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Alina Walker
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2008-09 Outbound to
Thailand
Hometown:
Green Cove Springs, Florida
School: Fleming
Island
High School, Orange Park, Florida
Sponsor:
Green Cove Springs Rotary Club, District 6970, Florida
Host: Phuket
Rotary Club, District
3330, Thailand
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Bio
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August 17 Journal - "Opportunities
are falling into my lap with every day and I don't want to miss a thing,
so I am going to wrap this up and go eat something with four legs and no
head!" |
| November 3 Journal - "I want to thank Rotary for giving me this experience.
It’s everything that I thought it would be and the people that an exchange
student meets are incredible and unforgettable." |
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Alina's Bio
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Hi
everyone! My name is Alina and I live on the St. Johns River most of the
time. I can say “on the river” because I live on a boat. My family and I
just go wherever there is a body of water. I live with my mom, step-dad, and
the newest addition to our family, Booser, our new puppy. My dad lives in
Fayetteville, NC and his family lives in Alabama. I have a lot of fun
visiting my dad and my numerous cousins.
My mom is always trying to keep up with my busy schedule.
This year, I am proud to be a cheerleader for my school, Fleming Island
High. Last year I was on the dance team for Fleming Island. For nine
glorious years prior to that, I was a competitive gymnast, making it to
level 8, practicing sometimes 5 hours a day and going to almost 100 meets on
the weekends. I also enjoy helping to support the Invisible Children Club at
my high school. Making chances, taking risks, and discovering my limits, is
where I excel the most.
As I sit on the boat which I call my home, I reflect on
past experiences and look out over the horizon. I think of the fantastic
journey that lies ahead of me. I am so ready for my next journey as a Rotary
Exchange Student. I cannot thank Rotary enough for giving me the chance to
go overseas and experience a new culture. Thanks Rotary! |
August 17 Journal
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Alright so I've read mostly everyone else's journal and they all
seem to be so insightful. I thought I'd just give you the plain old facts of
Thailand and my experiences. So I guess there is no better place to start than
the beginning.
OK. The failure to depart on the first day dampened my
spirits a little. But the excitement was still there on the second attempt.
So Chris and I left on Saturday and the plane ride
was exhausting. When we got to Narita, Japan they told us that our flight on
US Airways to Bangkok had been canceled so they transferred us to Thai
Airways which was nice, but already I was afraid to eat the food. You would
think that if shown a menu that had tuna sandwich on it, it would be, you
know, the chicken of the sea. But no this tuna sandwich was two pieces of
bread with a raw slab of tuna in the middle. This was on the flight. OK ok
so when we finally arrive in Bangkok at who knows what time, Chris and I
went out to get our luggage because that was his last flight and I was to
spend a night in a hotel because my flight wasn't until the next morning. So
when we get to the baggage claim, it's so hot and there is no air
conditioning. So we wait for our bags and we wait and wait and wait and wait
and then there are no more bags. So we find someone to help us and this
really nice Thai guy takes us into an office and gets our information to
send us our bags. After we settle the whole baggage thing we go to find
Chris's host family and the person who is supposed to be taking me to a
hotel. So we go through Customs and we find our way through the Bangkok
airport and find where everyone is to be picked up. There is a sign that
says Chris Foley but no Alina Walker. So we go to the Chris Foley sign and
the family greats us with extremely broken English we both get flowers and
then we try to explain that our luggage was lost, but they didn't understand
so they tried to take us through the whole process again. Then finally we
got through to them by saying "already...already". So after that ordeal I
didn't want to hold Chris and his new family in the airport any longer so I
said my goodbyes to him and I went on my way to try and figure out what my
sleeping situation was going to be.
I had thought about getting a hotel room close to the
airport, but my flight was at 7:30 the next morning and it was already
almost 1:00am. So I decided to rough it in the airport. I showered in the
sinks of the airport along with another lady from who knows where...we
didn't speak the same language. I said hello and she said something weird.
So then I tried to get back into the terminals, but they wouldn't let me
without a ticket. And yeah the ticket counters didn't open until 5:00am. All
of the restaurants were also in the terminal except for one, which said it
was open 24 hours, but had construction tape all over it. So scratch that.
Thank goodness I didn't listen to my mother about packing so many sweets. So
I found a bench to myself and dug in on the sweets that I had brought with
me on my carry on. All I have to say is thank God for butterfingers!! By
then it was about 2:30am so I decided it was safe to try and catch some Z's.
At about 4:30 I wake up and I am surrounded by sleeping people on benches
all around me. So I decided to stay awake and find the line for my plane
ticket to Phuket. So it takes me an hour to find the darn line and then they
tell me there is another line and that I am in the wrong one. So I tell the
person behind the ticket counter to get someone to take me there and he did
which I am very thankful for. And I finally got my ticket and all of the
panic was lifted...just a little though. I got through the gate and met some
Australian guys who were very kind and took me to breakfast. They were also
going to Phuket, but on a different airline, but the same time. So we stuck
together until 7:15 and then we split telling each other that we would see
the other in Phuket. Which we did because, as my luck would have it, I
didn't find my family for about 20 minutes which was a total panic. But they
stayed with me until I found them.
Ok so now that I am with my host family, I am started on
round one of Alina vs. Thai food! My host family never eats at home. Since I
have been here I have been to a different restaurant for every meal every
day. I didn't even know an island could have so many restaurants. Ok so
anyway my favorite words in Thai are mai pet pet. Which means no
spicy spicy!!! And they all just laugh and keep piling food onto my plate.
So I have now learned the words eem lao. Which means full already.
And they stop putting food on my plate. My host mother always says "just try
little see if you like." But I always end up with a bowl full of scary
looking noodles floating in some kind of liquid. I never know what I am
eating EVER!! They tell me the name and I used to ask what's in it, but I
have completely given up on that. So I just eat and eat and eat. And
everyone keeps telling me you eat so little. My host mom says she is worried
about me. But thank goodness we live next to a spa with a fitness room (with
by the way NO AC). My host father loves to walk every where. He owns two
guests houses and a gallery which right now is under construction. I love
going to the guest house because the staff is so funny, and sometimes there
are farang (foreigners) so I can get an English fix and help
translate so that they can get the room that they want and accommodations.
Today there was an Indian movie that was shooting close to the guest house,
but I didn't go because I was helping my host sister pack because she is
going to Ithaca, NY on an exchange, also with Rotary. My home is on a hill
so the water pressure in the shower isn't that great. And when I say isn't
that great, I mean the water kind of dribbles out of the faucet. But that's
the hot water. The cold water pressure is great. So I've been adjusting to
taking cold showers! :) Instead of using air conditioning, we just open the
windows, because there is always a breeze even though its a hot one. My
family says that this is one of the colder months and I am dying of heat
already! I don't know what I am going to do in the summer months. I guess
I'll just have to go to the air conditioned mall everyday!
Ok so places I've been in the past two weeks.. Patong
beach!!! Beautiful. I like it better at night though, I have to say. Kata
beach is better in the day time and the views from the mountains are
amazing!!! Trang is beautiful with its giant plateaus and crazy caves with
bats that are good luck. My school is nothing special. It's just a school,
but the students and teachers are all extremely helpful and kind. When I got
here though at first they told me I would have to cut my hair, but because
my mom works at the school, she talked to the headmaster and she got me into
an M-6 class which is like being a senior, so I didn't have to cut my hair,
even though I was prepared to do it, but not willingly!! Anyways, we are
taking my host sister to Bangkok to send her off to America and we are going
to stay an extra few days to sight see after she leaves.
So that's Thailand in two weeks in a nutshell. There is so
much more to Thailand and before I left, I didn't know if I was ready to be
faced with such a challenge, but my family has made it so easy and
effortless. Opportunities are falling into my lap with every day and I don't
want to miss a thing, so I am going to wrap this up and go eat something
with four legs and no head!!!
Love from Phuket,
Ari
(oh by the way they gave me a Thai name because my name
with some intonations means "what" so now Alee, but always sounds like Ari
means "kindness")
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November 3 Journal
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First I just want to thank Rotary for giving me this experience.
It’s everything that I thought it would be and the people that an exchange
student meets are incredible and unforgettable.
Alright so I haven’t really been keeping up with my
journals so I have a lot of catching up to do. September was pretty
uneventful. I just went to school every day for what seems like forever.
School days here are extremely long. I start school at 7:45 and school ends
at 4 or 4:30 depending on the day. However, I have extra Thai classes that I
attend so I am usually getting home around 7 at night. In the class room,
the students don’t change rooms for every class, the teachers do. The
students in the classes have been in the same class for their entire school
experience so they are all extremely close to each other. This does make it
a little difficult to fit in, but they are all so extremely nice and
friendly. So that was September.
October was fun because I didn’t have to go to school. The
school takes a month long break after midterm exams. So I took a lot of
trips with my family to the beach and to different cities around Thailand.
The beaches in Phuket are absolutely beautiful. Also the exchange students
from my district in Thailand came to Phuket to tour the city. We went to a
few of the many islands around Phuket, including Phi Phi and James Bond
Island which is one of the settings for the movie The Beach staring Leonardo
DiCaprio. If you haven’t seen that movie, you need to! It’s fantastic!
J We also went to a butterfly garden, museums,
and a tour of the famous Patong Beach on Phuket Island. Which by the way my
home is only 10 minutes away from.
Oh and the vegetarian festival is brutal! I helped give
water to the people with swords through their faces. Ok so I guess I should
explain the vegetarian festival. It’s this Chinese festival that most
everyone in Thailand participates in because most of the people have Chinese
ancestors. So during this nine day festival you can only wear white, only
eat vegetables, cannot have sex, cannot drink, and pray to one or more of
the nine gods. This experience was extremely scary. Some people give
demonstrations like climbing a ladder of knives, getting into boiling oil,
walking over hot coals and the most common demonstration was to parade
around the island with swords through their mouths. But it wasn’t just
swords, there were bicycles, trees, motors, fruit, really just about
anything that they could fit. And it was really weird to see the same people
with the things through their mouths at the store the next day and they look
totally fine just what looked like a long cat scratch or something down
their cheek. One of my friends from school actually did a knife
demonstration. He said that one of the gods consumed him, or possessed him,
and he could not feel any pain and the next day he was fine, still with no
pain but a hole in his mouth.
The last week in October I went to Bangkok with my class
to visit all of the universities. I feel like I got so much more close to
them and I think that my time here will be even more enjoyable because of
this trip. I actually might be interested in going to one of the
universities that we visited. After the university stuff, we got to go
shopping! So much fun! We went to Siam and then to JJ market and to the
floating market!
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Well Thanks again to Rotary for giving me this
opportunity!
Sawasdee ka!!
Alina อารีน่า |
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