5 hours there, 5 hours back

I would have posted the pictures from the markets, but there's way too many of them, and I'm being lazy. I'm fairly certain at least half of them are on Facebook anyway, so I'm not too worried.

Anyway, last night I was told that breakfast was going to be at 6am so naturally I woke up early enough to be ready to go in time so that I didn't keep people waiting. By 6:15 this morning, I was ready to go, and my host mom was still asleep. So, what did I do? I watched another 45 minutes of Titanic before she finally came upstairs saying it was time to go.

Of course, I didn't know where we were going, just that it was "far away" according to my host dad. Turns out "far away" is about a 5 hour drive to a town I still cannot remember the name of. My host dad did not go with us though, it was me, my host mom, the girl we were dropping off for university, and her parents. Most of  my day was spent in the car, but there were definitely some enjoyable moments.

There were some laughs when we stopped for snacks around 10am and I swore that I would only have one of the sugar burrito things. Apparently it's also really funny that I have Oppa Gangnam Style on my iPod... and because they thought it was so funny....

We went to a really fancy temple that houses the largest monk statue in the world. I don't really know why they have monk statues, but they do, and they're typically very pretty statues. This one was completely gold plated, and REALLY tall.

I don't know why it won't let me post this the right way up, but it won't.
You CAN still get an idea of how ginormous this guy was though.

Me in front of the temple thing where the monk statue is.

We didn't actually go here, but I saw this temple across the pond and
I thought it was really beautiful.

Before we got to the second temple (photos not seen here) we passed "The Mall." It's a mall called the Mall. I dunno, we don't have anything like that in America, and I thought it was kind of funny, so I took a picture, and here it is.

And last but not least, the orange tabby. On the way home, we stopped at a street vendor because my host mom needed a ton of food apparently. Anyway, as I was patiently waiting, an orange tabby kitten came out from behind some shelves, rubbed against my legs, and then curled up at my feet. After Skyping with my mom on Friday, and missing my cats, the tabby this afternoon totally made my day. I took a picture of it, because it was completely adorable.

This cat made my day today.

And that's just about all for today. It was a good day, even though a great deal of it was spent in the car. Much better than spending my Saturday in my room watching Youtube videos all day (it has been known to happen). Cheers, I'll write more when more cool stuff happens. 

Floating Market(s)

Planting trees was rather enjoyable. Not what I was expecting it to be, but hey, nothing really has been. We didn't really put the trees in the ground, we just tied them to supports with plastic twine stuff. Gosh, I didn't even do that... there were only a few trees that needed tying. But I did get in the mud with every intention of helping, it just didn't work out the way I thought. Alica was just ahead of me, and managed to get caught in "quick mud." So, instead of helping "plant trees," I helped pull the girl from Mexico out of thigh deep mud.

Monday night and Tuesday night I was with Alica (Monday at my host parents', Tuesday at hers). Half the time we didn't really know what was going on, and the other half, we were talking or watching movies. It's so confusing learning Thai. It's nothing like English... well, the words for ice cream, pizza, and spaghetti are pretty much the same, but if you don't say them with the right accent, nobody knows what you mean.

Saturday was another day at the resort. Sadly, Alica couldn't make it this time, so it was just me, Sasha, Vaula, and Hector. It was a great day, we went to a different market, and all bought Oppa Gangnam Style shirts. Of course, I'm the only one who bought white... there's no way a small would've fit me, but I'm realizing the medium would have.

I have a ton of photos to put up, but they aren't saving right at the moment, so I will add them later -- probably tomorrow.

"Sanook mai kah?" "Sanook mak mak!!!"

This past weekend was absolutely amazing. Last Tuesday my host father told me that I could invite friends to go with me to the floating market (he was going to take me anyway). It worked out so well. On the way to the market, we picked up Alica (Mexico) and Sasha (South Africa) and met Hector (Mexico also) and Vaula (Finland) at Vaula's host family's resort near the floating market. We spent hours shopping and touring around the market, then went back to the resort.

I love spur of the moment events, especially when they involve good friends and getting to spend more time together. We all spent the night at the resort, watching movies (for free) and being loud and obnoxious to the people in the neighboring room. We lucked out really, the other people at the resort were on a tour, and they were being just as loud as we were  at 11pm. We had 16 hours worth of movies, and got through all but 2. At the market I was able to find the perfect gifts for my Dad, Mom, and Grandparents in America. I feel quite accomplished, and it's nice to not have to worry about gifts anymore.

Sunday we spent watching the rest of the movies (we didn't watch all of them Saturday night) and we went to the street market that was across from the 7 Eleven. Did you know that there are a ton of 7 Elevens in Thailand, and that you can judge the size of a town by how many 7 Elevens it has? Well, you can. So it was a great weekend, and it was so nice to spend time with other exchange students outside of a Rotary event! Our host families could see how happy we were.

Tomorrow we plant trees. In the morning I am going to a Rotary thing (I think) and then to planting trees with Sasha, Vaula, Alica, and Hector. I don't really know what the plan is, but I was told to  pack for two nights. I think my host dad said something about going to a waterfall, but I'm not 100% sure. Whatever happens though, it'll be fun. :)

I absolutely love Thailand. I've been having so much fun, and the people here are completely amazing. It makes me sad to think about going back to America, even though I still have 9 months. I remember how fast last year went by, and time has been flying since being here! I don't want my exchange to end! 

Suphanburi

So I'm sitting on my bed after coming home from school an hour early (don't ask me why, I don't know) and just remembered that I haven't posted about my trip to Suphanburi yet. I uploaded all of my photos to Facebook, and I got them all organized into different folders, but I haven't explained what happened yet!

Saturday morning my host mom told me that I would be going to Suphanburi. She forgot for two hours to tell me that it would be overnight, and then she told me that I would be there for two nights. So Nana (my host mom's friend) came to pick me up and I was packed for two nights. As it turned out, my host family wasn't going with me. I had met Nana before, but I was a little nervous about going without my host mom.

So there I was. Nana and I met up with her husband (I can't remember his name) and her daughter Guitar (only way I can remember it is because she bought a t-shirt with her name on it) at a "supermarket." Honestly, it's more like a mall. Robinson's (I think) is a chain of malls. They're everywhere. From the "supermarket" (after lunch) we went to Ayothaya floating market and met up with more relatives. Two of the girls had really similar names, and I have no idea what they are. Well, I know they both start with 'b'. But yes, Ayothaya floating market...

We went on this little boat tour thing of the market, which in hindsight was pretty pointless. But we got to see the market a little. The engine was super loud.... So at the market, I bought a pair of pants, was gifted 2 t-shirts, 2 key chains, and a sketch of me done by a local artist. Oh, I also bought a pair of shoes... they're handcrafted like the pants. 'Course I can't wear them together because the colors completely clash... well, I probably will anyway, but whatever.

After shopping for about an hour, we went across the street to THE ELEPHANTS!!! Suphanburi is a really really old city in Thailand, so there are a whole bunch of ancient temples and ruins and stuff. The elephant ride took us to one of the temples. I got a whole bunch of great pictures, but I can't put them all on here. The elephant "driver" took pictures of me and Guitar riding the elephant which was really nice. I also have another photo of me and Guitar on the elephant, but it's a print, and I don't have a digital copy.

On Sunday we went to the Thailand version of the Space Needle. Well, I think that's  the best way to put it. The view was fantastic. And that's it, the crazy 30 hours. It reminds me of when my family and I went on a trip, and 24 hours later we were back home, but it felt like we'd been gone a week.

Only One Week?!

So, I already started this post, but I accidentally x'ed out when I was switching between Facebook and this. Starting over, this past week was orientation for this year's inbounds in D3330. Nine exchange students took the train,

Hector, Isabela, Sasha, Eri, Crystle, Rotarian, Alica, Me, Vaula

 and we met the others at the resort in Trang. The train ride was great, overnight, though we didn't sleep. We were way too excited to meet everyone, we were talking until 3am then decided to TRY to sleep. So we were in these cabin things, two to a room. Crystle and I roomed together for the week. This is Jeffrey, our frog. He spent alot of time in our room. Honestly, I don't mind having a frog in the room, they eat spiders and other unpleasant bugs.

These adorable little cabins!

and Jeffrey

We spent so much time this week swimming, singing karaoke, and just talking. It was so great to talk to other people who are going through similar things. All of us are feeling homesick, all of us have been thrust into a culture that we've never had any experience with before. And we're such great friends now because of it. Hunter made the comment on the train on the way home: "We've known each other for a week, and yet we're sitting here talking like we've been friends for years."

Sasha (South Africa)

Eri (Japan)

Zak (America), Vaula (Finland)

Roberto and the pink poncho

Sally (America)

Crystle (America), Me :)

Chelsie

Haha Roberto

We walked out to this island that you can see from the entrance of the resort. When I say we walked out, I mean we literally didn't have to swim at all. The water is warm, and since it was overcast, the sun wasn't too strong. I don't have any pictures from that though, because I don't have a waterproof camera yet, but I do have pictures of the Island from the shore...

Even though I got stung by a jellyfish on the way back to the island, and the rocks were really sharp, and it was probably a really stupid idea... It was still a total blast. The whole week was. We went to this giant cavern by boat, and we went to these natural hot springs in the afternoon. Ok, that was on Thursday... the temple was Wednesday I think... I know it was before Thursday...

At the temple
Back row, left to right: Sasha (South Africa), Dorian (Canada),
Hector (Mexico), Zak (America), Alica (Mexico), Sam (America),
Hunter (America), Me
Front row, left to right: Roberto (Mexico), Sally (America), Isabela (Brazil),
Eri (Japan), Vaula (Finland), Crystle (America), Chelsie (America)

on our way to the cavern

bats

Dorian (Canada) and Sasha

Hector (Mexico), and Dorian

And last but not least. This was probably the scariest moment of the entire week. Well, at least one of them. I was startled by people a couple of times, but to wake up with this in the bathroom was super freaky. I'd been checking the toilet paper rolls in all the other bathrooms, but not in our room, then Crystle found this at like 7am... I finished off the week checking in every corner before I used the restroom... And apparently someone saw a spider that was even bigger than this one...

I've actually got one last photo. I took this at dinner at the resort. It was just such a beautiful sunset that I couldn't not include it. Only partly cloudy, and just after the rain...

Ok, so I had to upload both. Cheers