Military camp, chinese new years, soccer, classes, etc.....

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So this past weekend 8 of us went to amilitary camp invited by the American studies group of our University and well it turned out to be nothing but fun! it was basically like a summer camp and well does it feel good to be a kid again! I mean we had the times of our lives, we went hiking, biking, zip lining, ropes courses, etc. and the most important thing of it all was that there was 30 Thai kids and only 8 internationals. we even had a talent show and I danced Merengue with my friend D from New mexico! it was a lot of fun and when we started dancing all the Thai girls were like woooooaaawwww hahahaha and it was great. we also just slept on the floor and on a little mattress with the squatting bathrooms and our shower was basically this huge rectangular construction in the middle of the bathroom full of water and we had buckets to throw water onto ourselves! ha it was great and since the girls were on the other side we would have water fights and it was just a bunch of fun. we also learned a lot of traditional thai dances from being a grilled chicken to having the arnold schwarzeneger dance!! I really now come to understand the fun that you can have at camp and its such a growing and bonding experience it was great.

Next though wecame back just in time for the chinese new years and needles to say that was great. It actually landed on valentines day and we went out to a area called RCA and went to party! and the best part is we met up with some of the Thai kids from earlier and well it was blast.

I am also taking a Thai traditional medicine course and teacher thrives on the principle that it is better to learn on location. so we went to a place called Wat Po and the word "Wat" means temple. here we were able to go to the school of thai traditional massages and see the world famous Thai massages on the spot. it is also impressive to learn about all these different ways to cure someone without normal western medicine and see how a traditional massage can cure so many things and how they relate it to the heart and to certain pressure points. we also saw the first inscriptions known to man about thai traditional medicine and that was great. i mean it has all these drawings and diagrams of the body and what works for what part. incredible!

I am also in a Thai cuisine class as all you know and well I became friends with the teacher and although we do not cook all the time, i was able to talk her into letting me and a friend go to her restaurant to help cook and maybe pick up some tips on how to make some great thai dishes. I also convinced her to take us on night excursions of the markets for street food and different foodie things around town, i mean this would be great for all of us cause when we get back I can cook for some of you at least!

I have also been playing soccer in the afternoons after class and it is so much fun! I have been able to experience so much with people there and although all that i understand is when they say go left or go right i still manage to have a good time. its very intersting though because you never know when someone scores a goooooooll cause no one screams gooooooll they just clap there hands, but it is confusing because they also clap there hands if they do a good play so its hard to know when they score. so I ask " gol?" and i lift my arms like in a form a celebration and then they just look at me and shake there head yes or no. The other intersting thing about all of this is that they play until it is pitch dark and well its hard to even see the ball so it gets kind of dangerous. and last but not least is how they differentiate the two teams. In the USA and in Ecuador it is usually someone takes there shirt off or a team has a different colored shirt or something. here what happens is that people play one team with the shirt tucked into there shorts and the other team with ithe shirt being untucked. but it is even harder cause some people decide to play in all black so you have to make sure and pay attention or just kick the ball away from your goal. no matter what though, I have been having an amazing time, met a lot of Thai kids (which I was slacking on) and learned a couple of new words.

This experience continues to surprise every step of the way and although I am older than a lot of people I continue to learn something new everyday!

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Comments

[Elena]

foodie-heaven
I'm so glad that you're learning tons about their cooking...I will be in heaven when you show off your skills at home. maybe you can teach me some eh?