I want out of Thailand. Now.

I am starting to think that Thailand was not the right choice for me.

But who knows?  Maybe it is?  It is hard to tell when I am fucking locked in a house for days on end.

Read more...

Well, the dashboard melted, but we still had the radio...

I felt the need to blog again, haha.  No being pissed off at the world this time.  I am in the Land of Smiles, so I should smile, even if it is through my teeth, haha.

But seriously, I am in a considerably better mood than my previous blog shows.

Two days into my October break, and I am bored out of my mind.  All my Thai friends are still in school as they are testing until tomorrow.  After that, they will be going to study in BKK for a few weeks.  Thankfully, I will be leaving for BKK on October 9 and will be a tourist with my host father for a few days.  Unfortunately, my first day in BKK will consist of me taking a college entrance exam, WOOOOOOOOOOOO.

My last few days in Udonpit consisted of skipping class, dancing in the rain, dressing up in Thai dance garb, and drinking boba tea.

This is me being Thai:

Hahah.  I hated that day.  

Anyway, on to a different topic, friends!

Most exchange students seem to generally make more friends with other exchange students rather than the natives.  Maybe it is because I am the only exchange student in my Rotary club, but this is definitely not true for me.  At first, I was rather upset that I was placed in m. 5 (11th grade in America), but have made so many friends in class 5/19.  Generally, most days we go somewhere after school.  I sure love breaking the "no riding on motor scooters" rule! (But seriously, I do not understand how they could enforce this rule.  Motor scooters are the only way for a Thai student to get around.  Thais are not allowed to drive cars until they are 18, but even then, the only people I see driving cars are 30+ ).

My favorite thing to do after school is going to get som tam with my friends, followed by a nice trip to Central (six story mall with bowling, karaoke booth, arcade, and a movie theater on top) or a night market.

Or just going to Jane's house and hanging around while she sleeps; that is pretty fun too, hahaha.

Sorry that this blog is so haphazard, but I have no clue what to cover as I have done so much more than I have the patience to type, haha.

I really should start updating more frequently, but until I stop being so lazy.

Until later,

Sawatdee kha.

Read more...

SDFGASDFS

Note: I typed this in a notepad document and am just going to copy-paste. Excuse any language-usages errors; I did not proofread.

I really do not know what to write, but I thought I would update.
I was having the time of my life until I started noticing some things with both my friends in Thailand and my friends back home in America. Starting with my Thai friends, well...I cannot tell who is my real friend and who is just out to go around with an American. Thai people are very nice to your face, but, unfortunately, they might just go behind your back and talk about you. Unfortunately, they will also talk about you to someone else right in front of you. It is hard to discover it in this way; using your language barrier to your disadvantage. I think these people are forgeting that not only am I sitting IN FRONT OF YOU while you are saying these things about me, but also that I am an exchange student and one of the reasons I am here is to learn Thai. Yes, that does mean chan kao jai kun. Please stop talking about me. Please stop calling me fat. Please stop saying that my Thai sucks. Again, please stop talking about me. If you are going to insult me, direct it towards my face-in Thai or English, I do not care.

On the topic on my friends in America, where are you? Just because I am a few worlds apart does not give you right to ignore me completely. I almost ended up not going on an exchange because I thought I would miss my friends and guard too much. I guess I do not have friends to miss if those friends continue to ignore me.

Another thing-WHO the HELL laughs when someone is crying. I was sitting in front of my computer looking at pictures of my friends and I thinking, "Oh, how I wished these friend would try to get in touch. I miss guard. I miss my friends." Of course, this is laughing material for my family.

On to another complaint, I am tired of being so restrained. I am constantly locked IN the house. I have no freedom to the outside world unless someone is home. I love my host family and all, but I feel so restricted. I can understand this concern for my safety, but being locked in the house is not securing me anymore. What if the house caught on fire? There is a gate seperating me from the outside world.

This land of the Thais has opened my eyes wide to both positives and negatives. Unfortunately, at this moment, I do believe there are more negatives than positives. I do not know, maybe I am over-thinking everything. We will see how things get.

I have the whole of the month of October off. I will update from there.
Right now, I guess I should highlight on August and September, eh?
August:
-started school
-made some Thai friends (?)
-met the other exchange students
-went down to Pattaya and Bangkok for three days
-went to the beach
-went to an aquarium
-was in a fashion show thing with a famous Thai singer
-feed some monkeys (from hell)
-went to a cute bakery in Korat
-sang karaoke
-night market!
September:
-ORIENTATION
-met some cool (and not-so-cool) exchange students from around the world
-went to The Mall in Korat
-ate Japanese
-hung out with the Magkang kids
-went on a temple tour
-learned about Buddhism
-went to Sakon Nakhon.
-bought wine (hahah)
-went to the movie theater
-night market
-stayed overnight in a hospital

I have done so much and I should really be happy about everything I have done so far, but...

Well anyway, until next entry. Hopefully I will start updating more. Maybe.

Read more...

Yes, I am still quite alive.

Why, hello there.

It has been a while.

Quite honestly, I have no clue where I should start.

I have been here nearly a month now. Sometimes it feels like I have been here so much longer, but at the same time, it feels like I just got here.

It is what I expected? Hell no. It goes above and beyond.

This is going to be a good year.

Will update very soon and will continue updating on a regular basis from now on.

Read more...

Life, Luggage, and an Itinerary!

To begin, my classes are finally over.  My. Classes. Are. Finally. Over.
Well...except for gym, haha.  Once I complete that gym class, I will be done with high school forever.  Such a good feeling.

Haha.  I stopped writing for a minute to see if my grades were updated on eLion.  They were! ...Well, one was.  I received an A in Bio 110.  This will be put on my transcript as a 96%, I think, and will weight into my GPA as a 115.2%.  Not bad for a 4 credit class.

Three years of Biology classes.  Ho hum.

Oh, and I am still waiting on my English grade.  I am not all too worried about that one, though.

Anyway, on to much more interesting things, I am nearly all packed.  My luggage is really nice and spacious.

OK, done with that.  Final topic for today, kids, is my ITINERARY!!

Haha.  On the 27th of July, I will be flying from State College to Washington Dulles, and from there, I will be taking a 14 hr flight to Tokyo (Narita).  I will have about three hours in Tokyo, and then it is off to Bangkok.  I will arrive in Bangkok around 11:30 pm on the 28th and will probably end up staying there for the night...alone.  My host father is going to be buying me a plane ticket to Udon Thani and I do doubt they run flights that late.  Once I finally get to Udon?  Hello jet lag.  'Sup?

Well, that is all that has been interesting so far.  I should be getting my passport with my Visa and my tickets in the mall any day now.

I am going to stop counting down now because I put a ticker at the top of the page (cough 23 days cough).

I leave you with this picture of the Lake I took during a bike ride the other day as I have no where else to put it and there are no pictures in this blog.  Sawatdee ka. (:

Click to enlarge. (:

Read more...

Visa, Keyboard, and Books.

Wow, that sure is an attention-getting topic, haha.

Anyway, to begin, I received an email telling my Visa was received and Bokoff Kaplan sent it to me, along with my FLIGHT ITINERARY!!!  Haha.  Maybe I am getting too excited?  Nah.  Back on the subject, I should be receiving it via e-mail within the next day.

In other exciting news, I can officially type in Thai!  So far, I can type my name:  แจ๊ส. I remember they by typing "c0Ul," haha.

Click to enlarge. :D

Uhm...and books!  I recently ordered some language books from Amazon.com.  Those should be here any day now.  How exciting!  While on the topic of language, my Thai is improving little by little.  I know a few phrases and am currently on lesson eight of Pimsleur's Thai, so I pretty much know how to say "My Thai sucks,"  "I want (iced tea)/(water)/(rice)," "Not really quite well," and so on,  you know, important phrases, haha.  No seriously, Pimsleur is really helpful and I am learning much more from it than I did from Rosetta Stone. 

In some more exciting news, my classes are almost over.  How exciting!  Haha.  I cannot say how well I will do in them, but it will be nice to finally be done with school.  I really need to get typing that draft about Isaan in APA format...

Well, that is about all that has been interesting in my exchange life at the moment.  I will update as soon as I receive more information!  

34 days until Udon. (:

Read more...

Goodbye High School

I am done with high school. Monday was the last day. It was odd; I am normally sad on the last day of school before summer vacation. That was not the case. It just did not feel like the last day of school. This picture described it well, haha.

Everyone was getting their boats ready and playing around while I was getting some Bio 110 quizzes completed. FUN FREAKING TIMES MAN. Haha.
Might as well put some photos here from the actual boat.

As always, click to enlarge.
ALL ABOARD THE FAIL BOAT!!1!11!!

It floated...kind of.  No seriously, it was actually really fun.  It was a good last day of physics.

So far, it has been a pretty boring summer.  I have been waking up around 7:30-8:00 so I could get some classwork done. 

Wow; I really do not feel like thinking or typing anymore.  Ho hum.

Countdowns:
45 days until Thailand.

 Bokoff Kaplan is really sucking when it comes to service.  

This was so crappily written.  Sorry.

Read more...