My update thus far.

Well hello my Lethbridge friends. I hope everything is going well in your lives and you are enjoying all the rain you have been getting. The cold weather will pass soon enough and the "classic" scortcher summer days are just around the corner. I have tried to organize my blog into catagories so it can save you searching for something you want to read.

When I arrived in Thailand:
After what seemed like an eternity we finally touched down in Bangkok. I was happy to have been greated by a group of about 6 people. My host papa, my host sister and Joe (he had been an Rotary exchange student to Canada this year) and some of Joe's friends. They had a little banner for me and I was greeted with open arms and smiles. We then were brought to my host aunts home in Bangkok where we spent the night and took off for Udon the next morning. I got off the plane in Udon and was greeted by all the Rotary members of the Magkang Rotary club. It was amazing, they had cameras, video recorders. I felt as if the paparazzi had found me. The club was so kind, they presented me with 5 beautiful lais. I could barely see after being presented with these but smiled anyway as the paparazzi went at it again. I arrived to my home later that afternoon.

Family and living arrangements:
I am living with my host family in Udon Thani, family of 4. Momma, Papa, Ichiro (boy age 14), and Natjang(girl age 16). They are a delightful group of people. They do not speak very much english so it has been an adventure trying to communicate. Sheraids, drawings, and laughter has been one of the many ways I have been getting my message across. I was given the tour of this.. home, house, palace? I am not sure what to call it but it is stunning.

My room was to be on the second floor looking out into the beautiful tropical trees with my own bathroom to enjoy and an amazing AC system that still gets me excited to use. There are 5 rooms with 6 bathrooms, 2 kitchens, 2 living rooms, 1 computer room, 1 TV room, 1 room dedicated to buddha, a room for washing, and 2 dining areas. I was hoping that I could have been living in mud hut on the top of some mountain but took my new home with open arms and was glad to be there.

The City:
I live in Udon which is about 600 million people. Full of mopeds, motoryced scooters, oh ya and did I say mopeds? They are absolutely everywhere. Travelling in the city is relatively easy and fairly cheap. I have been able to get rides from my host brother and sister which has made things alot easier. In the city their is a large mall and a large park. That is usually where you can find just about every teenager/young adult in the city. The park is great because they have one track for walkers/runner and one for bicycles so nothing gets too dodgy. It is rainy season here so everything is soggy but the rain usually doesn't last too long. I have been witness to 2 big storms, one of which sounded like our house had been hit by lighting and I myself had to hide under the blankets for a while.

School:
I currently go to a school that has about 5000 students. All of which wear uniforms and must wear their hair short. The students are very bashfull, giggling and blushing at almost everything they come in contact with. I have met some very neat people who have been on exchange here at my school and they are all very good at english. There are 3 whom I eat lunch with sometimes. One went to Quebec, Canada and is fluent in french. We are exchanging Thai words for french words that he forgets, It's rather fun. My teachers, for the most part are very kind and understand that I am completely lost. I usually just follow people into their classes until I get my own time table.

At school there is 5 different buildings for 5 different subjects and there is library, a large canteen, mass hall, and a small temple. The school is always humming with the sound of giggling, screaming, or cheering. It has been an adjustment getting used to the sound differences too. Even during lunch I am used to a relatively quiet cafeteria with students who eat their lunch and then get on with class but this is a completely different environment. My ears are quickly adjusting and I know I will have a greater appreciation for Canada's quiet atmosphere upon my return.

Serve me some Thai food:
Wow.. wow.. mmmm I can taste it now. The food is incredible. They know exactly how to combine the best spices, herbs, and flavours into one. I have been trying to go easy on the spicy because after my first experience with the big D i dont want to have to experience that again so I have been taking it slow. The food at school is even great, pad thai, noodles, soup, rice, chicken, beef. Nothing like I have ever had.
Now don't get me wrong after eating all of this delicious food I somehow still craze simple things like Peanut Butter, Milk from Canada, M AND M'S!!!, oh and did I say peanut butter?

What I have seen and done:

• I have been to one temple so far and it was stunning. I think it isnt the architecture that does it for me it is the respect people pay to the Buddha. It really made me feel at peace in that place and was sad when we had to leave. I was thinking about living with the monks but hasd no time to act because we were already on the moped driving wuickly thru the streets of Udon.
• Right after I had arrived we had a family dinner where I was invited to go get my picture taken by a photogrpahe. Not thinking anything else of it until the doorbeel rang the next morning at around 9:00am. I was a little distraight when 2 lady boys walked in with their extremelly masculine, yet feminine features and said they were to do my makeup. I did what I was told and opened my eyes to an expirience. It was great to see their desire to improve my features ("feaasurresss" as they would say it). We quickly hopped in the car and drove to a photography where we were dressed in royalty clothing. I was wearing a gold dress that I could barely breathe in and was covered in gold jewerally to match. The photographer was funny so it made it a little more enjoyable. I just received the pictures and my "feaasurresss" look great!
• Taking the tuk tuk with friends to go bowling and had an adventure getting there.
• Made fried noodles with a class I did not know to other students in the school for free. I love helping others and realized that this is something I need to do this year. Help others in need.
• Cooked pancakes for mothers day (in thailand) and burnt them terribly, she still managed to swallow them and bless her heart ate them all too.
• I was able to experience the night life first hand. Last night my host sister and a group of friends went to the night market where we browsed a huge mass of shops and food stands. It was probably on my first feelings of culture shock. I was completely in awe that people can live this way. So fascinating and yet so shocking. I saw wealth and I saw poverty, I saw sickness, and pain but I never witnessed a frown. On our way home from the chaos and told myself that I was meant to come here, to see this.

Thank you Thank you Thank you

I wanted to say Thank you to everyone who believed in me, to everyone who help me get this far. With words, dollars, or even a nice email. These gestures mean the world to me because as I live here in Thailand I am already having such an incredible experience. The exposure I have to this culture is once in a lifetime and hope that you too can experience something like it. I have to send a special thanks out to Jean Mcarthy. I read one of your envelopes and have never had anyone do such a kind thing before thank you so much for being so unique. Also to my sister, who is sitting on my dresser with a purple umbrella. I think the world of you and love you very much. And Papa bear of course. You are my sunshine papa and I miss you terribly. Thank you again to everyone else for supporting and I did not forget about your kindness.

Mothers know best:

So here I am in the directors office this morning exaclty 2 weeks in to my adventure and I begin to feel these emotions coming up. I began to cry. I relized how overwhelming it can be sometimes. The director was no longer there and I felt totally silly crying in his office but then I looked at the calender. It said August 17th 2009. I could not believe it. My mom had been right. She said you will do great Christine when 2 weeks hits though it might get a little tougher and you may feel a bit overwhelmed. I could not believe it. I began to laugh and realized that my mother's prediction had been correct. Although sometimes I may not give her credit, like when she predicts the wheather without reading a whether report and nails it everytime, or calls me from the mountain when she senses I am feeling blue, when she seems to know what I want for dinner, or that I want a hug. Its incredible how I have overlooked these incredible skills my mother posseses and how much I love her too. Thank you mom for being so amazing and I am sorry if this is overdue.

Realization of the day:
No matter who you are you have something to give. Whether it be a small bowl of rice, your last cookie in your lunchbox, the empty seat on the overcrowded bus, the spare change you have in your pocket... You have something. I encourage you today or whenever you read this to think what you could give to a complete stranger that could brighten their day? A smile, a quick hello, or a thoughtful comment. I have been thinking about how in my own life I do not do this enough and have made it my own goal to start giving back to the universe. They come from innocent acts of generosity and kindness that I hope others can begin to do. We all have have the potential to give and I challenge you to use your potential.

So here we are.. 2 weeks in and a few more to go. I look forward to keeping you all updated.
Ps. More pictures are coming
Love you loads

Christine Nicole Hill
(Shum puu Nuut)-Thai name