1)      I wanted to improve my English skills.

2)      I wanted to have foreign friends

3)      I wanted to travel.  

There were three of us traveling together. We all met up at Bangkok airport where we finished off all our paperwork. Once we’d checked in and were soon waiting to board our flight. We boarded the plane and soon my friends and I were crying on the airplane. We were sad because we had just left our families, our friends and all the people I never wanted to leave for a whole year. The plane took off from Bangkok and after a few hours flying we landed in Japan. We had a stopover of about an hour there and then it was a long tiring 16-hour flight to Los Angeles in the USA. My friends and I were both excited and nervous about landing in a new country.  

How were we gonna get out of this airport. It was huge. It was lucky for us that there was a group of Thai people that gave us some advice how to get to the right gate so that we could catch the correct flight to the State we were going to. I felt so thank full of them because I know if I hadn’t spoken to them, we would definitely have got lost. 

            I already knew that I would have three host families. My first host family was living in a small town called Uniontown, in Pennsylvania. The day I arrived at the airport I felt so excited at meeting them. There, at the airport (which is in Pittsburgh city) to meet me, were my host dad and 2 of my host brothers. We left the airport and headed off to my new home … it was an interesting journey talking to my ‘new’ family and seeing new sites. When we arrived at my new home I went straight to sleep, as I was so tired after such a long journey. After a good sleep I woke and could meet my ‘family’ properly. My host brother, who was 14 years old was very good at golf. We went to the golf course sometimes. I can’t play, I mean I just can’t seem to hit the balls. One time my host brother was in a golf tournament in West Virginia and I got a chance to go with him and his parents. It was fun, but again golf is just not my game. I think it is kind of boring to watch.  

But I have to say he is a very good golfer. I hope he will be a successful professional golfer in the future. While staying with my first host family, I spent most of the time just staying in the house. There were not a lot of options to go anywhere unless you had your own car. The house was far from downtown. While staying with this host family, I also studied at the local high school. I was very nervous the first day and for the first nine weeks as I did not think that my English was good enough to understand what the teachers were saying to me and how to do all the difficult assignments. The other subjects were also very difficult. English was the hardest and I couldn’t do any assignment myself!!! After every test I would feel really bad because most of them I would get grade ‘F’. My teacher and I tried to fix the problems but when it became time to study I knew I had to work harder. I begin to know more and how it works but still felt that I had completely lost of the system of studying English. Biology was another subject that was hard for me to understand. My biology teacher was very nice and kind. We would spend time and work out an easier way of studying. He would read for me, explain more and speaking slowly so that I could understand the unit in the study book better. So my studying in biology got better. He was a very helpful teacher. Biology class just doesn’t make me feel quite so bad anymore and I started to enjoy it.  

            In this school (which was my first high school in America) there were only about 500 students. Some of the students there were very friendly and trying to be my friends and some of them just being mean to me and the other exchange students in the school.  My school had about 8 exchange students. Most of them from Europe (especially Germany) and a few from South America, but no one from Asia except me. I used to hang out with those exchange students a lot when I first arrived there, but then after a couple months, I left from the group realizing that I came to America for another reason. My first goal was to improve my English skills and I think just hanging out with the other exchange student all the time at school was not the best way to reach my goal. So I began to make friends with some of the American students at school. It wasn’t easy at first but finally I had some American friends and just had a good time. My math class friends were the best and I also learnt how to type without looking at the keyboard at this school too! (English). I was proud of myself. 

            My second family lived in an apartment and I had to move from Uniontown to the City of Pennsylvania. I also had to change to a new school called theMcKinley and Freshmen Academy. This was my second high school. It was much bigger than my first high school in Pennsylvania. There were about 2000 students in McKinley. Studying was easier than the school I went in Pennsylvania and I made a lot of African American friends I think they were friendlier to me. I think they are real. I mean they acted more natural than the white students. Honestly. I’m not racist, and yes I know you can’t judge people by their color but this is how it was for me! Who knows, if I go to somewhere else I may have white friends more than black friends. Right? I don’t care. Everybody can be friends. It depends on who are they? What they think about me, and what I really feel about them. But yeah I had good times and bad times with friends. 

            I soon had to change families again, and this time I moved to Canton City. I was scared when I first stayed in the house. I was afraid that I wouldn’t adjust myself to the new host family but I felt a lot better after I had stayed for a while. Canton City was a big city, what can I said it’s not as small as the first and the second host family cities but it also not as big as New York or the other huge cities. The house always has something going on. I mean from the day I walked in to the day I left. There’s always something funny, surprises, and a lot of fun. It was the best host family for me, ever. The host family had the host parents, Tricia and Jason. They were so young. I mean it was weird staying with a host family that had host parents still only 20-25 years old. I loved it! My host mom she was very kind, very funny and very helpful. I very think she did a good job even though we didn’t have a lot time to get to know each other better. My host mom used to work on the second shift. I’m not quite sure about the times but I think from 2-10 p.m. so the most of the time I saw her, was at night after she got out from work. After about 3 weeks, she changed her work-times. She worked from 10pm until 6am. I was very happy and appreciated that she then had more time for me and the other exchange students in the house.

    Sometimes, the other exchange students and I visited Tricia’s parents and they cooked meals for us. It’s good to eat real food sometimes (just kidding.). Sometimes Tricia and the others in the house took Felipe and me to another state. One time we planned to go to Canada to see Niagara Falls. but Felipe and me couldn’t get to the Canadian side for a long time because we didn’t have a right type of visa. But I didn’t care. I had fun traveling and seeing Niagara Falls with them. We got to see the falls from the New York side. This was the most impressing site me for in the whole of the U.S.A. We also went to cedar point with the host family. It is up in Cleveland, Ohio. The day we went there, it was crowded with people. I rode a lot of roller coasters. My first rollercoaster was the tallest one in the world and it is my first ride ever! . I loved it. I was screaming and having great fun. There were a lot of people waiting on the line for each rollercoaster. I think everybody had fun that day. I still remember every ride I ride and how I felt at that time. I can imagine in my mind and will never forget! It was one of the best experiences in my life.  

With my host family (the third host family) I wasn’t expecting anything good to happen to me ‘cause I’d been with two host families and I was upset and I felt a little disappointed. I also felt that I didn’t care what the hell was going to happen to me. But when I lived with my last host family, it was just the best host family for me ever. It just felt good to live with people who can get along with and you don’t have to try, or be like someone you’re not or you don’t like to be. I liked living with the third host family and I felt like they gave me a lot of free speech. I mean if I don’t like something I will say it without feeling bad. Some host families made me feel so uncomfortable. Ain’t it funny, I mean if you’re doing something that you don’t want to do, you will feel uncomfortable. But what I was doing with the third host family made me feel comfortable with what I did. I loved staying with them and I think they are naturals at looking after foreign students. Sometimes, (most of the time) in the house we had some little fights. It was funny for me more than dramatic. I knew it was dramatic for them when they were fighting (sometimes) but it wasn’t making me feel uncomfortable staying at all. I loved to hear them yelling to each other for funny reasons. Sometimes I’d just talk with them after they got in the fight. It was so funny. I never knew how fun I could get from this host family. I’m so glad I stayed with them. We just lived as if in a real relationship. I didn’t try to impress them or anything but they impressed me a lot and I just feel like our house relationship with each other was real. I mean it’s what most people get through and is being friends. Living with this host family, I don’t feel if I missed much out. I’m not sure if people were just being nice with me because I was an exchange student or not. Maybe because in our host family, we had 2 exchange students so we got more understanding than the host families who had just one student.  

I think it’s harder to find a close friend in American schools because in the Thai Schools there are set subjects for students for each year. Everybody in each class with study together all day long. I mean even we change the subjects, the next period we will go to study together, so you have a lot of time to get to know to each other. But in the High schools in Ohio and Pennsylvania student can choose their own subjects to study. Some classes they will mix-up like having freshmen, softmore, junior or senior in the same class. And when you study in the next class, you will meet different students. It’s hard to get to know other people. But I think it’s easier for students because they can choose their own subjects the ones that they want to study and they think they will do good at. In Ohio, I was a freshman. In the mornings I would study at McKinley but in the afternoons I would study at the Freshman Academy. Everyday all freshmen would catch the bus at McKinley school and go to Freshmen Academy. The bus I rode on was very different to Thai busses. I liked it a lot. Students on the bus were so loud, crazy, funny and there was always something funny on the bus. Most of the students on my bus were black. I loved it. The school buses in Pennsylvania I rode on were quiet and the students didn’t do a lot of talking. Sometimes on the way to Freshmen Academy, there would be a fight. It was just so funny to me. It’s just what I never expected to see in the USA before I came here and it just made me feel glad to be a part of it. 

At all the schools I went to, the teachers tried to help me. They knew that I had a big major problem and that was the English language. So I am kind of thankful to them, appreciate what they did for me and I know they tried to help me as much as possible. When they did (help) me, it can’t compare to any prize or anything, so I say a very big thank you (from the bottom of my heart). 

            Every Wednesday and Thursday, and after school finished for the day, I’d study with my tutor. She helped me a lot with my schoolwork and always had great advice on how to adjust myself in America. She was a very nice and helpful person. Some weekends I went to church with her and her family. She is a most special person who helped me so much with my English. It was to meet a person like her, that was one of the reasons why I went to America (to improve my English).

            Soon it was almost time to say goodbye to everybody. For saying good-bye to everybody at school it was hard and kind of sad that we wont see each other again, (may be). I feel bad that I will leave my host family soon. But I also feel happy that I will be going back to my home country and meeting my friends again. When it was time to say goodbye to everybody at the airport it was hard. “ This is it” and then I just couldn’t believe I was going back to Thailand.  

  My flight was from Ohio to Los Angeles. I had to transit at Los Angeles and got lost in the airport. It was nighttime and I caught the wrong bus! I asked the bus driver how to get to International terminal. Luckily, I met with 3 of my friends at the International terminal and we flew back to Thailand together. On the airplane there were some monks. And one of my friends (a girl) got a ticket sitting right next to the monks. So we switched the tickets and I sat with the monks. It was so wierd because I’d not seen a monk for like 10 months and now two of them are sat right next to me on the airplane. In that time I just hope they wouldn’t talk to me. It just was a crazy trip back home. When we arrived at Bangkok airport, it was exciting to see my mom and everybody who I had missed while I had been away in America. I was so happy when I met them and we just took some pictures. I then flew again back to my home city of Nakhonsithammarat.