|
Hi, I'm Fang .... my real name is Maneekan Arkkham but everybody
calls me Fang. I was an exchange student with AYUSA and I went to
the USA for a year.
At first I had
no idea on how to become an exchange student to any country, mainly
because I hadn't looked into it that much. I didn't know that much
about countries in the west, things like their cultures, seasons etc
etc. Some of my friends had previously been exchange students and
they had told me all about the fantastic times that they had. It was
because of their experiences and my own urge to 'see the world' that
I then began to do some research. Once I'd started it did not take
long before I found myself applying to become a FX Student.
After being conditionally accepted, I
sat down and did the formative test. I also took a listening test, a
dialog test, a vocabulary and grammar test with my English teacher.
Finally, some of my friends,
and surprisingly, even I managed to pass the test. That was amazing,
I had passed the first step to becoming an exchange student! I was
so excited and had all kinds of feelings within me. I’m still not
quite sure how I passed the test, but I did and I felt really proud
of myself. This was the first step of many, but I had started and I
was soon, hopefully going to be able to study English in an English
speaking country.
I did some research and
learnt what I could about the USA. Soon the time was nearing … the
time I knew would be difficult for me. I was looking forward to
going to another country, to learn and see new things but at the
same time I didn’t want to leave my family and friends. Before I
left Thailand, I had a party with all of my friends at my house. We
had a good time together, even though it did make me feel a little
sad. At first I thought that I’d be ok over there and I was going to
have fun with my new friends, my new family, and my new life … but
after that night I didn’t think that I’d be able to stay there
without my friends and family from Thailand. It was a strange
feeling to have!
Well
before I knew it, I was on the plane flying towards the USA.
It was a long long flight and I was
really tired. I don’t think I’d ever been this tired before. We
eventually arrived at our destination, a medium sized town called
Pierceton in Indiana.
I was to stay with the Morey family,
they were to be my first ‘host’ family in the States and I now had a
new brother and a sister. I was the oldest child in the house. My
new sisters’ name was Danniel but I loved to call her Danni because
I thought it was a cute name. She was sixteen years old, and a
sophomore at the same school as me. Danni was a really nice girl, we
shared a bedroom and therefore we would chat a lot at night time. We
also loved to go to shopping at the mall together and we’d like to
decorate our bedroom often. So when we did go shopping, we always
went to a store called Dried Ice. It’s a cute store and they had a
lot of really cool stuff but it was quite expensive. My brother was
studying in the middle school. He was in the 8th grade at
Whitko Middle School. His name is Seth and he’s a very funny and
sometimes stupid guy. I liked to play and talk with him a lot. He
and his friends liked to ride their BMX bikes in the woods and he
also loved to play on his Playstation.
My dads’ name was Jim. ‘My’ dad, Seth
and I really liked to go fishing in the big pond behind the house.
My dad is a great cook and he sometimes liked to make Asian food for
me. My dad and I quite liked to make homemade pizza with many
toppings. Pizza Hut will have to look out!! Sometimes, he
would take me and the family to a Chinese restaurant. My moms’ name
was Christy and she was a really nice lady. We’d love to make new
stuff together and try out new foods. We especially liked baking and
would often make things like ice cream pie and dark chocolate cake.
She also loved to make Thai food, but I think she should stick to
baking! (Just joking Mom!). It was ok for me but didn’t
really taste like authentic Thai food. Sometimes she’d say it was
Thai food but it tasted and looked like Chinese food.
My family also loved to go to boating
at the Chap Man Lake. Grandma’s house was near to the lake and she
had a speed boat. She was scared to drive it so we’d wait for dad,
because nobody could drive fast as him.
The winter time was really good fun
because our house had a big garden. This meant that when it snowed,
the whole yard would fill up and we could go and do some winter
activities. We’d like to go to skiing and sledging down the big hill
to the side of the house. Sometimes, we would have a sort of
barbecue outside and eat hotdogs etc. We also had a dog, she was a 2
year old golden retriever. She was a big, fat and funny puppy and I
loved her so much. She loved to swim in the pond and she was always
hunting chipmunks. Many times, I would see her down by the road with
a poor chipmunk in her mouth.
I went to Whitko High School as a
Junior. The school was about thirty minutes from our house. I liked
every subject that I studied there but Art was my favourite subject
because the teacher was fantastic. His name was Maliki and he has
been the best teacher I’ve ever had. He always made me feel at home
and was always there for the students if they needed someone to talk
to. We used to do pottery and also had the chance to do oil painting
in his classes, and that is something I really like. I was very
happy to be in that class.
Sometimes I’d like to go to the mall
with my friends and we’d love to shop all day. We would start when
the mall opened and finish at around five or six in the evening.
Sometimes I would stay at my friend’s house for a sleepover. There
would be a few of us and we would do nothing but talk until the
early hours of the morning. Other nights, we’d just drove around the
town all night or go to some other friend’s house for a party.
I really did have a good time in the
USA with my new found friends and family. My year was full of all
kinds of new experiences and it passed too quickly. I would really
have liked to stay more than a year, as my year flew by. I would
love to go back to USA again and I hope my family and my friends
still want to hang out with me.
“I MISS
THEM ALL!” |
