Back in New Zealand

Well I'm back in NZ now. I'm very glad it's summer cuz even now it doesn't feel quite as warm as it should be! Very good to be greeted by Gareth and Carissa at the airport, even though I had to wear balloon animals in front of everyone at the airport as part of my welcome home!

Gareth, me, and Carissa at the Wellington Airport. (that balloon hat thing is another couple feet high)

In the car on the way home. Gareth thought it would be nice to greet me with some of my favourite things: a soccer ball, soldier, and a random jandal. (thats my hat extending to the front of the photo)

I definitely miss Thailand and I'm gonna have to stop comparing everything to Thailand sooner or later or people will just get annoyed! It's good to be back though and I'm crashing in my old flat which is fun. There are 8 of us living here right now, and a big thanks to Gareth for giving me his bed and sleeping outside on the hammock, or climbing up the chimney to sleep in the roof! And thanks to Gareth for a yummy welcome home brownie thing.

I'm definitely glad I went to Thailand, and if anyone is considering student work, I highly recommend this mission trip, as an excellent example of how it is done in a different context. Even if you're not considering going overseas yourself, it will give you new understanding on gospel centered, word based student ministry.

Phitsanulok II

this is us hanging out at 10pm on a sunday night on campus. amazing to see so many other students doing likewise. i really loved seeing the social nature of thai people (although some say it doesnt always help their studies!)






this is a big statue of King Naresuan, who the university is named after.


Some people worshipping the statue of King Naresuan, and making merit.

dutch blitz (or technically, 'pennsylvania german blitz') is bit of a hit in thailand. id have to say though, the nakhon sawan guys are better than phitsanulok.... now im in trouble.



bob is a law student about a month out from his last law exams ever (hopefully) and hopes to be a TCS intern next year. he slept over with me at the youth house and took me to the train station, staying with me till 10:20 even though he had a class at 9. thanks bob!

breakfast, thai style while waiting for the train. mmmmm.

Phitsanulok

this is pare and me catching the bus to phitsanulok, after missing the train. sorry pare! i was sure bangkok was the other way. arrgghh.

this is bob and me at the phitsanulok youth house. johnny and ann maclean have been setting up youth houses at various uni's which are right next to campus and students can come and hang out after class and where they also meet for bible studies and english class.

this is us hanging out at the youth house after a CU meeting. i just visited for the sunday night to attend the CU meeting and catch up a bit.

after the CU meeting i got the royal tour of Naresuan university. about 10000 students live on campus and it is pretty big. these are cool solar powered buses that just pick up and drop off students around campus for free. they were still running at 10 at night!










this is us hanging out on campus for a bit. big place!

Playing in Thailand

i went to visit the curtis' who live about an hour from here. awesome to catch up with them. this is dave, ghet, bonus and me playing risk.
awesome to see nate and dave curtis again, although wished i couldve seen ben (the middle brother) as well who was my age and went from 1st grade through to 12th grade with me.
we (hannah, phil, caroline, nate) went to ayuttaya for the day which was lots of fun. it cost 50 cents for the hour train ride. awesome! (nate is my cousin who came out for another mission trip so we took him around for a bit of a tour)
in ayuttaya we rented bikes and cruised around lots of old ruins. a really awesome day. bikes are so rad! this is me trying to bunnyhop. but to everyone else, the background is probably more interesting.
nate and i had great fun taking some crazy pics and hopefully not being to disrespectful to the general public. boys and bikes, its a dangerous combination. it was pretty hot though. next time i will definitely take some boardies and go for a swim.

these are some cool stoner japanese chicks i just had to get a photo with!




while at home dad got me to cut down some trees. always fun to be up a tree with a nice big knife. especially in thailand where safety gear is an almost compulsory omission. i can see the value of motorbike helmets though. travelling 80km without one sure does sting your eyes a little!

Some trip pics

they have a really good system where people who are late to meetings/forget their namebadges are punished for their misdeeds and here i am being very much punished.







here i am embarassing myself for general entertainment.







mmmmmm, sticky rice. me being attacked by pare, as chude, shue, and james look on.






full credit to alice for taking a nice photo of our humble camp site.







NZ so needs this. a korean bbq where you sit around a small fire and kinda fry your meat and boil your vegies. extra yummy and a great way to spend our day off.