Ajan Kristen

Today I went with Patch to her old elementary school, to help her give presentations about her exchange to America. I kind of felt a little bad though, because although I was mainly just there to help her out, all of the students ended up asking me more questions than her, except she had to translate between us. They asked some of the most random questions too. We had to present to 4 different groups throughout the day. The first group mostly just asked me questions about my favorite Thai food, my favorite Thai fruit, if I have a boyfriend (or girlfriend?) in Canada, and they even asked me to sing my national anthem. Well, they didn't just ask me, they kind of bullied me into singing it. At least I warned them to begin with that I'm a horrible singer, so I didn't even have to sing the whole thing :P However, the last couple of groups asked me more questions which were about Canada in general, which I think was more the aim of the whole thing. Patch then showed each group a slideshow entitled "One Year in the USA", as well as a video of her Easter Egg Hunting, and getting ready for Prom. I enjoyed watching them too, and it seemed like she had a really fun year, although she admitted to me it didn't always seem like she was having a ton of fun during the year, when it was time for her to come back to Thailand she thought back on everything she did, and missed it all alot. So I'm just hoping that's how I feel when it's time for me to go home. The teacher whose classes we were presenting too was really nice though. We went and ate lunch with her at another teacher's house nearby, and she even took all the chillis out of the food before she served it to us for me. When we were done all of our presentations, the teacher's (who I am to call "Aaw") husband came and picked Aaw, Patch, and I up from the school, and the four of us went to Carrefour to eat at KFC. They were both very nice people. Aaw gave me her cell phone number, and they both said I can phone them anytime I want if I'm having any troubles. By the way, they both speak very good English (she is the English teacher at the school, and I think her English is better than any of the English teachers at my schools English (my that was a weird sentence)), although the husband's accent sounded more French to me than Thai. When we ordered our food, Aaw told me not to worry, that she would pay for it all, because in Thailand the parents look out for the children and pay for everything for them until they are married, and she considers me and Patch to be her new daughters :) I didn't really know before that the parents here look after their children until they are married, but I guess it explains while all of my host brothers still live at home (even though Kla doesn't actually sleep here, he always comes here for meals and what not) even though they're all in their twenties. Patch pointed out though, what would happen if the kid never gets married? After we ate, we went and picked Cherry up from the school, and then they drove us home, so Patch actually finally knows where I live now. Unfortunately, Patch has to go to help teach at some sort of camp this weekend (which she had forgotten about until today), so I wont be going with her to the baby shower thing. Hopefully I will still be able to go with Ajan Supanee shopping then, although I'm not sure if it's still all a go, because since I wasn't at school today I didn't get to ask her about it. I spent the rest of the day just reading on the couch. My host Aunt, and her friend (although I'm pretty sure they're lesbians, but I don't want to ask) came over for dinner. I tried to explain to them that I already ate at KFC, and wasn't hungry, but since the new marble dining table arrived today, they were set on making me eat me with, so I just at "nit noy" (a little bit). After dinner when I was reading on the couch some more, my host dad came in and told me that when I go back to Canada he will be sad because I will feel like a part of his family. I honestly don't really feel too much like a part of their family yet, but who knows, maybe I will in a few months. I just thought it was nice of him to say that though, because I honestly don't really see him very much. Since tomorrow is apparently 6 months after Chinese New Year, we have to "pay the forefathers", which I don't really understand, but I think it maybe involves putting food on graves or something? All I know is I'll have to wake up at 6 to be ready at 7 to go pay some ancestors. So, I think I will be going to sleep now. Amazingly, Cherry is actually going to bed now too, at a normal hour. By the way, I spent about half an hour trying to take a shower, because of that stupid gecko which now lives in the bathroom, and he was crawling all over the walls, so everytime he would move, I would move to the opposite side of the bathroom, and if that wasn't where the shower was, I would just stand there and wait for the gecko to move. Oh how I miss Canada and it's non-lizardness, and hot showers, which are seperate from the rest of the bathroom. One more thing, this morning when I had to stand in line at school before going with Patch, a teacher was beating a student. That's one thing that really disturbs me, and I don't think I'll ever get used to it. Cherry was asking me if I've ever been punished by a teacher like that, and I tried to explain to her that no, that is illegal in Canada for teacher's to do that, but I don't think she understood me.