Eight months down...

Two to go. Not that I'm counting down the time until my departure.. but I now do know the exact date that I leave the Land of the Smiles for America - May 19th. Nearly two months have flown by since my last post. Sorry everyone! So much has happened since then, and I'm going to try to cram it all into one post. Here we go:

1. In late January we had another AFS camp, this time in Chiang Mai. All of the six Month AFS students departed to their home countries already so the camp consisted of just us year-longs, as we're the only exchangers left. There were 60 students at the camp with 9 Americans, 20 Germans, a large chunk of the group from other European countries (France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Norway, Sweden), a couple Colombians, Brazilians, and Paraguayans, and one Icelandic (Sorry if I'm forgetting you're country!). The camp was a week long and so much fun to get back together with all of my buddies. It was fascinating to see how much we've all changed since we last saw each other - around four months ago at least since our last camp in Khonkaen. Most of us can speak, read, and write Thai really well now and have all changed in many ways by adapting ourselves to the Thai culture and easy going lifestyle we're immersed in. 

IMG_0301

IMG_0300

We stayed in a nice hotel and during the days hopped on tour buses to be shuttled around the province for planned activities. We went rafting, temple sight-seeing, went to a hotspring, visited an umbrella making factory, and watched a live elephant show where this super-human elephant played soccer (Just try to picture that) and could use a paintbrush to paint sloppy, yet astounding paintings of trees and elephants with it's trunk that were later put up for sale. I also finally got the chance to ride an elephant for about an half an hour which was really cool. Other than that, they (AFS) didn't have many activities planned so we spent a good chunk of our time just touring the city and checking out the many nightmarkets and sights Chiang Mai has to offer. It was the perfect escape for all of us - life in our hometowns can sometimes get boring and rather uneventful. And it gave kids living in the South or in Bangkok area the chance to see how different life is in Northern Thailand, try Northern Thai food, and experience the coolness of winter up here in the mountains.

2. I am now a graduate from the 12th grade or "Mattayum 6" at Satrisrinan school! That's right, school's over for me now. I did it! I completed seven months in a Thai highschool and I've got to say it was one hell of a ride. 

In the beginning months I was struggling with the language and making a fool out of myself on many, many occasions through cultural differences (that comes with being an exchange student). I was learning how to fit in while still being myself and learning about Thai customs. This was the so called culture shock period for me.

After the first three months I had a good grasp of the language, had a great group of friends that I hung out with regularly, and was learning all the slang and goofy and quirks they use. In school I was studying Thai speaking, Thai reading and writing, Thai art, and... volleyball. Yup, that was my schedule in school. Most of the time when I didn't have any classes (which was quite often) I would join friends in their Cooking, Physics, Math, Chemistry, and English classes, or just sit outside with friends and play Thai games - it varied day to day. When joining an English class I would often end up teaching the class myself while the Thai "english" teacher looked on. They left everything up to me for the lesson of the day. And with no prior planning I usually resorted to teaching the students slang conversation to keep them entertained. Hearing classes of 50 Thai kids repeat "What's up?", "How ya doin' man?", or "See ya dude" in their accents is fantastic. 

After six months I stopped taking Thai speaking and my schedule was even more flexible than before. The only scheduled class I was taking was Thai reading and writing which was one on one with a teacher. I can now read Thai but still struggle with the writing. In the Thai alphabet there are 44 consonants and 32 vowels. ยากมากๆ!!  

School was always a blast. It's impossible to put the general feeling I got from all the students into words without sounding too cocky. Forgive me if I do.. I think my ego's swelled enormously since living here. haha. They all loved me. Lee, the only white student in a school of 3,000. I was a celebrity. I even signed autographs on a couple occasions. I was getting my picture taken and being watched constantly and had to make sure I was always looking good in my uniform and smiling - it's a Thai thing, if you're not smiling they'll think something's up and ask you about it. Outside of the classroom I could barely walk ten feet without someone scream my name 'Leeeeeeee!! Where you go?!'. I've never had so much attention in my life! It was great! But definately tiring at times. Some days I would come home from school absolutely exhausted just from smiling and waving at kids as well as chatting with friends. I really enjoyed school, but there's definately a weight off my shoulders now that it's over. I feel I can finally loosen my collar a bit now that I'm out, as should every graduate, but for me in a different way. I can finally relax knowing that not everyone is watching me every minute of the day and it feels pretty good.

3. The actual graduation ceremony was rather unofficial but a ton of fun. In short, all of the students bought candy and other gifts and ran around pinning them on eachother's uniforms.

After that little celebration, the graduating class all gathered in the volleyball gym where we listened to speeches by a number of teachers, got a buddhist blessing and goodluck strings tied around our wrists, then all danced to Thai Karaoke perfomed by a couple of the students.