School Again

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