January 2

My mom used to always warn me about deadlines. She told me not to wait until the last minute, because something would go wrong- for example, if I procrastinated on my college applications, something would go wrong when submitting them and I would be late. Fortunately, that didn’t happen, but I did have a goal to get this out by Christmas and I have now failed that goal because of an internet problem and an unexpected trip. How ironic. But despite that, I’m still going to tell everyone reading this to have a merry Christmas.

Have a merry Christmas.

It looks like I've made the mistake of forgetting to update my entries for a while, which is a mistake I really don't want to repeat because it has taken me several days to remember and write down everything that's happened.

First on the list is the Loi Krathong festival. The festival is about water spirits and involves putting a float with lit candles into the water, but my host family and I didn’t do much to celebrate. We went to the river in the evening instead of at night to avoid the crowds. Consequently, we also avoided basically everything else that made the festival exciting, including everyone else’s floats and some fireworks that I really wish I had been able to see. Even without that, though, I was still able to make my own float out of palm leaves (I don't know what the rest of it was) and I enjoyed the process over all. 

After the Loi Krathong festival was Sports Day, which took several weeks of planning for a four day festival in which the school was split up into color teams that competed against each other. I still don't completely understand why it happened and why schools here do it, but everyone had been looking forward to it since August. There were games, dances, competitions, cheers, parades, and just a slough of crazy events back to back for four days straight. The best comparison I can think of is a high school rally, if the rally lasted four days instead of an hour and if every single person in the school willingly participated while simultaneously high on adrenaline the entire time. I don't have any idea how the students pulled off something of that magnitude, but it worked wonders to bring everyone together and boost morale. Part of me didn't exactly like it because I simply wasn't used to it, but another part of me wishes they did the same thing in American schools. The entire thing was exciting and fun, and it really turned the school into something else entirely.

After Sports day, the school went back to a normal schedule and I was enrolled into several new classes: art, traditional instruments, and band. (I was technically enrolled into a Thai dance class, but it happens only on Fridays and I have missed every single Friday this term due to traveling, illness, exams, and even a blood drive that nearly the entire school participated in.) I've enjoyed the new classes so far- in art class, I learned several traditional patterns, and in band class, I learned a few traditional songs on marimba and even tried conducting. However, the most interesting class by far is my traditional instrument class, in which I've learned to play three traditional instruments: the khlui, the ranat, and traditional cymbals. 

The cymbals are easy. They were probably the inspiration behind finger cymbals, which I used for random percussion parts in band in America. Learning simple percussion here is no problem for me. But the most difficult part of learning the traditional instruments is the different scale. The Thai scale operates differently than the one that I am used to, with slightly different intervals between the notes. It still bothers me, but as long as I play the right melodies, it sounds fine. The khlui is technically a type of flute, although to me it seems more like a recorder. I've learned to play part of a traditional song with it, but I only get to practice it once every week, so the learning process is slow. The same goes for learning ranat, which is similar to a wooden xylophone but is played with one row of bars (like a piano with only white keys) and is played while sitting cross legged on the floor. I still haven't learned any songs on it- all I've learned so far is technique, which is very different from what I'm used to. But even with that, I've copied what I heard from others and have memorized the beginning of a traditional song that repeats itself and can go on for hours. 

On the 23rd, I briefly visited Trat with a few other exchange students, and on the 29th, I went with my host family to Bangkok. The actual reason for the trip was to visit my host brother’s university, but the highlights came later in the day (after my host brother and I got scammed by a motorcycle taxi). I visited IconSiam, an enormous shopping mall in Bangkok, and I later went on a dinner cruise with my host family. The cruise had amazing dishes, both traditional and western, and had several traditional performances. We also went past several famous landmarks, including parts of the palace and ancient temples. 

After Bangkok, I had exactly eight hours of rest at home before leaving again, this time to go to Laem Chabang near Pattaya. I stayed there for about a day with a few other exchange students, and then the six of us took a very, very long van ride up to the location for our first Rotary sponsored trip: Phu Kradueng.

Phu Kradueng is a mountain and national park located about ten hours north of where I currently stay. The trip lasted five days- a day of arrival, a day where we hiked up the mountain, a day of relaxing hikes, a day extremely intense hiking, and a day for hiking down the mountain. During that time, we visited tourist centers, rock formations, waterfalls, pools, bike trails, and tons of cliffs. The entire top of the mountain was an enormous plateau, and we were surrounded by cliffs with fantastic views almost anywhere we went. The mornings and nights were surprisingly cold, with temperatures I never expected to experience in Thailand, but the trip was absolutely amazing over all. The most spectacular views came during the sunrise and sunset hikes, but every stop we made was worth it. The cabins and markets on top of the mountain were also great, and the vendors even got to know several of us as exchange students. They were incredibly kind and loved hearing short stories about America and the other countries we came from, even with the difficulty in communication. For our last night on the mountain, we all had a shared dinner of Moo Grata, which is a combination of Korean barbecue and Chinese hot pot. Since the group had several stereotypical teenage boys, the night didn't go without weird things being burned on the grill, but it was still very enjoyable and had the added bonus of entertainment. I made several amazing friends during that trip, and it has me looking forward to the next one.

Finally, at the end of the list, I have the Christmas celebrations. Unsurprisingly, it isn’t the same as what I’m used to in America, especially with the different climate and the fact that the vast majority of the population isn’t Christian. But despite that, there are still several aspects of Christmas that people celebrate here, and the Catholic church in Chanthaburi hosts a Christmas festival every year. I went on Christmas eve with a couple of friends, and the festival included singing, light shows, and was also connected to the water market. On Christmas day, I was actually home by myself due to my host parents having work and my host siblings having school and midterms, but in the evening, I was able to go to a Rotary meeting and get together with several friends of mine. And although this holiday season isn’t anything near what I’m used to, I still enjoy it and am looking forward to what comes next.

Loi Krathong

Ranat

Trat

Bangkok

Phu Kradung

Christmas