International Rotary Program sponsors student from Thailand

By LESLIE PUGMIRE - Seaside Signal Staff

If there is one thing that Kai Uthaiphetra will take back to Thailand from her stay in Oregon, it is a new-found obsession with clam digging. 

“I got a my limit the very first time I went,” the 18-year-old exchange student said proudly. Kai insisted that after Dan Jesse, her “host father”, showed her how to locate the clams she dug them all on her own.   “I wished I could get more but they only let you dig 15,” she added forlornly.  Jesse said Kai is so dedicated she routinely follows other diggers in the group, offering to help them get their limit.

Kai is attending Seaside High School under an International Rotary Exchange
program and will be living on the North Coast for one year. She is living with
Jesse and his wife, Julie, currently but will live with two more Rotary families
before she leaves next summer.

The city of Nakhon Ratcha is Kai’s home in Thailand, a large metropolis
where her parents run a business and her two younger sisters live. SHS is far
removed from the all-girl school of 3,000 that Kai attended in Southeast
Asia. The adjustment to small town life has taken awhile, Kai said, but her
Rotary commitments and sports activities keep her busy.  Back home Kai said she was not involved in athletics but decided to try it while abroad in order to meet new people. She ran cross country this fall. “It was fun but tiring and I was always so hungry. I came home from practice every day and ate so much,” Kai said.

Prior to her arrival this summer, Kai had never been out of Thailand. She
described her first-ever plane ride as “soooo boring.” Now the teenager has
added San Diego, Los Angles, Portland, added San Diego, Los Angeles,
Portland, Crater Lake and Washington State to her travel diary and said she
hopes to add a lot more.  Taking classes in a new language (although Kai has taken eight years of English) has proved to be a challenge. She started the year with Trigonometry but quickly realized the concepts were too difficult with the language barrier. She switched to Algebra II and dropped Spanish, which she found hopelessly confusing.

Pottery has turned out to be Kai’s favorite class so far. She hopes to attend
a university after graduating from school in Thailand, but plans to take a year
off first.

American life has not provided too many surprises for Kai, who as an urban
girl grew up watching American movies and eating at fast food chains. One
first for her was the celebration of Halloween and Kai showed off the
jack-o-lantern that she carved and described the costumed children with
enthusiasm.  Thanksgiving will be a new experience also, although Kai said her family gets together for many Buddhist holidays in Thailand. One of the biggest treats the Thai teenager said she can’t wait for is skiing.

“There is no snow in Thailand,” Kai said. “I am so excited.”

She brought some of her own culture to Seaside when she wore a traditional
Thai gown to the Homecoming dance, where she was a princess.  The transition to an American school has provided Kai with many changes,
some she loves, others she finds strange. She admitted that at first she loved
not having to wear a uniform to school but now occasionally misses the
requirement.

“Some mornings I’m so sleepy and tired — I don’t want to decide what to
wear,” Kai laughed.

Reprinted by permission of the Seaside Signal  (C) 2001  Photo by the author.