Last week, we all went to Chiang Mai in Thailand for experience week. There was actually 2 choices, Thailand or Beijing, some people went to Thailand and some went to Beijing. I chose Thailand because most of my friends were going there. It was one of the hottest seasons there! About 38C-39C. That was also one of the most difficult challenge, dealing with the heat there is really horrible. Since we weren’t allowed to keep the air con remote, and they only turn it on when it’s 8. Also there were many power-outs, usually when it’s pouring, so we had to sleep, covered in sweat. We also didn’t bath much, because of those power outages, there was no light and no warm water. Though the activities were really fun! We did kayaking, jungle survival, cooking thai food, confidence course, archery, rock climbing, hiking, built a kitchen, and we also played with village kids. It was really awesome experience.
One of the activities I would like to talk about is the confidence course. I was really nervous, it looked pretty hard from my perspective. But after watching one of my group mate do it, who does gymnastics, I thought it was pretty easy. No, it was pretty hard, I had a chance to do it twice. The first time, I failed miserably, falling in the water, while trying to swing on the rope, I was pretty disappointed at myself. So, I felt like doing the course the second time. This time, I reached to the monkey bars, which is the last part of the challenge. But in this, I still fell in the water a few times, even at the first part, but I didn’t give up, so I just scooted over while sitting down on the chains. But, at least the second time, I made it across the rope swing area. Which made me pretty happy. But then, there was a balance beam, I was pretty confident when I was about to start, but then when I got to the middle, we had to do a 360 turn, I did it really slowly so that I was sure that I wouldn’t fall into the water. But after that, there was the monkey bars. I have never, successfully went through the monkey bars ever before, even now, I haven’t. This was probably the first time, I’ve ever reached the third bar on it though, because I usually only reach to two and give up quickly. But quickly after making it to the third, I fell into the water. I still went back with, I smile on my face saying, “I finally made it to the third bar of monkey bars!”
The second activity I would like to talk about is Kayaking. This activity was really fun, first activity we’ve did in Thailand. First, we did a practice round, we had to go in pairs for each boat, the one in the back had to steer, and the one in the front just had to move forward. My partner and I was the last pair to go. The only problem about the practice round, is that we had to capsize. I didn’t know, so I didn’t wear any quick-dry clothes. So everything got wet. After our practice we brought our boats to the river, the water wasn’t deep at all. I don’t even think it would be possible to capsize in that river. After a while of kayaking around the place, we were challenged to get stars, how do you get them? You have to do a set of things the instructor tells you to do, like, flipping the boat around and kayak like that, stand up and kayak, etc. They were pretty hard, but we managed to do all of them except for the last one, which was to flip the boat over and headstand on it. During this activity, we also played a bunch of games, while waiting for those who were really slow and behind everyone. We played catch, we had to touch the instructor’s boat as much as you can, and my partner and I won. The instructor said he’ll give us a prize, but I guess he forgot about it. One of the worst things to do in this whole activity was to carry the boat, all the way up the stairs, it was quite heavy, so some of the boys helped us up.
Another experience I want to talk about is playing with the children in the school. I didn’t expect it to be fun, just because I don’t really like kids. But while playing with them we developed a relationship between all of us, it was really fun! Watching the kids’ smile, I thought it was really adorable. One problem was when we were playing London bridge with the kids, a little girl, who was probably smaller than all the others (a judge from her height), grabbed my hand and started walking to the school playground, at that time I had no idea what I was suppose to do. At first, I tried to say some simple english to her, telling her that we should go back, but she didn’t understand. When we got there, apparently, another girl, from another group, who was suppose to make bricks was there too. She was also dragged by one of the children there. So we basically just stayed there for the rest of the time until and ice cream came, and everyone just ran off. But after a while, I was surprised the girl still remembered my face, and dragged we there once again. This time there was also another village girl, and I dragged my partner to the playground because I didn’t know what to do. So the other girl was playing the swings with my partner, while I was playing swings with the little girl. It was really hard to say goodbye too. When I said, “bye bye”, they wanted us to stay there. It was also really awkward, when one of my group mate tried to take a picture with herself with the little girl, the little girl pulled me in, wanting me to take a picture with her. I was pretty embarrassed for that.
The last activity I want to talk about is archery, we did this right after our confidence course. I found that activity very exciting. I thought I was pretty bad at aiming. But, on my first try, I hit the bullseye and right before I shot, one of my group mates said, that they’ll give me something if I hit it. It was unbelievable, when I did that. I was a bit too excited about hitting it. But the second try, I hit the red bit, which was the ring before the bullseye. After the practice, we had to blow our balloons up, we all put a face on the balloon and put it on the target. Apparently, if your balloon gets shot and pops, you’re out. I survived a pretty long time, trying to hit one of my group mate’s balloon. But then I accidentally shoot my partner’s balloon, she got pretty upset with it, but it was the joking kind of upset. After a while, of not getting my balloon hit by anyone, people started calling my balloon, a ninja balloon. But it still got popped by a group mate. The last balloon surviving was Mr. Breton. Then we got to practice again, then I shot another bullseye.
Thailand was a really fun trip, on the last day, I even said that I didn’t want to leave this place. Although there were many power-outs, I still thought it was worth it. It’s actually a good idea, because it’ll teach the students, and make them feel like they were just village people. Without airconditioning and other stuff that consumes electricity. In all of those activities, my favorite was archery, probably because I shot the bullseye twice, and was really lucky. My least favorite activity was hiking, it was really tiring and it made me sweat a lot, I also tripped a few times there, and that’s how I got my cuts. At least there weren’t any serious injuries for me. The thing that hurt the most for me, were the chains in the confidence course, reason because I got bitten by an ant on my foot. Though it wasn’t a big of a deal. It’s still very fun! So, I’ll probably visit some other times!
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