Nothing really big happened in the last while.. I changed host families and I am very very happy where I am now and started with school again. I am really happy to be back at school again because I really missed my crazy friends J

Most of my exchange friends are leaving and going back to their home countries and that breaks my heart because I don’t want to lose them! You leave your family you have known forever for one year and then you leave your friends you have known for 10 months for forever. Very hard thing to do believe me, but I just keep faith that I will see them again.

So today my post will be about you know you are a Thai exchange student when…

I am going to start with school because it seems like you spend 80% of your exchange at school. I go to school from 7:30 to 3:20 5 days a week and some days it’s amazing and some days it’s horrible but I would not give up my friends for anything in the world

You know you are a Thai exchange student when…

–          When you get used to sleeping at school because you have nothing better to do

–          When you start mumbling the words to the morning prayers you need to stand through every morning even though you don’t know what you’re saying

–          When you get used to people saying “my name is?” instead of What is your name?

–          When you think you school has the best food in the world

–          When every English teacher in the school asked you for your opinion

–          When students ask you the weirdest questions in the world like you know everything in the world and don’t understand when you don’t know the answer

–          When you get used to absolute madness in classrooms

Next are people because well, you spend all day everyday surrounded by Thai people. They are so strange but so friendly and you get used to seeing their love in things like the food they make for you and not normal tokens of affection.

You know you are a Thai exchange student when…

–          When you get used to people saying things that would be considered very rude in your country

–          When you say Ka/Krap when people speak without thinking about it

–          When you are used to people taking 20 million pictures a day

–          When you expect people to be at least 20 min late to everything

–          When seeing 4 people on one scooter seems normal

–          When politics being part of almost every conversation seems normal to you

–          When you get used to not getting any hugs for people

–          When you get used to people being SO VERY loud

Food is something you just need to mention when you are on exchange in Thailand. When you think of Thailand you think of food and that’s just the way it is

You know you are a Thai exchange student when…

–          When you get used to eating all day everyday

–          When you get used to everything being 3X sweeter than it should be

–          When you say all types of food are good and you only say it’s very good if it’s actually good

–          When you get used to the fact that you have spicy food for breakfast

–          When you go to rotary meetings only because you know they have good food

–          When you are okay with the fact that you don’t always know what you are eating

–          When you easily eat food you never would of risked eating before you came to Thailand

Last I have just got some weird things I noticed and they might not even really make sense unless you are a Thai exchange student but they are all very true

You know you are a Thai exchange student when…

–          When you are used to smiling and nodding pretending you understand what people are saying

–          When you can sleep anywhere in any position

–          When spending the tinniest amount of money seems like spending a fortune

–          When you feel strange if you walk into a room with your shoes on

–          When you get used to people staring and pointing (or having a fan club as my friends call it) at you just because you are not Asian

–          When you get excited about seeing other foreigners  or hearing people speak English

–          When you start thinking 24°C requires a jacket

–          When you start walking around with your own toilet paper knowing the bathrooms won’t have

–          When you look for any reason to see the other exchange students

–          When you get used to wondering what people are saying about you

–          When it seems normal that people seem stuck to their cell phones

All these things took some time to get used to and I’m not sure if you can ever fully get used to them but I do know for sure that I will miss some of these things when I go back to my home country.

The story of my aunt and uncle coming to Thailand should start on the 27^th of April but actually it starts on the 26^th. I decided to go to bed early to have lots of energy the next day to make the best of my family being in Thailand. I went to bed at 9 and started thinking of what we were going to do and going to see and everything I needed to do and take them to see and things I should remember and 10 came and 11 came and 12 came and by now I was thinking about things like how they drink their coffee and if they packed flip flops and if they could sleep on the plane. Then I tried counting sheep and then I tried listening to classical music and somewhere close to 1 I finally fell asleep. Then I had to wake up at 3 AM and get dressed and ready and start going to the airport at 4. When I got to the airport I got some coffee and went to International arrivals and waited and waited and waited and I didn’t see my family. After a while I went to go and ask if there was more than one gate they could be and the lady told me that there were 2 gates but that everybody had to pass through the gate where I was waiting to get out but I know my family and I know they will be waiting for me right where they get out of the gate so I decided to walk to there and I was right they were waiting right there. When I got to hug my aunt for the first time in 5 months I could not help but start crying tears of happiness and relief. We got some coffee and then headed back to their hotel. It was the most amazing feeling to get to sit in the car with them and be able to answer their questions as we were driving and showing them a little bit of my world. They unpacked and changed their clothing because they realised just how hot it actually was and then we went to the royal palace for a few minutes and then we got a tuk-tuk to take us to the mall for breakfast. Seeing my uncle’s face in that tuk-tuk is something I will never forget even the driver was laughing at him and I realised for the first time (there would be many more times) that I was used to the things they find new and amazing. We had to walk around in the city for a while because the shopping malls were not open yet but I got to show them the magic shop called 7 eleven. Then we went to get some breakfast and they had traditional fried rice breakfast for their first breakfast in Thailand. Then I took them to Amarin centre to see the market where everything is handmade and all the proceeded go to the local people and they got to try Aunty Anne’s Sweet Pretzels and loved it! We then went to MBK centre and they got their first look of just how big shopping centres in Thailand are and how many things you can buy around every corner. My aunt went for a message/facial and me and my uncle got a chance to talk. It’s amazing to me how much I missed having real long conversations in which I can say what I think and how I feel and actually understand what the other person is saying and having a common back round to relate to having people we both know we could refer to. I never realised how much I miss that until I had that conversation with my uncle. Then we went to dinner and I ordered traditional foods for them to try and they liked most of them but hated others and it was nice to see they felt the same about the food as I do. At dinner we saw a really drunk group of people next to us and got to talk about them and they didn’t even know. Oh how I missed Afrikaans. Sadly they day had to come to an end and I went home. The next morning after their horrible night at the hotel we went to the airport and I had to say goodbye and they went to Phuket. Then I went back to the city to see my friends and got to meet Nikolai for the first time. The next day a whole group of exchange students got to spend the day together and it was most of the most amazing days in Thailand ever  simple things make a very big difference and I don’t think that is a day I will ever forget. On the 2^nd of May my aunt and uncle came back from Phuket but I did not see them because it was at night but I saw them early the next morning because it was my uncle’s birthday!! And everything he said on his birthday goes. We went to breakfast and then went swimming on the roof of the hotel. And ate sweets and talked and watched tv in the hotel room until it was time to go to dinner and I took them to a Danish restaurant and we had great food. After eating we went to an Australian pub, let me just say it is so fun to support your team in another country even if they arnt playing that well you just feel so proud and want everybody to know you are supporting them (and believe me everybody did know because my uncle is South African and loud) we watched Rugby and talked until it was time for me to go home. The next day my host mom arranged a car for us to take us into the country side of Thailand were I have exchange friends and my family would get to see a different side of Thailand. The driver could speak no English at all and my Thai is very limited so im still surprised that we made it there and back but I told him we wanted to go to the tiger temple and after a 3 hour drive we got to a really temple with a tiger statue and not the temple that had tigers. Luckily I had my phone and Google maps helped us with the hour drive to where we actually wanted to be and at least they got to see a nice temple. When we got to where we wanted to be we were just in time to see the whole tiger show and it was more than amazing!! We got to see all the tigers and take pictures with them and walk with the and see how they live and it was just something that not a lot of people ever get to do and I am so grateful that we could and I will never forget it but something that would of made it so much better is if it wasn’t 42°C. it was so so hot and being in-between all  the mountains made it so much more humid and hot and im pretty sure we almost melted but it was an unforgettable experience and im so glad I got to share it with my family. After that we called my exchange friends and they gave us a name of a really nice local place we could meet them for lunch and the prices were less than half of what you pay in Bangkok and so much more and so much better and im so glad I could show that to my family. Then we met my friends Ryan and Frederik and they stayed with my uncle while me and my aunt went to get a traditional Thai message. My aunt and uncle had what they thought was a Thai message in Phuket and I wanted to prove that what they had was not a traditional Thai message so me and my aunt got changed into our message outfits and the message started. Through the whole message I kept looking at my aunt and seeing her facial expressions and I kept wishing I could see my uncle get a Thai message because I am pretty such I would almost die of laughter. A traditional Thai message hurts anybody can tell you that but you feel so amazing afterwards when you are drinking your sweet Thai tea. We tried getting my uncle to go but sadly he said he didn’t wanna be our clown. Then we joined the other people and just talked for hours, going up and down the streets to different places sitting down having something to drink and talking and I am so happy that I could show my family Thailand out of my friend’s perspective and not just mine and show them a different side of Thailand that not many tourist get to see. We only got home very late so we all slept in the next morning and then I went to show my family other parts of Bangkok and they got to use the subway and had some awful coconut ice cream and walked around eating until it was time to go to my house for dinner with my host mom. Having dinner with my host mom in my house with my family was really strange and great at the same time but I was so happy that they could see my family and try my host moms food and see that I am okay. On the morning of the 6^th it was such a nice rainy day and we went to Amarin centre again and had Auntie Anne’s for the last time and walked around talking. Then we went back to the awful hotel they were living in and packed and had some problems with the hotel that were really bad but my uncle just has a way of making everything so funny that I was crying of laughter. Then we went to get something to eat and had to walk in the rain a little and decided to get lunch at our favourite restaurant at the same table we had been sitting all week and talked and laughed and saw the weirdest couple in the whole world and im sure the people around us thought we were crazy because you could see me and my aunt crying and then laughing and then crying again. Saying goodbye to them sucked so much but it also gave me the motivation to get through the rest of the year quickly so that I can get back to them and the rest of my family. There were so many moments that I will always remember but there is just no way in the world I could ever explain it on paper. It was a very very special week of my exchange because I got to share it with them.

On the ninth day we woke up and took our last ice cold shower and then we went to see a waterfall in between the mountains and some of us climbed over the railing and went to sit with our feet in the water and it’s like we started something because then so many tourists started doing it. Beto made me laugh as usual when he asked me: “Janique do you think the water is less today because of the dam we built yesterday” gosh I love him and his stupid questions! We spent about an hour at the waterfall playing with the water and just spending time together. After that we got into our vans again and drove to Chiang Mai, then we stopped at a really nice hotel and after being in the mountains for so many days we felt very out of place but that feeling soon changed into a feeling of excitement when we saw all the food we could pick from and after having exchange student made food for 3 days believe me when I say each one of us had about 3 plates of food! When we finished eating a few of us got up and went to sit next to the pool talking about normal things like shaving the hair on your toes… out of nowhere David and Ryan jumped into the pool with all their clothes on and shortly after we were all told to get away from the pool but it was fun while it lasted. We made our way to our hotel and then we got a briefing about what we should do and not do at Songkran festival. So Songkran festival is Thai New Year where they throw each other with water and wash away the past year to be clean for the year to come. Chiang mai where we were is where the biggest celebration in Thailand with almost 350 000 people is held. We left the Hotel at 2 and they told us to meet again at 6. When we started walking in the street there was really not so many people and I think most of us were quite disappointed, but then we turned a corner and all of a sudden there were thousands upon thousands of people and we only had to walk a few feet before we were soaking wet and let me just say we found out with a shock that most people use ice water!! Then most of us got buckets of white clay mixed with water that you smear on people and that was a lot of fun to attack your friends with! We walked and walked until we found a spot where they had great music and a steady supply of cold water and then just decided to stay there and start a war with the people across the street. It’s hard to explain what this festival is like if you don’t experience it for yourself, there are so any people around you and it’s just water everywhere it’s so loud that you can’t think, you see your friends faces in between all of these strangers but everybody is laughing and everybody is having fun and helping each other and all of a sudden it doesn’t matter where you are from, who your friends are, if you know the people around you nothing matters, it’s like a few hours of an absolute feeling of not having a care in the world and its only afterword that you realise how amazing that feeling was. Wish I could have that feeling all the time! At about 4 we met up with some of the exchange students from the other districts and decided to walk a bit down the road again and see what we can find, when we had walked for a while we found a foam party and decided to join the fun, we almost drowned in bubbles and my nose and ears were burning and I could not see or breath and there are just people all around you and you can hardly move but you are jumping around and singing and you have your arms around your friends shoulders and if you are not there you can never understand the pure pleasure you feel.  When it was almost 6 we made our way to the MacDonald’s where we needed to meet and we went to sit on the second floor with SO MANY BURGERS AND CHIPS and made a big circle and just ate and ate until the rest of the people came and we went back to the hotel to get dressed and go to dinner. For dinner we went to a steak house and then we split into two groups one group that wanted to go to the night market and one group that just wanted to wonder around in the city. I was in the group that just wanted to wonder around the city and see what we can find to do. We met up with people for the other district again spent time with them until we realised we had to literally run back to the hotel to make it back before curfew. We made it back at 11:58 with 2 minutes to spare and when we sat in the lobby to see that everybody made it back it hit most of us how many days we had gone without proper sleep and how busy our day had been and when we got the go ahead to go to our rooms I took a shower and passed out.  The “last day” of the tour we had most of the day free to go to the festival again but we did not want to even try and make the second day meet the first days standards so we decided to skip that and go to the big shopping centre and spend some time together eating Japanese food followed by Pizza just talking about the trip and being together. I decided to leave that group of people and go and meet up with the other group of people at the old Chinese market and we ate bugs and did some shopping. Then we had to go back to the Hotel where we all had to meet before we go to the train station and we fit 10 people into a tiny tiny car and laughed the whole drive back at how crazy we are to fit 10 people into a car. We got to the hotel and got our bags then we got into the bus and made our way to the train station. When we got there we out all of our bags in one place took a few group photos bought a lot of sweets and stuff to drink and then waited for the train. We found out with a shock that our train car did not have an air con so we open the windows as far as they could open turned the fans into high and tried not to move to much so we won’t get hot. Everybody started sending their countries flags around letting all the other exchange students write little messages on them and then the huge groups started again of everybody fitting into one small space when there is more than enough space everywhere else but we all want to be together. When we decided to go to bed we each had a bunk to sleep in and I took the bottom bunk closed the curtain on the isle side and opened the window just enough to let the wind cool me down and fell asleep. At 3 AM I woke up to thunder and rain and as crazy as it sounds I just kept lying there looking at the sky light up every few seconds leave the window open a little bit letting the rain come in because it just felt to cold and peaceful and I stayed like that until I fell asleep again. That morning when we woke up its like everybody just knew it was the day we had to say goodbye and the whole mood on the train was just sad, people crying here and there, hugs and holding hands and it was so sad but there was so much love in the room/train car. We got to Bangkok and had to wait for the next train so we went to get lunch together. We left all the Rotary members and the Thai students at the train station and just went as a group. We wanted it to be just us and we all crammed into one mini bus thing and put on a song that we all knew and we all sang together and cried a little while we smiled and sang. Then we had lunch and went back to the train station. We all just sat around talking until the last second when we started saying goodbye. The feeling you get when you know you will never see some of these people again is one of the saddest things I have ever felt, the bond between exchange students is something that can never be explained to anybody else they are the only people who really know what you are going through what you had to deal with and how you feel and they are what keep you going at certain points. You build friendships and relationships for 16 years and leave it for 10 months but you build friendships and relationships for 10 months and leave it forever, which one is harder? Needless to say we all cried a lot a lot a lot and getting on the train and going away from most of the other people as we all go the different parts of Thailand sucks. Then we got to Nakhon Pathom and said goodbye to the people close to us that we knew we would see again so that was not that hard and then we went home… and just like that the last trip was over. A million memories over such a short period of time

The sixth day of the tour was possibly one of the best days of my life and surely one of the best days of my exchange! In the morning we drove to an elephant camp and saw an elephant show when we got there where we saw elephant’s paint better painting than I could but it really bothered me when I saw how they treated the elephants and the Rotary did warn us before we went that they always get complaints from the exchange students but they can promise us the elephants aren’t actually hurt they just need to control them because they are so big and accidents can happen, but still I felt sorry for them! I got picked up by an elephant trunk and I thought I would be too heavy so that was quite cool! After that we went ox-cart riding followed by riding elephants!! Me and Noemie rode on one elephant while 2 of our best friends Frederik and Ryan rode on the one just in front of us and naturally that became a competition to see who had the best elephant (mine won can I just say) we walked down a hillside and through a river and trough a forest and the whole time I kept thinking how amazing and cliché it is to be riding elephants in the forest in Thailand and I LOVED IT. Our walk ended at a part of the river where the river was quite deep and quite wide and most of the elephants got taken back to their camps but a few stayed with us. We got brushes and the elephants sat/laid down so we could “scrub” them with the brushes. Can I just say how nervous this whole scene made me! I kept looking for my younger friends and telling them to watch out and not stand there and move away and be careful because the elephants could roll over or stand up or sit on you and it was all too much for me to handle! But out of nowhere one of the other exchange students Claire came to me and gave me a hug and told me “I think you can take a few minutes off from being everybody’s exchange mom and have some fun” and just when she finished talking one elephant pooped right in the water where everybody was standing and you just saw everybody running in different directions covered in elephant poop and I calmed down and joined everybody else. I got to sit on the bare back of an elephant and wash his ears, something I will never forget. After a while of just sitting around in the river and playing with the elephants we started an elephant poop fight and had sooo much fun, needless to say we attracted quite a crowd when some of the other visitors of the camp noticed what we were throwing at each other but we did care we had a great time. We then got split into groups and we got onto bamboo rafts and started going down the river, my raft had Etienne, Ryan, Frederik, Anya, David and me. Anya stayed on the raft but the rest of us decided that as soon as we were out of sight of the other rafts we got off the raft and swam next to raft and flouted in the water and steered the raft ourselves and laid in the sun for a while and just made the very best of our 2 hour raft ride. All the other people had such a normal rafting ride, stayed on the raft, looked at the scenery and dried off but not us, and I adore that quality in my friends! When we got to our stop we got back into vans and made our way to a hotel where we had such a great dinner and then went to bed early.

The next day we drove very deep into the mountains to Mae Kampong home stay. When we got there we got grouped into groups of 4 and then sent to our traditional host families. When we got to the host houses we were all in awe of how truly traditional their way of living was. The house I lived in only had electricity in one room and the whole house was made out of wood with the bathroom on the lower floor in the corner and a lowered area on the living room floor where fires are made  and great views of the mountains and the rest of the village and I really liked it. We got an hour to get dressed and meet our families and then we went on a hike in the mountains. I did most of the hike with Etienne and Claire and Etienne sang for most of the hike and I so love listening to him sing and make jokes so what would have been a really long hike was actually bare able and memorable because of simple singing memories. We stopped about half way up and learnt how to make rice in bamboo sticks and things you could find in the environment and sat on the jungle floor and ate lunch packed by our host families running away from huge bugs every 5 minutes. We then finished the second half of the walk and got to the mountain top where we took 100 000 pictures and ate watermelon and then we had to walk down the mountain again and we walked well into the night with no flashlights so that was a scary and great experience but the day was filled with great small things.

On the 8^th day of the trip we went to the highest point in Thailand at 2565 Meters and we got to walk through an elderly rainforest where we decided to play Ninja and got into trouble 3 times for making a noise, but I wish I could explain to you guys how big the smile on my face is right now because things like that are exactly why I love these people. We went down the mountain a little big for lunch and then we went hiking in another area of the mountains in the view from those mountains were so amazing and the different types of jungle we saw in one area was so cool. When we got to the summit point Frederik and Fran (after making sure the exchange students were the only people on the mountain) they decided they wanted that one crazy, insane, memorable exchange year photo and stripped right there in front of all of us and got p’Kong to take a picture from behind of the summit point, the view, beautiful dry grass and their lovely white bums, arms in the air and im sure if we could see their faces they would have a huge smile on their crazy faces. After the strip show we made our way down the mountain again and let me just add the whole day so far had been about 15degrees but we had been walking so much that it just felt like perfect chilly weather. But we sat down and had some hot instant noodles while talking about football. Then we drove to another remote lodge if you can call it that and had dinner repaired by exchange students followed by a walk to the river I the dark and then a camp fire (mostly made by me because Europeans suck at making a camp fires) and we just sat outside in the chilly weather talking until the morning hours.

The next day after 3 hours of sleep it was my teams turn to make breakfast for everybody else so we made 250 pieces of French toast and 60 hotdogs (still in the plastic because it was 5 in the morning and we were tired) and a lot of fruit. All and all we did pretty well except for the hotdogs. Then we went to a local primary school in the mountains and got dived into groups to clean separate parts of the school and paint and donate things to make it a little better for the poor kids. My team and another team got sent to the bathrooms and the areas around the bathrooms. We cleaned in a focused manner for about an hour after witch we started a water and soup war and had lots of fun except for the fact that you could see through my shirt so for my own sake I did what I could to get everybody back to work! The whole time we were working I kept thinking about how many school like that one we had in South Africa and how they could benefit from something like that.  When we finished our work we went to play with the little kids but I saw how horrible the main wall we painted looked so I grabbed the paint and tried to do what I could to make it look a bit better, Miri and Emily and Isabel saw what I was doing and came to help me, we were still sitting in front of that wall more than an hour after everybody else had left and I’m sorry to say it did not look a whole lot better but we did what we could, we wanted it to look good for those kids. Finally we decided that we had done everything we could do and went back to the lodge for lunch. After lunch we were handed big plastic/fabric industrial bags and shovels and got sent to the river. On our way we stopped at a strawberry farm and got to eat some of the fresh strawberries straight of the plants, delicious!  After getting stuck in the mud a few times we got to the part of the river where the water was quite low and (about hip depth) and got divided into 3 groups A. the people who had to shovel sand into the big bags B. the people who had to stand in the river and hand over the sand bags in a row C. the people who had to stand in the river and look for rocks and start to form the wall that we were building in the river to try and bring the water level up to help the plants and animals in the area. We had such an unexpectedly great time trying to build this dam in the river and felt so great when we got the water level up to about shoulder height! We then walked back to the lodge to dry off and then had dinner. After dinner we ones again made a fire and sat there for a while but then about 20 of us all went to one room pilled in onto the two little beds and watched a movie!

I once again only got 3 hours of sleep, but on these tours it’s like you used all the built-up extra sleep you  got over the years and you find a way to make the best of every single day because you know you only have so many days and so many hours with these people and you don’t want to waste you limited hours on sleep!

It’s been a few days since I got back from my second trip, the last trip I had with my group of exchange students. The trip was 10 days long and I enjoyed every second!

On the 4^th of April I stayed at my YEO’s house in Nakhon Pathom to be closer to the train station because I needed to be at the train station at 8 AM on the morning of the 5^th. I always have the best time when I go to her house! Her family is so amazing and her little nephew is just the cutest little thing ever so I love spending time at their house.

On the morning of the 5^th I got the news in typical Thai style that we were not meeting at the train station but now meeting at the temple because we are taking a van and not the train! We got there took some group photos and then we left for Bangkok. Then we got dropped off at the Train station in Bangkok and I don’t know if the bus driver thought we could not speak Thai or he thought we knew where to go from there but we all just kind of stood there for 20 min looking around and laughing because we had no clue what to do. Finally we had a brainwave to just call the trip organiser and he just told us to go inside and look around we will see people we know. So yeah we stood outside confused and laughing when all we needed to do was go inside pure genius right :p . we got inside met up with more of our friends and then went to buy ice-cream  for breakfast because that has become a Bangkok tradition for us. Then we had the day free to walk around in Bangkok. After taking 30 min to convince our Rotex babysitters that we would be fine going to the other side of Bangkok on our own I became the tour guide because I live in Bangkok and I took my friends to a great little Danish restaurant I found a while ago.  When we got there the Danish people in our group freaked out because they saw Danish people and her Danish and read Danish and ordered Danish food for all of us, when the food came they made us all wait until everybody had food and then explained how we should eat it! We sat there for 3 hours just talking and eating and laughing and catching up. Simple memories like that that I will always remember and cherish. After that we went to the big mall and looked at very nice cars followed by coffee from Starbucks.  We then went back to the train station and waited for our bus to come. We got into the bus and started watching movies because we had a 14 hour drive.

The next morning we arrived in ChiangMai, tired, dirty and excited. We took a quick shower and got dressed and got put into our groups, we would stay in those groups for the rest of the trip. Then we were off to a temple on a hill with 306 stairs to the entrance and we walked 3 times around the temple for good luck and almost died of heat. And if we didn’t die of heat we would of died of laughter because Frederik was saying the most horrible things in broken Spanish he had learnt on the bus and telling people he was wishing them good luck in his language, priceless. After that we went to a umbrella making place where they make the umbrella from trees. They use the wood for the handle and mash up the roots and leaves to make a type of paper and then paint on it. We each got a umbrella and got to paint it ourselves in a competition to see who could make the best one.

Right before dinner I squeezed in a few minutes in-between getting dressed and doing my hair to call my baby sister who turned 15!! She was sick and down and  was not nice at all! But at least I got to talk to her. We went to dinner at a traditional northern Thailand restaurant with great food and a traditional dancing show. After dinner we had free time to walk around the city and go to the night markets. Its amazing to me how we hardly slept at all the previous night but we all had energy o walk around night markets at 11 PM. We met some people from other Rotary districts and spent some time with them then went back to the hotel and went to bed!

On the 7^th we went to a natural hot spring. The Highest hot spring in Thailand and we got to just sit around with our feet in the hot water. They had like 3 water pools, one for taking pictures with, one for sitting around with your feet in it and one for boiling eggs in. THAT’S HOW HOT THE WATER IS. I thought it was kind of weird and I didn’t like the idea of putting my feed in the bacteria boiler but did it anyway. After 2 of my friends slipped and fell in we decided to get out and eat Roti instead.

–Let me take a minute to explain to everyone why I am getting fat in Thailand, one word ROTI. Its like a thin dough that the stretch out and then form a square with, they make 2 of them and them fry them in sweet oil and then place them of a medium heat pan and put blocks of sweet butter on them and let the butter melt and then sprinkle sugar on followed by condensed milk along with ether chocolate or milo or strawberry or just plain. They then wrap it into cylinder and you eat it… and its like R2… getting fat explained—

After lunch we went to the white temple called Wat Rong Khun. This is the one temple I just needed to see from the time I found out I was coming to Thailand so I was super super excided. When we got there you could see it from afar and I was SOOO excited. After actually seeing it I don’t really know how I feel about it, don’t get me wrong it is so so beautiful and designed perfectly and the details are amazing but it is so dark (weird for a white temple I know) filled with weird and evil images and the inside is covered with paintings of things that need to be taken of the earth before it can be pure and those paintings really upset me. So I was disappointed but it was beautiful none the less. At 4 PM we went to the golden triangle where Thailand-Myanmar-Laos meet all along one river. We were sitting on a little boat doing a tour of the river and we were talking about what would happen if we were taken hostage by one of these dodgy countries and they demanded a ransom from our home countries. I could not stop laughing after they said my country would leave me there. We went to Laos for a few hours to do shopping and then we went to our hotel and had a small orientation with the outbound students telling them about our countries and the do’s and don’ts in our countries. We then had a camp fire and sat around all night talking and singing. It is amazing to me how all of the exchange students only met a few months ago but we all fit together so perfectly and effortlessly and we all just go together so well. I will never in my life be able to explain how amazing it is to have friends like this. Friends that I so easily would never of had because we are all from different countries but I simply cannot imagine my life without them in it now.

On the 8^th we went to Mae Sai the most northern tip of Thailand and then crossed into Myanmar for a few hours of shopping. Once again I love my friends so much. We didn’t really buy anything we just walked around in and out of shops singing and making jokes and playing with things in the shops and there is never a dull moment and I would not want it any other way. At lunch we decided to provide the restaurant with some exchange student entertainment and performed the cup song with glass cups and about 8 people doing the cups, 4 people singing and the rest clapping. Needless to say we attracted a crowd but I will never ever forget that moment!

In the afternoon we visited an orange plantation and me and Miri found a little baby rat and named him Albert. We walked around the orange plantation for a while and then took a lot of crazy pictures and then left for our home stay.

Let me just tell you that we spent many many many hours in vans on this tour and I had the good/bad fortune (im not so sure witch one) of being in a van full of guys the whole trip… The conversations I became a part of on this trip will forever be stuck in my brain and believe it or not I had the most amazing time and not a moment went by without us laughing about something.

I will do the next part of the trip in my next blog post 🙂

sorry a munk got holy water on my lens and I could not get it off so some of the pictures are very blurry …

So the last 2 weeks have been more than great. I feel myself losing track of days and by that I mean I stop counting days and just enjoy days. It’s very hard to try and explain what’s going in my brain because I don’t quite understand it myself, I guess it’s just what happens when you sit with your own thoughts for too long with nobody who you can really have a proper conversation with or somebody you trust enough to share your thoughts. So the first few months were very hard for me, but the last 3 weeks actually I stopped counting days… progress I think J

On the 13^th of March I was in Thailand for exactly 100 days and I spent the day with my older host sister P’meeu in Paragon mall in Bangkok. We took the sky train to get there and then her and her friend went job hunting and I walked around unsure of what I would do to keep myself busy. After walking around 10 million stores and floors I could never afford I decided I would treat myself to Burger King and Starbucks 😀 it was the first time I had either of those two things and I must say there is nothing special about ether of them but just be there and being part of that experience was enough for me and I had a great time on my own.

Let me just start by saying without sounding mean, Thai people SUCK at making plans and informing me of the half made plans! It might be the language barrier but dear greatness 99% of the time I have no clue of what’s going on. On the 16th of March I had one of the best day/night of my exchange so far. I was told I would be climbing a mountain with my Rotary club president and a few other people but that they would pick me up at 6 PM. A strange time to climb a mountain I know…  But I got dressed and ready to climb the mountain anyway. 6 PM came and gone and by 7 I decided the plans must have just changed and had dinner with the family. Then my host mom asked me if my bag was packed? (This is where I really got confused and asked 10 million questions and still did not understand) I figured out that I would only be gone for 1 night so I went upstairs and packed everything you would need for 1 night and 1 day. When the president showed up at 8 she asked why I had a bag with me and the confusedness continued because I thought I needed one but once again nothing could be explained to me. When we got into the mini bus she hired for us and her 3 friends she told me I should try and sleep for a few hours she would wake me up when we got there. Needless to say CONFUSION continued. I could not fall asleep not matter how hard I tried I kept thinking about how I had no idea what was going on so I turned on a little light on the roof and read my book for a few hours until we stopped at a what looked like a market just before midnight. Then I was really just clueless as to what was going on because there was like 200 people at this market at midnight?? Then we sat down and ordered food and I kept thinking: “normally I would be sleeping right now, why am I awake and eating at a market with 200 other people?”  after we ate we went to a tiny shop next to the road still in the market and bought tiny little coloured stones according to the animal you were born under and the day of the week you were born on and I tried my best with fingers crossed to give them the right answers to try and figure out what colour stones I need. After about 15 min we left with our stones and our flower petals and got onto the back of a pick-up truck. This was the first time I actually realised we were going to climb the mountain right now at 1 Am… As we sat on the back of the pick-up truck more and more people got on until there was about 10 people on the back and 5 people in the front. We then started making our way up the first part of the mountain. I soon realised that the driver did not care about safety nearly as much as he worried about getting the next group of people as quickly as possible. We drove up a very small dirt road that was steeper than any road I had ever driven on that was leading up the mountain with cars going up and down at crazy speeds and missing each other by centimetres. The very first then that went through my mind was MY MOM WOULD KILL ME IF SHE KNEW WHAT I WAS DOING! For the first probably 10 min I kept freaking out in my head about how my mom would never allow this, how she would have a heart attack if she could see this, how she would make me get off right now! After freaking out and being scared out of my mind I started to realise how fun this actually was, how much I loved the chilly night air, how much I loved the sound of the engine struggling up the hill how much I enjoyed holding on so tight I had blue marks on the arms the next day. I loved it. Then we needed to change cars 1/3 up the mountain at a place I called the largest collection of Toyota Hilux’s in the world (I thought of my uncle Le Sueur immediately) there must have been 200 of them standing around there and another 50 driving around!! We changed and did faze 2/3 of the terrifyingly fun car ride. Then we got to a set of stairs, I guess this is where it really gets too steep for the pick-up trucks and even too steep to walk normally because whole trail was just stairs… We got to the top at 2 AM and made our way to the great rock witch they believe flouts in mid-air because it doesn’t touch the ground on any of the side’s right around. So the believe it’s the birth place of one of the Buddha’s. you also can not see all the way to the other side so I just let them have their belief while knowing there is a rock somewhere in the middle keeping it up … The president then went to meditate for 2 hours and I kept myself awake by eating random things they were selling. We made our way down the mountain and got to the minivan and I watched the sunrise and then went to sleep because I had not slept in about 29 hours…  After 3 hours of sleep they woke me BECAUSE WE WERE AT THE BEACH. It was the complete opposite direction of my house but I never complain about going to the beach. We had breakfast in Pattaya and then went to the largest botanical garden in Asea and walked around and took pictures in the scorching heat. After a very long very hot sleep deprived day  we went home and I slept the whole way got home got into bed and slept some more. It was so much fun and I had the best time even if I was deadly tired.

-just a quick note I just had dinner with my family and the food was sooooo gooooood-

On the 21^st of March I went to stay with my Rotary counsellor  P’Nong and her family for a few days so that I could meet a girl called Veronica from the US who was an exchange student in my club 2 years ago and came back to visit! We went shopping, got our hair done, went to the wax museum, got our nails done, gave a tour of the city to a old German couple, ate sooo much more than we should have, went to morning and night markets and spent hours playing with the little baby of the family. I love that family so much and I love spending time with them you just laugh, eat and have fun all day everyday even if you’re not doing anything .

Im having the time of my life that’s all I can say. And I am so grateful for every single thing I get and do because I know how lucky and blessed I am.

Fingers crossed that I get the language down soon !!!!

February went by quicker than I can ever explain it’s like when you just want to close your eyes for 5 min and wake up 4 hours later! I “finished” the 11^th grade, renewed my visa, saw a super-hot guy at the embassy, ate a lot of pizza, watched tons of movies and went to a few weddings. I have officially decided I want a Thai style wedding reception they are just amazing! Thai wedding receptions are so big and so beautiful, and they always have this cute movie of everything leading up to the wedding and a little message from the bride and groom and the most amazing pictures and I think it is so so cute to have something like that for everybody to watch. Also I won’t mind all the gifts they get #justsaying :p I always meet Momo at weddings and we also sit at the back and eat and eat and have a great time so I don’t mind the huge amount of weddings I go to, also I get to dress up and feel pretty for a night and that’s always a bonus. My Rotary clubs president’s daughter got married on the 28^th of February and my YEO got me the most beautiful dress made out of Thai Silk and I felt like a queen in that dress I am so lucky.

On the 3^rd of March I hit my 3 month mark and changed host families on the 4th! I now live with P’earn and her family they have the most beautiful house (honestly my dream house) and they are such nice people so I think I will be very happy here. On the 6^th of March I and 10 other woman from my Rotary club flew to Surat Thani in the South of Thailand for the Rotary International District 3330 Conference. We got there a day before everybody else so we spent the day eating amazing seafood and watching English Tv (a very rare thing believe me). The next day people started showing up and the fun started! I initially shared a room with my Rotary counsellor until my room become Youth Exchange headquarters because we needed somewhere cold to practise our performance for the next day. 22 exchange students cramped into 1 small room and we had so much fun!! I and 3 of the other exchange students Becca, Brandon and Etienne had solo pieces we needed to sing and we decided that the place to practise would be in the bathroom, the acoustics were great the heat not so much. In the afternoon everybody started going back to their own hotels to get ready for the award night and I went to get my hair done with our stylists that my Rotary club flew in from Bangkok to make sure my club looked their best!! The Award night started and everyone looked their best, we all sat at the back and cheered every time one of our clubs got a prise naturally I and Frederik made a competition of it witch kind of failed when he fell asleep on my lap but my club still won and got the 2^nd most awards of the night –Proud Pra Pathom Chedie Member- . After that most people went back to their hotels but me Noemie, Brandon, Etienne and David walked over to 7 eleven and bought chips and coke and sweets and chicken and juice and sat on the floor of the hotel and had a midnight pick nick. I ended up sharing my room with Noemie and Taylor and had to make beds on the floor but we had fun. We woke up very early the next morning to practise one more time and then it was time for our performance to start and we did the Waka Waka song and dance and I had so much fun being the only African dancing on the song for South Africa!! The performance went well except for me forgetting one of my lines out of pure nervousness but thank goodness Becca stepped right in and saved me and I don’t think anybody even noticed. The rest of the day we had off and we went back to the Hotel room and slept for a few hours before starting to get ready for the country theme night, I was the only exchange student dancing with their club so I got all dressed up and got my hair and makeup done and my counsellor kept on taking pictures feeling like I was her daughter going to prom 😀 they went out of their way to make me feel special and I don’t even have words to say how much I appreciate it! The other exchange students didn’t need to come because they didn’t have to do anything but they all showed up to support me and got on stage to dance with me at the end and once again it amazed me that we could all be that close, I love them so much! After that we went out and walked around at the night market for a hour. Then we all went to Brandon’s room and played games, listened to music and made jokes. After a few hours most people had to go back to their hotels and we went to take a shower. Later that night we went back to Brandon’s room and the 6 of us continued the party, me and Noemie made Brandon and David walk to 7 eleven to buy us food because we were too lazy! The next morning we had to say goodbye and all go back to our cities and everything was fine until I was almost home and realized all the Rotarians are going back to their families and I’m not. That’s when the homesickness hit me hard, they say the 3 month mark is hard and now I know what they mean. You just start to feel comfortable but then you start wondering if you want to be here, if it’s worth it, if you’re missing too much back home, if people are forgetting you,  if the culture is not to different, if your strong enough to do it. It’s like a huge wave of emotion hits you out of nowhere at the most unexpected time and a million things go through your mind and no matter what you do you can’t stop the tears.

I really miss my family and I could do with a proper hug. But I know I’m having a life in a year and every day is special even if they aren’t easy. Stay strong and push through because it is SOOO worth it !!

So in this blog post I passed me 2 month point and according to my Rotary consoler my honeymoon period is now over!

On the 9th of February I went with my host parents to the former deputy prime minister’s birthday, normally this is a very big event at his house but because of the political issues he had a celebration in a huge temple and only invited the press and a group of close friends and colleges. I met an immense amount of important people and I felt very blessed and privileged to attend such an event! It was mainly a Buddhist ceremony performed by some of the highest ranking monks in Thailand to wish him good luck in the next year of his life and I learnt a lot about Buddhist traditions. I met him and he was actually a very funny man and I was very thankful. The temple has a very big solid gold statue of Buddha and the hall witch the statue is kept in has the most beautiful interior I have ever seen in a temple, the whole temple really is out of another world and I got a front row seat to it all.

13th of February, Valentine’s Day at school. My school was not open on Valentine’s Day so we celebrated on the 13th. . Valentine’s day here is nothing like Valentine’s day in South Africa because it is highly inappropriate to have a serious relationship at a school level so nobody is all that worried about Valentine’s day and everyone bring their friends chocolates and get decorated with heart stickers and maybe if you’re lucky you get a pink rose from one of your friends. This day is really a day of appreciation instead of a day of love and that was quite nice because I had random girls I don’t even know in my school come up to me and give me roses giggle and run away witch a found really cute and really appreciated!  14th of February aka Valentine’s day. I thought my day would be pretty boring but I met up with some of my exchange student friends and we had a really great day! That night me and Momo celebrated Makha Bucha Day with my host family witch is the first day Buddha began teaching his religion. We were supposed to walk around the temple 3 times and wish and pray and be in silence with our thoughts while monks chanted over the speakers. We ended up walking around once and then just faded onto the side lines and taking funny pictures and observing because neither of us really liked it and we had already had a long day. Still it was a great thing to see and experience even if it meant I sneezed for the next two days because of all the incense that they burnt.

On the 15th of February I went to a beautiful Chinese tiger temple with my host family that was so colourful and loud and traditional that it was almost scary. It had so many colours and paintings and statues and chimes and wind chimes and flames and candles and alters that I was in awe of everything around me and had to take a moment to take it all in. My host sister explained that every year or couple of years are represented by an animal and that every year one of those animals has a year of bad luck. So going to the temple and offering prayers for those people might lessen the bad luck. So you start with a whole hand of very big incense sticks and u light them at a big flame. Then you go around to all the different alters and offer your prayers and then leave a certain amount of burning incense sticks in a bowl of sand on the alter. An old Chinese man stopped us and explained that I am still young and should try and put the sticks as close to the middle of the bowl as possible because if you put them in the middle you will be an owner and if you put them to the sides you will be a worker so at the next alters I made sure mine were pretty much in the middle! After all the alters my host dad bought a strange looking mirror but explained that it is used to protect your home against bad spirits. Once again not a single day goes by in Thailand that I don’t learn something new!

On the 17th of February we had a arts day at school were everybody goes to school on a Sunday morning and each class gets a theme and they only have Saturday to complete a whole booth with that theme and get 3 people to dress up according to the theme to attract students to your booth because every student that goes into your booth signs a paper and the class with the most names wins the arts day.  My class got Roman era for our theme and I was dressed up to look like a Roman goddess and hand out sweets and thank everybody for coming to see our booth. Needless to say we had a unfair advantage because my class mates just started screaming: “ come to our booth we have a blond girl” and it worked we ended up with over 500 names on our list and won by a landslide but despite my exploitation to win I had a great day with all my classmates !