My Exchange Life In Colombia
My name is Wareerat Sairsuwan but you can call me with my nice name “Nam”. I come from Thailand. I’m 18 years old. I’m an exchange student in Colombia with AFS (year program). I proud to present my life in Colombia.
Well, the town where I live is Pamplona, Norte de Santander. Pamplona is a small town in Norte de Santander. Which far form Cúcuta – the capital of Norte de Santander around 2-3 hours in the cars. The weather in Pamplona is cold. It is around 12-17 degree all the year. There is a river name Pamplonita. And Pamplona is one of the old towns in Colombia. It has 464 years. People here all so friendly and stick with religion. They are very kind and they talk like sweet heart, my love, my life etc. all the time. I think that is very cute :). Someone told me that there are around 22 churches in Pamplona.
My school is Sagrado Corazon de Jesus Las Hermanas Bethlemitas. People said that my school is the best school in Pamplona. My school is Nuns´ School. That´s mean the teachers and a director are NUNS. In fact, I had a bit problem with them when I first arrived by the way they are very nice with me. In school, I need not to study seriously. I have to pay attention in English class and Spanish class. But I love to study Philosophy even it is the nice subject to be sleeping. I studied in 11th grade. There were a lot of activities for 11th grade to do like Dancing festival, song festival or culture festival. And for prom they had their own jacket. The jacket of the classroom.
The best experience for me is when I first met with host family. As I said that Pamplona is a small town. So there is no airport. They went to cúcuta to get me from the airport. The airplane was delayed so they had to wait for me around 2 hours. I made a broad to me. It is written in my language –Thai and Spanish. They said to me that Welcome to your home in Colombia. They tried to speak with me but they can´t speak English and I couldn´t speak Spanish. So I had to talk by my best friend. They tried to said that make yourself home and they felt so happy that I am here with them as their daughter. And my papa recorded the video when we met.
Well, there are a lot of things that are different with my culture. Like in my country, we respect of the people who are older but here I was surprised because my hose sister hit my head or shouted at me. Or people here walk in the house with shoes. In my country a lot of us believe that to walk in the house with shoes is impolite. And here the children call teachers or their parents with their name. If you do that in my country, you are going to be hit.
Where I chose to come here? Do you believe in the destiny? Do you believe in a miracle? I took a lot of tests of Exchange Program like EF, YFU and AFS. I chose the different country like China, Denmark or New Zealand but my mom always disagreed with that idea. I chose Colombia because I thought that once of my life I can go around to world, wherever I want if I have money. But there are some countries that it´s hard to live there. Colombia is one of those countries. I don´t know when will I come back here. I don´t know that I will have this chance again. To study, to live, to know about Colombia is so amaze.
Colombia is not the most beautiful country or the best country in the world but Colombia is amazing country which full of attractive. If you have the chance don´t let it go. Go and catch it because you don´t know that when will it come again. Exchange student can be only once in your life.