Sunday February the 22nd brings new falangs to The Land of Smiles: my mom and two sisters. I will be playing tourguide, native Thai and tourist for the next two weeks - experiencing things I never have before and showing my family the ropes on Thai culture and lifestyle. I have been planning what to wear to greet them at the airport for the past week; I haven't decided if I should reel them into the new me or just show up and let them have a mini stroke when the see how much I have changed.
I will not be posting for a couple weeks until they have left when I will post their journal entries from the week so you can see THEIR thoughts about Thailand [You must know how much I admire this country by now]. In the meantime - here is my Beavertale from this month to read. It has not been posted on the internet yet, but if you look up ROTARY BEAVERTALE on Google it should be up there in a few days
BEAVERTALE 2
A Rotary jacket is an exchange student’s canvas; a background for the colours and symbols that will shape our exchange and, in turn, ourselves. I wear my Rotary jacket with pride, excitement and modesty. My canvas has become one of intricate patterns, bold colours and stories of adventure. Every time I look at it I am reminded of the days that have passed and the blank areas probe my mind with inspiration for the future. The weight of my jacket now surprises me; looking at it brings back memories of all my exciting, crazy and wonderful travels. I can’t believe how many adventures I have partaken in, how many people I have met and how vividly every piece on my jacket reminds me of a specific moment in time.
Since my last Beavertale, life has changed from amazing to stellar [that would be the best word to describe it]; life is out of this world! Classes are now finished for the M6 students and instead everyone is up to their ears in study notes to prepare themselves for entrance exams this week. We will be on a summer break for just under three months and afterwards my friends will head off to Universities around the country to further their studies. I am only halfway through my exchange and still have many things to look forward to. I can’t help but tear up when my friends mention their departure from Nakhon Phanom. My classmates have become my best friends; I can rely on them, I have fun with them and I love going to school just to see them. It will be weird not being able to walk the block to my best friends’ shop and play guitar with them while singing our favourite Thai songs. Though their new beginning of education means they are leaving me, I am so terribly proud of them for being so successful; it is truly inspiring. When school restarts in May I will be repeating M6 with a whole new group of friends; it will be different, but I’m excited to meet even more people that I can rely on and have fun with.
In the past three months I have moved into a new family and in a month or so will be moving out. Time is moving by much too fast for my liking. My family now is everything I had ever imagined and more – I really connect with them and I will have a hard time leaving them. They are my family, my home and my friends. My house is much bigger than the last one, with four loving dogs that run to greet me when I unlock our giant gate. I love our golden retriever Sai Yo to no end; she gallops joyfully beside me as I walk up our massive driveway, often holding my shirt or hand in her mouth as we go. We also have a mutt named Khao Pun and two Chihuahuas – Loo Loo and La La. Not only does my family have pets, but I also have a little sister to spend time with unlike my first family. Mean is 14 and she loves to watch TV – I have broken into the habit of watching Thai soap operas with her while she helps me study Thai; in turn I help her check her English homework. My parents are adorable; my mom is a nurse and loves to teach me how to cook [she’s also continuously feeding me which has made it exceptionally difficult to fit in my jeans.] My mom’s little sister also lives with us and speaks very good English. I have the best conversations with her; she is a nurse as well and she loves to ask me all about the health system in Canada, the English words for certain medical terms and my opinion on various subjecsts. It is so refreshing to be able to actually talk with someone about such various topics and it has seriously increased my skill with Thai language.
In December Rotary took us on a trip around the Northeast and Greater North of Thailand. I experienced traditional Thai dining, Thai culture and Thai dance like never before. I went to see an elephant show, pandas in the Chiang Mai Zoo and many National and Historical Parks with breathtaking architecture. One of the highlights of the trip was a trip to the longneck hill tribes in Chiang Rai where children as young as 3 years old link heavy rings around their necks. It was my most compelling experience to date, but it was very unsettling. I felt like a tourist at a zoo while walking past all the women selling hand woven scarves; tears welled in my eyes when I met a toddler and her pregnant mother, both sporting rings around their necks while they posed and smiled for pictures. It was a way of life I could not fathom, and yet it stood before me as clear as day. That day will remain in my mind always, as I hope every day of this experience will. On our travels we stayed in absolutely gorgeous resorts, bargained underneath the bright lights of the Chiang Mai night bazaar and swam underneath waterfalls. Most importantly, I made friends that I will never forget, spent many nights I will remember forever and felt a happiness that filled inside of me, spilling over for days afterwards.
Christmas is not celebrated in Thailand, but the exchange students had the pleasure of spending the holidays together during the trip. Christmas Eve was spent in a clearing; we sent off fireworks and firecrackers, sat on the lawn while singing to guitar tunes and had bike races around the twisting pathways of the resort. Christmas Day was spent on a bus; in the evening we had a Secret Santa exchange, most of the exchange students called home to wish the best to their families and we spent the night singing and chatting in each others’ hotel rooms. As my dad is Chinese-Thai we celebrated Chinese New Year as well as the traditional Western New Year. New Years’ Eve I spent with my friends and the next day I spent lounging around the house. My dad’s entire family came over very early on February 6th and we prayed to his ancestors three times at a table laden with all kinds of food, from fruit to entire chickens; to fish stomach. Afterwards, Mean and I burnt fake Yen in a pot outside and made wishes.
For my birthday I went to the beach in Chanthaburi [a good 16 hour bus ride from Nakhon Phanom] with some exchange student friends and we spent the weekend playing football and soccer on the beach, swinging on ropes hanging from palm trees and jet skiing in the warm water of the Gulf of Thailand. It was my first birthday without snow or my twin sister but it turned out to be just as wonderful and all my friends gave me birthday hugs and well wishes as the clock struck midnight the night before. It was my friend Clayton’s birthday the day before mine so his parents bought us ice cream cake which ended up being shoved up my nose and tossed into my friends’ hair. It was definitely a birthday weekend to remember.
Life now follows a steady and comfortable pattern but it is nothing but dull. Every few days something sudden will happen, we will be visited by someone special or I will have plans to go and do something exciting with my friends. There are new obstacles that test my skill in Thai language and Thai culture everyday. Translating for patients at the hospital, booking plane tickets for my family to come visit next week, helping sell seaweed and fish sticks to children at my friends’ convenient store; the excitement is never ending. Just last week a monk came to our house and showed us pictures from his trek through the jungle in the North of Thailand. He stayed at our house for a few hours, cross legged on our couch while we sat at his feet on the floor. He told me all about Buddhism, taught me how to meditate and gave me a book and CD to help me practice. I now meditate with my aunt every night and I am making plans to be a Buddhist nun for a week in one of the temples in Nakhon Phanom. I have realised just how much I love Buddhism and I really connect with the beliefs of Buddhist people. Waking up early to present food for the monks and going to the temple to make merit is an important part of my life now; I particularly love having the monks and mechees teach me about Buddhism and how to disassociate my body from my mind.
The source of my new comfort zone is a feeling. A feeling of familiarity for all that is around me. I can’t explain it, but it is just IMPOSSIBLE for me to be angry or upset anymore. If anything throws me down, I bounce right back a few moments later and I can’t stop grinning from ear to ear. Living in this country, making new friends and experiencing a new culture that I put all my heart into has made me a truly happy person; an accomplishment I have made for the first time in my life. I feel peaceful and familiar with all my surroundings; I have become Thai.
There is no more for me to say at this moment except that I am having the time of my life; a fact I expected since the beginning of my exchange. I could go on for days and days about my experiences, about ordinary days with extraordinary incidents and all about my friends and family; I will save that for when I return and fail to keep quiet about “Thailand: The Most Stunning Year of my Life.” For now, I express my thanks again to everyone – my Rotary district in Canada, my Rotary district in Thailand, all my friends and family from both homes. I would not be taking on this exhilarating journey if it weren’t for you.
Since my last Beavertale, life has changed from amazing to stellar [that would be the best word to describe it]; life is out of this world! Classes are now finished for the M6 students and instead everyone is up to their ears in study notes to prepare themselves for entrance exams this week. We will be on a summer break for just under three months and afterwards my friends will head off to Universities around the country to further their studies. I am only halfway through my exchange and still have many things to look forward to. I can’t help but tear up when my friends mention their departure from Nakhon Phanom. My classmates have become my best friends; I can rely on them, I have fun with them and I love going to school just to see them. It will be weird not being able to walk the block to my best friends’ shop and play guitar with them while singing our favourite Thai songs. Though their new beginning of education means they are leaving me, I am so terribly proud of them for being so successful; it is truly inspiring. When school restarts in May I will be repeating M6 with a whole new group of friends; it will be different, but I’m excited to meet even more people that I can rely on and have fun with.
In the past three months I have moved into a new family and in a month or so will be moving out. Time is moving by much too fast for my liking. My family now is everything I had ever imagined and more – I really connect with them and I will have a hard time leaving them. They are my family, my home and my friends. My house is much bigger than the last one, with four loving dogs that run to greet me when I unlock our giant gate. I love our golden retriever Sai Yo to no end; she gallops joyfully beside me as I walk up our massive driveway, often holding my shirt or hand in her mouth as we go. We also have a mutt named Khao Pun and two Chihuahuas – Loo Loo and La La. Not only does my family have pets, but I also have a little sister to spend time with unlike my first family. Mean is 14 and she loves to watch TV – I have broken into the habit of watching Thai soap operas with her while she helps me study Thai; in turn I help her check her English homework. My parents are adorable; my mom is a nurse and loves to teach me how to cook [she’s also continuously feeding me which has made it exceptionally difficult to fit in my jeans.] My mom’s little sister also lives with us and speaks very good English. I have the best conversations with her; she is a nurse as well and she loves to ask me all about the health system in Canada, the English words for certain medical terms and my opinion on various subjecsts. It is so refreshing to be able to actually talk with someone about such various topics and it has seriously increased my skill with Thai language.
In December Rotary took us on a trip around the Northeast and Greater North of Thailand. I experienced traditional Thai dining, Thai culture and Thai dance like never before. I went to see an elephant show, pandas in the Chiang Mai Zoo and many National and Historical Parks with breathtaking architecture. One of the highlights of the trip was a trip to the longneck hill tribes in Chiang Rai where children as young as 3 years old link heavy rings around their necks. It was my most compelling experience to date, but it was very unsettling. I felt like a tourist at a zoo while walking past all the women selling hand woven scarves; tears welled in my eyes when I met a toddler and her pregnant mother, both sporting rings around their necks while they posed and smiled for pictures. It was a way of life I could not fathom, and yet it stood before me as clear as day. That day will remain in my mind always, as I hope every day of this experience will. On our travels we stayed in absolutely gorgeous resorts, bargained underneath the bright lights of the Chiang Mai night bazaar and swam underneath waterfalls. Most importantly, I made friends that I will never forget, spent many nights I will remember forever and felt a happiness that filled inside of me, spilling over for days afterwards.
Christmas is not celebrated in Thailand, but the exchange students had the pleasure of spending the holidays together during the trip. Christmas Eve was spent in a clearing; we sent off fireworks and firecrackers, sat on the lawn while singing to guitar tunes and had bike races around the twisting pathways of the resort. Christmas Day was spent on a bus; in the evening we had a Secret Santa exchange, most of the exchange students called home to wish the best to their families and we spent the night singing and chatting in each others’ hotel rooms. As my dad is Chinese-Thai we celebrated Chinese New Year as well as the traditional Western New Year. New Years’ Eve I spent with my friends and the next day I spent lounging around the house. My dad’s entire family came over very early on February 6th and we prayed to his ancestors three times at a table laden with all kinds of food, from fruit to entire chickens; to fish stomach. Afterwards, Mean and I burnt fake Yen in a pot outside and made wishes.
For my birthday I went to the beach in Chanthaburi [a good 16 hour bus ride from Nakhon Phanom] with some exchange student friends and we spent the weekend playing football and soccer on the beach, swinging on ropes hanging from palm trees and jet skiing in the warm water of the Gulf of Thailand. It was my first birthday without snow or my twin sister but it turned out to be just as wonderful and all my friends gave me birthday hugs and well wishes as the clock struck midnight the night before. It was my friend Clayton’s birthday the day before mine so his parents bought us ice cream cake which ended up being shoved up my nose and tossed into my friends’ hair. It was definitely a birthday weekend to remember.
Life now follows a steady and comfortable pattern but it is nothing but dull. Every few days something sudden will happen, we will be visited by someone special or I will have plans to go and do something exciting with my friends. There are new obstacles that test my skill in Thai language and Thai culture everyday. Translating for patients at the hospital, booking plane tickets for my family to come visit next week, helping sell seaweed and fish sticks to children at my friends’ convenient store; the excitement is never ending. Just last week a monk came to our house and showed us pictures from his trek through the jungle in the North of Thailand. He stayed at our house for a few hours, cross legged on our couch while we sat at his feet on the floor. He told me all about Buddhism, taught me how to meditate and gave me a book and CD to help me practice. I now meditate with my aunt every night and I am making plans to be a Buddhist nun for a week in one of the temples in Nakhon Phanom. I have realised just how much I love Buddhism and I really connect with the beliefs of Buddhist people. Waking up early to present food for the monks and going to the temple to make merit is an important part of my life now; I particularly love having the monks and mechees teach me about Buddhism and how to disassociate my body from my mind.
The source of my new comfort zone is a feeling. A feeling of familiarity for all that is around me. I can’t explain it, but it is just IMPOSSIBLE for me to be angry or upset anymore. If anything throws me down, I bounce right back a few moments later and I can’t stop grinning from ear to ear. Living in this country, making new friends and experiencing a new culture that I put all my heart into has made me a truly happy person; an accomplishment I have made for the first time in my life. I feel peaceful and familiar with all my surroundings; I have become Thai.
There is no more for me to say at this moment except that I am having the time of my life; a fact I expected since the beginning of my exchange. I could go on for days and days about my experiences, about ordinary days with extraordinary incidents and all about my friends and family; I will save that for when I return and fail to keep quiet about “Thailand: The Most Stunning Year of my Life.” For now, I express my thanks again to everyone – my Rotary district in Canada, my Rotary district in Thailand, all my friends and family from both homes. I would not be taking on this exhilarating journey if it weren’t for you.
ไม่ว่าจะสูง แค่ไหนก็ไปถึง
ไม่มีคำว่าสูง วัดได้ถ้าใจถึง
จะหนาวเหน็บหนาวเพียงไหนจะฝ่าไป
ร้อนเป็นฟืนเป็นไฟจะฝ่าไป
No matter how high.. however high, I'll make it up there.
“High” means nothing. You can reach it if you're willing.
However cold, however freezing, I'll keep going.
The fire is hot. I'll keep going.
2 comments:
I've already commented on this when I proofed it, but I wanted to reiterate my thoughts of how much I liked it so you can feel loved. Also, because you've been sad that you haven't gotten many comments on a lot of your blogs. Our call kept getting cut off this morning so I gave up :( I'll call you later !!
วัดใจ!!!!
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