Thursday, July 28, 2011

Yepp. One Downn.

What uppp!

So I have been having so much fun here in Thailand! I love it. The schools here are a bit different than those back in the U.S. The grades are separated into buildings and then from there the students start to chose what they will do for their major careers after "high school" here. There is the math-science department, the language kids, and the English-math kids. My school is nicknamed T.N. The whole name of the school is sooo long! 30 letters to be exact. So here, I'm kind of popular... It's way different that what you are thinking (I'm pretty sure dude) of.. You get stared at 24/7 and the students are super shy. They will say hi to you if you say hi first.. They also call you a farang (It means foreigner in Thai) all the time. But after a few weeks, it gets to everyone who you are and your real name or nickname.. I go by my nickname here. Fon! The teachers are amazing here! They are simply so nice and way helpful! Even if they can’t speak English, they help you out the best way they can manage. Thailand really does live to it’s name; The Land of Smiles. So I have made a ton of friends here, but I am the closest with Noon, Nan, and Fuang. They all study in M. 4/4, so they are in 10th grade too. SOPHOMORES. Yeahh! Been here for about a month, and it feels like I have known my friends for more than what it really seems like. The language is sometimes a barrier for us; but we work it out somehow every time. I personally think I suck at picking up the language right now, (even if I have only been here for one month) I understand somethings, but it’s really hard! Haha, I knew it would be hard, so I really should stop complaining about this one. I will be taking some Thai cooking classes as a subject here, along with Muay Thai, (it was that or real P.E.. I went with what seems more fun:D) and outside of school; I might be taking a Thai massage course! I’m so excited to see what else might come up as a plan for this year!

I have been trying to put as my first priority to finish my service projects first. With AFS/YES Abroad, we are required to do a certain amount of service projects, I am completely fine with that. They will be fun! For my first project, I really wanted to go teach younger kids English or something like that. Lucky me that I did that yesterday (July 27th)! The elementary school is really near by my school, so for about 2 periods, I went over there with the younger kids. 98% of the students there are orphans or come from a poverty community. It hits you personally when you see that their teacher is a VCR video and a television… My intension was to let them learn something useful and hopefully have them smiling at the end of the day. I love how I taught them how to say purple (Moo-Ah-Y [IN THAI<---]) and Thursday. Their motivation majority of the time was candy, but it worked! Before they receive the candy from you, they wai (put their hands together and lower their heads towards their heads) and say Korb-Kun-(Cah for girls) or (Kab for boys). When I first got there, they were all very shy and quiet. By the end of the hour and when I left, they were smiling, yelling out “thank you teacher,” waving bye, and they all had a very big and bright smile on their faces. I literally couldn’t ask for more. Those little boys and girls have brightened up my week and even though as I feel that I haven’t done anything for them; I am glad I could put a smile on their faces.

We’ll see what else happens here in Thailand… I will be going to 2 schools a week. I might go to the other school on Friday, (June 29th) hopefully everything goes well at that school too. Both of the schools are really near by, so that’s a good thing. Pretty much one month down, the rest of the year to go!!! Finding a way to enjoy every moment I have here, and not letting any chances pass me by[: I pinky promise I will try to update later on. Live. It. Up.
Deuces.
Love,
Lizzzz.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Heyyy!

So Pair (host sister) is out with her friends, my other host sister (Mai) is in her room with another friend, and mom (Kon Mah) is with Chris (Boyfriend...WHHHOOOOAA! <3). So perfect time to write.. The last post was really unorganized, sorry about that. Good thing it covered pretty much everything of those days.

My host family here is amazingly nice and generous. They really are proof of Thailand being the Land of Smiles. They got me my uniform, all these yummy meals (mom doesn't cook) 3 books and 2 posters to help me learn Thai, and let's not forget the friggin' cellular device. I can text the people I met in D.C. that are now here in Thailand too! I love it. I start school tomorrow, Monday... I kinda am a bit scared because I won't be able to say anything other than a couple of words. At least I'll be going to school with Pair. At my school, we wear a uniform: Black shoes, white socks along with a purple-ish button up blouse that has the schools initials embroidered on the right side of the blouse and a black knee length skirt. It's REAL classy[:

I love how here in Thailand, you have the spoon on your right and the fork on your left.. It kinda takes sometime to get used to it, but it's not that bad. You push the rice on to the spoon using your fork. The fashion here is pretty much the same like in the U.S. What I noticed is that girls only wear one earring.. Treennddy. Another difference is that people don't care about how fast you go on a highway here! I mean people just go so fast, when I came to Phitsanulok form Bangkok, the driver was on 180KMPH the whole time.. CRAZY!

OH!!!!!! And the Tokyo airport!!! That place is awesome! On our way to Thailand, we had a 3 hour layover there. They have an awesome food court, oxygen bar, souviner place, and all the best candy/cookie thingys, you can think of! It's soooooo fun! We were with all of the other YES kids.. Made a ton of new friends!

I'll leave you with some more pictures of my new adventure... Live it up.
Deuces,
love
ฟน

School uniform!
Grand.Palace.
All 100% gold...
On our way back to the university from Grand Palace.
Welcome home!
School Logo.
D.C..
D.C...
D.C.!!!!
JAPAN!
Going to BKK...
SOOO GOOD...
We all look bad... YES & YES ABROAD.
BEN!
MiSS THESE CHiCKS!
Yum...
YUMMMMMM!
My life...
Friggin' good. 
Chocolate!
Wonderland...
"Vibrates and lights up when your food is ready!"
Me: :O
Dark Chocolate KitKat... Amazed.
Chillin' at the food court!
THESE ARE SOOO GOOD!
Even their Sprite is cool!

Intense Refreshment...

WELCOME TO THAILAND!!!
Lays...
Original Chips...
OREOS!
BANGKOK.
On the roof of the university we stayed at in Bangkok.
At the university in Bangkok.
Long-Kong? Anyway, it's a fruit that is soo bomb!

City Life... Bangkok.
Bangkok... Yeah.

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Greeeetttiiinnggsss... JayKay Sawatdee Cah.. Yo.

Hey, so long time since I've posted! So no, I don't live in a jungle (K-Aden!) or a big city. I live in an urban area and I LOVE IT! We have internet and a t.v. Everything here is so calm and gorgeous. Weather here: Really hot and humid, but once you get used to it, you forget the humidity! The YES kids and I were in Bangkok for a bit. We stayed at a university, there we met some legit people from Italy, Germany, Belgium, Costa Rica, Panama, Frace, Argentina, U.S.A, and THAILAND!

On Wednesday, Naim and Ann (Ann, a lady that was one of our group leaders in the YES Abroad orientation in D.C. along with Nat.) took us to Grand Palace. The place is indescribably amazing. You'll just have to see the pictures to understand. Ann then left to go to her daughter's house. We also met up with Nat and Rah. Rah is someone from the university. She is a n AFS volunteer. After a nice 3O min Thai body message, (for about $8-9) we went back to the university. Dinner was at the Bangkok mall at a place called MK Restaurant. Make your own soup at your table. Yummy! Then we just messed around the whole time! Tried Cold Stone Creamery for the first time ever! It is sooooo good! Harry Potter is a BIG thing here too!

Thursday, welcome home! My host family is super nice and way chill! There is Mom, Pair, Mai, and I. We went out to dinner and the food was way good. My host-grandma (Kon-Yai) and Mom's friend came along as well. Alright enough for now. Talk to you soon.
Deuces. 
Love, ฝน
 (My Thai nickname, it means rain. It's pronounced like phone.) 

Check it! We in the Thai side!
At Grand Palace.

They have them here... Finally tried one too!

Grand Palace

Grand Palace!

GRAND.PALACE.

Grand... Palace.

Grand Palace in Bangkok.

PRETTYFULL.

You can't even describe how amazing this is...

Wai (said like Y) to the monks.

The host fam!
Mai, Mom, me, and, Pair!

Part of our living room!

Wake up to this everyday <3.

The door[:

I love these! Called Ngo.

Sunset and a beautiful flag


Thailand is excited for Harry Potter...
Welcome to Phitsanulok.