Wow, I am so sorry, for not blogging for the past two weeks. Don’t worry though, I am ok and I had a good reason for not blogging too, my keyboard is broken. My “T” and “Y” keys don’t work and I know, you’re thinking, “So what? Two keys don’t work and you just abandon us?” Well think about it in the past paragraph alone I have used 20 “T’s” and 10 “Y’s,” they are kinda essential.
So I know you are wondering what I have been up to in the past fifteen days and I am happy to say, I can’t recall everything I have done off the top of my head. So I will dedicate this post to telling you about the memorable things that have happened. Unfortunately, it might be rather brief.
Ok here we go.
As far back as I can recall anything memorable happening has to be October, Friday the 28th, when I went with my Host cousin May and my host brother Go to the Chinese Opera and market, that was in town. It was really crazy they were selling everything imaginable and there were people everywhere. My cousin, brother and I walked through the market, but then had to go home because none of us had money and they didn’t tell my host parents we were going.
The day before that while, Sara and I were out for our weekly Thursday milkshakes, there was a Chinese parade in the town that literally consisted of a bunch of Thai people with Chinese heritage, dressing up in traditional outfits and throwing firecrackers around in the middle of the street. An ambulance showed up just in case things got out of hand,( if you ask me they started out of hand.) There were also two of those dragon costume things you always see in Chinese festivals in the movies, so that was pretty cool.
It was funny because later that day while Sara and I were in the mall, the people brought the dragon costume through the mall… it was so random.
On Tuesday, November1st, I woke up and got ready for school like any other day. I was eating breakfast when my host mom asked me if I wanted to go to a dance competition, I said yes, of course because the first rule of Rotary is always say yes. Then, she said ok you go today. I thought, ok I get the day of school sweet. Then as I was packing my school bag getting ready to leave my host mom says, “You need to pack for three days.” WAIT, WHAT?!? THREE DAYS?? But being a good exchange student I ran upstairs and threw some clothes in a bag and put a smile on as we left my house. The problem was once again, I had no idea where I was going, no idea who I was staying with and no idea what to bring or how much it would cost. So I brought my stuff to school and waited until a random Thai girl told me to go with her, so I did, into a car with her family and we drove away. At this point based on what I knew about the situation I was convinced that this was my eventual demise. Isn’t that against every rule you ever learn in elementary school, don’t get in the car with strangers, even if they say they have something good like a dance competition because they will take you some strange place and bad things will happen. Wow, kinda sounds like an exchange.
I am just kidding. It turned out fine we went to a dinosaur museum and they were amazed that I had seen dinosaur bones before. Then we went to the dance competition which was held in a university conference room. It was a ballroom dance competition which was cool. So they practiced for a bit then we went out for dinner then we went back to the hotel. I was supposed to share a hotel room with these two other dancers but they decided they didn’t want me to sleep there so I had to share a room with the family that brought me. Now this was awkward because a) I was intruding, b) there was only one bed and five guests and c) I didn’t know them. To make matters worse staying in tune with Thai hospitality they let me sleep in the bed… with the two sisters… in the middle of the two sisters…who both felt the need to sleep as close to me as possible. Now as tempting as it was to accidentally elbow them in the face while sleeping, I didn’t I kept my cool and just stared at the ceiling. The next day they competed for the morning and then we went to a temple for the afternoon. Then we went shopping and out for dinner then right back to that cozy bed situation. After another long night, I was soo ready to finish this dance competition and go home.
Now being exhausted, after two nights of no sleep all I wanted to do was sleep on the car ride home but that was impossible for a few reasons.
Reason why I could not sleep on the car ride home from dance competition in Sakhon Nakhon:
1. It was sunny. Like really sunny and right in my eyes the whole car ride.
2. I was squished. I was tucked up behind a driver who apparently likes his leg room and doesn’t consider mine, now why they put the tallest person behind him; I don’t know just some more Thai hospitality.
3. Thai road developers are raging drunks. The road we drove on had an average of 10 seconds between each hair pin turn. By hair pin I mean 180 degree rotation drive for ten seconds then repeat. Also the roads are extremely uneven and bumpy. So you try sleeping with your whole body bouncing up and down from the bumps and your head swaying left and right every ten seconds. You try dealing with that for two hours nonstop.
4. Annoying horn blasts every ten seconds. Thai drivers truly believe that they always have the right of way no matter what. Now this family I was with, the father really loved his car every morning he would wash it by hand and he put a cover on it at night. He also had a fancy smancy horn installed that goes like hoonk honkhonkhonk hoooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnkkkkkkkkkkk as it slowly fades out. So instead of just an immeadiate burst of sound it went on for like two minutes after he pressed it. To make it even better he suffered from CHD (compulsive honking disorder) and he suffered bad.
But in the end I did make it home.
Then last Saturday, November 6th, I decided to go meet some of my exchange student friends down in Khon Kean. I asked my host mom she said Yes, like always and it was set. So on Saturday morning my host brother drove me to the bus stop. I waited and waited and eventually half an hour later the bus showed up and it was full. So I waited and waited and waited some more until another half an hour later when the second bus showed up and reluctantly let me on. I had the best seat in the house, standing on the platform beside the door at the front of the bus. Basically, if we were to crash, I was to act as the airbag. Now for those of you blog readers that are familiar with Harry Potter, Ernie Prang, the Knight bus driver is a legend in these parts and all bus drivers try to mimic his maneuvers, resulting in one scary bus ride.
But once again, I made it to my destination relatively unscathed, with only a slight mishap of running out of time on my phone. Since this was my first time to Khon Kean, I hadn’t the slightest idea how to get to Central, the big mall, where I was meeting my friends, so I decided to just take a Tuk Tuk, since it was direct and easy. Now thing about Tuk Tuk’s is they make the Knight Bus from Harry Potter look like the equivalent of a carousel compared to Drop Tower. Tuk Tuk drivers don’t require a license or a speed limit, so although it’s terrifying, it’s fast. So I arrived at Central, did I mention this mall is huge and I started looking for my friends. I used my keen deductive reasoning skills and decided they shouldn’t be hard to find they are foreigners and they are probably at a restaurant. So I went up to the food floor and sure enough they were all tucked in a Steak House.
So we hung out for the day hopping from international food chain to international food chain. Dunkin Donuts, Dairy Queen, McDonalds, we hit them all up finally stopping at the food haven for all exchange students in Thailand, Tops Market. Tops Market is what Thai people call a gourmet fancy smancy grocery store; it’s what we call an average grocery store, equipped with normal food. I was good though, I only bought some cookies and salad dressing.
Then it was getting late so we all decided to head home. My friend Tipsy gave my friend, Emo and I a ride. She dropped Emo off at his house then we got lost trying to find the bus station. Now the buses stop running at six pm and it was like 5:50pm or something and we were totally lost. So we found the bus station and she drops me off and I go to get on the half empty bus and they won’t let me on. So I go to buy a ticket but none of the ladies will sell me one except for this one lady who has a huge line up of people waiting to buy tickets from her. So I get in line and wait. I look down at my phone just as it says low battery and shuts off. Great, I think how am I going to call them when I get to the bus stop? Oh well, I think first deal with getting on the bus. So finally I buy a ticket and go try and get on the second bus, but they still won’t let me. So I just stand there and keep trying and finally they let me on the bus and get this I get to sit down this time.
So we are driving along fine and I am trying to ignore the fact I have to pee ridiculously bad but couldn’t go because I had to catch the bus. I am listening to my music and staring out the window, when suddenly the bus just stops in the middle of the road. The lights turn off and everyone is quiet. We sat there for like fifteen minutes until the bus finally started again. I made it home around7:15pm and called my host mom, so scared she was going to be mad at me for not calling or being out so late or something, but no, she’s not even home so she sends Go to come pick me up and that’s that.
My last adventure is really an adventure more so a very strange experience. Two days ago my host mom asked me to come watch a dance competition and go out for dinner at food street a celebration celebrating the week before Loy Krathong (more on that later), food street I think, awesome. We end up in some field crawling with bugs where a bunch of vendors have set up around a big stage. Well first of all we couldn’t find a place to sit and when we finally did, we ordered dinner. It was delicious of course except I had to keep picking bugs out of my food because there were so many they would land for a second and get stuck and you had to pick them out. I didn’t even bother with the soup because in like the first ten seconds it was on my table five flies had drowned in it.
After dinner my host family went to watch the dancers. I decided to walk around and see the vendors. Something bit me on the back and caused this extreme burning and itching feeling to spread all over my back and I started going crazy I was trying to scratch it or get whatever bit me off and it hurt so bad. I was so close to ripping my clothes off and had there been a bathroom nearby I would have. It eventually stopped hurting. I went and sat and watched the dancers for a couple of hours until I became so incredibly tired and bored I could actually focus on the dancers my eyes would just sorta cross and stay there. I had to get up and get moving because once again he bugs were driving me insane so I went to a little vendor set up cutting hair. I figured hey I could use a trim, so I asked how much. Then this older Thai guy dressed like a cowboy who was very obviously gay, comes over and says for you free. Ok, I think so I tell them in Thai just a little bit please and they start cutting my hair. Every single person that walked by stopped and watched me have my hair cut. Seriously, there were like fifty people just watching me. To make it even weirder when I was finished, they went and picked up my hair. When I went back half an hour later all of my brunette hair was gone but all the black Asian hair was still there. They did a beautiful job cutting my hair though, it’s just like a wanted, just a little trim.
But seriously, how many people can say guess what I did last Monday, I got my hair cut for free at a night market in Thailand by a gay Asian cowboy and I had people watch and take locks of my hair home.
Tomorrow, I head to Phu Kradung for my first Rotary Trip. We are going to celebrate Loy Krathong, (which I will tell you about when I find out what it’s all about) and then we are going to hike up a mountain and stay there for few days then hike back down and come home.
Sorry, for the wait and rushed post, but I am hungry and I hear they have free food in the Canteen.
Xoxo Chantel <3
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