วันอาทิตย์ที่ 24 พฤษภาคม พ.ศ. 2552

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.

วันอังคารที่ 19 พฤษภาคม พ.ศ. 2552

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.

วันเสาร์ที่ 16 พฤษภาคม พ.ศ. 2552

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...

วันพฤหัสบดีที่ 14 พฤษภาคม พ.ศ. 2552

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.

วันจันทร์ที่ 11 พฤษภาคม พ.ศ. 2552

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.

วันอาทิตย์ที่ 10 พฤษภาคม พ.ศ. 2552

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.

วันเสาร์ที่ 9 พฤษภาคม พ.ศ. 2552

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.

วันจันทร์ที่ 4 พฤษภาคม พ.ศ. 2552

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.!

วันศุกร์ที่ 1 พฤษภาคม พ.ศ. 2552

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..