School

School is definitely the best part of Thailand. At first it was kind of stress full... mostly because I had no idea whats going on... but now I have lots of fun. The School I go to has 6 grades, equivalent to our 7-12 grade. School starts in May and goes till March, so I'm here in the middle of the school year. It is very layed back-the teachers don't show up half the time.

My grade, Matayum 5(about 11th grade), studies Thai history, Thai language, English, Cooking, Art, Gym, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and three types of Math. I was warned that Thailand is heavy on the Maths and Sciences and they were right. I understand all the Math classes- in one we are doing logarithems, and the other 2 I'm learning easily. I understand Chemistry also, but i have trouble figuring out what I'm trying to solve for. I also (of course) understand English Class. We took a test last week in English and i got a 38/40. Their range of scores went from a 14 to a 33, which kind of suprised me because they seem to be ok at english.

My Class is 5/1 and is fairly small (22 students 23 with me). It has the same number of girls as the other classes but has only one boy. Everyone finds this really funny and no one feels like changing the class. I think the classes are together from matayum 1 to 6 so the classes are really close.

I've had no trouble with communication at school. We can either figure out what the other person is saying or we look things up in my dictionary. Everyone is so friendly. I stand out alot(my blond hair) so everyone notices me. By around the 3 day of school everyone knew my name and would shout Sara or hello when i walked by. I think its like a game to see if I respond. Any time I have a conversation with anyone they always mention how pretty my hair, eyes or skin is. Pale skin is considered very beautiful and they find even my "tan" skin very pale.

This week I really started to get to know my classmates. We had a couple classes with no teachers and we talked and had fun. I've started to be accepted. They ask me questions and make jokes(even if i have no idea what is going on) and help me with Thai.

At school I'm also taking classes like sword fighting(more like dancing), banana leaf folding, Thai dancing, cooking, sports and music. These are the classes where I learn the most (because you dont have to speak Thai to understand them). I'm getting pretty good at the "see saw" and I think I might get callouses soon. I also like the banana leaf folding- its alot like origami.

I'm trying flickr for pictures this time...we will see how that works.