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Published: September 6th 2010
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Not a whole lot has happened this week. Mostly I just went to school. I’m able to find my way around school now, so it’s a lot easier to get from class to class. But I also have a lot of free time, so I usually just join other classes and listen to them speak. I’ve started to highlight words in my dictionary that I should know, but can’t remember. Then when I’m trying to talk, but need to use a word like “Favourite” I can find it fast, opposed to sitting there searching for a long time. I’ve also started to try and write three sentences about my day, that either my teacher, or host mom checks. First I write what I want to say in English, and then translate it to phonetic Thai, finally I translate it into the Thai alphabet. It’s all still very basic sentences, but everyone is really excited about the effort I’m putting in to learn they’re language, that they all want to help. On Friday, I was sitting in economics…I think. It was just a class I joined with some girls from Tai Qwon Do, and they had me write down the colors on
paper first, and then if it was correct, I wrote the color on the matching pen with a sharpie.
This week I started to carve things in fruit carving. For the first two days, I started by carving leaves out of papayas, then the third day, I was carving them into a bowl that was made of out Papaya. My teacher speaks little English, and I speak little Thai, but from what I understand, there is going to be an open house, and showcase of student work this month, and she would like me to either do demos for the viewers, or carve things for it. I guess that means I’ve got some skill. Heads up Mom and Pop, I might decide to become a pro fruit carver instead of Event Planner!
Because I carved my Papaya bowl on Thursday, I decided it would be fun to bring to the Rotary meeting for kicks. They’re pretty impressed I must say, and displayed it on the table for the whole meeting. 😉 My counsellor was also at the meeting as she had to give an update on if I was attending school and if I’ve been fitting in well.
She said that all of my teachers really like me, and everyone thinks I’m cute, even though I tower over 95% of the teachers and student body. Actually, when I went to school on Monday morning, I found out I had another English class. Last week, I went to class with Bapa, my host cousin, and the teacher asked if I could come back because I got along well, and helped out with the rest of the students. This may sound crazy, but English class is where my Thai improves. Because the rest of the students are translating English to Thai, it is really easy for me to pick up the Thai, because I know which context to use what word in.
So, I’m not homesick, but I do miss the people and certain things. Such as dairy products. There is next to no cheese here. When I thought about it on Monday, I realized the only time I’d had cheese, was when it was on my Pizza at Pizza Hut in Bangkok. Then I also realized I really missed pizza. After school I told my host cousin this, and we made plans for Pizza Tuesday! Pizza Tuesday was awesome!
Practicing
Thai Dancing Baipor invited her friends along, who all happened to be rebound exchange students; she knows them because they all went in the same program, as they go to the boys school. So before pizza, we went to pick them up at, but had time to kill. We ended up playing some b-ball at the boy’s school, which was ok, but it really sucks to play in a long skirt, and black buckle shoes that are identical to the kind I wore when I was five. The pizza was ok, but wasn’t the greatest they really skimped out on the cheese. Arg!
Today, Saturday, I went back to the school to help out with an English camp. The kids and some staff are staying overnight, but I’m still not used to the time change 100% and prefer to sleep in a room where I control the AC. I figured I was just helping out teachers, and didn’t realize until half an hour before that I was actually in charge of a station, and had to keep kids entertained for half an hour intervals. Mo, the girl who was helping me translate told me that all I would need is a
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Thai Dancing game we could play for fifteen minutes, and then switch to a game of Hangman Elimination (Split the kids into three teams, they get 6 lives. Guess a letter wrong, loss of one life, but if the get on right, then they get to take a life from another team. Comprende?). I decided on Fruit Salad. It was interactive, and they got to learn five new English words. None of them had every played it before, and by the looks of it, they were enjoying it more than me, which I was so happy for, because it was either that or dead donkey.
Anywho, I’m off.
Jessica
PS I taught Bapa how to say “What’s kickin’ chicken?”. It’s the best!
Sunday, September 5.
To start off, yesterday something dark green slipped into my “light” pile for laundry. But the only things that changed colour were every one of the white socks I have to wear with my uniform.
Other than finding that out this morning, today was pretty fun. I went back for the second day of English camp, and found that the school was also doing Chinese camp for the day. So when we
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Thai Dancing had free time, I was able to try traditionally painting Chinese characters, make dumplings by hand, and cut a snowflake out of paper. It was a pretty cool experience even though I’m here to learn Thai not Chinese.
Monday, September 6
So today, a pretty normal day, other than the fact that I had a test. I walk into class to find out that today is “Cha-Cha Test Day”. I’ve only had the one other Monday to learn the dance, but for some reason I was like “Sweet, let’s do this”. So up I went, in front of about 40 girls or more to Cha-Cha. For the other girls, some of the class watched, the others just studied or talked, but as soon as I went up, all eyes were on me. People walking by even stopped to watch, but I didn’t feel nervous, embarrassed or anxious. It was really fun and went way better than expected! I only messed up twice, (usually in practice I mess up about 4 times), and I passed!
Also, today my counsellor took me out of school so I could open a bank account (unfortunately, I had to miss fruit carving
😊 ). However, opening the bank account was so worth it. For becoming a new member, they gave me an Orange Dinosaur Stuffie. Thailand really knows how to do business!
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Mom
non-member comment
A green dinosaur--and you are how old?