Manit! The District Rotary Guy!

So this is just a short post.  We went into town today to pick up Namwarns friends (this post is out of order, it is supposed to go before the temple and before the beach day, but I didn't see the pictures till after I had posted the other two.  Anyways.  We went into Surat Thani and toured around, going to a park where we fed the pigeons and Koy fish, and we ended up at the International Rotary Hotel.  That's not the real name, but it was for international Rotarians, and it had a bunch of Rotary flags. 

While we were here I met Manit W.  The head of District 3330.  He told me some of the ground rules, and informed me that we would have an orientation the first weekend of September, after the last exchange student arrived.  Some of the rules he told me were: No Drinking, No Driving, No Dating, No Drugs. Don't spend too much time on the internet, because every hour you spend on the internet, is an hour that you aren't being involved with your family, and there were a few more, but they were minor and I don't actually remember them (hehe oops).

Manit is the one on my left, and the two men on my right are ex-head district people.  They were all very nice, and spoke pretty good English.  I am finding it very hard to understand some peoples English because its broken (half Thai, half English), and they have an accent, so I can't wait to learn the language so I don't have to struggle to understand what people are saying. 

This is Boom, Myself, and Keem feeding the pigeons.  We bought some bird food and then just threw it at them.  There were lots of them, and it was pretty amusing to hear the girls shriek everytime a bird flew too close to them.  I had a blast that day, and even though none of them spoke English (none of the friends-Boom, Keem, or Pitt, Nook and Namwarn spoke English) we found other ways to communicate, mostly with hand guestures. 

Temple at Don Sak!

So while we were at Don Sak, I noticed that their was a gorgeous building, that I assumed was a temple.  I asked about it, and I was right, it was a temple.  They asked me if I wanted to go and visit it, and I said yes.  It was pretty spectacular.  I prayed with them, and I got to see my first Thai monk.  He asked me questions, but I didn't understand, so my host mom spoke for me. 

These are the pillars that are within the temple.  They are very tall and are very well decorated.  The bottoms have more blues and greens mixed with the gold, while the top parts have more red and gold. 

A picture of the alter.  It wasn't Buddha season (thats what my mom called it) so there wasn't a lot of people there.  Actually it was just Namwarn, mom, me and a monk. This is on the otherside of the church, and in the room directly behind the alter, there is supposedly a piece of the original Buddha.  I think it was a piece of his toe, or a bone from some part of him.  I thought that was a pretty neat thing. 

This is my first host mom and I praying at the alter.  When you first walk in, you step over the threshhold (its considered very taboo if you step on it, and I have no clue what happens if you do.)  On the two glass vases behind us, there are two flower bouquets that my mom and I placed there as an offering to Buddha.  The red box to my left is where you can give donations to the temple and its monks. 

So this is the outside of the temple.  The colors aren't as bright in this picture because it was backlit.  But it is very big and beautifully decorated.  The main colors here were red and gold, with blues and greens in certain areas.  Everything (as far as I could tell) was symmetrical, and very ornate. 

So this is a gate.  If you go through it there is a flight of stairs, that are very small.  I have found that my feet are huge when it comes to certain stairs, and I have to take my time, otherwise I run the risk of falling.  Anyways, everything here is done up with gold and bright, vibrant colors.  You can't really see them in this picture, but they are pretty nice to look at. 

This is the bottom of the stairway.  As you can tell, it also has a beautiful archway as an entrance.  I climbed down these stairs with Namwarn, and she told me how when she was little she fell down a flight of these stairs.  I felt bad for her, and immediately slowed my pace so the same thing wouldn't happen to me.  There were about 100 stairs, but by the time I was at the bottom it felt like 1000.  It really showed me that I am out of shape, and with all the food they like to feed me, I am going to have to work on that, otherwise I'm going to be the size of an elephant by the time I come home. 

So this is the temple at Don Sak.  It has a real name, but it is very long, and I'm not totally sure how to spell it.  When I write down the names of things (like temples) generally it is phonetic spelling and not the actual spelling.  I am trying to find a book that has information on my town and the surrounding area, but so far I have not been successful. 

Beach at Don Sak!

While we were in Don Sak, we went to the sea so that I could go swimming.  I'm not sure where exactly I swam, and I'm sorry that I can't tell you that information.  The beach was beautiful.  White sandy beaches, semi-clear, green water, and palm trees galore.  The place that we went was at a resort, so there were quaint little beach huts lining the sea shore.

While at the beach, we were with friends, so we built sandcastles, played in the sand, buried someone, and took lots of pictures.  It was quite a day.  We had  lunch there, which I didn't quite understand because we brought our own crab, but ate some of their food as well.  I guess you just bring what you want and as long as you order something, they are fine with it. 

So these are a few of my friends.  Going from left to right: Boom, Nook, Pitt, Keem, and my host mom. 

So that was our day at the beach.  If you were wondering the date it was August 15th, 2010. 

My First Host Family's Second Home!

Eventually I will post pictures of my first host family's house, the one where I live, but I haven't gotten around to taking many pictures of it.  So my first host family has a house located in Don Sak, which is by the sea.  We went there for four days last weekend, and it was pretty awesome.  It is rainy season, so it rained a few times, but not enough to be like...darn that rain is ruining everything.  So here are some pictures of my "second home".

So this is the front of my house.  It was sunny so the picture isn't very good.  On the right hand side within the gate is the "laundry room".  There is a washer, a hose, a few buckets, and a clothes line.  At "second home" there is a maid who washes the clothes, everything but underwear and socks.  Those I have to do myself, which is a new concept for me.  Doing my own laundry by hand.  It isn't as bad as I thought it would be.

The Dining Room/Computer Room.  This is wear we ate our meals, on the wall to the right is the computer stuff, and on the left wall is pictures of grandparents.  In the back left corner there is another room (the actual kitchen).  I never really got a chance to take a picture of that, but it mainly consists of a wok (I think thats what it is called), a hotplate, a microwave, a fridge, and in the back back room, there is a sink area where we do our dishes. 

My Room! This is the room where I stayed.  It was nice and cool (my new best friend is every air conditioner and fan that I can find).  As you can tell, I hadn't unpacked my stuff quite yet, but that doesn't matter.  The door which you can't see was very small.  I could almost touch the top with my head, maybe 4 inches above my head?? Haha the door was pretty short.

 

Okay so this is the bathroom.  It was quite an experience, due to the fact I had to ask how to flush the toilet.  As you can see there is a big rectangular box filled with water, with a bowl beside it (picture on top).  That is the flusher.  You just scoop the water into the toilet and it flushes out your wastes.  The hose on the wall?? Thats your "toilet paper" as far as I know...They don't use toilet paper here (this is my best guess, so I'm not 100% sure its true) because it flushes straight into the oceans/rivers.  So be careful where you swim.

This is the living room where we sat to watch tv.  When you turn the tv on it takes about an hour for the picture to come up, so you get to listen to the tv for a bit.  The door leads to my room, and there is a row of couches where I am sitting. 

So the picture on top is my first host family's room.  The big lump in the middle is pillows, they like to make their beds with the pillow under the covers in the middle. The picture on the bottom is the room where Namwarn and Nampoot (my host brother and sister(now in America)) stay. 

So that is a look at what my first host family's second house in Don Sak looks like.  It is an awesome little place, and I look forward to going there again. :)

In Thailand!!

So I made it to Thailand safe and sound, but was super tired. Who knew that sitting on a plane would tire you out so much. The first plane ride was good, I don't remember much cause I was asleep. Then the layover was boring, had a nice family help me find where I was going... They were on the same flight :) I looked for a shotglass to put in my collection, but couldn't find any...and I guess three hours in a layover doesn't count as actually being in th country. Anyways. The coolest part was I got to ride two Boeing 747 planes... Those things are giant!! So after I got to Bangkok, I had the pleasure of chilling there for six hours. It took me an hour to get through immigration and find my bags, and then I was lost. Absolutely no clue about where to go to catch my connecting flight, so I did what any confused person would do, and asked for help. The guy was awesome. He got me a cart and loaded up my bags and drove the cart to my final destination. It was a very kind gesture and it helped immensely cause I doubt that I would have found it on my own. So then I chilled in security and waited, and waited, and waited some more. Five hours later I was on my final plane ride to Suratthani.

When I arrived I had the warmest welcome ever. They had a banner, and about 8 rotary members all waiting for me. I recieved a flower necklace, much like a leigh but much cooler :)I will put pictures up later, but they aren't on my computer yet:p. So then after what seemed like a million pictures, we left the airport and headed to dinner. We went to a nice restaurant what had mostly seafood. We had seaweed soup, shrimp, and a variety of fish dishes that had ALL the parts. But even though I hate toadmit it, most of t wasn't half bad. Haha and that's comng from someone who isn't the biggest seafood fan. Anyways after that we headed home and I got to sleep!!

I won't make this too long, it will just be an update on what happened the first day. Hopefully my future posts will be more along the lines of things I did and not a diary. Well goodnight for me, and goodmornong for you.