I didn't post for yesterday due to the fact that I only did two things.
This first was actually pretty cool, but also very challenging. We visited a local school. We were with the oldest students who ranged from thirteen to fifteen. We all lined up at the front and introduced ourselves before we let of the Thai students pick us to talk. We then did like a musical chair thing where we would get up and go to a different Thai student. In the end we grouped together and got a tour with the last group of Thai students of their school. During this entire time it started to downpour, which Koh Chang needed but it also made it kind of hard going around the grounds because unlike the schools in American their school rooms led directly to the outside. There really was no indoor inclosed room unless you closed all the doors and windows, but considering Thailand is always so hot, I doubt they ever do that. So they were all very opened spaced.
It was very challenging for both the Thai students and us. Their English was very minimal, which is why where were there. To help them with their English. But it was also hard for us because we had to slow down and really pronounce what we were saying. There were times where they students didn't understand our questions and we would have to try and use a different word to change things up. I had to go back to when I was learning French to get kind of the feeling of what they might have felt and to remember what I learned first. So the age and colors were the easiest thing to ask, but then the questions that we could have asked like, 'What does your parents do?' 'Do you have any pets?' etc, were a little harder. We were supposed to be there for another reason but it ended up just being their trying to figure out how to get words across this language gap that we both had. All together though, these students were very good at their English for how little they had. There was one boy who obviously had a little bit more English experience than some of the others for he could go on and on about a few things. He was also the one that really told us what things were around the school.
After that we had a group photo and released the students to lunch and we headed out to get food as well somewhere nearby. We then returned to the hotel and were given a few options of visiting a temple, or the Mangrove, or even kayaking. Me? I slept for five hours and got up thirty minutes before dinner. The funniest out of that though? I slept through the night.
Today we did island hopping. I can say that I have never really been on a beach so this was really a cool experience. We even saw a coral reef where I got to break in my Dicapac Waterproof camera bag and snorkel! I saw so many things that I thought I wouldn't see. Like a sea cucumber and even an octopus! There were even a few fish that I had seen from the Newport Aquarium in their natural habitat! There was two of us that really kept on snorkeling after everyone else was done because we kept seeing things and I kept taking pictures. We then visited a second beach on the way there is when everyone started to notice that we were all horribly burned. I am horribly burned all down my back, like seriously all of my back side is burned, none of the front cause that was always in the water, but everything that wasn't covered while snorkeling was burned and even the top of my head. I am in so much pain, I was one of the worst burned I think, but I'm not quite sure cause I'm assuming that there can be worse. But I feel like I have never been this burned before, I'm kind of grateful that I'm a stomach sleeper and not a back sleeper! Everyone was pretty badly burned though, so I'm not along in the agony of pain.
Tomorrow we will travel through the mangrove jungle and then in the afternoon we will explore an abandoned resort where I will act like a vampire the entire time trying to hide from the sun as best as possible for I doubt this burn will turn into a tan. Send me good vibes and hope that my burn will go away with the help of the Aloe cream and your good vibes!
-Claire
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