Shrimping!

My host mom's family owns two shrimp farms.  GN 1 and GN2.  Each shrimp farm has 60 units (and a unit is pretty big).  So in total they have 120 units of shrimp.  Due to the fact that there were midterm tests, and I didn't have to do the tests, my host mom needed something to do with me, so she took me to her place of work. 

 One of the ladies who works there sorting the shrimp into big and small.  I found out that it isn't all that easy to differentiate the sizes because as far as I can tell it isn't based on size, but on color, and other features.  They could do it extremely fast, and I couldn't do it at all, i honestly couldn't tell the difference, and they laughed, and attemped to help me, but eventually decided I would be better situated with a different job. 

 The same lady attempting to teach me how to tell what shrimp was what size, without much success.  There were a lot of shrimp to do, and I kept getting it wrong. 

 A picture taken by one of the workers of me sorting shrimp with my host mom (in the orange shirt) and some of the other people. 

 Loading the baskets of shrimp into the back of the truck.  Each basket would have 20 kilos of shrimp.  They would dunk them in water, and then stick them in large barrels, packed with ice and water to keep them cool. 

 One of the workers emptying a basket of shrimp onto the sorting table. 

 Dumping the shrimp from the collection barrel into another bucket.  These shrimp will then be put in a basket and sent over to the sorting tables. 

 Throwing the baskets of shrimp to the sorting table.  Not exactly a gentle proccess, more of a "let's get it done, and not dilly dally" kind of process.

 A view looking at all of the shrimp, eventually this table will be baren of shrimp.  I was amazed at the amount of shrimp that were sorted and stuck into a truck.  It's not unusual for there to be over 200, 20 kilo baskets put into a truck. 

 Looking down the original sorting table and some of the workers.  Here the shrimp will be sorted into: big, small, soft, and other piles, and then sorted down to be more specific at a different table. 

 The process of putting the shrimp from the baskets into the trucks.  As you can see there are a lot of baskets that have been sorted.

The end of the day.  Everyone had a different way to get home.  Some rode their motorcycles/scooters, others got in their truck, or in the worker truck (sitting in the back of a big truck)(kind of like a cattle truck, but not really).  Then there were these people.  There were about 10 of them who all piled into the truck, a few in the front, and then the rest of them smooshed into the back of the truck.  This is actually a common way for people to travel, and you can see them like this all over town, even in the larger cities. 

My Town's Temple!

My friend Saya took me around the city because I wanted to see the temple that is located by the river.  I had driven past it a number of times, but had never actually gotten to go in it and see what it was all about, so I asked her if she would take me.  I can't remember the full name of the temple, its something like Wat Muang. 

The Temple! This is the temple (just thought I'd state the obvious.) People come here to pray (at the table in front, and then go inside to worship, and give thanks.  The big gong type thing that is to the right of the staircase is a gong.  You hit it three times for good luck. 

 Inside the temple there is this pillar.  It is a all gold, and there are religious symbols carved into it.  You can put a piece of gold foil onto it, for good luck.  The four pillars to the sides of the big middle one, face in each direction, and you wrap a piece of cloth around them, while praying for something that you want to happen.  I was able to do this, and I got to wish for four things. 

 Another gong that you get to hit for good luck.  There is another one that is located inside the temple (this on is also located within the temple) that you hit for good luck (three times!) but it wasn't as ornate as this one, so I didn't take its picture. 

A picture of me standing in front of the temple, on the day I went with Saya.  I'm in my wonderful school uniform, and as you can tell it's a little big for me. The reason that it is big on me is because they wanted to make sure that my butt and boobs weren't too noticable, so they made sure it was baggy and long.  Haha.  I don't really mind, except when it's hot, and I feel like I'm sweating to death. 

 This is the alter that is in front of the temple.  Under the umbrella there is a water jug (the brown basin) this is filled with holy water, and you can put some on your head for good luck.  The big steel table in the center of the picture is where you can place your offerings-flowers, food, things like that.  To the right of that there are the two silver columns-these are filled with oil and a candle where you can light your insencse.  The big black cauldren to the far right is were you place your inscense to burn when you are finished praying. 

 The temple at night.  This place is absolutely gorgeous at night, and the different parts are lit up in different colors depending on the day. It was Saturday the day the picture was taken, so as you can hopefully see, there are certain things being lit up in purple.  On other days it will be lit up with blue, green, red, or another color depending on the day.

A picture of me and my friend Emi from Japan.  This is another day, but I didn't feel like putting a whole post dedicated for one picture.  She came from Nakornsrithammarat to come visit me, and we took her to see the sights.  I liked the picture, so I posted it here for you :).

Cooking Dinner!

My host mom was cooking dinner one night, and I had nothing to do, so I offered to help.  I didn't get to do much because I didn't totally know what I was doing, and neither of us wanted me ruining dinner.  But I still got to help out.  When my host mom and I cook, we talk, well mostly me asking what everything is, writing it down, and then forgetting what she said ten minutes later, but it is still fun, and a "bonding" activity. 

 This is my host mom cutting up the veggies.  I don't have much to say about these pictures, because they are pretty self explanitory. 

 In this picture I am stirring a mixture of chopped up pork and egg.  This will later be used to make an omlette.  Its pretty delicious, I must say. 

 Me stir frying some of the veggies together. 

   My host mom properly stirring the veggies.  She let me do it so that I could have a picture, but as soon as the picture had been taken, we quickly switched spots so that I didn't burn dinner.  I don't think she has much faith in my cooking abilities...I don't blame her.  I can bake...not cook. :)

Dinner! I think this is called Som Tam Goong.  (Goong means shrimp).  This dish is pretty spicy, but delicious.  So there are a few pictures about my cooking experience. 

Inbound Orientation!

Our inbound orientation happened on September 11th-12th, a few weeks after the last exchange student landed in Thailand.  It was located in Trang, Thailand.  Trang is a city/province that is located South of where I live.  It has a lot of beaches, and it was really nice there.  For our orientation we had a full two days.  The first day started out with my host mom, myself, and another Rotarian from our district driving at five in the morning, to Trang.  It took us about 4 hours, and we made it in time for the 9:00 am start.  Their idea of a Inbound Orientation was pretty awesome, I must admit.  There are 9 exchange students in my district: 3 girls from New York-Anna, Courtney, and Emily, 1 boy from Germany-David, 1 girl from Germany-Kimberly, 1 girl from Japan-Emi, 1 girl from Finland-Emmi, 1 girl from Brazil-Fernanda, and 1 girl from Canada-me.  It was pretty confusing because I would hear "Emily" so I would turn around, but they would be talking to the other Emily, or someone would say "Emi" and the four of us would turn around because either our real name was Emi, or we were nicknamed Emi.  Eitherway it got slightly confusing, and we all decided to go by our nicknames.

 You will probably notice when you look at these next pictures, that there are a lot of random island shots.  It's because that was pretty much the main thing we saw.  Sadly I don't know the names of all the islands, so you will have to bear with me on that one.  This is one of the islands that we went by.  Most of the islands had these characteristics-rocky and then trees.  Lots and lots of trees. 

 Another island that is different from the first one.  This one is more rocks, with the trees hanging onto the ledges, or where ever they could get a grip.  I thought it was pretty cool how there were so many trees growing on pretty much a rock. 

 Our first stop was at this island, where we got out and snorkled for a bit.  The snorkling was disappointing compared to other places that I have gone, but the others seemed to enjoy it, so it was okay.  This area doesn't have "coral reefs" persay, more of a few coral pieces, and rocks.  There were a few fish, but not much.  I had a few pictures, but there wasn't much to see, and the water wasn't vvery clear, so the pictures turned out murkey.  The boats that you can see in this picture are other groups.  You could rent one of these to putter you out there, but the main people who use these types of boats are fishermen. 

 Another little rock island that we went by.  I liked this picture because it shows how the trees just grow up the side of the "mountain" and where ever they can grow, they grow.  I also thought I'd show you guys this picture because it shows the pretty blue color of the ocean, or sea.  I'm not totally sure, but I think this is the Adaman Sea, but it could be the Gulf of Thailand.  I will have to check about that. 

 This was our second stop, where we got to feed the fish.  In the center of the picture, there is a little house (it's kind of hard to see because it kind of blends in, but its the green roof.)  Some fisherman lives here, and just lives off the land pretty much. 

 A picture of the fish that we fed.  What we would do is hold a piece of bread above the water, and all of the fish would swarm us to eat the bread.  A few of the girls (Emmi from Finland) just about had a heart attack because the fish were going after her bread, and she got out pretty quick.  This was really the only type of fish that we saw, there may have been one or two others, but for the most part this was it. 

 Another cool little island shot.  This is the island that we stopped at (the second stop) but just a picture of the side of it, and the little islands just off the coast of the bigger island. 

 A close up shot of a few of the fish that we fed. 

 Our third stop had us going through a cave.  This is the "congo line" that we had to form, and there was a man in front who pulled us through the cave.  Lots of us tried to kick in order to help the guy get us through, but all that resulted in was the other people around us (the people ahead of you and behind you) getting kicked, and not totally happy.  The first person is Emmi from Finland, then Kimberly from Germany, Myself, David from Germany, Anna from the Us, Fernanda from Brazil, Emily from the US, then you can't really see the last two, but it goes Courtney from the US and ending with Emi from Japan.  There were lots of people at this location, and once we got in, it was clear to see about why there were so many of us. 

 Going through the cave to get into the lagoon where we would eventually end up.  Peeboy (our YEO chaperone) was extremely excited that I had a waterproof camera, and took lots of pictures.  Because it was dark, there ended up being a lot of head shots, and not much to see.  So here is us going through the cave in our conga line

 A group shot of everyone.  There are some people in here that I don't know, but they were either chaperones, or family members.  Starting from left to right we have: a chaperone (don't know his name), PeeBoy, Kimberly, David, Emily, Fernanda, Emmi, Anna, Courtney, Myself, a chaperone, Emi, another chaperone, and someones sister.  The place was pretty spectacular- sandy beaches, warm water, trees galore.  It was pretty cool. 

 A shot of the beach, the water, and the opening to the cave that we came through.  As you can see, there were quite a few tourists here. 

 My friend Courtney and myself posing in front of the sign.  This told us what made this area so special, and the name of it.  We were pretty excited to learn about it, but then we realized it was in Thai.  I made the exciting discovery, that the back of this had the English version, but because of time and weather, it had been worn down a bit, and was hard to read.  From what we could gather, this area was originally used for pirates to bury their treasure.  We all agreed that this was a pretty awesome place to bury your treasure because you  had to go through a cave in order to find it. 

 There was a tree here that you could climb and get a cool picture.  This is me attempting to climb the tree. 

Gravity hates me, and I soon figured out that because of my height, I couldn't reach the next step up, so this is as far as I got.  People offered to help me up, but I said that it wasn't worth it because I probably wouldn't be able to get down after anyways.  Most people would stand on the tree that is going horizontal.  But I couldn't do it.  

 This is just a picture of some of the scenery within the little lagoon area.  I thought it was pretty. 

 One side of the lagoon area.  The entrance to the cave is to the left, and you can kind of tell that it is decently steep, but there is a lot of life here.  This is to the right of the cave entrance. 

This is a picture of the scenery to the left of the cave.  Totally diffferent from the stuff on the right side of the cave.  It was impossible to get a picture with no other people in it.

So we ended up skipping the fourth island, because it waws getting late, and we had to get back in time for dinner.  This is a picture of the beach, after the tide had gone out.  There were lots of little crabs scuttling around on the beach.  The rest of the evening consisted of us eating, and going over all of the rules and regulations.  We stopped talking at 10:00pm and headed off to bed, because the next day (August 12th) we would have to get up early and go over the rest of the rules. 

 This was taken the next day, during our lunch break.  We all wanted to go take pictures because 20 minutes before, the tide had been insanely far out, and we were going to walk along the beach.  By the time we got to go down there, the tide was in, and there was nothing to see, so we took pictures of the islands around and this area. 

Just another long shot of the area surrounding where we had our orientation. 

After we learned all of the rules, we all headed off in different directions to head home.  My trip home took 5 hours because my host moms friend drove, and she didn't drive very fast.  I don't think we went over 80 once during the whole trip. 

Some Food Pictures!

I have been treated to a variety of different foods, and these are just a few pictures of the food that I got to eat at the beginning of my trip.

 Okay, this is one of the foods that I have eaten, and it's pretty good.  The bigger lady on the right is NaNa. She takes me around town a lot, and we do a lot of things together.  The smaller lady in the pink shirt is....I can't remember her name, but I met her at the shrimp farms, which I will tell you guys about later.  We are cooking "fish balls".  I can't pronounce the Thai name, so I will just tell you the English version.  What it is is fish, ground up so its like paste, mixed with curry and spring onions, and then tossed into oil to cook. 

 A picture of me cooking these fish balls.  The people in the truck just pulled up to buy some.  You would get a bag of 20 or so fish balls for about 30 baht.  They were spicy, and at this time I was not accustomed to spicy food, so I could only really eat one or two before needing a sip of water. 

 A better view of them cooking.  We all decided that NaNa was better at cooking, and I should probably leave the cooking to them.  Even though I didn't do much, it was their way of making money, and me burning them probably wouldn't have been a good plan.

 A close up look at the cooking.  It is being cooked by a flame, which is different from what they normally do.  Normally food here is cooked via a propane tank, but still in the wok. 

Okay, so one night, while my host mom was out in China, my host dad took my brother and I to this seafood restaurant on the river.  We had everything seafood-raw shrimp, cooked shrimp, fish, spicy fish, and these beasts (the picture).  This is a shrimp, but I swear it was like 8 inches long, and thats not including the tenticlely feelers.  They were huge! I didn't really like it though, but I still ate it.  Another thing that we ate here, that I don't have a picture of is crayfish.  The only difference between their crayfish and ours is theirs are big, and by big I mean like a foot long, probably bigger.  I tried it...it was pretty good.  My host dad said that it was like our lobster, but the size had me floored. 

My First Elephant!

August 25th was a very special day for me.  Right as we left the house to head out to the Rotary meeting, I noticed something.  There was an elephant in our driveway.  Well, right off to the side of the driveway, but either way I was very excited.  This was my first time being that close to an elephant, which I thought was huge. 

The owners of the elephant let me feed it and pet it, but it seemed to like me a bit more when I fed it.  Either way, my night was made.  I got to pet and feed an elephant.  In the future, I hope to be able to ride one :) Maybe when we go to Koh Samui, or Chang Mai. 

Here is a picture of me and the elephant.  I am feeding him some sort of veggie, but from this picture the elephant doesn't look as big as it did up close.  He (the elephant) was very impatient, and really wanted that food. 

 My host mom, me, the elephant, and the elephant rider.  There was another guy that was behind the elephant, that I am assuming lead the elephant to where they wanted it to go. 

One more picture of me and the elephant.  Apparently it's good luck to see an elephant, so I was pretty excited about that.  This elephant is just a baby elephant, maybe 3 or four years old, probably less.  Some of the other elephants I have seen around town are bigger than this one, and only 5 or 6 years old.  I can't wait to see a bigger elephant, and get to ride one :)