Shout Out

Hello everyone out there!

Well I just got back from a 6 day "Language Camp" out in Lampang Province, which turned out to be a lot better than what I thought it was going to be. But that's no what this is about. What I want to talk about is that while I was gone, I got some views on my blog that I kinda wasn't really expecting.
     First of all, another Canadian exchanger in my district sent me a message a couple days ago saying that an entire class from the University of Guelph was reading my blog, so I think a shout out to you guys is in order. I have no idea why you were checking out my blog, or if you ever will again, but if you per chance do, thanks for stopping by!
     Secondly, the website I post my blog through has an audience tracker that shows me where people are seeing my blog from, and sorts them based on their countries from around the world. Over these past 6 days, I got a very abnormal influx of views from Germany... and Russia, about 75% of my views came from those 2 countries alone. Again, noooo idea why this happened, but to all you people, I hope you enjoyed what you read, feel free to come on back!
     Thank everyone else as well for checking in on me every once in a while. It means a lot, and inspires me to keep posting and writing about my adventures here. I'll do my best to keep them coming!


Much Love
     William Cole

Totally irrelevant, but I just thought this was kinda funny.
You certainly wouldn't see this in Canada!

Was that... English??

I never realized how much translating I would do here.
I expected the whole English-Thai and Thai-English, but I was flabbergasted at the amount of English-English translating I would be doing!

It just goes to show how important structure is to a language, and it isn't all just about the vocabulary. Thai's might know a fair amount of English words, but their speech structure is sooo vastly different from ours, that 50% of the time, it make no sense what so ever. So you end up having to translate the garble of english that comes out into comprehensible sentences.
And yes, I'm quite certain that the people I talk to in Thai, are doing their fair share of Thai-Thai translations as well, I don't think for a second this is only a one-way street!

Just me thinking again, that's all...



Much Love,
     William Cole

Things I've eaten whilst in Thailand

(some of which I may have been better off avoiding...)

Fish (the whole thing at once)
Pig stomachs
Pig intestines (fyi, better than stomachs)
Grasshopers
Cockroaches
Fish eyes
Frogs (also eaten whole)
Clotted blood
Silk worms
A plethora of unknown creepy crawlies that wriggled their way into my food  
Crab eggs
Black eggs
Pink eggs
Skin of various animals (only skin, sometimes with hair still on it…)
Alligator
Entire squids (not just tentacles)
Chicken feet
Tongue (of unknown origin)
Hearts (chicken I presume)
Pig Ears
Shark Fin Soup (I'm soooorry, I didn't know at the time!!!)
Lungs and Hearts (pork)

PICTURES!!!

Voila some photos of my trip. They don't have any particular relevance to anything right now, and many are from a few months ago or more. Just a few shots to show you my surroundings, as all but one of these pictures (the one of the dam) were taken in my city. Enjoy! 

An old lady making her way home through the fields
after a long day of work.

Each of those little orange dots is a lantern that has been released into the air,
as people send off their hopes wishes to the heavens

Some of the guys of M.6 on their graduation day. 

This is the Bhomibol Dam, the largest dam in Thailand. 

Interestingly enough, my classmate's birthday was the day before this was taken, to for HIS birthday, he GAVE the class 1500 Baht (about 50$) so they could get massive amounts of fried chicken and pop and fries, and celebrate during school the next day. 55555 Happy Birthday Dtay!

Reading Thai, easy as cake right?

Just getting a wee bit of a trim... as half my head now lays on the floor.
Having long hair in Thailand in pretty much suicide. It is waaay too hot. 

The girl that has changed this trip for me in more ways than she could imagine. She's been a better friend to me than I could ever ask for, and am so grateful she was forced to go to Thailand, otherwise I would never have met her. Here's hoping that when she's forced to go back home, she'll still wanna keep me around!  :)
I Love you Hannah!

If there are any pictures you would like to see in particular, (temples, monks, school etc), whatever it may be, just leave me a comment, and I'll do my best to find a couple pics of that for you. 

As always, 

Much Love,

William Cole

Unwanted Guest

Here's a quick little story that just happened, and a perfect example of 'Be careful what you wish for'. I wanted something new... and I got it.

So just a little while I go, I got up to use the washroom. I walked into my very small bathroom, flicked on the light and shut the door. My family was asleep, the house was quiet and I was already a bit drowsy, but still very at ease and comfortable, as I think I should be when going using the facilities. I was all good to go, standing as to be expected when considering my gender, just about to drain the main vein, when all of a sudden a friggen LIZARD  falls from the ceiling and slams into my shoulder, quickly jumps off my shoulder to the floor, and upon hitting which, scurries off into a corner. It took absolutely everything I had in me to not shout out in shock and pee all over the bathroom. Now, I don't know about you, but I have never had another living creature dive bomb me while just prior to cracking the taps, and I didn't really like it. It was quite unsettling! It scared the dickens out of me. Needless to say, I will forever more do a thorough check of my surroundings before conceding to the porcelain throne for either a number 1 or 2.

Well there ya have it, a little bit of insight into the slightly more personal side of my life here in Thailand, hope you had a bit of a chuckle if nothing else!

Much love,
William Cole

Time, an Interesting Phenomenon

     Well I'm just lying here in bed, on the last night of my stay with the Suadongloy family. Now, I like to think of myself as somewhat of an optimist, but I still can't keep myself from thinking more and more of my departure date, and how rapidly it's approaching… Thinking about that sure doesn't put a smile on my face.  
     Don't get me wrong, I really do miss Canada, my friends, family, food, weather and so on and so on, but I know it will be there when I get back. Thailand isn't. My life here is finite, and that's a rather somber thought. I knew very well getting into this how long my journey was to last, and that at some point, I would have to hop back on a plane, and return to 'reality'.  But damn it sucks knowing when that actually is, and realizing how damn close it is. 4 months are all that I have left, which, at any other point in my life (especially during school) would seem like ages, but here, you sneeze and BAM. Another month just passed. 
     The hardest part of all of this time slipping away though, is that I'm not using it right now. I can't very well. My Thai friends are all off in other cities studying, I'm not allowed to travel without Rotary or my family, both of whom have other responsibilities than just me, so aren't exactly able to just take me out on a whim. I have no school, and all the sports or activities in Thai cities (smaller ones anyways) are also done through the currently closed school. I'm finding it really tough to keep busy. My days have become monotonous and repetitive, and there is nothing new. I love my exchange friends that I am spending the majority of my time with now, but I just wish we could really get out and DO something together, instead of go to Carol's and chill, or go to the river and chill, or go to Kokoro and chill. If you know me at all, you know I like to be active. That doesn't necessarily mean I need to run 1000kms every day though. It just means that sitting around for the majority of my day is actually quite taxing for me, mentally and physically. I find myself dead tired in the afternoons lately, partly because it's stupid hot here, but also just the lack of stimulation can be really draining, and my brain just goes into a lulled state.  
     I'm on our Summer Break right now, and have about another month and a half before school starts up again, during which time I will be heading on a 10 day trip to the south of Thailand with Rotary, which is supposed to be a spectacular time. I'm reeeally looking forward to that. but that still leaves me with another 35+ days to putter about and find something to do. It would be incredible if I could get out and do a bit more travelling on my own during the break, but Rotary here seems to be quite against that. So that still leaves me with aout 35+ days to putter about. I love my city and all, but it's not very big, and doesn't have a heck of a lot to offer in terms of entertainment. When I change host families, I will hopefully be starting Muay Thai up again, which is an absolute blast, but that depends on my situation with my next family, whether they're okay with it or not, and if it conflicts with my family's schedules at all. Okay… so there's 2 hours killed 5 days a week. That's still a lot of free time left over. What do I do??? Sure, I could pick up crocheting or stamp collecting to occupy myself, but I have all the time in the world to diversify my hoards of stamps when I return to Canada. I need to do things here that are, at least to an extent, unique to Thailand. That's why I came here. I didn't travel 13,000 kms around the world to perfect my knitting needlecraft with just a change of scenery. I do have a few things left on my list of 'To Do's' but they are dwindling quickly, and I think I  am only about a Thai massage (which I regretfully have yet to experience) and a dip in the River away from exhausting my ideas. 
Just let me get on a bus and go explore, or let me pack my bag, don my hikers and climb mountains and traverse rivers. Please! Heck, I would even love to put on an apron and learn how to cook Thai food, however none of that seems terribly likely to happen. 

Much Love,
William Cole

      PS Finally, as I gutlessly said I would post ages ago, here are a couple pictures from the trip. Some of the most important people in my exchange year. Wouldn't be the same without you guys. 

My fellow exchangers on Valentine's Day. Love 'em all!

Some of the Fam Jam on Chinese New Year. จะคิดถึงทุกคน!