Start ILI, Chevy Chase Bank and Whole Food! Today is my first day in school (ILI). It gonna be exciting for me to see how school is. I go to ILI by Metro again. This green line is quite dangerous for me - somebody told me there are a lot of P'Black. First, ILI gave me gramma and writing tests. After I finished, I have to wait for hours then Marie brought me to interview and talk about the rule of school. An attendance and time-precision are really significant to maintain my student visa. I must be careful about it. She said to me that I got a good score (but I think it's much good. Only 35 from 50) because I took the most difficult test. Therefore, she ask me for a top level class which is called F-level, and I say Ok for that. Then she bring me to pay for tuition fees, homestay fee and books. All of these stuffs costed USD 1,503. It finished around 12.00, but I have to appear in the class today at 12.30, so I have a little timet to have a lunch. Firstly, I think that I want to open my banking account today cos I do not want to keep much my money with me. Thus, I walked along the Connecticut Ave. to find the Chevy Chase bank where someone told me it do not want other documents just passport. I finished opening my account around 12.50, and was very starving. I decided to eat first before thinking about time to attend class. It's hard to find somewhere to eat because there are a lot of strange restaurants where I've never tasted before such as French style, Indian or Dutch foods. At that time, my eyes stop searching because I saw a familiar sign. Yes!, it is starbucks where I had worked before in Thailand. I headed to starbucks and ordered my favorite beverage, Grande Caramel Frappuccino, with a lemon cake. It costs 6.23$. How expensive it is. I found a guy there wearing a black apron, so I greeted him about a coffee master. He asked me why I know that and guessed that I've worked with Starbucks. Then everybody in this shop is very exciting and talking with me about the difference of Starbucks here and in Thailand. After finishing eating, I went to ILI that I've only 1 hour to study because ILI stops on 2.10. I met my teacher and students who came from various parts of the world. The teacher is Sriranga but his pronunciation is quite well because his father is american, and my peers came from China, Perto Rico, German, Japan, Columbia, Senegal and Angola. Everyone can speak English very well. After I finished my class, I decided to go to see the cell phone price at BestBuys which I asked from Marie, the ILI interviewer. I went to see the cell phone promotion, mp3 players and digital cameras. Also, I looked for others to compare prices with my country. Battery, webcam, printer, or fill-up ink are a little expensive than Thailand. So, I think it is useless to bring these stuffs from Thailand. Plus, I went to WholeFood supermarket to find sth. to eat. I got bananas, cashews and low-fat milk. They costed 10$. Then I'm so tired and starving, so I go home to find sth. to eat!   Create Date : 12 ตุลาคม 2548     1 comment Last Update : 12 ตุลาคม 2548 8:57:55 น.     Counter : 167 Pageviews.   Share Tweet

First day visiting DC! This is my first day writing my diary. I'm still not good at writing English, so don't be confused if some of this following massages is quite weird in English. Let's Start over now! Today is the US holiday day. I'm not sure that it's Columbus day or not. Anyway, the Elliott family will bring me to DC by Metro, the local subway here, to visit ILI where I've to study an English language everyday untill next Spring. Metro station is not so far from Elliot house but this station is the last station of the Green line. If you have a question about Metro, you can see it's map by visiting this webpage //www.wmata.com/metrorail/systemmap.cfm. I go from the last station of Green line which is called Greenbelt to Dupont Circle station in the red line, so I've to change the line on Chinatown station. I think that I'm familiar with this transportation because I used to use it from Bangkok. It has everything in common. ^^ After I arrive Dupont Circle, I'm really exciting because it will be my first time on Washington DC. Wonderfully, downtown in DC is very different from where I live. It's very beautiful with many building styles that if I buy a digital camera, I'll post it here. Moreover, the weather today is really good that it would be around only 20 degree celcious with terrific fresh air. After I know the location of ILI, Janke Elliott want to bring me to Smithsonian where is one of the biggest musuem in the United States. Oh I forgot to tell you about the Elliott family. Let's say, this family contains 5 persons. John and Janke Elliott are father and mother. They have 3 children who are Johny, Emma and Nicky. All of their children have some amazing age because all of them have the same age as me, my sister and my little brother. Furthermore, they also have the same sex with my family - boy, girl and boy. Back to the way, Janke lead me to Smithsonian station of the blue line of Metro. Instead of going around Smithsonian which can take 3 days to see all of it, Janke bring me to see a lot of memorials and Washington Monument. First, we go to see the Washington Monument which is the sign of freedom. Then we go to see the World War Memorial, Ibrahim Lincorn memorial, Korian Momerial and the last one which is Vietnam momerial. Everything is interesting and there are a lot of tourists here. However, there is no food stands or pedlers as same as Thailand and I like it because it'll be much cleaner and good for taking some photoes. Ibrahim Lincorn is one of the most influent person in the USA because he can maintain all of the lands in the United States as what we see today. Janke told me that in his president period there is a big problem of land separation of the south. Nevertheless, he can pass it. Also, he had a plenty of speechs that some of them still being famous nowadays and some of them are used in funny ways to say like him. After walking around and all of these memorials are very far, we decided to go home with some tired. The coffee time will be occered again and I love it. PS. Yanke is Dutch and she said that Dutch people is one of the greatest coffee-lover in the world. She said that Dutch has the best coffee beans which is more better than beans from others even Starbucks!. She hate Starbucks and told me that SB is the Green Monster. It's sound funny and open my eyes to the real world!   Create Date : 11 ตุลาคม 2548     1 comment Last Update : 11 ตุลาคม 2548 6:44:37 น.     Counter : 137 Pageviews.   Share Tweet