Last month

I´m already back in germany while I`m writing this, but it´s about my last month of my exchange year in Thailand. And I think, nobody who never experienced what it means to be an exchange student knows, how I feel right now.
It`s crazy what`s going on in me and difficult to put it into words, but I`ll try.

When I came to Thailand ten month ago, I didn`t know anthing of it`s culture. But I managed to learn it step by step and with the help of my family. And I learned to love this country with all my heart.
I dont want to leave thailand, but at the same time I want to go back to germany. I have two lives now. I have two families. I have two places I call home.
And I cannot live at one place, without missing the other one.
From this moment, if people ask me where I come from, I will tell them I am half thai and half german, because it`s the truth.

I also want to thank my incredible hostfamilie, who made this ten month of my exchnage, the best month I had in my whole life and the best I could had have!
They will always have place in my heart!

And those who ever thought of becoming an exchange student (and even those who didn`t): Do it!
Don`t find stupid excuses, just do it! There is a whole world outside your room that needs to be discovered, You have time enough to study when you are older. First, go out there and find yourself. Open your mind.
Leave your comfortzone.
And I promise, you will come back as a different person!

Jana

Songkran

April was one of the best month!
My family (my family from germany) came down here to surprise me. And they really surprised me, it was amazing. I didn`t expected them to visit me. But they did and it was so good to see them.

From 13.04 to 15.04 we celebrated the Thai New Year all together and I have to say, it is such an amazing festival. One of my favorties by far!

Thai people have their own calender so of course they also have their own new year, called Songkran. And this festival is very unique!
People going on the streets and throwing water at everybody who passes their way. In the first days of the festival you cannot go anywhere without getting wet.
And the best thing is that everybody can join. So me and my family spend the day with a huge watersplash to wash away all bad from the last year.

I`m very happy that I had the chance to experience this absolut amazing festival with my thai family and my german family.
It couldn`t be any better!

The South

I know I`m a little bit late with my posts but at the moment I`m very busy enjoying the last days of my exchange. But I want to keep you up to date, so here we go:

At the 12.03 our last Rotary trip began after our district conference, which will be also the last one for us here in Thailand.
We started in Ayutthaya, the old capitol of Thailand, where we visited the famous buddha head in the tree roots and many old temple.

From there we went to Bangkok to fly to Phuket. In one week we traveled around the most famous islands in the south of Thailand like Phuket, Phi Phi and Koh Lipe. We spent a lot of time in and on the water with snorkeling, swimming and boat trips. It was an amazing tour with many beautiful beaches with white sand and crystal clear water.

But at the 18.03 it was time to say goodbye. I had so much fun with all the other exchange students and the time we spend together was always amazing. This time made saying goodbye very hard.
But I hope that our goodbye will not last long guys. Missing you will be the only negative thing I`ll take home from this exchange.
It is unbelievable how fast the time went by.

Northern Trip & Christmas

In this month, and with ´this` I mean december, (yes, already a long tome ago, I`m sorry) a lot of things happened. Christmas, new year and it`s already halftime for my exchange year.
But let me begin with the second rotary- trip.

Second Trip

Our second trip started at the 18. december. We flew from Bangkok to Chiang Rai and spent two weeks in the northern parts of Thailand.

During this trip, we did a lot of travelling. We went from one place to another and barely spend one night in the same hotel. Like this we were able to see a lot of things. We visited the famous `White Temple` in Chiang Rai, the zoo in Chiang Mai and went to the Walking street in Pai.




Luckly, this trip was more Relaxing than the trip to Phu Kradueng so we could spend more time togehter as friends. And I am looking forward to our third trip, even if it`ll be the last time that we will met all together.

Christmas

The people in Thailand don`t celebrate Chritstmas because more than 90% of them are Buddhist.

Maybe that`s why Rotary planned the second trip to the north of Thaland pefectly around the chritsmas time, so that we, the exchange students, had a little bit more fun at this special day, instead of getting a `Christmas Depression` while staying alone at home.
While satying in a small village in Chiang Mai on the Christmas days, we had a small party and got our secret santa gifts.
It was not the same way i celebrate christmas in germany but I still had a great time.

Fourth Month

So yesterday I finished my fourth month and started the fifth.

And something has changed. Something has changed inside of myself, I guess.
I think that I finally arrived. I have a daily routine now. I go out with my friends after school, have dinner with my brother in the evening. I get used to so many things, that were new for me in the beginnig. Like, taking off the shoes before entering the buildings of the school, singing the national anthem in the morning, feeling hot every minute I spent outside :D

I didn`t even realized, that I wasn`t completly here the last month. I mean with my heart and my mind. But now, after I feel so different, I think thats why.
But it doesn`t make things worse. Not at all. It got even better, if this is still possible!

I love my life here in Thailand and when I think about how fast the time goes by and that half of my exchange year is nearly over I could start crying.

Phu Kradueng & Loy Krathong

From 14. November until 18. November I had my first trip with Rotary.

For everybody who is not familiar with Rotary: Every country that take part on the Youth Exchange Programm of Rotary prepares one or even more trips in other parts of the country, to give the exchange students the opportunity to see more than just the place where they live.

The Rotary Distrtict 3340 planned three trips for us. Our first destination was the Phu Kradueng national park, located in the province Loei. I was very excited before the trip because it was also the first time, that I met all the other exchange studetnts.

We started at the bottom of the Phu Kradueng Mountain at 9:20. Our stuff got carried by some other people, so we didn`t had to take them.  Climbing the mountain was really hard and it took us a long time so a few hours later we reached the top where we stayed in a resort.

The following days contained a lot of hiking to see beautiful sunrises and the nature on the mountain.

At the 18.11 we went back to the bottom of Phu Kradueng, wich was much easier than climbing it up, in my opinion.



In the end I can say, that I had a really good and funny time at the mountain, I met a lot of nice people and made new friends!

Loy Krathong

The day before we started climbing the mountain we stayed in a resort on the bottom and celebrated the Loy Krathong Festival. The Loy Krathong Festival is a traditional thai ritual to pay respect to the water spirits.

On this day of the year, wich changes every year, thai people put "small container made of leaves" (to say it with the words of wikipedia) decorated with flowers on the water and let it float after they take a wish.

It was very special for me, to be part of this ceremony and moments like this always reminds me how much I actually love Thailand and it`s culture!

School

Second month is already over and third month started very well with three weeks school holidays!

So, let`s talk about this theme: School.

Honestly, I was very nervous before my first real schoolday. Not because of my classmates, I knew them already from a trip to Bangkok the day before and they are absolut kind and nice and a little bit crazy, which makes me laugh everyday and have a lot of fun! (Thank you so much for that, you are all incredible!)

But I was nervous because there were a lot of other things that were new for me:

First of all, there is this school uniform. I have three.
-the normal one: a blouse, a skirt, white socks and a hairbow
-the sport uniform: blue trousers (very hot but more comfortable than the skirt), a blue T-Shirt and white Sneakers
and one more, where I have to wear a colored T-shirt instead of the normal blouse.
I am still a little confused when I have to wear which uniform but I really like it! It saves a lot of time in the morning because I don`t have to decide what I can wear.

My schedule is very good. I dont have much to do and a lot of free time. I am very lucky that my school has an english programm, which means that a few classes got some subjects in english. When I actuall have a lessons (what is not very often, because the teachers don`t always appear to their lessons) it`s mostly thngs i already learned in germany.

For me, the school days are very long. The lessons start at 8:30 o clock but before they sing the national anthem and pray, so you have to be there at 7:50 o clock and the day ends for everybody at 16 o clock. In germany my longest school day ends already at 15 o clock! But I get used to it.

A lot of thai students take extra classes after school or even on the weekends and on holidays. This would never happen in germany haha!

Some people asked me about the heat, but it isn`t a big problem. All the classrooms have air conditioners and most of the time it`s is very cold!

The relationship between the teachers and the students is very friendly, same as in Germany and also the relationship between the students. As I already told, my classmates are great and at this point I want to thank you guys for taking care of me and making my school day more funny!






I hope you enjoyed reading!
If there are any question or wishes, feel free to ask!
Thanks :)