MY FIRST HOST-FAMILY
Pom is my hostmom's sister and she lives with us.
Mui is my cousin and she lives with us (she's in her twenties).
Bow is my hostsister. She just got back from a year's exchange in Canada. She's 18 and in her last year of high school in Thailand.
Mom or mama or khun ma is my hostmother.
Dad or papa or khun pa is my hostfather. I've been told that he's probably the richest man in Muang Ubon Ratchathani-which is a city (if you include Warin Chamrab) of about 200,000 people. He owns 2 travel agencies and he's also deputy mayor of Muang Ubon Ratchathani.
NOTE: I have FOUR host brothers… but two are at university and the twin 17-year-olds are currently on foreign exchange (one in the USA and on en
Australia). Needless to say, they don't live with us and I don't ever see or talk to them.
ABOUT UBON
Ubon is short for Ubon Ratchathani. Ubon Ratchathani is both a province (state) and a city. Every province in Thailand has a capital city named after it. Warin Chamrab is across the river from Muang Ubon ("muang" clarifies the fact that I'm talking about the CITY and not the province). Warin Chamrab is a suberb of Ubon and it has about 50,000 people.
Ubon has about 150,000 people.
MY FRIENDS
I'll just tell you about my fellow Ubon foreign exchangers-everybody else I write about will be Thai and I'll clarify who they are in my letters. An "oldie" is someone who's already been here for 6 months. A "newbie" is someone who just got here the last week of July (like me). I'm the only foreign exchanger that goes to Warin Chamrab (school).
(oldie)Leigh is a white South African. She's really funny. She goes to Benjama-I don't know her that well.
(oldie) Luiza (Lu) is a BEAUTIFUL Brazilian. She's like 5'11" blonde hair, blue eyes, KILLER body… uh, can we say "NOT FAIR"?! She's 16 and also goes to Benjama. She speaks Portuguese, Spanish, English, and Thai. (she learned both English and Thai here)
(newbie) Alwyne is an England-born American. She currently lives in MN and is planning on going to college in CO when she gets back. Her 18th b-day is this month. She's a riot to say the least. She goes to Benjama.
(newbie) Thisie is a Brazilian-born American. She lived in
Brazil until she was 9. She speaks fluent Portuguese, Spanish, English, and German-she's also not too shabby at Italian and French. She's 18 with dark hair and green eyes. She's so cute and she'd never miss a party. She's goes to Lukamhan. She's planning on going to college in RI when she gets back (she's form Rochester, NY).
Gwen is a beautiful blonde Canadian who also speaks 4 languages fluently (English, Spanish, French, and German). She's 17 and already graduated back in
Canada. She goes to Benjama… oh, she has the EXACT same career goals as me-how 'bout that, eh?
(newbie) Katy is a South African-born Canadian. I don't know her that well. Random fact: she wrestles in Canada… she probably weighs all of 120 pounds-if that. She's 16 and also has to return to high school when she gets home. She goes to Narynuku school.
(newbie) Mirijam is a drop dead gorgeous German. Seriously, we're talking about most definite model material. I don't know how many of you know Noel Petigrew… but Mirijam's body is better (if that's possible) and her face and hair are much prettier.
(newbie) Megumi is from Japan. She speaks VERY little English so it's currently very difficult to communicate with her; therefore, I don't know much about her. She goes to Narynuku with Katy.
(newbie) Mike is from Oregon. He's the only male exchanger in Ubon. He's kinda dorky, but he's pretty nice. He really likes PS2 and computer games that involve RPG
(role-playing-games). He's 16 and attends Sibutume school.
ChrLOVEist,
Kati Kimmer