My Home

I know I haven't posted the video of my first house yet, but that is only because I didn't know how. Here now is the link to that video. I do apologize for the video turning sideways half way through, but I hope you enjoy all the same.

My New High School Band

     Since I have come to Thailand I have had many great experiences, such as going to old temples, seeing Bangkok for the first time, and gaining lots of new friends... But the experience that has reminded me most of home so far has been joining my school's band. The band is great, and it helps me keep up on my Trumpet skills. It is made up of mostly 16 year old kids and younger, so I am the oldest one in the band. Some can read the music, but most just listen and copy the ones who can read it. The band teacher is really patient, and reminds me a lot of Mr. Brooks because of it. The band plays during morning assemblies (when it doesn't rain) and marches from time to time. They also play at parities, such as a retirement party for teachers. They are not really a concert band and have never preformed for the school before, but then I came along and the band teacher want to showcase me with the band. So last weekend was spent in long hours of practice (almost like when I went to All-State), and finally we had a concert for our school. I think it went well, but enough with the boring description. Here are the photos:

Our band teacher (in blue) makes sure we are on the right measure.

This kid doesn't even go to my school. But he has great talent.

Yes we even used the bongos and congas in our band.

I decided to represent my school band and where the T-shirt to practice.

The trumpet section. The one to my immediate right (my right, not yours) is the best trumpet player after me. He is one of those trumpet players who likes to play really loud, and he plays The Final Count Down all the time...

Our full band... We even have a tuba and a bass guitar, aren't you impressed Mr. Brooks.

The main supporters at the concert: Raul, John, Adjan (teacher) Me, my Thai teacher, and Adjan Penjun, my school councilor. The school director also came, but he his a very busy man and could only stay for a short time.

    The concert was only for the school to watch, but we will be playing at a retirement party next week. The party is for all the teachers in Udont Thani who are retiring. So many people will be there. Wish us luck...

Here is a video from that very party. I know we don't sound the greatest, but bare with us.

          

My First Free Weekend

      Now all my posts before this have been about some trip or important part of my travels... This post is a look into what I can do normally when I have no Rotarian or Family functions. This is about my first free weekend to hang out with my new friends from Udon Thani.

     It started with an awesome badmitten tournament among friends. I have found out that I am not so bad at badmitten, but with that said I didn't make it past the 2nd round.

I found out that bare feet gave me more traction while playing.

One of the better players after a hard game. You can't see it but there is a fan right above his head.

My friend just scored on me...

   After the tournament was over my friends and I went to the biggest park in Udon Thani and played some football (soccer for the Americans) while we waited for lunch to arrive. After the game was over we went for a little walk through the park, because the food still hadn't come. We went to one of the bridges and goofed around like good teenagers. Then headed back to eat.

The football game was a lot of fun. I don't think anyone really one.

Just hanging around being a good teenager in the park.

My friends on the bridge.

   After we ate, I went back home and took a shower. Then I went out with another group of friends, and I went back to the park. This time, however, my friends and I rented bikes and circled the whole park (about 3 Kilometers, I think). I think I crashed once, but that was to be expected. After the bike riding my friends and I went to a little shop where you can buy a little clay statue and paint it. Then they glaze it for you and you can take it home as a souvenir.

In Thailand they take bike riding to a whole new level. They have an additional seat for passengers. I had never seen that before.

My attempt at a backwards shot from a moving bicycle

This girl was very articulate about her painting. I don't think I could have matched her in skill if I'd tried.

       After the park we went to UD town, one of the two major hang out spots at night. There my friends and I met up with John, the guy from Brazil, and Fabio, one of the guys from Venezuela, and we just had an overall all good time. After UD town I went home and had a great night sleep.

John, Fabio, and I all on a swinging bench... I am surprised we didn't break it.

     The next day, Sunday, was spent at a pool in an exchange student's house. The exchange student's name was Martina, and she is from Lichtenstein through the AFS exchange program. Also there was Carla and her friend Georgia, both from Italy and through AFS, John, the Brazilian, Raul, the Mexican, Luis, the other Venezuelan, and Avery, the Canadian. So, in other words, we had a foreign exchange student get together at the pool. It was awesome!

Carla and Georgia...

Martina pointing out important places of the house, such as the bathroom.

    After we finished swimming I got to go home and make a part of the dinner for my host family: Hamburgers!  I think they really enjoyed it. I even got to drink a nice cup of cold milk to go with it.

Ahh, ground hamburger... Not as easy to find here in Thailand as it was back home.

Me cooking the hamburgers (I know it is kind of scary).

My uncle Bomb eating his with ketchup. He liked it so much he asked if he could have another one.

Ahh... A hamburger and a cold class of milk, the only thing missing is some oven baked french fries.

   After the meal I relaxed and recuperated after the long and fun filled weekend. Then I went to bed and that pretty much ended the free weekend.

Nu's (my host-hostbrother) Departure

    This last weekend (well some of last week too) I went to Bangkok. The main reason was for my host-brother, Nu, to finish up everything he needed to leave the country and then fly out. Nu, my host-mom, Raul (the guy from Mexico), and I all went. We were there for 4 days, but we were gone for almost 5.
   On the first day we flew out of Udon Thani. Nu had a huge gathering of his friends at the airport all wishing him goodbye and even giving him some presents (I was a little jealous). But then Raul and I got noticed and the wanted a picture...

Nu's group of friends with Nu, Raul, and me at the center.

      When we got to the airport in Bangkok and took city transit: monorail (I think). Instead of going straight to the house like I presumed we would we actually went to pick up Nu's cousin from school. Her name was Ling Ling (kind of like the bicycle bell), and after we picked her up we all went to Nu's aunt and uncle's house by taxi.
      That night we went on this awesome boat ride through the middle of Bangkok. That's right, Bangkok at night on boat. The boat even had a nice meal for us. Along the river we saw many hotels, lit-up temples, and huge bridges. Raul and I also got to experience Indian dancing (bollywood music).

One of the many cool lit-up temples along the river.

The buffet on the boat (pretty grand).

Ling Ling, Nu, Me, and Raul on the boat in front of one of the big bridges.

The group of Indians dancing to bollywood music. Raul joining with them to the left.

    The next day Nu, mama Jing (host mom), Raul, and I all went to the Canadian embassy to pick up Nu's passport. Then the rest of the day was spent at the largest temple in not only Bangkok but Thailand as well.

Raul and I in front of the "golden temple".

Our attempt at trying to hold up the temple: Epic Fail.

Mama Jing and I in front of a building that allowed no photography inside.

A main building with a funeral march in procession in front of it.

   The next day we went to a museum devoted to Jim Thompson (look him up on google, kind of an interesting life) and his house that he mysteriously left behind after his disappearance in 1967. His house was a combination of authentic historic Thai houses, and his main profession was the Thai silk trade. His house, now the museum, is full of ancient artifacts and information on the Thai silk trade.

One of the traditional Thai houses.

Some of the old artifacts that are stored in the house

Man! Too tall for even the traditional houses...

   After the that museum, we went to this really cool interactive museum that was near by...

They had art all around the building!

This was a cool exhibit made entirely of unstrung fabric. We even got lay on it.

Raul and I even got to add a little piece of our home to the museum.

The next and final day was Nu's flight. Surprisingly enough there were almost no tears shed, but tones of laughter...

Nu and his aunt, uncle, and cousin.

This picture reminded me of Forrest Youth Exchange photo (minus the sombrero).

    After Nu departed my host parents took Raul and I to the weekend market in Bangkok. It was HUGE! It had almost any craft you can think of coming from Thailand, and it also had a bunch of T-shirts, sunglasses, and other random souvenirs.

My only picture of the market. This is only one of the many streets.

     After the market we went back to the house, finished packing, had some pizza (interesting toppings), and left for the train station. I found out that the train was an overnight train and that we would have our own bunks to sleep on. It was an interesting trip, and the train had nothing on US's Amtrak.

Ahhh... Relaxing...

Some interesting countryside out the train window in the morning.

    Finally on Sunday we arrived home. We were all groggy and I'm pretty sure I went to bed early that night... It was great to be home from Bangkok.

The weekend after the Orientation...

          The weekend after was full of touring... On Saturday I, and my fellow Udon Thani exchange students, went to this really cool museum all about one of the most famous archaeological finds in Southeastern Asia... And it was right next door to my town of Udon Thani... Part of the museum was just for showing old artifacts that were found at the site and life-like statues of what inhabitants would have looked like in the past.


The entrance to the Museum.

A spear head and an arm bone with a bracelet.



The most common artifact in the site: pots.









The other part of the museum was basically one of the archaeological sites. The had put back some of the artifacts into their original places and preserved the site so that all visitors would have a greater appreciation for the excavating process.   



One of the excavation pits from the archaeological site.

 After the museum we went to a small place of prayer (I can't really call it a temple, because there was no real building...). There was this huge golden Buddha, a long walkway with 2 long snake statues as handrails, and a pool of water that was suppose to have something to do with wishes... O, yeah, and there was this one trail leading off to the side that was swamped, and I decided to take it with the help of my fellow exchange students...

 

Striking a bell in the place of worship.

 

The Giant Buddha that I was talking about

John and Raul next to the snake stature hand rails.

The Udon boys in front of the pool of water.

The flooded path to the unknown.

John made a misstep and sunk knee deep in the mud...



We made it back from our adventure without any main injuries and headed back home. The next day was a day with Rotary... We went to 9(!) temples in one day!!! Don't get me wrong the temples are all beautiful and an amazing cultural experience that is hard to find anywhere else. But 9 temples in one day! Things start blending together after about temple 3, but I'll put a few of my favorite pictures up to show you most of the day...

 

The day started with giving offerings of food to passing monks.

Every exchange student (except the Canadian) from Udon Thani is in this picture... Even the AFS students.

Some training for the future... Maybe...

Another offbeat trail that no one uses. It was close to an eighth of mile long slope!

One of my favorite temples... It was actually built into the side of a cliff!!

My other favorite temple, because it was right along the river basically built on a bluff.
That is my whole host family...

And finally the last temple... We got there in the dark! But it was also very beautiful.

That concluded the tour of the 9 temples of Udon Thani. After we had a very late dinner, went home, and tried to get as much rest as we could before the coming week of school...