Goodbye Manda

There were a couple or one things I forgot to mention last night, since it was late and I was trying to write fast. Silly me. First thing: I thought this whole Thai obsession with white skin would be kind of exciting when I first came here, because I'm pretty much the whitest person I know (besides maybe Steven Leadbetter). But I'm finding that this obsession of theirs almost comes out looking like racism, even though it's like racism towards their own race, if that makes any sense. So many people ask me, jokingly I think, if they can have my skin. Or they will ask me what did I do to deserve such nice skin. Then they will go and say they hate their skin. Yesterday morning, some of my class mates asked me if I prefer white or black skin. I was like, "umm I'm not racist, all skin is good." Patch told me that a couple of years ago there was an international teacher at the school who was black. All the students didn't like that, and a couple of students actually threw a bunch of white powder on him. When he asked them why they did that, they told him because they needed him to be white or else they didn't want him as a teacher. I'm also noticing that Thai tend to be very blunt when they talk, or at least it comes out that way when they translate into English. Maybe they just don't realize they're being rude, I don't know. A couple of weeks ago though, Cherry asked me right to my face what I think of her. I told her I thought she was nice and I like being her host sister......

Today the only classes I had were Thai Music, and Thai Language with my AFS Coordinator. My Thai Music teacher wasn't in her classroom when I got there, so I waited about 20 minutes, and she didn't show up, so I just left. For my Thai Language class, my coordinator had me practice writing out certain sentences in Thai, such as "My name is..." and "I love you." I think my writing got worse the more I practiced, but I've finally memorized how to write out my Thai name. Only my first name though. My host families last name, which I have to use as my Thai name, is super long and difficult, even for Thai people. I asked my AFS coordinator if she knew when the next AFS camp is, to find out if it is the same weekend as the ballet, and it's not! I was super excited about that, and told Pailin, so now we can buy tickets. However, it turns out the camp is actually next weekend, which also happens to be the weekend I was planning on going rafting with Beam, so hopefully we will be able to re-book it. I'm pretty excited about getting to see my AFS friends. Today all of the Americans (I think about 40 of them) who were only here for the summer program left. I really wanted to go to the airport to say goodbye to Manda, but there was no way I could, so I just phoned her up and said goodbye. It was sad. I already know it's going to be really hard when I eventually have to leave Thailand, because at least when I left Canada I was only saying goodbye for 10 months, but when I leave Thailand I will be saying goodbye forever. So now I no longer have a native English speaker living nearby, who I can talk to and gossip about the weird Thai ways.

Since Patch wasn't at school, and I had no afternoon classes, and I wasn't really looking forward to spending the whole afternoon doing nothing, I went with Pailin to her school where she was learning a Thai dance routine to perform in front of her school next week, when her classes begin. I tried joining in on the dance routine, but it was way above my league. It's just all the crazy hand movements I find hard. Thai dancers actually have to practice stretching their hands back from an early age to be able to have correct hand position, and well let's just say mine aren't quite stretched enough yet. I thought Pailin did a very good job dancing though. I met a couple more teachers at her school. Whenever anyone finds out that I'm going to Mattayom Watnongchok School, they look at me like "OMG YOU POOR THING" with a somewhat disguisted look on their face. One teacher even told me I should just go to their school. I kind of laughed it off, but really was thinking, I came to Thailand to learn Thai culture, not go to a British School. They just all seem appauled that I actually study at a Thai school. Now I'm really starting to think that Pailin's idea about bringing students from my school to her school, and students from her school to my school for a day, so they can each see the different education systems, is a really good idea. I think these international students need to realize that the Thai students are teenagers just like themselves as well. Although their parents may not be able to afford sending them to a fancy school, doesn't mean they are bad kids.

I just found out yesterday, that while I was under the impression that this semester ended October 12th, it actually ends somewhere around September 12th, which means I only have a few more weeks left of school before my month long break! I'm kind of excited about that, because hopefully it will give me a chance to see a bit more of Thailand, instead of only being able to do so on weekends. However, once this semester is over, the student teachers will no longer be student teaching at my school. I'm kind of sad about that, because although I don't see the student teachers all that often, when I do they are always really nice to me, and they are really funny, and just fun to be around.

Apparently I have to go play badminton in about an hour. I'm not too excited about that. I played badminton yesterday, and I think it was enough for me for one week. I'm not sure what else I'll be doing tonight. Hopefully I will get to read some more of Pillars of the Earth. Due to Harry Potter watching, I haven't been able to read it in the last few days, and I'm really anxious to find out what happens!