OOO... RYLA

On wednesday I showed up bright and early at the school to leave. As the Thai culture goes we waited for about half an hour for the other kids to show up. We rode in a sweet van with karoke and a big screen t.v. I took pictures and will post them as soon as I can. I rode with my club president and secretary and three boys and one other girl. When we arrived I found out I was put in a room with 4 other Thai girls. The problem was we didn't have enough beds so after all the stuff that night I asked and was able to switch rooms. I roomed with a girl from Germany, two girls from Brazil and a girl that went to San Francisco last year and is back now. We had sooo much fun. Every night we stayed up til atleast 3 am just talking. The whole camp was in Thai and not geared towards us at all. There were about 150 Thai kids there and only 29 YE's so we fell asleep in most of the lectures. The kids were all super nice. It was also so nice to be with the other YE's. At orientation we were all just getting to know eachother but now we have become a family. I was greeted by two boys from Mexico with a kiss on both cheeks and a big hug. Something I would never get from my host family. We had alot of lectures and things that would take way to long to write about. But the last night we had a talent show were we the YE's danced to Soulja Boy, the Macarena and Waka Waka by Shakira and tought the others how to dance too. After the talent show I along with two other YE's and some Thai girls were brought on stage for a birthday celebration. We were sung happy birthday in Thai and English and they set off fireworks and we got to all blow out the candles on the cake together. It was so thoughtful and so much fun. The hotel was right by a famous Dam and the last day we all went there and took a group picture and then pictures with all the Thai kids that wanted to take pictures with us. It was really cute and we had a closing ceremony followed by goodbye hugs from all the YE's and then I left for home. It was so much fun and all the kids from my club were really nice and we bonded. If you want to see pictures look at my facebook. Other friends have put some up and tagged me. I will put mine up when school starts back up because I can't get internet on my laptop.

Until Later, Dacotah Smith