One Year Later

Exactly one year ago today I said goodbye to my small town, my family, friends, my boyfriend…. And boarded the plane to Thailand. I never admitted it to anyone until just a couple of months ago, but when I said my final goodbyes at the airport and walked through that security gate all on my own… I burst into tears. The year that followed was definitely the experience of a lifetime.. And I will never regret deciding to go to Thailand, even if the Thai culture and lifestyle has shaped me into a different person.. A person who no longer “fits in” in Canada. Yesterday was Canada day. I wore a t-shirt with the Thai flag on it… and maybe on some subconscious level I was making a statement about which country I really prefer (although I wasn’t thinking about it in the morning when I was getting dressed.. All I thought was that it was the nicest clean shirt I had…) Honestly, I wish I could tell you all that life was going great here, and that it was like I never left… I wish I could tell AFS that they were wrong when they told us going back to our home countries would be harder than going abroad…. They gave us these huge pamphlets when we were getting ready to depart back home about how when we got back there were 2 routes we could take:

1. We could just forget about everything we learned and experienced while away, and fit right back into society and with our group of friends.

2. We could refuse to forget about everything we learned and experienced while away, but in turn probably not fit in with society or with our group of friends.

And really, AFS was right when they gave us this information.

Personally, the idea of forgetting everything I went through terrifies me… if I’m just going to forget it all, then what was the point of going on exchange in the first place? As much as it disturbed me at the time, I don’t want to forget what it was like to walk past a group of men watching a cock fight while getting my laundry… I don’t want to forget what it was like to not know what the hell I was eating… to realize that the loud bang I had heard outside my bedroom window was a bomb… to be woken up at five in the morning by the mosque call… to travel through downtown Bangkok (one of the scariest, craziest cities in the world) on public transportation all by myself…. To have friends who didn’t speak my language at all.. To truly feel like a member of a family who were a different race and a different religion (okay, now I’m starting to get a little too nostalgic and sappy (something I’m never a fan of)). Why is it that I feel like I fit in more when I was the only white girl in a school of 3,000 Thais than I do here?

Even before I left for Thailand, I didn’t feel like I completely fit in here. And honestly, even then I didn’t really even want to. And now I just… really don’t want to. At least not with these people. Maybe things will be different when I head off to university? A couple weeks ago I went to an amusement park with my family.. And while we were sitting around eating crap.. I noticed that there was a group of Asians sitting at a table near us…. They weren’t Thai, but nonetheless I had this ridiculous overwhelming urge to go sit with them. Like that was where I belonged (as cheesy as it sounds..).

When people here ask me what it was about Thailand that I liked so much (because really, people here seem to think I‘m crazy to be in love with a country that is full of prostitutes and is devoid of technology… and how on could I love my Muslim family.. Since all Muslim men are evil and beat their wives?? (and really, these stereotypes piss me off more than I could explain here)).. I really don’t know what to tell them. It’s not something I could really explain. If I were to try though, I would say that a lot of the whole “mai bpenrai”.. just enjoying the moment part of Thai culture rubbed off on me. People here get too stressed out about making decisions. Everything needs to be planned and organized down to the last detail. Thailand is just so chaotic that it could never be organized. But somehow, amid all the chaos.. Thai people know how to relax.. Just sit around and enjoy a good meal. Eat somtam and khao neow until you get diarrhea (because really, somtam is so good it’s worth the diarrhea).

I watched one of my Thai movies I brought back with me last night… and it made me incredibly homesick. All the Thai things that the Thai people would do in the movie were just… so Thai. Things that I used to do on a daily basis. And now.. They’re just missing from my life.

I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about my future lately. What kind of career I want to have… Part of me thinks I should be a hardcore student in the next few years, get a crazy degree and then settle down in Canada ((because lets face it.. I pretty much have the brain power to be a surgeon)). But another part of me (the part that realized, while in Thailand, that for the first time in who knows how long.. I was really living) thinks life is too short to spend sitting in a classroom working towards a degree. And I just feel so incredibly conflicted in my beliefs. It’s kind of a crazy time in my life…. Trying to figure out the two different sides of myself. The girl I was before I went abroad.. The kind of girl who did all her homework, was involved in a hella lot of extra curricular activities, spent all her time studying and did uber good on her provincial exams. Then me in Thailand….. I did absolutely no school work that year. All I studied was how to give Thai massages, do Thai art, Thai dance, etc. etc. But.. I think that I learned more last year than I learned during my whole high school career in Canada. Now, being back in Canada I’m faced with the decision of which girl I want to spend the rest of my life being. Or figuring out how to integrate both with one another. And honestly, I don’t know what to do. I have no answers. All I know for sure is that Thailand made me a better person (maybe a snobby, thinks she too good for everyone else type of person (at least that’s probably how people her perceive me)) and I don’t want to ever forget the journey I went on to reach this point.

Maybe I’ll let you know how things turn out in a few years.. But for now, I think this is it.

Take Care Na,
Kristen.





p.s. if any of you ever get the opportunity to go to Thailand in the future… go! And always remember, “ka” is for females, “krap” is for males”… if you ever encounter a squat toilet, the left hand is for wiping… leaving food in the sun kills bacteria and therefore makes it safer to eat… food is eaten with a spoon in the right hand, fork in the left hand…. And always remember to smile (you’ll be in the Land of Smiles, after all)



And NEVER say/do anything that is offensive to the King (he is practically the God of that crazy country).

and another month later

So I've been home for about 4 weeks now, and it's been suggested to me that I should write a blog post kind of about reverse culture shock and all the things that have been happening to me since getting home. And since today has been a pretty "I miss Thailand and being back in Canada sucks" kind of a day.. I figured it would be a good time to write this blog.

Way back last summer, when I had been in Thailand for about a month, I was starting to feel alot better about the whole being there. The food, language, people, etc. was all starting to feel familiar, and I was starting to feel alot more at home. The total opposite is true for me being back in Canada. When I first got back, it was really exciting to see my family, friends, pets, and my home all again. And although nothing much has changed around here (so you'd think it would be easy for me to just fit right back in).. I feel like I've changed. Alot.

I swear, the first thing I noticed when I was in the Vancouver airport, and for the first time in 11 months I could understand EVERYTHING that EVERYONE was saying.. I realized how much stupid stuff people actually say. At least when I couldn't understand everything I could at least imagine all the Thai people were saying intelligent things. But now it's really apparent to me how so many people just talk for the sake of talking. And I guess I have kind of become more introverted too (which is weird because you'd think exchange would make someone more outgoing).. so I'm not really keen on striking up random conversations about random things. The one thing that I do feel really passionate about talking about is Thailand.... But I quickly found out that people just really don't want to hear about it. I kind of go by the rule that if someone asks me a 3 word question ("how was Thailand?") they get a 3 word answer ("it was good").... oh, and since I turned 19 in Thailand, I came back to Canada legal drinking age (for my province). So one of the first things I did with my older sister when getting back was going to the local bar for dinner and some drinks. and honestly, it was one of the saddest sights I've ever seen (the food was good, though). We went on a Friday night, and it was just packed with all these small town locals.. and obviously this is the big thing they do every Friday night. And I know I'm not one to judge.. and if they are happy with their lives then good on them.. but it just made me really realize how much I do not want to end up like that... I've already had 2 jobs since being back.. the first one sucked, so I was happy when I was offered a new job working as a waitress at the local golf course. But honestly, I never really liked golfing type people very much, and apparently alot of the ladies who I was waitressing on had lots of complaints about the shitty service I was giving them... which kind of sucks for me, but mai bpenrai. I don't want to blame my actions on Thailand... but part of me feels that after being in Thailand for so long I've kind of become somewhat antisocial. (which also seems weird because when I was in Thailand I was trying all kinds of things I would never have done in Canada). and although I guess becoming antisocial is kind of a shitty attribute to pick up, it's helped make me realize that I really need a career where I don't have to deal with people. Honestly, I'm not a people person (again, weird for an exchange student).. or maybe I'm just not a Canadian People Person?? I just need to be a writer who lives in a little cottage in the middle of nowhere on a mountain and has about a million cats. (or dogs.. because lets face it, I'm not a cat person either.) ok, enough for now. actually putting all these things I've been feeling for the last month into words is kind of depressing. I'll update again later when things are (hopefully) looking a little more up.

Home Again Home Again

So I'm still alive, and now home. It's kind of hard to describe how it feels. But I must admit the fact that I survived a year in Thailand without any major injuries or illnesses is pretty amazing. I feel very accomplished. I guess this is the end of my blog though. I feel no need to keep it up now that I'm home (however I've been told by some people that they enjoy reading my blog and I should keep it up, so maybe I will start a new one to document other exciting happenings in my life, who knows)... So I guess this is the end.... Byes for now. Cheerio. Take care na.

The End.

So this is it, the last post I'll be writing from Thailand.... which, for me at least, is both a super exciting but also sad fact.... I'm gunna keep it short and sweet though because I think it's better to spend my last time here visiting with my host family and just enjoying Thailand rather than trying to type out and explain things here that really are too hard to explain... I think the only way a person could understand how I'm feeling now would be if they've been through the same exchange situation too. It's just kind of a bittersweet feeling. Saying goodbye to everyone here is shitty, but the reality is that before I can go back home and enjoy Canada again, I have to say goodbye to Thailand.... Today was an exciting day because my host mom had her baby (a girl, who I'm going to see at the hospital in about 20 minutes)... but also an incredibly sad day because I had to say goodbye to P'Beam and P'Patch... Everything that needed to be done was done... I closed my bank account, finished my souvenir shopping.. and this morning I packed my suitcases, changed the tags on them from my address in Thailand to the one in Canada.. zipped everything up, and stood in my room with the 3 bags that contain the last 10 months of my life... Tomorrow morning my host dad will take me to the hotel for the AFS End of Stay camp where I will say my goodbyes to all of my AFS friends, and then on Thursday morning at 4 I head to the airport to begin the journey home. The strangest thought occured to me the other day. I was talking on MSN to someone from back home in Canada, and I off-handidly (is that a word?) told them, "I will be home next weekend." and then it hit me.... I will be home next weekend. I can't even begin to explain how that one sentence makes me feel..... I will be home next weekend.

322 Days Down... 5 To Go

Last night was my farewell type party thing with my host family... although I must admit it was just about the strangest farewell party I've been to. At first I thought it was just my host family taking me out for dinner, but when we got to the restaurant I saw that my Coordinator and Advisor were there (along with the vice principal lady from my school), which to be honest I wasn't too thrilled about.. mainly due to the fact that I haven't talked to either of them since March (I was also a little dissapointed in the fact that they both forgot my birthday...) But, it ended up actually being a good thing that they were there because they were the only ones who really talked to me.... A bunch of "family friends" I guess you'd call them showed up, including that whole family we went to Trat with, so my little host sister was off playing with all of the other children, whilst all the adults conversed in rapid Thai. And I was just that lone person who was too old to play with the little kids, and too young to fit in with the adults... so I mostly just sat there and talked to my Coordinator once is a while. Apparently I have to go into school on Monday to get my AFS Certificate or something, which kind of blows because I was supposed to be going to this amusement park in Bangkok with P'Beam on Monday... so I'm kind of pissed that my Coordinator didn't tell me about this sooner, or else I could have made plans to go with P'Beam sometime earlier this month........... So anyways, I was just sitting there feeling a little bored with no one to talk to, also a little bummed out about the fact that it was my farewell party and soon I would have to say goodbye to everyone for who knows how long. Then my 2 host aunts showed up carrying a cake, and I swear the thought that went through my head was, "awwe how sweet of them to get me a cake." Then I realized that it was actually my Advisor's birthday, and the cake was for her.... then we went home....

And today I stayed at home again. I was planning on going swimming with my host sister early this morning... since she asks me to go with her every weekend but I'm either already busy or am too lazy to wake up at 5 to go swimming.. but I figured since this was my last weekend here I should go... but then for some reason we just didn't go... I had my alarm all set for early in the morning... but when it went off nobody else was awake in the house.. so I sat around and waited for them to get up until 7.. and they didn't. So I just went back to sleep. Spent the rest of the day just kind of bumming around my room.. thinking about the fact that I should be packing... kept on looking at my suitcases which were laying all open on my floor, but came to the conclusion that there really wasn't much more packing I can do since I still have to wear most of my clothes.... In the afternoon I made a slideshow type thing on my computer with a bunch of pictures from my year in Thailand.. since it's too long or whatever to upload it on here, I uploaded it on youtube.. you can find it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqlXxOJvwQU and while I was working on that, my crazy old host gramma just kind of came into my room, sat down on the floor in the midst of all my packing.. started looking through all my crap (she was rifling through my underwear drawer.. looking through all my boxes, etc).. I didn't know what to say to her, mainly because she is old and kind of crazy to begin with.. but also I didn't know how to ask her what the hell she was doing (in a nice, polite way of course) in Thai... so I just kind of sat there and looked at her through the corner of my eye. Eventually she zipped up all my suitcases and pushed them to the side of my room and said something about now I would be able to walk through my room... which I guess makes sense.. but I was in the middle of packing and I'll just have to unzip my suitcases and bring them back out into the middle of my room again...

Anyways, hope you guys enjoy the video...

Angels & Demons

Today the best thing that could possibly ever happen happened. And trust me.. the chances of you guessing what exactly that was are most likely slim to none... so I'll tell you... This evening whilst Patch and I were walking to the van station, after a lovely day at the Mall, we were just walking along, chatting and what not, when we both smelled the most glorious smell in all of Thailand and had to stop, back up a couple of steps, and investigate the matter. And to our amazment, right there in the middle of Minburi Market was a stall set up selling burritos!! Seriously I have never once seen a burrito in all of Thailand, and apparently neither has Patch.. but she used to eat them all the time in America. So purchasing of the burritos ensued.. followed by the long van ride home while our mouths watered in anticipation for the food neither of us have eaten in far tooo long. And not even exaggerating, that burrito was amazing. Best thing I've eaten in forever.... and really, I am a lover of Thai food (esepcially not that I can eat real spicy things like all the Thais) but I swear that when I get back to Canada I am never eating rice again for many years.... I actually sent my mom a list of things I need to eat when I get back to Canada.. I forget everything that was on it, but the gist of the whole thing was mainly bread, cheese, salad, tea, etc...

Today was spent at the Mall (probably the last time I'll ever go there) with Elli and Patch.. we went to see Angels and Demons. The three of us had been looking forward to seeing it ever since Patch lent me the book which I then lent to Elli sometime last year... So we all made plans to go see it together on the opening day (today). The movie was good, but personally I liked the book better. And I know that usually books are better than movies.. but since I discovered that The Davinci Code movie followed the book pretty much to a T, I figured the same would be true for Angels and Demons. However there were alot of differences, which I guess were made for the sake of saving time in the movie and what not.. but personally I just liked the way the book gave alot more background information so that the whole thing just made more sense. Not to mention the fact that I somehow ended up sitting next to the most annoying girls in the history of annoyingness. I have no idea where they were from (they looked Asian, but weren't speaking Thai or any other language Patch could recognize)... but for some reason they seemed to think it was okay to have whole conversations while the movie was going on. And they weren't even trying to whisper or be quiet about it. They were just full on talking.. and when the movie got loud during action scenes or whatever, these girls started speaking even louder. And then the one girl also had the annoying habit of repeating half of what was said in the movie. I'm all for people being into movies and "ooohing" and "ahhhing" at all the right times... but you don't have to repeat the dialogue for everyone to hear. I just hate how people like that can ruin a movie experience....

And in other news, in 1 week from today I will be on my way home :) 10 months down. 7 days to go.

Afghan and Packing.

You'll never guess what I did yesterday.... Firstly I finished my afghan. Remember, the one I've been working on since September? Well I casted off yesterday, all I have left to do is sew all the loose bits back into the main afghan. And then once I'd finished that, I spent half of the day packing up all of my crap. Although I felt like I was being fairly productive at the time, it kind of sucks now because all my clothes are in suitcases.. which means I'm gunna have to un pack them to wear them.. and then just pack it all back up again before I leave. On the more positive side though, I was able to sort through the rest of my crap and decide what things are staying and what things are leaving. It turns out that over these past 10 months I have somehow accumulated sooooo many clothes that I think I'm going to have to leave about half of them here. Which is okay, because I still have a whole wardrobe in Canada so I'm not really in desperate need of clothes... and also I can maybe leave them here with someone who is in need of some clothes... Anyways, here is a picture of my afghan all layed out on my bed.

Good News ^^

So today I was given some incredibly good news. Apparently my host mom's baby is hanging around in her belly the wrong way up.. meaning she needs a C-Section. AND the doctor told her she should have the c-section on either the 17, 18, or 19 of this month. It's up to her. Which means........ I will get to meet my baby brother/sister before I leave!!! You have no idea how excited that makes me. Of course I told her she should have it on the 17th... but she is Thai. And Thai's believe that it is better to be born on certain days of the week than on others... so who knows which day she will choose :S

and today Elisabeth and I went to see X MEN ORIGINS WOLVERINE.. and apparently Wolverine is Canadian (I never knew) so half of the movie takes place in the "Canadian Rockies"... which got me really excited. Seriously. I practically squealed and went, "OMG ELLI THAT'S WHERE I'M FROM" and alternatively "I WILL BE THERE IN 11 DAYS!!" everytime they showed a view of mountains.... oh how I miss mountains. I swear that first breath of air I will take when I first get off the airplane will be the best thing ever. It will be like, "I can breathe again!!"

And also, I hate to admit it but just from being in an Asian country, where every white person who walks by is labelled a "farang" has made my view of foreign people somewhat change. For example, whenever I see a white person walk by, I yell, "farang" and point at them. I can't imagine what I'm going to do when I get back and there are farangs everywhere. It's just weird how after being here for all of these months, I no longer really feel like just another farang. But I'm not completely Thai either (obviously).. I'm somewhere in the middle. I no longer identify myself with all these touristy type foreigners that are running around Thailand (they can pretty much be classified into two groups.. 1. Old foreign men looking for young Thai wives 2. Backpacking Hippies ) I dunno, my English is failing me, and I can't really find a good way to explain it. It's just going to be weird being surrounded by farang.

The Beginning of the End...

well, I guess the beginning of the end really started last month.. but it seems like over these last couple of days (esepcially now that I have less than 2 weeks left here) it's really begun to hit me that the time has come to start packing up and saying goodbye. Nothing too exciting has happened in the last couple of days.. Marissa headed back to Songkla... that's about it.

Today Elisabeth and I went to JJ Market in an attempt to finish off all of our shopping for Thailand. I went prepared with a list of things I needed to buy.. and out of 11 things, I managed to buy 4. Yay me. But the things I have left to buy can (hopefully) be purchased at the Mall tomorrow, or at 7-11. Anyways, whilst shopping today it really hit me that it was the last time (at least my last time as an exchange student) that I would be going shopping at JJ Market. Even sadder is that it was the last time I would see the elephant building (my favourite building ever!!).. since the only times I ever see it is when I'm on the van to JJ. I didn't even have my camera with me so I couldn't take a picture of it.... so right now I'm just mourning the fact that I'm elephant building pictureless... AND starting to freak out about the fact that I have just about a week and a half left to get a ton of shit (excuse my french) done. Seriously, so much to do and so little time... I have plans for about half of the days I have left here, and the other half I plan to just spend hanging around the house, visiting with them, and just enjoying my last few days of being a member of their family (well, besides the time I'm going to be spending frantically packing!!). and speaking of packing. AFS is still going on about this whole only having 1 bag thing. But I did my research, and Air Canada says I'm allowed 2 sooo.. the plan is that in the next few days I'm going to try and pack up all of my crap, see what fits and what doesn't.. and then decide what I'll either just leave here or mail back to Canada. Wish me luck, seriously.

10 MONTHS!!!!!!! (and also my trip to Trat)

The whole "family" trip to Trat ended up being nothing like I expected it would be at all... The whole thing started early Saturday morning. Like seriously early. We left the house at 3 a.m. and drove for hours until we reached the beach in Trat around 7 a.m., when no sane people were actually awake and swimming around anyways. And upon leaving for this trip I was under the impression that it was just my host family (plus Marissa) going as a kind of last family trip with me before I leave.. and although our whole house hold did go (Host Mom, Host Dad, Sunyair, Shareep, Cousin Malek, Aunt Da, Aunt Na, and my scary Host Gramma) another whole family went along for some reason too (I've never met them before, but apparently they're family friends). And this other family contained a Mom, a Dad, and 4 little children all under the age of 7. Needless to say we were quite the large group of people. SO. We got to the beach, sat around and ate rice with chicken wings and beef... then all the Thai people decided to go swimming (even my host Gramma, and to be honest I was like 99% sure that she would probably have a heart attack and drown... I mean, she never ever even leaves the house, so fo her to go for a 4 hour car ride and then go swimming would probably just be too much excertion for her) just in the clothes they were already wearing, but Marissa and I decided we'd rather wait until later and swim in our swimming attire (i.e. bathing suits). In the afternoon we headed to our accomodations for the night, which was a place that pretty much looked like an orphanage.. it was just 1 big room with a million beds in it, but because our group consisted of about a million and one people, some people ended up sleeping on the floor. That's when it started to rain, and Marissa's cold really started to kick in. So we had naps until the storming outside stopped, and then headed down to the beach, where Marissa and I attempted to go swimming, but then decided against it when we discovered that the water was infested with jelly fish. So we just took naps on the beach instead. When we went back to our room thingy, Marissa and I had to wait around for about an hour to even get into the shower, because everyone was bathing their children and washing all their clothes in the shower (why they couldn't have done it in the sink is beyond me). Then we ate more rice with chicken wings and beef for dinner. Luckily Marissa and I were able to sleep in a bit on Sunday morning while all the little munchkins went down to the beach for more swimming. We were told that at 12 we would go to Cambodia for a little side trip and then head back home to BKK. Faced with yet another meal of rice with chicken wings and beef (come on, by that time that meat must have been getting pretty rotten, considering the fact that it had been cooked 2 days before and hadn't been refridgerated or anything) Marissa and I stole a can of tuna from the big stash of food the adults had brought, along with some mayo (well, the thing that all Thai's use as salad dressing (and they never use any other kind of dressing) which is really just mayo) and bread, and we made ourselves tuna sandwiches in secret so that none of the little children would come and eat any of it. We were all ready to go by noon, but because this is Thai people we are dealing with, and they never seem to be in a hury, we didn't end up actually leaving until 1. We drove to the Thai-Cambodia border, but then it started to rain quite hard, and my host dad did a brilliant manouver while driving the other dad's car in which he made a left hand turn (the same as a right hand turn in Canada) without shoulder checking and ran into a cart which some teenage boy was pushing. So then we didn't go to Cambodia because of the rain and because they had to sort out the whole big scratch in the side of he car situation. We just stayed huddled in all the little shops near the border to stay out of the rain. When we finally piled back into the car, I was under the impression we were heading back home. But then we stopped at some random Mosque/someone's house in the middle of nowhere which was surrounded by an orchard. We went ot examine the fruit in the orchard but discovered none of it was ripe enough to pick, so we just sat around this random person's house, and I discovered I had diarrhea, which I blamed on all the chicken and beef. And then all the Thai people had a good ol time discussing my bowel movements and trying to determine whether I did actually have diarrhea or not. Around that time was when the adults decided we should stay another night, despite the fact that we had nowhere to stay. Then the majority of us went to some wetlands place to look at fireflies, while my host mom, gramma, and Shareep went to sleep. The firefly place was actually kind of fun. We had to ride around on bikes in the dark, since driving around in a car with headlights would disturb the fireflys and would make them not glow or something. The only downside was that the bike seats were hard as, and afterwards my bum hurt so bad. Then we headed back to our accomodations for the night, which ended up just being a guest house type thing which I think belonged to someone from the mosque. The house was virtually empty though, and we all just ended up having to sleep on the hard tile floor. It was rather uncomfortable, but I wasn't going to complain. However, I found it quite aweful that we had a very pregnant woman, a very old woman, and a bunch of little children all sleeping on the floor like this. Honestly, I would NEVER make an old lady, for example, sleep on the floor.. that's just cruel.

We woke up bright and early on Monday morning, which I assumed meant we would be heading home bright and early. I took a shower, which sucked because all my clothes had gotten wet from being up on top of the car all the day before while it was raining. So I had no clean towel to dry myself off with, and no dry clothes to put on afterwards. Just when I thought we were heading home, we went back to that mosque place from the night before, where we ate breakfast and then went to the orchard to pick fruit, realized that it hadn't somehow mysteriously become ripe over night.. then went back to the house to sit around for hours whilst the grown ups sat around eating and talking. FINALLY we headed home. And just our luck, Marissa and I ended up in the car which was full of all the little children screaming on the way home. The End.

And today marks the anniversary of me being in Thailand for 10 months, which believe it or not is actually incredibly exciting.!

Happy May Everyone!!

I’m sure you all realize what that means… it is now officially the month of my return to Canada (in 20 days from now, to be exact). AFS Thailand has confirmed my flights back to Canada, and has sent us all mail about our end of stay camp and things about readjusting back to life in where ever it is that we came from… Only shitter thing is that according to them I’m only allowed to go back with 1 bag up to 20 kilos, which really is nonsense because when I came here they let me bring 2 bags up to 20 kilos each, and what kind of crazy person would come to Thailand for a year and end up with less stuff than they started with???

Anyways, yesterday Marissa and I (along with Patch and Patcha) spent the night at Cherry’s house (AKA my ex host families house). It was enjoyable, but really we didn’t do anything all that exciting. Pretty much just sat around and watched movies all day. And to be honest it was kind of weird for me to be back there again. It was nice to see P’Beam and P’Kla and everyone else (except my ex host dad who I swear will never cease to annoy me with all his talk of money and telling me how fat I am.. and to make matter worse I think he had a little bit too much whisky to drink, which just made him extra obnoxious). But I dunno, being there just brought back many memories of living there, both good and bad…. Patch, Patcha, and Cherry gave me my belated birthday present, which was a cartoon characature drawing thing of me all dressed up Thai style. It's super cute, and such a cool present to get since I've never had a cartoon drawing of me done before.

Early tomorrow morning (AKA late tonight).. at 3 a.m. to be exact, Marissa and I are going to Trat province in the South East with my host family to spend the day and 1 night there. I'm not sure if we're staying in a hotel or camping out or what (because my host family sure seems to have alot of shit packed for the trip...), but it should be fun. I think Sunyair is really excited about going swimming in the ocean, so I told her I would go with her ;) Anyways, I'll try to take lots of pictures for you all to see.. and for now, just remember that it is only 20 more sleep (well more like 19 since I probably won't actually sleep tonight at all) until I will be seeing you again..

3 Weeks Until Hometime

3 weeks until hometime (that's only 21 sleeps!!).. Just thought you'd all like to know ;)

2 More Days.

The title says it all. I still have 2 more days to go until I can wash my hair. Needless to say, things are getting pretty nasty hair wise. Seriously, going a week without washing one's hair in a country where one's body is pretty much permanently covered in sweat... not a good idea.

Today Marissa and I met up with some of her Thai friends that she knows from back in America.. and we went to one of those cool sushi restaurants where they just put the little sushis on a conveyor belt that goes around and around and you steal off whatever you want to eat. It was friggen expensive, but the food was yummy. Only catch is that they give you a time limit.. an hour and a half to eat whatever you can. The problem was that Marissa and I had eaten breakfast only a couple of hours earlier, and really weren't all that hungry. It was still quite the experience though :)

My Birthday in Thailand

So.... now (unfortunately) I'm 19. To be honest I'm not too thrilled about the whole turning 19 thing... mainly because now in less than a year I will be 20, and no longer a teenager....

Anyways, my birthday in Thailand was enjoyable. My friend Marissa from America has been staying with me for the last few days, so she was here to celebrate my birthday with me, along with Elisabeth, Patch, and Cherry. We just hung out during the day, pigged out on all the snacks and food my host family had bought... watched a movie. Nothing too exciting really. But it was nice to be able to spend the day with my friends. My host family had a cake made for my birthday, which said "HAPPY BIRTHDAY KRISTEN" on it... They all sang me Happy Birthday, and Patch videoed it.. but unfortunately I don't think I'll have a chance to upload the video until my internet starts working a bit better. I didn't get many presents... my one host aunt made me a purse and my other aunt made me a bracelet. I also got chocolate, and Elli promised to pay for me to eat at Swensens the next time we go to the Mall. Patch and Cherry apparently have ordered me a special present and it won't be here for another few days.... I don't really know what else to say about my birthday.. while I know it was my birthday.. it just didn't really feel like it I guess.. same as with pretty much every other holiday this year (Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, etc.) but then again this whole year really has felt kind of like some kind of crazy weird dream. And in only 25 days I'll be waking up from it (how freaky is that??).

As for the whole not washing my hair for a week thing... It's getting interesting, that's for sure. Honestly, this country is too hot and sweaty to go a week without washing your hair seriously. And my problem is that where my head is getting all sweaty during the day, it's getting my hair wet and then it's going all curly again..... still 4 more days until I can wash it, and I guess we'll just have to see how it looks then :S

Straight Hair

So, today I did something that I've never done before in my life. I had my hair chemically straightened. Believe it or not, this is actually quite a popular thing to have done in Thailand (trust me, when I was first told that my first thought was, "why? don't Thai people already have straight hair?"... but I guess they do it to make their hair uber straight...). I guess the reason for me doing this (I know all you guys are really wondering why I would do such a thing because I've always loved my curly hair and expressed no desire to have it permanently straightened) was because I feel like I've changed so much (on the inside) during my year here in Thailand, so I really need some kind of physical change on the outside to kind of represent that (or in Patch's words.. I just need a new look). At first I thought about getting a tattoo while here, but kind of decided against it (even though I have a super cool idea for one) just because I'm not sure how comfortable I would feel going into some random tattoo shop in Bangkok and being tattooed (also not very keen on getting HIV from a dirty needle)... would much rather be tattooed back in Canada where I can actually speak the same language as the tattoo artist, etc. So, I decided I'm just going to drastically change my hair.. starting with making it straight. The whole process took 3 hours (I won't bore you with all the details) and cost 1,200 baht (about $40) which I thought was uber cheap (despite the fact that apparntely they made me pay the foreigner price.. Thais would only have to pay 800).. Patch came with me and kept me company, and at one point La and Mah came and hung out with us in the salon. As of now my hair is super straight, and the hair stylist told me to wait 3 days before washing it again, and also not to put it in a ponytail or tuck it behind my ears or anything until I wash it... But then Sah (host mom) told me I should wait a whole week rather than just 3 days :S oh, and apparently my hair is really dry (weird because I always thought I had healthy hair and took good care of it...). Now I'm just in need of a new haircut.. have no idea what cut I will get yet.. maybe I will go for a typical Thai teenage girl hair style, but to be quite honest I'm a little worried about that idea, because alot of Thai people have hair cuts that vaguley resemble mullets....

And The CountDown Begins...

That's right.. in only 1 month from today I will be both saying goodbye to Thailand, and hello again to Canada. I can just imagine the squeals of excitement most of you back in my homeland are letting out right now. I know you've missed me, but at least I've kept this blog up fairly well so you haven't felt completely out of the loop on what's been going down in Thailand. So I guess now the real countdown begins.. and I still have tons of crap to do before heading back home (well mostly just wrapping up things everything here.. saying goodbye, etc.)...



Today also marks the day of the miraculous return of my bikini... onto the roof of my host dad's car (don't ask me how the hell it ended up there)... My host family seems to think it was the wind that brought it from the clothesline to the car.. but the again they also though I got so sick on Valentine's day due to my jeans being too tight... Needless to say I'm happy to have my bikini back :) although unfortunately my host mom wasn't so lucky as to have her panties returned...

Thieves

I'm a little angry.. and now bikini-less. Whilst my bikini was hanging out to dry... it went missing. So there is only one conclusion which I can come to: someone stole it. I don't know who took it, but the chances are that it's not coming back. And apparently my host mom's underwear has also misteriously dissapeared... which I find kind of strange. It's one thing is steal a bikini that is hanging out to dry, but stealing another person's used underwear? Esepcially when Thai people are so paranoid about underwear to begin with... Anyways, if anyone's stumped about what to get me for my birthday on Saturday, I'm in need of a new bikini ;)

S'Mores!

Today I went to Patch's house, where we made ourselves a little campfire and roasted hot dogs and made smores (thanks to Mama Brock for providing the marshmellows!).. It was a good time. Everyone liked the smores, which was cool because most of the people there had never eaten them before.. and I got to show off my amazing skills at roasting marshmellows to the perfect point without burning them.. which none of the Thai people seemed to be able to do (but then again it as their first shot at doing it... so I can't be too hard on them). Overall it was a very enjoyable day.. except for the heat, which pretty much always sucks, but it sucked even more when you're sitting next to a hot fire trying to roast hot dogs...

Anyways, I've been thinking about Thai phrases that I will be sad to have leave my vocabulary when I go back to Canada... so I figured I better make a list of them all and give explanations of them to you so that you'll all understand what the hell I'm talking about when I get back.. so, here is my list of the most awesome Thai phrases:

1. Mai Bpenrai - Can mean sooo many things (that's what makes it so amazing).. including, "you're welcome," "don't worry about it," "it's no problem," etc.

2. Jing Law - Means "really?"... although since each area of Thailand has it's own dialect, I've noticed that mostly in my area people instead say "Oh Law"

3. Jing Jing - comes after the "jing law" or "oh law" question.. and means, "really really".

4. Arai Go Dai - means "whatever"... for example: "yak gin arai?" (what do you want to eat?) "gin arai go dai" (whatever)

5. +55555 - used on MSN or hi5 etc.. is the Thai version of "hahaha" or "lol" since the number five in Thailand is pronounced like "ha"

6. Sanap Sanoon Doi - okay, nobody uses this one in conversations.. it just sounds sooo cool... means "sponsored in part by" (like for TV or radio shows...)

7. Na - a word with really no meaning that Thai's tend to add on to the end of sentences (kind of like the stereotypical Canadian "eh?") even when speaking in English, such as "I miss you na".

8. Mai - the easiest way to explain this one is that it's pretty much the same as a "?" at the end of a sentence in English. Thai's don't raise their voice to ask as question, as we do in English.. instead they just add the word mai... for example "hiew mai" (are you hungry?)... but of course adding "mai" has kind of become a habit for me to do in English as well.. "you want mai" "eat mai" etc.

Another interesting thing about the Thai language.. I swear, everything rhymes! For exmample, "bye nye?" (where are you going?) or "puad pa sa Thai dai mai?" (can you speak Thai?)

SongKran

Here's what happened during each day of SongKran (copied from my diary):

Monday April 13, 2009

Well so much for Songkran festival... I talked to Patch on the phone last night, since we had plans to go Songkraning together today... but she figured that with all the demonstrations and what not going on, it was better to stay home today and watch on the news about what was happening downtown with Songkran.. and if all looked safe, we would go on the 14th.. Well, to be perfectly hnest, things don't look all that safe. I went to Rose's school this morning to meet with her, Elisabeth, Sinan, and Khaled.. and on the way there I was really surprised to ee how empty the streets were.. not just of people playing water, but also of cars, buses, pedestrians, etc. It was crazy.. like the city was dead or something. We watched the news in Rose's AFS room, and apparently the protestors had burned a bus or 2, which is why none of he buses were running. I honestly don't understand what is going on with the government here. All I know is that there is a red team and a yellow team, and that right now the red ones are wrecking havoc in BKK. So much actually that Songkran just isn't really happening now. Which sucks, bnecause this is my first, and probably only, chance to playing Songkran.. but what could suck even more would be if Thailand is put under MarshallLaw, which would mean all exchangers will be sent home... The only thing we ended up doing today that was at all Songkran like, was walking around Rose's school and spraying this liquid on different shrines.. which seems weird to me, because I would think that in Western culture, throwing liquid on something that is supposed to be sacred would seem really disrespectful.. unless it's like holy water or something I guess....

Tuesday April 14, 2009

Today was definately a very productive day.. Finished my AFS yearbook page this morning, worked on my afghan.. got Easter mail from Canada, including the movie Religulous, which I watched already. At 4 I met Patch at Tops where we were picked up and taken to Cherry's house to get ready for Songkran. It was kind of a weird feeling being back there.. kind of made me remember all the good times I had there and how there were certain things I liked there better than with my new host family. I got to see P'Keng's baby girl, who is completely bald and is uber cute. P'Beam wasn't there though.. which kind of sucked because I was hoping ot see her. Everyone else was there though.. all of my old host brothers, etc. It was kind of funny because I guess they didn't realize that now I can speak and understand Thai alot better than when I lived with them. The first thing P'Keng said when he saw me was how fat I am (in Thai of course), and I told him I understood what he said... which I guess made him kind of embarassed :S Anyways, we all climbed in the back of the truck, where we were equipped with 3 big barrels of water and various water guns. I pretty much just used a water gun the whole tim, because that way I could stay sitting down rather than having to stand and scoop water out of the water barrel, which I didn't like because it was slippery and I was parnoid that I would fall. Honestly, the whole time all I was thinking about was how illegal this whole festival would be in Canada... people standing in the back of pickup trucks throwing water around? Not the safest thing in the world, that's for sure. We drove around until w were out of water... everytime we would go by a group of people at the side of the road who were throwing water at traffic, we would stop and have a mini water fight with them. Some people would have ice cold water to throw on us, while others had powder or colouring mixed in with their water (and the powder/water mixture really stung your eyes), and some would just run up with a handful of powder and smear it on you face.. and everyone seemed to want to rub powder on the foreigner's (i.e. me) face. The whole thing was fun, but it really seems that this whole festival is an excuse for Thai people to be drunk in public and maybe do things that would seem inappropraite during other times. Like Rose told me, Songkran gives Thai people a chance to be crazy.

Wednesday April 15, 2009

Elisabeth and I went to Rose's school, where we met Rose (obviously).. Khaled and Sinan eded up not coming... The original plan had been for Rose to take us to the Corcodile Farm outside of BKK, but since Songkran downtown was back in fullswing, we decided to go to Khao San instead.. and I'm so glad we did because Khao San during Songkran is definatley an experience of a lifetime. It was sooo crowded with people (almost as bad as Central World at New Years) and amazingly they were pretty much all Thai, which is weird because that area is usually all foreigners. Some people had water guns, but mostly peope just walked around smearing a mixture of powder and water on eachother's faces.. or pouring bottled water down eachother's backs. And I swear pretty much every guy we walked by was determine dto touch mine and Elisabeth's faces. Quite amazingly we ran into Galina and another AFS girl from Germany.. we walked around with them for a bit, and then headed home. While I enjoyed the whole Songkran thing, I must admit I liked the whole actual water fighting aspect of it better than the powder aspect.. mainly just because I wasn't fond of all these random guys rubbing their hands all over my face. I was also surprised at how slutty Thai girls generally become during Songkran.. smoking and drinking in public.. just doing things that good Thai girls really never do.

I got home just in time to shower and get dressed them go to Ron's home welcoming (?) party at the new house they just moved into. It was pretty much just annoyed by the same guy who annoyed me at Ron's baby shower the whole time. He was just trying to force everyone to talk to me, even if they didn't want to, which was kind of embarassing... Then of course he told me he knows "I love you" in 11 languages, and told me something completely nonsense that he claimed was "I love you" in French. And then there was the whole confusion of him asking me if I was Catholic, me telling him I'm not Christian.. then him being all confused because apparently my name is Christian.. me telling him it's Kristen, not Christian.. and him nodding like he understood the difference when really he didn't. Needles to say I was happy to leave that party.

Oh, and unfortunately I wasn't able to take many pictures during this whole festival.. due to the fact that I didn't want my camera to get soaked. And also, as of today it's only 5 weeks until I'll be back in Canada...

HuaHin (and my first encounter with SongKran)

Just got back from my 2 day excursion to HuaHin (which is pretty much a beachy, touristy town). Katrijn and I went to Kathy's house in Bangkok on Thursday, spent the night there, and then took the train to HuaHin in the morning... where we met Marissa and Jackie. The weekend was quite enjoyable.. we spent one day inside the nice air conditioned mall.. shopping around, eating, etc. The usual. The other day we lounged around the pool (which contributed to a nice lobster red sunburn I now have on my shoulders). We stayed up late at night visiting and going for midnight McDonald runs. Certain people had spur of the moment hair dye jobs (for only 400 baht!) And we even went for a late night swim fully clothed in the ocean (which wasn't such a good idea for me since I was wearing a white skirt +555). To be quite honest I didn't really want to leave today. I actually always find it weird going back to my host family after spending a few days with foreigners... back to eating only Thai food.. only speaking Thai... etc. But I guess I am IN Thailand.. so those things should be expected.

We went back to Bangkok by Taxi, the cost of which ended up being about the same as the train we had taken down to HuaHin once we split it four ways. The taxi took us to the train station, and when we got there I phoned my host dad to see if he could pick me up.. but he couldn't. Of course there was always the option of taking a taxi.. but since I'd rather save my money and spent it on souvenirs, rather than taxi rides.. I took the cheap, long way home. Which meant I took the bus. The non air conditioned bus. And, to top things off, I decided to sit near the front of the bus, right behind the door. Now, this seat wouldn't be problematic on any normal days.. but apparently some people got a little too excited about the fact that SongKran festival starts tomorrow, and decided to start playing water today. Which meant there were people standing along the side of the street, with water guns, water hoses, etc..... which they would throw through the open windows and doors of the bus. And since I was so conveniently situated right by the door.. I got a good soaking. So that, my friends, was my first encounter with SongKran festival. It was nice, actually... helped cool me off a bit in this crazy heat. Probably would have enjoyed it more though if I felt a little more relaxed about busing it home by myself from the train station for the first time. The bus reached the end of the route, and we weren't where I thought we were supposed to be. So there were a few nice Thai ladies getting off the bus who told me which bus to take next in order to go out of my village... and in the end I made it home safe and sound.. and only a little damp.

HaPpY sOnGkRaN eVeRyOnE! (and of couse, Happy Easter as well!!!!... although for me.. along with Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.. Easter doesn't really exist this year)

Stuff and Such

Nothing much has happened in the last couple of days.. I've just been enjoying relaxing around the house.. watching movies, reading books, eating tons of mangos (apparently it's the season for mangos here)... Tomorrow I'm going to Kathy's (from America) house to spend the night, since we have to get up super early on Friday to catch our train to HuaHin. It'll be me, Kathy, Katrijn (from Belgium), and Marissa (America) going... should be a good time. We'll get back on Sunday, and then Monday-Wednesday next week is SongKran festival! Which, in case you didn't know, is THE festival in Thailand (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songkran). Pretty much the first thing everyone new Thai person I meet asks me is if I've ever "played water" at Songkran before (and I tell them no, because we don't celebrate Songkran in Canada).. because that's pretty much the whole gist of Songkran.. it's a giant waterfight which lasts for 3 days. Most people tend to say it's tons of fun, esepcially since it's so hot out in Thailand now, being soaked in water helps cool you off.. But I have heard from other people that sometimes people on the street are a little too drunk and things get out of hand. I don't have any for sure plans for the festival so far.. I'm hoping that P'Kla (my old host brother... remember him??) will take Patch, Cherry, and I around in the back of their truck to play (because apparently that's funner than just walking around on the street since it's easier to bring around a big supply of water with you)... Anyways, I've been looking forward to this festival all year, so hopefully I have a good time.

In other news, my parents changed my flight schedule for going back to Canada... I will still be back on May 21st, but instead of my final flight being from Vancouver to Calgary.. and then having to drive another 5 hours home from Calgary... the flight will be from Vancouver to Cranbrook, so it's only a 1 hour drive home from the airport.... which means that my parents can bring along Dookie with them to the airport. Now if you know me personally, you will understand how super excited I am to see him at the airport!!! And if you don't know me personally... Dookie is my dog. (+555)

And that picture up there is my new haircut, when it was looking all nice and straightened :P

9 MONTHS!!!!!!

Today is my 9 month anniversary with Thailand... and I will only have 1 month anniversary left before I head back to Canada... here is a funny list of how to know when you've been an exchange student in Thailand: (oh, and also, I uploaded pictures from my families visit.. just go to the photopage link on the right)

You know you've been an exchange student in Thailand when..

You've mastered the 'Wai' and laugh when you see other 'farangs' try to use it.
You don't mind peoples stares when you're walking down the street in the school uniform. In fact you encourage it, so the taxis will stop for you.
You know what a thai barbeque is, and will beat anyone over the head with your chopsticks who tries to steal that slice of fish your grilling.
You know how to maneuver through the mazes of all the Soi's to get home. 'Take a left, then another, three rights, a u-turn, go down the darkest alley possible, then another left...'
You don't use just a fork anymore, and don't know how you ever ate without a spoon. In fact, when you try using a fork again you just end up with food on your lap.
You get a break from that shitty rules about dress code in school, just because you are a 'farang'.
You discovered not every dog is touchable, and have the shot scars to prove it.
If you have a cold, you don't tell your host-parents, because you know they will just make you go to the hospital for no reason.
You can speak thai, even just a little. And laugh in the face of those who can't.
You can sing atleast one song in thai, even if it's as lame as 'Loy Loy Krattong' or your school song.
You've learned how to bargain, and damn, can you bargain good. Shop owners suddenly realize they are selling a 300 baht item for only 50 baht.
You finally understand whats expensive and whats not. And find yourself buying a good meal for the low cost of $1.00 US.
You don't buy at the Malls or Department stores anymore because everyone tells you that it's cheaper to go to JJ Market, even the salespeople.
You don't mind someone handing on your arm or holding your hand anymore, and find yourself doing it to them because it seems weird not to.
You wear a pair of jeans, shoes and socks, a long sleeve shirt, and use an umbrella; all in 90 degree sunny weather.
You know the tones, and ignore them completely anyways.
You find riding in Tuk-Tuks are a lot more fun to use, and know how to not get ripped off by them.
You have the King's shirt, the Queen's shirt, the wristband, and the bumpersticker because you love the King just as much as the Thais do.
You happen to mention to your family that you maybe have the sniffles and end up suffering because you have to drink warm water (absolutely NO ice!) for at least 2 weeks.
You have ever warned someone that you will, and I mean will, kill them if they try to bend your hand back for thai dancing.
You know what the BTS is, and know that standing is cooler and more fun then sitting any day.
You often say "I don't like that 7-11, let's go to the one over there" while pointing a mere 10 feet down the street.
You're soo good, you only need one bowl of water to flush a squattie pottie.
You know the toilet paper is for the dinner table, and it is a sin against all thais to use it for the bathroom.
You know that karaoke is always just a trap for thai people to mock you openly.
When you see a white person you point and yell 'Falang' just like the Thai people do.
It doesn't matter if the foreigner teachers at school are from England or Australia, if they speak english, then you two are practically related.
When you've had (on more than one occasion) to explain what "555" means to someone back home.
When you are used to weird questions such as "what day of the week were you born on?" or "what is your blood type?"
When you can eat pizza with ketchup, sugar on ramon noodles, fruit dipped in hot sauce, and not throw up.
You take 'eat the spicy stuff' challenges, and usually just to break the ice and make people laugh when they meet you.
You totally ignore that those DVDs and CDs are pirated, and buy them anyways, because even thai people don't know where the nearest video store is.
You get really excited when you get to eat McDonalds or KFC because you haven't eaten 'farang food in a month.
You hate family gathering because they all speak a dialect together (like the Southern language) and you have no idea what's going on.
You're used to being complimented on you're extremely white skin.
You have been called and frequently call others 'uan' or 'chaang.'
You know that 'taai ruup mai' means that you could be taking pictures for an hour.
You know of and can sing songs by Bodyslam, Endorphine, Hangman, Potato, and Big Ass.
You know that Bangkok's real name is Krungtep (Maha nakaun....) and will not let someone punch you in the nuts if they ask you...
You can now sit cross-legged for hours."
You couldn't remember the names or faces of people you met when you first arrived because 'they all look the same' and you've never heard their names before.
You knew how to speak about food in Thai before pretty much anything else.
You're used to being force fed by Thai people so matter how "im" you insist that you already are.
You hate farangs, with a passion.
When you actually find a cute thai boy you must tell all your exchange friends to get them to see him, since it is quite rare where ever you live.
Baby powder will never be used in the same way again.
When you look down and see that there isn't a spoon among the silverware, you begin to seriously panic.
When you can fit 10 people in a taxi/tuktuk and 5 people on a motorcycle, without flinching.
When You know a movie is dubbed in thai because it's always the same two people/voices doing it.
The only reason you carry around a backpack for school is to hold the clothes you are going to change into when you skip and go to the mall instead.
It doesn't matter if your the skinniest person in the world, you will always be fat in Thailand.
You don't understand how there are no places to buy sunscreen because everyone in thailand loves white skin.
When you feel like doing the wai to beg or apologize your foreigner friends.
When you have used the 1 baht weight machines as a way to get rid of spare change.
When you recognize your friends not by their faces, but by the bag their carrying.
When you still bow at cars when they stop for you to let you cross (or, at least, when you've forced it by being halfway across the street already).
When you can't help but keep your head ducked when two older people, or teachers are talking and you have to walk past them.
When you got some gifts and ended up in a five-hour "the-act-of-receiving-presents-photoshoot" with the biggest fake smile EVER on your face and the face of the present-giver!
When you think staying out till 9 is a late night out, or atleast your host-parents do.
When your friends invite you to go out and drink some "milk" and you really go out to drink milk.
When it being your birthday means you dont get the first slice of cake anymore.

Prachuap

So I am back in Bangkok, for now.. but I have a feeling things are about to get uber busy for me, especially since I have only 6 weeks and 5 days left! I got back last night.. but have been having problems with my internet which is why I haven’t yet updated on here. I’ll have a good connection for a couple of minutes.. and then nothing. It drives me crazy honestly. But at least I have other things to keep me busy, such as finishing knitting my afghan which I’m determined to do before I leave Thailand, working on my friendship book and AFS yearbook page, reading one of the many books my parents brought over for me, etc. Although lately I really haven’t had time for any of those things.

Our trip to Prachuap was quite enjoyable. We stayed there for 2 whole days, and spent these days just hanging out on the beach. We stayed at a rather cheap but fairly nice hotel right near the ocean… it was nice.. and just, relaxing. There were only 5 of us who went… Ajarn Rose, Elisabeth, Sinan (boy from Turkey), Khaled (boy from Egypt), and myself. But really there isn’t much to tell about the whole excursion. We just swam, sat on the beach, and talked about many things… mainly complaining about AFS. It was a good group of people to be with… We came back to Bangkok yesterday, and arrived in the afternoon. Since we had some free time, Elisabeth and I decided to go with Rose to the hair salon to get spur of the moment haircuts! Which is exciting, believe me, since it’s the first time I’ve cut my hair since being in Thailand. To be honest, I was quite nervous because I thought the hair dresses would cut my hair too short and it would end up like an afro or something, but luckily all turned out alright, and I ended up with a kind of bob haircut that is slightly longer in the front than in the back… all for only 250 baht!! The hair dresser even straightened my hair all nicely for me, and I haven’t yet washed it, so hopefully it looks alright when it’s all curly. Today I went to the mall with Elisabeth, since we needed to get some pictures printed, and we in desperate need of seeing a movie. We ended up seeing Fast and the Furious 4 (which I had honestly never even heard of before now), since it was the only English movie playing. And I must say, I actually quite enjoyed it. Oh, and before the movie they played a preview for Angels and Demons! Which I’m super excited for.. and it turns out it’s coming out in theatres May 14th, which makes it even better because it means I will be able to see it with Elisabeth and Patch, since they are also both super excited for it, before heading back to Canada.

Piiictures

Ok, since I have about 20 minutes to spare before I'm off to Prachuap with Ajarn Rose... and because my internet has for some reason decided to work like normal today, here, for your viewing pleasure, are a couple of the pictures from my family visit:

In front of the waterfall from the movie The Beach.

The slash in my purse, from where someone tried to steal from me (but didn't succeed).

In the boat at the Floating Markets.

Beach at Railay.

Alyson jumping on the beach.

1 month and 3 weeks.

I just got back from dropping my parents and Alyson off at the airport for them to go back to Canada. So many things have happened since I last wrote in here.. but honestly, there is no way I could go back and describe everything now. So really this post is just to tell you guys that I'm still alive, I had a great time visiting my family, and that as of now they are safely on their way back to Canada. I haven't had a chance to upload all the pictures yet, but when I do I will (although I'm not really sure when that will be since as of now my internet isn't working too good), and hopefully they will help give you an idea of all the recent happenings. I can tell you now though that words probably couldn't describe how it felt to first see them all again at the airport after being apart for 8 months. I saw them walking towards me off in the distance, and Alyson must have seen me too, because she started running towards me all like it was a moment out of a movie.... it was crazy. To briefly recap everything that we did.. the first 6 days we spent in Bangkok, shopping around and visiting different tourist sites... then we went down to Railay Beach in the South of Thailand for 5 days.. where we stayed in a beautiful bungalow near the beach. It was sad saying goodbye to them at the airport again.. although this time it was much easier since I will be seeing them again in only 1 month and 3 weeks (whereas last time I was saying goodbye to them for over 8 months).



And I also must warn you that I probably won't be updating that much in the next few days either, as tomorrow I am off to Prachuap in the south with Ajarn Rose and some other exchange students.. as far as I know we will be back on April 4th.. so I will update you guys some more then.

1 More Sleeps!

Nothing too tooo exciting has happened in the last few days (jeese I wonder how many blog entries have started with that exact sentence....). However, tomorrow something ultra exciting is happening..... my parents and younger sister from Canada will be coming to Thailand!!! Their flight is scheduled to arrive at 11 a.m. tomorrow morning. Since I live so close to the airport here, I think the plan is for my host dad to take me to the airport to pick them up, then bring them back to my village so I can introduce them to my host family, give them a tour of my school, etc. Then sometime during the evening we will head to the hotel which we will be staying at in Bangkok (you can look at it here ---> pprincess.com) I'm not really sure what we will do for the week in Bangkok. I have lots of ideas, but nothing planned on for certain on certain days. Which I think is okay, we will just take it easy and take things day by day (although I'm like 155% sure we will do a ton of shopping). However, I did make plans with Patch to go to JJ Market with us on the 21st (because that is the only day Patch will be free to do anything whilst they are here).. and apparently we're invited to go have dinner with my old host family at their house sometime during the week.. which could be a little interesting since I haven't seen most of the members of that family since I moved out of their house... but to be honest I do miss some of them quite a lot (well mostly P'Kla and P'Beam... honestly, if it wasn't for the two of them I don't know how I would have survived my first couple of months here). On the 23rd we will be going to Krabi in the south of Thailand (I think we will get there by plane.. but I don't have plane tickets yet sooo who knows, maybe we'll have to end up busing it??) to stay in a Bungalow on the beach for a few days. I don't have anything at all planned for whilst we are in the South, I just think it will be nice to lay on the beach and hang out in a bungalow just the 4 of us... On the 28th we will come back to Bangkok (and hopefully find somewhere to stay for a couple of nights since I don't have any hotels booked yet :S) and just get everything organized for them going back to Canada (since they will be taking alot of my stuff back for me) on the 30th. So now that you know the grand scheme of things, I must admit that I don't think I'll be writing in here very often until they leave on the 30th... so, just be patient, and I'll update you on all the happenings, and will lots of pictures hopefully, as soon as I can!

Return Date!!

I now know what my date of return to Canada will be..... (drumroll) May 21st, which is the date I had been expecting it to be all along, but now that my plane ticket has been all booked and what not, it is official. Although apparently our AFS end of stay camp will be May 18-21st, which means I will have to say goodbye to all of my Thai friends and host family and what not before the 18th (unless all of my classmates go to the airport to say goodbye to me like they promised they would (Soy even promised he'd give me a goodbye kiss +555)).

Today my host aunt taught me how to make a Thai dessert called "Khao Neeow Sun Kai Yah" which was fun. I'm glad that my host family has at least caught onto the fact that I have nothing to do this week, and they've taken this opportunity to teach me to cook different desserts and what not. The dessert today involved making sweet sticky rice, and then making this thing (I don't know what to call it.. I'm sorry, I'm bad with cooking/baking terms) out of eggs, sugar, and coconut milk to go on top. Of course I'm not going to give you guys the whole recipe (which I did write down as best as I could) because I'm planning on cooking this for all of you when I get back. But I guess if you look really closely at that picture, you might be able to read all of my writing...

Bucket Lists

So, here is a list, word for word, (although very short) which I made when I was in Grade 11 of things I wanted to do before I die:

1. Leave this shitter town
2. Get a tattoo
3. Figure out what I want to do with the rest of my life...
4. Go skydiving
5. Live far far away for a while
6. Never stop playing bass

I came across this saved on my computer a couple of days ago... and was quite surprised to discover that I have already managed to do half of those things. Also kind of sad to admit though that I've virtually failed at #6, as I haven't had access to a bass here in Thailand. But I still found it interesting looking back and seeing what kinds of things seemed important for me to do as a 16 year old. So today whilst I was bored and feeling a little inspired, I came up with more of a list of things to do, which is as follows:

7. Travel to as many countries on as many different continents as I possibly can... never say "no" to an opportunity to go abroad
8. Be a vegetarian
9. Get dreadlocks
10. Graduate from university and find a job that makes me happy
11. Find someone to spend the rest of my life with
12. Get over my fear of singing in front of other people
13. Have children (this one shouldn't be coming for at least another 10 years haha) and if I ever have any daughters they will be named Emily and Alys
14. Get that portrait tattoo of Nanny that I told her I would
15. Learn to freestyle on bass and just improve my guitar skills in general
16. Go bungee jumping
17. Host an exchange student
18. Travel across Canada (whether it be by car or motorbike)

now, let's see if I can have half of THAT list finished in the next two years haha..
and just for fun, here is a list of things I've never done, until I was in Thailand:

1. Used a squat toilet
2. Survived without toilet paper
3. Took cold showers daily
4. Washed my clothes by hand
5. Ironed clothes
6. Wore a uniform
7. Ate fish with the head still on, ate shark fin, liver, etc.
8. Sucessfully ate using chopsticks
9. Rode an elephant
10. Fed an elephant
11. Fed wild monkeys
12. Was picked up by an elephant (wow that sounds totally wrong hahaha)
13. Knew how to Thai massage, Thai dance, draw Thai art, etc.
14. Had a sunburn in December
15. Pulled an all-nighter and watched the sun rise
16. Saw a professional ballet
17. Went rafting
18. Jumped off a bridge into the river
19. Went swimming in the sea at 2 a.m.
20. Wore a hi-jab
21. Drank tea while sitting completely clothes in the rain
22. Cooked poutine
23. Was anywhere near a cockfight (although I managed to never actually watch one)
24. Took a "bucket shower"
25. Won any kind of trophy
26. Knew how to knit
27. Shared my bedroom with someone
28. And then of course all the obvious ones that go along with exchange, like being away from my family for so long, using a different language on a daily basis, etc.