Christmas eve EVE post

Wow, can you believe tomorrow is Christmas Eve. CHRISTMAS EVE!!I think this is so monumental to me because I always thought to myself, once you make it through Christmas, it will be easy  from then on. Although not quite the half way mark it is super close and after surviving a major family oriented holiday on my own, I should be able to face anything. Another reason this is so huge to me is because living in Thailand, you don’t really see or feel Christmas coming. It just does. One morning you wake up realize you have a week til Christmas and you haven’t done a single festive thing. So you run out to the nearest mall buy all the over marketed things you can find and decorate your bedroom. The gifts start arriving in November and let’s not lie you definitely had a few weak moments and have already opened a couple but, they helped to make this Christmas away easier. A few days before Christmas you start to panic. What am I going to do Christmas morning? Just sit on my bed and open my presents, skype my family and probably go back to sleep. Its depressing, its heart wrenching and its straight up terrifying. Then your host parents tell you they are leaving you home alone for the weekend. When you are all down and depressed, the holiday season brings good news. Luckily for me exchange students have this deep motivation to make their year  abroad amazing so we have our tricks and schemes that always make something work out.

Tomorrow, I will head down to Khon Kean, a city about forty five minutes away. I will quickly shop for a secret Santa present and then head out for lunch or something with my friends. We will attend a Khon Kean Rotary Christmas Party then ALL of us will head back to Mamma Kai’s ( a very amazing host mom in Khon Kean who let’s us hang out at her house), for a sleepover. We will wake up the next morning exchange our secret Santa’s and head off to church. Then I am not sure what the plan is. So although I will not be with my loving family from home this year I will be with another amazing family. My Exchange family.


Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everybody!!J

English Camp

Next on my adventure I headed to Bangkok to, volunteer at an English camp. I boarded a bus  on Friday morning en route to Bangkok, to meet with a lady from the agency who  I had only talk to twice on the phone. It was a little nerve racking to not know where I was staying or who I was meeting but it was a learning experience. When I arrived at the bus station, I called the lady, Indy and after a little bit of confusion and miscommunications we finally found each other. She brought me to the AYC offices and introduced me to some of the staff I would be working with, got me a T-shirt and a map to the offices. She informed me I would be staying in her apartment for the night because she was going to visit family. We walked to her apartment building, just down the road from the offices and she showed me her apartment and gave me a key. She told me to be at the office by 6am the next morning. She also informed me I had to be covered from my knees to my neck. Fun. Nothing in my wardrobe fits that description. So I headed to the only place I knew where I could find below t shorts that went to my knees in Foreigner friendly sizes and food, Khao San Road. I shopped around grabbed some food and headed back home. I finished my night by cuddling up in bed and watching Tangled.

The next morning I woke up at 5 am and had a lovely cold shower (<sarcasm) and walked to work. When I arrived there I found out I was the only exchange student and the only female foreigner… great. We got on the bus and headed to pick up the students. When we got the students we sang some camp songs on the bus and played some games like bingo. Next we stopped for breakfast and there was a Starbucks.(HALLELUJAH!!) Next we stopped at Oasis Sea World to eat lunch and watch a dolphin show and finally arrived at our resort in Chantaburi at around 4pm. We played some soccer and went swimming in the sea before dinner and played camp games and sang some songs before bed. I then did room check and also went and passed out in my room. Let me tell you the best investments to make in Thailand, sleep mask and earplugs. Without them I would have never fallen asleep. I had to share a room with two Thai ladies and a lady boy and they are soo loud.

The next morning woke up and had breakfast at seven. We played a bunch of games and I taught a lesson about broadcast journalism to a class of about 40. Then I had to work with the class to write a script and produce their own news show. I was given a camera and told to follow the students orders while guiding them in a productive manner. After a lunch break and a few more shots our news show was complete. We then had an Olympic walk relay where I had to lead a bowling game with a different group of kids every 5 minutes. After that we had free time so I went swimming again and then went and took some pictures before dinner. After dinner we had a dance party and talent show that was very … uhhh…. Interesting. The children and staff are morally allowed to be complete inappropriate and downright offensive when it’s in English.  The kids did dances and skits for their talent shows and there was swearing, murder, suicide, gang beatings, sex, if its offensive it was there. And to make it all better the theme was Christmas. I was shocked but everyone was super chill and didn’t even notice.

The next day we played a few games around camp and then got on the bus for the five hour drive back. Once again I had no idea where I was going. So I just decided I wanted to go home. So I grabbed a taxi outside the AYC offices and headed to the bus terminal. There I called my host mom who was trying to get me to take this company of bus no one could find, so I just went to Information and told them where I wanted to go and they help me buy a ticket and walked me to my bus. It was strange though because my ticket was half the regular price. I got on the bus and told my mom that I was on a bus that the Info people recommended. she started panicking, so I handed the phone to some very confused looking Thai guy and he told her what bus I was on, because honestly, I had no idea. Turns out it was the right bus company just second class. All  that means is that it would make more stops taking me longer to get home but it was already 8pm so, what difference did it make if I arrived home at 12 or 4. None to me. So I cuddled up and fell asleep courtesy of my sleep mask and earplugs. I woke up around four am just in time to get off at my stop.

When I got off in my little village there were a bunch of creepy men standing outside the temple who kept yelling at me. So I called my host mom to ask her to come pick me up but of course she didn’t answer so I walked home at 4 am through my village. This was fine and dandy until we got to the house beside mine with its nasty dogs that always try to attack me. The dog was trying to bite me so I ran to my gate and slammed it shut. For some reason the later at night the crazier the dogs are. I walked up to my front door to find it locked. LOVELY. So I sat outside for about forty minutes until one of the aunt’s woke up and came and woke my Grandmother up, who then opened the door for me. I slept that whole day.

On Wednesday, I went in town to see the Princess who was coming through. My host mom was so excited. She told me the princess was not a human but a  Goddess and that she helps everyone and is so very kind. She was in town to give out the degrees at the local university and would be coming through town to see the students. I went in to town around lunch and found my host mom standing along the streets with all the students. All the students sat in rows on the side of the road and the school soldiers lined the streets. I was expecting like a parade or something because they had cleared the streets but no. there were 8 ambulances that sped by then, a few cars then about five police cars. These cars sped by, going at least 60km/h. Then all the students stood up and started walking back to school. My host mom turned to me and said did you see her, she was sitting in the back of the car with the blue flag.  I said no, and honestly I doubt anyone actually saw her she was traveling so damn fast. But oh well at least we were graced by her presence, right?

Then today Friday, I spent cooking ALLL DAY!! Last night I made a late run to the grocery store after spending yesterday picking through online recipes. Then today I woke up early and using my families newly discovered mini convection cooker, I baked 2 apple pies and one sugar pie. Two dozen maple cookies and I made devilled eggs. Next week, I am going to cook my family a huge Christmas dinner, with tourtiere,  mashed potatoes, vegetables, pie, cookies, egg nog, and anything else Christmas-y I can think of. Today was just a trial but everything turned out so lovely, so I am bringing it to share with my friends tomorrow.


Well that’s it for now. TaTah!

Xoxo Chantel <3

Chapter 36

Wow, I have been so busy, that I haven’t blogged in like 2 weeks AGAIN!! Gosh, and I promised myself I wouldn’t be one of those bloggers who just sorta gave up, I promised myself I would stick through it and blog this WHOLE EXPERIENCE! I promise you that I am trying my best, seriously, but with traveling all over the place and having limited packing space and limited strength ( laptops are heavy), its HARD! I will try and do my best though.

Ok so where did we leave off in this story? Oh yes, right before I left for the Chang Rai Conference.

Ahheemmm…

“ Chapter 36: Chang Mai, Mae Sai and a whole lotta Bus. So our story continues with our beloved Chantel boarding a night bus for Chang Mai, ( Not Chang Rai as expected), with her second host mom, and second host brother Junior, at 5pm on Thursday, December 8th. As she sits down and looks around, her host mom, comes and insists she sits by herself on the opposite side of the aisle and not with her host brother Junior. Chantel was extremely confused, she had just sat down in the first available seat, she didn’t mean to cause any drama, so she picked up her stuff and shuffled across the aisle to the lone seat. While she settled in and got comfortable she realized she forgot her Ipod. So she grabs her computer and flips it open to turn on Itunes, but then realizes her laptop is at 12% battery and she has no earphones. So she shoves her laptop back in her bag and looks out the window, waiting for the 13 hour bus ride to be over.

Around three am she is woken up by her head smashing off the window as the bus rounded a sharp turn. She was wide awake and had no interest in trying to sleep in such rough terrain, it would just leave her with a head ache. So she sat up and watched the mountains pass. It was one of those serene moments you never forget. When you realize that you are seeing and experiencing something so beautiful. Picture it from her perspective, driving through the huge tropical mountains on a dark night bus, being the only foreigner on the bus and the only person awake, the perfect silence letting your thoughts wander as you marvel on the fact that you at sixteen are in the mountains of Thailand on a night bus headed to Chang Mai. How many people can say that. It’s one of those moments when Chantel truly realizes why she is here, doing what she does.

Around six am, the bus pulled into the Chang Mai Bus Station. Chantel was so excited to get on the bus to Chang Rai. She was so excited to see her exchange student family again, the last time officially until  April. It was going to be such an awesome weekend. Unfortunately, it is the Thai way to never follow plans and kinda, in western opinion make things more complicated. So Chantel found herself in some strangers apartment at 6am in Chang Mai, no where near her friends. First off she was upset because she found out a) the conference wasn’t even in Chang Rai but Mae Sai, a small town on the border of Burma and B) because Chang Mai was five hours from Mae Sai. She was so confused as to why her host mom made her travel all the way to Chang Mai and not straight to Mae Sai, it could have saved them five hours of driving. But as Chantel and every exchange student on earth has learned its best not to argue or question your host parents, just smile and nod and pretend you are the happiest person in the world.

It wasn’t all bad, later in the morning  Chantel and her host family went and visited three different temples and Museum, before boarding a bus to Mae Sai. Once again on the bus, she found her mom segregating her and host brother. This made Chantel uncomfortable because she felt as though her host mom thought badly of her. She wanted to say, “ look, I am not going to try and corrupt your son with my crazy foreign ways or anything weird like that, ok? I am a normal person, I have no interest in him other than a friend and sibling.” But that would come off as highly rude and inappropriate so she kept her mouth closed and sat the five hour bus ride in silence. Her lovely, host mom even insisted that Chantel keep the AC blowing on her in full even though she was freezing cold. Every time Chantel would try and close the little vent her host mom would reopen it and say” Mai Chai, you need cold air.” Once again, this made Chantel feel insanely uncomfortable because now she was cold and her host mom was forcing her to have the AC on.

When they arrived in Mae Sai, Chantel wanted to run and find her friends, her host mom was starting to drive her a little insane as you can imagine. When they got off the bus, Chantel spotted another young foreigner and asked where she was from and if she was here for the Rotary Conference. It turns out the girls name was, Stephanie, and she was indeed her for the conference but she was a day early and needed someone to hang out. Perfect, thought Chantel, I need someone to distract me from my host mother. So Stephanie came back to the hotel Chantel and her host family were staying at and got her self a room. That leads to  the bedroom situation. Chantel found out she would be staying with her host family instead of rooming with other exchange students and she wasn’t even in the same hotel as the other exchange students. As you can imagine, Chantel, was upset by this and decided once she found the other exchange students, they would figure something out. That night she went out with Stephanie and her host family, for dinner and to wander around.

The next morning, Chantel woke up at 8 am and got dressed in a pair of black shorts and a white and black t-shirt. Her host mom walks in and says, “you need to shower.” Chantel was offended because she didn’t feel that her host mom had the right to tell her to bathe especially since she had bathed the night before. So she jumped in  and showered quickly, keeping her hair dry, because it was freezing cold out. Then she walked out of the bathroom and her host mom said, “ I don’t like what you are wearing , its not pretty, put on the dress you had on yesterday.” Chantel was pissed, who was her host mom to tell her what to wear and she had worn that dress yesterday, it was gross, smelly it had been sat in for five hours on a bus, she didn’t want to wear that. But she did, yep she went and put on her dress and basically ran to the conference hall. On the way down, she passed a hotel with some exchange students outside, when she found out her friends were inside she took off running. To say the least Chantel, might have a difficult time with her second host mom.

When she arrived in side she ran and jumped into her friends arms, she was so excited to see them all again. Immediately they started figuring out where everyone was staying and who had rooms to themselves. The last thing they wanted was to stay with their host families. Chantel found out her friend Jacquie had a room to herself, so they decided to have Chantel move in with her. They rushed to find Chantel’s Host mom and ask for her permission. They didn’t see a problem with it, the town was tiny and there were Rotarians everywhere. There had to be at least 50 in Jacquie’s hotel including her Host father and councellor. So I went and asked my host mom and she was very worried. She had to meet my friends host father, had to call my current host mom and then sit and think about it for a while. It was ridiculous. Chantel was so frustrated, It’s only one night, she thought, and there are Rotarians everywhere. For God’s Sake Jacquie’s host dad is looking at you like your insane, your making such a big deal about this. After consulting with Jacquie’s Host Dad about if my dress was nice enough, the poor guy just nodded and quietly slipped away, she finally said yes. So Jacquie and Chantel, ran legitimately ran, back to Chantel’s hotel to grab all her stuff and move in to Jacquie’s room. For the record all the other exchange students were wearing ripped jean short shorts and t-shirts, normal clothing.

That day Rotary had nothing planned for the exchange students so they wandered around Mae Sai taking advantage of the incredibly cheap prices and marveling about how they were only a few steps from BURMA!! One of the memorable quotes was when giving directions and people would say,” Just walk away from Burma and you’ll see me.” Its not very often that one can say that. That night was equally exciting for the exchange students, they had a banquet dinner to attend with the Rotarians but their tables weren’t even in the banquet hall they were outside. So the exchange students, couldn’t see any of the presentations or shows. Of course, the exchange students, just left, especially after reading the menu. Shark fin soup? No, Thanks.

They decided they wanted to go out for the night with the other district exchange students, who were staying in a hotel about a kilometer and a half outside of town. So thirty some odd exchange students wandered out to this hotel with all these other exchange students.  Little did they know this would be one of the biggest mistakes they could make. The other district’s rotary was strict, they had guards and weren’t allowed to go out. So Chantel and the exchange student’s snuck into their hotel. Once they realized how serious their Rotary was, Chantel and her friends left and found a club down the road. The thing is Chantel’s Rotary is really laid back and they are allowed to go out to clubs and stuff but if another Rotary district gets involved who knows what could happen. So Chantel and her friends realized this and took off. Eventually almost all the exchange students ended up at the club. They had a good time dancing and teaching Thai people Western Music and dance styles. After the club closed Chantel and her friend L.J walked back to the hotel. When Chantel arrived back in her room she found that her friends, Annie and Ashlee had also joined in Rooming with Jacquie. For the record every single time there had been a Rotary event these four ladies had roomed together, it was now tradition. They had mastered the sleeping two people in a single bed technique and even had a good little morning ritual knowing that Chantel usually woke up first and Jacquie last. They all squished into the single beds and fell asleep instantaneously.

The next morning Annie had to leave at 7 am so, she left silently, while the other three slept. Around 11 am they all woke up, showered and packed up. They ended up having to run down to make the twelve check out. The rest of the day was spent wandering around town, shopping and sitting in this cute little coffee and cake shop. Around three pm, Chantel met up with her host mom and headed to Chang Mai again. Chantel was excited to get on the night bus and wake up the next morning home in Maha Sarakham. Unfortunately her host mom had other plans. They were to spend the night in Chang Mai at her host mom’s sisters house. Then leave the next night.

So when they arrived in Chang Mai, Chantel was exhausted. She figured she would get back to the house crawl in bed and read. Once again, there were different plans, Chantel’s host family decided to bring her to the famous Chang Mai night bazaar. The bazaar was really awesome and had really cool, north east tribal crafts, but Chantel had barely any money so she bought, an earring, a head band, a journal and a sleep mask. Her host mom bought her this awesome poncho, tribal style crop top thing. Chantel was super happy with the bazaar trip but exhausted and excited to crawl in bed.  Of course, that wasn’t going to happen, I mean it was 10 pm who goes to bed at 10 pm? Thai people don’t they dragged Chantel’s exhausted butt to diner, at this cute little restaurant were you sat on the edge of the roof with your feet sticking off the sides and ate at a little ledge. After dinner they finally headed home.

To Chantel’s excitement, she would not only be sharing a room with her beloved host mom but a bed too. Trust me, I don’t think Chantel could have slept any closer to the edge of the bed. Half her body was hanging off, but she just wasn’t feeling comfortable with sharing a bed with her host mom, it was just awkward.

The next morning Chantel woke up late and had breakfast, then headed out to go ride an elephant. Yes, you read that right, RIDE AN ELEPHANT. After driving around picking up and dropping off random people  for three hours, they ended up at the elephant park. Chantel was asked to ride the elephant with this random lady and little girl. Which was fine with her, she was just so psyched to be riding an elephant. So she went for a surprisingly slow elephant ride for half an hour . She was surprised at how slow elephants, walked and felt really bad for riding the elephant. She didn’t like to see him get poked in order to move and didn’t like to be supporting a company the exploited animals, but she also knew it was one of those things you have to do in Thailand, so she admired the beauty of the animal and tried to quiet her animal activist mind. After the ride was over she sat and waited with the lady for two hours until her host mom came back and got her.

Then they headed over to the bus station to head home. While boarding the bus Chantel made sure to choose the seat farthest from her host brother and settled in with her sleep mask and ear plugs for a peaceful journey. Unfortunately, Chantel found herself unable to sleep that whole night. So once again she looked out the window for 13 hours and enjoyed the view of the mountains.”

Well kiddies, that’s all for today, I know you want to hear more, but this post is already overwhelmingly long as it is. There is much more to come I promise.

Xoxox Chantel <3

PS Happy Holidays Everyone and Thank You So Much for the gifts!!!

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas...palm trees, hot weather and Go-GO bars

Dear Blog,

 Do you have any idea how hard it is to write a post when some much has happened and every time you go to write a new post you can’t because something else is happening? Well, I am sure you don’t because you are not an actual being but let me tell you it’s a lot to keep up with.  So instead of being really precise and nice like I usually am I am going to blunt and mean and just put it all out there.

 I think I left off last time around Pattaya.

Pattaya:

Pattaya is where I spent the 24-27^th of November, with my fellow Rotary Exchange students. We were there to help raise money for the flood victims of Thailand. Like anything in Thailand it was poorly organized, and we were basically allowed to run around free range in the sex trade capital of the sex trade capital of the world. Boo ya? Of course within two hours of arriving two of my friends had some Thai guys threatening to call the police on them because they supposedly had damaged so Jet skis,( they didn’t it was just a scam of course), they luckily called on of their host dads and got off fine. A few hours later after hitting up every international food chain we could find we went back to the hotel for a Rotary meeting where they told us we were allowed to go out at night as long as we didn’t break any D’s and were not brought home by the cops, if any of the aforementioned happened we would be sent home. Yep, that’s Rotary Thailand, encouraging us to explore Thailand’s Red Light District. That night we all made our way down to Walking Street, IE, Sex Trade Alley and explored. Interesting fact about night clubs in Thailand, the big expensive ones card, while strip clubs, go-go bars and the smaller ones don’t. We unfortunately wandered into a few strip clubs and go-go bars, and swiftly left once we saw what they had to offer. In the end all of the exchange students ended up at a small nearly empty club. That was until 35 exchange students filled it up. We danced the night away.

The next morning we woke up had breakfast, went back to sleep, woke up later walked in a parade to raise money, then performed in an ill-advised and organized talent show that was more embarrassing than anything. We were then free for the day. I took this time to take advantage of the Farang (foreigner) - friendly shopping in some name brand, (hello, Top shop), stores.  Later I went back to the hotel and hung out with my friends while we got dressed up for dinner. Dinner was very long and boring but we were faithful little exchange students and stayed till the very end. Just putting this out there, 90% of the Thai people left an hour in, but stayed strong and well half asleep. That night we skipped out on the Go-go bars and strip clubs and went straight to our little unknown club. It was another fun night of dancing.

The next day we woke up late and wandered around town, making sure to take advantage of the farang-friendly grocery store that had fresh sour-dough bread, lemonade and Campbell’s canned soup. Then I took the lovely night bus home.

The week after:

I did nothing.

The weekend after:

I went on a tour of Maha Sarakham, the province where I live with my host mom and her matieme one, (sixth grade) class. That was enjoyable yet long. I really enjoyed this park full of monkey we went to because well who doesn’t love monkeys and this giant monument representing the ancient town. The bus ride was long though because I was shoved in the back of this gross bus with fifty twelve year old Thai girls, so around the maturity of  nine year old Canadian girl. It was nice to get out of the house though. On Sunday I cleaned my room and started packing for the end of the month when I change host families.

Monday:

Was the kings birthday, a.k.a exchange student sleep all day, err day.

Today:

Today I woke up and went to my cooking classes at the vocational college. Sara and I made Tom Yum Goong, a type of soup consisting of lemon grass, garugal, some herbs, chilli paste mushrooms, shrimp, and coconut milk. We also made deep fried omelette and a banana dish consisting of boiled banana’s sugar and coconut milk. It was all very delicious. We were finished around 10 am so we hopped on a bus and headed to Khon Kean. We decided to try and get into the Christmas spirit by ordering Christmas Themed drinks at Starbucks and drinking them HOT, not iced. We then sat outside beneath the artificial Christmas tree and shut our eyes and pretended we were cold. I sang a few Christmas carols as loud as I could while wondered aloud about whether all Canadians were so strange.  We then found a store with a 70% off sale and normal sizing, no way a Christmas miracle and a half if you ask me. So we tried on a million different items and terrorized the staffing by trying to get them to put something on hold.  I received a phone around then by a lady from AYC English camps, asking me to join in on some camps this month. I get paid 1000 baht a day as an honorarium and it’s with a bunch of other exchange students. My host mom said it was fine and will call her tomorrow for all the details. After that we wandered around until we wandered right by the Gelato place. Now I don’t know if I have told you about Sara, and her fierce hatred towards bad imitation Italian food, which Thailand is full of. She won’t even let me eat a pizza here, because she says, it’s all wrong and a disgrace to her country. So when we saw this she had to try it out. I have eaten the gelato from here a million times and think it is exceptionally delicious, even better than Kawartha ;). So now it was being put up to the ultimate test an actual Italian. While she did say it was good she said the Italians make it better. We finished off our day by finding me a new bag and then heading home.

 When I got home there was a glorious package waiting for me from CANADA!!! The first of my Mom’s Christmas, Packages had arrived, while it was kinda sad to have to see all my Christmas presents just sitting in a pile in my room with no tree or loving family around them, it was still super exciting. The best part? The unwrapped allergy meds. I also received a slip telling me my lovely, new laptop from Grandma Molly, had come in, A huge Thank you to Grandma Molly for that. All you blog readers out there owe her a thank you too, because without that new laptop these posts would not become regular again. And now I am sitting in my kitchen enjoying some vegetarian Indian food that my host family whipped up by chance. How that for starting to feel a lot like Christmas... well it’s a start.

My plan for the upcoming few days includes spending the night at my friend Sara’s house tomorrow, for her birthday and heading to Chang Rai, a city way up north on Thursday. Best part about this next adventure, it’s so foreign I have to take malaria pills. Well, I hope it snows down hard on you all and the ski slopes start to shape up. My Christmas gift to you all is a little bit of my courage and bravery and a challenge for you all to try snowboarding.

Xoxo Chantel