The Rock Star Effect

Well, today was my second day at school. So, as it turns out, some of the buildings are air conditioned. Not just little ice cream shoppe thing. The art room is air conditioned, as is the computer lab. But it didn't matter today because it wasn't nearly as hot. Just my luck to be in the air conditioning when I don't actually need it. I'm starting to figure out Thai (my friends are helping a ton) but it's a slow process. They laugh at me a lot when I do stupid things, like when they had to teach me how to eat noodles... they thought that was very entertaining. I'm soooo glad I learned to laugh at my own mistakes a while ago, otherwise all of this would have been torture. I still have issues with my shoes (I can't just step into them... because of my brace). Which, by the way Mama, if you're reading this, I've been wearing it EVERY DAY. My friends here are really worried that I'm going to fall down the stairs... I think they think that that's how I hurt my ankle, not by walking on a flat surface.

But anyway, the food at school is actually really good. When you buy it, it's not spicy, which is good since I'm trying to give my stomach a break after the chili incident last night. I had such a bad tummy ache this morning that I couldn't eat breakfast. Back to school though, all of the attention is really weird. A girl a couple of years younger than me came up and shook my hand, then screamed like crazy fans do at a concert. It really doesn't make sense to me, and I continue to wonder if I'll ever get used to it. One of the girls in my art class told me she loved me today, as well. And walking to the restroom before lunch I heard "Pailin, you're beautiful" of course it was in Thai though, and my friends had to translate for me, lol. It's just really bizarre getting all of this attention. I can't say I like it, but it's not all bad.

Today in physics the teacher asked me if I had studied physics at all. Well, some of the stuff they were going over I recognized from chemistry (just PV=nRT really) but he thought I had already taken physics, so he gave me all this homework. I can tell you right now that it wont get done. I can't read Thai and I don't know physics in English even. Mai pen lai (it doesn't matter).

It's really weird learning a new alphabet. How to write it, how to say it... I feel like a child. But nobody seems to mind. They're actually glad that I'm trying. And I really am trying, but Thai is so different from anything that I'm used to that it's really been a challenge. Most of the students at my school know a little bit of English, so I say something in English, and they teach me how to say it in Thai. They teach me Thai and I teach them English. It's a good set up, and there's lots of laughing involved when one of them says a word wrong and somebody else knows how to say it. My friends at school love it when I sing, and they always want me to sing, which in a way is really annoying because I always have a song stuck in my head, but when they ask me to sing I always forget the lyrics. I'll just write down some lyrics or something tonight so that I'm prepared tomorrow.

I really like the English teacher. We had English yesterday, and she offered me some books to help me learn Thai. She was saying that she's been in Thailand for 3 months and that the books have really helped her, and that the last exchange student (from Mexico) used them, and her Thai ended up really good. It's weird in class when the teachers talk about me. With the English teacher, if she says my name, she says my English name, and I know what she is saying. With all of the other teachers, it's my Thai name, and I have no idea what they say. And that happens a lot, I hear my Thai name, followed by a string of words I don't understand, and then the class giggles... Sometimes I kind of know what's being said, but most of the time I have absolutely no idea.

But everything is great. The people continue to be great, the food is still fantastic (but I have to stay away from the chilies) and the weather isn't all bad. I love the rain storms.

This weekend I'm going to be taking the train to the inbound orientation near-ish to Phuket, on the beach. I know that there will be a few other exchange students on the train when I get there, and that there are others that will be picked up along the way. I can't wait to meet more people who are in the exact same boat as I am. Last night I talked to one of the guys that I sat next to on the plane about how his exchange was going. He was saying that all of the attention at school doesn't go away after a week. He's been there two weeks and now has some completely ridiculous nicknames. I guess there's just something about exchange students. All of my friends at school say "you so beautiful, so white," and I can't help but think "haha Jessica and I spent an entire week last year trying to get tan," of course, she succeeded in getting tan, and I looked like a lobster for three days. And now everyone wants to be white... so much is completely backwards! The roads... it's taking a while to get used to it all.