Gabe’s Journals

January 3, 2024

New Host Family

Hello! I know it has been two months since my last journal but to me it feels like two weeks. I can’t believe I’m already about halfway done with my exchange year.

These last two months have been very hectic but in a good way. I changed host families at the start of December and it was a very big and interesting change. I of course miss my old host family but I still get to see them about once a week. My new family dynamic is very different because we have a lot more people in the house. I now live with my two younger sisters, 1one older brother and my grandma in the house. I do really enjoy it and with my siblings I already really feel like siblings with them because we’re always joking and having fun with each other. My new family does not speak English very well, which is fine with me because I get to speak Thai all the time and even get to help as an English teacher. My new family also cooks a lot so I have learned from my sisters and mom how to cook a few Thai dishes such as a Thai omelet and pad kra pao pork, which is a pork stir fry with rice.

In Thai culture they don’t celebrate Christmas as it is a Christian holiday. I had a break from school on the week of Christmas but many Thai students had exams on Christmas day. On Christmas day we didn’t celebrate at all, but my host parents did surprise me with gifts on Christmas day because they knew that it was a big holiday in my religion, which was very kind of them. Thai people do celebrate New Years and they exchange gifts on New Years eve. My family exchanged gifts with some of our family friends in a “White Elephant Gift Exchange” format. It was very fun and we ate a very Thai dish called Moo Ga Ta, which is kind of like grilled pork. I also celebrated Christmas in Bangkok with Rotary and all of the other exchange students. We did a secret santa which was very fun. That same day we had a Thai speech contest and I got 2nd place which felt really rewarding and it feels like my hard work is paying off.

I have also done a lot of traveling in the last two months traveling twice to Bangkok and once to Saraburi. My favorite moment was staying with my friend La Neige who came to Georgia last year as an exchange student and meeting her mom. I really got to explore Bangkok on my two trips there and I did so many fun things, such as visiting Chinatown and having dinner during a beautiful boatride. I also tried so many new foods, such as jellyfish, which was surprisingly delicious, and scorpion which was unsurprisingly not delicious. The scorpion made my whole inside feel warm and it was a very odd feeling but I am glad I tried it. I also went camping up in the mountains of Saraburi and it was my first time feeling cold in months, I even had to put a hoodie on. The mountains were very beautiful and it was nice and refreshing with the nice mountain air.

I can’t believe it has already been five months in Thailand and I can already tell I will miss it when I leave.