The path up to the ruins, the stairs leading up to it were very uneven and steep, but fun to climb.

A stone guard   

Buddhas chilling in the corner.

One huge centipede, hanging out by a window. 

  

Finally a picture with the monks!

The second ruins, one of the four L shaped ponds.

The library and on the far side of the picture is the second part of the library. 

Yup, we are riding an elephant!

 The elephant tickling me (unintentionally).

Lizzy, Me, Mariano and Noelle, the four of us that went.

The outside of the second ruins we went to.

The Start of Break Fun

These past few days have been relaxing, school is finished for a month and we have free range of the city on our bikes.  I have been exploring the main park in Korat, which does not officially open until four so if you go there before four no one is out, you have this huge park to yourself it is nice.  Anyways that is not the exciting part of this week.  It was this weekend when myself and three other exchange students were able to visit, two ancient ruin places and then ride an elephant!

I am not sure the name of the ruins because no one actually told us, but the detail and care put into the structures is amazing.  There are craved Buddhas in almost every corner and, lotus leaves engraved into the walls.  It other words it was a very picturesque place.  The second ruins we went to had four L shaped ponds surrounding the actual building creating only four entrances at each compass point.  Also inside the main building they had a library which was actually two matching rooms on either of a main entrance, which was really cool to see.

Finally we got to the elephants!  We got to ride them around the village where they and then, they picked us up with their trunks which was a little scary but fun.  We also got to feed them and try riding them while sitting on their neck/head.  It is very difficult, you use a lot of care muscle and it feels like you are going to fall forwards off the elephants head at any moment, but it was, in short, awesome.

 The Grand Palace

The garden of King Rama V's Palace

 The outside of the Temple

 Mural telling the story of Buddha's victories.

 An interesting statue at the temple.

 Us in our skirts at the temple. 

More tile

 Buddha's defeated enemies holding up the temple.

Animal looking statues that either were holding a ball in their paw, like the one in the foreground or had a baby animal attached to their leg. Not sure what the symbolism of this means. 

A weekend in Bangkok

This past week and today at school has been quite interesting them have had tests in every classes and the classes they do not have tests in they usually have a free period, so there has been a lot of free time for reading, learning Thai and doing nothing much at school.  Tomorrow, however, is our last day for just over a month, which will be very nice.  I can actually get out and explore Korat and figure out the bus system, seeing as I only know how to get to my house from the school on the bus.

This is not the most exciting part of this past week; the most exciting part was that I was able to go to Bangkok, with two other exchange students and one of theirs host mom and sister.  We spent Saturday touring around the Grand Palace and seeing the most famous Buddha in Thailand.  This Buddha has an outfit for each season and there is a huge ritual that goes along with the changing of the clothes, which would be very interesting to see.  We, however, only saw its rainy season clothing.  Speaking of clothing at all other temples previously visited capris were fine to wear, this being the grad temple, however only long loose fitting pants were allowed.  So before entering the Palace and Temple grounds two out of the six of us that went were given long sarong, skirt things that we had to wear, they were actually pretty comfy.  From the little bit of history that Noelle’s host family knew we were taught that murals around the entrance to the Temple showed Buddha wining a battle, and that then they informed us that the statues outside of all the doorways guarding them were all enemies that Buddha had defeated and punished by making them forever guard the temples.   The intricacies of the design on the temple was baffling, every building was titled with tiny mirrors and coloured tiles, which was absolutely beautiful. 

We also ventured over to a Palace that was built in King Rama V’s time and where his son and grandson grew up.  Apparently King Rama V was a very big hunter, so he had huge elephant tusks in almost every room and had rooms dedicated to hunting paraphernalia and crocodile, deer, turtles and other animals that he hunted.   It was an impressive collection, and the rest of the palace was gorgeous they even had portraits and busts of European royalty which was interesting to see, but we never got an explanation.   The rest of the palace had some very beautiful collections of china dishes, glassware, typewriters, pipes and many other things, but cameras were not allowed in so those pictures will be forever ingrained in my mind.

To continue with the trip, Noelle’s host family is very keen on shopping so we went to a mall Saturday afternoon for a bit; they had an ice rink that I really wanted to try out.  Then Sunday came along and we spent most of the day wandering around a mall called Platinum, which is really just and indoor market.  It is a mall comprised of stalls and tons of people and tiny aisles, so it is a bit overwhelming but interesting to seeing Thai culture adapt to a western view of shopping of a mall.  

So all in all a very interesting weekend and a fun one at that too, and this month should be an interesting one, seeing as we have free reign in Korat! 

 Thai students pondering french words/

 The main road through Korat, it is also part of my commute every morning to school. 

 The sidewalks in Korat, usually blocked by cars parked in front of stores. 

 The Canadians with Pech a self-proclaimed lady boy and very nice. 

 The lizard I caught in my bedroom.

 The Yellow flowers are carved out of Pumpkin, and I made it the orange flower which is a lot more intricate is made out of a carrot and by the lady who was teaching me after school to carve fruit and vegetables. Just one of the many after activities available for me to participate in.

French Camp

This has been an interesting week, from swimming in the rain and biking around Korat, to a weekend away at a French camp, as well as having a Rotary meeting with all the Rotary Clubs around Korat I believe it is four or so.  To start my host family is starting to trust me and is letting me have more freedom to venture out after school and explore Korat, which is really nice and I am finally getting my bearings about how the city is laid out, because there is no plan to the city, just on main road and a lot of what seem like back alleys but are actually busy roads.  Also, the big Rotary meeting with all the clubs was really just an excuse for the exchange students to get together and talk while the adults had fun eating and drinking.  Finally the French camp, it was with school and we went up to Pak Chong a mountain about two hours away from Korat. This trip was through the school and it was all three of the exchange students at my school and the French class that went.   While we were there it was like a Leadership camp with activities, except when they said they would start at 8am it was really 8:30 because we were operating on Thai time, which means that everyone is late and does not worry about the time.  The workshops were run by native French speaker who teacher is Bangkok, so it was neat to see how they liked teaching French and what they thought about Thailand. 

A little aside in Thailand they are very accepting of people who are gay, which really nice to see.  However, not only are they accepting of that, but they accept the extreme forms of it too.  The Thai people call them “lady boys”, these people are very feminine boys, who like to dress as girls, as well.  They are some of the nicest people I have met here.  While at French camp they came up to us and wanted to know all about where the three “farangs” (the Thai word for foreigner that you hear everywhere because it also means guava) came from and what it was like back home.  It was really interesting to see this because the other girls at camp were not as welcoming as them.  As well as they are not afraid to dance and do it very well!  So that is just a little snippet about how accepting the Thai culture is not only of the farangs but of people’s personal feelings. 

Finally, a little about school this week, almost all this week the other students have tests in every single class, and in the other ones the teachers do not usually show up so it is pretty much a free day for me to learn and do whatever I would like.  The exciting part about this is that next Tuesday is my last day of school for a month, so I finally get the opportunity to explore Korat and everything it has to offer!! 

These were sitting on the kitchen table one evening, just waiting there in dark to make me jump when I turn the lights on.  There were for a Chinese celebration the following day where they honour their ancestors.

These were also for the Chinese celebration, they were made out of paper and given to the ancestors (put inform of the shrines), along with food. 

The food ranged, as you can see from fruit, to duck and pork to sweets ( the small oval shaped things on the far right of the photo.

The finished product of the pandanus leaves. 

 Just a really bight moon, a few nights ago that was fun to take a picture of! 

The Start of Rotary Events

These past few days have seen the start of my plethora of Rotary events of the year.  We had our orientation Wednesday, where we sat and talked about the rules and then what we were really all waiting for the trips! They informed us that they have three fantastic trips planned for us, starting with a hiking on in November.   Not only was this the first time I met the other exchange students in Korat, but also the coordinator of the Youth Exchange Program in our district.  The seven of us living in Korat are surprisingly only from three different countries, 4 from Canada, 2 from Venezuela and 1 from Mexico.  All of them are really nice and I look forward to meeting the other students in district once we start the trips!  The following day I had my first Rotary meeting with my host club, there are actually two students being hosted by the Suranaree Club, myself and Oscar, an exchange student from Venezuela.  There are quite a few differences, between Thai Rotary clubs and Canadian ones, but I would say the biggest in that the men and women do not sit and the same tables.  Also once a month they actually have a party where they have karaoke and if just happened that this day both Oscar and I had to do a presentation about ourselves, so all in all they were in a party mood so there were a lot of interruptions, but it was still fun.  I have also found out that this year I will only have two host families and I met my second host parents this week, they are really nice and had a daughter go on an exchange in Calgary, so my second host dad was wearing his Canada t-shirt for his occasion. 

So just a little bit about my school, I found out that they have clubs after school that you can just show up and to join, so this week I learnt how the take the leaves a Pandanus plant and make it into a bouquet of flowers, that then make the room smell good.  I also have changed my schedule so I now have 4 hours of Thai cooking Thursday mornings, so school is a lot of fun because I can really show up in any class and they are just happy that I am there and participating.  Finally I am learning Thai dancing and if you have seen it and think it looks easy, it is not.  The precise twists your arms have to make and changing from having your thumb and pointer finger touching to having your thumb and middle finger touching is confusing, but still fun.  I am looking forward to next week and all the new clubs I can join!