Orientation part 1

The trips I went on during my exchange are where I made some of the best memories I have about my exchange year. The trips are where I made friendships with the other exchange students that will last a lifetime. The trips are where I got to see some places in Thailand that I would never have been able to see otherwise. When I heard I would be going on a trip to the south of Thailand I was more than excited because had never been to the South and I really wanted to go. When I heard I was going to attend the orientation for the new exchange students I was happy because I would meet new people but I was also a bit apprehensive about these new and strange people. I don’t know why I always think new people are strange? I don’t even know them yet why in the world would I think they are strange, but I do. I never expected it to end the way it did.

On the afternoon of the 9^th only a few hours after we had picked up Cienna from the airport me and Cienna got on the train in our city and started a 14 hour train ride to the province of Trang in the South of Thailand. When we got to the train station it was like my first trip all over again, there were these foreigner people and your pretty sure they are exchange students (after a while it’s like exchange students give off a certain type of energy that other exchange students can pick up on) but you don’t know if you should talk to them or just wait until they talk to you and you see them and you know they see you and you know they will be the people you spend your whole year with but right you have no idea how to handle the situation. Luckily we had our host parents who knew each other and pushed us all together for our first group photo. There is something about a group photo that breaks the ice in a weird way, you have something to talk about and usually that something is how irritating it is that we have to take another group photo! At the train station I met Paula, Paula is from Estonia and the very first thing you notice about her is that she is very tall; the second thing you notice about her is she is very pretty. Next to her I saw a shy looking girl called Imke, Imke is from Germany and sadly she is only a short term exchange student but she proved to me over and over again just how wrong first impressions can be, she looked shy and a bit unsure and turned out to be amazing. Then I met Johanna, Johanna is also from Germany, she is quite and caring and really nice. Hiding behind most of the girls was Kenny a boy from Taiwan who hardly speaks any English but who I think is so nice. The person who was impossible to miss was Caroline the super pretty girl from Denmark, she is sooo pretty and has the longest blondest hair she is just so nice and so funny and I learnt to love her very much. After we all met and talked a little bit we got on the train and talked about what they thought about their families and their homes and what they had seen of Thailand so far. The next person to get on the train was Daiki, Daiki is from Japan and I think Daiki should have his own fan club he is just the coolest person ever and he doesn’t even try. The last person who got on the train somewhere around 2AM was Zack, Zack is from America and a pretty weird but nice guy. When we got to our train station we got off got some snacks (witch I did not eat who on earth can eat at 4 AM??) then got into a van and drove to our resort right on the beach outside a small town in Trang. We got our room numbers put way our stuff away and then met the rest of the exchange students. The first girl I met at the resort is Kelly, Kelly is from the US. The next girl is Mia, Mia is just such a nice, real, funny girl from Canada and she made my day so many times. Next was Alex, Alex is also from the US and Alex became such a big part of my last months! The first day the Orientation proved to be one of the best days of my exchange; we all got into a boat and made our way through the water. The whole time we were on the boat I kept thinking these are not my people I have my people already and these are not them, they are nothing like my people I wish my people where here. I really missed the exchange students so much right then. We stopped at a place that just looked like a huge pile of rocks in the ocean and all got off the back of the boat wearing life jackets and found a rope in the water they told us to look for. We held onto the rope with one hand and onto each other’s lifejackets with the other hand and made our way into a cave. As soon as we went into that cave my jaw dropped. The rope only goes about 2 meters into the cave after that you are on your own. As soon as you are inside the cave you can hardly see the person right in front of you but you can see the crystal clear emerald blue water, you can see your legs moving around, you can see the water rippling because of all the people trying to move through it. You can’t see the roof of the cave but you can hear  the water bashing against the sides of the cave, you see the roof every time the water comes in and pushes you up and then halfway out again though, you can feel the walls of the cave covered in clams and your heart stops a little bit every time a huge leaf touches your body. You take three steps forward and two steps back every time a wave makes its way into the cave and the whole time you are trying to hold on to the person in front of you trying not to be ripped in two. It’s so pitch black but every now and then a flashlight or something makes some light and you see all these shadow figures on the walls. The out of nowhere there a light at the end of the tunnel and once you move out of the cave you are in a secluded little beach with a jungle like area just behind the beach, huge rock walls on all sides some covered in plants some dripping with water. You just kind of sit on the beach with tiny little waves going over your feet and you know you are there but you struggle to believe your eyes because it’s all just so picture perfect that it seems impossible that you could really be where you are almost blinded by the ice blue water of a private beach. Eventually we all had to snap out of our daze and start making our way out of the cave again and I kept looking back as if I just needed to save it into my brain just a little bit more but at some point you are just surrounded by black again. We got back onto the boat and all you could hear around you was people saying wow, wow, wow. We all got our snorkelling gear and got into the water again at our next stop. As soon as you put your face into the water and open your eyes it’s like you somehow made your way into a different and magical world nobody ever told you existed. There are fish everywhere, you see them all around, you feel then rub up next to you as they swim past you, there are so many colours and so many shapes and the water is so clear and so blue and then you see all the rocks and all the coral and all the crevices and little creatures and it’s all just so amazing that it feels like you need to remind yourself to breath. We broke into groups of three and me, Cienna and Alex went swimming saw the most amazing things and pointed things out to each other as if we wanted to make sure none of us missed a single little thing. After an hour in the water we got back onto the boat climbed onto the very top of the 2 story bus and jumped off. There are no words in the world that could describe that memory. You are surrounded by the most breathtakingly blue waters on all sides and it’s so clear that you can see the fish all the way from the top off the boat, u see all these little black and green islands and you feel the sun shining down on you then you count to three and you jump. The next stop we got into the water again and swam all the way to the little beach, ran away from monstrous looking crabs, found fresh cave water, wrote our names in the sand as if we could somehow claim the beach ours. Then we swam all the way to the other side of the island and started finding all the characters from Nemo. We swam away from scary baby jelly fish and tried not to step on deadly looking spikes in the coral all while trying to figure out how all of this could really be true, how all of this could really be right here, and always here. It’s like seeing magic for the very first time you can see it with your very own eyes but right then you can’t make your brain believe it’s real. We stayed in the water until they called us back and told us we don’t leave now we will be late. I looked back after a while and its like looking at a picture except you are in it.