Merci Beaucoup!! (and Orientation)

Hello Everyone,

I had a chance to look around a bit more today on this whole blogger world and I just noticed that I have received several comments on my blogs!! Thank you all so much!! The love and support from those few comments is astounding and it really makes me happy that y'all are actually reading this thing.

I'm sorry I didn't notice them earlier, and I haven't quite figured out how to reply to them yet so please know that they are truly appreciated. I love hearing your responses and I love the fact that you don't need an account with this site to do it! So if any of you have any particular questions, ask! And I will try to answer.

So school was getting a little boring. I've managed to keep on a cheerful face for the past month or so and it was starting to wear a little thin. I would go to class, sit there reading my book (Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand...who is a genius) and struggle to speak in broken Thai to the giggling girls around me.

But Luckily for me I got a break.

This past weekend was the Rotary Orientation in Lampang. There are 25 Exchange students in District 3360 but only 22 showed (I'm not sure what happened to the extra 3....)

The kids came from all over; Cambodia, Brazil, Mexico, the US, Germany, Taiwan, and Canada.

Oh my gosh this weekend was so much fun!! It was exactly what I needed to get out of my weird slump. Now I feel refreshed and willing to tackle the mysteries of Thai. *muahahaha*

So here are some pictures to fill you in.....

When we first got there we had some lunch, listened to welcoming speeches, went over the schedule, and had a torturous thai lesson.

As soon as the word "free time" was mentioned, at least 19 of us left the hotel and hopped into a couple of tuk-tuk's to go to the market in Lampang.

No, we weren't really allowed to do this, but we figured after being told to embrace Thai culture that we would go and experience some together... and out of the hotel.

It was awesome.

This was the view from our window.

Our first night there we didn't really know what to do but then again we didn't have a lot of choice because the Rotarians had decided to tape our doors shut overnight. This way if we left the room there would be hard evidence. My roommate was a German gal named Dajana. She is wonderful if a bit nutty, but maybe this is why we got along so well. So we watched a few episodes of House (German with English subtitles), talked about life, the universe and everything, then crashed.

The next day we visited a famous ceramics factory in Lampang. The first thing they built was this huge chicken bowl...

Nothing quite like boiled teenagers, mmmmm.

The next place we visited was a coal mine.

We took a tour, met Mr. Coal, and slid down a huge hill.

And yes, this is a picture of the coal mine. They took all of the earth they had taken from the mines, put it in a big pile and made a golf course out of it.

Now it looks beautiful.

So yes it is a dirty ol coal mine, but at least it doesn't have to look like one. Even better news is, that when the coal runs out in 30-40 years they are going to turn the land into a state park (after fixing it up of course). Gotta love those Thais.

To be continued....

Coming Soon....

Orientation Pt. 2

You know what assuming does....

Ok so my mother pointed out that I haven't written in over a week.

Terribly sorry, though I must confess I didn't really think I had any great stories to tell.

I would sit in front of the computer trying to figure out something interesting to write.

For example: Thai Schooling vs. American Schooling? The creepy westernized wedding? The daily compliments on my huge honker? (thats nose in english, jamook in thai)

None seemed sufficient simply because I don't want to bore you. However, certain family members want to know about my day to day life in Thailand.... so here it goes.

First let me describe my room. It's fantastic.

It's blue and small, the mattress is on the floor, and it is decorated with computer game boxes.

It came complete with a tv (though I think I've watched it once), a desk, shelves and such to store my stuff, and a fantastic retro(ish) orange alarm clock.

I really do love it. Mainly because it's small (after my ballroom of a bedroom at home...not complaining mind you, it was loverly. I just despise vacuuming.) but also because I really did not know what to expect in terms of space here. The fact that I get a room of my own, and not a corner with some newspaper laid down, thrills me to no end.

So this is what I wake up to.

Despite three weeks, I still have a slight shock when I first wake up. My dreams always consist of people back home, and a part of me expects New York to be there when I first open my eyes.

As amazing as the alarm clock is, it does not snooze. It is either on or off.

As amazing as Thailand is, old habits die hard and I always turn it (slam is a more appropriate word) off as soon as it buzzes. Thus, a usual morning involves me waking up, sleeping for an extra half hour then waking up again and moving really fast.

The showers here are interesting. (As are the toilets but I won't go into that yet)

First off, there isn't any hot water. There is an electric heater attached to the shower head, but it can't get the temperature past tepid. (To be honest though, it is so hot here there is no need.)

Secondly, the entire bathroom acts as a to bathe, not just a little enclosed area. (this is why bathroom literally translated in thai as 'water room')

Third, (and perhaps most interesting) in addition to a shower head there is a large basin of water that you dip a bowl into and pour it all over yourself.

So after a brief (and brisk) "shower" (water dumping) I throw on my uniform (decribed in past posts) and go down to breakfast.

Still haven't quite figured out the breakfast bit. I seem to have something different every morning. Sometimes it's fruit, toast, sticky rice, pork, anything goes really. One morning in particular Ma bought me a hambuger at the market.

I walk to school everyday. It is not far at all so I'm never worried about doing it alone. And most people I've talked to only warned against walking alone at night.

SCHOOL

School here is bizarre. After months of expecting strict schdules, stricter teachers, and piles of homework written in thai I came to Chalermkwansatree; the best school (so they say) in Phitsanulok.

It is extremely laid back in ways that I had not expected, while focusing it's punishments on actions that I had never considered wrong.

The classes for example, they consist of about 40 students in a room with one teacher whose voice does not reach past the third row. Even if it did it wouldn't matter because everyone is talking. If you want to say something while the teacher is at school in America you must be very discreet. Here, everyone talks during the lesson, or sleeps, or does homework for another class blantantly. The weirdest part is, the teachers don't seem to care that no one is listening. They continue through their lesson as if through total silence. That is if the teachers show up at all, there have been at least 5 classes this past week where the teacher never came. So the students would chat, goof off, or in a rare case, do work for 50 minutes.

I'm still getting my schedule worked out, but at the moment I'm taking English (I kind of help teach it), French, Thai problems (but it's in Thai so....) Art, Thai Cooking, Buddhism (in thai), Modern Dance, Music (a thai flute.. taught in thai), Sewing Flowers (I'm not quite sure what this is called... we make hanging flower arrangements that you see for sale on the streets.) and Basic Thai Speaking twice a week.

School is ok. The classes are the most boring part at times, I usually don't know what is going on. Sometimes the girls next to me try and teach me a new letter or word, other times they just want to talk.

The people are what make school fun. Everyone speaks a little English (though they may be too shy to try it out on me) and really makes me feel welcome.

Ok thats all for now!! I have to go to bed!

Me (in my super sexy school uniform) and some of the gals in my class.

A full week...

Over a week and I can finally post some beautiful Thai pictures.

Last week we (Nont, his friend Oh, and I) went to Sukothai (I think I spelled that right). It was the first capital of Thailand over 700 years ago...or at least it was until the Burmese came in and burned everything.

Despite this it is still gorgeous.

After Sukothai, we visited a temple, (also 700 years old) which holds a fantastically large Buddah. The gold is not original to the Buddah by the way. The Burmese took care to strip all the gold off of the monuments before they burned everything. Here, it is considered good luck to place gold leaf on a Buddah. The flower between his fingers is a young lotus.

They have some pretty neat looking fruit here. This one in particular is vietnamese. Personally I think it looks like it came out of the 80's.

Here are my host brothers; Nant is the cute one on the left and Nont is the large one licking chopsticks.

These two are from this past weekend when I went up to a temple with my host mom and her friend. The temple itself was still being built, but they couldn't have chosen a more beautiful spot.

That's all I have time for for now! More pictures coming soon!!

First Day of School.

Oh how nervous I was. ...

LEt me just fill you in on how I looked.
The uniform is very strict here, even the hair styles are regulated. (No longer than 3 cm past the ears)
A lavender button-down shirt with the student's name and school embroidered above the pocket, with a very long navy blue skirt, white socks, a black belt, black shoes, and a regulation school bag. Oh and no jewelry. Makeup us a nono too.

Hot stuff.

I was greeted by the head administrator of this and the counselor of that and all these other important school people whose names I will never remember. Once my mom left, my counselor didn't seem to know what to do with me. She introduced me to people (I swear three of them were the head of the English department) and bused me around the school. It was the students that seemed the most interested though. In fact when we stopped in an (empty) classroom for a moment they gathered around the door and stared. In fact, I have never been so stared at in my entire life. Everywhere I went people stopped and stared. Some even started to follow us!

My class (5.8) was M.I.A. so we went to my counselors English class instead. When the students saw that I was going into their class they actually cheered. It was very bizarre, so much hubbub over one little white girl.

When I met up with my actual class everyone was very nice. THey were in the middle of French and it was a special class because they were learning to cook french food; Ratatouille and Creme Brulee. Not many people were happy to see how many vegetables went into the Ratatouille, in fact many kids are against eating any veggies at all! Almost like opposite vegetarianism.
Although they were nice many were too shy to try and talk to me, I will have to break that ice next week.

Oh and my name is no longer Nicole LaGrone. I have a Thai name now (!!) Amonwhan Ut-chin.
Amonwhan apparently means, Girl-with-perfect-skin. I'm not sure if I like this concept, my skin color should not determine my name. Girls here try to be pale and they even go to such extremes as bleaching to get the shade they want.

Ok I'm out of time. I'll write soon!

The low down.

Ok so the internet here is a little frustrating.

I wrote out this whole complicated post of the flight and my first couple of days here, only to discover that the computer was no longer connected. This resulted in the deletion of my post.

*sigh* oh well.



So let's start at the beginning.

I flew out of Albany at 6 AM on Fri. This flight was the beginning of a nearly 60 hour journey that ended in Phitsanulok, Thailand.

There were quite a few exchange students that I met along the way,but we split once in Bangkok. (which has the coolest airport I have ever seen)



Phitsanulok.

It's dirty, crowded, loud, hot, and a bit smelly at times. But I love it.

My host mom (Sunee) has her own shop on the lower level of the house. The products sold are anything and everything you could imagine (and some you can't) to style, color, cut, dry, and pouf your hair. Today we went to a hair lecture on straightening and curling. If I spoke Thai I would probably be an expert as the lecture was 4 hours long.


My thai is coming along ok, I figure if I learn a few words each day then I'm makig progress. Not in leaps mind you, but progress all the same. It's easy in some ways actually, with Thai you don't have to worry about articles, plurals, conjugations, and (sometimes)subjects. Sounds easy right? Well the catch is, it's tonal. One word can have 5 different meanings just on how you say it. I've discovered that mah is come, dog, and bad. Pee: sister and ghost. Soy: beautiful and badluck. The last one is especially tricky as "bad luck" is a cuss word.



The house itself is large with several stories and a courtyard in the middle. There is a kitchen, but it lacks a stove or oven... something I haven't quite figured out yet.

Unity

Phitsanulok is famous for it's main temple (wat) which holds the "most beautiful Buddha int he world".
Everyone I have talked to says this about the Buddha.
The ENTIRE country agrees that this one Buddha is the most beautiful ever created... this Si something that would never happen in America.
The unity here is astounding.

And yes, the Buddha is beautiful. Covered in gold and sitting calm and gorgeous in it's temple, Surrounded by orange robed monks.

That's all I have time for now.\, I'll write as soon as I can!