After the grand temple I had a few days of normal life before my next grand adventure. On the 26^th of August I and Cienna went with a Rotarian from our Club called P’Mook, to help plant trees in the King’s elephant conservation. We left on the morning of the 26^th and drove all the way to a province in the middle of Thailand. Almost as soon as we got there it started raining but we would not let that get us down. We drove to the conservation park and got a short tour of the park on the back of a pick-up truck in the rain. I sat there with a useless umbrella, laughing because we were wet, trying to look for elephants in the rain and trying to understand what the guides were saying. It sounds horrible when I’m writing it down but it was soo much fun. When we got to one of the lookout points the rain stopped for a while and we got to see the most amazing view. The grass and trees were so green it looked like they might be able to glow in the dark, there were grass fields and mountains and fresh air and I loved everything about it. We only saw two baby elephants out of the corner of our eyes, 200 meters away, in the trees but hey we saw them. This conservation is believed to be the home of a white elephant, a magical Royal symbol but we will have to try again next time to find this elephant, no luck this time.  That night we had dinner with all the volunteers who were helping with the project on the beach. While the people were singing karaoke in typical Thai style, I and Cienna watched the ocean. We saw a lighting storm on the horizon and it was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen, the clouds light up and become an orange/pink colour just for a moment and then it’s all black again, it was amazing. The next day we woke up very early and went to the conservation again. We stood in the very hot sun for an hour and talked to schools and took pictures with all the people who were there.  After a while we all got onto pick-up trucks again and made our way to an open field (no rain this time thank goodness). Every person got a small tree, me and Cienna called our tree Harry. We walked with all the little kids from the schools out into the field and started digging a hole to plant our little tree. We planted our tree and gave it some water and then went to help dig some more holes as well as make a salted pit for the animals to get vitamins from. We slid around in the mud for a while and then made our way back to the pick-up trucks; we didn’t see any elephants on our second day. It was a pretty amazing feeling to know that the trees we planted might grow up and make some shade for an elephant or maybe carry some fruit. I really hope I get to go back there someday to see if our little Harry grew up. It was a short but amazing trip. On the 28^th my school had sports day and my class had to dress up like zombies. The zombie looking part I’m not so sure of but we did have a lot of fun. We all got dressed up and then walked around the town centre to build team spirit and die of heat all at once. When we got back to school we played basketball, volleyball and had to run a lot. When we all finished we decided now would be a good time to go and take a nap in the French office. My friends from school are amazing and crazy and I will miss them so very much. On the 29^th I and some of my friends went to Bangkok to spend a day together and so that I could do some gift shopping. We walked until it felt like our feet were going to fall off, we got ripped off more than once, we had some really good pizza,  spent way too much time in the make-up shop and tried to get into the Hello Kitty Café. We made the very best of our last trip together before they start their final exams and I am so grateful that I can call them my friends! On the first of September I got invited to go out to dinner on a boat with a lady from my Rotary clubs daughter. When we got there it was raining really hard. We got in waited for the rain to calm down and then we stared making our way down the main river in Bangkok. We had a great dinner and enjoyed some horrible singing. After about 30 min the rain stopped enough for me and Cienna to go onto the top deck of the boat and look at the most amazing view ever. We drifted past temples lit up with lights and huge buildings and under enormous bridges. We waved at the captains and did a happy dance in the dark just to express how happy we were that we got to have this amazing experience. After the boat we drove around Bangkok for a while and then we went home. Once again it was a night that I could so easily not of had and I am so very blessed that I got to have that experience. On the third of December I did my goodbye speech at school. I wrote a whole speech and got all my teachers a small present and then I got up there, my heart stopped for a second when I saw 3000 faces stare up at me and then I opened my mouth and did my speech. I’m pretty sure I didn’t breath for my whole speech and I felt like I was going to faint when I was finished but at least it was over and done with. The 5^th of September was my last day of school. On my last day my class had to do a performance for school so we had most of the day off and I got to spend some good quality time with my friends. It’s amazing how much they mean to me in such a small amount of time. I can’t even imagine what school back in South Africa is going to be like without them. Walking out of school that afternoon was a mixture of “Thank goodness I’m free of this place” and “is it okay if I stay for another year?” all the memories good and bad were going through my brain and the only thing I knew for sure was that I would miss it all dearly. The school and the people from that school will forever be in my heart