Progress is a wonderful thing...

We're on Day 4 of our language learning and actually feeling some encouragement!  Our first 3 days were focused on the phonetics of the Thai language and proper pronunciation.  At first, it seemed a bit repetitive and tedious but now as we look back at the last few days, we truly understand the importance of these things.

First day with our new teacher at Araya Language School

We're now able to read Thai words phonetically (not yet in the Thai script... that comes later) and can properly say them.  Its amazing what a difference this makes!  Our teacher, Khruu NiiTaa, has been extremely encouraging and tells us that we're advancing quickly, and very well.  She says that most "farangs" (foreigners) take a long time with the phonetics/pronunciation and can't move on for a while, so we'll take this as a gift from the Lord :)

Its amazing how much we have to throw our own English alphabet out the window in order to grasp this new language.  Suddenly the letter c makes a "j" sound, the letter b makes more of a "p" sound, the letter "k" is supposed to sound more like a "g"... everything is new and feels so backwards to us :)  But we're slowly getting it and excited about our new discoveries.

In other news... one of our first discoveries upon staying in our new home, was the fact that our neighbours have a rooster.  Said rooster awakes at approx. 5am and does not stop telling us its awake until well after 8am.

So, while we were looking for coffee mugs in 'Big C' (Thailand's equivalent to Walmart), we knew it was a prophetic moment when we found these rooster mugs.  We both laughed and agreed we needed to buy them.

I mean, really... if you can't beat 'em, you may as well join 'em, right!? :)

Enjoying our morning rooster routine

Other than that, we continue to buy more things to fill our home and try to unpack a bit more each time we do.  It'll still be a while before we can fully unpack, as we need to purchase at least two more armoires.  Thai homes rarely, if ever, come with closets in the rooms and so, other than the small one our house came with, we have nowhere to hang our things.  Hoping this will be one of our weekend purchases.  I'll add more pictures of our house once I feel it looks picture-worthy.  Right now, its still a 'work-in-progress.' :)

Callie continues to do quite well here and is slowly getting more and more comfortable with the Thai Nanny that cares for her 3 days of the week while we're at school.  She's also learning to get along with her playmate JJ (Andy & Carmen's daughter) a bit better these days (let's just say they're only 6 months apart and still learning to play together :) ) and even decided it was "OK" to hold hands while watching TV the other day.  I definitely had an "awwww" moment when I received this picture from Carmen earlier in the week...

Learning to be friends

Callie-bear

Well, that's all for now.  Thanks to everyone who continues to read our updates and encourage us with your kind words.  We couldn't do this without the support of all of you and really do appreciate you more than you know!  Hope you're all having a wonderful week.