So I spent so much time trying to tell you everything about my trip and now I am super-duper behind on my everyday things I really want to talk about! Firstly I just want to say that I’m doing well and I’m happy and I am learning more than I could ever have hoped to learn !

Lets start with January 11^th – National Children’s day in Thailand

On Children’s day I joined my Rotary club at one of the local sports grounds and handed out sweets and toys and toothbrushes and food and pretty much anything you can imagine to little kids. They explained to me that the children are the future of the country and that they should have a day that is all about them and where they get nice things all day because it is important for them to know we appreciate them and I think this is such a nice idea! It started getting hot from really early and by 8:30 everybody was there and we were ready to start. It was amazing and overwhelming all at once but something I will never forget.

I had a Midterm break from the 13^th to the 21^st of January and I made the best of it! On the 13^th I went to Bangkok with my host mom and had one of the best days ever but unfortunately I can’t tell u about it :p politics are a big NO… On the 14^th I went to my first Thai wedding and got to hang out with Momo for most of the night so it was lots of fun. The 17^th was a day that will be stuck in my brain for a long time!! I spent the day with one of the Rotarians in my club who has an extremely important husband so we had a police escort to take us to lunch in Bangkok, something I have never ever experienced before is the feeling u get when everybody moves out of the way and you just pass through… All of that just for lunch, it was something that very few people experience and I felt very lucky. On the 19^th I went to a real flouting market with my host family and found out that the pictures were not lying. It is really a market with anything and everything but its all on water and everyone has long sticks to hand things around and receive things and there was SO MUCH FOOD! I thought about my mom the whole time because I knew that was one of the things she really wanted me to see.  Then it was back to school

On the 26^th I went to Ampawha flouting market with 3 other exchange students. Ampawha is the tourist flouting market and I was really disappointed because it was nothing like the local market I went to, this was a normal market with a river in the middle and you get to take little boat rides. I guess it would be great if you did not know any better and right there I realised once again how lucky I am to be part of everyday life in Thailand because the things I get to see are so much better than the tourist attractions! I still had a great day with my friends and to say we ate a lot would be a understatement, you just cannot do anything in Thailand without food being a big part of it and I admit my jeans are not agreeing with that part of Thailand. We took a bout tour off all the temples along the river and fit 6 people into a thuk-thuk that I think is made for 3 at most just had a great time as usual.

The 31^th was Chinese New year and I went with my host mom and host sister to a small town 3 hours from where I live to celebrate with family. They taught me how to fold gold paper into many different shapes and forms and it took more than an hour before I asked what the papers would be used for and I was not very impressed when they told me we were going to burn them… but it made sense later! So all the children of the whole family come to one house and bring 10 00000 types of food with them, all the food is then placed on one big table and you pray to your ancestors and passed relatives and thank them for protecting you and being there and you hope everything is okay with them and so on. Then you leave the food there because the ancestors will eat from it first. After that we burnt fake money, jewellery, clothing, electronics and the gold papers we folded and they believe that the smoke will rise to their ancestors and bring them good fortune. They made small little piles around the big one and explained that the small piles were for the people who don’t have families so they would also be looked after in the afterlife or something witch I think is a very nice gesture. When everything was burnt we went back into the house and ate all the food to ensure we had good luck for the year to come. When we got back home the other side of the family was waiting with more food and the money exchange started, all the adults give the children money because they believe that if you get money on the very first day of the year you will be wealthy for the rest of the year (I have my fingers crossed that is works!!!). At the end of the night we all played cards, some made money and some lost money but it was a great night and I am so great full to have been part of it.

The next day we went to Hua Hin and made a few stops along the way that I really enjoyed because everything was so beautiful! Late that night I put my feet in the ocean for the very first time!! The 2^nd of Februar y we went to the beach and I had so much fun!! Me and 3 of my host cousins spent hours in the water and I still cannot get over how beautiful the beach was! We played a game called Banana bout were u sit on an inflatable banana shaped thing that’s being pulled by a guy on a jet ski and the objective of the game is to stay on the bout, needless to say we fell of painfully a few times only to break out in laughter. Unforgettable day!