Good timing

I need to leave the country for visa purposes...don't worry, its normal, and i've been planning on it. i get to take my "visa run" next week...and i cannot wait. I've been here for 5 1/2 months, and i think i'm experiencing "round 2" of culture shock. I find myself very easily annoyed by cultural differences, tired in general, and craving American food. As much as i don't enjoy this part of living in a different culture, i'm thankful that i'm experiencing it so i understand more what it means to live overseas vs. just visiting...and i'm also thankful in a weird way cause i know this is the sort of thing that only happens when you stay some place for awhile.

I really can't express how thankful i am for the community that God has brought into my life the past month...Jana, Steph, and Wendy...I feel like as i wrestle though these hard weeks of being "away from home" i am surrounded by incredible women who love me...and who walk with me...and who i can be honest with about how i really feel...and who encourage me and pray for me. I don't think i fully understood how "isolated" my life was here during those months when i was living alone...until the friends came pouring back into my life. and even in the middle of this hard season...i am thankful.

On Sunday i'm going to Kolkata to hang out with some friends there, and then on Thursday i'm going to bangladesh. My friends Kyle and Beth (and a new going-to-be-friend Brooke) are in Bangladesh for language school...so i'm going to hang out with them. I had to decide between being with friends in b-desh, or being alone in thailand...i decided that what i need now is people i love much more than pretty sights...so that's how i'm taking a vacation to kolkata and b-desh....plus i'd never been to b-desh before, so why not?!?

This week Monday hit me like a mack truck...with a whole lot of stuff that still needs to be done...finishing those reports, and getting things taken care of for the week i'm away. The past 2 mondays Jana and i have been making trips to a coffee shop for a little afternoon pick me up...the small ways i'm being taken care of!