BANGKOK BOUND AGAIN!!!

Guess what? In two days I head back to Bangkok. Now I posted last Friday about how I was leaving on Saturday morning at six am to go to Bangkok and I did, so here I am to tell you about last weekend.

So I woke up bright and early at 5:40 am to go to meet my councilor at my school at 6am. I arrived promptly at 6am and no one was there. Around 6:20am my councilor arrived and around 7:20am all the students and teachers had arrived and we were able to leave. We drove to Bangkok in about 5 and a half hours and made three stops to eat along the way. The weird part is I have been to Bangkok five times and every other time has taken me 7-8 hours. I honestly don’t want to know what speed we drove down there at.

We arrived in Bangkok around 12, then took about an hour to find a place to park. My councilor brought me to the Grand Palace and to Wat Phra Kaeo. The Grand Palace Interior was closed and  my councilor was to hot to walk around so I wandered around quickly and took some pictures, but it is so beautiful, I want to go back next week some time and just sit and sketch or something.

Next after sitting and drinking water and coconut on the side walk for an hour, we went to Wat Pho, the temple where the Famous RECLINING BUDDHA resides. The weird thing is if you ask Thai people about Wat Pho they just mention how they give really good massages here, they say nothing and some don’t even know ( like my councilor) about the FREAKING GIANT BUDDHA!!  Thailand is so strange. Next we took a ferry across the river the Wat Somethingorother and I climbed up the bazillion steep steps in a floor length skirt with a 20 some odd pound backpack in 90+ degree weather. Yeah, about that… I did however get to sign my name in both Thai and English at the top on a big gold banner. Then I very carefully and slowly hiked back down.

Next we took a river taxi to a random pier where we then caught a taxi to Siam Paragon. My friends Melissa and Alejandro were in Bangkok that night, so I met up with them at Siam Paragon and we went out for dinner then down to Khao San Road. I am sure I have talked about Khao San Road a ton but honestly, I love it there. During the day it sells like hippy clothing, used books and travel equipment. Down little allies you can find youth hostels or Thai people selling the coolest things. Then at night it completely switches and almost magically food vendors appear from everywhere. The road is closed down and tables are set up on the side walks with people selling drinks for super cheap. There are night clubs in every basement , street performers and people are everywhere. Khao San is notorious for backpackers and the younger crowd, but  you can find people of all age and rank there. Its really quite the spot.

I spent the night at one of our friend’s Host Brothers Condos and woke up early the next morning to go to J.J. Market. J.J. Market is this 36 acre, hot as hell and crazy as it too giant market, that sells honest too god everything. I spent all morning there sweating like crazy and trying to find my way around. I ended up only seeing a  tiny a bit of the market because I got so lost and just kept making circles. That was no problem though because every time around I would spot something new. I bought 7 pairs of dangly earrings for three dollars!! Isn’t that crazy and I bought a long Maxi Dress to wear to temple for nine dollars! Around 2 I met up with my councilor and we went home arriving around 10 pm.

On Thursday I head back up to Bangkok for at least 2 weeks and at the most 4 weeks. I am volunteering at an English Camp in Khorat from the 2-4 and then another camp from the 12-14. My friend Ashlee is hopefully going to come and visit around Bangkok with me for a week or two and do the second camp with me, but as usual Rotary is doing the least Possible to make this easy on us.  We keep telling them like you need to talk to each other, but they are like no, make so and so call me, or yes I will call them later, but it is later. So we will keep trying but who knows.

I have a busy day planned for tomorrow, I have to make a student card at Phadungnaree school, meet with my councillor at Sarakham Pittyakom School, go to my second host families house and see if my packages have arrived, go to the mall to buy a new reusable water bottle and I want to visit the new café in town for lunch. Try doing this much running around in 90+ degree heat with out a car…. Yep, welcome to my life!

Xoxo Chantel <3

P.S. I added 29 new photos on my Tumblr, check them out. Also, let me know how you viewing my pictures on Tumblr is working. If you are having any problems or find it a hassle.

http://132daysofadventure.tumblr.com/

Love/Hate

My love/hate relationship with Thailand.

I know I posted in my last post about how my exchange in Thailand has been quite difficult for me and I honestly go from having one of the worst days in my life to the best and it’s a very hard cycle to deal with. After having a particularly good weekend in Bangkok, I am back in Maha Sarakham with good vibes all around. While in a good mood I decided to share with you exactly why  Thailand and I have this love/hate relationship.

How My Mind feels about Thailand:

Love: In my mind, I love Thailand. I love how laid back of a country it is and I love the way it has changed  me and helped me to become a different person. I love that  Thailand and these times will always be in my memories, to revisit. I love that I am strong enough to be here and to go through all this.

Hate: CULTURE!! Gosh, I know it is a cultural exchange and I guess I just assumed I would like the culture but boy, was I wrong. The culture and societies norms drive me mad. Everyday the culture questions my morals and makes me feel down right uncomfortable. I hate that Thailand is still highly gender bias, I hate  that Thailand considers you a child until you have graduated from university or wed. I hate that they don’t think the same way we do, they are very closed minded and it drives me mad.

How My Body feels Thailand:

Love: I love how my skin is so tan and healthy. I love how my hair is so light. I love how I get to wear shorts and t-shirts everyday, soaking up the heat. I love the way my body feels after snacking on delicious fruit instead of junk food.  I love how you can always go for long walks because the weather is always nice.

Hate: I hate how I have to take diarrhea meds almost daily. I hate how I have to take allergy meds daily. I hate how I do not get enough sleep. I hate how the pollution in the air causes acne. I hate how even a trip to the end of the drive way will turn your feet black from all the dirt and dust. I hate how I am constantly covered in mosquito bites and have become more reactive to them and swell up like a balloon.

How My Eyes see Thailand:

Love: I love how everyday its sunny with bluebird skies. I love how my eyes are constantly observing new things. I love how there is always a palm tree or tropical flower and sight. I love how you can always see massive butterflies. I love being able to watch people from all different walks of life live a life very different than my own.

Hate: I hate how there is garbage every where. I hate how old fat Thai men walk around with the shirt pulled up so that their belly’s hang out. I hate how people watch me with blatant disregard to boundaries. I hate how dirty everything is.

How My Ears hear Thailand:

Love: I love the sound of Body Slam, the only ok Thai Band. I love the sound of the very rare but beloved Silence.

Hate: Thailand is a very loud country with no noise by-laws and I hate it. I hate the sounds of roosters in the morning. I hate the sound of  the trucks that place announcement extremely loud and drive around streets regardless of the hours. I hate how Thai girls talk at an impossibly high decibel. Don’t even get me started on most Thai music.

How My Nose smells Thailand:

Love: I love the smell of the food. I love the smell of the flowers. I love the smell of the shops.
Hate: I hate when it randomly smells like sewage, and this happens a lot.

How My Mouth Tastes Thailand:

Love: I love chili!! I love fruit!! I love kow mon gai, chicken on oily rice!! I love kow neow mat muang, sticky rice, mangos and sweetened coconut milk!!! I love Tom Yum Goong. spicy chili shrimp soup!! I love kow pat, fried rice!! I love Som Tam, spicy papaya Salad!! I love saparot and gleu-a prique, pineapple and chili salt!! I love bahmi (Chinese noodle)!! I love gang keow wan, green curry!! I love  gang pet,  red curry!! I love gloo ay boo at chee, boiled bananas in coconut milk! I love glooay tort, fried banana  in batter!! I love Kai jee o, Thai omelet!! I love Kow lahm, sticky rice steamed inside bamboo!! I love tort man gung , fried shrimp cakes!!!

Hate:
I hate fish sauce!

That’s it for now.

Xoxo Chantel <3

Bangkok Bound

 Tomorrow, I am heading to Bangkok for the night with my councilor. Yeah 7 hours down, spend one night and return…. But hey, its something to do. My councilor told me she would try and bring me to THE GRAND PALACE and some temples. Plus I asked if we could go to this 30 some odd acre market. So hopefully, we make it there too.

Tomorrow I will wake up at six and go to the school to meet my councilor. Its currently around 10pm and I haven’t even packed! In my defense I have only been home for half an hour. Then I am supposed to go up to Bangkok from like the 2nd til the 26th of March. I have mixed feelings about this for three reasons.

THE THREE REASONS I HAVE MIXED FEELINGS ABOUT LIVING IN BANGKOK FOR A MONTH:

#1. Its expensive to live in Bangkok, really expensive.
#2. I JUST bought a gym membership because I have gained 20 pounds since coming here and this worries me. Plus Bangkok has soo much delicious food. How will I ever resist?
#3. That’s kinda a long time.

But you know me I have a solution to all of lifes little problems.

Solution #1:  DO NOT SHOP!
Solution# 2: YOU WILL HAVE NO MONEY TO BUY FOOD.
Solution # 3: Invite friends to join you.

The deciding factor is laying on the friends because I really dislike being in Bangkok with out friends because then boredom makes me break solutions 1 and 2.

I updated MORE pictures on Tumblr, here is the link. I will post about my weekend later.

http://132daysofadventure.tumblr.com/

And hey email me guys if you want a letter or something, because now would be the time to tell me!!

Xoxo Chantel <3

PICTURES

 Hey guys, so I know that now a days it is soo hard to keep up with all the social networking sites and trying to remember each sites individual use, well don't even get me started. i mean you have twitter, myspace, facebook, blogger, tumblr and email. It's enough to write a whole text book about.

Luckily for you I am doing my best to keep it all pretty simple, so I recently added pictures to my tumblr blog and I want you to see them.

Here is a link, please note it is to page 2 of the tumblr so start there and go forward to page one to see all the pictures.
http://132daysofadventure.tumblr.com/

Thanks guys I hope you enjoy!!

xoxo Chantel <3

I have not been run over by an elephant

Dear world,

According to my mother, all of my loyal readers assume that I have been kidnapped by sea gypsies or run over by an elephant when I do not post weekly. THAT IS NOT THE CASE! I am healthy, happy and enjoying my time in Thailand.

February has been a hard month for me. I had a new family, and was bored out of my mind. I was convinced my exchange was over and I wanted to go home. Thailand is a very DIFFICULT country to live in. This had taken its toll on me. Thanks to the help of my family, Rotary and ASHLEE ( a.k.a My savior who would meet me everyday and just talk with me,) I have been moved houses once again and Rotary helped get me involved in activities again.

First off I moved to a new family who is one of those pro/con situations. They have their very goods and their very bads.

Pro:
- Live near the gym, boxing arena and a pool.
Con:
-Live a fifteen minute bus ride from town.
Pro:
- I am allowed to attend my new host brothers school and make new friends.
Con:
-I am SUPPOSED to be on summer break.
Pro:
- My host mom speaks Thai to me.
Con:
- She also has crazy rules.
Pro:
- I go to boxing again three times a week.
Con:
- Ha there are no cons when it comes to boxing.
Pro:
- I have a big room!
Con:
-I am not allowed friends over.
Pro:
-I am on the bus route to Khon Kean
Con:
-My host mom is very protective and doesn’t like when I travel.

So, you know there is a good and bad to everything and I understand that now. Kinda like when I wanted to go home so bad, I made a pros and cons list. It looked like this.

Pro:
-See family and friends
-go to school again
-be in a lovely English speaking western country <3

Cons:
-Do not complete exchange
-No bragging rights ( I.E. Well, I lived in Thailand for ten months so HA!)
- Missing two trips.
- Missing spending time with exchange students who I may never see again.

There is good and bad to everything. The thing is to find the good and hold on to it.
Right now I am in the midst of trying to plan a trip down south, to help break up the next three and a half months. I am trying to go with three of my friends down to Koh Samui an island in the south of Thailand that is renown for its gorgeous beaches.

That’s it that is happening in my life.

Thanks for reading everyone, my mom tells me people actually read this blog and actually ask her about me. THAT’S AWESOME!

Xoxox Chantel <3

Khon Kean Night Market ( Adventure Two and Three)

So as you know if following my tumblr I planned to spend Saturday in Khon Kean with my friend Ashlee and then we were going to spend the night at Nick/ Mamma Kai's house and go to the night market.  So Saturday morning I wake up at 6:45 AM because I am so excited to go buy my new board. I realize the mall doesn't open til ten and my friends don't get up until noon, so I sit around for a while. At around 10:30, I start walking to the bus station.

My councillor pulls up witha  truck load of kids and tells me to get in.So I do. I tell her I am going to Khon Kean and she says oh so are we. Awesome, I have a ride, I think as we drive off.

Around 2:30pm after going to a restaurant and listening to thai kids sing karaoke for hours and then chant for an hour, I finally arrive at the mall in Khon Kean.

 I run over to the skate shop and buy my new board. YEAHH!!! Then I head home to Mamma Kai's to meet up with Nick. When I arrive my friends Melissa and Alejandro are already there and ask me if I want to try and audition for Thailand's Got Talent. I agreed and  we headed up to Mamma Kai's studio to take some cover shots for our registration. This resulted in a hilarious photo shoot involving four crazy farangs and a purple feather background.

One our pictures were taken, we headed over to the hotel where the auditions were taking place to register. Unfortunately, you have  to be a Thai citizen. We found this really upsetting and had my friend Nick fake cry and ever thing but they still rejected us.

Nick and I met up with our friends Emo and Ashlee and headed over to the mall for a delicious and expensive american style dinner at this amazing restaurant called Sizzler. For 179 baht, you can order the salad bar and they have a bunch of different salads, fruits and vegetables, pasta, soups and desert. This is also the cheapest item on the menu. Did I mention its all you can eat? Yeah well we ate til we felt sick, then waited a bit then ate more. After that we headed down to Starbucks for our comfort food and their lovely plush sofa's. 

Around seven Ashlee and I headed to the night market, and the boys headed home. The night market in Khon Kean is awesome. They have so many vintage and antique sellers and its sooo cheap. Unfortunately, after my new board and expensive dinner, I was broke. I did have enough to buy a new scarf though.

We were lucky because for some reason they had this special feature called Art Lane which featured all the local artisans work. IT WAS AWESOME! The art was so good and the people were just good vibe people, ya know. It was like the Thai hippies and hipsters, a fun crowd I must say. All along the road they had different area's set up to try different art forms.

 Once, we finished checking out the art, Ashlee and I sat and watched the local break dancers perform a bit before heading home to Mamma Kai's.

 We put on our P.J's and apparently, I fell asleep within the first five minutes of Mean Girls.

This morning we woke up around 10am and skyped some of Ashlee's friends. Around 1pm we all headed back to Sizzler's for some more salad and soup. I had a genius moment when I figured mixing the kidney beans from the salad part with the spaghetti sauce and sprinkling a little cheese on top makes  chili.  It was awesome because the waiters brought us extra cheese bread and then didn't charge us, which is good because we didn't order it and just had enough to pay for what we ordered. 

After we went outside to soak up the sun and try out my new board. OOOOOOOOOooooooOOOOOOoooo that board is my new best friend. I named it Fitzgerald and he rides amazingly. I wish you could have seen the reactions I was getting as I rode past all these people on my board. First off, skateboarding isn't very common in Thailand, Long boarding is basically unheard off and girls  just would never do such a thing. Then there is this strange young farang cruising in and out of people on this weird looking skateboard. Aha I loved it. People usually stare but now at least they had a reason.

We were supposed to spend tonight at Nick's again but I guess there was a miscommunication which resulted on me having to leave Mamma Kai's abruptly with 5 minutes to catch the last bus to Sarakham. I did catch it and am now home safe and sound.

Tomorrow's adventure: Go LONG BOARDING :D

xoxoxo Chantel <3

132 days of Adventure

 Ok here is the link. Right now the blog SUCKS because I haven't been on any of my 132 adventures. Bookmark it or something. Thanks guys.

http://132daysofadventure.tumblr.com/

xoxox Chantel <3

Dancing Queen, young and sweet, only SEVENTEEN

 Wow, guess who’s SEVENTEEN. ME!! Feel free to express post me a cane and dentures, because damn, that’s old. I had an amazing weekend. My three bestest friends in Thailand came down to my small town of Maha Sarakham on the Friday before my birthday. We had such a wonderful time, just because we were together. We ate a delicious western lunch at this restaurant, I am always to cheap to buy anything but a drink at and then went back to my house. We just talked and chilled in my room until around  7pm when my family made us leave and go to the fair, because they were going out for dinner. So we attended this giant red cross fundraiser/market/fair/carnival/concert thing in my town. It was alright but basically you just had to buy things and well exchange students are broke. So we went and watched a Thai show which was cool for about five minutes until we realized it was just the same girl singing in Thai so we left and walked home. We went to seven eleven and loaded up on junk food then went home and stayed up all night talking. IT WAS SOOO NORMAL!

The next day we headed down to Khon Kean a city about 45 minutes away from Maha Sarakham, to meet up with friends and go out for some more delicious food. We hung out and went to Shabu-shi. Shabu -Shi is this restaurant where you have a hot shabu pot in the middle of your table with two types of soup broth and there is a conveyor belt that encircles the restaurant passing by every table with raw ingredients on it. You grab the ingredients and cook them in your soup broth. They also have a sushi bar and an ice-cream bar. I am not going to lie it is my favorite chain restaurant in Thailand. It is also one of the most expensive, 300 baht. Now for comparison an average Thai dinner from a street vendor cost 30 baht, and average Thai dinner from a Thai restaurant 100 baht. So, yeah quite the difference, but it is sooo worth it.

After that Jacquie, Annie and I headed back to Maha Sarakham and my friend Ashlee headed home. When we got home we had a delicious normal pizza. ( normal pizza is a rare commodity in Thailand because Thai people always put very strange things on their pizza like hot dogs, shrimp corn, mayonnaise, ketchup, yeahh…) Then once again we had a very normal western teenager night of lying around eating junk food in bed while talking about random things.

Well, we didn’t talk about that random of topics, it was rather predictable. We talked about how it is so insane that our exchange is over half over. We talked about how the next two months are going to be hard because we have no planned trips or exchange student get together and it is very lonely. We talked about how once we get to April, time will fly so fast with our two big trips. We talked about our worries for going home. How we are worried that our friends haven’t changed. We are worried that while we have all grown up so much, our friends will still be exactly the same. We talked about how excited we are to go home to those same friends anyways because we miss them like crazy. We talked about the first meal we want to eat when we get home and how nice it is going to be to have your own room again, with all of your stuff. We talked about how even though we are going home, we will leave soon again because this exchange has made us realize we want to travel the world.

The next day we woke up late and walked to the bus station and sent Annie and Jacquie home. I went home and went to sleep because I was exhausted. My host sister woke me up at seven saying we were having a party with my councilor and my other host parents. I was tired and kind of mad they didn’t tell me. But I got dressed and went down and smiled like a good exchange student. This was rather hard because they kept discussing, how they thought I was so homesick and how they thought I had gained so much weight. They were talking in Thai too, so they thought I couldn’t understand. This really hurt me, once I finally am starting to feel happy and content in Thailand they are convinced I am miserable and keep trying to change my life. They think there is something wrong with me. Then they go and call me fat, which is so hard to hear because I have gained weight, but I have been trying so hard to eat healthy and exercise but Thai people only feed me junk food because I am a guest.  I rarely eat fruit or vegetables, not by choice, but because my family doesn’t buy them. It’s such a double standard. They call me fat, then bring me boxes and boxes of cookies.  It really messes with your mind.

The last week has been rather bad, because that birthday party upset me a lot. I thought I was doing so well, I thought I had adapted and created quite a good life for me and then I find out I am doing it wrong I guess. Host families are so complicated, especially in Thailand because they don’t treat you like family. They honestly have no idea how to treat you because their culture sees foreigners as like a whole different species. We are all just human, I do all the same things as your sixteen year old daughter. I do homework, I watch TV, I exercise, I play on face book and I sleep. There is nothing wrong with that. I am trying to live my life as normal as I can here, and it is really hard when my family treats me like I am some explosive mess. They tiptoe around waiting for me to break. They expect me to fail and to be homesick. I don’t like that feeling. I really don’t.

So, my friend Ashlee and I are meeting up in Khan Kean tomorrow to go eat some healthy  vegetarian food, walk around a lot and plan a trip for the end of this month down to the coast to visit all of our friends down there. I also decided this is only going to get better if I make it better. I decided to challenge myself to an adventure a day. That is 132 adventures, and I made a tumblr to blog about it so you can follow progress, if you want. If you are wondering why I don’t just blog it on here, Tumblr is wayyy easier to use for picture uploads than blogger.

That is all for now.

Xerox Chantel <3

P.S. Email me what you would do if you had a day in Thailand. Seriously, all of my family and friends just write me a quick email and I will try to do it.