First Few Days...

Landing in Thailand was unreal. Through customs, money exchange, baggage claim... it was still just a happy dream. As the group of thirteen of us Youth Exchange Students left the customs area with our luggage we wondered where to find our host families. Luckily the signs in the airport are for the most part translated into English. Following signs for "Meeting Point" we finally found the correct place. We passed two other "Meeting Points" before coming to the one where our families were. When we got to the last point people started to separate as the noticed handwritten or typed signs with their names on them. As I stood there before the meeting point gate with the last two Inbounds yet to be collected, searching for my name on a sign,  I admit I had a teeny heart attack. "Oh no. Oh no. No one is here to pick me up. What am I going to do now?!". But, seconds later a man came through the gate and up to me... "Kearney?" the man says except it's more like "Keewee". "Yes!" I say. The man is Chutipon my Youth Exchange Officer. I shake his hand and walk with him beyond the gate. Here I meet Toon, a woman who I have been in contact with on facebook. It's as if a tiny part of me already knows her. Now I notice the enormous sign they have for me. It must be three feet long! It says "Welcome to Thailand, Kearney Tate Newman" and has pictures of me from facebook on it. Now I meet a bunch of new people... my first host father Jumnong, my second host mom who is the President of the Rotary club, my third host dad, my first host family's oldest daughter Cartoon, a boy named Boss who is the son of one of the Rotarian's proclaims "I have a pretty cool name, I know." I laugh. It is so good to be here. We take pictures with my welcome sign and they hand me four beautiful, wonderful smelling, flower bracelets (I think they are bracelets, but they don't fit on my wrists so maybe not...). I'm not sure what they are called but as I smell them I am told that they smell good and I agree. As I look back at the photos of my arrival I realize that in each picture their is a new person or two... and some people that I don't even remember being at the airport. I suppose I will meet them all at some point!
The drive to Lop Buri is two hours but takes more because we are in a large van and must drop others at their homes first.

We finally arrive at my first home and I meet my first host mother "Janpen". Then we go up three flights of the most well shined wooden stairs I have ever seen in my life. I have my own room and bathroom. I am exhausted and almost immediately fall asleep. I am told I must be ready to leave the house at 8am tomorrow to go to school with Bee (Toon's neice who will go on exchange to Colorado at the end of August). I wake up at 7am and put clothes on. I walk up and down the three flights of stairs at least three times... I need a towel, but I don't know how to ask and I don't know where my hosts are. The house is dark. I am sweaty from Thailand's heat, dirty from two days of travel and I have no towel... I take a shower anyways. Using a t-shirt as a towel really isn't so bad... I will ask for a towel later.

I go out to breakfast with Bee and her father. Never before have I had rice porridge. It is slimy, white and has pork in it. Bee's father gets something different from the porridge Bee and I have. The smell and look of it reminds me of something I might eat for dinner, eating it for lunch might be a stretch... but for breakfast... never. Chili paste and soy sauce for breakfast... I really really want some bread and butter.

I spend most of the day at Bee's school, which is different from the one I will go to. Thai students laugh and talk loudly a lot. They call me "sooai" and "narak" meaning beautiful and cute. It is so nice. I spend almost the entire day with a girl named Nanny. She is very good at English and I think we will be good friends.

When I go home I give my host parent's gifts from Alaska and they sign to me to go to sleep by putting their hands under their heads and pointing upstairs. I go happily. I am to be awake at 6pm for dinner. At 5:30pm I am awoken by a knock on the door. My host father and a girl walk in. Is it Cartoon... she looks like her but I cannot tell...? She takes my phone from me to check the time, she seems to think that I thought it was nighttime in Thailand and went to sleep. I cannot explain that I know it is not yet nighttime but that I needed a nap. I learn later that the girl is Taew the youngest daughter of my host father, Cartoon's younger sister. We go to dinner at the Lop Buri Inn and Resort and I eat even though I am so full already. I write down an entire page of new Thai words just at dinner. How will I ever remember them all? I see that the Resort has a pool... the water looks sooo inviting.

When we get home I go over a few of the First Night Questions with Taew. She says she will wake me up at 10am today. I woke up at 7:20am... after sleeping for 10 hours (that is why I have a little time to write on my blog). I am a bit jet-lagged, I think. Today Taew will take me on her motor bike (yay!)  to see Prang Sam Yot, a famous monument in Lop Buri. I tell her "Chan dtuun-den." meaning "I am excited." After that, Toon will take me to buy my school uniform. I will start school on Tuesday. Monday is Mother's Day here, Happy Mother's day to all mothers! :)

My room is nice. I have no drawers or anything though so I think I will be living out of my suitcase. The air conditioner in my room is my best friend. My room is on the third floor along with a bathroom and I think another bedroom. There is a balcony also. It is the Rainy Season here. I thought that meant it would just never stop raining but it's not true. It just means that one moment it is sunny and the next it is pouring down rain. I can hear it on my ceiling because I am on the top floor... it truly happens in a instant. The first time it happened I thought it was something with my fan because I had just been adjusting it... haha.

Anyways, not much time to write, but I am doing well! Will write again sometime, not sure when. Stay well :)

Kearney aka Kaohom (my new Thai name, it means rice and sweet milk)

At the airport

 My first Thai dinner

Left to Right: Taew (host sister), Jetip, Janpen (host mother), Jumnong(host father)