3-2-1-BUNGEE!

I was supposed to meet some AFCers this morning for a run, but they all must have been kind of tired from the day before because no one ended up coming down. I decided to go out by myself instead-always a good way to start off the week. When I got back, I went though the normal Sunday routine of getting ready for church. We all loaded up in the taxies and trucks at about 9am to get to Sansai for a five church fellowship service. Since the Aggies are here, we definitely draw some attention with our four trucks filled with Farongs (a.k.a. white people). Going to Sansai was really cool because we all got to witness church unity and fellowship in action. It is really cool how involved and close knit the churches are here. They make Sundays a day full of fellowshipping with each other instead of logging in their two hours and then retiring for a nap or football game like we do in the U.S. Kelly preached in Thai, and he did a wonderful job! I was sitting by a teenage girl named Butter from Payap, and she translated the sermon for me. He talked about Peter and John comparing themselves to each other and being distracted from the bigger picture. After church, the Aggies performed their song routine. One of the songs they sing is the King Song . . . Chaio! We ate lunch at the church, and I got a chance to meet some of the members from the other churches. One of the people I met was Janholm-a lady who teaches Thai to a lot of the interns here. I got her phone number, and hopefully I can take some lessons from her this summer. After lunch, we all headed back to the zone. I love car rides here because you get to play games and sing songs and just have lots of fun getting to know each other better. At the zone, we split up into two groups: the bungee jumping group and the non-bungee jumping group. I was in the bungee jumping group! YAY! As we drove closer to the site, I got more and more nervous. Once we got there, we all filled out the necessary paperwork to jump. When they asked for volunteers to go first, I was the first one to raise my hand, and they sent me over to get all strapped up. There were actually surprisingly few straps required for jumping off of a 150 foot platform. They seemed to have it all under control though-granted I could not understand a word they were saying the entire time I was getting hooked up. When I was ready, I hopped on the elevator cart, and they took me up. I couldn’t really understand they guy telling me what to do, which didn’t really help my nerves at all. We were at the top in no time, and I stepped up to the edge. I definitely should not have looked down. However, when he said 3-2-1-bungee!, I took a lead of faith and jumped off. That was definitely one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had! The rest of the afternoon was spent watching the remainder of our group take their turn at bungee jumping. One of the AFC Bangkok girls wanted to go at the end, but she was kind of scared, so I volunteered to go with her again. The second time was definitely a lot easier. Once everyone had gone, we all loaded up and drove to Walking Street, which is kind of like the Night Bazaar on steroids. It has what seems like miles of stalls with all kinds of food and souvenirs. Before we started our shopping extravaganza, we refueled at Mike’s-a hamburger restaurant. That was one of the best burgers I have had in a while. After scouring the shops, we all met up at Starbucks to show off our loot before heading back to the zone. Melanie, Katie, and I all decided to watch a movie that we had bought at Walking Street the night before. It was kind of nice to chill out for a while with them; the Aggies run a pretty tight schedule. I eventually made it to bed-much later than I thought, resulting in another night of too little sleep.