Loy gratong and tashis first car accident

hey everyone... the few people still reading this thing, which, by the lack of comments is very few. tell your friends about me!

this past week has been interesting. Wednesday was my first real thai festival, loy gratong. in the morning we made gratongs, which are peices of wood covered in folded banana leaves and orchids. then you put a candle and inscents in the middle. at night, we went with our teachers to a hotel for an amazing dinner. next came the loy gratong ceremony, which consists of lighting the candle and incents and releasing your gratong into a body of water. traditionally it would be in a river, but tonight it was a hotel swimming pool. while you put it in the water you say a prayer, ant the act of (traditionally) letting the gratong float away down the river is to signify your sins and problems being washed away as well. its sort of a cleansing ceremony that happens once a year.

the following weekend i went camping with my family and one of my friends tashi. we ended up sitting on a bridge talking with a bunch of thai kids and one or two falang the whole night. the next day we went to a waterfall. it was freaking COLD! water isnt supposed to get that cold in thailand!! next we had the option of going to choke chai farm or seeing another waterfall, so obviously we chose choke chai (how many waterfalls do you really need to see in one day?) that turned out to be a bust becuase you HAVE to go on a tour, and to do that we would have had to wait for 2 hours. the farm was a traditional american farm anyways, which both tashi and i can do in our countries. we had spotted a huge outlet strip mall a couple minutes back down the highway and asked to go there instead.

on the way we spotted a place to rent ATV's. Being exchange students, and looking for any chance to break more D's (just kidding, Rotary, if your reading, I don't actually break D's) we asked if we could do that instead. we stopped a bit long of the turnoff, and hence had to backup down a thai highway for about 5 minutes. 5 minutes of absolute terror!

tashi had never driven anything in her life before so she and i opted to go for the two person off roader, much like a car. there is a track you follow in these things, so i was to do the first one and tashi the second. so after my run tashi and i switch, her in the drivers seat and i in the passengers. so tashi starts driving and we come to this bridge and tashi starts screaming "no i cont do it! i cant do it!" so i tell her "No, its okay just accelerate and get over the bridge, your fine!" so tashi guns it up this bridge. we're heading towards solid ground again and i nitoice that were supposed to turn, only tashi doesnt and keeps drving straight, still gunning in, right into the middle of this field. and all of a sudden were in grass taller than our heads all around us.

finally one of the managers finds us, puts the beast into reverse and nvigates us out of there. tashi drives the thing back to the starting point, and right to a group of about 10 people, employees and my family pissing themselves laughing, because they can see and hear the whole thing. deffinitely the highlight of the weekend.

i switched host families on monday. a bit of a gong show at first but everything has settled down since. tomorrow the other exchangers and i are going to a school to either teach kids english, or speak to them in english or something, no ones entirely sure.

Other than that nothing interesting is happening. my new host family has wireless, but ive become incredibly bored with the internet so i dont think i'll be on anymore than usual. will try to catch up on my emailing though.

love.

Ashley

Chantaburi

So i just got back from a rotary trip to chantaburi, and im here to tell you of my adventures with 50 other exchangers.

We'll start with the day before the trip because that has interesting stories too. I took the songtao(thai bus) to the mall but instead of sitting ion the back i sat up front with the bus driver (air conditioning, YAY) and we started the normal thai-falang routine conversation ie where are you from, how long are you here etc. we actually had a really good conversation and just before i got out he took a small amulet off of his mirror and gave it to me as a gift. On one side is buddha and on the other a meditating woman and thai words. if you wear it it is supposed to give you good luck and keep you safe. It was a really nice gesture and actually kind of moving.

Later that night my mom and sister and i went out to eat, and we pull into the parking lot ight ahead of another vehicle. we all get out, and there were two falang in the other car so my mom says "look, ashley, your friends!" at which point i realise that the two falang that got out actually are exchange friends from another rotary club. so we sit down and my mom says something about my friends again and i tell her that one is named gaeo ta and the other meow. she looks confused for a moment and then says "wait, you actually know them?" shes like "i was just joking because your both falang." pretty random and funny.

the next day we left for rotary on a bus with most of the other exchangers, but i guess everyone stayed up the night before because it was just the brazilians and the korat girls (aka us) awake and being loud and im sure disrupting everyone elses sleep. we finally get there and get settled in and have dinner. later that night we all go exploring and we find a rasta cafe about 5 minutes down the beach and hang around there talking and doing whatever for a few hours. one of the guys we had been talking with had what can only be described as fire sticks and balls, and so he and one of the other exchangers started fire dancing. i wish i had a video if this but i dont, sorry. poor girl hit the back of her head with the fire balls a couple of times and im sure singed a few hairs. really cool to see though.

from the resort we were staying at we could see the sunset into the ocean which was gorgeous, will post pictures later.

the next day we were scheduled to clean the beach as part of the "kings project". so the 50 of us cram into a songtoa that could comfortable hold maybe 35 people and drive down the beach. it was hot as hell out and i did NOT want to clean, but what else is new. about halfway through i quit cleaning the beach because at that point i had looked down next to my foot and found a used syringe. the rest of the time was spent collecting shells. the afternoon was spent planting magrove trees which wasnt that bad and only took about a half hour. after we finished that one of the directors cut down some coconuts, and cut off the top. inside is the most delicious coconut milk and fresh gooey coconut.

day three was the 'fun' day. in the morning we watched a dolphin show which was quite honestly mediocre and i felt really bad for the dolphins because they had to be sprayed with dye first which cant be fun. in the afternoon we went to a waterfall which was really beautiful and we all got to swim in it. normally people wear shorts and a t-shirt to go swimming in public which is what we all did. however there was another smaller group of tourists there and both of the girls were walking around in thong bthing suits! some of the thai people actually got up and left it. it was a little obnoxious however they were defs not from canada (thank goodness.) on the way home in the cramped songtao we had a nice little sing along to songs from every country, france, germany, canada, russia etc. it was pretty cool to hear every ones songs. during the entire week every chance we got jean-phillipe, constance, kaitlyn, anna, katy, kate, nicole, colin and a bunch of other people sang the canadian anthem, and not all of us are even canadian. every one else would sing along by replacing the words and singing only "eh" in the tune of oh canada.

that night was supposed to be our halloween party but i think only about 10 people dressed up. everyone sang a bunch of karaoke and had a few pop-rocks competitions, and ended up heading to the rasta cafe at around 10.

we got up at 5:30 to try and see the sunrise, but the sun didnt rise over the ocean. instead it rose behind a bunch of trees so that was pretty much a bust.

the last official day we went to an aquariam and on a nature walk. we got to go kayaking which was cool. kaitlyn and i were in a two person, tashi and anna were in another two-person and a really cool guy from south carolina named mason was alone in another. we ended up not following the guide and just siting there because we are all ridiculously lazy. it came time to row back so we linked our kayaks together and rowed together as a kayak clog.

mason and anna got to talking and figured out that anna vacationed in masons little speck of a town the summer before. Anna got to talking about how she went to myrtle beach and ended up getting sand in places where sand should never be. mason, in his southern accent, deadpan glory says "There's nothing but hookers and trash in myrtle beach. thats probably why you got sand in your snootch."

the last end of the afternoon was spent painting a fence at a childrens school which wasnt too bad, however i think the words "russia" and "canada" are still emblazoned yellow against the white we were supposed to be covering. once back at the resort everyone ran to the ocean to cool down slash clean paint off of themselves. it started to rain about halfway though the swim. its en interesting feeling to be rained on whilst swimming and the ocean and sunset are magnificent through the haze of droplets.

later that night was our farewell dinner. mostly a string a very embarassing hula dancing, a round of musical chairs in which more than one object was broken, and a very prolonged (read: boring/humiliating) "miss Youth Exchange" Pageant. which really should have been intersting seeing as half of the contestants were boys, yegt somehow still managed to be dull.

other than that life is uneventful. my blazer looks better and better as is keeps filling up with pins from different contries and different events. school starts again finally on monday. im excited to see which classes i have.

COMMENT!! i'm making the official threat that if people do not comment i will not post. what use is it to have a blog if your not sure anyone is even reading it?

love to all,

Ashley

Oh... My God!

Short blog today. Nothing really is going on, we've been spending alot of time at the pool lately. we still have three weeks of no school so there isnt much else to do. Out of the seven of us, four of us are leaving this weekend, which doesnt include me so that should be a laugh riot.

The trip to chantaburi that ive been so excited about might be cancelled becuase the district has gone crazy and decided that since two kids died in an electrical storm (not from rotary) chantaburi isnt safe. There are some obvious flaws in this argument, most of which im sure everyone can figure out, especially once you learn that the electrical storm wasnt in chantaburi. Instead we might be going to pattaya for an outbound orientation/selection meeting.

There are usually three district-approved trips that we pay for and go on, but this year the five day mountain trip was cancelled and instead the chaing mai trip has been extended 5 days. Papa Koh who is one of the cooler host dads in rotary is going to take just the kids from our club though and so im really exited about that even though its not till december.

The coolest kids ever, aka Anna Tatchi and I decided that since i bought all of the harry potter movies that we would have a harry potter movie night and eat the food we had been sent from home. pretty freaking epic if you ask me.

Khun Mem, rotary club president and Future host Aunt (She will be my second host family) is making us go to school EVEN THOUGH every other person in our school is on break. so im 'learning' how to write thai even though im way behind the rest of the seven person 'class' because honestly i just couldnt be bothered before. i think its silly that we dont know what words mean, but were learning how to read them? if we dont know what the word means what use is it to be able to sound it out? but ive gotten over that and am now actually trying to learn because i may as well if its being taught.

we also have thai dance lessons which i'm actually not too bad at surprisingly. i am kind of excited to go back to school though only because i really want to learn more thai. its hard to learn when everyone around you speaks english.

Today is also my official two months in thailand so its time for another month party! were having it today before anyone leaves and getting an "Eat Me" Bakery (yes thats the real name) cheese cake. delicious.

Anyways its probably time to get up and get moving so i will write more when something fun happens! Love always,
Ashley

One month Party

scout camp

sorry its taken so long

hey everyone.
i thought i would take this time to explain a bit better the situation here in thailand, and tell you all everythingi know. First of all, Pantameet is the main protest the has been going on for over 100 days (when i first got here it had been going on for 71 days). It is peaceful and televised around the clock. Pantameet was also the site of the Queen's birthday celebration which i attended. People are constantly driving to bangkok to join the protest.

The "riot" in bangkok was an isolated incident and didnt happen at pantameet. one person died and 43 were injured however no one is concerned. The State Of Emergency that was declared was set in place to try and disperse the crowd of protestors squatting on the property of the prime minister, as the SOE bans groups of more than 5 people from gathering for any politcal reasons. The protestors arent complying however, so the PM is considering lifting the SOE.It may have already been lifted, im not entirely sure.

There are smaller rallys every once in a while held at the universtiy in Korat. I dont know if other cities are having them as well but i would assume so. These are entirely peaceful as well. we had to drive through it on the way home from rotary one night, and basically is exactly like pantameet, where one person is talking and everyone is listeningand cheering.
Speaking of rotary, all the exchangers had a meeting with Peter, who is the old inbound coordinator for my district. This was basically a meeting to pay for the trips, but we also got t shirts and found out that rotary is going to payfor all of the exchangers to take a trip to chantaburi (about 6 hours from korat) from october 13-17. chantaburi is on the ocean so we'll be going to the beach and staying at a hotel together.

A while ago my friend anna and i went to Sa Kaeo. we thought we were going for a "trip" but it turns out that when my parents say trip what they actually mean is that they have to work in a different city so my sister stays home and i go with them to meetings all day. we spent about an hour at the market that is on the border of cambodia and the rest of the time at meetings.
School is going really well. Our thai food teacher is crazy, and he always takes us to the market to buy the ingredients for whatever dish were cooking that day. which i think ispretty awesome because in canada there is no way we would ever be allowed to go off school property at the drop of a hat like that. I also just found out that hes 17. which i guess means that you dont actually need a degree to be a teacher? because hes not even a teachers helper, or if he is then he runs the whole show becuase there is never another teacher in the room so i dont know haha.

our thai classes have zero structure which really annoys me. plus the teacher who is supposed to be teaching us how to speak doesnt understand enough english so we spend half our time trying to explain to him what were asking, writing the words in english for him and trying to get him to translate it into thai. the teacher who is teaching us how to write got us halfway through the alphabet and then switched to teaching us how to say words in thai. which is great, except that our teachers obviously dont communicate either because we ended up learning words that the speaking teacherhad already taught us.

The past three weeks our classes have been having random exams, so sometimes we will go to school and they will justtell us to go home because we dont have class. it actually gets really frusterating after a while.

We've been on break for about two weeks now, which hasnt been so bad considering that we've spent nearly every day at the pool. were also continuing our thai classes and weve started thai dance lessons as well.

if anyone wants to send care packages i am in desperate need of CHEESE! or any normal dairy product. everything dairy tastes different. people here really like things to be sweet, so they add sugar to everything, even milk. Also, movies. if someone wants to send a few local newspapers along too that would be pretty sweet. the only time i get news is when im at a computer, but i dont have internet at my house and the internet at school has been downfor the last week or so now. other than that im doing pretty good.

i can eat mildly spicey things now. theres this sauce that you use for cow mung gai thats sweet and spicey and it is SO DELICIOUS. i could eat it with everything.

anyways this is another ridiculously long post. im posting pictures as well!! and ill try and find a way to let everyone see my photobucket so you can see the ones that i dont upload to here.
anyways i have to go now but ill try and update again soon!!
xoxox jube jube!