Hey Look, Another Injury!!!!

alright I'm a bad blogger and completely forgot the week before last and I cannot remember a damned thing about it so I'm skipping that week of my life, though I don't think it really matters. Only 3 people read my blogs.
Alright this past week Alayna and I headed out to Rayong to visit Kumi. Rayong is about 2 hours away and right on the beach. Originally when I asked my host parents they were sceptic. Alayna told me later that they had phoned Som to consult on wether I should be able to go. guess what he said. An absolute no way should I be allowed to go because it was so unsafe. Thank god Alayna's mom was able to talk to them to tell them how safe it would be.
Anyways. Saturday morning Alayna's mom came and picked me up. Then we were off to Rayong. We arrived at Kumi's host mom's hotel. We'd be staying there all week. We ate lunch and when Kumi showed up there was much hugging and laughing. Its always awesome to see another exchange student. Anyways once Alayna's parents headed off we checked into our first of three rooms. this was a really large room with 4 beds and such. We were only there for 1 night which was depressing. It was super nice and we just laid around for a few minutes before Kumi's two friends from school showed up and took us to the mall. We walked around and then we found a ear piercing place and decided, heck why not? Kumi got her ears pierced for the first time. I got a second set on my lobes, and Alayna got a second set as well as a new one in her cartilage. The lady did it by sharpening the earring then shoving it through our ear. Thank god this place was cleaner then the last place we stopped in at. After a little more of walking around and such Kumi's friends took us to the beach and said 'hey your going to go on a banana boat'. not the best thing an hour after getting your ears pierced but we thought why not. Well the lifejacket I had on decided to be a pain and rip out on of my new piercings as i fell off. Now I was down to three piercings because the hole closed before we could get a new earring in. Lame I know.
After... what did we do after? no clue. I know that night when we got back to the hotel Alayna tried to get us to watch Dead Silence. a horror about ventriloquist dummies. anyone who knows me knows those things are one of my worst fear, they give me major wiggins. The movie didn't last 10 minutes I think before we turned it off and turned on how to train your dragon. much happier.
Next morning we moved rooms into a large room with separate bedroom. We again got to hang out with Kumi's friends and again we went to the mall and again I visited the ear piercing place. I got a discount this time!!! Then we went to the night market where I got a severe case of "I'm so FAT!!!!!" After I found this one store full of amazingly beautiful tops and I couldn't fit into any of them.
The next day we were picked up by a friend of Kumi's family and were driven to a ferry. on the way we had fun waving to all sorts of people and seeing who would wave back.
When we got to the ferry we bought tickets an booked one night at a hotel on koh Samet. A tiny but pretty island. We waited quite a while for the ferry but thankfully we finally made our way out to the island and to our hotel. the hotel was little separate cabins all very close to the beach. It was kinda really expensive for what we got but what ever. After we got to our room we decided to go swimming which lasted for a very long time.  After we grabbed some dinner and by 6 o'clock we were in our rooms and well we sorta drifted in and out untill 10 when we went to bed. I woke up early so I could call Rob and wish him a happy birthday. it wasn't so much a surprise because he already knew I was going to phone.
After waking the lazy heads up we grabbed some breakfast then headed to the ferry to go back to the main land. Then there was much riding in backs of trucks where we all got sunburned...not fun.
Uhh the next day we decided we wanted to bike to the mall so we asked the hotel if we could rent bikes to bike there. what we got was two motorcycle taxis. Well we got to the mall safe and sound. We did some bowling where I lost... T_T and just walked around looking at stuff. When we went to take to motorcycles home I accidentally put my leg against the exhaust pipe... OUCH... and it was after I had a conversation with Pancho that I'm always the one to hurt myself... I cried the whole ride home but maned up and got some ice on it. I slept with ice and a towel wrapped around my leg and now it's but an ugly red mark on my leg. lets hope it goes away.
Ummm Friday I believe we were taken to an aquarium by Kumi's dad, it was small but fun as always. Then we went and hung out with the same friends.
Saturday was super lazy day. We didn't wake up till 11, so late. then we went for italian at a near by restaurant and it was super good!!! except super expensive. We also went there for dinner.. that was our day.
Then today we woke up and got picked up and vola here I am safe and sound with only 3 weeks of school left before summer break

tra la la la bamba

alright week right week.
the weekend was a little uneventful.
so monday. Monday was well monday.  I can't even really remember it lol. School was the same as always though I did give out gifts to my teachers on behalf of me and my parents. some coffee mugs, calendars and small wood statues. The people liked them (I think) so my job was done there. I also booked my flights home. I'm officially flying back on the 11th of June. In time to see people at school, my birthday, and most importantly CCEE. after school I got to hang out with mint before my class and he surprised me. I also found out Thailand has gotten to me and I've become a prude.
Tuesday... Crap, I can remember nothing of what happened at school... oh Matt stole the Canadian mug i gave to Howard. made me very distressed.
After school we we picked up by Alayna's mom and while munching on McDonalds, we headed to Bangkok for a celebration of the king at the grand palace. We made it there and took our seats. Even one of the princess' attended which was really awesome. I saw royalty!!!! She had a really cute son with her and yeah.. The show was interesting and had a lot of different aspects though english would have been much appreciated. When the show ended and everyone got ready to leave. Alayna and my eyes fell upon the sexiest man in all of thailand. he was gorgeous. He may have caught me staring.. then he watched us as we left I think to make sure we didn't stalk him..
Wednesday... why am I having such a hard time remembering???!!!
oh Wednesday, Alayna and I got to skip a class and go help MAtt with his class. we did "ask the white people questions day" Matt made up the questions and it was a lot of fun though it soon became a competition between Canada and America (like always).
Thursday was kind of the same. We helped Matt out with two of his classes which was again tons of fun. then as a thank you Matt and Howard took us out to lunch. It was just down the road but we had fun and some good conversations about life and such. I like talking with the english teachers outside of class and just about normal things.
Friday. Friday flew by pretty fast. Though something really hit me. Alayna and I were talking about her best friend Sam and how they do everything together. Then she said "except this exchange, and it was a huge mistake" I thought she meant Sam could have gone on the exchange as well. but she meant she coming on this exchange she then said "yeah, I wouldn't go back early or anything...". I won't lie and say it didn't hurt a lot, it did. I guess because I don't understand it. I don't need any single person in my life that much.
Anyways Friday after school Alayna had previously asked someone to go to the movies with her and this time it was my turn to be the third wheel. We went to see the social network, which by the way, is a really good movie. After While she said goodbye to the person I went ahead to McDonalds and ordered two bigmacs. This being part of the deal if she could ask the person in person. While I was ordering, two guys I sorta know from one of our english classes came in and ordered food. Then we started talking and they invited us to sit with them.
We had a great time. Both the guys were really nice though one couldn't speak much english. There was much joking around and stealing of fries from one another. We got to know each other better which was really nice. People from our school don't often approach us to get to know us. We found out it's because they are nervous about speaking english to us, which I think is dumb.
Alayna's mom came and picked us up and dropped me off.
I then proceeded to check my mail and I got some potentially bad news about uni and I just broke and started sobbing. A big  hug to Jess though who really helped me, as well as Mint who put up with my bad mood.
Saturday....uhhh.. well a lazy day for most of it, though at 5 P'Boat came to my door and told me I had to go to a wedding at 6.
well this wedding.. lets start with I've never been to a second-rate wedding before. The carpets leadign you into the room for the reception were stained. The chair covered were stained and ripped. The chairs were red plastic lawn chairs. The food was kinda terrible and just everything was... second best..
This is party because of the secret..very very very secret passion of wedding planning. So this wedding kinda killed me. So I got to sit there for 4 hours , not the most fun thing I could have done.
anyways that brings us to today.
sorry this blog was... lackluster on the info, my brain is a little rusty.

The Long Invasion

One Long Blog

wow...this is going to take a while to write down...

so it’s been what, 3 weeks, getting close to a month?

Having my parents in thailand was certainly interesting and a big adventure.

It started out on...well what ever day that was with my parents flight being delayed and such so I got to spend some time with Mint at tuition which is always fun.

When I finally got picked up and we finally made it to the airport and my parents plane finally landed I was getting a little excited. Finally I spotted them and I did what any self-respecting 18 year old would do. bound up and down like a 3 year old. Hugging, watering eyes and greeting were had. My parents met Som and my third host dad. we then piled into a van and were driven to our hotel, my parents were pretty bagged but we still went and walked around and down the street just to show them a little of bangkok.

anyways I’ll make the days go as short as possible.

day one: first stop was a boat tour through the klongs in bangkok. got to see a lot of neat things and more temples then we could shake a stick at. Then it was off to the grand palace where I would suggest to NEVER rent a audio tour guide (almost put me to sleep). After was.... where did we go? uuuhhh oh right we took a tuk tuk to a supposedly beautiful park that turned out to be a dud but we instead found a backpackers back alley with awesome restaurants and stalls selling great star wars t-shirts. We then went for my parents first thai massages which weren’t that bad actually though the people were a little soft on us We then got to make our way to the lrt and then to the Siam Niramit show that I went to before with Som. Both the parents were blown away by it so I did my duty.

day two. 

went to a flower market in the morning, beautiful. then we headed to chinatown and saw a movie being filmed, but wayy to crowded there. Then we tried to find a ferry, well that was an adventure all on its own but hey we finally got there. We took the ferry to Wat Po, a giant reclining buddha temple. that buddha was HUGE! and the temple itself was pretty large. went running around there and saw the cutest little french girl with blonde curls. After that we crossed the river to Wat Aran. Another temple where you could climb up and see the skyline of the city, well kinda through all the smog (gross). by that time we were all templed out and found our way back to the hotel. We then had to catch a cab to the train station. literal train station where we would take a midnight train to a city down south which I don’t remember. Anyways got onto the train and well second class was...interesting to say the least. sleeping on the train was even more interesting. Horrible sleep with my headphones constantly trying to strangle me but I couldn’t sleep without them because the train was so loud. we arrived at our stop at 4 in the morning which was not a pretty picture for me. Then we took a bus to the pier which i met an awesome sexy french guy who was backpacking and wanted to become a chemical engineer or a physiotherapist. We got on the boat and headed for Koh Tao. Our first island. when we got there... well I went into shock. That island is not thailand. It’s closer to central america. almost all white people, almost no thais. everything was in english. then there was smaller things like there were zero pictures of the king. It bugged the hell out of me at first.

anyways we checked into our hotel then went to the dive shop and wound up diving that afternoon. We took a refresher course which was good for us then went for a fun dive though the dive was a tad crappy. Then once we got out I started to feel a little sea sick and missed out on my second dive and opted to lay n the boat and sleep...and again like in Japan, I got burned... what the heck. One guy who was a younger dive master was well...gorgeous. blonde hair. tan..sorry but he’s a guy I’d love to remember.

Anyways lol made it back to the beach and I think we just puttered around the rest of the day.

Next day i opted out of diving and me and mom wandered around. Got some great photos and saw some really cool things walking around the island. Its funny. there are literally 47 dive shops on that island. it’s all just scuba diving and bars there. I also let my mom fall asleep at the pool and get burned. i swear I thought she was awake.

The next morning I felt up for diving, something felt right about it. I was the only diver withTim, a good looking guy with one smokin sexy girlfriend. We had a great dive at shark rock though i was looking up half the time hoping for a whale shark to pass over. Whale sharks are my unicorns and seeing one, well I could die happy. saw barracuda and well the dive was pretty awesome. Got back to the boat and  we were heading to our next dive site when suddenly everyone was running to the front of a boat. A pair of pilot whales were a few hundred meters away. My first whales. I was tempted to dive into the water right there. Other boats started the charge for the whales but our boat was the lucky one. one of the pilot whales literally swam under the front of the boat. he was beautiful and most of the dive masters had never seen a whale so close. I thanked Poseidon over and over in my mind for that moment. Anyways I didn’t dive the second time but snorkeled. Fun chasing the fish around and I had a good time. 

The last full day on Koh Tao was spent with my mom. we were going to do a long boat tour around the island and go to various snorkeling places. we we didn’t get a long boat. we bot a huge 30 person boat. my mom was not happy in any way. she warmed up after awhile and the day was nice. The third stop was the nicest with lots of fish and rocks and oh I ripped off the rest of my nail. it’s all now just skin and lumpy stuff, it looks great. We then were taken to twin beaches. Snorkeled and played with the underwater camera much to my pleasure. we were then taken back and met up with dad after his day dives and before his night dive. I can’t remember exactly what we di that night I think just walked around and checked stuff out.

Travel days are never really fun, but we took the ferry back and met the driver who was the owner of the hotel we were going to. Now my mom warned me it would be rustic. It was well....RUSTIC!!! It was about 2 seconds away from being the trek stop in the middle of the jungle were I was terrified of something large and furry touching my feet. well what a great way to spend christmas eve. pulled out crib but never finished the game, got talking instead to a family from singapore who was originally from england with two adorable kids. Lily and Edward. anyways we fell asleep that night listening to christmas music. 

Christmas morning was a surprise with gifts stacked nicely on the chair. I’m so grateful my parents hauled all those gifts half way around the world and all through thailand just so I could have a surprise. After I was finished opening my mom made me and my dad walk outside. then she tossed us our annual escapade. silly string. War broke out in the jungle... I think I lost this year but it was so much fun. cleaning up was not so fun. After we headed for breakfast then a boat tour of the lake near by. The lake was gorgeous, surrounded by mountains and just so beautiful. We got driven around a little then taken to our lunch stop. before lunch we were able to jump in the lake which was so nice. It was bathtub temperature and just wow. I had a fun time swimming with Lily and Edward.

After an awesome lunch we were taken to a trail where we had to hike, then take a raft, then walk to a cave. this cave beat the heck out of the cave in costa rica by a long shot. it was small but so beautiful marred only by lily constantly going “can we go out of the cave?”. After a walk back and such we parted ways with the other family who were sleeping on a floating house on the lake for a night while we headed back to the shack cough i mean treehouse. It was a very different christmas though I’m lying to my mom saying “Worst. Christmas. Ever” comic book man style.

An early wake up and catching a minibus to a pier, with waiting and booking of more flights we then made it onto a much older, unsafe ferry. during to boat ride the people turned off the air conditioning...they must have been heartless to do that. Anyways our next stop. Koh Phi Phi (said Pee Pee for those people like my father and mother). This island was beautiful and well think of it like taking Koh Tao and mixing half thailand in. There were no cars, and lots of streets to walk through. we spent our first day just walking around. We planned a dive for the next day and got everything sorted for the rest of our trip which was nice for my parents me thinks.

The next day I was not feeling so hot so I opted out of the dive and my parents went without me. I spent the day roaming to island, walking from beach to beach. I found a little cafe and bookstore. I went browsing through the books and the first book my eyes zoomed in on. A buffy book. It was fate. I spent a great time reading and eating an awesome tuna melt before heading back. Went swimming in the ocean and cut myself on the rocks of course but it was nice. When the parents got back we went out for dinner and drinks. Went to see some fire dancing which was nice. I got volunteered for an intermission game where we had to pop other peoples balloons. It came down to me and an american. I won! take that america. I won a bucket..which liquid in it... took us awhile to get back to the hotel.

I felt a lot less then stellar in the morning and my parents left me alone in the room. I din’t make it out of bed until around 4. Once I finally got out we made it around for dinner on the other side of the island of a restaurant owned by a guy who survived the tsunami and rebuilt the restaurant from almost nothing. we bought his book which was quite interesting and saddening to hear his and other people’s accounts of what happened that day to them. 

Again with the travel days.

back on the ferry then to the airport where we flew to BKK. I said goodbye for now to my parents and returned to Sriracha as they headed north to Chaing Mai. I finally got to sleep in my own bed for the first time 3 weeks. Though only for a night as I was whisked off to alayna’s for two nights to celebrate new years. first night was swimming, then the next day was bowling, karaoke, shopping and such in Bang Sen, then back to the house for a small party, ice cream KD, and movies. at 12 we were watching Shutter Island but we paused and fist bumped the new year, and truthfully I wouldn’t have wanted to spend it with anyone else. 

I got a phone call from Mint to go to Tron with him and his sister, so me and Alayna hiked it over to Robinsons to meet them where we played air hockey and guitar hero. We then hit the movie which was awesome with great CG effects. We then got driven home by Mint’s parents...that was weird. Then we got taken right back to Robinsons for dinner. After I went home to my house. got to have a lazy day which was super nice after so much. 

umm Then came the day where my parents would fly into Bangkok and come out to Sriracha to visit me and my town. Som and I met them and we headed to the fancy dancy hotel that was so swanky. We were then taken to Pattaya and were shown around. We then were taken to A Tiffany’s show. dozens of Transsexuals prancing about the stage is so little clothing and with such great bodies that I was green with envy. It was a really great show and even my Dad liked it. we were taken back to the hotel and Som left us for the night. Then the adventure began. I had to find a machine to fill up my cellphone so I could contact Alayna for what time she should meet us the next day. It took 4 7/11s and finally Robinsons, but I found a place to fill my phone up. Then we went for some sushi and then it was off to bed. 

In the morning we were picked up and taken to the school by Som. we met up with Alayna and then headed to the english teachers lounge. My parents met Steve, Dino, Mat and Howard along with the other teachers I’ve grown to cherish. Som was pretty impatient and wanted to keep things moving but we were rebels and stay, an hour maybe lol. Howard was his usual charming self towards Som, man Howard your great. Anyways we then went to see my three host family houses. Then I got to realize. My third host family is so far outside of town. It actually hurt thinking about it. I just I don’t want to move. I love my second host family so much They re so nice and so like a family. I also like being in town. I can go places easily and just ugh... I’m not really excited to move. 

When Som dropped us off at the hotel we made our way to robinsons were my parents got some massages and we went to MK’s for lunch. Then there was swimming in the very cold pool and much underwater photo taking. After we had to go to our club’s roatary meeting. They had this nice party for them with gifts and a fancy dinner and all these things that I didn’t get when I got there. It hurt a little. It was a nice dinner though when it came time for speeches I was told to go up, earlier in the day Som had questioned my ability to give speeches and, man I had to show him up, supposivly I did very nicely. There were much speeches and talking on pomp during the evening. After the meeting we all had full body massages which was super duper nice. We had to find our own way back to the hotel through back alleys...scary stuff.

In the morning we had the fancy breakfast anf then went for a walk to the floating island.   We played around with the turtle pond which held good sized green and hawk bill turtles, we met a man who was wearing a texas shirt but actually lived in Canmore!!! woohoo. We talked and at one point he said “the three best years of my life were spent in Texas” and I couldn’t help but say “how depressing”. he just threw his head back and laughed. 

We had a coffee with some of my teachers who gave a gift to my parents and then we rushed to Swensons for icecream before making it back to the hotel and sending my parents off. I didn’t even tear up this time because really, 5 months isn’t that long.

Got to take a tuk tuk home, that was interesting

Got two days of school which seemed extremely mundane after a month of non school and many adventures, but it was fun. won a chesire clock out of the new years gift exchange in my class.

Having my parents here was an experience and I’m glad they came. This also marks my half way point through my exchange. I’ve learned so much already and made so many memories. I cannot wait for the rest of my exchange and everything it will bring me