Monday, August 14, 2006
Okay well I haven't posted in awhile as things got kind of crazy here but I will try to catch this up. Last weekend my Uncle Jack visited!!! 
Yup that's right I'm a lucky girl I already got to see family. It was really nice to spend time together and I finally got to be outside and walk around town a little. He also gave me advice on how to face learning a forgetting language and it's already started to help and I've become more focused. My family took us out for lunch last sunday and we saw "walking fish" they are really cool and they fight it was pretty awesome. The week went really well. I'm enjoying my cooking classes though I'm not sure how much I'm learning they are really fun and my classmates in them don't really speak English so that is also forcing me to speak a little more Thai which is great. This week we made cupcakes 
though they were more like pound cake they were quite good if I say so myself. Wednesday I spent the whole day at Joy school!!! I actually taught one lesson for Dana and it was a lot of fun. I definitely hope to do more but it is so much harder to teach an ESL class especially ones so young. It will be interesting to see what else I can do and I hope to learn a lot from Dana and the other teachers. Since I spent the whole day I got time to talk to all of them which was really nice. Then on Thursday it was sport day at my school so another whole day without any classes. They seem to have quite a lot of events that take a lot of planning and time to get together but they are always fun. I helped my friends get everything ready for Friday's parade. Then on friday as I already mentioned I was in the parade. It meant getting up at 3 am for hair and makeup but some of my friends had to get up at 1 am so I was lucky. The dress was so beautiful and I loved it but the parade was so so long and it was really hot then they made us stand around in a field for half an hour in the direct sunlight and some girls fainted but they still made us stay there. During the parade people were coming up to me and taking my photo which was really odd but I was told to expect it. In the morning before we went my host mother said I should charge 10 baht for every photo and let me tell you if I had I'd be sitting on a beach in Koh Samui for a week. After 2 and 1/2 hours I got to finally go home. Then I had to figure out how to get all that make up off and all the hair spray out and boy was that a job. My hair is still not back to normal yet. The next day Saturday the 12th here was H.M. the Queen's Birthday so it was mother's day. In the morning I go to sleep in but when I woke up we went right over to my host father's parent's house and oh there was his sister from Bangkok! It was nice to met her and her family she has one son and her husband speaks really good english. She works for Thai airways and he works for the Thai airforce. In the afternoon we went to the military academy and I found out once we arrived that someone from the top of the Thai government was coming for a special mother's day ceremony. My parents went on the stage with him and other officials and for pretty much the whole night left me and my sister alone. We had no idea what was going on and they just kept saying oh just wait here 20 minutes later we were still waiting and this happened multiple times. My sister Ploy started to get really annoyed and angry so I had to deal with trying to get her to calm down at one point she started to cry. I mean it was kind of weird but it was so bad that you should cry. And oh friends from my class were there to sing a special song so I had to deal with my sister with all of them watching. One good thing that came from it is now I think my sister finally likes me. When it was all finally over we had to go to the airport another hour away to wave goodbye to this official and have a formal send off. It was interesting to watch this all and it showed a lot about Thai culture and the class system. The whole time though I was still exhausted from the day before and just wanted to be lying down but I'm glad I didn't stay home.Then we got home ...Oh my mother's younger brother and family were visiting! It was nice because they have 2 young children a 5 year old girl named Bua and an 8 month old son Poom. Pet finally had some one his age to play with so he was excited. Since it was mother's day we gave my mother flowers. First Ploy went she sat my mother down then got on her knees and gave her jasmine flowers and talked to thanked her mother I guess I couldn't understand but when she was done her mother had tears in her eyes. It was so beautiful. Then I did the same and thanked her for how wonderful she has been. Truly I couldn't have asked for a better host mother she tries so hard and has been so helpful. She said she has loved having me as her other daughter and we hugged for the first time. Pet then did the same. But I think the most moving was when P Nu thanked her. Nu was crying from the start and then they were both crying. My host mother took her in 10 years ago when her father died and is now sending her and her brother to college. It was so amazing to see how much they all love my host mom and the whole idea was so moving I think it's something that should happen everywhere truly thanking our moms for all that they do for us. Okay well lets continue. Sunday we went to breakfast with everyone that was visiting and it was really nice. Now they are all planning for my break in October. My host mom wants me to go live with her brother for 1 week which will be nice. His wife runs an extra school for math and english and she said she would love to have me to help. It will be fun to do that and then I get more teaching experience. Then my father's sister said I should go stay with them. So I will spend 1 week in Bangkok and they said if it works out they will fly me up to Chang Mai so I can see the north which would just be too awesome. So now out of my 3 weeks off I already have plans for 2 and then should be fun. Oh crap that reminds me. One of the best things that happened this week which really cheered me up was I found out that in the beginning of september there will be an AFS camp. at first it was going to be 2 separate camps one for the people from south and central and one for the people from the north east and north. Thankfully they changed their mind and now we are all going to be together for 5 days which should be so great. My host parents are sending me up by private car and Maren is going to join me and hopefully Eve. That way we don't get in at 3 30 am with no one to get us and no idea where we are and now we get to have more time together and room to relax. Yay for my host parents! And the next day my classmates asked me to go on their nature camp with them at the end of the month. We will spend3 days and 2 nights in the jungle and raft down a river. Should be awesome and I finally get nature. Anyways back to this weekend. Sunday in the afternoon we went to a Rambutan garden. I picked rambutan from the trees and my host father, sister, brother and I all climbed around in them which was fun. I also saw a bunch of other fruit trees and got to eat fresh fruit from all of them. It was so beautiful. Everything here is just so so green its amazing. At night we had seafood again. Did I mention yet how good the seafood is here. Today hopefully I will get some free time. It is a holiday here since this weekend was mother's day.
Yup that's right I'm a lucky girl I already got to see family. It was really nice to spend time together and I finally got to be outside and walk around town a little. He also gave me advice on how to face learning a forgetting language and it's already started to help and I've become more focused. My family took us out for lunch last sunday and we saw "walking fish" they are really cool and they fight it was pretty awesome. The week went really well. I'm enjoying my cooking classes though I'm not sure how much I'm learning they are really fun and my classmates in them don't really speak English so that is also forcing me to speak a little more Thai which is great. This week we made cupcakes 
though they were more like pound cake they were quite good if I say so myself. Wednesday I spent the whole day at Joy school!!! I actually taught one lesson for Dana and it was a lot of fun. I definitely hope to do more but it is so much harder to teach an ESL class especially ones so young. It will be interesting to see what else I can do and I hope to learn a lot from Dana and the other teachers. Since I spent the whole day I got time to talk to all of them which was really nice. Then on Thursday it was sport day at my school so another whole day without any classes. They seem to have quite a lot of events that take a lot of planning and time to get together but they are always fun. I helped my friends get everything ready for Friday's parade. Then on friday as I already mentioned I was in the parade. It meant getting up at 3 am for hair and makeup but some of my friends had to get up at 1 am so I was lucky. The dress was so beautiful and I loved it but the parade was so so long and it was really hot then they made us stand around in a field for half an hour in the direct sunlight and some girls fainted but they still made us stay there. During the parade people were coming up to me and taking my photo which was really odd but I was told to expect it. In the morning before we went my host mother said I should charge 10 baht for every photo and let me tell you if I had I'd be sitting on a beach in Koh Samui for a week. After 2 and 1/2 hours I got to finally go home. Then I had to figure out how to get all that make up off and all the hair spray out and boy was that a job. My hair is still not back to normal yet. The next day Saturday the 12th here was H.M. the Queen's Birthday so it was mother's day. In the morning I go to sleep in but when I woke up we went right over to my host father's parent's house and oh there was his sister from Bangkok! It was nice to met her and her family she has one son and her husband speaks really good english. She works for Thai airways and he works for the Thai airforce. In the afternoon we went to the military academy and I found out once we arrived that someone from the top of the Thai government was coming for a special mother's day ceremony. My parents went on the stage with him and other officials and for pretty much the whole night left me and my sister alone. We had no idea what was going on and they just kept saying oh just wait here 20 minutes later we were still waiting and this happened multiple times. My sister Ploy started to get really annoyed and angry so I had to deal with trying to get her to calm down at one point she started to cry. I mean it was kind of weird but it was so bad that you should cry. And oh friends from my class were there to sing a special song so I had to deal with my sister with all of them watching. One good thing that came from it is now I think my sister finally likes me. When it was all finally over we had to go to the airport another hour away to wave goodbye to this official and have a formal send off. It was interesting to watch this all and it showed a lot about Thai culture and the class system. The whole time though I was still exhausted from the day before and just wanted to be lying down but I'm glad I didn't stay home.Then we got home ...Oh my mother's younger brother and family were visiting! It was nice because they have 2 young children a 5 year old girl named Bua and an 8 month old son Poom. Pet finally had some one his age to play with so he was excited. Since it was mother's day we gave my mother flowers. First Ploy went she sat my mother down then got on her knees and gave her jasmine flowers and talked to thanked her mother I guess I couldn't understand but when she was done her mother had tears in her eyes. It was so beautiful. Then I did the same and thanked her for how wonderful she has been. Truly I couldn't have asked for a better host mother she tries so hard and has been so helpful. She said she has loved having me as her other daughter and we hugged for the first time. Pet then did the same. But I think the most moving was when P Nu thanked her. Nu was crying from the start and then they were both crying. My host mother took her in 10 years ago when her father died and is now sending her and her brother to college. It was so amazing to see how much they all love my host mom and the whole idea was so moving I think it's something that should happen everywhere truly thanking our moms for all that they do for us. Okay well lets continue. Sunday we went to breakfast with everyone that was visiting and it was really nice. Now they are all planning for my break in October. My host mom wants me to go live with her brother for 1 week which will be nice. His wife runs an extra school for math and english and she said she would love to have me to help. It will be fun to do that and then I get more teaching experience. Then my father's sister said I should go stay with them. So I will spend 1 week in Bangkok and they said if it works out they will fly me up to Chang Mai so I can see the north which would just be too awesome. So now out of my 3 weeks off I already have plans for 2 and then should be fun. Oh crap that reminds me. One of the best things that happened this week which really cheered me up was I found out that in the beginning of september there will be an AFS camp. at first it was going to be 2 separate camps one for the people from south and central and one for the people from the north east and north. Thankfully they changed their mind and now we are all going to be together for 5 days which should be so great. My host parents are sending me up by private car and Maren is going to join me and hopefully Eve. That way we don't get in at 3 30 am with no one to get us and no idea where we are and now we get to have more time together and room to relax. Yay for my host parents! And the next day my classmates asked me to go on their nature camp with them at the end of the month. We will spend3 days and 2 nights in the jungle and raft down a river. Should be awesome and I finally get nature. Anyways back to this weekend. Sunday in the afternoon we went to a Rambutan garden. I picked rambutan from the trees and my host father, sister, brother and I all climbed around in them which was fun. I also saw a bunch of other fruit trees and got to eat fresh fruit from all of them. It was so beautiful. Everything here is just so so green its amazing. At night we had seafood again. Did I mention yet how good the seafood is here. Today hopefully I will get some free time. It is a holiday here since this weekend was mother's day. 
