Thai II set laaeo!

 I'm finished with Thai II! I now have two months of intensive Thai under my belt and am able to have short, simple conversations about interesting topics like the weather. These go like this-

Thai person: aa-gaat ron mai? (The weather is hot, isn't it?)
Me: Ron maak maak. (It's very hot).
Thai person: Farang chop mai? (Do foreigners like hot weather?)
Me: Chan mai chop. (I don't like it).
Thai person: laughs

And it is very hot. I never check the weather report, but someone said yesterday was 95 degrees. I've forgotten what normal temperatures feel like, so I have no idea if this is true. But all of my clothes are getting sweat stains, I'm starting to take two showers a day and I am experimenting with talcum powder. The heat is fairly oppressive. I think it's a lot more humid than I'm used to. And this is only the beginning... The hot season lasts through May.

For the last two days of Thai II, we've had presentations for speaking practice. The other day we joined classes with Thai IV, where we were interviewed by a partner from that class. In a classic "small world" moment, I ended up being interviewed by a girl from Colville. I'm not kidding. she is here with her husband doing some sort of agricultural development project.

Today we had personal presentations. It was supposed to be on a topic that we know and utilize vocabulary from the entire month. I gave mine on New Zealand. Beginning language activities like this are pretty entertaining. I tried to think of all the different ways I could put in vocabulary and ended up using a lot of words, but when I was translating it to English in my head it was unintentionally humorous. Kind of like the "first semester of spanish love song" on YouTube. Okay, it was also kind of intentionally humorous as well. I'm pretty proud of it, so having never grown out of the "I want to display my work on the fridge" stage of development, I've decided to share it with you all, with the English translation. Plus I'm just super stoked to be able to say this much in Thai. The only thing is, I don't really know how tenses work. I think a lot of it comes from context, but it's weird to always be speaking in simple present.

One year ago, I traveled to New Zealand. I lived in New Zealand for seven months. New Zealand is an island. It has three big islands. Their names are the north island, the south island and stewart island. I work at Franz Josef village. Franz Josef is on the west of the south island.

 I ride a bus from Auckland to Wellington.

And then I ride a boat to the south island. That time, I was not seasick (long story).

I come to Franz Josef village, near Franz Josef glacier (literal translation: ice sea). The glacier is five kilometers from the village. I climb the glacier, but it is too slow,

so I fly. (Reactions here were rewarding). 

My friends come to travel in New Zealand. I come to the airport. We wear green necklaces because it is st. patrick's day. We buy (I don't know the word for rent) a car and I am the driver. I don't like to drive on the left side of the road. We go south and see a lot. 

We look at a lake.

And then we go to the sea. 

The beach has sea plants (literal translation: sea trees. I accidentally said "sea vegetables" during the presentation). sara is happy but I am a little afraid. 

We eat seafood.

And we kiss seafood too. 

We walk a lot. We climb mountains.

Katie also climbs trees. 

We walk across a bridge.

And then we look at a waterfall. We are excited. 

Then we are tired, so we sleep on the beach. It is not very comfortable.

sometimes New Zealand is dangerous. sara cries because she cannot fall (I didn't know the word for jump).

so we go where we can fall. 

We are afraid and shocked, but it is a lot of fun.

We go to Dunedin city. 

Dunedin has many scottish people. They wear skirts, long socks (literal translation: foot bags), and hats. We listen to music. The music is very loud. 

We go to a restaurant. 

The restaurant is very interesting. We don't understand. Who is she? We don't know. We name her "Ingrid." Ingrid has two eyes, a nose, a mouth and eyebrows. she doesn't have ears or a beard. 

My friends return to America. I go to the train station. 

To travel with friends is very fun. New Zealand is very beautiful. You all should go to New Zealand. 

Anyhow, I had fun giving the presentation. I think my classmates now consider me even weirder than they did previously, but that's okay. In any case, even if you don't find it entertaining, I thought you might enjoy the pictures.