This past month

This past month has easily been the greatest month of my life. I just wish that I was able to share it with you. For you to fully understand, I'm going to start from the very beginning.
School had begun to seem mundane and boring, but I still was going every day, just for the sake of going to school. But one day, my Rotary counselor, who works at our school as an English teacher, called me up to her room. The other two exchange students staying in my town, Jean-Phillipe, and Daniel, were there waiting for me. She then asked if I was liking school, and I told her the truth. After that question, she asked an even more peculiar question. She asked if I would want to skip the next month of school, and travel all around Thailand, and get paid for it. I thought it was a load of crap, but I listened anyways. Turns out, she was right. Based in Bangkok, there is a company that runs English Camps called AYC (which stands for Amsam Youth Center), which our counselor sent her students every year. The three of us all agreed immediately to go, and we asked when we would leave, and she gave us two days.
I was ecstatic, and so I went home and told my host mom. She was a little sad, but agreed with it. The next day the 3 of us went to buy bus tickets, take pictures for Rotary, and just hang out all day. But the day after that, we took an 8 hour bus ride from our city to Bangkok. It was alright, with lots of sleeping, and once we got there, we got off the bus and looked for the representative from AYC who was going to pick us up. She found us, and we loaded into her car. From there we drove straight to their office to sign forms, and to be briefed on the camps. They told us all about the camps, and also how much money we'd be making. We were all really happy about it, then they showed us an apartment complex down the road where we could rent a room for a night. It was 500 baht (18 USD about) which was pretty expensive, considering it only had one queen bed with no sheets, a really dirty A/C, and one big closet. But that was fine for the night. After putting our bags in the room, showering, and changing, we looked around for one of the long-time AYC staff, who said he would show us a place to get some food. So we grabbed something to eat, and then went back to sleep, anxious for the coming day.
The next morning we had to be back at the office by 6, so we woke up around 530, packed our backpacks with clothes, and headed to the office. Once at the office, we were split up into our assigned camps, and Daniel and I headed down to climb into a van. We had 14 people in the van total I think, I don't really remember. Regardless, we watched a movie on the way to the sightseeing area, where we would meet the kids, because they were coming from way up north. After sightseeing, we got onto a big VIP Tour Bus with the kids, where we sang songs and played bingo with them. The kids enjoyed it a lot, and whenever they spoke English with us, or got a question right, they would get $100. For winning bingo, the first person got $1000, second $800, third $500, until they just got $100. Once we got to the hotel, all the kids got off the bus, and took their bags to their rooms, then went to the meeting room. The Staff had a quick meeting before that, so there was no time to take our bags to our rooms. Once the kids got to the meeting room, we all introduced ourselves to the kids, and then played one more quick game before we released them to have Sports Time. Since this hotel was on the beach, almost all the kids went in the ocean, or they played football (soccer) on the beach.
When finished with sports time, everybody ate dinner, after which we had a short lesson. The lessons always differed, but it wasn't the subject matter that we were trying to teach them, because it was simple things. The whole point of the lessons was to speak English, and get the kids to speak English. After the lesson there was a break for snacks, then a second lesson. After that lesson, we ate lunch, after which there was the third and final lesson. Once finished with the third lesson, we had the "Amazing Race". This consists of 8 bases, and the kids are split up into teams, led by the staff, and you have to run the bases in order. First team to finish wins. The games are really crazy, and are things like charades, filling bottles with water, popping balloons, throwing ping-pong balls into pen holders, writing words for every letter of the alphabet, unscrambling a song, building a tower with newspaper and tape, and dropping a nail into a bottle filled with water. As soon as the kids were finished with the base, the staff would lead them to the next base. The race wasn't just between the students though, it's a competition between staff as well, but it's really fun.
After the Amazing Race is sports time, after which is dinner. After dinner the fun begins. The kids have one hour to finish preparing their talent shows, which they were told about the first day, then everybody goes to the meeting room, staff included. Once in the meeting room, the kids write the name of their show on paper, and put it into a container. Once they do that, one of the staff or a teacher from the school will pick a talent show out. After doing two or three shows, the lights turn off, black lights turn on, music blares, and we have a dance party for about 15 minutes. After those 15 minutes, the lights come on, and we do a few more talent shows. We repeat the process until all the shows are done, and when there are no more shows, the party goes on until the teachers tell us to stop. After that it's time to sleep and prepare for tomorrow, (usually finished between 9:30 and 10).
The next day is the final day of camp, and in the morning, the kids split up into groups and go with a staff to finish preparing their story or preparing for "The Great Debate". The older kids debate, and the younger kids tell stories. The topics are always different, but usually interesting. The staff pick the 2 best story tellers from each class, and 1 or 2 best debaters to present themselves in front of everybody in the meeting room. After the debate is over in the meeting room, and the kids have told their stories, we have the Auction. The kids have been accumulating money throughout the camp, and then we have them break up into groups, and pool their money. They are buying snacks, which is a pretty big incentive for them. Some groups have had $200,000 before, which is really amazing, and most bags sell for around $30,000 depending on the kids. After the Auction, everybody loads back up on the buses, staff included, and we drive back to Bangkok.
Once back in Bangkok, we drop the kids off at their school, or if the kids don't live in Bangkok they're already gone, then head to the office. There's always pizza and pepsi at the office, so we eat that, then usually go find a hotel and sleep, because generally we get back around 6, hang around at the office for an hour or so, then take an hour to get settled at a hotel, which puts us at around 8. Not including time spent washing clothes or eating food, because the pizza is scant. The next morning it starts all over again.
It's really really really great fun though, and I can't wait to do it again. If you would like any more specific details or anything, feel free to ask. I'll be posting new pictures as soon as possible.

Thanks everybody, sorry for taking such a long time to post some more. I might post one more blog today, but I'm not sure about what. So we'll see.
--- Jamie ---