First real school week

I really enjoyed my first week at school (in an actual class and not in the teachers' office). I don't have a set schedule yet and don't even know which year I'm in M4/M5 (ม.4/ม.5, which are equivalent to 10th and 11th grade). I spent this week on ม.5 as ม.4 had a math camp. To be more precise I was in 5/12 and yes they have 5/1 and all the numbers between that.

The first day started with the first school assembly I ever had. It felt kind of very weird and I just followed whatever the other students did. I didn't really know what was going on.

I was pretty sure I wouldn't understand anything in the classes that were purely Thai but I actually did!!! They have normal math and extra math. I didn't really understand what the teacher explained in either of them but the exercises in extra math were pretty easy. It kind of calmed me to know that I can understand what they are doing and maybe starting from that understand more in the future.

I even understood a part of Thai literature. It's about very old Thai which wouldn't be used anymore today. Kind of like older German books or Shakespeare's English. In Thai literature they talked about a woman that was in a love triangle and couldn't choose between 2 men who loved her. Then there was a lot of questions marks for me and then in the end was something about red flowers. But I believe it wasn't a happy ending and even though I didn't understand a lot I still understood something.

The day ended kind of fast but I have to say I really like the fried chicken with rice in the canteen. It's really yummy and I can only recommend it. My class also seems very nice and funny. But I didn't really gain the confidence to go up to anyone yet. I wouldn't have that problem in Germany but the language barrier and cultural differences can be kind of scary.

Oh and what is really shocking:

• There is free wifi at school (even though it's not an iPad school)

• People read Manga, play games on their phone, chat, etc. during the morning assembly

• You can sleep in class, play games, watch shows on your phone or iPad, anything is fine as long as you don't interrupt the class

• Too many people😭

But the Thais are very cute and often wave to me😊.

On Tuesday there was some kind of national day. Do I know what? No. Do I know that the morning ceremony was way too long for someone who woke up at 5am: Yes. But we had arts today which I really liked. We talked about different styles of art and had to write down our impressions and emotions of each art work. I really liked it. Oh and as I'm in the English program some classes are in English. Such as art. Others are in Thai though.

Anyways, I really like desk partners they both are very pretty and really nice. I hope that I can be friends with them. And all Thais are like super talented at doing makeup. I'm very impressed. I'm kind of too stupid for makeup. And I gathered the confidence to talk to most of my classmates.

^she is one of my deskmates

There is also a really fun game called family style and the more people you are the more chaotic it gets but it's a lot of fun.

Wednesday was probably my favorite day. I believe I found out how to make a good impression on my classmates. First of all though the morning started with another very long ceremony. Did I know what was going on this time? Surprisingly yes. Today was Thai language day. What exactly that is, is another question.

Back to the good impression on classmates: Tomorrow is candle day. Which is a day where ม.5 of my school is devided into the 5 school colors to each carry a different candle to a temple. The tradition started centuries ago where after the rain time Buddhists weren't supposed to leave the temple so people would come to them. But the temples were often rather dark and it was hard to read the holy texts so people brought candles to them so that they could read the texts.

My class was responsible for the green candle and I first helped set it up. Then we were at the part where we had Geography and I didn't really understand what was going on so I asked the people who were working on the table thing if I could help them. We had already placed the candle and flowers and candle. Now the only thing that was left were the sides of the candle thingy and we didn't really know how to style it so we tried different things. In the end we decided to do the idea I proposed and yes I am very proud of myself.

We were supposed to have PE class after geography (which means we got to wear the sports uniform for the hole day which is super comfortable but I also felt like a bee because it's brown yellow). They did dance in PE and the teacher wanted to teach me a dance. Apparently I learnt it so fast and got so many compliments (idrk if they came from the heart or just to gain the result we got in the end) but the teacher decided to end the lesson earlier.

We went back to the classroom and I continued working on the candle things while the people I had worked with were out to get snacks. I finished the whole thing and they came back so we did the final touch-ups. When I had to go I got a lot of enthusiastic thank yous and goodbyes.

It was actually planned that I would go to ม.4 for the day as ม.5 was going to the temple. So after another never ending assembly I thought I would just go to ม.4 but that wasn't the case. I was going to meet the school principal first (which made me kind of nervous). I received a pin from him which all students wear. It is a symbol that represents the queen and can also be seen at some temples. It's apparently a very big deal in Thailand.

After that I and the Estonian exchange student were taken to a room to change into traditional clothes and get our makeup done. We were the representatives of the color blue. We both went to a temple along with other students. We took part in a praying ceremony after waiting for a bit because there was still another school visiting before us.

There were many pictures taken. Here a link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1XuKiLBaVpwFDNO8757RMNEKzh5N0nN0m

I had a lot of fun this week and I was really glad to go to school. The Sunday before this week was the first time I really missed home because I felt very lonely. I normally go to my host sisters room in the evening and then she calls her friends and they talk in Thai where I don't understand anything so I kind of feel lonely sometimes. I feel like it is easier to feel lonely while being among people than while being alone.

Going to school really helped so I was very happy to go to school.

Oh and some other things I found out were that delivery boxes sometimes get recycled to be used as shopping bags. So you literally buy them instead of shopping bags which I think is a very good idea.

The food can be yummy but also kind of not so yummy. I found out I like crab but they also have these traditional very sweet dishes and while I don't have anything against sweets (on the contrary I love them) but I do prefer a hearty meal and not something kind of a little disgustingly sweet.

Also I didn't go to school on Friday as it was the kings birthday which is followed by a long weekend until including this Wednesday (2nd of August)

Well see you in my next blog! I'm still kind of behind in writing this but I will try to write about this weekend tomorrow as we went traveling. No promises tho♡

PS: I love their advertisements