Orientation part 2

On the first night of the orientation we got our schedule for the rest of the week, yes we had a lot of 15 min breaks but we only really had a significant amount of free time on the last day. We were all pretty bummed out, and after the great excitement of the first day none of us were looking forward to spending the next 4 days in a conference room. Small things make a big difference in my eyes, small things are what pops up first in my brain when I think of memories, one of those small things was eating dinner with this group of exchange students, I am so used to eating with my group of exchange students were we push tables together, steal each other’s food and always start some sort of competitive conversation that normally leaves everybody in stiches laughing. Eating with this group of people that barely knew each other was very tense, nobody really knew what to say or what food they were eating, nobody had made really good friends yet and nobody felt like they could speak up.  Being in the middle of that atmosphere really made me miss my group of exchange students. Being right next to the beach and not being able to swim was just too much for me to handle so at lunch I asked one of the organisers if we could take the free time we should have had at  night away and go swimming in the afternoon, right there I screwed up the whole schedule because we went swimming every afternoon after that. Being in the conference room all morning meant we didn’t see the tide going out but when the time came for us to go swimming the water had gone out easily 60 meters, I have never seen such a huge difference in water level just because of the tide. Standing there it is almost hard to believe that such a huge mass of water could just move and be somewhere else. The Rotarians said they would take us to another beach and to the market while we were at it. Being at the market was so strange, I walked up to a stand and bought the drink I like, walked on and bought the snacks I like, walked on and got the lady to sell me a hairbands at half price. Then I looked around and the other exchange students looked like they were just dropped into a different world, following the Rotarians around and taking pictures of everything then I realised how this extremely Thai way of life had become normal to me. We then went to the beach and I have never seen anything like that before. I, Cienna, Flora and Alex walked straight into the ocean for 45 min and only got chest height into the water. It’s flat, you can just walk and walk and get nowhere. After 45 min we were sure nobody could even see us chest height in the water because we were just too far away, we decided to lie around in the water and then head back to the beach. Walking back to the beach myself and Cienna were walking behind Alex and Flora and the mud was getting in-between my toes, me being me I bent down picked up a hand full of mud and threw it at Alex. Things escalated quickly and all four of us were in a mud fight, after playing for a few minutes we walked onto the beach covered in mud and I asked two locals to take a picture of us. Not even seconds later more people came up and took pictures of us. We were not in a tourist area of Thailand at all so I am pretty sure seeing four foreigners walking on the beach covered in mud laughing is not a sight they will forget soon. We needed to get the mud off of us though and considering we had just walk 45 minutes to get chest height into the water that seemed like too much work. We walked about ankle height into the water laid down and rolled over. Needless to say it didn’t work very well so we walked up to the road and I asked people where the closest showers were. The lady who owned the shop where we were asking was so nice and told us we could use the shower behind her house (the shop is the front part of her house) so we took a shower behind a random Thai ladies house. We saw her mother cooking in the backyard, she was cooking in a traditional pot over a fire and talking to the lady on the other side of the small fence. She started talking abo us in Thai and I turned around and answered her, at first she laughed then she started asking me questions. After a while of talking an awkward showering we took a picture with her and she told us to come back if we needed another shower. Such a unique memory and such a rare experience in my eyes, I don’t think I will ever forget it. Later that night a few of the exchange students were sitting in my room looking at pictures of the trips we had been on, Alex called me and told us all to come to the beach. THANK YOU ALEX YOU FOUND THE MOST AMAZING VIEW EVER. We got to the beach and our jaws dropped, there was a super moon and it illuminated the sky. We sat there and you saw the dark ocean moving as if it was alive, the islands look like shadows in the water, you saw the silver clouds lit up by the immensely big moon, you saw the glittering stars fighting to be visible under the shower of light from the moon, you felt the water of the waves splash up against your legs while the sound of the waves fill your ears. I just sat there in a daze, afraid to look away because I might blink and wake up from this dream, sitting there talking to Cienna and Alex that view brought us closer to each other.  On the 3^rd day of the orientation we had some more speeches and some more presentations and then we went to the beach again. This time we didn’t go to the beach far away we went to the beach right in front of the resort and I think I need to take a moment to explain how much the water really did go out. The night before when we sat on the beach we had the water splashing up on our legs, that afternoon standing on the same spot the slightest bit of water was sooo far away. We stood there looking at the islands and took it as a challenge. We started walking and decided not to stop until we got to the islands that seemed unreachable the night before, so we walked and walked, screamed when we thought we might lose our toes thanks to crabs, we got into fishing net and saw the strangest looking things in the sand. After forever we got to the island and I and Alex were the first two on the island and claimed it for ourselves as the United African Island. What looked like this magical rocky forest island turned out to be not so very magical and much more rocky than expected, proving that sometimes things look better from further away. Dinner that night was better, the tables were pushed together, people were talking and laughing and it was actually nice. On Wednesday we were talking about the rules and regulations, all of a sudden a Rotarian put on some popular Thai songs and told us all to stand up and dance. At first everybody was just standing there a little bit shy and awkward, but after a few seconds everybody got into it and we had a really great time. That afternoon we had quite a lot of free time so we decided to walk all the way to the other beach we went to on the first day. We walked past a lady selling candy floss and all bought some, we walked along the beach and run in the water, we walked in the streets and through people’s parties next to the ocean until we got to the swimming beach. I really wanted to show all the exchange students just how fun it is to play a game called banana boat; it’s a game where you sit on an inflatable tube and you get pulled by a jet ski driven by a mad man with the goal of throwing you off and you just need to hold on (in my opinion falling off is half of thefun). When we were walking I was so sure I saw the banana boat in the water so when we got to the beach and it wasn’t there I wasn’t going to give up so easily. I took Cienna with me and went walking around the beach to look for the banana boat, because of pure luck I saw it next to a house and walked up to the house to ask if we could go for a ride, the guy told me to come back in an hour and he would take us out. We killed time for an hour playing chicken fight on each other’s shoulders. When the time came we all went over to that guy’s house and practically harassed him until he took us out for a ride, we had soo much fun and I’m pretty sure I proved my point that it was more than worth the wait. I got hurt playing on the banana boat so walking back to the resort was a pain in the bum but we got some ice cream that naturally made everything better in the world. Thursday was our last day in Trang so we pilled on to a few pick-up trucks and made our way to the botanical gardens. We walked through the coolest rain forest looking botanical garden and walked on a skywalk in the trees. About 10 min into the walk im sure it looked like I had taken a shower, it was so very hot and it was slightly raining just to make it worse. Im pretty sure if it wasn’t for Alex I would of fallen on my face at least twice, there was a moss layer on the floor and I had chosen the most horrible shoes to wear typical me. We saw monkeys, love trees, a cute squirrel and had some more ice cream and then we got back on the pick-up truck and made our way through the city singing All summer long by Kid Rock. We went to 7 eleven because how can we sit on the train for 14 hours and not go to 7 eleven, and then we said some sad goodbyes. The train ride was filled with homesick tears, card games, laughter and joking, after I was so sure I would not like these people I had found space in my heart for them and there they will stay. It’s amazing how quickly friendships can form and just how much people can mean to you after such a short amount of time. I am so grateful that I met them