So I'm in Thailand! I got here on Friday the 10th at about 5 pm. My host family met my in Ubon which is a city about a mile away from Kanthatalak which is where I live. My host family is very nice and have been so understanding about how tired I am due to the time change. Yesterday was the Thai mother's day so we drove to SiSaKet to visit my host father's family. They were all very sweet. And his two nieces followed me around everywhere. One of them was 9 and the other 10. The 10 year old had learned english at school and talked to me and even taught me some Thai. The 9 year old was very shy and even though she had learned English also she didn't want to talk to me but she did show all her favorite things at the mall we went to. We went to lunch and then to Swensen's for ice cream with the whole family then the adults sat and talked while the kids walked around. Apparently Swensen's is from the US but I'd never seen it at home. After desert we said our goodbyes and drove back to Ubonto have dinner with my host mom's family. We ate at  a very fancy restaurant/lounge called Fee Ling. we ate outside right on a little lake and since Ubon has many temples you could see the tops of them in the distance it was  very pretty when they were all lit up. Yesterday was not only mothers day but the Queen's birthday so there were fireworks to celebrate that. They set them off right over the lake and it was very cool looking. 

Everything is so different here! I've learned to not pay attention to how they're driving because they drive very, very differently from how we drive in the US and it works for them, but let's just say most of the time you're not in a lane but driving on the middle of  painted lines. They are always eating here. When you say hello to someone the first thing they ask you, like small talk, is what have you eaten today. They haven't had me eat to much because the Thai food here is nothing like the Thai food back at home, What I've had is delicious though. There are also lots of dogs running around uh the streets and when I told them we kept dogs in our houses as part of our family they thought I was crazy. Here even if a dog is owned by your family it doesn't come inside and you don't pet it or touch it because it's dirty.  The area where I live is greatly influenced by Laos and its culture, which is very cool. In a few weeks my host mom is going to take me to visit her daughter who lives in Bangkok 
and I'm very excited for that! I really like Thailand when I first got here it was very hard and i wasn't sure about the country. It still is very hard and I miss home a lot but it's getting better and I know when I start school and make some friends that will get even better. 

Welcome to my blog! I have never been a journal keeper, a blog writer or anything else were you write down your feelings and thoughts consistently. So I will just jump into this!

A little background on my rotary exchange adventure. Last September I received a letter in the mail asking me to attend a meeting about going on a rotary youth exchange. Unfortunately the night of the meeting I had already agreed to babysit, so I begged my mom to go for me. And being the awesome mom she is she went and took lots of notes about everything that was said at the meeting. And the next day I was filling out the application.  I was originally selected to go on a short term exchange during the summer. But then in January I attended the first orientation and it was there that I made up my mind that I absolutely had to go on a long term exchange. I was accepted for the long term exchange a week before the next orientation at the end of February. The ski trip, this was the trip where we would tell the rotarians our final choices of countries and then they would tell us where we would be going. This is also the trip where I became with my two best friends in rotary, Amanda and Arielle. It feels like just yesterday that I was getting to know them and now the three of us are off go three differet continents. To this day I am not sure why I chose Thailand, but as I learn more and more about the country, I feel like I will love it there. We had one other orientation event it was held at the end of May at George Fox University, it was the district conference. At this event I felt like I became closer with lots of other exchange students and I had a blast putting on a talent show, going swimming at the water park in McMinnville and just hanging out talking about everything and anything with my fellow exchange students.

When I was first applying for a rotary youth exchange all the way back in September 2011 I had to fill out an application. One of the questions on the application was to write a short paragraph or two explaining, essentially why the Rotarians should pick you to go on exchange. I agonized over what to write about, I couldn't figure out how to put my feelings into words. Then one day I was sitting staring at my book shelf (not to brag but I do have a pretty impressive book shelf) and I thought about all the books I had read and how each book was set in a different place. I had been so many places in the world without stepping foot outside of the U.S. and I was ready to go explore the rest of the world. I realized I was in love with places I had never been,people I hadn't even met, and food I had never tried. And for all those reasons, I want to go on exchange. 

I have always wanted to go on an exchange but most exchange programs were way out of my price range. When I heard about rotary I was so excited. I am so grateful to rotary for giving me this opportunity to travel and experience a whole new world. Also thanks to every single person who has supported me throughout this whole process, I would not be leaving for Thailand in 6 days if it wasn't for all of you!