Orientation and First Misunderstanding~

I was going to do a blog for each day of the few day long orientation before I would go to my family, but there was so much I figured I should condense it once I'm done. And well, today was the last day of cultural learning in a classroom~ Tomorrow I go to my host school and then family, whom I am sure I will get along with well! <3

In basic terms though, the orientation was a few days of much needed rest from jet lag and culture shock as well as a way to get together with the other students. Okay, and there was a small bit used for learning and such, but it didn't seem like I was sitting there absorbing a bunch of info. LOL All together we had students from, USA(duh), Chile(1 student), Argentina(I think 2?), Columbia(1 student), Japan(4 students), Brazil(1 student), Germany(8 students! o.o), and Australia(1 student). If any of you are reading this and realized I forgot a country, please let me know and I'll just edit this post. LOL It got really hard to keep track after the German students got here.

Before I say anymore, here are some pictures of them:

 Fuki and Masashi from Japan, posing for picture while at orientation

 One of the teachers, Pii-Dai(background), Atsushi from Japan(front of table), and Karl from Germany(behind girl in front). The rest I am not sure. Sorry guys! Let me know if you should happen to see this. LOL

Fuki from Japan

From left, Karl from Germany, Atsushi from Japan, Masashi from Japan, and Fuki from Japan

From left, I think Carinna(?) from Germany, Jill from Germany, a student from Germany who I forget the name of, and Arisa from Germany. It was a German photo. LOL

Jill from Germany and another German student I forget name of...sorry!!

Tatiyana(SP?) from Columbia and Fuki from Japan

D'Stefano from Chile and Larissa from Brazil

From left starting with person turned and standing up, Arisa from Germany, Carinna from Germany, Jill from Germany, and sorry last person but I forget your name. x-x'

And that's all I could get for now. LOL One German guy named Rafael told me not to post pictures of him, so I'll be nice and respect his privacy. ;3

All the students here are really nice though. Although, I do prefer to hang out with the foreigners versus my own Americans. I get along best with the Japanese students and I think they are glad to have me too. In fact, the first night one of the Japanese students, Mitsuho, asked me, "Miki, please teach us English. We cannot understand the orientation." If anything, me going to Thailand certainly helped these students. Because, if there's one language I speak quite fluently, it's "simplified English". Plus, my ability to speak some Japanese gave them even more help. Though, I think the two Japanese girls are more worried than the two dudes... Hell, I always see them falling asleep while the teacher is explaining everything. LOL I don't blame them though, for not knowing the language and having people bombard you with info in said language will either make your life very tiresome and/or stressful.

When I first heard the orientation would be taught in English, I immediately felt sorry for all the other students who were not from an English-speaking country. I will say though, all the Germans, they speak English perfectly. o.o I mean, so perfect they have no accent that would even indicate they are German. They can also understand advanced vocabulary. Even more advanced than I. Go German folk! LOL

Unfortunately they're about the only ones who know enough to understand the whole orientation. Thankfully though, the learning is only a small part of the orientation. I think the orientation is more or less meant to relax and let the students ease into the country. Though, I still think about home occasionally, and still long for it, I really haven't felt bad about coming to Thailand. I'm certainly glad I am here and excited to meet all kinds of people and make new friends. <3

Though it might help if I don't give all money away to who I think says I should...okay, before I go I guess I should touch up on the first event ever in Thailand where I had a mistake that caused misunderstanding. XD

Basically, on the first night, the teachers took all the students out to buy food using baht they had provided. They took us to a food court where you would pay at a management and they would give you a card with your amount of money on it so you could buy food. I ordered a lemon ice drink all fine and well without using any English, but then I decided to get some noodles. At first, all was fine, until the cook asked for the money. Thinking I had enough, I gave her the card and she told me a needed more. Panicking, I shifted through my bag to find extra money that the teachers had given me and went back to the desk to put more on the card. I thought, yay done as I went back and handed her the card. She runs it through and then says something in Thai where the only word I knew was "95 baht". Instantly, I thought I still needed more money and ran to grab more, but I had run out.

Well now I had to slink to my teachers and ask them for more to which they looked at me like how I could have spent so much. When they went over to the lady and spoke in Thai, they turned to me and said that the cook said, "You have 9 baht left of the card." Insert facepalm here. LOL

Yeah, pretty scary and embarrassing, but so funny now that I look back on it. :D

Okie. I should probably go to bed before I keep Fuki awake any longer. Night and bye all~ Thanks for reading. :D

Right now, Mitsuho went to her host family early, I think, because she had gotten a bit sick. This left poor Fuki all alone in her room. I felt bad, so I asked if I could switch rooms, going from my American room mate, to a Japanese one for tonight. LOL

Picture Dump 1 - Flights

Today was the day of flying...literally. I basically spent the whole day from sun-up to sun-down flying, switching planes, going through customs, flashing my passport, and attempting to get assistance from non-native English speakers. LOL But finally that's all over for a year. For ThaiGirlMiki has now arrived in Thailand~ Yay!!!~

To celebrate, I'm going to post up a bunch of pictures. Enjoy!!

- Thailand Team America!! Ready for take-off to Japan~

- First island I saw when as we were starting to land in Japan



- Sea meeting Japanese shore line with the plane wing

- Japanese beach from above

- Closer to Japanese towns and houses

- Even closer~

- Various Japanese vending machines at the Japanese airport

- Random, yet useful, massage chairs in Japanese airport

- I asked this nice Japanese guy(in Japanese of course) if it was okay to take pictures of this store, to which he replied he didn't know and would go over and ask for me. Turns out it was okay, but I thought the gesture was so nice~ Thank you random Japanese guy who might not have spoken much English, but was really awesome! ^-^

- Artwork on the store

- More artwork

- Store itself

- Japanese McDonald's! LOL

- Can anyone from Japan or knows about Japan more then me explain to me what the Oxygen Lounge is supposed to do? Cool idea, I think, but I'm not sure the purpose

- Japanese art in the airport

- In Thailand now~ Got some Thai chips. They were good too!!

- Thai Subway...it isn't much more different than American Subways. XD

- Room mate and I decided to turn on Thai TV. Not sure what's happening, but it looks cool LOL

- This is the back garden I can see from the hotel balcony. Sorry you can't see well, I got here around 3 a.m. Thai time

- More balcony view at night~

Sorry I didn't get much of the Thai airport. Was kind of busy with going through immigration stuff and customs. Plus, for a good hour we couldn't find the AFS person. LOL

That's my day all. I figured I should dump these pictures here now before my laptop dies. Since I have American cord, I need to get a Thai chord converter so I can plug my laptop in so it can charge. Phew, should be good. LOL

Hanging Out in California~

I don't think blogging was what my orientation manager thought of when he told me to rest in my hotel room until the other students arrived. LOL Yeah, the hotel's got free wifi and I am allowed to use it. Unfortunately though, I can't use any of the other hotel's amenities such as the gym or spa, argh! Meh, not really what I need though. I'm just happy I have my food and a tall yummy drink from Quiznos. :D

The main point for writing today was, I guess, to basically let my American family know I'm not dead and I got it real well here, no worries. :3 I get my own double bed hotel room and get free regular meals(except today cuz I arrived just after they finished lunch). The only money I've spent so far was 2 bucks to tip the shuttle bus driver for the hotel and 11 bucks at Quiznos. Yay!!

Another plus, I found out was that AFS gives us our own ID just incase we would not have had one. Now, my state ID works well in addition. I mean, what more can authority ask for? Two ID cards and a passport sounds good to meh~ The only odd thing I've got to get used to is wearing this tag around my neck that has my ID, room key, and address of where I'm supposed to go should I get lost among foreigners. I'm supposed to wear this everywhere I go except when I sleep, which could either be really easy, or really difficult. XD So far, I think it'll be easy to remember.

There are only 3 other students going to Thailand with me, so that makes it easy to get to know each other. Plus, less time needed to hand out the information and ask questions. Feels more personalized, ya know?

Surprisingly, the California air isn't much more different than my current northeastern weather. I mean, it's sunny but not very hot. However, the plant life is completely different. Bird of paradise are everywhere! X3 Okay, those of you from California are probably mocking me now, but just let me have my fun. I was too busy and rushed to get too many pictures though, but my room has a nice balcony so I took a picture from there. See:

These next few days are probably going to get busy, but I'll try to log on when I can. And you know I will. LOL Me and my Internet addiction.

Do I miss my family yet? The answer is kind of complicated, but in basic terms, yes. I only feel sad when I have time to think, which hasn't been much lately. My main focus is going to be to do the best I can over here and if I have time, I can worry about the ones over there. It's just how I'll have to survive, I guess. But I truly do love them and miss them with all my heart. ^-^ Just remember guys back at home, I will be back, but right now someone in Thailand needs me to be there for them now. <3

Thanks for reading!!

OurThaiGirlMiki



I figured I should spotlight this a bit. Basically, while I am away, my family(mostly my mother and younger sister) are going to do a vlog every so often to show how they're doing without me there. And yay! I get to make a live appearance to you guys! This was like recorded around midnight and so you can see my looks are not the greatest. I was merely trying not to fall asleep at the time. LOL

Anyway, if you would like to see more videos, I have the OurThaiGirlMiki's channel link under the "LINKS YOU SHOULD CHECK OUT" gadget. Their channel is just getting started, so don't expect too much, but you can subscribe and watch it slowly come together~

I know I said last week's post was going to be my last, but it looks like I was wrong, yay!

Nesting Stage...?

I think it's safe to say you know your family is panicking when your mother has the urge to do your chores for you... Yep, it's all becoming pretty crazy around here. With a full page checklist of stuff I'm going to pack, money issues, and the constant visiting, my time is becoming very limited. Not that I am complaining about all this one bit. LOL I'm a person that adores being busy.

The busier I am, the happier I feel. I would feel so lost if I had no school work to complete each day and my chores were non-existent. In fact, you should see me around the time of the near two week Christmas vacation I get every year from school. ;D During the summer break I'm fine because then I go to work at my yearly summer job. But I can't work during that Christmas break period. That means all I have to do is chores (or lack of them in my case...?), no!!

Anyway, my mother has been invading my room putting away a pile of clean clothes that has accumulated in a pile on top of an old bed mattress. Originally, my mom was fine with the clothes being there and I was fine since I wouldn't have to put them away ever, freeing up to time to be busy with other things, yay! Now though she comes and tells me she wishes to put them all neatly away for me and my sister, whom I share the room with. According to her, it's like having another baby and going through "nesting stage". Now I've heard numerous comparisons by many different people on the subject of my study abroad decisions. I mean, before the strangest I've heard was one friend telling me it's like she is giving her pet dog away to another home, but my mom's recent statement takes the cake. o.o

I guess she was just trying to say how she wants to be prepared for when I go, so in a way that makes it less strange, but still she's not getting another kid, she's losing one for a year. LOL Oh mom, you're funny sometimes, but always so awesome~

In other news, my VISA lady got back to me saying that I did indeed get the full year one, to which I responded by throwing my arms up in the air and telling my dead asleep sister the news. XD It would have really been horrible if I had to pay $60.00 each time for it to be extended. D:

Also, I probably should have mentioned this much earlier, but a big shout out to my older sister who kindly brought me the best gift thus far in my Thai adventure. It's a green tie-dye beach bag with pictures of Thai Buddha on it and she was so funny when she gave it to me and brought it over. LOL I think she really wanted to know if I liked it, so if you're reading this sis, know that I am taking that to Thailand and using it at the beach~ Once my camera stops being a pain, I'll post pictures of it here on this post, so check back here for updates often.

To conclude to lovely bit of information I've decided to throw into one post, I'll say that my time blogging will be limited during the first few weeks after I leave. Especially don't expect me to be blogging on the 28th of March...I'm up in the plane pretty much all day, yay~ DX Once I do get in the mood to blog, it'll be sure to be something interesting. Until then though, expect this to be my last post in America. Lovely country it is, but I am excited to see others. <3

Last Month in America

Wow, March is already here... Kind of getting nervous and scared, but more so excited. Actually, none of these feelings are visible. LOL As much as I would like to be jumping up and down shouting to the world, "I am going to Thailand for a year!" I cannot seem to find the effort. Maybe I still don't believe I am actually going or something, isn't that funny? XD

Well I can't say I don't think about it. Today I went to get my mom a newspaper and I wasn't going to buy anything else except the newspaper, but an ice-cream treat(that I am eating while I write this. LOL) caught my eye and I brought it too. The reason I did was because I was thinking that I might not get to eat this kind of ice-cream for a whole year. I mean, not to say Thailand might not have ice-cream, it just might be different than the types we have in America. Got to be prepared for everything, ya know~

Anyway, getting to the point of today's entry, I was thinking I should make a post the month before I leave for Thailand and a month before I leave to come back to America just reflecting on the society of each country. Now, obviously it would take a three book series to write down all the aspects of American culture and society, so to save time and writing cramps, I'll just split it up into categories:

Best of America

Best Thing I Enjoy About American Shopping -

I would have to say I love having access to so much culture in America. I have been told by Internet friends in other countries that they get items such as video games, anime*, and even restaurants much slower than us, or sometimes not at all. I am so glad I live in a country that basically has everything available as long as you look hard enough.

Best Thing I Enjoy in my American Family -

Anime night! Every Saturday night, my whole family sits around to watch an anime series from start to finish. Of course, some series are really long so multiple anime nights are needed in order to finish them, but that's practically the best part~ I am so thankful to live in a family that enjoy anime as much as I do.

Best Thing I Like About American Attitude -

Americans have big dreams that we feel we can act out. There are very few Americans I have met that are just content with where they are. We all want to excel to something greater. All together we're such a positive society.

Best Place I Have Been to in America -

Florida. I went there once for a two week vacation and it was the best time of my life. So warm and there's a lot of cool little critters. Lizards are like squirrels here in the North. LOL The whole atmosphere was relaxing too. I hope to go back.

Best American Food -

Pizza. It's very hard to learn to make pizza really well, but once you learn how, you'll never forget. Pizza is also easily customizable. Once I saw a restaurant with taco pizza. LOL

Best Thing I Like About American Language, English -

It's easy to write. It takes only a few seconds to write out a sentence where as in other languages like Japanese, Chinese, or Korean, it can take several lines just to make one letter. Of course, this could just be my lack of experience in writing in other languages.

Best Free Time in America -

Hanging out on the Internet, haha!

Worst of America

Worst Thing About American Shopping -

The store clerks never leave you alone! You go into someplace to buy one thing and they bombard you with deals you aren't even remotely interested in so it takes you a good five minutes to find what you need after you say your not interested in any of the deals. LOL

Worst Thing in my American Family -

Hmm, I don't think I have anything here. I mean, my family's got its downs, but overall it's the best family ever. I hope my Thai family will be the same. :D

Worst Thing About American Attitude -

Is it just me, or do most Americans think that every country other than the U.S. is living in poverty? O.o I personally think this thinking is really rude to citizens of other countries by thinking this way.

Worst Place I Have Been to in America -

On a "date" with a guy who kept perving on my sister and I. I wanted to leave, desperately. D:

Worst American Food -

Burgers and ground meat. Ugh, I don't care how often my family travels to McDonald's, I will never eat one, even if they make it homemade. Never!

Worst Thing About American Language, English -

There's many words and grammar! If my English teacher is reading this, you should know that a lot of other languages are a lot simpler in structure. I'm surprised I actually do well in English class...

Worst Free Time in America -

Partying. Okay, I know it's extremely popular with people my age, but I absolutely hate going out just to dance and party. Main problem being that people tend to loose a few IQ points when they go out, even if there is no alcohol involved. Plus, there is nothing to do. I swear all I do when I go to parties is lean against a wall with fruit punch and stare at the clock, hoping my mom will come pick me up soon.


And there you have it~ All my thoughts on America before I depart to a new world. Now I'll try not to look at this list until a month before I come back from Thailand, so my ideas can be fresh. It will be interesting to see if these things are the same in Thailand or completely different. :3

Thanks for reading!

*~*Thai Girl Miki*~*

*anime = Japanese cartoon