The Weekend

Over the weekend I went to the palace on the hill! You cannot drive up there so you must climb and it was the most difficult thing I've had to do in a long time if not ever! The path is very uneven and very hard to manage because it is always twisting and turning and going up and then down and it is very steep! I can't believe that I made it all the way up and then all the way down! I drank 3 bottles of water and was still thirsty! I was sweating so much that my clothes were soaked and so was my bag! It was not even hot outside, so I can hardly imagine doing that in their summer!!!

The palace was beautiful, but I could only take picture of the outside because they don't let you take pictures of the inside here! Of the temples and palaces that I have been to I have only been able to take pictures in one, and I don't even know if that was aloud!

After the palace we went to eat. Their restaurants are nothing like ours! If we had anything like theirs it would be shut down in a matter of days by the health department! The meat was good, but the other things that they ordered were spicy so I really didn't eat that much, but I drank several glasses of water! When we had finished eating we ran some errands and then went back to the house! I read until 6 and then made dinner! Meow helped me because I could not find everything in the kitchen! It was interesting with the tuna, but it was ok! It could have used some more garlic, but I was afraid of putting in too much so I didn't put in enough! After dinner we were going to watch a movie, but they couldn't get the TV set up in time (they moved it upstairs for more convienence). I talked with Grandma for a while and then I went to bed!

Sunday I didn't do much. I read until 11 when I finished my book and then I ate some oreos. After eating the oreos I killed a ton of ants in my room and then went and watched National Treasurer 2 with Meow. After that I wrote my letters to put in the package to send home! Around 5 we ate dinner, which was the leftovers from the night before, which were cold because they do not have a microwave. After that I finished writing my letters, and then watched the end of the Prince and Me 2 and then read the children's books that mom sent me with Meow and Mike to help their pronunciation. After that I went and sat in Kun Ma's shop and we worked on Thai until I was so confused that I had to stop for the night! I talked with mom and dad for a while on MSN and then called it a night!

Today I mailed my package to home and then came to school. We were late so we had to stand in a special area instead of with everyone else, but we were not the only ones who were late so it wasn't that big a deal. I am now in the English lab waiting for second period when I have Rhythm which is some sort of gym class! I have nothing third period and then I have some English fourth and then I am done for the day! I asked Meow if I could go to some of her classes with her this afternoon since I had so much free time and didn't want to just sit around and do nothing. She told me that I should go with Peach, so I will have to talk to Peach when I see her I guess!

I hope that I can find the correct buildings in order to get to my classes! There are so many buildings and I don't know which is which, so I am going to get completely lost! Oh well, maybe some one will take pity on me and help me out! I'll let you know how things turn out and what the heck Rhythm is!

Last Day of Sports Week

Today was the last day of sports week! Not many people were outside watching the events though because it rained all morning and sprinkled this afternoon so everything was muddy! Meow got 1st in her 3 Kilometer race! The Blue team won everything, which I predicted! I was ok with the Blue winning they are my future classmates, and I liked their color best!

I played a game today, Hello Kitty something, and it is very similar to Monopoly so I was telling the girls all about American games and they want to see if they sell them in Bangkok so that I can teach them! I hope they can find them because I think that it would be fun to play with them!

Not much else new today! Hoping to sleep in tomorrow! Going to make the pasta for my host family (was going to tonight, but Meow was gone and begged me to wait until she was home)! Going to watch night at the musuem with Mike and Kun Ma tonight, hope I don't fall asleep watching! Other than that, nothing is going on!

Parade

Today I went to the most amazing parade! Everyone was dressed in some sort of costume! I loved all of the traditional costumes from around the country! I took lots of pictures and videod almost the whole thing, so as soon as I get my computer I will put those on there too! The parade had like 1000 people in it, so they all had to wake up at midnight in order to be ready! They also decorated the stands on the field for each color and some of them were AMAZING! I loved the blue's because they made it look like the ocean and the orange's was like fire and the Green's was all about going "Green" so they were really awesome to look at!

Some of today's events were: Tug of War, Sack races (I didn't know that was a sport, but it was really funny to watch the boys!), 50M and 400 M dashes and 1200M, and Three leg races. They also have this really funny 50M race where there are 4 people, 3 are backwards and one forward and they have to run together with a pole between their legs, it was so funny! Many of the events were really amusing!

It was so hot today that during the parade I felt really sick! I hope that tomorrow is cooler because I want to watch Meow run! Today several people passed out during the running events, and I was the only one surprise or phased by this! Tomorrow I think many people will pass out because they will do the long distance runs, like Meow who is running 3 kilometers (I don't know what that is in miles, but it sounds long)!!!

Spent most of the day reading because it was too hot for much else! I read 350 pages today, if I keep this up, I will have read everything imaginable by the end of the year! I will have to stop soon because I will have run out of things to read until mom and dad send me more!

Sports Week

Sports week is really fun, I think that we should have one in America, or at least at Port! I have watched so many interesting things! I have taken many pictures and will post them as soon as I possibly can! Yesterday I watched Volleyball, which is played so differently here, and Footsaw, which is soccer but with less people on a concrete court (so it's smaller with smaller nets and stuff, but same rules), and some basketball which is pretty much the same thing, and some pin pong. Today I watched more Volleyball, some cheering (not a lot, but some), the others watched Badmitton, but I was too hot to go which is a little upsetting, but maybe tomorrow they will play again and I can watch! I also watched some Dancing and that was really cool! Some of the teams are really good at different events and they are really fun to watch! I liked today because everyone wore their color and so it was fun to see how everyone grouped together even though they had friends on different teams and how they cheered for various teams! Tomorrow is another day and I think that that should be interesting too!

For the last hour I sat and talked with Peach while Meow and some of her other friends went and drooled over some guy! I like Peach, I think that she is the most mature of Meow's friends and she is easy to talk to. Yesterday at the market she helped me to find things and then bargained the prices for me and got me really good deals! I was so grateful! I don't have many people to talk to yet, but I'm glad that I have at least one person to talk to! I know that in time I will meet more people and then I can talk to them too!

Tonight I am going to call Bashayer and I am so excited to hear how everything is going with her! After that I might have some more Thai/cursive lesson with Meow and then I will head to bed because I only at 5 hours of sleep for the last 2 nights!

Keep in touch everyone, I miss you all and love hearing what you have to say or what you are interested in hearing about (that one not many people tell me even though it is important because I know that I forget about things or don't think that some things are important that you might!!!)! Let me know if you have any questions or anything, I check in several times a day, due to the fact that I can't possibly sit outside and watch the sports the entire day and once I start classes I have an extreme amount of free time!

Today

Today was a good day! I spent the day with Srunya and her two sisters! We went for pizza and then shopped at an international market and I bought many different juices and some pasta and sauce to make for my host family! I hope that mom will send me the recipe for my favorite soup so that next weekend I can pick up the stuff for that and make that for them! After the store we went to the Hard Rock Cafe and I bought gifts and stuff, I can't wait to send them home! After the gift shopping we went into the restaurant and I ordered a Hot Fudge Brownie Sundea for myself and tried to eat it all, but it didn't work! Srunya ended up helping me and even then we didn't finish it! I took many pictures to send home! After that we were supposed to go a party thing, but it was already over! So we went shopping because I still had some gifts to buy, which I didn't end up getting but oh well I will get them at the market tomorrow! We went to a book store and I bought 3 books for me to practice writing in Thai so I'm excited to get started! I also bought a normal book in English for myself and so that should be good! After that Meow met up with us and we went back to the original place and Srunya took us to the Van because I had to much stuff to take the skytrain back!!! The bus ride was good, I listened to my iPod and then almost fell asleep! Now I am heading to bed because I have an early day tomorrow, even though Kun Ma said that I don't have to go to school I will because otherwise I will sit around the house bored and that is not good, especially when I am homesick! So, I guess I will not have access to a computer until tomorrow night since I don't believe the English room will be open this week! I hope that I don't die from the heat and the sun of this week, but I bought plenty of liquids so I will hydrate myself, but the sun I can't do anything about! Well if I survive tomorrow I will let you all know what happens!

Homesick!

I'm very homesick today! I don't know what to do, but I'm hoping that some of today's activities will take my mind off of things! I woke up at 5:50 and couldn't stop thinking about being at home today for everything that is happening! I can't believe that I'm not there! I hope that I feel better later because right now I feel terrible!

Scehdule

Today I got my schedule! Here is is:

Monday: PE 2nd Period; English 4th Period
Tuesday: English Conversation 2nd Period; Thai Dancing 8th Period
Wednesday: Thai Cooking 3rd and 4th Periods; Thai 7th and 8th periods
Thursday: English 2nd Period; Gift Making (whatever that is) 7th Period
Friday: English 2nd Period; Thai 7th and 8th Periods

Everything in between is free time! It will be a little boring for the first half, but they will add classes after I have learned more of the language! I told them that I don't want to be too overwhelmed so they put me in the highest level of English classes and I am taking Thai with Lucas seperate from the other students. I am taking some cultural classes because I want to learn the culture since that is what I am here for!

I have to head off to Thai in just a minute in some building I have no idea where it is! So I hope that I find it!!!

Oh My Goodness!!!!

They were not kidding when they said that people here would want their picture taken with me! They are giving some sort of tour at school today I guess! I am sitting at the computer when in walk three men with cameras! They hand their cameras to eachother and go and stand behind me! And one at a time they take their pictures! I had no idea what was going on! About three minutes later in walked about 30 more people who all do the same thing! The guide asks me my name and where I am from and while I am talking, people continue to take pictures of me! It makes me a little uncomfortable, but I don't think that there is anything I can do about it! This is probably not the last time that this is going to happen either!!!

Lunch

Today I went to lunch with Gayoon and Chris (an English teacher from Holland) and Lucas. It was fun because we got to leave the school grounds!!! The food was ok, and I ate what I normal have been eating! The restaurant was nice and the people there were nice too. Gayoon said that she goes there often and so she gets a 10% discount, so she paid (don't worry mom I thanked her)! I don't know what is for dinner, but I hope that I like it, but if I don't I will try to eat as much as I can anyway!

HOT HOT HOT!!!!

I decided to go outside with some of the kids from my class! They are preparing pom poms for next week, so we went to sit in the soccer field. As soon as I stepped outside I began to sweat! I told Lucas that it is too hot to be outside but he said "Mai pen rai" (Nevermind). I said ok and so we went. We were out there about 5 minutes before we were both sweating so bad that it was running down our arms and legs and faces. We continued to stand out there and to try to deal with it, but it is very hard. After about 30 minutes, I gave up and came back in because I smell really bad now and can hardly stand to be around myself! I don't know what I am going to do next week when we are outside all day! I think that someone needs to invent a stronger deodorant! FAST!!!!

School

In just a little bit I will have my first Thai lesson! I met with my classmates today and had lunch with them. They all spent a year abroad last year in France, German, Italy, or the United States so they understand what I'm going through. They are very nice and they helped me order lunch, so that I was completly lost. After Thai I will go to an English class, just to sit and observe I believe, I'm not sure if I will actually help or not but I guess I will know shortly! I am excited to actually be doing something! Problem is after those two hours I get to come back to the English Lab and sit until 5! YIPPEE!!!

Dumb Allyson/Dumb Jet Lag

So I woke up and turned off my alarm looked at the time on my phone and decided to turn on the light and lay back down for a few minutes because no there was no point in getting up yet. I got up at the 30 grabbed my stuff and went to get in the shower. Kung Ma said, "You have not showered?" I told her that I would very quickly. I got in and quickly got out. I brushed my teeth and finished getting ready in the bathroom and headed back to my room. I combed my hair and decided that I had a few minutes and would lay down and wait to put on my uniform. At about 5 to I got up closed the windows and got dressed. I packed up my bags and finished preparing myself for the day. Before I packed my cell phone I checked my email. I remeber looking at the time andx thinking that my phone was weird because it was not 22 at night and so Mike would have to fix that later. I put on my watch and the rest of my jewelery and headed downstairs for breakfast. I saw Kung Pa in the shop which is weird because he is usually gone by the time that I wake up and doesn't return home until 11 every night. I did not see Kung Ma so I went into the kitchen to help myself to some cereal and yogurt. As I'm eating my cereal I realize that the others are not down for breakfast so I look at my watch. IT IS 11:15 NOT 6:15!!!! I quickly head to the kitchen to clean up and as I come out Kung Ma comes out of the bathroom. I tell her that I am confused and that I don't know what is going on. She tells me that it is night time and that I should go to bed. So I headed back to bed, changed back into my PJs and opened the windows. I felt so stupid! By the time that I feel back to sleep it was after 12!

I woke up at 4:30 again and by the time I fell back to sleep then, my alarm was going off, but I decided since I had already showered that I did not need to again and so I would just lay there for a while!

I was on time this morning, actual early because we were supposed to take the school van to school so we had to be ready at 6:30. At 6:30 we went out to wait for the van, but it did not come so at 7 we went back to the house and Kung Ma had to take us. I had to be at school early today so that I could introduce myself, which I did. I was so nervous, I am so glad that I had the book because I forgot everything when I got up there and saw all of the people. They gave me very beautiful flowers and welcomed me to the school, which was nice.

Now I am waiting in the English room to meet with the head of the Gym department, I don't know why I have to meet with them since the only PE class I am taking is Thai Dance, but whatever I guess I will. so far today does not seem any different than the other days, but I do believe that I have Thai with Gayoon and the Brazilian boy today.

Well, I will let you all know if anything changes!

Tomorrow

I was just told that tomorrow will be the day I have to introduce myself in front of the whole school! I'm so scared! I am going to forget everything! HELP!!!!

More Bathroom Mayhem

So this morning I woke up and the shower was working fine, so I went and got my things and went to get my towel from the drying line outside, and the door was locked so I had to wait. When I had gotten my towel, and went into the bathroom and got ready to take my shower. I stepped around the wall and tried to turn on the water and there was none left! I didn't know what to do because Meow was down stairs showering and Mike and Kung Ma had to shower yet too! So I put back on my clothes and went downstairs to wait. I finally got into the shower about 30 minutes later and it was freezing! I quickly showered and brushed my teeth and then went up stairs to get dressed!

Later I went to the bathroom and I went to flush the toilet, and it wouldn't flush! I told Kung Ma and she said that it was because the water was low, something I would have never thought of. So I had to take the water from the buckets and pour it into the back of the toilet until it was full, flush, and do it again! It was very weird! By the end my socks were soaked and I was appreciating the modern toilet and plumbing even more!!!

School

Today I signed up for classes, but I did not go to any! I sat through another class with the teacher from Ohio and I met with some advisors to discuss my schedule! I signed up for Thai cooking, Thai dance, Thai (private and class), and Library helping, and private lessons in Pre-Calculus with the Australian teacher. I will also take the highest level of English and English communication, so I am mostly in Modeum 6/6 classes (which is their way of saying grade 12). Meow will be upset that we aren't together, but she takes lower English classes and all Thai classes and I want to take cooking and dance which are Modeum 6/6 classes. I still have several hous to sit here before Kung Ma picks us up (it is 2:11 and she isn't picking us up until 5!!!)!

Today I also gave part of my presentation to an English class, but I talked to much (I could have said more but I had to talk slow and in simple English) so I only got through the first half which was okay because that covered the government, Wisconsin, Port and Wisconsin Rapids, and our school, which for that group was all they really wanted to know!

I hope that tomorrow I will begin classes, but I can't until I meet with someone special Gayoon said, so I hope that I meet with him in the next several hours, otherwise it is another day of sitting around in the English Lab!

Last Night

Last night I helped to cook dinner. We had fried chicken and plain lettuce! Then I talked to Srunya! I am going to spend the day with her on Sunday! She told me we would go get pizza and ice cream and maybe even go shopping, even though I won't buy anything because I don't need anything!

After talking to Srunya, I taught Kung Ma and Mike Crazy 8's and even though they didn't fully understand how to play even after several games, it was fun! Tonight they want to play checkers, but I don't really know how because I only played with Thomas when I was little and everyone knows that he only teaches enough so that he can win :-) !

Today I hope to actually start school, but I have not seen Gayoon yet, so I'm not sure what is going to happen! I hope to take some easier classes so that I don't get too frustrated. When I told Srunya that I was going to be taking school in all Thai see laughed and said that she was in the same boat, but then I reminded her that she spoke some English and she could read and write when she came! She said that that was hard for her so she can only imagine what I am going to be going through! Yippee!!! I hope that the others are doing well! Bashayer seems to be happy which is good and I don't know how anyone else is doing!

I will keep you all posted on how things go today if anything is different!

Sending lots of love from far away!

Allyson

AHHHH!!!

Tomorrow I start school! I'm so nervous! I have to introduce myself infront of 3000 kids in Thai!!! AHHH!!!

Thai Bathrooms

The Thai bathroom is nothing like in America! It is called a Water Room which is exactly what it is! From the moment you step in you become wet! There is water all over the floor because that is what they do! Instead of doing things the way that we do when using the bathroom, they throw away the toilet paper because it will clog their pipes! They also spray water on themselves to clean themselves after using the rest room! I have not yet been to school, but they tell me that all it is at school is a little hole with place to put your feet and you stand! There is no toilet paper at school so Mom is going to send me Charmin ToGo! At home there is no soap so after you go to the rest room you can't wash your hands, GROSS!!!! (I'm so glad that I brought hand sanitizer!)

When you enter the bathroom this is what it looks like: You take a step down and straight ahead is the sink and off to the right is the toilet and to the right of that is the yernal (probably didn't spell that right, but the computer is not good at English spell check :-)!!) Next to the toilet area is a tile wall and in front of that is two garbage bins filled with water and small buckets sitting on top! Because they live so far from the water tower, unless you get up really early, you must take and pour the water over yourself and shower that way! It may sound simple to you, but trust me it is not!!! The water gets all over everything and so there is nowhere dry to put your towel and clothes or anything else that you bring to the bathroom!

The water is not good and it makes my face hurt! Also it makes brushing you teeth difficult because you have to you bottled water to rinse your tooth brush and everything else! When you are finished with your bath you are cold, which is good because you start sweating the second you step out of the Water Room! Everything about the bathroom is different, which can become very annoying! I am starting to get used to the system, but I think that it is going to take more than one day even though we shower at least twice a day!

I really miss Western Bathrooms! I guess that I am quickly learning to appreciate everything that I have because I am luckier than many other people!

There is only One Rule to Driving in Thailand

There is only one rule to driving in Thailand and that is THERE ARE NO RULES!!!!

They drive like maniacs! They drive in the middle of the road or on the other side with oncoming traffic! They don't care about the people on the streets, they get within inches of hitting them! They weave this way and that! There is no speed limit and so they drive however they like and they never use their signal! Oh and did you know that a Stop light is a suggestion!

They have many mopeds here and the drives are crazy! They donot care about anyone else on the road except themself so they weave in and out of traffic, don't stop and just don't care about anyone or anything! The girls ride on the backs of the bikes side ways and don't hold on to anything and with the weaving I don't know how they don't fall off! They don't wear helmets, I don't even know if they know what those are!

Every aspect of Thai driving from the moment I got into my first vehicle in Thailand has been nightmarish! Driving anywhere scares me! They drive on the other side of the road (sometimes) and so everything is already a little backwards for me, but in all the places I have been to, I have never seen such horrible driving! The streets are smaller than in Europe and they are crowded with people who don't care that cars are coming and people park where ever they like, even if it is behind another car! I watch today several times as people would have to move other peoples' cars in order to get out! I don't know how people manage, but if this was the way the US works, we would all be dead!

My personal suggestion for everyone is to avoid driving in Thailand, leave it to the professionals!!!

Today starts my journey. I have packed my bags and am heading to Minneapolis to the airport.