It was a whirlwind of a few days.  Jetlagged and confused, our guests pushed through and by the end they were already talking about when they may be able to come back next!  It’s been so long since Sara and I have looked at Thailand with “fresh eyes”, so it was a ton of fun to experience those first-responses once again after we first experienced Thailand 5 years ago.

One thing that our guests were able to bring from home was a box of camera equipment that didn’t make the trip over when we moved here last July.  There just wasn’t the space for it then.  But our friends gladly brought what they could fit in their spare suitcase space.  Since then I’ve been charging batteries, brushing up on my camera 101′s, etc.  But even before playing around with my new toys, I was able to pull a few shots out during the time when our friends were here.

…Which brings me to this next Foto Friday…  Both were taken from our visit to the Grand Palace in Bangkok.  We even got to take a river taxi to get there, which Sara and I haven’t done since I swallowed a mouthful of disgusting Chao Phraya water those 5 years ago on a similar boat ride.  Anyways, here’s what I could salvage from the day trip.  And now that I’ve got more gear to grab my attention, let’s all hope for more Foto Fridays to come!  (click on the images to see them at higher resolution)

Grand Palace, Bangkok, Thailand.

Wat Phra Kaew. Thailand's home to the Emerald Buddha. Bangkok.

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The Story of Thai Rice

Read more: Photo gallery: From Thailand’s Rice Bowl to Bangkok’s dinner tables  |  CNNgo.com

As the world’s largest exporter of rice in the world, Thailand is famous for its top quality, long-grain jasmine white rice, prized over the lower grades that are grown in other regions of Asia — and even the United States.

CNNGo headed into the ‘rice bowl’ of central Thailand to a farm outside the town of Khiri Mat in Sukhothai province to see how rice is cultivated, harvested and then shipped to Bangkok and beyond.

From the fields to the warehouses, it’s backbreaking work.

In Central Thailand, pre-germinated seedlings are grown in wet soils and then transplanted to irrigated rice paddies.

Rice Farmers in their bare feet pull out each seedling.

Central Thailand rice farmers grow varieties of rice that yield three crops a year.

Urban sprawl poses an ongoing environmental as well as geographical threat to rice farming.

A rice farmer readies fertilizer for distribution in her field.

After transplanting seedlings into the rice paddy, fertilizers are spread by hand.

A rice farmer proudly shows off her rice seedlings that are ready to be transplanted.

A shop worker bags rice for sale.

Warehouse workers carry 50KG sacks of rice to waiting trucks that will deliver rice to restaurants and canteens.

Rice wholesale workers take a rest between hauling bags to trucks.

The rice will be sold at lower prices to local Sukhothai customers due to the lower quality of the rice and simple packaging.

Higher quality rice is put in nicer bags and sent to the bigger cities like Bangkok and also exported abroad.

The simplest way to serve rice is steamed. This plate of rice at a Bangkok restaurant is served with stir-fried eggplant, seabass, chili and basil.

Rice is also used to make flat noodles, such as those in this dish stir-fried with Chinese broccoli and eggs.

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First off, we finished up our first “semester” in language study.  We’ve been hitting the books hard for 5 months now and it shows.  We are learning as much as our brains will allow us to cram in there!

Children's Christmas song in a Bangkok Church

Secondly, Christmas-time in Thailand and Thai churches is used mostly as a time for outreach.  Where we often use the Christmas season to solemnly reflect on the gift that is Christ, in Thailand we found ourselves handing out tracts and invitations to learn more about Christmas in a neighborhood where a new church plant is getting started, dressing up in all sorts of ridiculous costumes to act out the Christmas story to kids and youth in local schools, watching Thai kids put on a Christmas program, and Sara baking Christmasy things for our neighbors.

Local Thai students line up to learn about Christmas around the world and a bit of English along the way. See the dog lying there? Yeah, that's common here!

Thirdly, we spent nearly a week in Bangkok looking at possible ministry locations for us once we finish up out Thai language studies here in Lopburi.  We met a lot of cool people, Thai pastors with aching hearts for the Thai people, Bangkok universities and university students, just recently started church plants, and got to know several missionaries working in Bangkok quite well.  It was a great time and rejuvenating for us as it is easy to lose track of “what’s next” for us when all we have been doing is cramming new Thai vocab down our brains’ throats!

Christmas decorations at MBK, one of Bangkok's most well known shopping centers

Finally (but not really…  so much more has been happening!), we also took some time during this two-week break from language school to relax and have some time for each other….  AND IT HAS BEEN AWESOME!  While in Bangkok we took the time to watch a movie or two (in English) at a movie theater there.  We walked around and saw the Christmas lights and decorations (yes, despite not believing in Christ, the Thai people really do jump right into the decorations, Santa, light-up snow flakes, etc.).  It was so nice just to spend some time together and have some “us” time.  Despite not yet having kids and ALWAYS being around each other, enough “us” time has still been difficult to find lately…

Here’s a short clip of the commercial side to Thai “Christmas” taken by one of our friends also working in Bangkok.

We’re now back in our home in Lopburi and have a few more days before school starts back up.  We have plenty coming up to keep up just as busy.  The next few months we’ll start back up at the language school, travel to Malaysia to pick up our year-long Religious Affairs visa from the Thai embassy there (Praise God!), spend a week on on a Thai beach as after six-months on the field OMF suggests/strongly urges their workers take a vacation, more Thai studies and finally we will travel to Singapore for a month long Orientation course at OMF’s international headquarters.

So, there you have it.  We hope you all have had a great holiday time with family and friends so far.  So, tell us, what have you been up to?

Here are a few of my favorites:

There are several more that I haven’t posted here but will invite you to see at our Flickr site:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelsarver

So my question for you now is, what do you do to relieve stress?