Host Family Weekend Part I

Day 1 (30th July 2011)

This weekend, I have an opportunity to be with a host family at their home. Jaime who is my hostess picks Parp and me up at Estabrook at 10AM. Her house is in Laconia, NH which is 30 minutes driving from Brewster. When we arrive there, we meet her husband whose name is Michael, the same as mine, and their daughter Jolie. We unpack our stuff for a brief period and head to a nearby Orthodox church to have lunch at a Greek fair.

Parp and I with Greek Food

Jaime and Michael

This fair is held once a year by Greek community in Laconia. There are a wide range of Greek food and dessert available. A lot of people attend this fair and it takes about half an hour to get our food. I have never tried Greek meal before but the food is very good.

Big Crowd in Greek Fair

After lunch, Michael takes us to his office. He owns a overhead door company in Laconia. Firstly, he takes us to his friend garage to see an antiquated car.

The Antiquated Car

Then he takes us to his office. In his office, he has a room which he calls 'Man Cave.' It is a place he gets rest after work. He puts pictures of Jaime when she was in college there so I learn that she was Miss New Hampshire during college.

Michael in his Office

Michael's Office

Man Cave

Jaime and her Picture

We goes back to the house. Michael and Parp take a long nap. Jaime and I play Horse Shoe which is a game. The goal of this game is to throw horse shoes to a pole. Jaime wins by the score 13-9.

After the game, Jaime shows me her family pictures in special events during a year. When Michael and Parp wakes up, Parp tells the Laurents his family background and shows some pictures. It takes about an hour before we departs for Tilton Outlet (again!) Michael does not attend this trip because he does not like shopping. We all walk separately. Jaime and Jolie go to look for Jolie's college stuff. Parp looks for his parents' souvenirs. I do not like shopping so I go straight to Oops Outlet which sells miscellaneous stuff ranging from books to toys. I grab a book called 'The Inconvenient Truth' by Algor and go to Starbuck immediately. I spend time there until we get back to the car.

Then we go to Lanna Thai which is a Thai restaurant. When we arrive there, there are many police cruises (approx. 12) at a pizza restaurant nearby. We do not know what happen but it seems to be a big trouble.

Police Cruises

The food and service of Lanna Thai is impressive even though it does not serve authentic Thai food. The waitress is a former Thai teacher who comes to live in Laconia with her family. She is very excited to see us since there are not many Thais there.

Lanna Thai Restaurant

Pad Thai and Tom Yum

After the meal, we head back to the house. It is 10PM already so I take a bath and go to bed immediately. I want to save a lot of energy for tomorrow activities.

Thai Night

TS54 held a festival to give an opportunity to host families and students to meet one another. It is called 'Thai Night.' We had about 2 days to plan for this festival so it was not very fluent despite the unexpectedly good result. We decided to use 'มนต์รักลูกทุ่ง' as our theme. I was the head of the media part, so I was responsible for presentation and brochures.

On the night of 26th July, every TS had to dress in Thai costumes. I wore a Thai style T-shirt, slacks and leather shoes.

My Thai Clothes

I had to go to Pinckney Boat House very early (6.15PM) to prepare the computer and brochures. The first host family arrived at 6.45PM. During that time I had to escort Poom to change his trousers at Sargent Hall, so I missed my host when she arrived. Chris informed me about the host and that I had to go with Parp. When I came back to the boat house, the show was going to start very soon so I went to stand by at the projector.

Inside Boat House

Host Family

Media Part

TS54 in Thai Dress

The show was really impressive and every host family was appreciated. After the show finished, I had an opportunity to meet my host. We talked about our families and what activities would we do on the weekend. The conversation lasted for about 20 minutes before my host went back. It made me I really look forward to being with my host family this weekend.

Parp and I with Host Family

New England Weather

Chris Brown has told me prior to arrival in America that 'In New England, if you don't like the weather, wait for five minutes.' I've never fully understood that sentence until today.

There is sunlight despite the clouds.

Where does sunlight go? This happens in 5 minutes!

The weather here at Wolfeboro is chaotic this day. The day starts with grey clouds filling the entire sky. The temperature is very low (27 Celcius approx.) that many students including natives have to wear jacket. However, in the noon when I come out of the Academic Building, it is very hot and sunny. Where do all clouds go? I'm very surprised. Then for about one and a half hour later, the clouds fill up the sky again. After the recreation period, it rains heavily. Then only half and hour later, the sun comes out again. There is a rain bow in the east!

Closer Look at Rainbow

After that, another colony of clouds come from the east and prevent all sunlight. It rain again during Thai Night. I can't imagine what it will be in the Winter!

Harry Potter Movie and Outlets

Today, TS54 have an opportunity to watch Harry Potter and the Deadly Hollow Part II and go to outlets in Tilton, NH. First, we go to a small cinema. It is very different from cinemas in Thailand. In this cinema, audience do not have fixed seat but they sit around tables on which food is served. There are popcorn, chicken nuggets, french fries and soft drink served before the movie begins. We arrive the theater about an hour before noon so we have a lot of time for the lunch. When the movie begins, we can move our chairs from the tables to the position that we want. (I will not comment about the film because I try my best to avoid criticizing any thing badly in this blog.)

At the Theater

The Dining Table

Self-service Soft Drink

After the movie, we head to Outlets. It is a community of many brands such as Nike, Polo, Gap. My first object is to help Chate find new shirts. It takes a lot of time to complete this mission because of his selectivity. During the mission, I can buy new khaki shorts. My next object is to help boat find neckties and I also get a sport T-shirt and a sport Jacket. After I feel very tired from 90 minutes shopping, I go to Starbuck with Chad and wait there until the time runs out, and we come back to Brewster Academy.

At GAP Store

Result of Our Shopping Trip

International Festival

Today Brewster Academy holds the International Festival in Estabrook. This is an event which all international students in summer programs participate. For Thai students, we make Thai food to serve other students in the event.

I participated in this event by helping other students cook Thai food. I went to the kitchen on 9.15AM. In the first hour, there were 5 cooks (so that we would not violate the State's Law) which were Atom(leader,) Boat, Chad, Glah, Golf, and I. After we cooked for about 10 minutes, P'Lek joined us. (Then we were violating the State's Law) We started with Thai style omelet. I helped stir eggs and chopped onions. At first, I was very bad at both things but Glah taught me to properly stir eggs and so I could do it better. Then I imitated his chopping style and also could do it better.

In the Kitchen

Chopping onions

Decoration for Thai Boot

Frying Omlette

After cooking for an hour, Boat, Chad and I decided to resign so that other TSs could participate. We came back to our dorm and played cards until 12.15 and went to Estabrook but we came too late and all Thai food had gone already. I did not participate other countries' activities because it had been already started for an hour and none of my friends wanted to play with me.

Kellerhaus and Funspot

Today TSs54 went to Kellerhaus and Funspot in the afternoon. We left Brewster on 12.15PM. It took about an hour to arrive at Kellerhaus.

Kellerhuas

It is an ice cream shop that has opened for 105 years (according to a customer assistant.) This shop also contains a gift shop and a candy shop inside. Firstly, we aimed for ice cream as soon as we arrived. The sign at the ice cream shop indicated that it is a buffet ice cream. However, in fact, it limited the number of scoops according to the price (I bought 2 scopes (regular size) for $5.) The buffet thing was the topping which they allowed us to put it on as much as we wanted. There were not many varieties of topping and ice cream favors. The taste was quite good but was not as good as Baily Bubble's. (Even though the price is higher.)

Ice Cream Bar

Topping Bar

After ice cream, I looked around the gift shop and the candy shop respectively. There were nothing interesting in both shops except an extraordinary popcorn which the seller claimed that it is very surprising. I bought it together with Oom and Kevin for $3.05.

Chad in Gift Shop

Candy Shop

Then we headed to Funspot which is an arcade 5 minutes away. It is a large game center.

Funspot Entrance

We firstly bought tokens and then I spent a lot of time trying to win Monopoly game. It is a game that rewards more tokens. However, it was obvious that I lost many tokens here. Then I went to play other machines. The only machine that I won Jackpot prize was Roulette. I spent about 2 tokens and luckily got 562 coupons in return. After that I could not win more than 100 coupons a time.

Monopoly

Roulette

After I played for 2 hours, I combined my coupons with Oom and Boat to exchange for prizes. We got 3 mugs which could be equally divided. It was not worth much but I had a lot of fun gambling!

Prize Zone

Chad with his Prize

Our Prizes

24th July 2011

Restaurant Review 2: Wolfe City

Wolfe City is pizza restaurant near Baily Bubble. I went to this restaurant with Chad, Boat, Ice and P'Lek yesterday for dinner because we felt bored of Estabrook's food.

This is a small restaurant which can serve only about 20 customers. It is also self-service. To order. we have to choose our own topping to put on the pizza. I ordered Teriyaki chicken with mushroom personal size (the smallest size) which cost $7.09. This costs more than ordinary pizzas because Teriyaki chicken is a special topping which is more expensive. Chad and P'Lek ordered personal size pizzas which costed around $4 while Boat and Ice ordered small size pizza (larger than personal size) which costed around $14.

Pizzas is undeniably delicious. However, the service is unpredictable! The first to pizzas came very fast but we had to wait one hour for the other 3 pizzas. Sometimes it may take a lot of time to dine in this restaurant.

Overview

Food 5

Service 2

Price 4

Place 3

P.S. I forgot to take photographes when we were eating.

23rd July 2011

CPs Update 23rd July

Update 23rd July 2011

All plants are growing well except D filiformis which seems to be dead for a while. Its leaves turn brown and it does not produce any new leaf. I think I lose it already.

1. D carlifornica produces 2 new traps. All new traps are green and do not mature yet.

2. D musipula produces 3 new traps but one of them turns black and seems to abort.

3. D adelae produces 3 new leaves but they are smaller than former ones. The new leaves are initially red but turn green in a few day after reaching mature.

4. N ramispina is growing very slow and it only produces one leaf with a full developed trap.

5. P moctezuma produces 3 leaves.

New Plants! After D filiformis died, I attempted to try again and now buy a big plant from a retailer in eBay. Hope that it will grow well.

23rd July 2011

Heat Wave Impact!!

Today, New England is dramatically attacked by the heat wave. The temperature here is very high; even higher than Thailand!! Don't be surprised by the weather forecast below.

Bangkok forecast

Wolfeboro forecast

It is very hot here. It is the first time that I do not want to do recreation outdoor even in a sunny day. Hope that the temperature will be lower very soon or I will have to use a fan everyday. (It is very noisy.)

22nd July 2011