Sports Day

I think Sports Day is awesome- we should really do something like this in America. There were four teams(blue, purple, pink, and green). I'm technically on no (or maybe all) team, but all my friends were pink so i cheered for them. My school had sports day for 3 days(others only have one day). I missed the first day, but I think it was mostly soccer. I spent most of Thursday practicing my seesaw for the parade on Friday. I Watched my friends play soccer though. They were playing in a muddy field with no shoes (they didn't want them to get dirty). I have enough trouble kicking a ball on cement with shoes on.

Friday was lots of fun. It started out with a parade, then some sports and cheerleading. The parade was fun, hot and long. I played my seesaw with seven other people(three drums, three seesaws, and two cymbals). We wore these orange shirts with traditional Thai pants. The pants are really just huge pieces of fabric tied up in a special way.Each color team put together a float and costumes. My team(pink) won the parade contest. There were so many strange and beautiful costumes(I'm lazy and you can see them on flickr)
I have a word of advise for anyone who is in a parade. Those pretty high heels will not work when you are standing for hours. I have seen so many shoe problems in the two parades I was in. More advise, bring sunscreen...my face, neck and legs got sun burnt(my first time this summer)

In the afternoon I watched and cheered. The events were running, tugawar, sackracing and cheerleading. I can't tell how they picked who was going to participate, but I think they just let anyone who wanted. The field was still covered in mud, so it was fun to watch everyone running around and getting covered in mud.
The cheerleading was crazy. They had some of the strangest outfits i have seen yet. It was a big deal and everyone had a part(cheering, clapping,pompoms...)

The Green Cheerleaders


The Purples


The Blue


And the Pink

I sat in the cheering stands all afternoon. It was hot, and I sweated a lot, but I'm used to that now. The cheering is really cool, because they have everyone do the same thing at the same time. We wore white gloves and clapped, waved our hands around and did a lot of jazz hands. You can see me in the second column on the left, in the middlish row(I'm the light one with blond hair).

Other news...

I bought a seesaw!! I'm so excited to play it for everyone. Now I have to figure out how to get it on the plane...
Sorrawee went back to Bangkok. I'm in for a challenge now, because she did a lot of translating for me. She is going to a meditation class. These classes sound super intense. They get up at 4 every morning, aren't aloud to talk, don't have dinner and have to wear white.
I spent yesterday with the other AFS students from the Buriram and Surin provinces. We went to the elephant village and silver making village and sang Karaoke in the car. It was a lot of fun, I liked hearing about other experiences, and it was a relief to be able to talk easily with everyone there.
I posted more pictures on Flickr this morning. Lots from our visit to the emerald buddha(no pictures of it, thats not aloud)
I forgot to tell everyone!!! I got a hair cut when I was in Bangkok. Its length is about the same as some of my other cuts, but the bangs and back are very different. I have to actually do things with my hair now...
I'm approaching my last week here. Now is the time to stuff a those "I should do that before i go" in. I have so many things I still need to do, and I can't even think about packing(I still haven't gotten anything about going home from AFS). I'm really starting to regret picking only a summer.

Sorry I haven't posted anything in a while...Here is what I've been doing in the last week.

Monday and Tuesday we had no school because of a Buddhist holiday. We didn't really do anything on Monday and then on Tuesday we gave food to monks. Sorrawee came into my room at like 6:30 and told me we were going. I wasn't really expecting it, so I was tired all morning. We brought rice and juice and other things to the temple, then they had a short service to bless the food. There were so many people there that they had to keep pulling chairs in from outside. After the blessing had ended, we lined up to give our food to the monks. They sat at tables with an orange cloth in front of them. Women are not aloud to hand things to monks, so we place the food on the cloth.
I met this monk who had just returned from the United States. He was very excited about it and listed off all the states he went to. It was an interesting conversation. After we finished at the temple we went to a smaller one a little ways out of town. We had a short blessing, then talked to the other people there. I met a little 8 year old who is a swimmer.
That afternoon we met him at the pool(i have been swimming a little, but I'm sure I'm out of shape). Turns out he probably has the best technique I've ever seen in an eight year old. He swims free and breast, but his mom wants me to teach him fly.

Wed, Thurs, Fri, and Mon my school had exams. I went to school on Wednesday, but it was pointless, because everyone was testing. I think tests here work differently. 1-3 had tests on Wed and Fri, while 4-6 had tests on Thurs and Mon. One class is in one room all day and a teacher gives them the tests.

We spent this weekend in Bangkok. I think one of the biggest things I've gained from that experience was the knowledge that I never want to live in a city that big. We spent hours in the car driving across town. We went to a museum(i learned a lot about the different kings), saw the Emerald Buddha, and went to see a nearby floating market. Most of the weekend was spent with family though. I met my other host sister and her boyfriend, three of my host cousins(and their families), and Sorrawee's Ex. All those hours in cars together...
The floating market was really cool. We wandered around on the edge of a river and bought so much food. Then we took a boat ride around to see the area. I liked the Emerald Buddha too, the art and gold work were amazing.

When we arrived home, we unpacked and went to bed. Unfortunately, I woke up at midnight and threw up. They took me to the hospital(they go to the hospital for anything here) and they think Sorrawee and I had food poisoning. The only thing that only Sorrawee and I ate was...Pizza. I've been warned not to eat from street vendors, but we really haven't been that careful. Of course when we order pizza from a restaurant we get sick. Anyway, I spent Tuesday and Wednesday this week recovering and will hopefully go to school tomorrow.

It is sport day at school this week. I'm really bummed that I missed the first day. I have no idea what happens on sports day...but I will report back to you as soon as I know. I do know that on Friday there is going to be a parade, and I get to play my seesaw in it. I'm really excited, and we are going to buy a seesaw so i can play it for everyone when I get home.

Parade

There is some Buddhist holiday going on right now. We had a parade yesterday and now no school for 2 days. I think the holiday has something to do with giving food to the monks but I'm not really sure.
My school decided that I should walk in the parade...this includes a Thai costume and walking forever in 90 degree weather. The parade was huge-many schools from all over Surin put together dance routines and floats. My school had its(famous) marching band, a giant candle float and a group of dancers.


My part was getting all dressed up. The whole thing turned out amazing, but it was a long day. We went to a salon around 11:30 to do make-up, hair, and costume. I have no idea what they were saying, but I think they found my hair, skin and eyes really funny. Because most of the people dressing up have short haircuts, they usually add black extensions. The hair guy was going to try adding black hair to me...but he decided against it. We were finished at around 1:30 and went back to school, we took photos, had lunch(very hard to do wearing lipstick) and sat around until 3. We wandered over to get ready for the parade which would start at 5. By the time the parade started, I was very hot, had eaten tons much ice(my mom was afraid I would get dehydrated), and wanted to get going.
The parade walked from outside town to the train station, then half way back. So many pictures were taken (I think the blond hair caught everyones eyes) and everyone was exhausted when we got back.

Randomness

I just thought I would post some random things I found interesting in Thailand...

1. Everything is sold in bags. If you buy anything on the street, they give it to you in a plastic bag. Drinks, fruit, and main meals are all in bags. They also have a really cool way of tying bags with rubberbands

2. There are lizards everywhere. At night if I walk to the garage, the celing is covered in lizards. The Lizards are almost transparent and can walk up walls.


3.So many Motercycles. I think there are more motercycles than cars. You can get you motercycle liscens at 15(car at 18) so many kids motercycle to school. I have seen pregnant women, babies and dogs riding on motercycles...everyone uses them. Entire familys ride on bikes-mom,dad, two kids...or sometimes four friends fit on a bike. The scariest thing is how relaxed people are about motercycles. They carry umbrellas, talk on the phone, adjust their helmets, sit sideways...i find it crazy.

4. Umbrellas. Before I left, my mom wanted to know what people do for rain. Well... they kindof ignore it. Because of the heat in Thailand people don't go outside very much, so the rain doesn't matter. My family carries umbrellas everywhere, but they arn't for the rain. Because being pale is considered beautiful, umbrellas are to hide from the sun. The 5 steps from the car to the store requires an umbrella. My mom always has on sitting in the car.

5. Markets. We stop at the market everyday after school. I didn't find that strange- they sell everything you need. Fish, meat, fruits, vegitabes etc. The strange thing is that they sell clothes, music, and household supplies right next to the food.

6. Age. People in Thailand look a lot younger then they are. On my first night here we went to the store and look for people I thought were my age. All of them had long hair and clothes like you would see in America. The next day when I got to school, everyone had hair cut even shorter than mine (around jaw length) and look younger than our high school age. I think when they get to college everyone grows out their hair(boys included) because they couldn't for years.

I can't think of anything else for the moment...but I'll tell you about how my three biggest worries are going. I said at the beginning I was worried about food, heat and the language. The Language is no problem, almost everyone knows a little english and my dictionary has helped alot. The heat is a bigger problem but you get used to it easily. At home and school there are fans everywhere and my room has AC that I turn on at night. Outside is the hardest part. I wear sweatpants and a dark red shirt everyday which get hot after seconds in the sun. Food is probably my biggest problem. I'm a vegitarian, which I've had no trouble with, but i have tried so many different foods made of beans. I'm not a big fan of rice, but it is growing on me. I just eat whatever is palaced in front of me. I miss eating bread alot, but I've found the fruit and desserts here good. They use honey and coconut in almost every dessert( i really like coconut). There are many fruits, some sweet, some sour and some almost milky. I tried a durian the other day and it almost melted in my hand. I've had starfruit, rambotans, noks, dragonfruit, mango, mangostein, bananas, apples, green oranges, and numerous other fruits.

I'm working on flickr...here is my page http://www.flickr.com/photos/spbaumann/

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.

A Tour of My House

I took way too many pictures...but now you can see what my house looks like!!

From the Front...
Side...and Back.
Rice Field in our Backyard

little shed in back yard

Pet bird (that died yesterday)
Our CarsThe Front door
Looking out the Front Door
Entry looking right(bedrooms that way)
Entry looking Left(kitchen and living room)


Living Room


My Bedroom

the Kitchen

My BathroomCute little people things..

Ok thats all I have for now!!! Do you guys have any questions?