From the Land of Smiles...

trip to the north-east

Hey everybody,

I haven't really been posting that often lately. That's because there hasn't really been too much going on. I did actually go on a little four day trip last week though. I went to the northeast of thailand to visit some of the other exchange students. The first day (wednesday of last week) I took a 3 hour bus to Bangkok and met Chris at the Siam Paragon where we got bagels. We had to make a stop, because getting bagels really is a rarity here, so its really exciting. Oh, I also bought one of those Soduku books that are apparently a big craze in north america right now. I'm enjoying it...i think the fact that i actually like math might help. Anyways, after we met in Bangkok we took a 3 and a half hour bus to Korat. That night we went out for Lebanese food for dinner and out afterwards to this place with a really good live band. They're thai, but they play mostly western music. They play everything from Lynyrd Skynard to Metallica. This time there was a girl singer too, and she was good, but she sang alot of faith hill... Then we stayed at Rosine's house for the night (she's a exchange student from france).

The next day we met Kat (from Hamilton) at the mall and also happened to meet most of the other exchange students in korat. Might I mention that it was about 11 on a thursday, lol...school is boring everywhere here. Ohhh, I also got to meet one of the newbies. Her name is Nano and she's from South Africa. She seems nice. Oh, sorry, we call the new exchange students newbies (they got here at the end of january) and we're the oldies, and then once we leave and the new set comes in the newbies become the oldies, and so on... Then Chris, Kat and I took a bus (around 5 hours I think) up to Udon Thani. When we got there we went to the hospital to visit basically everyone else. Paul was in the hospital, and the rooms are almost like hotels, so everyone went to keep him company.

The next afternoon all of the girls from Udon Thani, and then Chris, Kat and I took a 2 hour bus ride down to Kon Kean. This was the real reason for our trip. It was Kyle's (from ontario) birthday. A few of the people from Kon Kean met us at the bus station and we took a song taew to their councellors restaurant. They had a birthay party for him on the upstairs floor of the restaurant. It was fun. There were so many people there, and the food was really good. Oh, we met another newbie. Her name is Jade and she's from South Africa too. She seems like she's going to fit in with the rest of us really well. That night, Leslie (from BC) and I went to stay at Dautsen's (from alberta) host family's house. It was fun.

The next morning we got up and got ready, and once we could finally wake up her (very good looking) host brother he drove us to the restaurant again, where we met all of the Kon Kean exchange students. We hung out there for a bit, and went for a little walk to Kyle's house to pick up something, before we were finally starving and said goodbye went to the restaurant down the street to eat. It was called the Kiwi cafe and was owned by New Zealanders (kiwis). The food was really good...we all ate sooo much. Then Kat, Chris and I had to catch buses home, well, Chris and I went to Korat and then home. I ended up getting home around midnight that Saturday. It was a really fun trip though, and it was awsome to see everybody after staying home for 3 weeks.

-Lauren

posted by Lauren @ 2:56 AM