HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Just thought I'd start this post out with a HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE! But honestly, if I didn't already know it was October 31st.. I would have no idea it is Halloween time at all. Meaning there is absolutely no celebration of Halloween here. No jack-o-lanterns, no costumes, no candy. If I would have seen a pumpkin to buy I would have bought it and taught my host family all about pumpkin carving, but alas, no pumpkins to be found :( It honestly still feels like July, with how hot it is here. Except for the fact that it gets dark at around 6 (it's like summer weather but wintery short days mixed together, and it completely confuses me). Anyways, I hope you all have fun dressing up and being crazy. Maybe do an extra little bit of trick-or-treating just for me? And of course send me all pictures of your costumes..

Today after school Patch helped show me how to go home by van.. She showed me by actually coming home with me. And while we were at my house, she asked my host parents if I can go to a wedding with her tomorrow. I had actually mentioned it to them before, but Patch thought it would be good if she met them in person first so they would feel better about letting me go with her. They said yes... sooo tomorrow I will be going to a Muslim Wedding (and not just to eat dinner this time!) It shall be exciting, I just hope I don't embarass myself too much by being the stupid foreigner who is dressed inappropriatly and doesn't know all of the customs. I never really realize that Muslims have so many different customs in addition to all the Thai ones I learned when I was first here. Instead of wai-ing and saying "Sa-Wat-Dee", Muslims touch their hands to the persons hands who they are greeting, then kind of bring their fingers up to their nose and say "Ah-Salam". Yesterday in school I actually went to a class with Patch for studying about Islam. I didn't understand anything the teacher was saying of course, but I tried to be polite and held my hands in the prayer like fashion that all the students were doing while they said their Arabic prayers. I had previously known about the whole Muslims not eating meat scenario (although I'm still not sure of the reason behind it), but now I've learned a new custom they have: they are not allowed to touch the saliva of a dog. Patch tried to explain to me the reasoning, and from what I understood it is because dogs somtimes lick unpleasant things and therefore their saliva is dirty, which I understand... but I'm still not sure why there is a rule within a religion about it. Patch told me that saliva from cats is cosidered okay, because cats are smaller than dogs. I didn't say anything to her, but I was thinking, what about dogs like Belle or Dookie (miniature pinschers) who are actually smaller than some cats?

On Sunday morning I apparently must wake up really early to go swimming with my host sister. While I want to go swimming, I'm not so excited about waking up to go swimming at 7 a.m. Also not excited about my host family finding out that I have a tattoo... I love my tattoo and all... but I'm just not sure how much they will. My host parents are so nice though.. They told me that I don't have to wash my own uniform, since I only have 2 sets of my uniform, it is ridiculous for me to have to wash 1 set everyday. My host mom or host aunt or whoever will do it so that it can be washed with my sisters uniforms and wont be such a waste of water. I will have to iron my own uniform though, which I agreed too. They also have offered to buy me 1 more set of my uniform. I think because they think 2 sets isn't enough. Which I must agree with, because this way they don't have to be washed EVERYDAY.

Not much more to report about the last couple of days. I've just been going to school and going to classes with Patch, which is sometimes quite boring.. But I've been carrying around a novel with me to read ("The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao", I'm LOVING it... can't put it down), and sometimes one of my friends passes me notes in English. A few of the girls in my class have actually taken to bringing their English conversation books along to class with them so that they can make conversation with me. And although I must admit my Thai isn't as good as most of the other exchange students, my classmates seem to be impressed with how much I've learned since last semester. I can have simple conversations with them, sometimes without Patch's help.. Yay me!

School Days (Yet Again...)

Not too much has happened in the last couple of days, besides the fact that I've managed to get through a couple days of school in a foreign language! Things so far are actually going alot better this semester. Now that I can speak a bit more Thai, it's easier for me to have (simple conversations, I'll admit) conversations with friends (and yes, I am making new Thai friends!) So far I've just been going to all of Patch's classes with her, although once my schedule gets made up, I will go with her to some classes and then go to my own private classes every once in a while. In Thai schools, the whole grade is split up into different classes (each class "majoring" in a certain subject area, and with about 30 people in it). All the people in one class have exactly the same schedule.. Patch's class is majoring in English, which is good for me because it means they have alot of English classes, and I can actually understand what is going on! I can also understand what they're learning in math, since it's math I've done before (pretty much just graphing things like x + y = 5 , x > 0). In all the other classes I just read, or pass notes with one of my friends, names Bee, in really broken down English. It's quite fun. I actually prefer just being bored in class like this to spending all my time isolated in the compute room like I did last semester, because this way I'm at least interacting a bit with my classmates and making more friends.

Yesterday was my host dads birthday, although I'm not sure how old he now is... We all went out for dinner (we being the whole, huge, extended family) to one of those Korean BBQ places that I used to hate but now that I can use chopsticks I'm starting to enjoy. There is just a huuuge buffet full of raw meat, so you just choose the meat you want, and then cook it on a BBQ type thing that is in the center of your table. I think it's more of just a way to socialize, since it takes a while while you wait for the meat to cook, so everyone just sits around and talks for hours and hours. We got to the restaurant at about 5 and stayed until 9. When we got back home, I just took a shower and went to bed, and DIDN'T iron my school uniform (naughty me). This morning I didn't have enough time to iron it, but I totally thought that it looked fine anyways and nobody would notice it. I guess I was wrong. First thing Cherry said to me this morning when she saw me was, "you didn't iron?" These school uniforms (and the fact that now I have to do my own laundry (which I'm not complaining about for the most part, just the part that has to do with uniforms)) are going to be the death of me. I only have 2 copies of my regular uniform. Which means I have to wash one everynight. But since the shirt is white, and the skirt is dark blue, I have to do two loads of laundry everynight just to wash it.. It just seems like such a waste of water to me.

I must be going to class now though. I have "religion" class. Apparently during this class everyone who is Buddhist goes to one room, while everyone who is Muslim goes to another room. Today I'll be going to the Muslim room with Patch... Shall be interesting.

Moving Families

Yesterday afternoon, at about 4:30, my Advisor, Rose from AFS, and P'Jeed from AFS all showed up at my new home to take me back to my old one, where we met up with my Coordinator, and the vice-principal from my school. We went into the office with my old host parents, where I had to kneal down (I don't think that's the right spelling of kneal at all :S maybe it's just my English that's going downhil....) and give them a jasmine bracelet (kind of like the ones from mother's day) and say, "Thank you for welcoming me into your home" to them. They apparently both said (although I can never be sure because they said it in Thai and someone translated..) that they still wish to see me every now and then, and that I am always welcome to go back there and visit. My old host mom gave me a blank CD for me to burn pictures I had taken of us onto it for her. Then they all stayed in the office talking while I went to pack up (and by pack up, I pretty much mean just throw all my crap into the nearest bag I could find). In my drawer I found the picture frame I had bought for my old host mom back in July when we had the whole misunderstanding about when her birthday was (my Coordinator told me it was in July, but then ended up being in December), along with the picture I had printed of me and her on my first day living with them. When I was all done packing, I left this picture in the frame on my "desk" for her or someone else to find. When I was done packing, we all ate dinner together in the kitchen with my old host parents. Nothing too much exciting happened then. They all just talked in Thai, and I ate. When that was over with, P'Keng, P'Kla, and P'Klang helped me bring all of my stuff down and load it into the car. I said a quick goodbye to the three of them (quick because my whole "entourage" was in a hurry to go), gave my ex-host mom a hug goodbye, and then left.

I never expected it, but it was kind of sad moving out of there, esepcially with them being all so nice about it at the end. I just kept reminding myself that although they were nice, it wasn't the right situation for me to live in. It's not as though they were mean to me, just that they were all so busy with their own lives that there wasn't really enough time for them to share or show me anything. I also think I will really miss P'Kla and P'Beam. Hopefully I will still be able to see Beam once in a while, as she was one of my best friends here. When we were in the South with Rose, she asked us all who our favourite person in Thailand was, and I told her Beam was mine.

Also interesting... My Coordinator told me that at first (while I was in the South, I'm assuming) they found me a new, different host family, but that my new host sister Sun-Yair (not Sun-Mah.. my bad) wouldn't have it. She wanted me to live with her family. So I guess it's because of her that I'm living where I'm living now. When I got back to their house, they cleaned out some closet space for me, and I unpacked my clothes and most of my other things. I still have so much crap I have to deal with though.... Cherry phoned me in the evening and asked me if I was okay. I'm not really sure why she called, but it was nice of her anyways. Maybe they are worried that I won't like my new family as much as them or something. Who knows, maybe now that we don't actually have to live together, we will be friends.

Today is my first day back at school (which is where I'm writing this from). I woke up all early in the morning, showered, put on my uniform, ate breakfast, and then my new host parents drove me to school. Oh, have I ever mentioned before how in Thailand there seems to be a lack of car seats for babies? So on the way to school my little baby host brother was just sitting on the back seat next to me? I scared the shit out of me, to be honest. It's bad enough that people don't wear seatbelts here... but babies just roaming freely around cars... I dunno. I got to school just in time to line up and sing the national anthem. Luckily I was able to recognize some faces, and ended up standing with the right class. Yay me! Normally last semester I would just follow Cherry to the right place. After assembly, I came to the computer room (surprise!) which is where I'm writing this from. I don't have my schedule for this semester yet, so I'm just waiting around here hoping my Coordinator will show up and give it to me. Apparently this semester I will actually have to go to classes (like math or whatever other subjects) with everyone else in my class, and only have special classes (such as my Thai language for beginners) on my own.

Poutine

So, last night I succesfully made poutine using only a stove/microwave! Although, I must admit, my new host mom helped me out a bit.. She deep fried all of the french fries, while I made the gravy in a pot on the stove, melted the cheese in the microwave, and assembled it all together. It was really nice to just have some cooking/bonding time with her, and it was nice to be able to share a bit of Canadian culture with my host family. I thought the food turned out pretty tasty, and my one host cousin ate a bunch and kept telling me it was "ah-roy" (delicious), but I'm not sure how much everyone else liked it. I mostly just enjoyed the fact though that they were curious enough about my culture to even ask me to cook some Canadian food for them. I lived with my old host family for about 3 1/2 months, and not once did they ever ask me to do something like that. My new family is also really eager to share with me their culture. This morning, my host mom woke me up at 8 30, and asked me to go to the market with her to buy ingredients for cooking lunch. First of all, I didn't even know that this market we went to existed, because nobody from my old family took me there. It's right in the middle of Nongchok, and kind of hard to miss it.. My new family was quite surprised that I hadn't been there before. When we got back from the market, my host mom had me help her cook "tom-yum-goon" (Thai Spicy Soup) and "kai-teeow" (omelette). It was nice to learn how to cook some Thai food, although I think I may have forgotten all the ingredients/steps already.

This afternoon I have to go back to my old host families house with my Advisor, my Coordinator, Rose, and possibly some other AFS people (I'm not really sure who all will be coming) to tell my family that I won't be moving back in with them. The story we're sticking to is that I WANT to stay with them, but AFS (esepcially AFS in Canada) thinks it is unsafe for me to stay there. This is partially a lie, because I'm actually feeling so much more happier with my new host family, and really wouldn't want to be living back with my old one. Things weren't horrible there, but they weren't amazing either, and now I realize just how much I was missing out on by living with them... I was spending waaaayyy too much time just sitting in my room reading or on my computer, when I could have been out doing things. Even just learning how to cook Thai food with my host mom or watching movies with my host sister. That NEVER happened with my old family. Maybe it was my fault for not being more outgoing or willing to offer to cook for them for example, but I think alot of it had to do with them just genuinely not seeming interested in my culture. For example, the time when Rachel and I went to Chinatown for dinner with my old host parents, and my host dad refused to eat coconut shrimp because he said it was European and cheap. He would only eat the shark fin dish because it was Chinese and expensive. I talked to both my advisor and my coordinator on the phone yesterday, and they both told me I should phone to Cherry or P'Kla or whoever I want, and explain to them I wont be living with them beacuse of AFS ect. But I really don't want to, so I haven't. My main reason being that with my lack of Thai, and their lack of English, they wouldn't really understand me if I tried to get this point across to them, esepcially not just over the phone. Also, I don't think they are really concerned with the fact that I haven't moved back in with them yet as nobody from that family has tried phoning me or contacting me in any way (this is assuming that AFS hasn't yet talked to them about me moving out (because, afterall, that is what we are going there today to do), and that they were expecting me to go home last Thursday after the Optional Trip). Anyways, hopefully I will be able to get all of my stuff today, as I really need certain things such as my uniform. I didn't go to school today (first day school is in session after the holidays) because of the fact that I don't have my uniform with me.. so the sooner I can get it, the sooner I can go to school.

The other day I was thinking about how strange (ironic maybe?) it is that I came into this exchange expecting to live with a nice Buddhist family.. and I would learn about Buddhism and everything to do with Thai culture, but now I've ended up being much happier with my new Muslim family than I ever was with my first Buddhist family. I think back to when I had my interview with an AFS volunteer in February, when I first applied to come on exchange. She asked me all these different questions about what I would do if I was placed in a very religious Christian family, or if I was with a Muslim family who made me cover my head etc. I remember telling her that I wasn't really worried about these things, because I was going to Thailand, and almost 100% of the population in Thailand was Buddhist, and Buddhism was a religion I was really excited about learning. I can just imagine her laughing or something at me now that I'm with a Muslim family.. but the thing is, I'm okay with the idea of her laughing at me, because I realize how foolish it was of me to think that I could only be happy on exchange if I was with a Buddhist family.

Quick Update

Not much has happened since I wrote my last post yesterday, but I thought I'd just write a quick update to let you all know I'm doing good and settling in with my new family. They have quite a big collection of English DVDs, and last night they brought them all into my room and said I could watch one. There ended up being a problem with the TV though, and there was no sound coming from it. So my new host dad hauled in a whole new TV from another room in the house and hooked it all up for me.. then today when we went out shopping they let me pick out some more DVDs to buy (mind you they were all cheap pirated copies.. but that is all people in Thailand actually buy when it comes to DVDs). Also, they are all alot more interested in Canadian culture than my last family was. They were asking me about true Canadian food, and I said that we don't really have any, as everything we eat pretty much consists of Italian food, or American food, British food, Chinese food, etc. I told them they only thing we really have that is truly Canadian is poutine. So now I will be cooking (me cooking!) poutine for them tonight. While we were shopping today at The Mall, we stopped at the super market and I picked out some french fries, cheese (I didn't really know what exact kind of cheese to get though, so I went with white cheddar... hopefully it turns out okay), and a packet of gravy that you just add water too (I had to make sure it wasn't pork gravy). I have a feeling this meal is going to turn out horribly wrong, esepcially because all I really have to cook with is a stovetop with a wok. I'm not even sure if they have regular pots. This added to the fact that I am a horrible cook... well it will be interesting to say the least. Must go now though as my host family is wanting to teach me some game.. not really sure what it's all about. But they are convinced that it is better for me to get outside and play a game or something than to just sit inside on the computer all day.. and I really couldn't agree more with them. Cheerio for now!

Optional Trip + New Family

So, I am now back from the Optional Trip to the South, and am with my new host family, although all of my belongings (besides the clothes I took with me to the South) are still at my old host families house. Sometime in the next couple of days I will have to go back there and pack up all my things, which I'm not really looking forward to because of the awkwardness/tension that will be there. On the bright side, my new host family, which happens to be the same family I stayed with the night before the Optional Trip, seems very nice. I already think that things will be alot better for me here. They live in Nongchok as well, so I think I will still be going to the same school. My new family is Muslim (I'm not sure if this means I will be going to Mosque with them and all these things, but I do know it means I won't be eating pork for 7 months), and my new host dad is actually my Advisor's brother. I will be sharing a bedroom with my new little host sister (her name is "Sun-ma", but I'm not really sure how old she is). I also have two younger host brothers, one who is maybe around 9ish (I'm not really sure), and another one who is only 1 year old. He is so cute, but he is kind of scared of me, I think because he's just not used to seeing foreigners. I think (well I'm hoping) that it will benefit my Thai language to have little siblings around, because like all little kids, they are very curious and are always wanting to ask me things. But since they can't really speak English, they always just ask me in Thai, which forces me to speak in Thai.

Last Friday, before we headed to the South, Elisabeth and I went to help out at an English Camp which was being held in Bangkok. English Camps are quite popular in Thailand. It's pretty much just where students go for a few days and learn English. The one we went to was full of kids from ages 5-15, and it was pretty much a gongshow just with kids running around and not really listening. I was feeling not really in the mood to be putting up with all of it, just because of all the drama going on with my host family situation and what not. Not knowing where I would be living when we got back from the South. However, the family who I spent Thursday night with (same family I am now living with) had offered to me that when I got back from the South I could live with them. So I did know that if AFS could find nothing else for me, I would at least have this family to go home to. There were three other exchange students (all German) who had been working at this English camp all week. In the evening when all the kids went home, us five students went with Ajarn Rose to the South. We went by van, and I don't remeber much of the journey as it was at night and I slept... When we got to the resort in the town of Prachuap Khiri Khan, I just fell right back asleep. Annika (Germany) met us at the resort, so in total we were 6 exchange students. 5 Germans, and then me.

We spent the next couple of days just hanging around the sleepy little town of Prachuap, eating Thai food, and going to the beach. A short drive from town there was a gorgeous beach (well the beach itself wasn't really so pretty, but it was all kind of in a lagoon type thing, and looking out to the water you saw all these beautiful cliffs to each side, and an island in the middle). We all got pretty sunburned on the first day, despite putting on sunscreen and even going swimming Thai style (in t-shirt and shorts). Early on Monday morning, Rose and 3 of the German girls had to head back to the English camp, but Elisabeth, Annika, and I stayed in Prachuap. We continued our routine of just bumming around at the beach, talking a bit with random Thai people (it was weird, I've never felt like a "beach beauty" before, but here since we were virtually the only foreginers (or the only young foreigners) all of the Thais would stare at us and want to talk.. which most of the time just consisted of them yelling random English words that they've learned in school at us ("HELLO!" "SHUT THE DOOR!" "SIT DOWN!" "I MISS YOU!")). On Monday while at the beach I accidently dropped my cell phone in the water. I was planning on getting a new one soon anyways, since my texting wasn't working on anything on it. On Tuesday we decided to take a train to the nearby tourist town of Hua Hin (where I ended up buying myself a new cell phone). Let's just say that the train ride was an experience. But when the ticket only cost 19 baht, I guess you can expect that the conditions wouldn't be too great. Basically it was just crowded with people (so crowded that we had to stand for the first half of the journey) and smelt like puke. We took a bus home instead of going back by train. While in Hua Hin, we just went to the beach for a bit (but didn't go swimming because we had no swim wear), but spent most of the day at a mall eating Western food and shopping. We went to the Pizza Company, Dairy Queen, KFC, and Swensens. We spent more on food than on transportation that day, but it was fun. Elisabeth and Annika esepcially enjoyed it because Hua Hin is pretty much the German capital of Thailand. There were soooo many tourists there (I think the foreigner to Thai ratio was greater there than it is in Bangkok!), and they were ALL German. It amazed me. I think by the time I go back to Canada my German will be just as good as my Thai.

I don't really know what else to say about the Optional Trip. It was basically just a nice, relaxing time. It was nice to just get away from all of the host family drama for a bit, lay on the beach, and hang out with other exchange students. Yesterday Elisabeth and I came back to Bangkok by bus. I met up with my coordinator and she brought me to my new home, since I arrived here kind of late at night, I pretty much just went to sleep. This morning while I was eating breakfast I visited a bit with my new host parents, and some random guy named Ron (I'm not really sure how he is related to my new host family) who went to an international school in Thailand and speaks amazingly good English. Although because he learned British English, he keeps being confused when I pronounce words such as "dirty" like "dirdy". I never really noticed all these weird things about my accent or about English in general until I came here. To me, English was always just the language I grew up learning, and it always just made sense to me. But now I have people asking me all these questions about things they are learning in English that don't make sense to them, and I am finding I can't explain to them the answers, because I just know how to say these things in English, but I don't know why we say them like this. For example, one of the German girls was asking me about the word "already" and how to use it in a sentence. She wanted to say, "she already leave Thailand," but I told her the proper way to say it is "she already left Thailand," so we agreed that to use the word "already" you should conjugate the verb in the past tense. But then I told this girl that her English, "is already good." She pointed out to me that I just used it in present tense.......

I'm not sure what I'll be doing for the rest of the day today. Right now I feel though like I wish I could just fast forward a couple of weeks to when I'm feeling alot more at home living in this new house with these new people... They are extemely nice, but it just always takes a little bit of time to adjust to new living arrangements.

Updates

There have been a few interesting things happening here in the last couple of days. This post is not intended to get people to worry about me, only to let you guys all know what is up.

On Tuesday in the afternoon there were a bunch of men at my host families place installing some kind of video camera security system type thing. It's all hooked up to the tv so that if you turn on one certain channel, you can see all different areas of the house. I don't think I should go into much detail about it on the internet though. Let's just say that it kind of freaked me out a little. Mostly just because of the implications surrounding the fact that my host family feels the need to install this kind of system.

On yesterday afternoon (Wednesday), I was sitting in my bedroom and I heard quite a loud noise that sounded like a gunshot. I tried to not think much of it, figuring that if it was something bad, my host family would come and get me. So I kind of forgot about it, and then about an hour or so later, I was watching TV, and Pailin came in (uninvited - she said she tried to phone me but my phone didn't ring...) and asked me what was going on with all the police outside. I had no idea there were even police outside, so I changed the TV to the special security camera channel, and sure enough there were a bunch of police outside of my house. We kind of just got caught up in watching TV, and didn't really worry about it, until P'Klang came in,and Pailin and him talked in Thai for a bit, about the whole situation I'm guessing. She told me that apparently the loud noise I had heard was a bomb that went off outside of our house, and that apparently my host dad has been receiving threats (I'm not really sure who from.) She told me that I am completely safe here, and that the only one who needs to be worried about the situation is my host dad. Well, honestly I don't feel exactly safe. The bomb that went off yesterday was a small one, but still it was BOMB, and although nobody was hurt, there could always be a larger one coming. So I contacted a few different people, and this morning my advisor and my coordinator came and picked me up from my host families place. I will spend the night at my advisors house, and then tomorrow I am off to the South with AFS for the Optional Trip until October 23. One of the AFS ladies I talked to today said that while I am gone she will work with my advisor and see if they came find me a new place to stay. They said it was up to me on whether I want to stay with my current host family or not. I told them that although my family is nice, I don't think this is an appropriate situation for an exchange student to be placed in. Someone told me I can just wait until I get back from the South and then move back in with my family, since things will probably have settled down by then, and then another person told me I will probably change families permanently. So, at this point I'm not exactly sure what is happening, I'm just feeling glad I can go to the South for a bit, maybe talk to the other exchange students about it all, and give AFS chance to sort this all out for me.

Thanksgiving Take Two

Not much interesting happened today. Pailin came over for a bit in the afternoon and we watched some TV together and talked. In the evening Marissa from America phoned me to wish me a Happy Thanksgiving (since today is actual Thanksgiving Day, although I'm pretty sure my family ate their Turkey Dinner last night), which was really nice of her, and totally made my day. I don't think my host family is even aware of the fact that it is a holiday in Canada. I would tell them, but they've all been very busy and not really home much since I got back from Ayutthaya due to all the political business here. Yesterday when Pailin was over she told me something about how my host dad was at a meeting while there were riots going on, and in order to escape from the building he had to jump out of a window and then run to a car (while the police shielded him)... Although who knows what actually happened for sure.

Thanksgiving

Since today (Sunday) is the day that everyone in Canada will be cooking/enjoying their delicious Turkey Dinners, I thought I would just inform you all of what my Thanksgiving dinner consisted of. I ate rice with a spicy beef dish, some weird Thai hot dogs with the mayonaise type stuff in them, a dish with cauliflower and some kind of meat, a dish with cabbage and some kind of meat, and an apple for dessert.

I spent this morning talking to my family on the phone, and friends from back home on MSN. In the afternoon Pailin came over for a visit, and we just sat on the couch and talked about different things. It was nice because I haven't seen her in a very long time. Overall, it was nice to just have a relaxing day to catch up with people from back home, as well as a friend from Thailand.

Here is a picture I took yesterday while waiting for Elisabeth and Charlotte in front of Rose's school. I noticed that right next to the busy Bangkok street, there was a person sitting and fishing in the dingy ditch water. This is Thailand. Expensive or modern things right next to poor or traditional things.

Ayutthaya OR Thai Massage Course OR Kristen and the Germans

Ok, here I go:

Overall I had a really fun (sanook maak) time in Ayutthaya. My days there pretty much consisted of waking up at 9 a.m., showering, going to a nearby market to buy something for breakfast (which involved running across a huge street whenever the traffic was minimal), studying Thai massage for a couple of hours, going out for lunch either to the market or to a nearby Thai restaurant, studying Thai massage for a couple of more hours, then either going to TESCO LOTUS to go shopping/eating or making several "sev runs" to the nearby 7-11 for slurpees (which the Germans have all been deprived of until now) until it was time for bed. We would also quite often watch movies on my laptop at night, after we discovered we could buy cheap copies of DVDs at the local night market.

We had one day free from studying, and we spent it going to an elephant farm type thing (we were planning to go elephant riding, but it ended up being too expensive), and then visiting a few different temples. Later at night we went temple sightseeing again, as alot of the old temples in Ayutthaya are lit up at night. It was nearly impossible to get any good pictures, as they would either end up too dark, or too blurry. Because of this, and just because of how beautiful these temples are, I think this is one sight everyone must try to see in their lives. The temples in Ayutthaya (of which there are hundreds, as Ayutthaya used to be the capital city of Thailand) are somewhat unique, because during the battle between Thailand and Myanmar (which took place in Ayutthaya) all of these temples were burned down, and most of the heads of the Buddha images were stolen. So when you look around, all you see are these headless bodies made out of stone, sitting in a meditation type style. It looks like this:

Another interesting thing we saw on our temple sightseeing was a Buddha face which is carved into a tree. I'm not sure what the story behind it is, or who apparently carved it, but I did find it interesting that there was actually a sign saying that when taking pictures of it, you must not be standing in the photo as that would make your head appear higher than the Buddha's head, which is not allowed. There was even a special guard standing there to make sure everyone squatted like so in their pictures:

As for the learning Thai massage part, let's just say Thai massages are a workout to give. Overall the whole process takes 2 hours. Starting with the legs and feet, then moving to the arms and hands, more on the legs and arms, the back, then the face/head, stomach, and last but not least we crack the persons back (although I'm not really strong/skilled enough to actually get the persons back to crack, so I just give them a stretch). On Thursday we had our final exams, which none of us were really sure if we passed. We asked the teachers, and they just told us that we know all the steps, we're just not skilled at doing them yet, and that it usually takes about 2 years of practicing everyday in order to develop these skills, so after 1 week it's not surprising that we were a little lacking. But they gave us our certificates anyways! So you all in Canada can look forward to having some nice Thai massages when I get back (which is now only 7 months away by the way).

While I was in Ayutthaya the election for mayor of Bangkok was held, and my host dad's party didn't win. Apparently now there are riots going on in Bangkok, and AFS has sent out an email saying they are forbidding people to make week exchanges to Bangkok and to travel independently. They also warned us not to really speak to anyone about the situation, as it is a touchy subject and we don't want us to get ourselves into any unnecessary trouble. But for anyone who has seen anything about it all on the news, you shouldn't worry about me being here. The part of Bangkok I am in is perfectly safe, so as long as I avoid going to the small part where it is dangerous, I will be fine.

In other news, when I got back to my host families, Cherry informed me that from now on my host Gramma will be sharing our bedroom with us, and will be sleeping on the bed with Cherry. While I think this is deffinately an improvement from where she was sleeping before (on the floor behind the couch in the living room), I'm not really sure if I feel entirely comfortable sharing a room with both of them. That kind of living situation just seems a little odd to me.

Today Elisabeth, Charlotte, and I were to go meet Rose (AFS lady) at her school in the morning. When we arrived there, Rose was nowhere to be found, so we called her, and it turned out she was still at home, and asked us instead to meet her at The Mall. So we headed to The Mall, met up with Rose, gave her the money we owed her, and she explained to us about the Optional Trip for next week. 15 AFS students will go (including Elisabeth, Rachel, and myself) to the South of Thailand for 3-5 days, and spend it just relaxing on the beach, maybe doing some snorkeling. Fun things like that. The only problem is that I think I've gained a little too much weight to be looking good in a bikini. So I think I will just go Thai style and wear my shorts and t-shirt into the water. I'm really feeling glad that I've been keeping so busy lately (with Rachel coming here, then going to Ayutthaya, now going to the South) because it is really making the time fly by sooo quickly. October is almost half-way over already. Eek!

Oh, and by the way, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone back home! I hope you all eat much turkey/mashed potatos/stuffing/cranberry sauce for me!

Here are a few of my favourite pictures from the massage course:

I must admit, it was not actually me who took this picture..

Believe it or not, I didn't take this one either.

Temple by night.

Our last day studying Thai massage.

The rest of the pictures can be found here: http://community.webshots.com/album/567882940OwNZVU

Kirsten Small

I am back from Ayutthaya, and now I am I certified nuad Thai person. Meaning I have a certificate saying I can give Thai massage. Yay me! Except for the fact that my certificate says "Kirsten Small" not "Kristen Small" on it. I have many stories to tell about my experiences in Ayutthaya, but unfortunately I don't have time to tell them all now... Hopefully in the next couple of days I will though. However, here is a picture to keep you all entertained until then:

Myself, Elisabeth, Galina, Annika, Maike, Maraike at a temple.

3 MONTHS!

Today I have officially been in Thailand for 3 months! Yay me. And today I also managed to get to an internet cafe, which is where I am writing this from, so I must keep my blog short and sweet. The massage course is going quite well so far. There are 6 other AFS students attending it. All girls, and all German. They all speak English very well though and are all very nice. We are sharing a room which is upstairs in the massage school. We just sleep on matresses on the floor, (which is what I'm used to from sleeping at my host families house anyway) and have only squat toilets to use in the bathroom :S However, we are having a fun time, practicing massage in the morning and early afternoon, then we have the rest of the day free for shopping and eating and visiting temples (which there are about a million of in Ayutthaya) and what not. So far we have learned the first 4 or 5 (I'm not really sure) steps out of 7 of Thai massage.. which so far only concentrate on the legs and arms. We have learned to do all kinds of weird things though, as Thai massage is not the normal kind of Western massage, for example, as part of the foot massage we give, we crack the persons toes. I am beginning to develop bruises on my legs from having so many intense leg massages so often... I must be singing off now though. On next Friday I will go back to Bangkok and back to my host family, and I will write a nice long blog including pictures from the massage course then. Cheerio for now.