my time, at the Chevrolet dealership, I discovered an itch to leave quite quickly with in which I decided to give God a soft memorandum. I decided to take my firefighters exam, although I did well 94%, which is excellent for a first time, I was unable to get a position in the San Antonio Fire Department, to be completely honest I don't think that my heart was in it, although I would find running into fires fun, with or without protection, and I especially like saving people, as I have had the opportunity to save one Air Force member from drowning at the beach and three kids (at once) from a similar but separate situation. My memorandum however was, let me do good enough on this exam to be a firefighter, or I am going to do something "big." The big something, although not knowing what it could be at the time, turned out to be teaching English in Thailand. Well I am sure you all ar quite aware of what God had in store for me. I proceeded to Thailand where I now teach over one thousand different wonderful children, including one learning disabled class, which I have discovered loves to learn "with noise," although the neighboring teachers dislike it thoroughly. I am now conversational at Thai and have learned quite a bit from their culture which I cant wait to bring back to all of you when I come back home. I plan on making a trip all around our beautiful nation and see my much more beautiful family members.

Merry Christmas All, and thank you for being able to make it to the end of my dissertation. I am sorry I am not in better contact with all of you. I find it easy to be cold and rely on myself than to give my heart freely; my largest shortcoming. I am sorry. I love you all dearly, I cant wait to see you soon!

Christmas in translation

For those of you that have seen the movie "Lost in Translation," you will know what it was like for Bill Murray in Japan, having no idea what was going on. Such as this, I am tempted and frustrated by hearing the words my limited Thai vocabulary affords me intertwined with the uninterpretable, but I have yet to understand what they are saying. So I go on living, teaching, and learning with the acceptance that what I dont know is being said is merely about how intelligent and handsome I am.