Back to the Blogosphere

It's been awhile since I have blogged, I know. But I am sitting down to do so tonight for two reasons. 

1. I have been wanting to get back into it for months

2. I didn't feel like going to the gym today, so I told myself I could only stay home if I a) made granola and b) wrote a blog post.  The granola is in the oven.  

I never really intended to stop writing in the first place.  When I got back from Japan in late October I wrote a long post complete with pictures, but the Blogger App randomly shut down without saving it and I just didn't have the energy to ever write it again.  And then one thing led to another, and it was March already.  I have a few half written posts from the last few months, but nothing ever made it to publication. 

So what's new?  Lots! 

Japan in October was awesome, beautiful, delicious, inspiring, chilly, and fun.  I loved it. An entire nation that was efficient and organized.  It made me want to go to Switzerland even more. 

November was the month of 'should I stay or should I go?' contract decision making. I chose to stay at ICS at least one more year.  

In early December I ran my first (and maybe last) half marathon.  I went to Angkor Wat (Cambodia) for 24 hours with two friends to run 13.1 miles in the tropical heat.  I finished. It wasn't pretty the last 1.5 miles or so, but I finished.  

I spent late December and early January in Michigan; Christmas at home for the first time in three years.  It was a wonderful jam-packed time with family and friends in Detroit, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, and Holland. The weather was pretty kind to me with fairly mild temps most of the time and very little snow.  

When I returned to Thailand in January I had two lovely days at the beach with a dear friend from my skating days before returning to work. My first day back at school was decision deadline again, as I had talked with the school in Decembr about possibly changing teaching positions.  I decided to go ahead and make a change!  Next year I will be moving to the elementary building to teach our K4 class.  K4 means 4 year old Kindergarten, or what we would call Pre-K.  I am so excited for this new challenge and adventure! 

February, like most of life, brought incredible joy and sadness. On February 17 my sister gave birth to the cutest baby known to man (and I, of course, am neither biased nor exaggerating), which was incredibly joyous and happy.  I was also thousands of miles away when it happened, which was sad and hard.  Serving overseas has many benefits and delights, but missing out on important milestones in the lives of family and friends will always hurt.  I wake up most mornings to a new picture of my nephew Elliot, which makes that 5am alarm clock just a bit more bearable. 

Last week, after more than 3 1/2 years in Bangkok, I finally acquired my own transportation!  I bought an electric bike. It is a bike, and you can pedal it, but it's a bit laborious and not really designed for that.  It's way more fun to use the electric motor to zip around the back roads at speeds up to 12 mph.  I ride it anywhere you would ride a bike (not the big roads) and behave on the road as a bike, not a moto.  So far, I love it.  It gives me more freedom, lets me be in control of my route and speed (instead of a mototaxi driver), and is just plain fun.  

So there it is folks.  Now that I've caught up on the nuts and bolts of life hopefully I can get back into the swing of writing and processing again.  I have been reading a great lenten series with my accountability partners and it has some great stuff, about which I might eventually have conherent thoughts!