Supawee (Mind) Rattanajitdamrong

2009-10 Inbound from Thailand

Hometown: Bangkok, Thailand

Sponsor: Sathorn Rotary Club, District 3350, Thailand

Host: Crestview Rotary Club, District 6940, Florida, USA

School: Crestview High School, Crestview, Florida

Bio

Mind's Bio

Hello! I'm Supawee Rattanajitdamrong or you can called me "Mind" as well. I'm a youth exchange student from Thailand. I'm almost seventeen years old. In Thailand I live with my father, mother, my older sister and my younger brother at Bangkok the capital city of Thailand.

From August 9th , 2009 I'm in Crestview, this city is very nice - it isn't crowded like Bangkok. Gearhardt is my first host family name. There are four members in this wonderful family Phillip, Ingrid, Desiree, and Emily. :) Desiree and Emily, both of them are younger than me.

My wonderful year was started. I went from Bangkok to Pensacola. I'm very tired because my trip was very long like more than one day. This is my first time that I aboard by myself. It's little scared me because I don't know anybody and they can't speak my language. But when I think that I come here to learn it makes me feel better and it inspires me to catch the best year of my life.

I arrived at Pensacola Airport around 3-4 P.M.. This airport is pretty small so I found my host family and my District YE Chair easily.

In first day it quite hard for me to communicate with my host family. I understand some questions that they are talking about but I don't know how to answer them [Do you know how I feel?] But the hardest day was past. On second day we went to the Boardwalk; it is so beautiful, I very love it [but it's hot]. And this weekend they told me that we will go to the beach again. { Yeah !!!}

Now my school has opened for 1 week and 3 days. I met a lot of great people that very nice to me. I'm a junior in Crestview High School and a member of Art Club. We will have many interesting activities this year and I can't wait for that .

Improving my language Mind

October 26 Journal

Right now is the Football season, so on 13 September I have gone to the College Football game, Florida state and Jacksonville, with Rotarians and other youth exchange students. Although it was raining we still have a lot of fun. The stadium is really huge. It's the biggest stadium that I ever seen. My favorite part of the game was the Music Band. They are amazing!! I have gone to my school football games a few times but it was great too.

I had a chance to go out on the boat with my host father's friend. We had some bar-b-q on the boat for lunch and I was pulled on the raft by the boat with my host sister. It was awesome, I wanna do it again.

Now my school has started. In my Marine Science class, my teacher told me to tell my friends about Thailand. It's the good chance to make them know about Thailand because most of them don't know where Thailand is located. My friends are all interested about it, they told me that they want to go to Thailand. That makes me happy.

Since I have been here, I have made Thai food for my host family a few times. They really love Pad-Ka-Paol. That is good for me though because I can eat Thai food.

Three months in USA is passed very fast for me. I learn a lot of new stuff here, try something that I never done it before. I so appreciate that Rotary International gives me this opportunity.

January 1 Journal

I can’t believe that I have been lived in Florida, USA , for almost 5 months. I was so busy with my school, my host family, and my friends. They are very nice people. They have something new for me to learn all the time. They try to make me impress about everything in United States. And I do.

One week before Halloween, there was a competition at my host mom’s work which is the carving pumpkin competition. My host mother is a volunteer for her department. So I have got a opportunity to carve the pumpkin and help her in this competition. The pumpkin was about the football game between Alabama and Gators. We try very hard, we thought that we gonna win. But apparently, we didn't win anything. I feel disappointed that we didn't win. But we had a very good time together. I feel like we were in the same team and it make us have closer relationship.

On Halloween night, it was my first time that I have done trick or treat. My friends and I went around neighborhood that night. We got a ton of candy. But I think the best part of Halloween is about dressing up. I dressed up to be a cat woman. It was hilarious. After we done with trick or treat, we went to the haunted house in Fort Walton. We were lucky because we can cut the line and didn’t have to wait outside so long, it was freezing that night. In the haunted house, we were so terrify. We screamed all the time in there. It was so dark and confusing. I want to close my eyes but I can’t. There was a wolf that follow us all the way in there. I still remember every single thing in there. Although it was scary, but it was the best Halloween for me.

The exciting thing in my school is homecoming dance. I went to homecoming dance twice. The one in my host sister school and the one in my own school. In Thailand, my school we don’t have any dance like homecoming or prom. So it was a totally new experience for me. It was very fun. It kind of weird too that all friends was dressing up in pretty dress and had make up. It is different from I see them every day.

Over the Thanksgiving , my host family and I put the Christmas tree up and decorated the whole house. We cooked a delicious turkey and mash potatoes ever. I was very enjoy it. Although we had a small traditional lunch but it depends on people that make a good time.

Next few week, I changed my host family. This family is very nice. They have pretty house with the big yard. I love to hang out there. There are my host father, Audt, my host mother, Stacy, and my little host sister, Jordyn, she is only 4 months old. So it is a new thing for me to have baby in the family. They also have a dog and a cat. Audt, he is from Thailand but he moved here since he was six years old, so he forget all Thai. But the good thing is he can cook Thai food. :D Very lucky on me.

After I moved almost a week, I went to DISNEY WORLD. The amazing place where I had the best weekend. I only have been to Disney land and Disney Sea in Tokyo, Japan. But Disney world is much more bigger. It's so big. We went to four different parks, The Hollywood Studio, Magic Kingdom, EPCOT and Animal Kingdom. I love the Roller coaster, the graphic, the animation and etc. I met a lot of wonderful friends here. We stay in the All Stars Movies Hotels for 3 night. This is the fastest weekend ever. I would like to say THANK YOU to Rotary International and Crestview Rotary Club who give me this opportunity.

Santa Claus is coming to town!!!! Merry Christmas!!! I have a wonderful Christmas with my host family and their family. And It was the first Christmas for Jordyn. In the morning , we opened the gifts and had breakfast with Stacy's mom and dad. After that we went to have lunch with Stacy's cousin and have dinner with Audt's sister. I got a lot of gifts. Thank you everybody.

We went to watch to lights in Alabama. All the light there was amazing. I have a awesome experience.