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 24-27th 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
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