Life has been rather busy for the past few days. Thursday I got most of the remaining immunizations, and yesterday I submitted my passport application. Still haven’t had much time to study Thai or Thailand. But I’m going to start studying Thai for an hour a day. The first major hurdle to tackle is the pronunciation. I need to get some tapes for that… The grammar is apparently simple. Actually, at the moment I know very, very little about it. But that will change shortly. I’ll need to set up a regular, scheduled study program, since otherwise I’ll become quite overwhelmed with the massive amount of information to study. All other languages are on hold till I get back. I’ll set up a mission page on here before long, and a Thai page as well.

I’m thinking about getting laser eye surgery before I leave. Pros: I wouldn’t have to worry about glasses or contacts (especially in the rain), and the cost would probably be much less than the cost of glasses and contacts over the next forty years of my life. Cons: the immediate cost is expensive ($900 per eye, I think), my eyes may not have stabilized yet (I may not have stopped growing yet), and there’s always the possibility that something could go wrong and I could end up blind. If I were relying solely on my own analytical powers, this would be a rather difficult decision. But thankfully I have a resource that is infinitely useful: prayer. The Lord knows what is best for me.

I don’t know how long my laptop will last, so I’m putting together a computer from scratch, to act as a backup. And once it’s working, I can send in the laptop for repairs. It will be very, very nice to leave for two years and not have to worry about computers. (At least my own, that is.)

Oh, in the excitement of getting my mission call, I completely forgot to mention that I got my grades a couple of days ago. A’s in all my classes except for Comparative Literature 202H, where I got an A-. (I’m quite pleased with that, actually, since I was expecting a B- at best.)

Still no word yet on the MStar job. I suspect I’ll have to look elsewhere. I need to take advantage of my unemployed status and put all this free time to good use. I’m writing an article for the UHEA Right at Home newsletter. And I’m doing some more artwork for the BYU-UUG website (icons).