Friday, September 28, 2012
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
A Little Insight Into the Mind of an Exchanger
This trip has already shown me such a vastly different outlook on life. The culture and the lifestyle that the Thai people have here is poles apart from what I have grown up knowing in The Great White North. Their mannerisms and behaviours are different, their weather is different, their language and alphabet are different, their food is different, heck, even their toilets are different. It can be a struggle to find any similarities whatsoever between Canada and Thailand.
But this is exactly the reason I wanted to come to The Land of Smiles in the first place. I wanted somewhere so dissimilar from my comfort zone, so unalike in every conceivable way, that I would have no choice but to learn and grow and adapt to my new world. I got exactly what I wished for, and then some.
See, last summer, I spent 2 months canoeing over 1,700 kms through the Northwest Territories, sleeping in a tent every night, combatting ceaseless waves of gnawing insects, cooking over a fire, and often enduring relentless winds and rains. But that was easy. Adapting to that kind of lifestyle was a breeze for me, in a relativistic sense of things. I can deal with physical changes with ease.
I've found that not to be the case here though. Here I have to learn to have dealings with people I have never met before. I have to adapt, not so much physically, (excluding to the tormenting heat...), but more so psychologically. And that, for me, is much harder than what I have had to do up until now. It's hard for me to realize that not everyone has the same basic thought process, that we don't all see the world with the same light. Even simple day-to-day things are done differently here, things that I would have thought would be done universally across the globe. The adaptation to these little, insignificant differences is proving to be my biggest challenge. They eventually all culminate into a big mess of cultural discrepancies that seem at times completely unreasonable to me. And yet, their lives move on, just as before, and they will continue to do so, despite me not being able to thoroughly accept them for what they are yet. It is coming along though. I am working on broadening my perspectives, and although it is a slow process, it is progressing. Turns out I DONT know everything. Surprising eh? But moving forward, I will continue to do everything I can to take advantage of every opportunity and learn with every obstacle, and trudge ever closer to a better understanding of this strange, strange land we call Thailand, and this wide, wide world we call Earth.
Much Love from Thailand!
Sawatdee Krap
But this is exactly the reason I wanted to come to The Land of Smiles in the first place. I wanted somewhere so dissimilar from my comfort zone, so unalike in every conceivable way, that I would have no choice but to learn and grow and adapt to my new world. I got exactly what I wished for, and then some.
See, last summer, I spent 2 months canoeing over 1,700 kms through the Northwest Territories, sleeping in a tent every night, combatting ceaseless waves of gnawing insects, cooking over a fire, and often enduring relentless winds and rains. But that was easy. Adapting to that kind of lifestyle was a breeze for me, in a relativistic sense of things. I can deal with physical changes with ease.
I've found that not to be the case here though. Here I have to learn to have dealings with people I have never met before. I have to adapt, not so much physically, (excluding to the tormenting heat...), but more so psychologically. And that, for me, is much harder than what I have had to do up until now. It's hard for me to realize that not everyone has the same basic thought process, that we don't all see the world with the same light. Even simple day-to-day things are done differently here, things that I would have thought would be done universally across the globe. The adaptation to these little, insignificant differences is proving to be my biggest challenge. They eventually all culminate into a big mess of cultural discrepancies that seem at times completely unreasonable to me. And yet, their lives move on, just as before, and they will continue to do so, despite me not being able to thoroughly accept them for what they are yet. It is coming along though. I am working on broadening my perspectives, and although it is a slow process, it is progressing. Turns out I DONT know everything. Surprising eh? But moving forward, I will continue to do everything I can to take advantage of every opportunity and learn with every obstacle, and trudge ever closer to a better understanding of this strange, strange land we call Thailand, and this wide, wide world we call Earth.
Much Love from Thailand!
Sawatdee Krap
Friday, September 21, 2012
Doing a B. and E. like a pro.
So a couple days ago, I left to bike to school and drop some papers off for one of my teachers (I don't have classes this month, we have our mid-year break), and when I got back, I realized my host mom had left, and my host dad was at work. This normally wouldn't be a problem, but because I was planning on only being out of the house for a short time, I didn't bring my backpack, which has my house keys in it... I think you can see where this is going.
So I give my mom a call, and she tells me that she is already way outta town, and won't be back for another 5 hours, and my dad wont be back for maybe another 6 or 7. Damn. I was just about to hop on my bike and head back out to sit at the river and maybe nap until I could be let in, but I figured I would see if there was any way I could make it into the house. All the windows in the house were open, but they all have metal bars across them, and both the front and back doors were locked tight. I was hooped. 5 hours of waiting, here I come. But as I getting ready to leave, a wild idea came over me. I got back off my bike, and headed around back to where my room was. I peered through the window, and I saw it... my backpack was sitting right there, about 2 meters from the window, taunting me. I started looking around the yard for supplies to make some sort of a hook and line system, to pull my back to the window so i could grab my keys out of it.
There's a fair amount of junk laying around in my yard, but of course, nothing very suitable for the job. Eventually I found some really old beat up ribbon and an umbrella. I fashioned a make-shift fishing line out of them, and cast away at my bag, through the barred window. Unfortunately for me though, the old ribbon broke as soon as the line when taught, and now I was down a set of keys, and my hooking device, which now laid right next to my bag...
I wasn't about to give up yet though. I looked around a bit more, and found a clothes hangar for a hook, but still couldnt find any sort of decent rope. Then, sitting right across from my window, I found my solution. Vines.
I picked a vine from the plant, and pulled on either end to test how strong it was. Disappointingly, not very strong. But I think of little bit of my dad's side of me shone through for a bit, and I got the idea to pull out some more vines, so I could weave and braid them into a stronger 3 strand rope. I ended up with about 2 1/2 meters of this 'rope' and when I tested it again, it held up very well. I fashioned a loop out of some of the more supple vines, and spliced either end into my rope to attach the hangar to it, and I was left with my new and improved B and E tool.
I tossed it through my window and at my bag several times before it finally caught my strap, and then I slowly hauled my bag across my room and up to the window, where I was able to reach in and grab my keys and let myself into the house, averting a 5 hours nap with the ants and roaches at the riverside.
Im not gunna lie, I felt like a total badass... So I felt the need to share it with you all. Hope you could at least get a chuckle out of it :)
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| So close... yet so far... |
There's a fair amount of junk laying around in my yard, but of course, nothing very suitable for the job. Eventually I found some really old beat up ribbon and an umbrella. I fashioned a make-shift fishing line out of them, and cast away at my bag, through the barred window. Unfortunately for me though, the old ribbon broke as soon as the line when taught, and now I was down a set of keys, and my hooking device, which now laid right next to my bag...
I wasn't about to give up yet though. I looked around a bit more, and found a clothes hangar for a hook, but still couldnt find any sort of decent rope. Then, sitting right across from my window, I found my solution. Vines.
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| My selected materials |
I picked a vine from the plant, and pulled on either end to test how strong it was. Disappointingly, not very strong. But I think of little bit of my dad's side of me shone through for a bit, and I got the idea to pull out some more vines, so I could weave and braid them into a stronger 3 strand rope. I ended up with about 2 1/2 meters of this 'rope' and when I tested it again, it held up very well. I fashioned a loop out of some of the more supple vines, and spliced either end into my rope to attach the hangar to it, and I was left with my new and improved B and E tool.I tossed it through my window and at my bag several times before it finally caught my strap, and then I slowly hauled my bag across my room and up to the window, where I was able to reach in and grab my keys and let myself into the house, averting a 5 hours nap with the ants and roaches at the riverside.
Im not gunna lie, I felt like a total badass... So I felt the need to share it with you all. Hope you could at least get a chuckle out of it :)
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| SUCCESS! |
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Back up to speed!
Okay, I'm kinda losing interest in always writing about what happened almost a month ago, so I'm going to very briefly give a run-down of my experiences to get you all up to speed.
School so far has been pretty good. I still dont understand a thing that is going on, so it can make for a long day sitting there listening to meaningless blabbering for 8 hours. But I'm getting to know the local kids pretty well, and they been a huge help in teaching me Thai. I find myself being quite the celebrity while I'm there as well. I've got light brown hair, blue eyes, white skin and am (in a relative sense) rather tall. Thailand really doesn't have a heck of a lot of inhabitants that aren't Thai, so when a white kid walks by in their school uniform, it's quite the ordeal for them.
As for some of my adventures so far, I must say, they are slightly more involving and exciting than school... Take riding an elephant for example. In my opinion, it was a bit more fun than physics class. So my Rotary District, which comprises the northwest quadrant of Thailand, all got together for our first orientation in Lampang, about 4 hours from my city. I met loads of new people, there were about 30 students I believe, and I got to meet some of the Youth Exchange committee. Over the 5 days we spent in Lampang, we went to the Thai Elephant Conservatory, visited the Mae Moh Coal Mine, and a ceramic factory. We had some basic Thai language lessons, and even a dance party in the Hotel!
I've also visited Chiang Mai for a Rotary function. It is the second biggest city in Thailand, and one of the more touristy parts of the country. We drove up on a friday, and spent the night walking around a University Market, not really a heck of a lot of fun, but still very neat. It was mostly clothing shops and little restaurants, so not exactly my cup of tea. We stayed with a bunch of university students that night, not really knowing who they were, but Rotary told us to go with them, so we did. I think 1 or 2 of them might have been ex-exchangers, and that how they were implicated, but I honestly cant be sure. The next day we had meeting and such for the majority of the day, but it was good to see many of the other students again. That night, Hannah, Carol, Jenni and I went to this massive mall where we ate dinner and where I met up with Vow, a Thai student who I got to know while he lived in my district in Canada. After dinner, we headed over to the real night market, and the 4 of us, who had never been to this city before and who spoke very little Thai, were dropped off to fend for ourselves. We had a small piece of paper that had our address on it, and that was it. We walked around for hours, buying things we really didnt need, and seeing things we maybe didnt want to see... We ran into another group of students who also went to the market that night and so we all headed off together to enjoy the night.
I've taught at a few different schools and at a couple english camps as well, which were pretty fun. Its very hard to get used to the teaching methods here though which seem very ineffective, and quite frustrating to follow. But it's all good, I had some good times, and the little kids were ecstatic to have an actual english person teaching them the language.
One really cool thing that I got to do, was spend 4 days living at a temple with my host mom. She took me there for a prayer and meditation week, and I got to learn so much about Buddhism and the Thai culture. It was great! Sitting on the hard floor from 4am-9pm and not being able to eat after 12:00pm was kinda tough at times, but definitely worth it for the experience I got out of it.
That kinda sums up the big stuff that has gone on so far. Once again, if you want to know more about anything in particular, just drop me a comment and I'll be glad to fill you in!
Here's a link to a video I made while at the Outbound conference in Chiang Mai. Check it out, Chiang Mai Market
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| "Reunited, and it feels so good!" |
School so far has been pretty good. I still dont understand a thing that is going on, so it can make for a long day sitting there listening to meaningless blabbering for 8 hours. But I'm getting to know the local kids pretty well, and they been a huge help in teaching me Thai. I find myself being quite the celebrity while I'm there as well. I've got light brown hair, blue eyes, white skin and am (in a relative sense) rather tall. Thailand really doesn't have a heck of a lot of inhabitants that aren't Thai, so when a white kid walks by in their school uniform, it's quite the ordeal for them.
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| Sorry, I dont have any pictures of me with the elephants. This is my friend Hannah instead! |
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| Ceramic Factory |
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| In the tuk-tuk on the way home... at 12:30am |
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| Loving Life! |
I've also visited Chiang Mai for a Rotary function. It is the second biggest city in Thailand, and one of the more touristy parts of the country. We drove up on a friday, and spent the night walking around a University Market, not really a heck of a lot of fun, but still very neat. It was mostly clothing shops and little restaurants, so not exactly my cup of tea. We stayed with a bunch of university students that night, not really knowing who they were, but Rotary told us to go with them, so we did. I think 1 or 2 of them might have been ex-exchangers, and that how they were implicated, but I honestly cant be sure. The next day we had meeting and such for the majority of the day, but it was good to see many of the other students again. That night, Hannah, Carol, Jenni and I went to this massive mall where we ate dinner and where I met up with Vow, a Thai student who I got to know while he lived in my district in Canada. After dinner, we headed over to the real night market, and the 4 of us, who had never been to this city before and who spoke very little Thai, were dropped off to fend for ourselves. We had a small piece of paper that had our address on it, and that was it. We walked around for hours, buying things we really didnt need, and seeing things we maybe didnt want to see... We ran into another group of students who also went to the market that night and so we all headed off together to enjoy the night.
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| Teaching at Nongping Primary School |
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| Damn big Buddha... |
That kinda sums up the big stuff that has gone on so far. Once again, if you want to know more about anything in particular, just drop me a comment and I'll be glad to fill you in!
Here's a link to a video I made while at the Outbound conference in Chiang Mai. Check it out, Chiang Mai Market
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Monday, September 10, 2012
Alrighty, still bringing you up to speed with my new life. Here we go.
So I'm going to shorten up the re-cap a little bit, because I really want to get to posting about recent events, rather than stuff from the beginning of the trip.
I soon found out that my host brother and sister, Shine and Nuch respectively, would be heading off to Mexico on exchange within the week. Over the next few days, we spent much of our time visiting friends and family all over the city, and getting the final things packed for their journey. Their departure date came around, and we all loaded into a snub-nose van, along with a couple extended family members, to make the trip back to Bangkok. we left at about noon, as their flight wasn't until 11:50 that night. On the way there, I was gazing out the window the entire time. Everything here is still brand new to me, and I didnt want to wasted a second of it.
The road we drove along was quite strange. Along the entire road, their were small houses and shops and little vendors. Right on the edge of the highway, miles away from the nearest city, you could see an old Thai woman sitting on a rickety lawn chair in front of a table laden with brightly coloured fresh fruit. Then you look to the other side of the road, and a 9 year old boy would be pulling out of his dirt driveway on a motorcycle, and onto the highway... This country is amazing.
We got to Bangkok right around 5:30, so we found a restaurant for dinner. It was my first meal out, and was quite a cool experience. The restaurant sat overhanging a pond, and had a live band playing in the background. It was a gorgeous place! As for the food, I was still learning how to eat properly, and the Thai people can be rather particular about the right way to do it. You fill your plate with rice, and, with your spoon in your right hand and fork in your right, you start to serve yourself the many different dishes on the table. You only take one at a time though, and only usually enough for about 2-3 bites worth. Then you combine a little bit of rice, and whatever you just dished yourself on the spoon, and chow down. Most of it was quite good, and yes... almost all of it was spicy.
We got to the airport about 2 hours later, only to find out that the travel agency had goofed on the bookings, and the airport had no record of Nuch and Shine's tickets. Great start to an exchange eh? So we spent the next 6-ish hours moving from one location to the next, consulting with people on the phone and then confirming with airport employees, all in Thai. Every once and a while i would get an update, but in the meantime, all I could really do was sit and read. Thank goodness I brought a book. At about 1am, I was finally told that we would head back into the city to spend the night, and hopefully sort things out the next day. Boy oh boy did I love hearing those words.
The hotel we stayed at was meh from the outside, but our rooms were amazing. Not at all what I was expecting. Neither were the exceptionally hard beds. I was beginning to think that that was a thing in this country. My sleep started as soon as I laid down, and came to an unwanted end at 8 the next morning. We all went and ate breakfast together while the travel agency was sorting things out, but when we had finished, nothing more had been solved, so we waited around at the hotel until 12pm, when we had to check out, and then back to the aiport we went.
Eventually, we got everything fixed, and my brother and sister were to leave at 10pm that night. We spent the next 6 hours touring the airport, which really isnt that exciting, and I took another big chunk out of my book. Finally, the time came. They were ready to go through security and officially start their trip. After many more hugs and consoling words from their biological family, I gave them each a hug and realized then how quickly people can bond. I had only known them for about a week, but knew I would miss them while they were gone. They said their last goodbye, and off they went, tears streaming out all over the place. It was kind of cool to be able to experience that kind of thing from both side, once when i left Calgary, and then saying goodbye to someone else as they left.
We drove back to Kamphaeng Phet that night, and much to my surprise, I was informed that I would still be going to school the next day, even though I only got to bed around 4a.m.
My first day of school is soon to come!!
In the meantime, if you have any questions or want me to talk about something specific, feel free to leave a comment and I'll do my best to answer you
Sawatdee Krap
So I'm going to shorten up the re-cap a little bit, because I really want to get to posting about recent events, rather than stuff from the beginning of the trip.
I soon found out that my host brother and sister, Shine and Nuch respectively, would be heading off to Mexico on exchange within the week. Over the next few days, we spent much of our time visiting friends and family all over the city, and getting the final things packed for their journey. Their departure date came around, and we all loaded into a snub-nose van, along with a couple extended family members, to make the trip back to Bangkok. we left at about noon, as their flight wasn't until 11:50 that night. On the way there, I was gazing out the window the entire time. Everything here is still brand new to me, and I didnt want to wasted a second of it.
The road we drove along was quite strange. Along the entire road, their were small houses and shops and little vendors. Right on the edge of the highway, miles away from the nearest city, you could see an old Thai woman sitting on a rickety lawn chair in front of a table laden with brightly coloured fresh fruit. Then you look to the other side of the road, and a 9 year old boy would be pulling out of his dirt driveway on a motorcycle, and onto the highway... This country is amazing.
We got to the airport about 2 hours later, only to find out that the travel agency had goofed on the bookings, and the airport had no record of Nuch and Shine's tickets. Great start to an exchange eh? So we spent the next 6-ish hours moving from one location to the next, consulting with people on the phone and then confirming with airport employees, all in Thai. Every once and a while i would get an update, but in the meantime, all I could really do was sit and read. Thank goodness I brought a book. At about 1am, I was finally told that we would head back into the city to spend the night, and hopefully sort things out the next day. Boy oh boy did I love hearing those words.
The hotel we stayed at was meh from the outside, but our rooms were amazing. Not at all what I was expecting. Neither were the exceptionally hard beds. I was beginning to think that that was a thing in this country. My sleep started as soon as I laid down, and came to an unwanted end at 8 the next morning. We all went and ate breakfast together while the travel agency was sorting things out, but when we had finished, nothing more had been solved, so we waited around at the hotel until 12pm, when we had to check out, and then back to the aiport we went.
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| Goodbye Nuch and Shine!! |
My first day of school is soon to come!!
In the meantime, if you have any questions or want me to talk about something specific, feel free to leave a comment and I'll do my best to answer you
Sawatdee Krap
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Surprise Motorcycle Ride
I'm straying off track slightly of my intended path, as this happened just last night, but I also wanted to get a video up to keep people entertained a bit more. The video turned out way worse than I hoped, but you get the basic idea of whats going on. Anyways, I was on my way home from the night market, which is about a 35 minute walk from my house, when these 2 girls showed up and asked me if i wanted a ride. Of course I did! So I hoped on the back of their scooter and this is what ensued. Sorry that its so dark you cant even see my face...
Saturday, September 1, 2012
Blog Numero uno!
Howdy everyone!!!
So after reading some of the blogs from the other exchangers, I figured it would be a good idea to start my own. Im going to try and add lots of pictures and videos, cause I know some people aren't the biggest fans of reading, and they're just more exciting anyways. I also apologize up front for starting this 3 weeks into my trip, instead of at the beginning, or even before I left, but I'll make sure to recap everything that has happened.
So my journey in Thailand started on August 11th, 2012. From Calgary (my home city), I flew to Vancouver, and from there to Hong Kong, and the to Bangkok. It took me about 18 hours-ish of flight time to get here, and my layovers were very nice and short, which reeeally helped quicken the trip. I arrived in Thailand and was just beaming the whole way through the airport. It was about 900m from my gate to baggage, and I took my time the whole way, just enjoying things and taking it all in. (btw, it was about 9pm local time when I arrived). I got my bag, and then walked over to arrivals, where I found my new family waiting for me. Hahaha, it's not very often you get to say that, but I'm glad I got to. It was such a cool experience. They made a sign for me and everything, and they seemed very excited to see me. On the 4 1/2 hour drive from Bangkok to my new city, Kamphaeng Phet, we made small talk for a while, before I started drifting into semi-conciousness from being awake for nearly 30 hours straight. As soon as we got home, I went straight to bed... my very, very hard bed... fantastic.
The next couple of days, I spent most of my time recovering from jet lag, eating and getting to know my family. So many things here would be completely absurd in Canada, especially things to do with driving and the roads. They are absolute madness here. Whether there are rules or not, not a single person follows them. The food was also very different. I knew they ate lots of rice, but i didn't think it was ACTUALLY for every meal of the day. Oh well, good thing I like rice!
I'm going to cap it here for the time being, as it it getting late here, and I still have a bunch of work to do.
Sawatdee Kap!
Wallop Watcharawichet (Cole)
So after reading some of the blogs from the other exchangers, I figured it would be a good idea to start my own. Im going to try and add lots of pictures and videos, cause I know some people aren't the biggest fans of reading, and they're just more exciting anyways. I also apologize up front for starting this 3 weeks into my trip, instead of at the beginning, or even before I left, but I'll make sure to recap everything that has happened.
So my journey in Thailand started on August 11th, 2012. From Calgary (my home city), I flew to Vancouver, and from there to Hong Kong, and the to Bangkok. It took me about 18 hours-ish of flight time to get here, and my layovers were very nice and short, which reeeally helped quicken the trip. I arrived in Thailand and was just beaming the whole way through the airport. It was about 900m from my gate to baggage, and I took my time the whole way, just enjoying things and taking it all in. (btw, it was about 9pm local time when I arrived). I got my bag, and then walked over to arrivals, where I found my new family waiting for me. Hahaha, it's not very often you get to say that, but I'm glad I got to. It was such a cool experience. They made a sign for me and everything, and they seemed very excited to see me. On the 4 1/2 hour drive from Bangkok to my new city, Kamphaeng Phet, we made small talk for a while, before I started drifting into semi-conciousness from being awake for nearly 30 hours straight. As soon as we got home, I went straight to bed... my very, very hard bed... fantastic.
The next couple of days, I spent most of my time recovering from jet lag, eating and getting to know my family. So many things here would be completely absurd in Canada, especially things to do with driving and the roads. They are absolute madness here. Whether there are rules or not, not a single person follows them. The food was also very different. I knew they ate lots of rice, but i didn't think it was ACTUALLY for every meal of the day. Oh well, good thing I like rice!
I'm going to cap it here for the time being, as it it getting late here, and I still have a bunch of work to do.
Sawatdee Kap!
Wallop Watcharawichet (Cole)
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