Around Central Thailand

Well the trip to the East was fun. Here's the highlights.

There was going to be a little bit of a problem to me getting to Phitsunulok, the place where everyone was meeting for the trip. I'd have to go to Chiang Mai and wait for the Chiang Mai YES to go which would mean staying overnight somewhere and no one knew where this would be. Luckily though Ajaan (teacher) Naiyana was coming to Mae Sariang on vacation and agreed to take me back to Lampang and then to Pitsunulok for the trip which she was chaperoning. On Saturday morning I met her at her hotel (about three minutes from my house) and we went with her, her coworkers, and Bud and Tibor, two YES from America, to Mae Hong Son (about three hours of curvy, curvy roads from my house). On the way to Mae Hong Son we stopped at a cave where we couldn't take pictures. It was nice, but had been clearly abused by tourists. Then we went to see the dok buatong fields, if you recall this is the flower I'm named after and I was excited to see them. I thought we'd walk through the fields ect, but it quickly became obvious that that was not possible. THEY'RE HUGE! Most were atleast a foot over my head! They had a little building which was set up just so people could take pictures of the flower fields and so that's what we did.

After that we drove the cuviest road in Thailand back to Lampang. (This is the second time I've had to drive this road.) We arrived in Lampang about midnight and I stayed with Ajaan Naiyana's friend Mae Uan and her family. Mae Uan has three daughters, her oldest daughter Nam Fon (it means rain water) is set to go to the US next year as a RYE, Fang (which means rice hay) is 15ish and very fun and Ri Fern is the youngest. I had a ton of fun with them. We went to a really pretty market in Lampang and bought a bunch of food for Sunday breakfast. Then the girls had a Chinese lesson (I don't know whether it was Manderine or not) which I joined in on. It was their first lesson too so it was easy to follow (or rather not as hard as it could have been). I think I want to learn Manderin next. After the Chinese lesson Mae Uan, Nam Fon, our Chinese teacher, Mary, and I went to a ceramics fair. Lampang has good clay soil I learned and has a really good ceramics department. I enjoyed it a lot. We went back that evening to get a better look.

We rode a bamboo raft on a river (somewhere) and got to swim along with it. It was a lot of fun, the current was pretty strong so you could just float along with hardly any effort. It was a little scary too, since we'd just been talking about how Thailand has crocodiles. The most dangerous thing we incountered was an elephant turd floating with us, at this point we made an effort and swam.

The king's birthday was the second day of the trip and almost everyone in the entire country wore yellow (including us), the color of the king. This was also the day we went to Kachanaburi where the river Kwai is. We went to the graveyard for the European POWs. It was sad to read the things on the graves which had been picked by the families of the soldiers. We didn't go to the bridge because we got lost... Ajan Naiyana told us left but we took the wrong left. That night there was, they called a lights show but I don't think it' fits, it was more like a reinactment using lights and sound effects of the history of the Bridge over the River Kwai. It was narrarated in Thai, so we didn't understand. They had built fake watch towers and then "bombed" them. It was really amazing, we got really good seats at a restaurant on the river.

We went to Wat Pra Gaeo, the temple of the emerald Buddha, in Bangkok, but couldn't go to the palace because it was closed for a ceremony because of the king's birthday the day before. Wat Pra Gaeo has the largest peice of sequential art in the world (it was torture that we only got an hour to look at the entire Wat, I really want to go back and try and read the mural). It depicts the Ramakien, the Thai version of the Hindu holy book Ramayana. I took a lot of pictures of the paintings.

That's it for the highlights. Now onto Christmas and New Year's.

I was reminded that December is Christmas season in Bangkok with Christmas lights and music in several places. I'd forgot about it. In Mae Sariang there are actually quite a few Christians, because there's a lot of missionary run hostiles for hill tribe children to live in while they go to school, so there were a few celebrations on Christmas Eve. I went to one at the government building (they use the parking lot for most festivals) people sang Christmas carols and there were vendors with snacks and presents for children (I assume I didn't stay til the end). I watched some carollers come to the house across the street and sang "I Wish You a Merry Christmas" in Thai. On Christmas day I gave my host family presents and Pii Nung gave me mine, a hat (which was appreciated since it's actually kind of cold here). At school there was a Christmas Pagent in the afternoon. Several of my friends dressed up as Santies (a girl Santa Claus, they add -ie to any male English name to make it a girl, Casanovi is another example). It was a big deal since it meant they could wear "sexy" (i.e. not the school uniform) clothes to school. Some of my other friends put on a play about Rudolph, from what I understand Rudolph was lost and got found. I thought it was hilarious. Christmas night my host family made a special Christmas meal, suki. God it's delicious. They chop up fish and sea food, then make soup water and put it in a "crock wok" which you put the sea food you want and wait for it to boil. Then you put it and some soup water in a bowl of green Thai noodles. It was a good Christmas, not like any I've ever had.

Fast forward to the Friday before New Year's, on this day people brought a present to exchange. The presents were numbered and then everyone drew a number out of a box while there was show (I had to pick 5 times because the numbers I picked didnt' have a present to go with them). I gave a box of Oreos (my host sister thought it would be a good presents and my friend's agreed, I don't know who recieved it) and I got a little teddy bear which I named Nam Tan (sugar). All of the classes put on a show. Most of my closest friends where in my class's show. It was really good, my friend Jup Jang lipsynced with a song while the other's dressed up as Thai maids and danced.

The next day my host brother's daughter from his first marriage, Nong Paeo came to Mae Sariang for the long weekend. I love this girl. She's so cute and loving, she gave away almost half the candy she was given. We went to my host dad's fruit farm on the 31st, and on the long car ride she took my arm put it around her and then cuddled into me. No better compliment could be given. We met friends at the farm and barbequed kabobs and ate sticky rice. I got to swim in the river that went through the farm even though it was freezing (it actually gets pretty cold here since it's the mountains). The little kids were jealous because the current is too strong for them to swim in. It was a great way to say goodbye to the old year.

I went to my friend's house for a small party with her family. We ate and sang karaoke, my friend Maria in Taiwan said about Taiwan "you can't have a party here without karaoke." It's true in Thailand too.

December was kind of a rough month in a lot of ways; I really missed my family, around Christmas (but was fine on Christmas day), I felt frustrated a lot with how little I'd felt I'd done, which got over mostly, and the month it got ended well. I'm still liking school, and I'm getting very close the my host family. I'm already in love with my host nephew Pee Pee as well as Nong Paeo.

Happy New Year and thanks everyone! Love you.

November and October

Wow, I've been so busy.

I'll start with Halloween. I talked to my school during the morning assembly about Halloween. I put on my normal school uniform and put on ghost like make up when I got to school. Did I mention Thais are terrified of ghosts? It was fun, I really scared the bejeezuz out of some people without trying. I'd just turn around, forgetting I had the make up on and the people behind me would be wide eyed with fear. It was great to get some really good scares on Halloween, although I don't think the Thais were so thrilled with it.

The week of Halloween was also the Roy Graton festival in Thailand. Roy Graton is on the two days before the full moon in November. On the full moon you put little floats made of banana leaf and stalks, called Graton, into the river to both say thank you to the river and appologize for any damage. During the week everyone was getting ready for the parade on Sunday (the full moon), our school had a huge float which everyone helped put finish. A lot of my friends got to Thai dance on it. I walked next to the director of the school. I'd gone to the school to borrow a Thai dress from my teacher and she took me to the Thai dance/art room where the dancers were putting on make up. They decided I ought to wear make up too, they put my hair up and put a fake bun on my head like them. The parade ended (after three hours) at the river where we put our graton in.

This was also the day I had my second funniest Thai mistake. I told my host mom "Nuu ja bpai haa puan tam gra toy." or "I'm going to my friend's to make drag queens," instead of make graton.

Then there was Thanksgiving. We have our Rotary meetings Wednesday night and on Tuesday it was my host mom's birthday and on Thanksgiving it was my 3rd host sister's birthday. Both my host sisters have been really curious about lasagna so I decided to make that instead of turkey for Thanksgiving and I decided to make pumpkin pie because I love pumpkin pie. Luckily we were going to Chiang Mai the weekend before Thanksgiving and I could get all of the ingredients there. Making it was the real challenge. I had to make pumpkin puree for hte first time and the recipe I had for it made a ton of puree, and the recipe for two pies only used maybe 1/8 of it. I kept some and gave the rest to the the dogs, who I learned had a taste for pumpkin. (Interesting fact my province is the pumpkin capital of Thailand.) The lasagna was stressful since hte noodles stuck together. My host grandma and sister thought I was crazy several times during the process, and didn't really understand what I was doing until I was done. At first my host grandma thought I was going to stir fry it all together, then she thought I was going to make soup. I have to wonder if she thinks all American food starts with boiling some vegetable until it's soft, because I did that with both recipes. (I had to make the tomato sauce myself and it seemed easier to boil the pumpkin than to bake it to make the puree.)

I took them both to the Rotary meeting the night before Thanksgiving, as a way to say thanks. There was competition though; because it was Pii Mim's birthday, they made a special kind of pork where they cook it on the table infront of us. It was better than the lasagna I have to admit, but everyone liked it. Even my host aunt and mom who said they didn't like foreign food said they liked the pie.

I switched host families the day after Thanksgiving. This host family own a motorcycle garage and parts shop. They're a big family big family; there's Mae, Pa, Pii Koi, Pii Nom (who are married) and their son Pee Pee (yes they know what that means in English), who all live over the shop. Then there's Pii Et and his wife Pii Ying, they're going to have a baby in January! They live next door to Mae and Pa. Then there's Pii Nung, the oldest, who lives across the street. I sleep in Pii Nung's house but I spend almost as much time at the other houses. I like it here, I have fun talking with my host sisters and playing with Pee Pee.

Thai's an interesting langauage and I'm enjoying learning it. When I first started learning Thai I thought all Thais had a really good ear because they'd correct me over really little (to me) differences in pronunciation. Then I started helping my friends with their English homework. I'd dictate to them "all" and they'd write "are." They'd say "shoes" instead of "choose" and I could tell they didn't really hear the difference when I corrected them. I started to understand that they just had a good ear for their own language like I do for mine. Just a funny observation.

I just got back from a trip with the other YES in our district. I'll be sure to write about that soon, I meant to get this email out before I left.

Thanks everybody once again.

Northern Trip

Please note this post was written in installments.

Alright, dang I got a lot to type about. Rotary arranges three trips for us exchange students and I just got back from the first one, the Northern Trip. I've got tons of photos (in addition to the ones from the first few months of the exchange) to post when I get home. Right now I'm in Phrae, at my fellow YE Christine's house. We're both catching up on emails and blogs ect. It's been a busy and until recently sleepless two weeks. Two days after the N. Trip ended we had Rotary Youth Leadership Awards Camp (RYLA Camp). Then I went to Phrae, my host mother's hometown, and met up with my host mom and sister. We'll be staying until Sunday morning and then we go to Chiang Mai for another dentist appointment (Nong Toy has braces).

About the YE's, there are about 20 of us, not all came on the trip though. There are seven American YE's, Elizabeth, Ryan, Tibor, Christine, Bud and I went on trip, and Micheal and Taba didn't go on the trip. Taba is from Hawaii and just got to Thailand the last day of the trip. There's one Canadian, Jenny. Five Mexicans, Sara, Zhayra, Polly, Heriberto, and Anahi, who are all really nice. Then one Brazilian, Leandro. That's all the Americans. From Europe there is Maxime (Max) from France, and two German girls Judith and Frederike, their English is amazing, sometimes I think Judith sounds Australian. Speaking of the country/continent, there's Laura our lone Aussie who's been here for 8 months already (Australia does Youth Exchanges differently because of the school year). Then there are three Koreans, the twins Pim On and Han Lee, and Ing On who, like Laura, has been here 8 months. None of the Koreans speak much English, but they're learning it as well as Thai really well. There's still one Russian boy coming soon, don't know his name.

The first thing we did on the trip was go to the Elephant Training Center. We saw the elephants do tricks and paint (they're pretty good too). Then we went for an elephant ride. It was two to an elephant and Christine and I went together. They had this kind of box on top of the elephant with a metal back, and armrests which a seatbelt harness attatched. At first I thought the harness was for little kids who'd want to jump off the elephant, then the elephant started walking. The word for elephants is surreal. They're huge, but friendly, beautiful and ugly at the same time, they look intellegent, but it's hard for me to believe they actually see anything because their eyes are crossed all the time. Surreal is also the word for riding an elephant. They look graceful, but you get thrown around a lot when your on top of one. I wasn't expecting that and was very glad for the harness. It was a lot of fun being so high and on top of a living thing, in fact the biggest living thing I've ever seen.

One of the best experiences I had on the trip was getting in a van with mostly native Spanish speakers and an American (Tibor) and a Frenchman (Max) who both spoke good Spanish. I was the only one who didn't speak Spanish. I could understand the subject of the conversation usually, which surprised me. I understood a lot, but couldn't say anything. It was a lot of fun, they put on really good Spanish music, we sang along, and talked over the music. I learned some Spanish (most of which I’ve forgotten already). If I had something to say I'd just say it in English (all but two in the van spoke fluent English and the other two understood the basics), but mostly I just listened and laughed. I tried speaking French-- ooh la la! I can't. I tried to say a basic French sentence and it came out in Thai. Oh well, my mom's friend Dr. Peter says it's normal when you're learning a new language. I hope my French will come back.

The other highlight of the trip was doing a homestay at an Akha hilltribe village. The Akha women wear an elaborate headress made of silver balls, beads and cloth and a dark blue jacket and skirt with tons of elaborate embroidery. Or atleast the older women wear it, most of the kids and all the men in the village wore western clothes. Most of the people in the village are illegal immigrants from Burma and are only allowed to be in the village and the nearby town because they don't have a Thai ID card. I got to stay with the village's medicine woman, Mae Mii Na and her family. It was an incredible experience. Mae Mii Na doesn't speak Thai and it was incredible to learn how to communicate without words. (I never really got this experience since I studied Thai before I came.) She was so kind, which considering all she's been through it's amazing that she could like a spoiled rich white girl.

After the trip it was waiting two days for RYLA Camp in Chiang Mai, then two days in RYLA camp. At RYLA they took us to a really beautiful wat in a mountain. It was really wonderful to walk around and take pictures. It had lots of rabbit statues, I don’t know why. I wish I would have asked. Rabbit’s my sign in Chinese astrology, so it was funny to see. They took us to Tesco Lotus, the Thai equivalent to Wal-Mart, and we bought a ton of junk food and ate it that night at the dorm. When RYLA was finished I went to Phrae where my host mom and sister were visiting relatives. We stayed three more days and I got to hang out with three of my favorite YES, Christine, Anahi, and Laura, as well as Laura’s friend Yana from Germany (she’s a YFU exchange student).

Now I’m happily back in Mae Sariang. (This was written on Wednesday the 24th.)

Today was a great day after all of this farang-ness. My first day back in Mae Sariang, I rode my bike to town (it’s about a 10-15 minute ride). I don’t seem to be able to make this journey without some kind of bike trouble though. Today one of my peddles fell off. Luckily it fell off only a few meters from the bike shop. After that I went to the restaurant of my third host mom, Mae Paeo. My host sister, Pii Mim was there too (she’s normally in Bangkok studying law, but it’s vacation time). They took me to the post office and helped me mail the package. It was good they came because one thing I had was too big for the boxes at the post office which meant we had to go buy a box at another store. I would have had no idea where to go if I even understood what the men at the post office said. Thai people are so kind.

After the post office Pii Mim, and I, with a little help from Mae Paeo, made kanom chan (layer snack). It’s made from rice flour, some other kind of flour they couldn’t explain what it was, sugar, fresh coconut milk, and a grass which name I can’t remember. First I washed the grass, and there was so much of it. I thought when I started it would take forever, I think it actually took like 10-13 minutes, when will I learn that if I actually do things they get done? Then I had to cut it into little pieces, and grind it with a mortar and pestle. After that we mixed the other ingrediants together, it was amazing to see it go from thick batter to almost water. Then we separated that into two bowls. In one bowl we put the grass in and squeezed the grass so it turned green. After that we put a coffee cup full into a pan in a steamer, and let it cook for five minutes. One layer of green, and five minutes later add a layer of white. Repeat ad nauseum. It was so good when it was finished though. Mmm… The whole process of cooking it was so unwestern. It’s amazing how many different things and ways of doing things in the world.
After that a group of American tourists (from Memphis of all places) came in and we gave them some kanom chan (which I mistakenly told them was kanom chang, which means elephant snack). Kanom chan looks a little like boogers so there was some food playing. They were all nice people, but only one two liked kanom chan, but hey, I didn’t like it the first time I ate it either.

Then we went with Ing-Ing, the cutest and shyest little Thai girl, to a little fair the town was having. Mae Paeo won a stuffed kitty for me. I haven’t named her yet, I love her despite the fact that she’s pink.

When we were driving to Mae Sariang from Chiang Mai yesterday, I was thinking about how I didn’t really feel at home in Thailand, but my life in America felt so far away. (Did I tell you all how I forgot I had had a job in America for awhile? This summer feels as if it happened a few years ago.) Now that I’m back in Mae Sariang, in my own room with Thai TV coming in from the other room I feel at home.

Thanks so much for everyone supporting me and especially the Rotary for giving me this opportunity. I'm really happy to be doing this, even when I'm miserable (which isn't much of the time).

Summary of August

Hey Everyone,

My luggage has been found! We went to Chiang Mai this weekend to pick it up (and for Nong Toy to go to the dentist). The zipper’s broken, but everything’s there.

In Chiang Mai we shopped for things to decorate the house with, Mae Dtim and I went on Saturday and hardly got anything. Pa Dem,Mae Dtim and Nong Toy went on Sunday and came home with the car filled! (I went walking around Chiang Mai, I was around the river and the old town wall, suoy maak (very beautiful).) I took a dukduk (tricycle taxi) home. My first time in one.

In other news I have tasted durian. The taste is OK, but the smell is terrible and so is the after taste.

I’ve started school. Which is OK, I get tons of attention. Boys will yell out my name but when I look in their direction they all laugh. Mai ruu tammai. (I don’t know why.)

Oh, I have a Thai name, two actually, Meo (my nick name, it means cat and sounds like mayo, and no uses it) and Buatong, which is what people call me. A buatong is a wild sunflower that grows in our Province. Too bad I’m not blond or it would be perfect. (actually I’m so glad I’m not blonde, I’d never be left alone if I were.) The kids here are really nice and my friends help me a lot. I never have any idea where I’m going

I had orientation the weekend after I got here, it was in Phrae. It was fun as get togethers with other exchange students are. It was more, “Hey here’s the other YE’s in our district! Make friends!” than training which was great because I was/am still jetlagged. We visited a Wat (temple) whose name I can’t remember and the governor’s mansion. The governor’s mansion was really pretty with lots of antiques and a torture chamber in the bottom which was funny until I realized hundreds of people where tortured and died there. We stayed with my host mom, Mae Dtim’s mother, my Yaai or grandma.

I think I’m going to try to join the girls’ footbawn team. I’ve got so much energy at times and I had so much fun len footbawn (playing football) last week in school.

I've met all of my host families, and they're all nice. I see my third one a lot since they own a restaurant. My third host mom is funny and lets me help cook my dinner. Sanook (fun).

I love you all but I only miss Jazzie. My poor kitty cat. Please give her lots of lovin' for me.

I wanted to post this last week but my blog was down so I emailed it to most people but for the rest here it is:

Sa-wat-di-ka! (Hello.)Blog spot isn't working right now so I'll post this there later.

I'm safe and sound in THailand. I got here Sunday afternoon and was greeted by my 1st and 3rd host parents and other Rotarians. I found out one of my bags is MIA and of course it's the one with my host parent's presents. My host mom and dad helped me file a report about it and have been checking up about it.

My host parents and Nong Toy (my little sister) have been great. Really nice and very =helpful. Yesterday my Pa drove me around to the four wat you're so supposed to see in Mae Sariang. Just very quickly, we'll come back as a family to see them more in detail. Most were on hills so he'd use it as an opportunity to show me places around town so I wont get lost when I go around on my own.

We spent Sunday and Monday in Chiang Mai where they have the cutest house. Their house is by a lot of their friends (who I got to meet) and it's a hexagon! THe fact that its shaped like a hexagon is very convienent for me b/c if I'm lost I can just say, hexagon house and people know where it is. Sunday night Meh (mom) and Nong Toy took me to the dtaa-laat yen (evening market) where they had the coolest crafts. I saw the fatest dog ever there (maa uan maak!) That's where most of the pictures are from.

Monday Nong Toy took me with her friend Nong Nai to the bookstore and the Chiang Mai mall. We were going to sing Karoke there but it was full.

After that we went home to Mae Sariang and got there late at night.

Their house in Mae Sariang is very nice. The kitchen is on a terrace and that's where we spend most of our time. The weather's nice, cooler than it is in Arkansas in August.

The mountains (puu kao) are really beautiful there are lots of differnt kinds of trees so there very textured. We live near the Uan River bridge and rice paddies nd my school, where I'm going to go later today to make my schedule.

I'm sorry I can't figure out how to share my photos and my blog isn't working but there's just too many other things to do.

I love you all and hope things are good back there.
-Maxine

NYRRRR TESTING NYRRRR

This is the test of the blog system. NYRRR!

I've entitled my blog Goldfish Memories because as I'm sure many of you know I have the memory of a goldfish.

I don't imagine I'll be posting much until I leave but who knows?