SLOW DOWN

A quiet knock on my door and then my host mom comes into the room, I'm awake already but sitting in bed just thinking.

"Bai gin kao, mai?"

"Bai, plean chut gon ka."

"Dtiao Kun Meh lorh hong leang na."

"Do you want to go out for breakfast?"

"I want to! I'll change my clothes first."

"Okay, I'll wait for you downstairs."

So began my day, a short walk to the restaurant just down the street and then my host mom asks me what I want to eat. I look at the menu, but really I know already what I want to eat. Tom Yum Goong aka spicy shrimp soup. I laugh inside at the thought that the first few days I was in Thailand all I wanted was toast for breakfast... when was the last time I had toast for breakfast? Who knows... perhaps a month or so? Not for lack of bread or toaster but for lack of wanting it. That which I once considered "dinner" food and thought it was crazy to eat it in the morning, strangely enough that's all I want for breakfast now. 

This evening as I sat in my host dad's office six o'clock rolled around and so the turned on TV show stopped and the Thai National Anthem played, as it does each and every evening, I found myself singing along and humming the bits I don't yet know. Strange I thought, just a bit ago I didn't even know a single word of this song... in fact, I couldn't have even picked it out from a CD upon arrival.

Today was littered with thoughts of my first week here which led to thinking... just how long ago was that? Well, it was five months, five months ago today I left home to create a whole new life. 

Fittingly enough, today was the day that the letter I wrote to myself before leaving arrived... I've decided to share with you...something I wrote... last April, completely forgot about and now got to read today.

Here goes...

--

April 15, 2012

Dear Kearney,

Firstly, I hope you've realized the wonders of Thailand. Before you left, at this moment, though you are overjoyed and wouldn't give anything to change the fact that you're going on exchange, there is a niggling feeling/thought/question in the back of your mind...Is Thailand right for me? Will I succeed on exchange? Will I accomplish all I hope to? And so many more. By this time, half-way through exchange, I hope I've made wonderful connections. I hope I have already formed some amazing relationships with my family, host club, school and students my age. Remember this chance is once in a lifetime. You have one year to learn about yourself in a whole new place. Of course you will continue learning for the rest of your life, but remember to use this time wisely. Say "yes" to opportunities that show themselves. Don't be afraid to make mistakes! Spend time practicing Thai. Learn about Bhuddism, learn everything you can about yourself, your home, your heart, your beliefs and those of the people and countries around you. Don't get frustrated, don't call home too often. Take every chance you have to make a positive impact on someone elses' life. Live life to the fullest! Try new food! Learn Thai! Read and write in Thai! Ride an elephant! 

Kearney T Newman

--

Well, to be very clear... I have realized the wonders of Thailand. I have no question that Thailand was right for me. I feel accomplished. I have met a million great people and have made many wonderful new friends, I have parents that I call "mom" and "dad" and brothers and a sister who I love. I have a good relationship with my host club, family, school and students my age. I say yes to every opportunity and I spend time practicing Thai everyday through conversing. I am proud of my Thai. I try new foods and activities everyday. I've ridden an elephant and learned so many important lessons. I've had my hard days and my homesick nights, but every piece is just part of the roller coaster. This is truly amazing and I just cannot stop smiling. Life is truly wonderful.

Kearney

P.S. The reason that this is titled "SLOW DOWN" is because time is going altogether WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY too fast. I can't believe I've been here five months already and I don't want to think about it. Please time, slow down, please.

Christmas & New Years

95% of Thai people are Bhuddist, 4% Muslim, 0.5% Hindu/Sikhs and other religions... that leaves about 0.5% for Christianity. Anyways, what I'm trying to say is there isn't Christmas in Thailand... or so one would think. My host family is wonderful and so I had a little... though nothing like Christmas in Alaska... celebration. I actually ended up going to the most "Christmas Parties" I've ever been to this year... strange how that works. Soon after Christmas I headed up to the North for my host family (and extended host family)'s annual roadtrip for New Years. It's been a little while since I last wrote, so heres a quick overview of the past week or so.

December 23rd- Celebrate Christmas with the family. The day was just a normal day spent hanging out a home... or so it was planned to be, but it turned out that I found myself becoming even closer to my host siblings. In the evening we had Christmas dinner which was quite a funny affair. We ate barbecue pork ribs, spaghetti, duck, mashed potatoes and fruit by the lit up Christmas tree. Each person in my host family got me a Christmas gift and I gave my family gifts from Alaska. We started out the evening wearing Santa hats but soon my host mom came out with crab hats that my host brother brought back from exchange in California last year... so in all Christmas fashion we spent most of the night listening to my host brothers music-- mostly top of the charts radio music from last year--mixed in with random bouts of Jingle Bells and We Wish You a Merry Christmas wearing crab hats and laughing. It was a great evening.

December 24th- Slept in late and then went out to breakfast/lunch with my host sister, we went and got our nails done, ate Christmas ice cream at Swensen's and learned that we are both quite forgetful sometimes. That evening I went to another exchange student's host family's "Christmas" party. I put Christmas in quotations because Thai people don't really know what Christmas is... 555 Anyways, the night include karaoke (of course!), trying to make cookies without a recipe or the right ingredients, Santa hats/Batman masks/squeezable pig sound makers/confetti and two person bike rides (there are lots of bikes with sidecars here).

December 25th- Woke up early on Christmas morning for... drum roll.... presents! Just kidding, woke up at 6:45am on Christmas morning to go to school. Yes, I'm serious. So now I can say I have been to school and worn a school uniform on  Christmas! But school didn't last long, two other exchange students and I had been enlisted to sing Christmas carols at the morning assembly, so after doing our spliced together version of We wish a Feliz Navidad Jingle Bells we headed to my house and spent the rest of the day with all the other exchange students in Lopburi making cookies! This time with the correct ingredients and a recipe! After make dark chocolate white chocolate almond cookies, Moon cpokies/Mexican Wedding Cakes/Russian Tea Cakes/Russian Wedding Cakes (whatever you call them, we all had different names for them!) and peanut butter cookies we watched the Jim Carrey version of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" which is something I do every year around Christmas (and I learned one of the other exchange students has the same tradition!). That evening we went out to a nice dinner... wearing our crab hats of course. Late that night I skyped my family back home, so I got to see them all bright and early on Christmas morning like always.

December 26th- Went to my friend Alex (exchange student from Oregon)'s house and helped she and her host mom cook food for the party that evening. That night twelve exchange students all got together  to hang out which was quite fun. I ended up spending two nights there before heading home in the afternoon on the 28th.

December 28th- Packed up and headed off on my host family/extended host family's annual New Years trip to the North. We left the house around 10:30pm and drove through the night. Somewhere in the middle of the night I found myself at a temple. We "Waied Phra" (I don't know how to say this exactly in English, but it's something like "gave respect to Bhudda") and also walked around the temple a bit. My host mom told me that God's bones were here and that to come here was very good luck. Though I have visited many temples already, at this one there was two new things I had never done...
1. There is heavy metal elephant and you Wai Phra and then ask a question about your future, then try to lift the elephant with only one finger (a different finger depending on whether you are male or female). You then let go, ask again and try to lift the elephant one more time. It is good luck and a positive answer if the first time you can lift the elephant and the second time you cannot. Though the second time the elephant was quite a lot harder to lift, I was still able to lift the bottom about a centimeter off the ground so I suppose the answer to my question was mediocre.
2. There is a tall cup of number chopsticks which you hold as if waiing and then shake. Shake, shake, shake... and boy does it create a racket especially when it's the middle of the night. Supposedly one should fall out and that one will hold your fortune, but not everyone can get the hang of it so instead of one chopstick falling out... they all did... twice. After this happened my older brother told me to just choose one stick and so I did and then, remembering the number--two, I went to the side wall and ripped of a little rectangle of paper that gave me my fortune.
These two practices were interesting and I really enjoyed them.

December 29th- Arrived at Obluang National Park and set up tents. Spent the day talking, sleeping and eating, took a short walk to the famous "Obluang Rock" before settling down for some dinner and a good nights sleep.

December 30th- Drove for hours, stopped at a hot spring where we were able to cook eggs in the 90 celsius water. Stayed at a little group of guesthouses in Samoeng, Chiang Mai Thailand. Spent the evening listening to my host brother and cousin playing guitar and trying to sing along.

December 31st- Packed up a left and drove out to a strawberry feild where we picked our own strawberries and where given tastes of strawberry wine and dried strawberries. Got to see the inside of the workspace where they make strawberry juice/wine/candy etc and it reminded me of my work the summer before I left. Labeling bottles, stirring pots, sweet fruity smells... lots of memories and of course a lot of sympathy for the pour girl who had to bottle everything, that is the least fun job. That night we planned to sleep in Chiang Mai city but the place we had planned to stay wasn't what we expected and everywhere else was full on New Years so we ended up going back out to Samoeng and staying another night. The woman who owned the questhouses was quite happy to see us again and we all danced and listened to karaoke with her and her daughters before heading back up to our little houses where we sat on the ground, played music, talked, sat by the fire, lit off a few small fireworks and floated lanterns in the sky (something I have always wanted to do) and ended the night exhausted and falling into bed beside my host sister, but not before wishing her a happy birthday (January 1st)!

January 1st- Drove a whole lot today, stayed by another hot spring, this one much larger than the last. Took hot tub/saunas for 10 baht per person (about 30 cents for 10 minutes). Rented tents... yes, you can rent pre set up tents! How cute and convenient is that? Spent the night eating, talking, laughing and celebrating the birthday of my host sister and her younger cousin.

January 2nd- Spent the whole day driving home. Got back around 5pm and said goodbye to the extended family. They are all so kind and welcoming, it was wonderful to meet them and I'll really miss them, especially one host cousin named Mai who is the same age as me. They live in Chonburi which is maybe four hours away so maybe I will get to see them again! I hope so!

Anyways, that's my Christmas and New Years! It was a whirlwind, so busy, nothing like home at all but definitely wonderful. I cannot believe that it is already 2013, it seems not so long ago that right about now... January 3rd, 2012, I was counting down the days until the 15th so I could find out what country I was going to be spending this year! Boy how much has changed since then. I cannot believe that it's been almost five months since I left home. Time is flying... they say it does that when you're having fun!

I'll post photos later, for now I am off to Bangkok for the day!

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday season! สวัสดีปีใหม่ 2556! Happy New Year 2013! 

-Kearn

Happyyy

Yesterday...
1. Skyped my real family back home 
2. Realized I had to put the word "real" in the above sentence because I refer to my "host family" now as my "family" so it'd get confusing if I didn't. 
3. Spent the entire day talking to my mom and dad in Thai... And learned a lot of Thai too.
4. My dad told me he thinks I know about 80% of Thai language (I'd say this is a bit exaggerated, but it still felt pretty awesome:)
5. My family learned that I'm ticklish... Uh oh.
6. At dinner I learned that my sister can look like a bunny and my mom and dad can make super hilarious faces... And so we all spent the rest of dinner making awesome faces at each other.
7. Spent the evening listening to Christmas music and singing along while sitting by our Christmas tree which now has presents under it!
Andddd tonight we are celebrating a little Christmas in Thailand (and I'm making mashed potatoes yuuuum!)! So happy, I love my families--both of them, and I can't wait for tonight. Life is good ♥

Photos!

I was told that the photo link wasn't working so great so here are a few photos from my life of late! The above is what I've been doing in art class!

These are two other exchange students Lydia and Jon at a random dance class that we found one day at school.

Little "fairy house" that Lydia and I made in plant class... I know how to say the class in Thai but not in English... >.< so I'll just call it "plant class" hahaa.

My family's doggy :)

Empty hallway at school, the closest door is the AFS room attatched to the English teachers office. The exchange students are always welcome to stay in there.

And here are the famous Lop Buri sunflower fields. SO AMAZING.

These are out of order, where the plant class is.

The plant class room

Sunflowers, sunflowers, sunflowers

My good friend Alex, from Oregon, who is also living in Lop Buri this year

All of the Lop Buri exchange students (except one)

Muu pad pik, delicious food my grandma made for me :) One of my very favorites! Come back to visit Grandma!

We went with Rotary to help at some schools on the edge of the neighboring province

at one of the schools

the schools were affected by flooding last year, the brown shows where the water was. 

These kids were so sweet!

And to end on a sunny note, more sunflowers! I love them!

Probably going to start putting up some videos from everyday life here, so follow me on Youtube! My Youtube name is just "Kearney Newman"

-kearn

Dekdek-dokmai-wainam.

Dekdek, dok mai, wai nam. Little kids, flowers, swimming. This describes my Thursday.

The morning started around 8am (got to sleep in because I didn't go to school!), got ready, packed a swimsuit, towel and my camera in my bag and headed downstairs expecting to eat some cereal and head off. Instead when I reached the kitchen my Grandma had cooked "muu pad pik" for me! It's definitely one of my new very favorite dishes, spicy pork, my host Grandma is only staying with us for a few weeks and then heading back to her home in Chonburi province, but because I (and everyone) likes it so much she has been cooking "muu pad pik" everyday for breakfast, lunch or dinner. I thank her and start eating the delicious pork with rice, before heading down to the bottom floor to head out Grandma asks "Don yen gin ik mai?" (In the evening, will you eat more of this?) Yes! I answer and with Grandma's promise to make more deliciousness in the evening and simply her pure kindness I leave with a smile and a spring in my step.

Downstairs I meet my host dad and he drives me into the old part of town, where school and Prang Sam Yod and my last host family's house is. We talk the whole twenty minute ride until we arrive at our destination, the home of one of the other exchange student's in Lop Buri. She lives very close to school and Prang Sam Yod at a motorcycle shop. Here I meet four other exchange students and then we head off. Today we are going with Rotary to help some schools in the area that have been affected by flooding last year. (We go with the Rotary Club of two of the student's in Lop Buri, it is not my club though.) The ride is about half an hour and the five exchange students ride in style in the back of the truck. A few days ago the club had dropped off some furniture to be used to create a nurse's office in each school, today we clean and paint the furniture and also talk with the children some. We go to four schools. The children, though very shy, ask us questions and preform dances and songs for us. It is very sweet. When we finish at the last school we head back to Lop Buri and one of the exchange student's Rotary Councilor takes us about twenty minutes out of town the other direction. We stop at the famous Lop Buri sunflower fields which are now fully blooming... and absolutely gorgeous. I can't describe how beautiful the miles and miles of yellow contrasting against the dark of the mountains in the distance is so I will attach some photos so you can see for yourself. After running through the sunflowers and running into another friend there with her host mother we all head on a few minutes to a large lake to go swimming.

We swim, see an enormous spider (largest I've ever seen) and eat. It's a wonderful evening and when it comes to an end my friends councilor drops us all back off at home.

The next day is Friday so it's back to school. My friend Alex (exchange student from Oregon) comes to my school in the afternoon and we leave together. Before going to my house we stop at Big C (the large grocery store chain in Thailand) so I can buy candles. When I get home I find that a package has arrived for me! I can't open it yet though because that evening we go to Angtong (a neighboring province about halfway between Lop Buri and Bangkok) for a large Rotary celebration/fundraiser put on by the Angtong Rotary Club. When we get home I open my box (from my Aunt and Uncle, thank you so much!) I find wrapped Christmas presents! One thing isn't wrapped though and that's a CD of children's songs by a band that my Uncle plays in. Alex and I listen and dance to the songs which are about animals mostly, quite informative and super fun! We decide I'm allowed to open one gift now and save the rest for Christmas. In the morning we listen to our favorite song from the new CD and if that wasn't a great start to the day, then we made blueberry pancakes and played with my dog! After Alex went home I spent a lot of time with my host mom and dad and then with my oldest host brother, just talking. In the evening, I used the candles I had bought the day before to make my own "Menorah", though I wasn't able to light the candles every night, I made sure I did on the last night, Happy Hanukkah everyone! It was a great day! And theres a new one tomorrow! Life is good!

Photos! <--- Here's the link again! Photos of the schools we went to, the sunflowers and lots more! :) I think about 40 new ones. Please let me know whether or not the link here is working out.

-Kearn

Change

I'm sitting here watching the sun slowly lower in the sky; a group of black birds just flew by and now my vision is all blotchy because I looked straight out the window to watch them (and thus kind of right at the sun...55). Anyways, I'm realizing that it's seems quite a lot has changed since I last wrote. Firstly, I have a window! Which translates into the fact that I have moved to my new host family.

To start off, lets just say that I absolutely LOVE them. They own a car air conditioning repair shop and we live upstairs above the garage. The family is wonderful, I now have three host siblings. One brother who lives at home and goes to the same school as me, Boss (age 17), a sister who goes to college in Bangkok but comes home on the weekends, Beam (age 20) and another older brother who also lives in Bangkok and comes home on the weekends, Bank (age 23). All three of them went on exchange to different cities in California during different years, Boss got back just before I arrived in Thailand. It's awesome having siblings at home again, though not having any in my first family really did make me realize how much I really do appreciate and love mine back home (shout-out Ri-man and Maya, love you guys!) Now if you think having three great host siblings is as good as it gets think again, because I also have three great host moms! That's right, three. They are all sisters and all happily married to my wonderful host dad. It sounds kind of crazy... and mind you I was definitely a bit more than a little surprised when I found out, but the family dynamic is wonderful; so loving and nurturing and who wouldn't want three mom's there to talk to, cook dinner with and just hang out with? I love them. Now on to my host dad, he's awesome. He speaks English very well and is super understanding about everything. Though my three host moms (Meh Noon, Meh Nim and Meh Nok but I just call them "Meh" or "Kun Meh" which means "mom") don't speak English, they are really keen on teaching me Thai (as is my host dad (Paw Chutipon but I just call him "Paw" or "Kun Paw" which means "dad"), proof by the fact that he spent about half an hour last night just teaching me Thai classifiers and answering my questions about Thai language! yay!) and I am even more keen to learn from them.

I moved to their home on Friday, it was an interesting day. I spent the first half with my host Aunt making cake (because it was soon to be my new host Dad's birthday) and then came the time to roll my suitcases aaaand backpacks aaaand duffels aaaaand boxes aaaand kitchen sinks aaaaand okay no I didn't have that much stuff, but I certainly have accumulated some things over the past four months! Anyways then it was time to leave and I put all my bags in the back of my host family's pick up truck. My host dad drove me to my new home (about 20 minutes away, on the other side of town, but certainly not too far for me to go back and visit my first host family once in a while) and my host aunt and mom came along as well. After seeing my new room and talking to my new host dad for a few minutes they left and here I was, starting a new chapter in my year abroad! And what better way to start than to head to the beach for the long weekend?!

I was supposed to be ready to leave the house at 5am the next morning... by mistake I woke up at 4:45am and got ready quite quickly so as not to hold everyone up. By 5am I was set and went to find that my host brother had yet to wake up, my host dad yet to shower and two of my host moms and I were really the only ones ready to go. Due to Thai time we left more like 6am, but I can't really blame them, we got to the beach in good time anyways after a stop to wai the monks at a beautiful temple somewhere in between here and there. My host dad drove all ten of us (my host grandmother (Kun Yaiy) and a friend of Bank came along also) in the family's van. It took about 4 hours for us to arrive in lovely Hua Hin, Thailand. We spent the days eating delicious seafood, swimming in the two pools and sunbathing on the beach (I was alone in this activity as Thai people want to keep their skin as white as possible because they think it's more beautiful). I'm not really craving a tan, I just love the sun and I figure I better soak it all in while I'm here this year! Anyways, I re-learned again that the sun can burn you (I wore sunscreen I swear, Mom. I just went swimming and didn't put any more on after... sound familiar? Just like what happened in Mexico. Happens to me every time! 555).

On Monday morning we piled back into the car and headed back to Lop Buri. That evening we celebrated my host dad's birthday by eating the cake I'd made and singing happy birthday (Thai style) with candles and all.

Tuesday morning it was back to school again. The first time in what seems like quite a while... I haven't been to school since the Monday before Loy Krathong. It was good to see my Thai friends again as well as the other exchange students. I spent most of the day hanging out with the two AFS students because they will both be going home next week (one finished her year long program and the other finished her 6-month long program) and will probably only come to school one more day before their departure. It seems crazy that they're heading out already, when I arrived Naomi (the year long student) was just a little more than half way through her year and now it's over... which means that I am getting awfully close to halfway through my year... but I don't want to think about that. Not yet. Boy, time flies.

A few other things that have happened in between last time I wrote and now are;
- I went to Bangkok to see a few exchange student friends and my German friend Sophie and I were able to barter in Thai and got quite the deal... hello 250 baht tuk-tuk taxi for four people for 100 baht! (about $3)
- This ^ was not my first bartering experience though... that was quite a while ago. I'm proud to say the first thing I ever bartered for in Thai was a carrot and two cucumbers. 18 baht and quite delicious if I do say so myself! (about 50 cents)
- I uploaded more photos for you all to see! ---> New photos! <--- click here!
- I got two care packages! One from my awesome Aunts Tig and Gail and one from my momma! Thank you! I'm now getting fat from Thai food aaaand chocolate that you sent me and the wrapped up "Do not open until Christmas" bag that was inside my care package from Mom is staring straight at me from all the way inside my closed suitcase all the way across the room screaming to be openedd... but I'll be a good girl. (Thats not to say these aren't the first care packages I've gotten though, thanks Grandma and Aunt Ronnie too! :)
- I'm currently wearing the MOST comfortable pants in the world. They are Thai pants and they have elephants on them and I am quite pleased with them... bought them in Bangkok with my friends the other day.
- Today I remembered that The Hobbit movie comes out tomorrow and I am soooooooooooooo so so so so so so so so excited.
- I've been told that this "winter" in Thailand is a bit warmer than normal... and that Alaska has barely any snow now! I guess that's cool that I'm not missing an awesome snow year like last year, but really Thailand... why be extra hot the year that there's a born and raised Alaskan girl living here?! That's just rude.
- My host family has a Christmas tree! We set it up a few days ago and though my eyes welled up a teeny bit at the thought that I wasn't decorating this tree at home in freezing cold Alaska with my mom and brother and sister, I couldn't get the smile off my face. Feels nothing like Christmas time here, but a Christmas tree just for you (Thailand is Bhuddist country so Christmas is not celebrated) with twinkling lights and the whole family together to decorate it can't not make you smile.

Anddddd... that's all for now guys, the sun has gone down and it's almost completely dark outside my window. Hope you are well! And hopefully there is more snow now!

Love,
Kearn

P.S. Today is 12-12-12 here so that means tomorrow (most likely when you read this) it will be 12-12-12 for you! Enjoy it because another day like this won't happen again for... what? A century?

It just makes sense. Right?

Lately I've also been wondering what people back home do when they first meet and say "hello" for the first time... without "waiing"... what do you do with your hands? Just awkwardly have them at your sides? Of course sometimes you shake hands, but depending on your profession that doesn't occur extremely often, so really... most of the time... you just have your hands at your sides? How awkward and strange is that? And when you see a teacher or someone older or are thanking someone older, you don't wai to them... weird. I swear when I go home I'll still wai people. It already seems weird not to...

Sometimes when I'm speaking Thai I just stop and think about the words I'm saying. I realized recently that I've been spending a fair amount of time simply musing over how much sense they make. It's just common sense... of course "leow gaw" means "and then"... right? When I stop and think a bit further though... I realize that there is absolutely no basis for me to think that "dee" is the perfect word for "good"...

But I do have a few examples of places where Thai does make sense... The Thai language has very few words compared to the English language thus many words are simply two or more words added together. The word heart is appropriately used in many emotion words. Here's a few examples...

Thai           Direct Translation                        English
jingjai       true (jing) + heart (jai) =                sincere
jaidee        heart (jai)+ good (dee) =               kind
dtokjai      fall (dtok) + heart (jai)=                 surprised

See? So where English has to make up a whole new word that has no similarities to the defining words, Thai makes it easier by using the defining words to make up a compound word! Of course... it's quite easy to get confused though... after all... "jai dee" and "dee jai" have two entirely different meanings...

So there's your first Thai lesson! Also don't forget "sawadika" (female) and "sawadikrap" (male) means hello or goodbye!

Sawadika! Chok di na ka! (good luck!)

-Kearn