Sports Days

This Thursday and Friday my school had Sports Days. Now for those of you (i.e. everyone who is from a country other than Thailand) who aren't familiar with the whole Sport Day tradition: in each school every student is sorted into a team, which is represented by a certain colour. My school's colours are blue, pink, purple, and red. Each team has a theme, which all of their costumes and decorations are centered around. The pink teams theme was "Pink In Wonderland", blue's was "The Sea", purple's was "DoomsDay", and red's was "Kindergarden" on one day, and "Airline" on another day.. Sports Days involve these teams all competing against eachother in different sports, and well as in cheerleading, and in the parade during the opening ceremonies. Honestly, despite the fact that this whole event is referred to as "Sports Days", there really isn't too much actual sport-playing. Alot of effort was put into decorations and costumes for each team, and it seemed to me more like the main event was the cheerleading, and then they just played a little bit of sport while the cheerleaders took a break (the opposite of how it is during most sports competitions, when the cheerleaders come on to entertain the crowd while the athletes have a time out).

I was on the pink team (si chompu), and was asked by my classmates to dress up in Thai dress, and be part of the opening ceremonies. When I agreed to do this, I was unaware that part of the opening ceremoies involved each team parading throughout Nongchok, all the way to the market and back. While this distance isn't really that far (well it is far for Thai standards because Thai people NEVER walk anywhere), I had to do the whole thing in high heeled shoes. Two days later my feet and legs are still hurting (I was woken up in the middle of the night last night by a shooting pain in my right leg, which felt alot similar to the shooting pains I used to get alot in the middle of the night after I broke my (left) leg...) I had to wake up at 4 in the morning and go to school at 5 on Thursday, in order to have my hair and makeup all done for the big event. When I got there all of the cheerleaders for our team were already decked out in their full costumes... hair and makeup and all. Apparently they had been there since midnight doing extra decorating and getting all ready. Honestly, I'm really quite blown away by how much work Thai students put into this whole event. The dress I wore was entirely gold, complete with a golden bra :S I liked it alot. When it was time for the opening ceremonies, we started out just standing in the middle of the football field all lined up in our processions for quite some time, and then we walked. And walked. And walked. Patch kept on offering me flip-flops throughout the whole thing, but I was detemined to stay in my high heels as long as all of the Thai girls were staying in their high heels. I had planned to take off my heels as soon as we got back to school, however, when we finally arrived back, we had to stand on the field some more while some Thai people made speeches. Then we had to march all around the field once again. One thing that is different about Thai people, is that they must have grand ceremonies for EVERYTHING. I honestly don't understand it. Our opening ceremonies including a person running around the field carrying a torch then lighting this thing on fire, just as if it were the Olympics. Then there were all these fireworks, which I thought was a little silly because it was 8 in the morning and perfectly light outside, so nobody could see the fireworks anyways. I was quite glad when I was able to take off my heels... although once I took them off I had this really weird sensation that felt like I was walking in work of reverse-high heels.

I didn't really have to much to do with the rest of the Sports Days. I just sat around and watched a bit, visiting with Patch and my other class mates. In the afternoon on Thursday Patch and I went and took naps in the air conditioned teachers room. I was very aware of all the Thai students standing outside the door and pointing at the silly farang sleeping on the couch. On Thursday evening, Elisabeth from Germany slept at my house, in order to come to my school with me on Friday... So, Sports Day on Friday pretty much involved sitting around with Elli while my classmates and random school kids stopped by the question her about where she was from and take pictures of us and things. It was fun though. Really nice to have another foreinger around, since I'm the only one at my school and all. However, I must admit that Elli's Thai is muuuucccch better than mine. And trust me, all of the Thais (including my host family) like to point out that fact to me. I know I really shouldn't be complaining about this, because if I was really motivated I could be studying Thai in alot of my time at home instead of reading or watching TV or whatever... but I honestly am never going to be one of those people who can just pick up on a language on my own. I really need someone to teach me. And the fact that I've been back at school for over a month now and still don't have my own schedule isn't helping at all. Although I am having fun at school visiting with my friends and what not, one month has now gone by that I could have spent learning Thai language, Thai cooking, Thai music, etc. My Advisor keeps telling me she will have my schedule ready "next week", but so far it hasn't happened. My host family keeps asking me why Elisabeth's Thai is so much better than mine. And I tell them it is because she studies for two hours each day at school with her teacher, and I don't, because my Advisor (who is my host dad's sister) is to busy or lazy or whatever to make my class schedule up. It's just frustrating is all. I think on Monday I will try to talk to my Coordinator and tell her I NEED my schedule.. because there are so many things I want to learn, and I've just spent a month not learning them. This is the only chance I will get to learn these things in a Thai school, and I don't want to waste any more of it...

Ok, enough ranting. After school on Friday, Elli and I went to MBK shopping center with my host family. I bought for myself one of those Chinese cat things that sits there with it's arm swinging back and forth. I've wanted one for quite a while, and my original plan was to buy one in ChinaTown... but so much for that. It is now sitting next to my beauty contest trophy, and it is deffinately one of my favourite things I've purchased since being here :)

Ubon Pictures:
http://community.webshots.com/album/568987659asqhiU

Sports Day Pictures:
http://community.webshots.com/album/568986477eILkEf

Ubon

What can I say about Ubon... I had fun, but honestly didn't really do much. My week there consisted mostly of going to school with Rachel (and a Rotary girl from America called Andrea) for a little bit in the morning, then ditching and sitting in The Pizza Company for the whole afternoon until it was time to go home in the evening.

For some reason Rachel's host family didn't want me to stay the whole week with them, and neither did Rachel's Advisor, so I kind of just got dumped on a foreign AFS teacher from Germany who lives in a small apartment at Rachel's school. She was nice, but I understand that she didn't come to Thailand to become a host family.. and felt kind of bad because nobody even asked her if it would be alright for me to stay there, they just kind of informed her that I would and she had no say in the matter. So, that kind of put a damper on the whole week. Everyone just seemed to be under the impression that I wanted to just go to Ubon for a week and go to school there, when really I basically just wanted to go to see Rachel, esepcially since it was the last time I will see her for at least a few years (so it pretty much sucked that I couldn't see her in the evenings.) However, we found a few ways around the whole only seeing eachother at school thing. Rachel and I spent one night in a hotel, I spent one night at Rachel's house, the two of us spent the night at Andrea's house, and pretty much all the other nights I actually slept at the German girl's place. On my last night there, the plan was for me to stay at Rachel's house again, but when we phoned her host mom to pick us up from the German girl's place, she said she was too tired to pick us up so we'd just have to stay with Rebecca (German girl). There was no other way for us to get back to her house, so we dropped off our crap at Rebecca's, and then just solved the whole being homeless problem by not sleeping at all that night. To tell you the truth, we spent the entire night at Rachel's school. First just hanging out under one of the buildings where they have all these picnic tables set up, then eating steak which was cooked on the tiniest fire known to man with the members of a band from Rachel's school. They were nice enough to give us steak and let me play a bass for a bit, but they really weren't too interested in us because apparently they were all really good friends with the exchange student from America at Rachel's school last year who was gorgeous and spoke really good Thai. They just basically thought we were crap compared to her, I guess. Rachel and I sat together in front of Rebecca's apartment and watched the sun rise, tried to go out for breakfast everywhere and discovered that everwhere was closed, so we just went into Rebecca's so I could shower, and then it was time for me to get on the bus back to Bangkok.

On the Friday I spent in Ubon, there was some AFS conference thingy going on in a town nearby, so Rachel and I got dragged along. It was nice to see some of the other exchange students who I haven't seen since July at the arrival camp, such as the Italians, since they are all going home in December with Rachel. The whole she-bang though was kind of pointless, and really just involved us all sitting around while the Thais sang karaoke ("My Heat Will Go On".. I swear that's the only song I ever hear in this country.. Thai people are all besotted with it), and complimented eachother on how many foreigners they each brought to the event (Rachel's Advisor brought along 2 ROTARY exchange studnets, not AFS, probably just so she could say "hey look how many of them I've got!")

I didn't take too many pictures during the whole trip. I took some but they are just of Rachel, Andrea and I all hanging out. However, the internet at my host families house isn't even working at the moment, so I will upload once I get a chance...

Oh, and just so you all know how bad my English is getting.. at one point while I was with Rachel, she tried to send a text message to someone, but it didn't go through. I asked her, "why fail?" Not even, "why did it fail?" just "why fail." Eek.

Scar 3D (and off to Ubon tomorrow)

This morning my Coordinator phoned me at 7 30 (waking me up by the way) to inform me that all the paperwork has gone through and that I will be leaving for Ubon eaaaaaaaaarly tomorrow morning. While I'm excited about getting to see Rachel, I must admit I'm a little nervous about taking the bus there all by myself.. Although I'm sure everything will work out fine. Also, apparently since Rachel's host family doesn't have a very large house, I won't actually be able to stay with them.. I will be staying with a foreign teacher from Germany who works at Rachel's school... It kind of sucks because that means Rachel and I won't really be able to hang out at night. But this will be the last time I will see Rachel, as she is going back to Australia in December.. So as long as we get to hang out in the day-time it's all good.

A bit later in the morning I went with P'Patch to the mall, where we met up with Elisabeth and one of Patch's friends who also went to America last year. Patch and her friend were just at the mall to do some banking.. but they agreed to eat lunch with Elisabeth and I before they left. Elisabeth and I shopped around for a bit, and then went to see a movie (Scar 3D, which was pretty much just another teen slasher movie, but it was kind of interesting because of the whole being in 3D and all...) Afterwards I managed to make it back home all by myself (trust me, in a foreign country that is quite an accomplishment)!

I've so far just spent the rest of my evening packing and preparing myself to go to Ubon tomorrow. I won't be taking my laptop with me, so I'm probably not going to be writing much on here until I get back (sometime around the 23rd), sooo I hope you all have enjoyable weeks over there in Canada. Byes for now.

Brice De Nice

This morning at school we had a special funeral type ceremony for the princess who died sometime earlier this year (I'm not really sure exactly when, some people have told me it was in January while others tell me it is in July). All of the Buddhists and Muslims had to sit seperately, and I went with Fon and Ing to sit with the Buddhists. I didn't really understand much of what was being said, I just know that the whole thing involved alot of Buddhist prayers, while the Muslim students just sat patiently and waited, I'm assuming... Of course I didn't know any of the prayers either, so really the whole thing involved me just sitting with my hands held in a prayer like fashion and pretending like I knew what I was doing. Trust me, I'm getting good at the whole just smile and nod and go along with whatever is happening thing.

The rest of the school day wasn't too eventful. I can now say that it is starting to get cool out here! Winter has arrived! Although winter for Bangkok means like September-ish(?) type weather in Canada. It's probably all of like 30 degrees outside. But, that is still alot cooler than it normally is. And all of my classmates have taken to wearing sweaters over their school uniforms. Although I really don't find this kind of weather cold, it is really a nice change from the blisteringly hotness that is usually in the air around here. At least now I don't just turn into a sweaty blob from just sitting in the sun! Unfortunately though I have now started to outgrow all of my pants (which really has nothing to do with the weather besides the fact that now I may have to attempt to find some more jeans in this country that will actually fit me)..

Speaking of finding things in this country, after school P'Patch and I stopped at Carrefour, and whilst I was browsing through the DVD section, I found BRICE DE NICE! I'm sure nobody reading this will have seen this movie (besides Laura and Keith, if you guys are reading this).. so I shall explain. Brice De Nice is a French movie that Mrs Christiansen ordered off of the internet (all the way from France I believe) for our French class to watch. Although it is kind of stupid humour, Laura and I both thought it was hilarious, but unfortunately since it was French, it would have been hard to come across in Canada to buy for ourselves... Which is why I was complately surprised when I found a copy of it IN THAILAND with Thai writing all on the cover.. Apparently the languages on it are French and Thai, and the subtitles can be English and Thai. This movie is now one of my most favourite posessions.. The fact that it is half Thai just makes it all that more amusing. Oh, and did it mention the fact that it was only 69 baht (about 2 dollars)? I mean, really, Patch was 100% right when she told me you can find ANYTHING in Thailand.

Loy Krathong (and my 100th blog entry!)

Yesterday was Loy Krathong festival in Thailand. For me that meant waking up extra early for school in order to get all dolled up for the "low-poh-mah" beauty contest at my school. It was kind of amazing how once I arrived at school all of my classmates kind of swarmed around me and just took over doing my hair and makeup and everything. Honestly if it weren't for them then the whole beauty contest thing would have been a disaster (but they were the ones who convinced me to enter it afterall, so I'm quite glad they came to help me out). Since my Thai dress didn't come with a hair piece or anything extra like that, they somehow convinced a teacher to let me borrow some of the school's Thai accessories, which deffinately helped make the whole getup work. After the whole madness of getting me all costumed up, we headed into the the auditorium type room where the contest was the take place. They kind of had two beauty contests going on at once, one for the students in Grades 7-9 and one for students in Grades 10-12. So while the first round of the younger students was going on, I just kind of sat around and waited with all the rest of the contestants from my group. When it was our turn to go for the first round, all that really happened was we got called up one by one, had to walk across the stage, stop and wai, then say hello and our name (in Thai of course), wai again, walk off stage, wai to the vice-principal, walk in front of the stage, then wai to the judges. It was pretty simple, I was just glad I didn't trip on my high heeled shoes, and that my Thai words actually came out correctly. I was actually pleasantly surprised when everyone in the auditorium cheered for me! I was expecting my friends to cheer, but not everyone else. But it was nice, and deffinately helped me smile a bit so my smile didn't look so fake and plastered on... We all then walked back up on stage together and when the time came, everyone in the audience came and gave us flowers (mostly roses).. I don't know how to explain it really... Many random people came and gave me flowers, but it was the ones which Soy and Cherry gave me that were really special to me. Soy came up and gave me a whole handful that represented ones from everyone of my classmates, and then Cherry came and gave me one just from her. It was really special. By the time the whole flower giving bit was over, I had so many I had to hold them all in just a giant bundle in my arms (kind of cradled like how one would hold a baby). Unfortunately, we had to hand in all of our flowers when we got off stage, and they were then counted up to see who had the most, and this person would end up winning the "most popular" award. It kind of sucked because I wanted to keep mine :( We then had to just sit around whilst the judges decided on the 10 girls who would make it into the next round (we started out with 25 in the first round) I thought the whole contest would end for me there (which is what I was kind of hoping for actually), but to my amazement I was one of the top 10! The second round consisted of us each answering one question while on stage. Since there was no way I could understand mine, P'Patch came up onto the stage to help me out. My question was something along the lines of, "do you think the Thai language is important? And is it important to learn another language?" Which I thought was actually quite a good question for me to answer. I kind of went on about how I come from a country where our Native language has been forgotten and replaced with English, and how I find that kind of sad, and I think it is important for a country to continue using their Native language and keep that part of their culture alive. The second part of the question I answered by saying that it is also important to learn other languages because it allows one to communicate with others throughout the world. P'Patch translated to the rest of the audience for me, and I have a feeling she may have added in a bit of her own opinion too ;) Then we did the whole flower giving thing again, and yet again I was given quite an armful. The judges then tallied up the score, and they announced who the winners were. At this point I was expecting to either get nothing, or to get the popular award based on how many flowers I was given. However, I ended up getting 4th place (and I know 4th place isn't that amazing, but considering that I was in a Thai beauty contest when I'm not even Thai....)!!!! Needless to say, I was super excited! I won a nice trophy and everything that I get to keep and take back to Canada with me! Overall, I'm glad I entered the beauty contest. It was quite fun, and it really helped show me just how kind my new classmates are...

In the evening Patch and I met up with Cherry at Tops for Loy Krathong. We walked to Wat Nongchok (Nongchok Temple) where we ate some dinner, and then bought our Krathongs (Patch didn't buy one though, because she is Muslim and therefore does not loy krathongs). Traditionally Krathongs are made out of the trunk of a banana tree, and then decorated with candles and flowers... but they can also be made out of bread or coconut shells. I wanted to buy a more traditional one though, and I chose carefully the one I thought was the most beautiful. We walked down to the canal to go loy our krathongs... had some trouble actually getting the candles to light, and then did the whole loy-ing ritual, which involved kind of holding the krathong and making a wish, then placing in into the water and kind of wafting it away from the shore... I was sad to see that as soon as I had loy-ed mine, the candle went out :( But it was quite an experience.. And seeing all of the beautifuly decorated, glowing krathongs floating down the canal (while the full moon was shining down on the water) was one of the most beautiful things... Before we set our krathongs afloat, we placed a bit of money on them, which apparently will bring in good fortune, or something along those lines... However, Patch told me that when she was little, she used to row her boat down the canal in front of her home, and take all of the money from the Krathongs, and sure enough, I actually saw some little kids doing that very thing... In addition to the floating Krathongs, there are also krathongs which one can set into the sky (kind of like a mini-hot air balloon).. and since I've only got one shot at this whole loy krathong thing, I decided I wanted to set free an airbourne one as well. So we went and bought one, and then headed to the park where we could find some nice open space to set our Krathong free. This whole process wasn't as interesting as the floating one, since we were the only ones really letting go a flying krathong. It looked beautiful nonetheless, and nearly as soon as we lit the candle on it, it kind of flew away and then was gone. We just hoped it didn't land on our school and set it afire.


Today my class went on a fieldtrip to the International Airport, where we were first given a tour, and then set free to interview foreigners (in English) about their visit to Thailand. It was kind of fun, but I wasn't really too impressed to see that Patch did all of the interviews for everyone.. Because I think the whole point of the thing was for the students to practice their English with foreigners, and with Patch doing all of the work none of them practiced at all. It wasn't her fault of anything, and I know she really enjoyed doing the interviews (we met alot of really nice people, but I found it kind of funny that ALL of them were European, and that English wasn't actually their first language... we met people from Norway, Holland, France, Switzerland, Germany...) To be honest it was kind of weird for me being at that Airport. I was thinking about how I felt the last time I was there ("what the hell did I get myself into? I want to go home.... etc"), and about how I will probably feel the next time I'm there (leaving to go back to Canada...) And of course, I was super happy when there was actually toilet paper in the public bathrooms there! Seeing all of the foreigners though kind of made me feel homesick (although none of them were actually Canadian), and made me just want to be with more foreigners (my Thai friends are nice and all, but they kind of start to drive me crazy after a little while... it really is exhausting communicating with them all day with the whole language barrier, and sometimes I just need a break from it all...). So I phoned up Elisabeth and on Saturday her and I will be going to the mall! And if everything works out I will go to see Rachel on either Sunday or Monday (the original plan was for me to leave Friday, but since my Coordinator is silly and didn't get the documents done in time... I have to wait a couple extra days)...

To see the full set of photos from Loy Krathong:

http://good-times.webshots.com/album/568644435PxKBYp

Christmas Tees and Other Things

Today 3 interesting/exciting things happened:

1) Natalie and all of the other old student teachers where at the school! I skipped out on my English class (the one class where I actually understand everything) to visit with them.. It was fun... Although I think Natalie was the most excited to see me (and I was the most excited to see her), which makes sense since she was the one who took me to Chaiyaphum and was probably my best friend out of the group. She pretty much screamed and gave me a big hug when I first walked into the room.. If this is how people are acting when it's only been a couple of months since they saw me, I'm wondering what it will be like when I get back to Canada?

2) I had a conversation with one of my classmates, Soy, that pretty much broke my heart. As I've mentioned before, he/she is one of the gay boys in my class (trust me, my class has all of like 5 boys in it and half of them are gay).. He's really nice though and is always wanting to practice his English with me (he gets super happy when he tries to talk to me and I actually understand what he is saying)... Soy also happens to be Muslim. He was telling me today that Islam doesn't accept gay people, and for this reason it's a big secret within his family that he is gay (although probably the entire school knows it...). He was telling me how he is "scary" of telling his parents, because he is afraid of them rejecting him. I dunno, it was just really heartbreaking.. I don't know how to explain it. I just kind of feel that different religions should accept everyone (although I know that is probably never going to happen). It's just sad that a person can believe so strongly in something, and love their God so much, yet be under the impression that their God won't love them back.. (added to the fact that they would face rejection from their family, society, etc.) I also find the fact that he was able to communicate these emotions through to me when we barely speak the same language. Honestly, it's amazing how much can be said just through facial expressions and what not... (Oh and just for interests sake, Buddhism accepts gays)

3) When I got home from school today, Sun-Yair was waiting outside for me and she starting saying "P'Cream!.......(something in Thai that I didn't understand)" I told her I didn't understand so she led me inside, and guess what is now downstairs in the "living room" area! A nice biggish (plastic by the way) Christmas tree! It's probably one of the best things I've seen in my life. I do realize it's a bit early for Christmas trees, but I'm really appreciating the fact that my host family went through all the effort of setting it all up for me (I think they already owned it, so they just had to dig it out of somewhere and assemble it)...

Oh, and also, tomorrow is Loy Kratong festival! And as part of the celebration, my school will be putting on a Thai beauty contest, which all of my Thai friend and teachers have convinced me to compete it! Honestly I had no intention of doing so, but then I ran into the teacher who is organizing it today, and she asked me if I would like to be in it.... One thing led to another. My understanding of the whole thing is that I basically just have to walk across the stage, stop and "wai" and then walk off... There is no talent contest or anything, which is deffinately a plus, although I think I might have to answer some questions in Thai. Patch volunteered to help translate for me though (and if I answer horribly wrong, she will just translate it into a better answer!) All my classmates (esepcially Soy) are all really exited about it though, and are all going to cheer me on. I know I probably won't win, but if I do, I'll get 3000 baht out of it (almost 100 dollars). It's a chance for me to get to wear my Thai dress which I bought back in September though... today after school I tried it on just to make sure it still fits, and well... it's a tight squeeze (and practically cuts off the circulation around my rib area when I sit down...) Tomorrow morning I will go to school at 7 (eek) and meet Patch there, who will hopefully be able to do my hair/makeup all Thai style (which could be interesting by Thai hair styles involve hair ornaments, of which we have none).. I will try to get a video or at least pictures taken of the contest, for you all to see! Wish me luck!

And Happy Remembrance Day Canada (although I'm not really sure if this is a day you're supposed to be happy on :S)

Chicken Foot

So this morning when I was eating my breakfast, I looked into my bowl of "jok" (kind of like porridge but made from rice.. it normally has some kind of meat in it as well as bits of fresh ginger and parsley for flavouring) and discovered a chicken foot. It is actually quite normal for people to eat chicken feet around here, but I haven't really turned that Thai just yet. Really, the last thing I want to see is a foot (complete with little things that looked like toenails) staring back up at me from my food.... (everything else I ate today though was absolutely foot-free :) )

Muslim Wedding (Take Two) and 007

Sorry for the lack of posts in the last couple of days, my internet hasn't been working. But it's all good now, so here goes:

This week at school went.. well, schooly. Nothing too exciting. Just reading Harry Potter throughout my classes, visiting with my Thai friends at lunch. I was late for school one morning (not my fault.. my host dad slept in late) but it turned out okay because I just sat by myself at the front of the school and read my book.. It was soo much more comfortable than having to sit out on the ground in the field with everyone else, because I actually got to sit on a bench rather then all cross legged for half an hour which still makes my legs fall asleep (I've set a goal that by the end of the year my legs will no longer go numb!) While I was sitting there, Ajarn Supanee (my Thai language teacher from last semester) told me that if I meet her at the same place on Monday, she will bring me a new Thai dessert to try :) so I guess tomorrow morning I will sleep in a little bit late on purpose :P

My classmates are really nice (although they all randomly just take photos of me with their cellphones throughout the day, which was kind of fun at first, because it makes me feel all famous and what not, but then they start to not even warn me when they are taking pictures and they end up with really embarassing ones of me like yawning and stuff). On Friday one of the boys expressed his concern to me that he doesn't want me to feel lonely in Thailand (which actually wasn't as creepy as I just made it out to seem, my bad).. He told me that all of my classmates are here for me, and that they are all my friends (well this is what I understood from it, since he told me in kind of broken English).. He also really wants to take me shopping sometime (did I mention he is gay?) which I think should be fun.

On Friday afterschool I didn't have any plans... I ended up spending most of the evening just hanging out with my host mom in my bedroom watching The Dark Knight. When the movie was over, we went out to eat some noodles... I think part of the reason I actually enjoy eating noodles so much now is because of the fact that I can actually eat them like a Thai person, i.e. with chopsticks! I think when I go back to Canada I'm gunna be eating noodles like crazy just to proove to you all I can use chopsticks (because unlike Keith, I wasn't born with chopsticks in my hands.)

Saturday morning I woke up fairly early and headed over to P'Patch's house at about 8 30, where we met up with the rest of the Bride's side of the family.. I worse just my own clothes rather than a Muslim get up with a hi-jab (despite my host families best efforst to get me to dress up.. on Friday night my host mom got me to try on all of her different dresses.. but they were all too small for me (which was actually kind of lucky because some of them were '80s-esque (i.e. hot pink with shoulder pads)).. I told them I would just feel more comfortable wearing my own clothes) We all climbed onto a bus and headed over to the Groom's home. Once we got there, all we pretty much did was walk from the Mosque to the Groom's home in a procession with the Bride. Some people went bearing gifts of food and flowers to give to the Groom's family, as is the traditional way of doing things. When we reached the actual house, we just sat and ate some food, said a Muslim prayer, and that was it. Not really what I was expecting to be honest. I thought we would be around there all day doing all kinds of different prayers and rituals, but it turns out the main point of the whole thing was just the whole bringing the Bride from the Mosque to her Groom. So we got back to Patch's house before noon, and Patch and I just spent the rest of the day hanging out with her cousin in her cousins house (which by the way is pretty much just a shack... (it's just random boards all nailed together to kind of resemble a house.. yet there are cracks all between the walls and the floors (in some places walls don't even exist between the inside of the house and the outside) and all of the floorboards sift and sag when someone walks on them.. yet for some reason I felt perfectly at home there... maybe just because of how kind and welcoming all of Patch's family members are..)

This morning (Sunday) I woke up super early to go swimming with my little host sister. We got to the pool at 8, and were scheduled to swim until 9.. but for some reason Sun-Yair (host sister) just insisted that I go swimming and she would watch (I didn't really understand why, but I think it had something to do with the fact that we only had 1 set of goggles between the two of us).. I tried to tell her she could swim rather than me, but she just kept insisting I swim. So I ended up doing 20 laps of the pool (although I'm not sure how long the pool was.. so I don't really exactly know what distance I swam) which is the most swimming I've done since I was 13. Yay me. I actually really quite enjoyed it. I'm really not one who likes to go running or things like that.. but swimming I do enjoy. and it was nice to actually get some kind of exercise for a change. After all I've been eating here, I really do need the exercise. After the whole swimming bit, we made a quick stop at the doctors office for my host mom to get her pregnancy all checked up, then we headed to Fashion Island, where I went to watch the new 007 movie with my host dad. I really enjoyed the movie, but I must admit that it made me feel kind of homesick, just because all I could think about was how much I would have rather been watching it with my real dad :(

I do have quite alot of interesting things coming up here for the rest of the month. This week is Loy Kratong festival (a Buddhist festival, but I'm not really sure what it is all about), and since my new host family is Muslim and won't be celebrating it, Cherry has invited me to go with her on Wednesday night to celebrate it. All I know so far about the festival is that Buddhist do some sort of ritual where they float something made out of a banana leaf with candles on it down the river/into the ocean. I think Patch will come along with us, so she can translate a bit.. Then the plan is that on Friday in the evening I will go by bus to Ubon to visit Rachel (although nothing is for sure yet, because my Coordinator is supposed to talk to Rachel's Advisor and sort everything out, but I have a feeling she hasn't yet...)! I'm super excited, but kind of sad because it will be the last time I will see her (as she is only here for 1 semester).

Oh, and there are pictures from the wedding yesterday here: http://community.webshots.com/album/568422231AdstRX?start=0

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Today was just a regular day at school. Regular, yet enjoyable. Just more of hanging out with my Thai friends, reading throughout class (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Ing brought it to me on Tuesday to read (I'm not really sure why she has the English version) and today I finished it... this is with only reading it in class, not at home in the evening or anything), and then walking to Tops after school with Patch to catch the van home. We stopped at a little Thai noodle shop to eat the famous "boat noodles" that they serve.. which I've never actually eaten before. According to Patch, they are called "boat noodles" because back in the early days of Bangkok, they used to be sold from a boat floating down the canal, rather than from a restaurant. They were pretty yummy I must admit. Pretty much just regular "guay-teeow" (noodles) though. But now that I've figured out how I like to make my noodles (they are always served kind of flavourless, and then you add sugar, chilies, fish sauce, or vinegar to it depending on how you like it), I'm enjoying eating them much more...

I have developed a new love in Thailand. It's name is "ah-han Thai" (Thai food). Although I'm afraid that this new love of mine is causing me to be "ooo-ung" (fat). Some of my favourites include:

• rot-dee (I believe it's actually Indian)... the only way I can describe it (because trust me, I am horrible at describing food) is that it is kind of like a crepe, but filled with buttery/sugary goodness (obviously very fattening)
• hot soy milk that is filled with the same kind of floaty things one finds in bubble tea.. it's my new favourite thing to drink for breakfast
• all the amazing fresh fruits that we don't have in Canada (tiny little super sweet bananas, ngor, etc.)
• these little deep fried pastry things that taste amazing when dipped in hot ovaltine (another favourite for breakfast)

4 MONTHS!!

So, I've now officially been in Thailand for 4 months! Yay me! Over the last month my whole feeling about being here hasn't changed much (unlike how much is changed over the course of the first couple months), I've finally just settled into the routine of day-to-day life here. And I must admit, I'm quite enjoying myself. Which is making the time just fly by. When I think about the last month, it really doesn't seem like it's been a month long, instead mybe only a couple of weeks. Yet, soooo many things happened (massage course, optional trip, changing host families, starting back school...). It's strange how a month can seem so short while it contains soooo many things. One thing that's deffinately nice about being four months in though - I'm now halfway to my parents coming to visit me!! (they are coming in March, when I'll have been here for 8 months) Also, only 1 more month until I will be halfway through this entire thing.. Feeling kind of excited yet a little sad about that fact. Excited because everyone says it's the second half of exchange that is really amazing.. once you've done all the hard work in the first half of learning the language and adapting to the culture, the second half is supposed to be when it all pays off. I'm sad because once I'm halfway there, well I'm halfway there.

Today in the afternoon Patch and I went with 7 other students (and Ajarn Tassanee) to Pailin's school (Bromsgrove International School) as the first people to partake in Pailin's new quest of creating a relationship between our school and hers. I think it is a good idea because, well frankly, the impression I get from the students at Pailin's school is that they think a little too highly of themselves, and seem to look down on the students from my school... and I find this attitude really bugs me. Her school is super fancy, and full of foreigners, but everytime I go there I can't help but get the feeling that these teachers are there simply to get their Thai students (half of which are Thai, the other half are foreigners) to act like British citizens. Speaking English, wearing English school uniforms, going through the British school system. Forget their own Language? Forget their own culture? I mean really, if these teachers were here simply to help Thai students learn English, then they would be international teachers are public Thai schools, just like so many kind people I have met through AFS. But instead they are here to force English upon rich private school children? I don't really know how to explain it. My English seems to be failing me. It just seems to me like they are trying to repress something. Turn the "barbarian" Thais into "proper" British citizens. Besides the fact that they're still living in Thailand. I know it's not on the same level at all, but the whole Bromsgrove thing makes me think of the early years in Canada when Native American children were forced into Residential Schools and forced to speak English and forget their Native language. Not on the same level at all, really. It's just what it makes me think of. Not going to lie though, I really enjoyed eating the European food in the cafeteria there at lunch. Using a fork and knife (no spoon!) to eat my food for once. Eating an entire meal (complete with asparagus!) without rice... It was nice. The only thing I didn't enjoy about the meal were all the weird stares our group was getting from the rest of the students... esepcially staring at me. The only foreigner wearing a Thai school uniform, not a Bromsgrove one. But believe it or not, I actually felt proud to be wearing my Thai uniform. The Bromsgrove students just didn't seem to understand that I would come to Thailand and go to a THAI school. What is so hard to understand about that, I'm not quite sure. Maybe because they themselves would never dare attend a public school in this country? Eek, okay I could go on about this for ages... but I won't. There was one other thing (besides using a knife to cut my beef at lunch!) that I enjoyed quite a bit about visiting Pailin's school.. it was seeing cute little blond haired, blue eyed, freckled, school children. Don't get me wrong... Thai children are quite possibly the cutest kind of kids I have ever seen in my life. But after not seeing any little foreigner children for 4 months, they are quite a cute thing to see too.

You Know You're Going Native (in Thailand) When...

So, yesterday after I wrote in my blog, I experienced something that made me realize just how "native" I am becomming. (note: when I say "native" I mean as in I'm turning Thai, not North American Aboriginal Native or anything...) Want to know what caused me to realize it? My host mom walked into my bedroom wearing a t-shirt and short-shorts! I practically gasped and fell off my bed. This reaction would be due to living in a country where girls only (well, respectable girls anyways) wear t-shirts and capris/jeans. Sometimes they even wear hoodies. In 40 degree weather. So as not to get a tan. I already know I'm going to be in for quite a shock when I get home and see people in tank tops and short skirts everywhere. By the way, the whole Thais not wanting to get tan thing is really starting to bug me.. mainly because at school my new friends keep asking me if I think whatever guy is walking past is handsome. I always say no. And then they always ask me if it's because he is too "black." And it's really hard to explain to them that no, it's not because of his skin colour.......

P'Patch-Less Day

Today I was Patchless at school (as Patch stayed home sick today). And although I thought that meant the day would turn out to be pretty boring with nobody to talk to, it ended up being quite fun actually.. the rest of my class just kind of combined efforts to make sure I wasn't lonely and had people to eat with at lunch etc. In the morning when we had to stand in line for assembly, the grass was all wet, which meant that instead of sitting down all cross-legged, everyone was just kind of crouching down as if they were going to the toilet on a squat toilet. Now, I guess since Thai school children are just used to crouching down like this at school, they find it no problem to sit like this for a good half an hour. But I don't. So one of my friends, named Ing, took out some paper from her backpack and put it on the grass for me to sit on. It was really sweet of her. I spent most of my morning classes just talking to my class mates and reading my book, which I finished (it was amazing, I must admit).. When we were in our Thai Art class (which really just involved everyone watching a Thai movie on the TV) my teacher gave me a book which teaches how to draw Thai Art (and although the instructions are in Thai, it's easy for me to just follow the pictures) for me to practice in. At lunch one of the gay boys in my class asked me to eat with him (and with a bunch of other people from my class it turned out). It was nice to get a chance to just hang out with some new people and get to know them a bit. After lunch we had no classes, but stupid Thai school rules say that students can't leave the premises until 3:00 even if they have no classes. Today happened to be the day that some nurses and doctors came to the school to check up on everyones health.. and first thing my class did after lunch was get our check ups :) It was quite an experience for me... none of the nurses really spoke English, and they were trying to ask me all these questions about my health that I didn't understand.. They asked me what my blood type was, I told them I understood, but I don't know my blood type ("kow-jai but mai-lou") so one of the nurses did a blood typing test on me... and I am type......A! Good to know for the future I guess :S I had to do an eye type test, where I just covered one of my eyes and had to read a line of numbers.. I read them in English, because I thought if I read them in Thai and got my numbers mixed up, they might assume it was my vision that was bad, not my number skills... but afterwards I realized that even though I understood the English numbers, maybe the nurses didn't, and they would have had no clue if I was really reading the numbers right or not. The very last thing I had to do was fill out a form that I think (but I'm not sure) asked me all about my emotional health. Ing translated the first couple of questions for me that were just basically along the lines of "are you feeling happy?" and then she couldn't translate anymore/was in too much of a hurry, so she just filled out the rest of the form for me :S We spent the rest of the afternoon just sitting around and talking until 3, when my host cousin Ron picked me up from school. Now I'm at home.. and just ate an enormous amount of fried rice, which some random lady (who is apparently my host aunt's friend) at our house cooked for me. She told me that tomorrow she is going to cook me a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch. Should be tasty if the Thai version of a grilled cheese is anything like the North American version.....

A Weekend full of (Muslim) Weddings.

For pictures of the Optional Trip, and my weekend of weddings, click here:

http://community.webshots.com/album/568422231AdstRX

Yesterday afternoon I headed over to Patch's house for her cousins wedding. There really isn't anything too exciting to report about the whole thing, and the main event took place today (Sunday), but since Patch had her university tests today, we only went yesterday. It mostly involved just sitting around and eating, eating, eating, and meeting all of her relatives (and when I say all, I really mean it... her family is HUUUUGE). I had fun though... and didn't end up making a fool of myself by being the only foreigner who didn't know all the customs! Yay me! Her relatives (including the bride, who is her cousin) were all very welcoming, and all wanted to talk to me and such. The bride even gave me a party favour type thing, which was a little cute set of salt and pepper shakers that are shaped like abstract people hugging eachother. For the actual ceremony type part that took place last night.. it mostly just involved chanting in Arabic (which sounded soooo beautiful by the way... I've decided that even though I don't know what the hell they are singing about when the pray, it is one of the most amazing things I've ever heard in my life... like makes me want to re-think my views of everything in the world amazing), and then the Groom had to say some kind of vows (in Arabic) about how he will be a good husband or something along those lines. Apparently the groom has to repeat it over and over again until he gets the whole thing in Arabic completely right, but our groom last night was lucky and got it right on the first go, which apparently never happens. I left the whole party fairly early, under the impression that I would have to wake up at 5 this morning to go swimming with my host sister.. but it turns out that the sports center was closed today, so we just went to another wedding today instead. This one was the wedding of my host mom's friend, and we actually all got dressed up in Muslim outfits, including hi-jabs (the scarf things that cover a woman's head) for it. I borrowed one of my host mom's outfits, that was light purple with a dark purple hi-jab. The wedding wasn't actually all that exciting, we just sat around and ate (I'm beginning to think that's all people ever do at Muslim weddings...) We took a couple of pictures with the bride and groom, and then headed out to do some shopping before going home.

We stopped at Fashion Island so my host dad could buy a wireless internet router (sp?) so I can have internet in my bedroom (which is where I'm writing this from now).. I felt kind of weird walking around a huuge shopping mall wearing my Muslim get-up (weirder than at the wedding, because everyone at the wedding was dressed all up too...) but the interesting thing was that I seemed to get less stares while wearing it out in public than I usually do when I just wear my normal clothes.. Maybe they didn't realize I was a foreigner because they couldn't see my hair? Who knows.. I just found it interesting. Usually I'm very aware of everyone staring at me (which happens alot, trust me.. Thai's just love to stare at foreigners), and today I was very aware of the fact that NOBODY was staring at me.. Weird. When we got back home, I just hung around with my host mom and watched Signs. She was super hungry (being pregnant and all she is hungry all the time) so she just whipped out this huge stash of snacks (chips, cookies, etc) and we sat on her bedroom floor and ate them all. It was one of the more enjoyable moments I've had since I've been here to be honest. She really feels more just like a friend to me than a mom. She has this little electronic dictionary that she carries around with her that converts Thai into English.. so whenever we're having trouble understanding eachother (which is quite often) she just puts the Thai word into the dictionary and then shows me the English word that comes up. It's super helpful actually. And it helps me learn new Thai words as well.

Tomorrow I must wake up early for school.. and just for everybodies information, I did iron my uniform for school tomorrow.. which really just involved my host mom "helping" me iron, and then just just kind of took over the whole job and did it all herself and kept telling me how beautiful it was... Maybe tomorrow I will actually do all of my ironing for myself.