Central Trip

Okay, this is really late. I go on Northern Trip in about 2 weeks...

Anyways, Central Trip was a blast! I hope I never forget how incredible it was. But, quite honestly, even now I don't remember everything we did. I made the decision to write this post because even though it's ridiculously late, I figure I will at least be able to enjoy the reminiscings as I age and my memory fades.

Day One: Had to be at the hotel to catch the Bus at 5. As in, 0500h., 5 a.m., Dtee Ha. Whatever you call it, it sucks. 5 in the morning is not a happy time. But it wasn't that bad because I at least got to sleep on the bus.

This bus was pretty cool. It was one of those massive, Asian, double deckers with the living room and bathroom on the first level and the seats on top. The upholstery was patterned with rainbow pot-leaves and they gave every person a blanket to use for free! (Which already gives them a leg up on Air Canada).

Then we went to the Sukothai Historical Park. It was really beautiful and over 700 years old! That evening we stayed in a hotel comprised of adorable little bungalows.

It was a good day.

The Second Day was much better. But it's not really a fair fight because I didn't have to wake up at 3:30 the second day. But that day we went RAFTING!

It was LEGENDARY. I mean, first we were all crammed into these two little super-sketchy cattle cars for like an hour over very bumpy roads. Then we got to the river, and climbed down the rather steep embankment. Waiting for us was a large bamboo raft and a lot of life jackets. We put on the latter, got on the former, and were off!

Rafting ended up to be more swimming than rafting. The water was just cool enough to be refreshing but still warm enough to be nice and we all just drifted along with the current. The scenery was gorgeous - think Forrest Gump in 'Nam and the sun was scorching hot. It was one of the most chill moments I have had so far in Thailand.

For lunch that day we got burgers. Not very good burgers. But burgers all the same. Chantale, my Californian friend, found Thousand Island dressing and got ecstatic. (Something about this Californian fast food place called In-n-Out...)

Then we went to our hotel, had dinner by the ocean, and hung out on the beach that was directly in front of our hotel until curfew.

ฉันรักประเทศไทย

Day 3 was pretty sweet. For some reason that I don't remember/didn't understand, we didn't have to be ready to leave until 11. So Chantale and I walked around, found some awesome shops, including one that kept disappearing! I bought contacts (though the whole putting them into use took about 3 more people and was...well...long and drawn out...and very interesting).

We went to visit Buddha (cause it's Thailand). It was awesome (cause it's Thailand). And then it rained (cause it's Thailand). So instead of going to the beach :( we went to a mall. But that was okay because we found EPIC pins for our Blazers with pictures of the King and Queen on them.

คนไทยรักใหนลวง

We went to a night market that evening. Bought a sand bucket. Ate at a restaurant that said the translation of it's name was Bird Chili. Our Golden Oreos told us the truth: it really said Mouse Shit Chili.

Why you would name a restaurant Mouse Shit Chili is beyond me. But maybe it's kinda like Ratatouille....

The Fourth Day we went to this super old wooden palace. The summer palace of King Rama VI. It was pretty cool, but they had tons of rules (like not wearing shoes) to help preserve the wood. And I definitely felt like the 100+ year old wood was just gonna give up while I was standing on it :/

We went to a floating market that was kinda stinky. But they made this coconut candy that reminded me of maple sugar candy... It was really good and I ate way too much of it.

The ride to our hotel was... fun. Not. Because I'm pretty sure our driver usually drove something a lot smaller than a bus. He kept on trying to take us down these tiny little side roads that our bus was about twice as big as. Maybe he was a tuk tuk driver in a previous life...

That evening we went to go see fireflies on the river. But it rained instead (cause it's Thailand). Instead a bunch of us hung out in my room and we watched a super-cheesy 90's chick flick. (Drive Me Crazy, if you were wondering).

The fifth day we woke up at 5:30 so that we could feed monks at 6. But that was pretty cool, cause the monks rowed up to us in little boats and we put food in their bowls.

Then we went to Bangkok (Or GrunThep, as it's actually called). We visited the Grand Palace, saw the Emerald Buddha, took lots of pictures. Then we went to the Rotary Center in BKK.

After that we went to our weirdly sketchy hotel. I say weirdly sketchy because it looked really swanky. But there was a pack of condoms on the nightstand, 90s slow jams in the CD player, and a card advertising the 24 hr massage service. Prices were as follows: Thai massage 400 baht/hour, full body massage 1,700 baht. Can you spot a happy ending when you see one?

Day 6 we went to this teak palace that had ridiculous security. As in, there were super-armed guards everywhere and you weren't allowed to bring cell phones (or really anything) in with you. I had to go through a metal detector and then pass through a door. Between the door and the metal detector there were two thai chicks. Who felt my butt and thigh as I went past to make sure I wasn't sneaking anything in. And after all that, it was kinda ugly. They had painted over all the gorgeous wood with ugly paint.

That night we had our night cruise, which was really pretty and fun. And I avoided buying the rather unattractive, way over-priced, tourist picture. Because my daddy taught me well :D

The seventh day was so amazing. For our last day we got to do... anything we wanted!

We just had to follow our generic Rotary rules and be back at the hotel by midnight.

So we went to the area with all the malls - and saw crazy Thai people waiting in line for literally hours just to buy some Krispy Kreme donuts. We went to a bookstore, and I got a hardcover set of the Chronicles of Narnia in Thai for 60 bucks (go me!).

We also went to JJ market - it was HUGE! I bought some awesomely sweet watches and a 7-11 shirt. Because Thailand has TONS of 7-11s (everytime there's a traffic jam in Bangkok, a 7-11 gets its wings).

Central Trip was great. I loved hanging with the other Inbounds. I'm so looking forward to Northern Trip, and everyone should go check out photos on FB!

Lots of Love.

Over the Hill - Wait! That's my Mother

Just kidding Mom. I love you. Please don't put coal in my stocking :)

So I’ve told you guys all about RYLA.

(By the way - the answer is: you put a little booger in it!)

The week after that was also a lot of fun. From October 11th to 14th I ended up going to a Hill Tribe village to help build a school. I went with my exchange student friends Aya and Lorena (Lorena’s host Dad being the one who organized this for us). We worked on the school (actually, we were renovating an old building) with students from Chinese International School (Hong Kong) and Concordian International School (Bangkok). We painted, fixed shutters, painted, put tables and benches together, painted those benches and tables. And when we thought we were all done, we painted some more! I kept my paint-stained work gloves and pinned them to my Blazer :) Now, the students from CIS and Concordian stayed at a camp a good 20 minute drive away from the work site. But us Rotarians were special. We got to camp out in a tent right beside the school. Which meant just on the edge of the village. Which meant we were woken every morning at about 4:00 a.m by a rooster. A rooster who was blessed with enough lung power to crow continuously for about 3 hours. And, of course, the village people woke with the rooster. So about 30 minutes after the rooster began his incessant noise-making, the trucks would start rolling through the village. My guess is that the truck drivers were engaged in a vicious competition to see who could honk their horn in the loudest and most annoying fashion. And let me just say: they were all in it to win it.

But that rude awakening was just the start, because after we woke up, we had to shower. (Thais shower obsessively: every morning and evening, and any other time they change and/or have time). When we first went looking for the showers, I thought the person we asked for directions was confused; he kept pointing us towards the toilets.

Oh, toilets in Thailand. The infamous squatty potty. Now, having been raised by a Father who took me hiking and canoeing in places where toilets were a laughable idea and having said Father also take me to Japan twice, I was well familiar with the act of squatting before I came to Thailand. But the Thais have taken it to a whole new level - because they don't have flushing mechanisms, they have large buckets of water beside the toilet with small, handled buckets floating on the top of the water inside. One uses the small bucket to draw water from the large bucket and then pours the water into the toilet so that the pressure of the water makes the toilet "flush". Going to the mountains, I was expecting this. What I wasn't expecting was for the same room (SCRATCH) stall to be our shower. But it was.

We showered by drawing water from the big bucket with the small bucket and then sloshing it over ourselves. So imagine this stall. About 5 by 4 feet, entirely concrete, roof not really connected to the walls. Two nails above the door for clothes and towel, a squatty potty (about 1 ft x 6 in) and a bucket the size of a rain barrel filled with water (and a few drowned bugs). Not a lot of wiggle room. And when you splash water on your self, it tends to spray in the other direction. So to keep my towel and clothes at least somewhat dry, I had to essentially straddle the squat toilet while showering.

But I did it - I even washed my hair. And I know now that wherever I go, whatever I need to do: I can handle it.

Now, all joking aside, it was really hard to see the type of abject poverty these villagers were living in. I mean, a two-room school for 60 students isn't much - but for them it was an incredible luxury. And the collection of stuffed animals we bought for them wasn't large - but it was huge to them. It killed me to think that I probably had a similarly sized collection in my room growing up - and I would scream and fuss if someone tried to take even one away.

I think this experience was good for me. I mean, I'm not an idiot - I've always known there were people in the world in such situations, but there's a big difference between watching the Unicef ads on TV or buying something at Ten Thousand Villages and actually being in a poverty stricken hill-tribe village in Northern Thailand.

Did I mention that the last night of our stay there we had an impromptu dance party and I taught a little 5 year old boy how to "raise the roof"?

Sairung Out.

Wow I've Been Lazy

Okay, it has been longer than I thought since I last updated this blog... no wonder everyone's been getting on my case. :)

I blame my lack of writing on the AWESOMENESS that was the month of October. Seriously, it was really good.

I'm going to go back in time and just work through my month, but I'll do it in multiple little posts. That way, if you're using Google Reader you get more exciting notifications. If you're not using Google Reader, well, find your own way to be super-duper-happy about the lack of one monster post.

Now, as some of you may already know, October begins on October first. But for me it really started on October 6th-9th: RYLA!!

RYLA Camp was mandatory for all Inbounds, and for all Thai students wishing to be Outbounds. There were also a few kids hanging around who had already been on exchange.

Despite the fact that it took our bus 9 hours to get from Chiang Mai to Uttaradit (the return took 4 1/2???) it was well worth the lengthy ride.

Getting to hang out with the other Inbounds was, as always, fantastic.

Staying up til 3 in the morning talking with people - part of which involved an hour long conversation with my Californian friend Chantale about burgers - hanging out with a whole group of new Thai kids, trying to teach Thai kids how to Soulja Boy... It was all a blast!

There were many, many presentations - but three of them were truly memorable.

The first of these memorable presentations was having a total BO$$ old Thai guy (seriously, he wore his shades inside and drove a super old Mercedes) showing us a PowerPoint presentation that included: happy jumping M&Ms, Dragon Ball Z animations, and a Harry Potter clip. And then he sang "Smile, and the World Smiles With You" to us and led us in a chorus or three of "If You're Happy and You Know It".

The latter of which involved the verse "If you're happy and youn know it, Rotary!" At which point we all shouted ROTARY! (Or, really, Lotalee) and triumphantly fist-bumped the air above us.

The second, oh so memorable presentation was by a monk. Yes, a monk. A monk who did stand-up comedy. And showed us video of cats falling and running into things, as well as... wait for it.... Charlie Bit My Finger!! Yes, I witnessed a MONK show an auitorium full of teenagers a random, funny YouTube video.

Even if the rest of RYLA had sucked, that would have made it a totally worthwile weekend.

The last memorable video was very, VERY memorable. And not in nearly so pleasant a way as the other two were. This video was of a woman giving birth. And not the whole woman or anything like you get in Bio 30. No, this was just a close up of the -shall we say, critical area... Actually, when it first popped up on the screen I thought the guy had actually opened the wrong video by mistake... Because it was truly just a close-up of the woman's vagina and I (and apparently most of the other YEs) thought that he had opened porn by mistake.

I wish I could forget this video. It was gross. And there are some parts of it that did not look at all like what we learned about happening in Bio 30....

Apparently, this video was to show us how grateful we should be to our mother, because of what she had to go through to give birth to us.

Don't worry though Mom, I don't have some appreciation-guilt-complex now. I know you copped out and had a C-section. :)

So RYLA was great, the team-building exercises were pretty fun, and all in all I had a way better time than I thought I would.

Now, as for: PICTURES!

The first is a pretty great story: I was hanging out with my friends Chantale and Dominique. But I went back to my room at about 11:30/Midnight to shower and put on PJs before we stayed up talking super late. I was sharing said room with my ADORABLE Japanese friend, Aya. I knocked on the door and when there was no answer I assumed she was either asleep or off in someone else's room. I walked in, turned on the light, and found Aya. She was curled up on the bed, still wearing her clothes from the day, with her towel and PJs lying on the bed beside her.

So I booked it to Chantale and Dominique's room and made them come see how CUTE she was.

And then we took pictures. :D

The second is of me and Chantale, after she used her Thai costume lipstick to give me a rather obvious kiss on the cheek.

The third is of a bunch of the YEs. Not all of us. There are about 30 of us. So that for sure wasn't all of us. But it's a cute picture anyways, eh?

I need to go to school now. So I will sign off, and leave you all in breathless anticipation of my next scintillating update.

And the answer to this question:
How do you get a Kleenex to dance?

Love,
Jocelyn

SHOES!

I will write a longer update sometime soon (before Wednesday, hopefully).

However, I would just like to say that I saw the most BEAUTIFUL pair of shoes the other day.

They are adorable little black booties and would be comfortable, durable, and practical.

However, they cost me more that a months Rotary allowance.

Thus, contributions in either Thai Baht or Canadian Dollars (actually any currency, I'm not picky) can be made to:

209/1 Charoen Muang Road
Tambol Wat Gate, Amphur Muang
Chiangmai #50000, Thailand

This address can also be used by those of you claiming to be too technologically-challenged to e-mail or comment.

Or if anyone would like to send me a care package. They don't have real hot chocolate over here, so a couple of packets of Land o' Lakes (the BEST hot cocoa ever) would probably make my life.

Okay, I'm done. I love you all.

Jocelyn

Different Faces, Different Places

I have noticed an interesting trend in my day to day life here. When walking with my classmates (e.g. to the Chemistry room) I often end up in front. I don't try to do this, but somehow all my attempts to stride along safely in the middle of the pack are thwarted and I am seemingly unconciously thrust out in front. Now, I don't mind leading - some might say I enjoy it really - but there is one big problem about my leading the way in these situations.

I have no idea where I'm going.

But it's alright. I have learned the skill of walking so slowly I'm almost stopped until one of the students near me takes the lead.

In other news, I have now eaten Durian. My parents lied to me when they said it was gross. I think the infamous smell is actually very pleasant, though the squishy texture takes some getting used to but I look forward to eating it again.

The food here is still incredible. The other night I had this curry-esque dish made with Chiang Mai sausage. It was a creamy, spicy ambrosia of love. Maybe my Por will teach me how to make it... :)

And again on the subject of food, on Sunday a group of us (Nicha, Mai Thai, Aya and I) went to Nicha's house. While there, we learned how to make traditional Thai sweets/desserts. One was rainbow candy, made with layers of coconut milk and coloured gelatin. The other type was hot coconut milk with either bananas or pumpkin. I prefer the one with the bananas. But I have recipes so maybe I can treat you all when I get home.

Today I will teach you some Thai. Meuan means "the same" or "similar". Gan is used to say "each other" and lae is used for "and". Putting mai in front of a word or phrase makes it negative. Thus Bprated Thai (Thailand) lae Canada mai meuan gan ka. Te chan chob Bprated Thai mak mak ka.

Got it? Kidding. For those of you who don't speak Thai, I said - or tried to say - Thailand and Canada are not the same. But I love Thailand a lot.

Next week will be interesting. I don't have school because it is Semester 1 exams, and then the entirety of October is a between-semesters break.

In Canada this would be a SUPER YAY!

Here, it's more what am I gonna do?

And maybe if I'm lucky, some of my Thai friends will invite me to hang out with them.

Also, I have some Rotary events lined up for this month. October 6th to 9th is RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards, for those of you who do not speak fluent Rotarian). All the exchange students in my district will be there and I hope to meet some cool Thais as well.

Then from October 18th to 25th.I have... wait for it... CENTRAL TRIP. It is going to be LEGENDARY! We're going ton Bangkok and other places, and I very well might just post my itinerary up in next weeks post (too lazy to do it now).

A quick side not, if you are not on Facebook and thus do not get the joy of seeing all my lovely photos, you can e-mail me at jocelyn.boere@gmail.com or jboere@yex5360.org

But back to the story telling. It seems as though every week some new, interesting thing is going on at my school. This week, it's been presentations about the different parts of Thailand. So on Wednesday, us White Chicks ambled over at lunch and watched some extremely sweet and innocent Thai girls dancing to music filled with, uh... suggestive... noises. And by suggestive I mean à la restaurant scene in "When Harry Met Sally". It's times like that, or when I see girls with Playboy brand purses and other such paraphenalia, that I wonder if they really get what it all means. :/

So that's what's new in my life - not very much, I know. My life is in essence pretty average. Why are people reading this anyways? Jk, I love you all.

Until Next Time

Sairung.

And yes Becky, I did steal the title of this post from a Between the Trees post. :) Thought of you.

If I Should Die, It's Because of Muay Thai

This past week I started normal classes. This means that instead of Mai Thai, Nicha, and I standing around in a group, confusedly watching what the Thai kids were doing as we moved from class to class, we were split up and put into real, normal classes. Now don't get me wrong here - we're happy about this. It actually took a great deal of fast-talking to convince the teachers that we wouldn't be bored out of our minds - and that our Thai would fare better if we didn't just talk to each other day in, day out.

And thus began the saga of my time in 5/5. M5 (Maw Ha) is the Thai name for grade 11 and the /5 is my class number. All the /5 classes at Satit (My School) study French as well as English - probably not a shock that that is where I was placed.

I have many friends in my class, but to be brutally honest I can't remember most of their names. However, they are all super nice and take very good care of the white chick who is now a part of their everyday lives. Gee, the girl who sits beside me, went to the U.S. on exchange, and so she translates for me if/when I need it. The English teacher finds it amusing that I give her answers in class that she couldn't have otherwise known - such as idioms.

On a side note, I realized how stupid most English idioms are when I was forced to explain them to my Thai pals.

So school is fun - Mai Thai, Nicha and I still eat lunch together; a nice compromise between being with them all the time and never seeing them at all. And every Monday and Thursday we leave class early to go to Aerobics and Weight Training.

I never, EVER, thought I would say this, but Aerobics is really fun. And I actually use the treadmill in weight training. (I know, I know! Who am I? And where's Jocelyn?).

On Wednesday I went to my first real Muay Thai session. The best way to imagine ridiculously out-of-shape me attempting to do intense Thai kick-boxing is kind of like this: imagine a person who has never gone swimming in their life and who has only a vague idea of the theory behind it attempting a Channel Crossing as their first swim.

I floated, then I flailed around like a squid having a seizure, and then I died.

And I was only there for 2 hours.

I almost fell asleep at dinner that night, but it was good fun. I go back again this week so wish me luck (if you haven't already realised, I desperately need it).

Thursday was an interesting day. Every Thursday the boys have military training. This training allows them to opt out of mandatory service at 21, but leaves the government with enough well-trained, able-bodied young men should they ever go to war. Because of this training, I do nothing until the mod before lunch. Then I have a class that consists of sitting in an air-conditioned room, watching American TV shows on a big projector screen. Last week, it was Castle; the week before, Prison Break.

After lunch, we were told the M4's were to be putting on a play - Snow White. So Mai Thai, Nicha, and I decided to go. We figured that even with the language barrier we would get what was going on.

We were wrong.

For starters, the entire show - EVERYTHING - was lip synced to what I think were recordings of the kids (maybe). But that wasn't the really weird part.

It started off with groups of kids dancing (& lip syncing) to popular songs - but only for about 1 minute sections of each song. O.O Then - and I mean after many confusing dancing performances, Snow White started.

There was a teacher telling his class that Snow White was their assignment of the day and then it began. Snow White's costume was one of those little girls' princess dresses pinned to the front of her uniform. She and some 'birds' danced to "A Happy Working Song" from Disney's Enchanted. Then the 'dwarfs' danced to what I assume is a Thai or Korean pop song.

There ended Snow White.

The final performance of the day was a short & sweet Cinderella in which everyone save for the step-mother and -sisters wore traditional Thai clothing. The step-mother was played by a lady-boy who was way more feminine than I am.

Now, my description may sound slightly disparaging, and I don't mean to convey that spirit. The entire entity of these myriad performances was made deeply enjoyable by the gusto with which the Thais immersed themselves in every part. The actors had worked hard and were having fun - and the audience was having a blast. It was incredible to see how they enjoyed the plays for what they were, rather than sitting there, disappointed because of what they could have been. I thing Canadian teenagers could stand to learn a thing or two from the Thais.

Friday, I went to a party with my host sister and a bunch of girls from my class. Essentially, we had delicious food (and TONS of it) and then just sat around singing, playing guitar, and having a generally good time. I met a very nice American University Student named Ted who is here on a study abroad program. Good times were had by all.

On Saturday, Mai Thai and I went for a mosey around the city, and ended up in this busy market street filled with stores selling beautiful Thai silk hangings, and clothes. I almost managed to restrain myself and ended up buying a small ring. And shaving cream. Funny story about that.

So we walked into this tiny little drug store, probably about 40 by 40 feet that had about 80 Thai people in it. And lots of shelves. Essentially, it was almost impossible to move. But I was on a mission. I needed to find shaving cream. So I approached a kindly store attendant - who spoke about 4 words of English. After having her show me about 10 different variations on Nair (hair removing cream) I finally gave up and threw my dignity to the wind (like it hadn't left forever ago...) and I made aerosol noises and patted my hands against my face - mimicking a man putting on shaving cream and then shaving. So now I own Nivea (For Men) Shaving Cream and some random Thai lady probably thinks I shave my face.

On Sunday, I went to the Chiangmai Zoo with Aya (from Japan), Nicha (you know who she is), Isabella and Lorena (from Brazil) and Nicha's host sister Pim (and friends). I'll post photos up on FB but it was AWESOME! I fed an Elephant, saw about a billion kinds of fish, two white tigers, 3 pandas (one of whom, Lin Ping, is apparently famous), and tons of other animals. It was so cool. I think the last zoo I went to was the Melbourne Zoo when I was 9 (I was a neglected child), and the Chiangmai Zoo is to zoos what an old-fashioned Nalgene is to your average water bottle.

Before I sign off I'd like to give a shout-out to Julilla Paul, who always comments and makes me feel loved. To the rest of you, I'd loved to know if you're reading. If you can't figure out how to comment, send me an e-mail or write on my wall. If you're a Rotarian, I give you permission to just tell Gwen on Thursday morning and make her contact me :) (isn't that what counselors are for?).

Last, but most certainly not least, I'd just like to say this. As many of you are no doubt aware, my Grandma passed away on September 7th. I just want to thank you all for your love, prayers, and support as I deal with this loss.

Yours in Love and Rotary,
Sairung

I Think Therefore Siam

I tried to convince MaiThai to name her blog that. Apparently she didn’t find it as amusing as I did (I mean, c’mon guys, you miss my terrible puns).

I’m sorry about taking so long with this post – I’m so tired when I get home from school that I just lay on my bed in a semi-comatose state.

Speaking of school, it’s a pretty sweet place. Essentially, I do almost nothing because we’re not in normal classes. However, the other two girls and I have convinced our teachers to put us in normal classes starting next week.

So far, I’ve gone to art (which I’m really bad at), Thai Dancing (where I stand like an idiot and wave my hands around like a hyper child armed with pool noodles), French (which is just like sitting in an English class), and a few other random classes that we just get suddenly thrown into. Also, the other day I went to Chemistry class. It was so awesome! They were studying Hydrocarbons (i.e. what I studied last year), and they use the same nomenclature as we do in English and draw their diagrams the same, so I was able to understand. In fact, I even gave one of my Thai friends the answer at one point (go White Chick!).

The kids are really nice – though they rarely approach us farang when we’re all in a group. I have learned how to ask people to speak Thai to me, and (just as importantly) how to ask them to speak slowly.

I can now almost read Thai (kind of). There are maybe 7 vowels that I don’t know, and that’s because they are combinations of other vowels but don’t actually mesh those sounds together, as you might assume. Instead, these combinations make completely different sounds that are completely illogical. Not to mention, as soon as I think I’ve learned all the vowels a new one leaps out of nowhere. I swear. It’s as though there are these awkward vowel sounds just lurking in the shadows for whenever I start to feel confident about my reading capabilities.

But now when people come over to my house my Mae has me read for them (yeah…). It’s actually pretty cool, because Thai people continue to be extremely supportive of my struggling attempts to communicate.

The first day, before school, we went to go feed the monks. This is actually a really cool part of their religion, in my (not so) humble opinion, because the monks will eat only what they are given in their morning walk up to wherever they go (I think there’s a temple higher up the hill up which they all walk each morning).

Everyday driving through the city in the morning you can see the monks coming from all over and all eventually converging on the passage up this hill. And they are all barefoot, which is pretty intense – especially in a place like Thailand.

But onwards and upwards, my friends, to the world of Blazers and Banners, Sergeants and Presidents, and rooms filled with primarily middle-aged Thai people.

Yes indeed, I speak of none other than the marvellous world of Rotary club meetings.

The first meeting I went to, there were three Japanese businessmen visiting from the club of Tokyo North. They and my club (Lanna ChiangMai, for those who care) have raised I believe about 30, 000 $ to go towards building dams in some 3rd World country (I didn’t catch the name) which will re-hydrate multiple dried up springs and give water to many needy people.

I’m not gonna lie, I didn’t catch a lot of that presentation – but the gist was that I met cool Japanese people. My Mae warned me in advance that they would be there so I was able to prepare and bring an extra banner for them.

They were very kind, even going so far as to compliment the three stilted sentences I managed to spew out in barely-remembered Japanese. I thought it was really incredible that already I am making connections through Rotary – it truly made me feel like an ambassador of not only Canada, but of Rotary Sunrise Lethbridge and Rotary Youth Exchange in general.

Right now, I am at Orientation. It’s a pretty great time. All the kids here are really nice and we’ve been having a lot of fun. Hopefully I’ll be able to update you all on the entirety of this experience sometime in the coming week.

And, as you can see, I have incorporated pictures of my new shoes (goal 3 - COMPLETE)

Love,

Sairung

P.S. I start Muay Thai next week! =D