So I started school again this week. It wasn’t overly eventful but because it was my last full week I will tell you about it.
On Monday I spent the day with Lucas. I met up with my friends and we talked and ate lunch but the majority of the day was with him. We talked and goofed around and worked on our Thailand project. It was fun but nothing really happened. After school Meow and I walked to the hospital. My host dad’s father is ill and about to die so Mike spent last weekend there and we went there after school on Monday and Tuesday. It was interesting to see the different system. My host dad and his sister were there taking care of him. There wasn’t any medicine or machines hooked to him. The bed was old and you had to crank it to get it to sit up. The nursing staff didn’t take care of him but the sister did (I didn’t even see a nurse on the floor). The room didn’t seem like a clean and friendly place but it worked. He looked very fragile and not all there. He never talked only looked from place to place and grunted. It was kind of sad.
Tuesday was the same as Monday. The big things Tuesday was the burning of Central World. Central World was where I spent most of my time in Bangkok. I loved it. They had the international movie theatre and the international market (with Reese’s PB Cups, imagine they burned them!) The burned several other places too. It’s really not looking good even though the government says they are getting things under control.
Wednesday Gayoon yelled at us for not going to class and gave us schedules so we had to go. I don’t know what the big deal is because I’m not going next week but whatever. I spent the afternoon with my classmates.
Thursday I spent with my classmates. It was fun but nothing exciting happened. I goofed around and teased them and they teased me. I miraculously didn’t fall asleep in any class and I went to almost every class. During one of my classes the US ambassador called so I had to run out of the room. He is a really nice guy and very easy to talk to. He asked how I was doing, how I felt, how I liked Thailand, and we just chatted for a few minutes. He told me that everything will be fine for me to fly out and there should be no reason that I will get stuck in Thailand so that was reassuring. At lunch I told Mo that it doesn’t seem like I’m leaving. I just don’t feel that things are really over and that I’m going home. After school we stopped at my host mom’s mother’s house and Meow took we around the village on a motor bike. I don’t know what it was about that ride but it finally hit me that I’m going home. I realized that I’m going to miss Thailand and I even shed a few (not many yet) tears.
Friday I skipped a lot of classes to spend time with Lucas. It was nice. I talked to him about all sorts of things. At one point I was near tears and at another we were teasing each other and being silly and at others we were serious and encouraging. It was really nice. I’m really going to miss him. He keeps telling me that he’ll be on MSN and Skype every night and will always be available if I need to talk to him but I know if won’t be the same. This year I’ve made two amazing friends, best friends, but we are so far apart I don’t know how I’m going to manage! I think I’m going to miss him and Bashayer the most from this year.
After school Meow and Mike went swimming with some friends at the Christian school (a missionary found it and they study Christianity but all the students are Buddhist so it really doesn’t make sense to me). They had fun with their friends but I forgot my suit this morning so I sat on the side. They played for several hours and then we went for a Thai BBQ probably my last. I can’t believe things are really coming to an end! I just got home now and I’m waiting to use the internet so that I can catch up with Bashayer. I haven’t talked to her in 3 weeks and I really miss her and want to talk to her. I also need to get some pics from her so that I can work on the project this weekend. I hope to have it done by the time I get home so that I can show people parts of it at the girls’ graduation.
I almost forgot the most interesting and tiring part of the week. I’ve been waking up at 5 because we now take a van to school which picks us up at 6:15. The van is old and rather small. We squeeze in 32 students from the ages of 5 to 19. Many of the younger ones have to sit on older kids laps or all squash together in the front. Sometimes I would fall asleep on the way but that is a difficult thing to do when we are so crammed in that you can’t even move a centimeter and you are going over all sorts of bumps and making crazy turns so that just goes to show you how tired I am. I never get to bed before 12 no matter how much I try. Part of the problem is that there is someone in the bathroom until 11:20 because there is a routine. By the time I shower, brush my teeth, put on moisturizer, do my devotion and prayer, stretch, and are fully ready for bed it’s usually after 12. Needless to say I instantly fall asleep every night. Anyway back to the van. There are 32 students from about 12 different schools. We are the 9th stop and there are about 8 little kids left on the bus when we get off. It’s cool to see all the different uniforms and sports uniforms. I love riding the van because it lets me see the real Thai student way. It’s fun to watch the kids from the different school interact. Some of them are really good friends even though they go to different schools. I love riding the van and wish that we would have all year!
Sunday I will spend some time with Lucas. We will go to Big C and I will buy some food for home and I will finish buying my gifts. Then during the week I will pack and prepare to leave. One day I will go to school to say goodbye to everyone. I still haven’t heard from AFS when I’m leaving or anything so I have no details!!!! I could leave Thursday or Friday. I will post once more before I leave and after that I won’t post again until I hit the states and then I will let you all know how the flight was and a few last thoughts on Thailand.
Allyson
Friday, May 21, 2010
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Countdown Begins
So a lot has happened in the last couple of weeks. I won’t go all the way back but I will give certain days of detail.
As you know I was in Mukdahan for 2 weeks after my two week visit with Bashayer in Nakhon Phanom. Mukdahan is about 103 km away from Bashayer so it wasn’t any great distance. On Friday April 30th I went with my host sister, Nut, and her Uncle to visit her. Her uncle had to do some business there and invited us to join him on his trip. They told me this about 30 minutes before we left. When we got to the house we had to pack really fast. I packed in 8 minutes, the fastest I have ever packed! We then made the journey to Nakhon Phanom. He drove fast so it wasn’t a long drive. We checked into the hotel and went to sleep.
In the morning I met up with Bashayer. We got some ice cream and hung out at the hotel. We took a walk along the river which was nice. We never seem to run out of things to talk about no matter how often we are together so that was nice. At night we went to a farewell party for the Germany exchange teacher at Bashayer’s school. When I returned to the hotel I used the internet while Nut and the uncle went out. It was very late when they finally came back. I could hear her the whole way up the stairs and she then pounded on the door, staggers in fall, runs to the bathroom and throws up! She was soooo wasted! For the next hour I listened to them take turns puking until they both passed out, it was a lot of fun!
Next morning we drove back to Mukdahan.
On Friday May 7 I was finally to head back to Petchaburi. Before I did I spent some time with Nut and May, Nut’s best friend. They showed me some things in the town (I don’t know why they waited) and took me up the Mukdahan Tower (I made them walk up and down so they weren’t too pleased). It was fun to spend time with them. On Thursday I had gone to the Indochina market with them and picked up some presents so I had to spend some time packing (also because I had kind of made a mess and I had things everywhere).
The best part of the day was picking up my Thai costume!!!! On Monday we went and had my measurements taken and picked out a design. I picked out some jewelry to go with it and then I picked out the fabric. I debated between blue and red but went with blue because it just seemed to look better for me. So on Friday I got to pick it up!! It was too big at first so she had to take it in but it was so exciting. That store didn’t have the head piece though so we went to another place to buy it and they had a lot more jewelry selection and a lot cheaper so I bought everything (and more) there and returned the other stuff. When we got home the girls did my hair and had me put on all the accessories so that we could take pics! I can’t wait to show everyone!!!!!
Well that night sadly I had to head back to Petchhaburi. Nut complained and wanted me to stay longer but I couldn’t. I made the 15 hour journey back to Petchaburi and then spent 5 hours in the terrible heat running around town buying things for my host mom. When we go back to the house I crashed!
That night I had to do laundry and I want to say that no one can complain about laundry until they have to do EVERYTHING by hand! The washing, the rinsing (twice), then the softener, the more rinsing, ringing and then hanging! UGH! I was so sick of laundry. I’m dreading when I have to wash my uniform by hand every day and then iron it every morning.
Well on Sunday I met up with Lucas at Big C. I’m having some computer problems and I was hoping he could fix them, but he couldn’t so it looks like Geek Squad will get a visit from me when I get home. We also started work on our project. We are doing a presentation together of the year and different things in Thailand to give to people when we get home. Some parts are boring but there is one part that I thought of that we are both really excited about! It was an adventure to get there. I started to wait for the truck around 9 but one didn’t come. At 10:15 I wasn’t feeling good from the heat so I went in to tell my host mom. After another 15 minutes of waiting she called a friend to take me on a motorcycle. After a lot of waiting I finally arrived there. We sat in a café and worked on the computers. Well there was no plug or internet so we decided to go to the internet café across from school. We took a tuktuk and arrived at the air-conditioned place about 15 minutes later. Those 15 minutes were interesting though. We shared a tuktuk with an older woman and her 2 grandsons. Well 2 farangs draws attention especially when we are talking. I was glad that she didn’t show any recognition as to what we were talking about because it was not the best thing to be discussing in public (let’s just say he had me blushing for not the first time that day).
We sat at the internet café for 3 hours. We didn’t get too much accomplished but we got some things done. At around 4 we decided to head back to Big C for some ice cream. We walked down one side of the street for about 5 minutes and saw a tuk tuk going by so we flagged it down. The guy pulls over, gets out, walks around to us just to point and tell us there is another tuktuk about a minute’s walk in the other direction from the café! We got to Big C and got our ice cream. I called my host mom and told her to have her friend pick me up but I had to wait for him to get there so we went and looked through the market outside. When his bus came he left but I still had to wait. A blonde farang gets a lot of stares just standing around!
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I stayed in my room in front of the fan all day trying not to die of heat. Every time I would leave the room I would get too hot and begin to feel ill.
On Thursday my host mom had the day off so we went to the beach. We invited Lucas so after some confusion he met up with us (my host mom told me to tell him to meet us somewhere but when we got there he wasn’t there yet so she drove off and when he did get there she didn’t want to go back so she tried to get him to find us but he didn’t understand, not that he could have because we kept moving. Eventually she sent Mike to go and get him but she didn’t tell me and he decided to take a motorcycle to us after I told him what hotel we were next to. After some time Mike came back and we were all together). First we played in the water but then the others wanted to take a banana boat so we decided to join them. It wasn’t fun. After we finished (we fell off for the second time so we called it quits) we went to 7, dripping and covered in sand, to buy some food. We ate and talked and then went to shower. I didn’t want to shower there just change but Lucas did so I waited. When he was about done he says “This water smells like someone peed in it!” I smile and say “Wouldn’t surprise me, we’re in Thailand anything is possible!” He wasn’t happy with my comment because he kept thinking about it while he finishe€d. On the way back he said he could just picture someone putting their kid in the bin to get them clean and the kid releasing them self. The beach wasn’t bad but there wasn’t any sun (the day you want sun is the day there isn’t any) so I didn’t get tan.
Yesterday I went to Hua Hin with Lucas. I needed to go to immigration to hand in my 90 day papers so we decided to make a day of it. The woman helping me wasn’t very good and so took a long time. First she couldn’t figure out my visa (it’s a stamp because of the airport guy), then she couldn’t figure something else out, then she had me sign something wrong, and then she couldn’t find where she placed something! It was a little annoying. After immigration we walked to the highway and flagged a motorcycle to take us to the mall. We met up with a friend of his from Mexico there. First we went bowling. I sucked as usual. The first game I had a 60, second game a 48 (though I could have gotten higher but the boys played two times for me while I was talking to AFS and decided to have fun with it and so ended up getting me zeros), and the third game I got a 64. It was fun. We then went to lunch were €we met up with their America friend. The boys at 3 plates of food each and I ate one. Then we wen€t shopping. I stopped to look at something and they were causing a scene so I sent them on their wa€y and told them I’d call and find them when I was done. When I found them they were devouring a box of donuts. We walked around for a while then went and got DQ before heading home. When I arrived at Big C I had to sit and wait for an hour before they came to get me and they didn’t have their p€hones so I didn’t know if they were coming or not.
€
Today nothing happened. I talked to Marieke for over an hour and then I ate lunch, read, and just tried to avoid the heat. I had to do some more laundry but not too much because I did most of it on Wednesday night. Mike was gone today at the hospital visiting his grandfather so it was just Meow and I. Dinner was early and then Meow and I went for a bike ride around town. It was nice. Tomorrow I need to work on the project, pack, and do some paperwork for AFS. Monday school starts but I don’t plan on doing too much school because Lucas and I have to finish the project before the end of the week.
Well that’s all the fun you’ve missed in the last few weeks. Hope you’ve been enjoying yourselves!
Lots of Love,
Allyson
P.S. 19 Days till I land in Wisconsin!!!!!
As you know I was in Mukdahan for 2 weeks after my two week visit with Bashayer in Nakhon Phanom. Mukdahan is about 103 km away from Bashayer so it wasn’t any great distance. On Friday April 30th I went with my host sister, Nut, and her Uncle to visit her. Her uncle had to do some business there and invited us to join him on his trip. They told me this about 30 minutes before we left. When we got to the house we had to pack really fast. I packed in 8 minutes, the fastest I have ever packed! We then made the journey to Nakhon Phanom. He drove fast so it wasn’t a long drive. We checked into the hotel and went to sleep.
In the morning I met up with Bashayer. We got some ice cream and hung out at the hotel. We took a walk along the river which was nice. We never seem to run out of things to talk about no matter how often we are together so that was nice. At night we went to a farewell party for the Germany exchange teacher at Bashayer’s school. When I returned to the hotel I used the internet while Nut and the uncle went out. It was very late when they finally came back. I could hear her the whole way up the stairs and she then pounded on the door, staggers in fall, runs to the bathroom and throws up! She was soooo wasted! For the next hour I listened to them take turns puking until they both passed out, it was a lot of fun!
Next morning we drove back to Mukdahan.
On Friday May 7 I was finally to head back to Petchaburi. Before I did I spent some time with Nut and May, Nut’s best friend. They showed me some things in the town (I don’t know why they waited) and took me up the Mukdahan Tower (I made them walk up and down so they weren’t too pleased). It was fun to spend time with them. On Thursday I had gone to the Indochina market with them and picked up some presents so I had to spend some time packing (also because I had kind of made a mess and I had things everywhere).
The best part of the day was picking up my Thai costume!!!! On Monday we went and had my measurements taken and picked out a design. I picked out some jewelry to go with it and then I picked out the fabric. I debated between blue and red but went with blue because it just seemed to look better for me. So on Friday I got to pick it up!! It was too big at first so she had to take it in but it was so exciting. That store didn’t have the head piece though so we went to another place to buy it and they had a lot more jewelry selection and a lot cheaper so I bought everything (and more) there and returned the other stuff. When we got home the girls did my hair and had me put on all the accessories so that we could take pics! I can’t wait to show everyone!!!!!
Well that night sadly I had to head back to Petchhaburi. Nut complained and wanted me to stay longer but I couldn’t. I made the 15 hour journey back to Petchaburi and then spent 5 hours in the terrible heat running around town buying things for my host mom. When we go back to the house I crashed!
That night I had to do laundry and I want to say that no one can complain about laundry until they have to do EVERYTHING by hand! The washing, the rinsing (twice), then the softener, the more rinsing, ringing and then hanging! UGH! I was so sick of laundry. I’m dreading when I have to wash my uniform by hand every day and then iron it every morning.
Well on Sunday I met up with Lucas at Big C. I’m having some computer problems and I was hoping he could fix them, but he couldn’t so it looks like Geek Squad will get a visit from me when I get home. We also started work on our project. We are doing a presentation together of the year and different things in Thailand to give to people when we get home. Some parts are boring but there is one part that I thought of that we are both really excited about! It was an adventure to get there. I started to wait for the truck around 9 but one didn’t come. At 10:15 I wasn’t feeling good from the heat so I went in to tell my host mom. After another 15 minutes of waiting she called a friend to take me on a motorcycle. After a lot of waiting I finally arrived there. We sat in a café and worked on the computers. Well there was no plug or internet so we decided to go to the internet café across from school. We took a tuktuk and arrived at the air-conditioned place about 15 minutes later. Those 15 minutes were interesting though. We shared a tuktuk with an older woman and her 2 grandsons. Well 2 farangs draws attention especially when we are talking. I was glad that she didn’t show any recognition as to what we were talking about because it was not the best thing to be discussing in public (let’s just say he had me blushing for not the first time that day).
We sat at the internet café for 3 hours. We didn’t get too much accomplished but we got some things done. At around 4 we decided to head back to Big C for some ice cream. We walked down one side of the street for about 5 minutes and saw a tuk tuk going by so we flagged it down. The guy pulls over, gets out, walks around to us just to point and tell us there is another tuktuk about a minute’s walk in the other direction from the café! We got to Big C and got our ice cream. I called my host mom and told her to have her friend pick me up but I had to wait for him to get there so we went and looked through the market outside. When his bus came he left but I still had to wait. A blonde farang gets a lot of stares just standing around!
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I stayed in my room in front of the fan all day trying not to die of heat. Every time I would leave the room I would get too hot and begin to feel ill.
On Thursday my host mom had the day off so we went to the beach. We invited Lucas so after some confusion he met up with us (my host mom told me to tell him to meet us somewhere but when we got there he wasn’t there yet so she drove off and when he did get there she didn’t want to go back so she tried to get him to find us but he didn’t understand, not that he could have because we kept moving. Eventually she sent Mike to go and get him but she didn’t tell me and he decided to take a motorcycle to us after I told him what hotel we were next to. After some time Mike came back and we were all together). First we played in the water but then the others wanted to take a banana boat so we decided to join them. It wasn’t fun. After we finished (we fell off for the second time so we called it quits) we went to 7, dripping and covered in sand, to buy some food. We ate and talked and then went to shower. I didn’t want to shower there just change but Lucas did so I waited. When he was about done he says “This water smells like someone peed in it!” I smile and say “Wouldn’t surprise me, we’re in Thailand anything is possible!” He wasn’t happy with my comment because he kept thinking about it while he finishe€d. On the way back he said he could just picture someone putting their kid in the bin to get them clean and the kid releasing them self. The beach wasn’t bad but there wasn’t any sun (the day you want sun is the day there isn’t any) so I didn’t get tan.
Yesterday I went to Hua Hin with Lucas. I needed to go to immigration to hand in my 90 day papers so we decided to make a day of it. The woman helping me wasn’t very good and so took a long time. First she couldn’t figure out my visa (it’s a stamp because of the airport guy), then she couldn’t figure something else out, then she had me sign something wrong, and then she couldn’t find where she placed something! It was a little annoying. After immigration we walked to the highway and flagged a motorcycle to take us to the mall. We met up with a friend of his from Mexico there. First we went bowling. I sucked as usual. The first game I had a 60, second game a 48 (though I could have gotten higher but the boys played two times for me while I was talking to AFS and decided to have fun with it and so ended up getting me zeros), and the third game I got a 64. It was fun. We then went to lunch were €we met up with their America friend. The boys at 3 plates of food each and I ate one. Then we wen€t shopping. I stopped to look at something and they were causing a scene so I sent them on their wa€y and told them I’d call and find them when I was done. When I found them they were devouring a box of donuts. We walked around for a while then went and got DQ before heading home. When I arrived at Big C I had to sit and wait for an hour before they came to get me and they didn’t have their p€hones so I didn’t know if they were coming or not.
€
Today nothing happened. I talked to Marieke for over an hour and then I ate lunch, read, and just tried to avoid the heat. I had to do some more laundry but not too much because I did most of it on Wednesday night. Mike was gone today at the hospital visiting his grandfather so it was just Meow and I. Dinner was early and then Meow and I went for a bike ride around town. It was nice. Tomorrow I need to work on the project, pack, and do some paperwork for AFS. Monday school starts but I don’t plan on doing too much school because Lucas and I have to finish the project before the end of the week.
Well that’s all the fun you’ve missed in the last few weeks. Hope you’ve been enjoying yourselves!
Lots of Love,
Allyson
P.S. 19 Days till I land in Wisconsin!!!!!
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