Thai Money

This is what Thai money looks like. I forgot to take pictures of the coins so I got a picture from the internet :)

Thai Money:

25 satang i think is worth 1.2 cents. Its not used very much, neither is the 50 satang.
You mostly see 1-10BHT coins.

These are all the bills. If there are others then they are not commonly used
because I have not seen others.

The Kings face is on every bill. Actually, its on everyTHING. They love their king.

1000BHT is worth about 30USD

Yup, thats Thai money for ya. Actually, its really big like play money. It doesn't fit in my American sized wallet.

Rachel

My Birthday :)

For my 16th birthday I celebrated with my host family at an Italian restaurant! They even bought me birthday presents! The event made me miss my family but I was happy to have some american food! Well, Italian food, but just as good :)

June, Kwan and Cher :)

Bonat :) such a cutie!

My host mommy :)

Fon, Ray, Me, June and Kwan :)

My Cake :)

Me and my cake :)

My host parents and I (sorry its sideways)

My host family and I :)

Cher, Ray, Fon (sister), Mr. Udong (dad), Me, Bonat (in the back),  Sai Lung (looking at the cake),  Mrs. Songsri (mom),  June and Kwan :)

My Party!!

Thanks for a great 16th birthday :)

Rachel

Random

My face literaly hurts from smiling all the time...and chewing gum all the time. But still, for some reason people here think you are unaproachable if you don't have a humugous smile on your face. Or atleast thats how it comes across. Its getting easier to smile all the time but still, gosh.

I was sitting in class durring a test I couldn't take (cuz I dont speak thai) and I was noticing how accepted it is to cheat. Just look over and see what your friend wrote for an answer, just ask them directly what the answer to number 42 in section 20 is. I'm watching the teacher to see if she notices them and shes up there sleeping while her kids are on their phones looking up answers for her physics test.

Thats all :)

Rachel

Thailand Inbound Group : A video of Us!!

Soo, all of us exchange students got together around the middle of September for 9 days in Trang Province. We laughed, we cried, we ate Nutella, we got sick, we had embarrassing moments, and when it was over, we cried again. But thats ok :)

Anyway, Veronica, another exchange student, made a video of us in Trang and it pretty much wraps up what we did.

Waking up at 5 am every morning, going to yoga, trying to teach each other Thai, traveling and not getting to bed till 1 am for 9 days was worth it. The lack of sleep made it hard to learn Thai. I even acquired the nickname Sleeping Beauty because I couldn't stay awake. Thanks Remo :)

Anyways, here is the video, I think she did a good job and had pictures of everybody!!

Thats all for now :)

Rachel

A litttle Update :)

Yes, I know I havent written anything in atleast a month and dont think its because I'm busy or something, i just have been flat out lazy. But nevermind! I'm back :)

I have alot to catch up on so I figure I'll start now and go back in time :) Speaking of In Time, thats a movie that just came out here....that I must see....oley because of Justin Timberlake :)

Anyway, so, last night I went to a holoween party! It was at this cute little school in Hat Yai run by this guy named Richard and his wife (whos name escapes me). Richard is from the UK and his wife is thai. I met them at the movie theater a while back and they invited me.
The school is named Songkhla International School and most of the teachers are farang like me. Farang means foreigner, its a word I hear alot :) The party was mostly centered around the little children that went to the school but it was still alot of fun and there was cake...so.

Besides that, over my little semester break I went to Trang and Nacomsi Tamarat, which are 2 other provinces about 4 hours away. I will write about those later because I need pictures :) I was on break for a month. I think it was an optional break because alot of  my friends still went to school, yea...why would you go to school if you had the chance not to. Something tells me its the parents :)

Well, I cant write any more without pictures so, bye now :)

Rach

Feeding the Monkeys!

I forgot to put this in my other post but here it is...its soo cute, watch all of it.

Warning: This video will make you slightly dizzy.

The place is called Cao Tan Quan :)

Rachel

A morning at the beach :)

This morning Kwan (my host sister), Got and I woke up super early (like 6am) so that we could get down to Samila Beach and be there while the sun was rising :) Well, the sun was already up when I got up at 6, but we still went anyway and took some pictures. I slipped on a really mossy rock and fell on my butt...here are some of the pictures we took.

After we got from the beach we surprisingly met up with the club president who was eating breakfast with her parents, brother and daughter at the same restaurant we came to!

Some dog just sitting in the water ;)

Breakfast with Club President

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My Day at the beach with Jackie: Sep 21, 2011

(If you want to see a picture closer, click on it)
Yesterday, Jackie and I had an awesome time at Samila Beach. Jackie is from Mexico also here for an exchange year!

We got to see Cao Tan Quan, the mountain where the monkeys for some reason congregate and we got to swim at Samila Beach. I did this before but the first time I forgot my camera (teehee).

So, first my country counselor Ba Oui had to pick up Jackie from Hat Yai, about 45 minutes away from where I live in Songkhla. Then we all had lunch at a restaurant that belongs to one of the rotary club members. When we finnished eating my host mom dropped us off for a day of being ripped off by vendors, being scratched up by monkeys and carefully walking though the sea water trying to avoid starfish and crabs!

I got to wear some clothes my host mom bought for me at the Sunday Market. Clothes here are incredibly cheap.

Me and Jackie:

The monkeys were sooo cute but really aggresive :) They get your attention by tugging at your bag or touching your skin with those creepily soft hands. Some were bold enough to take the basket of food right out of our hands. One basket of food was 10 BHT. CHEAP. We got a basket of bananas and a basket of peanuts.

Some mean monkey grabbed Jackies wrist and made her drop the basket of peanuts. Meanie...

The Mean Old Man

Look at those EYES!!

That thin green net is a bridge for the Monkeys to cross the street.
Now less of them get hit by cars :)

Some stupid bird pooped on my bad, see if you can find the little white speck :)

Jackie at the base of the mountain.

Jackie :)

This is a playground they made for the monkeys :) Nalac! 

Me at the base of the mountain :)

 From there we walked to the beach where we changed in a little crummy bathroom that you have to pay to get into and we paid the owner of the restaurant near the bathroom to keep our stuff while we swam. We paid like 20BHT which is like, nothing.

We 'swam' and we had a lot of fun wondering how far we could go before we were in danger of sharks. We saw these people in the water who looked like they were looking for something. We found out later they were looking for starfish and those crabs with the swirly shells. One of the guys that was looking in the water showed us what they were looking for. That was the first time I touched a starfish, it was squishy.We had seen a starfish in the water earlier and we didn't touch it because...well, I didn't touch it because I didn't want it to like stick to me or something :)

After the beach we got our stuff back and we got some pins made for our rotary jackets. I will take a picture of mine later :) We asked the lady to write Samila Beach on them :)

A big cat and a mouse next to the beach. I am sitting on the mouse :)

Me and a Mouse :)

SO, we kept walking and we found another sculpture, and this time it was a mermaid :)

This is the Tuk Tuk, its a little bus that can take you pretty much anywhere and its really cheap :)

 ROTARY MEETING!!

Jackie and I in our YE jackets at the Rotary meeting. Our meetings are held in
a Hotel.  I am about to make my presentation about my home :)

I made my presentation to the rotary club in English and my counselor translated for me. Most of the people in my club speak English anyway.

Me giving my presentation :)

Me giving my rotary clubs flag to my host clubs president!

Well, that was our day. I made quite a few posts today and I still have soo much more to write about...*sigh.

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