Quotes, Lists and Pics

So you are probably wondering why it has been taking me so long to make a new blog post. Well the answer is simple, one I felt like if I waited something really cool and worthy of blogging about would happen, two I hate making chronological posts about every day of my life, three this time I wanted to edit my pictures, and finally for me writing a blog post takes hours, and i just haven't found the time to sit down and type it all out. Also I feel like reading giant dragging on paragraphs about my life is pretty boring, so I am going to change it up this time.

Top Five Quotes To Describe How I Felt The Past Few Week

1. "The Purpose of life is not always to be happy, but rather it is to be useful, to be honourable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and you have lived well" - Ralph Waldo Emerson

YE Robby, volunteering to teach english

2. "Taking naps sounds so childish. I prefer to call them horizontal life pauses"

3. "Just be kind and brave, that is all you will ever need"

Elephant keeper and a baby elephant

4. "The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love, and to be"

5. "We must be willing to let go of the life we planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us"- E.M Forster

I want to say these bells have some sort of special meaning, but I am not sure what that meaning is.

Top Ten Things I have Done

1. Rode an Elephant

Elephant bath time

2. Bamboo Rafting

3. Taught English

5. Volunteered with autistic children

6. Crashed a Thai wedding

7. Birthday party at Night Market with other exchange students

8. Road trip with Olivia

Made it to Pai Safely

Hot Chocolate at Cat Cafe in Chiangrai 

9. Visit to pai

My Pictures could not caption the true beauty of Pai

10. Visit to Chiangrai

The White Temple

Five Least Favourite Things I Have Done

1. Napped (A LOT)

2. Sat at school for eight hours

3. Got sick

4. Sat in the hospital with Olivia for countless hours (She fine by the way, just some Dengue fever, sounds serious but she is recovering well from it)

5. Paid my phone bill 

Most Beautiful Things I Have Seen Since My Last Update

1. Pai 

2. The white temple

3. The Chiang Rai University

Random Things That Do Not Fit In Any Of the Above Categories

1. Made some traditional Thai pottery

2. Made a traditional Thai lantern

3. Read If I Stay In 4 hours

4. Went to see Maze Runner

5. Had a lovely breakfast at a restaurant near my parents store

6. Visit a School/Temple where homeless children from hill tribes live... (this was incredible visit, and be able to donate some money to them, but it also broke my heart)

7. Visited an orchid farm

8. Visited a bug zoo

9. Went to a agricultural centre

10. Visited a girl scout camp at one of the schools I taught at

First Two Weeks

"A tourist sees what he or she has come to see. A traveler sees what he or she sees"

I'm sorry to everyone who I told this would be posted a lot earlier, I have barely had time to breathe, let alone sit down and write about all the wonderful adventures I have been on since arriving in Thailand. Also sorry for how long this is, its super hard to summarize two amazing and super busy weeks. It has been just over two weeks since I arrived in Thailand and man is it ever different from what I expected. I cant say that I'm disappointed, but I can say I have had to make adjustments for my expectations for my year abroad. To summarize my experiences here so far I would say that its been a lot of early wake up calls, falling asleep at 7pm, eating rice, nodding my head, smiling and pretending to understand what is going on.

On Saturday morning, my day started fairly early in the morning. Luckily the sleep I got on the airplane helped to keep my jet lag to a minimum. My day felt pretty average, in the morning I went to work with my parents. They own a business that sells and installs car accessories and sound systems. After a few hours of being in the store, we went for lunch I had Pad Thai (which was super delicious), then my parents drove my brother, third, and me to the city center. We walked around for a bit and visited a museum.  

My dads first car

Sunday was a jam-packed day. We drove up a mountain to visit Bhubing palace, which is in the middle of Doi Suthep national park. It is surrounded by beautiful scenery and has a beautiful rose garden. The palace is the winter residence for the Thai Royal Family, as well as where they host many prominent state visitors. Just down the mountain from the place is Wat Prathart Doi Suthep an extremely beautiful and very touristy Buddhist temple. People believe that you have not truly arrived in Chiangmai until you have visited this temple. So I guess I actually arrived in Chiangmai on the tenth. After visiting the national park we went to the famous Chiangmai night market where I met my first YE student since being in Thailand. Unfortunately it started to rain so we were not there for very long.

A beautiful view from the mountain

Rose Garden

A little girl from a hill tribe in Doi Suthep

Doi Suthep National park

Wat Prathart Doi Suthep

Monday happens to be one of my favourite days since I have been in Thailand. I spent the day with my brothers and his friends. We went to the royal park where we made a movie about the use of technology today and how it can make us distant from each other. After that we went to three different cafes. The first one was just a random café that happened to be close. The second was on the bank of a river. We sat and drank iced coffees at a table in the river. The third was a coffee shop that won 6^th place in the world for there late art.  I also got to go to my first Thai movie. Thai movie theatres are sooooo cheap. We saw this really messed up horror movie about a guy who gets his best friends girlfriend pregnant, and she is so ashamed that she commits suicide. After she commits suicide some how the baby ends up in the boys stomach… I'm not really sure how it ended because we had to leave half way through in order to attend a party with my rotary club. We celebrated Thai mothers day, by singing, dancing, eating and giving our mothers flower garlands. My host mom cried when we presented her with her flowers. It was adorable.

Cafe in the river

Latte Art 

Tuesday was real Thai mothers day. We went to a temple where a monk passed away a year ago and has not started to decay. They believe that there was something special about him, and that he was for some reason chosen to remain the same even after his death. It was the first temple I had been in that did not have an abundance of tourist in it. After the temple we spent the rest of the day at the mall.

The monk who has not decayed

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday where pretty boring and simple. I got my school uniforms, I went to work with my parents, I went to school and made garlands all day. I got my first Thai massage, I had cooking class, I walked around with an English teacher at my school and I went to a birthday party with my brother.

Saturday was my first orientation. I met all of the lovely exchange students in my area, and again reviewed the rules and regulations of the exchange program. In the evening we went to the walking street night market. Sunday was just like every Sunday, we spent the day as a family and then went to dinner at my host grandparent’s house.

On Monday I started Thai dance school. Thai dance is unbelievably hard, and your wrists and fingers have to be super super flexible. Tuesday I went to school, came home and slept. Wednesday I was sick and spent the day in bed. Thursday I went to school and got of super early so me and the other exchange students in my school went for a walk, hung out and did some studying. Friday was boring I went to school and then to yoga class.

And last but not least today I went to the school from 8am-4pm to help teach at an English camp. At times it was frustrating attempting to teach a second language, but I loved every second of it because it gave me the chance to interact with other students in my school well passing on my knowledge. After language camp some other exchange students and I went to the movie theatre to watch 22 Jump Street. And now I am sitting in my room writing this blog post half asleep. So I think it is time to get some rest, because tomorrow I am going to have a long day of RIDING ELEPHANTS!!!

Airports and First Impressions

"how lucky I am to have found something that makes saying goodbye so hard"- Winnie The Pooh

The last few days have been a whirlwind of emotions. I have gone from being unbelievably over joyed to start my journey, too an unbelievable crying mess in the middle of a forgien airport and everything inbetween those two emotions. I am so blessed to be able to embark on such a wonderful journey. I feel so much joy about this opportunity. Unfortunately I never really thought about how hard saying goodbye to my loved ones would be or how hard it would be to be unable to communicate with my new family.

My goodbyes started early as some of my closest friends left on their own journeys, Ath was off to Greece, Brook left to Ontario to spend the rest of the break with her boyfriend and his family, and Sar left me to go pretend to be a pioneer for a few days and then she was off to EFY. I don’t think when I said these goodbyes it had really hit me, how long the goodbye would be for. As the days began to fade away I found myself saying my final goodbyes at the security gate in the Calgary airport. My parents and Jake walked me to security, where we exchanged our final hugs. Although I was at the airport ready to go, the fact that I was really saying goodbye was still yet to sink in.

As I walked through the line in security I was trying my hardest to hold myself together, but with every step things only seemed to be get harder. Of course in a time like this I would be picked for a random security check, where the rummaged through my bags, and swabbed my laptop, of course for some reason this made me start to bail my eyes out even more. From there on out I hoped that my travels would be a little be easier. Unfortuntley my hopes did not do much good.

My flight to Vancouver was slightly delayed, which ended up working to my advantage, because my flight leaving Vancouver was delayed for over an hour. Sitting in the Vancouver airport by myself for three hours was pretty lousy and uneventful. I basically sat there attempting to hide the fact that I was crying, until it got to hard and then I just let it all out.

From Vancouver I had a thirteen hour flight to Hong Kong. I attempted to sleep the entire plane ride in order to fight off some of my future jetlag. Sleeping in an airplane sucks. When I arrived in Hong Kong I ran to my next gate in order to not miss my connecting flight to Chiang Mai. I boarded my plane as soon as I arrived at the gate, and again tried to sleep to ease my jetlag.

When I arrived in Chiang Mai I went through costumes, which was fairly easy, and then went to the baggage claim. I stood there forever watching the same few pieces of luggage go around, until I finally realized mine was not coming. Lets just say that the airport luck was not on my side today. Fortunately my bag should be here by tonight.

My host family greeted me with open arms, and automatically started to feed me, they must know airplane food is not all that great. From the airport we went to the market to pick up a few things, and then home. There house is beautiful to say the least. There are a thousand of sticky notes around the house with thai words on them for me to practice. As soon as I had some alone time in my room all of the emotions began to hit and I was a crying mess once again.

I'm feeling quite overwhelmed. Everything here is so different. I feel super alienated, I cannot read any signs, or understand anything people are saying to me. I can’t even recognize my Thai name, let alone say it. I can however tell you that it means “clear blue sky”. It is super hot here plus 35, and it is currently pouring rain. The fan I have blowing on me is not doing a very good job at keeping me cool.

Well that’s about as far as my adventure has gotten. I would like to take the time to thank my sponsor Rotary club for giving me this amazing opportunity, as well as my friends and family for all of the support.

Hong Kong

Chiang Mai

 

Update!

It has been awhile since I last posted, so here is an update!

I have finished all of my orientations, and my guarantee forms have just came back. I also just recently celebrate my birthday, and have finished school for the year.

I will be living in Chiangmai Thailand. Chiangmai can also be spelled Chiang Mai.  It is know the largest and most cultural cities in northern Thailand. The city is dense with buddhist temples, there are over three-hundred temples within the city. Chiangmai is also known for its elaborate festivals including Loi Krathong and Songkran.

I have also found out my host families! I have three, meaning I will moving families approximately every four months. My first family is a family of four, I will have two younger brothers Nattawat who is 15 and Amornthep who is 14. From the pictures I have seen it seems as through they live in a rural area. It does not say what my parents do for a living, but I am guessing they own their own business. My second family is a family of six including pets, I will have two older sisters and two dogs. The older sisters do not live at home as they are both attending university. Both of them have been on exchanges, one of them went to Quebec and the other went to Portugal. The older one is named Praw and the younger of the two is named Praew. (I will let you know the difference between the names once I find out.)  The father is a lawyer, and my host mom is a teacher. I believe they live in the city, in what looks like a villa/apartment. The third family I will stay with is a family of five, I will have an older sister, Chalunthorn, who is 21 and a younger sister, Chalisa, who is 16. They also have a dog. Im not really sure what area they live in, but i am guessing in more of a rural area. My host father in this family is a general manger of some sort, and my host mom is a officialdom.

I will be attending Chaingmai College of preforming arts, which I believe is just a high school with a fancy name, as I will only be in grade ten. The school focuses on musical instruments, Thai dance, traditional Thai performance, as well as international performance arts. I am excited to attend this school, as it appears to be very cultural as well as focused on performance which is something that  I love.

My arrival date must be between the august 7th and 10th, so I will be leaving in approximately 45 days. I know the time is going to fly by and I am getting more nervous and excited as the date creeps closer.

I would just like to say some special thank yous to my sponsor club and district as well as my host club and host district.

Long waits

Well having patients is something you definitely need when applying for an exchange. You have to wait for everything and its not that boring just sit there wait, its like that anxious obnoxious wait. My application has finally been sent to Thailand, and now I must wait some more. I cannot wait to find out where in Thailand ill be living, and I cant wait to see what my first host family will be like.

Some other life updates, march orientation is quickly approaching and my ability to even say a simple sentence is Thai is slim to none. So far I got hello, sa watdee ka (or something like that)! Also there are sixty one days tell I leave to London with my schools drama program. I am so excited spend a week of my life with some of my favourite people in the whole world. Although the flight to London will not be near as long as my flight to Thailand, it will be good practice.

First Orentation

I went to my first orientation this weekend. At the orientation I met all of the outbound students in my district there are twenty one of us, it was weird that after a few short hours I felt more connected to them, then a lot of people i have known for years. I love the fact that they are facing the same challenges, stresses and excitements that I am.

The day consisted of a few team building activities and games to show cultural differences and challenges with language. We also had our interviews with a Rotex member, and a member of the committee responsible for country placement. I was super nervous for this, and I am really grateful for the Rotex who was in my interview she was so kind, and really understood me. At the end of the day we got to figure out the countries each one of us would be spending the next year of our lives in. Twenty one students, and twenty countries. I will be spending my exchange year in Thailand. I am unbelievably excited, and also quite nervous. I cannot wait to find out more! Also by march I have to learn how to introduce myself in Thai. So if anyone reading this speaks thai, feel free to help me out.

Congrats to all of the other outbound students in my district, and a special thanks to the Airdrie Rotary club, and Rotary district 5360

Here are a few beautiful pictures of Thailand

Dead Lines.

Wow, I really need to learn to not waste all of my time.

 After being accepted late, I have five days to finish my application, all I have done so far is fill my name in. I still have eighteen pages of application, plus a letter to write. I feel like I am really far in over my head. Between production, dance, school and this application I barely have time to breath, and  I am about to explode. Looks like I wont be sleeping for the next few days. Hopefully things will get easier and I will learn how not to procrastinate.

*note to future exchange students, dont waste any time. Ever.