What world am I in?

So the way you prepare yourself to live somewhere for a year is completely different then how you would study abroad for a few weeks or months. When you are somewhere for a year you make plans. You take a few weeks to get settled. You take “me time” because you know if you don’t get to the tourist trap today you can get to it next week. You buy things like clothes hangers and peanut butter, and you start to wrap your head around the long hall.
So just when I have started to settle into Bangkok, the tradition of school, and how to manage my time in this new culture, the orientation throws a new twist at us: HOMESTAYS for the weekend. What this means is for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday we will be staying at a family’s house. These families were found at the school we are teaching at during orientation which is a private summer camp/school which means that most families found through this program are pretty well off in Bangkok standards. For me this meant Becky (or PiCky).

Now I haven’t quiet figured out how to explain Becky. First her name is Becky. I really how I heard wrong and her name is Pi-Gee , but I would have sworn she said the very American name of Becky. She is a mother of three wearing black leggings, white heals and a shiny, black long sleeve dress. Her hair is dyed Asian brown and her manicured nails are painted gold. Her daughter who is also there to pick me up, and she is the complete opposite of Becky. She is a 14 year old with loose jeans, black framed glasses, and a short bob haircut she hides her face behind. Bam Bam, the daughter, also goes nowhere without her handheld Play station, and as side note to further understand her character her favorite subject in high school is HTML writing.
With these two as my first introduction to what my host family is going to be like, I have absolutely no idea what this weekend is going to be like. But I take a deep breath and tell myself. I CAN be alone in someone else house for a whole weekend.

I started to realize that Becky was something else when we were the first one to leave the home stay pick-up because Becky already had plans for us. In her cute little heals she quickly ran/walked down the steps because the elevator was taking too long , just so that she could rush me into her van where her driver was waiting to whisk us off to the cultural center. We were dropped off at the Thailand cultural center where there was a museum of Thailand history. I didn’t really know how to look at an exhibit while someone was standing over my shoulder observing me, so we awkwardly rushed through all the exhibits. Then at the end of the Museum she said “Ok, now you go again and look again. I wait here.”- Well, that makes it even more awkward, but I went through the exhibits again reading a few signs in English I had glanced over the time before, but I was still very unaware of what her time constraints were.

After the exhibits I met her sons who were finishing up their cartoon class which was instructed in another room in the cultural center. Becky proudly made her kids show me every cartoon they had drawn, and I have to admit you can tell a lot about a kid by their drawling. Art really is something you don’t need a language to communicate.

Her driver then took us to the other part of town to a giant mall where we ate a FUJI, a very nice sit down Japanese restaurant. Now I have written a lot about the food on this trip so far, but everything I ate a Fuji seemed to just keep getting better and better. Like the typical Asian host family, Becky continued to order food and demand I try it. Every dish she would put in front of me and told me to try it, even when her kid’s meals came out she asked me if I wanted any of it. I had the best raw fish I have ever had, amazing sushi, spicy raw fish on salad, fried sweet sushi, fried eggplant, buttermilk jell broth with chicken, an octopus ball, and fish eggs. I was so appreciative for all the work she was doing and all the amazing food I was eating, but I didn’t know how to balance being a grateful person and not overstuffing myself. Every time a new dish would come out I felt obligated to try a little bit.

Now there were definitely moments along the way I was just thinking to myself “How did I get myself here, and what life path am I on.” There is no way to explain sitting with a Thai family not understanding Thai with the two boys pretending fighting swords, the girl on her PS, and Becky offering the best food I have ever eaten while you have no westerner to confide in. You really start to think what world you have entered.

This thought continued as Becky took me to the Thai Opera house where we listened to Swedish Jazz in English. Please read over that sentence again and realize how odd I felt with a mesh of cultures around me. The jazz was very entertaining, and I am very thankful for the unique experience.

Finally at around eleven we arrived at Becky’s house which was a two story modern Asian square house. We had to knock three times on the orange gated door around their house for the young servant to come answer the door. That is one thing I could never get used to living in the house is servitude. It is so weird to have their servant as they called her take in my bag and cook me breakfast, but my host mom said she was raised with a servant. Just for all those wondering she seemed to have inherited money and one of the family businesses from her Chinese Thai ancestors. I have to applaud her for being a very motivated and successful Thai woman with a family- a concept you do not see very often in Thai society.

The desk day we went to two wats. A wat is a Buddhist temple. They are everywhere in Thailand and for the most part they are absolutely beautiful. They are decorated with glass, mirror, gold-plated, and Chinese ceramic tiles. The intricate designs make for one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen! On top of all that one of the buildings will have a beautiful statue of Buddha.

At night my host family took me to a banquet that was meant to host Chinese Thais who went to Taiwan to learn Chinese language and Chinese culture- the culture of their ancestors. The way it was explained to me was that there were many Chinese who escaped China in order to keep their wealth and Education during the Cultural Revolution and settled in Thailand. Since then the children and grandchildren of the Chinese have become immersed in Thai society, but they have still kept their hard-working attitudes. Chinese Thais own 70% of all the wealth of Thailand. What all this means for me is that I ended up sitting in a banquet of 250 upper crest Asians- clearly I stuck out like a sour thumb. To make it all worse I was wearing black Yoga pants because we had been told to only bring casual outdoor outfits for our home stays, and I had already worn my only nice outfit to the opera the night before. Yet again I had one of those moments of what world am I living in.

As the theme of my weekend continued the next day I ended up at a crocodile farm. Yes I do mean farm because there were just pins and pins of crocodiles being raised for meat and skins. It was actually kind of sad seeing these crocodiles sitting in murky green water piled on top of each other with no room to swim.

If there was a highlight to this crazy animal amusement park it was getting my picture a petting a tiger. In my mind I knew I should be touching this tiger because you always hear storied about trained animals snapping, but it was the opportunity to touch and get my picture with a tiger!
We then went and watched the crocodile “wrestling” which actually meant that these trainers stuck their heads and hands down crocodile’s mouths. Yes I will let that sink in for a minute. There I no way to explain this hour long show so I took a few video clips for everyone to experience.

The crazy weekend concluded with seeing the end of an elephant show where elephant walk on two legs, on a tight rope, danced to music, and bowled. I am actually glad we did not get to see this whole show because it kind of made me sad knowing that these elephants had been brutally trained to be able to perform like this. The crazy thing about elephant is that they always look like they are smiling and such happy creatures that just want to have fun with their funny moving trunks. I can’t possible imagine hurting such a majestic optimistic creature. I did get a chance to walk under an elephant which is supposed to bring good luck and that video is displayed.

We ended the weekend by going to a replica ancient Thailand. It was probably a 50 acre park you bike through and see different sites in Thailand. They had replicas of different wats/temples throughout this park that was shaped like Thailand. It was a very relaxing way to end the weekend and such a unique concept.

Products I Love

So one think I have realized being in Thailand is that there are certain things I am so so happy I have brought with me and have made my trip a little easier and there are some products that have berely touched since I got here or realized how easy and cheap they were to be here. I thought I would just write them down for anyone who may travel abroad or may come to Thailand.

Keens
Even though my keens are about half a size too big they are still amazing! I have the whisper which has slightly less arch support and a thinner toe stub, but the lightness and less bulkiness have balanced out the down falls. These shoes are so comfortable to wear and extremely durable. MY foot doesn’t really get how or sweaty and the water resistance has been nice in the monsoon weather.

Dove Ultra for her
I have never found a deodorant that works so well and keep my arms so soft. This stuff has worked in the very hot and moist weather.
REI Day pack with water stomach
This day pack has made it so convenient to travel because it is extremely light and sits high on my shoulders. It can’t carry much weight, but it will probably work for a one day overnight trip. The best feature is the water stomach and hose that makes it so nice to always keep hydrated without having to take my backpack off and get a water bottle out.

Nook
This has made it so easy for me to jump from book to book. Every evening when the sun goes down and there is not much to do in my room besides write my blog and read it is so nice to know that I have hundreds of books at my fingertips.

Amazing Cosmetics concealer from Saphora
This stuff was probably the most expensive cosmetics I have ever bought at $28 for a one ounce tube, but this stuff last like nothing I have ever seen. I use maybe a drop of this stuff to cover all my blemishes, blotchy skin, and under eye area and this stuff goes such a long way! It also last almost the whole day and I sweat constantly in this humidity.

Products I brought but could have bought here: Shampoo and conditioner, baby powder, q-tips, notebooks, caribeaners, anything johnson and johnson- body wash,

Products I didn’t need to bring: 2 pairs of jeans and 3 pairs of dress pants. So far skirts and dress have been so much cooler and more acceptable for me to wear as professional attire.

Meditation and Yoga

One of the fellow Fulbrighters and I decided to find a meditation place that concentrated on lecturing to westerners or at least a place that conducted practices in English. We were lucky enough to find some place on the web by simply typing into Google “Bangkok, Meditations, English.” After this very non-specific search we stumbled upon a couple of blogs that directed us to this Vila were foreigners met and practiced meditation together.

When we arrived at this Vila it was like entering another world. We had just walked down a slightly dingy back alley off one of the main Highways sprinkled with a mix of upper scale hotels and lower class apartment building, and we turn into a gated yard with gorgeous manicured exotic plant and beautiful yard lanterns. Once entering the door we are greeted by a “meditation regular “who offers water and this Earthy purple juice. The juice tasted like some type of mineral with a similar taste to a watery potato but either way it felt healthy. A middle aged white monk wrapped in the bright orange traditional outfit sat in the corner talking to another possibly Spanish foreigner.

We had no idea what to do in the extremely beautiful, clean, slightly western house, so we took a seat of a dull navy day-bed decorated with bright Indian pillows, but after one of the other foreigners went upstairs we followed them into the third floor yoga room. The light brown wood ceiling met at a peak about 14 feet above our heads and arched down close to the floor where tiny window let in light. There was a statue of Buddha sitting high upon a tiered altar with flowers running down the tiers. Directly in front of the altar was a tiny Japanese yoga instructor signing people in.

We signed in on the “drop-in” page thinking the hour long yoga was free, we didn’t learn out till after the intense happy yoga class that in fact it was a pretty pricey hour long course ( And by pricy I mean 12 American dollars, but in Thailand that is a lot of money- about 10 meals to put it into perspective). The hour long course was filled with more props than I have ever seen in a yoga class: we had blocks to stretch our arms on, two thick pillows to help rest in awkward positions, some sort of rope to pull our legs, and some more flat pillows. I must say nothing was super unique about the yoga except for the fact that after putting you into your position the teacher would come around and pull at your neck or stretch out you back which almost felt like a deep tissue massage while stretching.

The best part about this whole experience was meeting the other foreigners who were there for meditation after we left our yoga class. When we came downstairs into the lobby we were greeted by this traveling community of mediators- all foreigners. For some this was there first time, like us, and for others they had been part of this community of people who go together to meditate and as a group send out good vibes and kindness to those who had been kind to the, to those who they felt indifferent to , and those who had wronged them.

We met this really cute couple from Canada who were just finishing their year in Thailand doing service work after graduation. They both wanted to try out meditation and get to know this community. They were young, talkative and beautiful- both looked like they could be JCPennys catalogue models. We met their friends who were also teaching in Bangkok: a young German man and an American Philippine from California. As a group they seemed lively and interested in what it meant to calm your brain and connect to your inner being or your soul: which ever you believe.
Overall I don’t know how much I know about Buddhism. So far it seems like it is not much of a doctrine of stories but really a way to live your life. I agree with what little I know- that you should be kind to others and that you should be happy in yourself rather than material goods: real inner happiness comes from connecting to within rather than grasping out for more material things.

During meditation could not quiet my mind, but actually all I could think about was how my back hurt for most of the time. Since I am not a practiced mediator I tried to gain something out of the 45 minutes of quiet. I tried to feel the positive energy of the others in the room and within myself and send that energy and well wishes to those who were kind to me in my life. I also tried to let go of those who I have felt I have wronged or who have wronged me. I couldn’t really spend the time separating my mind from my spirit and every time I tried to focus on my breathing and my inner being I would think more about spirituality. So I can say this experience was somewhat of a spiritual service. It is very similar to what I do right when I enter a catholic church. I guess what I really spent the hour doing was praying and talking to this collective good vibe we all have as a community of people. Talking to and enhancing my relationship with others in my life through a positive thought process.

I hope some of the people I thought about are able to have a better Monday in America because of my thoughts- even if this just means they get a doughnut for breakfast.

**Here are the blogs of the monk who led my session and a former fulbrighter who has lots of study in Buddhism .

http://littlebang.org/
http://vandralhuber.blogspot.com/

heat, karma, and green and blue paint

Some may wonder why I called this bolg green and blue paint? Are much deliberation the title came from green and blue being the color of the world. The colors of the word represent what my mission in Thailand is.. to be a cultural amabassador sharing American Culture with the Thai community I encounter. I am to open the door to the world to my students while promoting cultural understanding. As well I can take all the knowledge of Thailand and share it with my world back open- therefore serving as a global citizen spreading cultural empathy to family, friends, and my Louisville/ Kentucky community. The word Paint represent my love of creativity and education which is the avenue through which I get the opportunity to see the world and share my experience with others. Therefore the mission of this blog is to be a creative education and spreading of goodwill of American and Asian cultures.
I hope to bring connections with my previous study abroad as well as my hobby of education philosophy and methodology while exploring Thailand and Southeast Asia. And I encourage many of my teacher friends to compare notes of teaching techniques and culture. I also want to pull on all my resources when teaching my students and community American culture, so I encourage friends to post notes and reminders of important American concepts.

The Heat
So I will follow my last blog post of one of the best parts of Thailand with the one aspect that is the hardest to get used to: the heat. First I have to admit that it is the cool season and I do not know how I will make it through the April months when it actually is summer time but even so I will explain the heat of this cool month of October. The average daily temperature is about 30-34 degrees Celsius. I am not sure how much this is in the states, but feels around upper 80 to lower 90 degrees. The crazy part about the heat is that it is always hot- I walk out of my room and the hallway is hot, the lobby is hot, the walk to school is hot, the canteen is hot. There are only a few rooms that have some sort of AC or fan and luckily our bedrooms and the classroom of AC in the room.
On a day when I don’t have class the heat becomes a daily obstacle. You body is drenched with constant moisture and trickles of sweat are constantly sliding down various parts of my body. My legs stick to most chairs and my lungs sometimes have difficulty with all the warm damp air.I cant drink the tap water, so I constantly have bottled water to keep hydrated. I actually have been trying to drown my body in water as a good way to flush out all the pollution, different pollen, and help my body adjust to the new atmosphere. I have to say buying a water stomach has been useful purchase. I also have to swear by my deodorant:

Food
So I wanted to write more about the food because I just don’t think I did it justice. Food is such a big part of Thai culture- everyone loves to eat. They love to snack. They love really sweet things. They love condensed milk in everything. I became a black coffee and un-sweet tea drinker a few months before I left when I was on my diet kick and that was the biggest mistake I could have ever made. Here they put sugar on everything, and the condensed milk adds this thick, buttery creamy sugar taste that is unlike any sweetness in America. I love tea but I can’t drink the Thai tea because it taste like the topping of a orange GIGIs massive cupcake icing blended in drink form, and I am the biggest sweet lover there is.
I don’t dislike all the sweets; it is just things that are not supposed to be sweet are sweet and it just throws me off. The desserts here are amazing two. The other day I had a small crape about the size of a quarter with a spoonful of marshmallow cream fluff scooped on top with sprinkles of chilly powder on top. The sweetness melts on your mouth but has a thicker consistency of a marshmallow and then at the end the spice of the chily powder compliments like coconut sweetness. I also love the giant pancake size crape with nuetella and warm bananas! They make the crap right in front of you so the bananas a mashed and warm with a slight taste of chocolate melted overtop. The crape is then folded four times in a triangle and handed over for a great dessert. The bonus part is this is the dessert at my canteen at school for a little under 1American dollar! Overall the desserts are unbelievable. The Thais have won my heart with things that are meant to be sweet.
Since I am writing about Thai food I have to write about the spice. There is no way to explain the spice that is present in the food. Almost everything is spicy. The food has some of the Indian curry spice, but the main spice comes from red and green small peppers cooked in everything. The other night I accidently bit right into one of these red peppers and the spice exploded in my mouth. The heat wrapped around the front of my lips into my nasal passage and down my throat. My upper lip broke out in sweat and my eyes started watering. I stuffed my face with rice and peanuts to help neutralize the intense feeling but only time (and about ten minutes of time) would calm my mouth down. All that being said I have to admit that I LOVE the spice. Their main condiment is fish oil and peppers and I add it to almost all of my dishes to make it even spicier. I am already worried how I am going to go back to America and eat blander food…..
Other random things I have eaten: crickets, octopus burger on rice patty bun, sticky bun and pork shreds for breakfast, lots and lots of pineapple, dragon fruit, the best watermelon in the world, custard apple, baby oranges the size of your thumbnail, egg and milk pudding, lots of meat on a stick, egg stuffed with rice, baby eggplant, …….And lots f things I have no idea what it was. Usually my best bet is just to point, hold my finger up for 1 portion, and shake my head for the price. So far so good 

India/ China and Karma
When I was talking to someone about Thailand they said that Thailand was uniquely Thai, and that I should not compare it or try to find influence from other countries, and yes that is true to some degree. There are lots of things I have found that I have not seen anywhere else in the world: the architecture, the amazing, helpful, caring people, and how they always smile and laugh, etc. but there are so many similarities to China and India and it is so weird how both of these cultures mesh together. Much of the order of daily life reminds me of china- the traffic patterns, the vendors, the shops, the order, the relatively clean streets, the food to some degree- while much of the color and spirituality of Thailand reminds of India. The beautiful colors used in everything, the wonderful curry in the food, the ribbons and flags used to decorate buildings, the tuk-tuks, and especially the reverence towards the chosen spiritual leader. The only reason I say this is because both of the trips has made the transition to Thailand so much easier. I am not longer surprised when motorcycles ride up on the streets or when you are expected to cover your shoulders and take off your shoes when you enter a watt (Thai Buddhist temple). Every day I see something that reminds me of one of my trips, and I know I am so blessed to be able to have seen so much of Asia and slowly start to understand Asian and eastern cultures. I cannot wait to get to explore more of Southeast Asia through my travels out of the country and in my home village. I look forward to understanding eastern culture through the families in my community I will be teaching in. I am so so blessed to be in a small community where it is very common for teachers to be close to the families. I am teaching in a school with 350 students K-9 while some of my counterparts and teaching in middle schools and high schools with roughly 2000 students. I am not sure how I got so lucky or blessed with my placement, but the director says based on our goals addressed in our personal statement she tries to place us in our school. She also said that our signatures and black magic had a lot to do with how she was able to match our personalities with our school placement. I do not understand karma, black magic, and some of the Thai superstitions enough yet to write about it, but trust me I am on the path to finding out. I am going to an English Karma and meditation lecture another girl found on Monday so keep your eye out for what comes of that.

The food

The food is one of the best parts of Thailand and this is coming from someone who has never had American Thai food before this trip. This also means I can not compare to western dishes.

I will start by describing the best food I have had so far. It was a green pumpkin dressed in basil! This was the best flavor combination I have ever had in my mouth before. The sweet mushy pumpkin that had the consistancy of custardy squash was marinated with a think pesto sauce with light cheese on top. It is very fair to say the three other girls and I scrapped the pesto and ever parsal of food off this plate. This was at a vegetarian organic "homeaurant" where the owners actual home kitchen served as the main kitchen. After the apitizer I had a large helping of Papaya salad which is a semi spicy semi speet sauce dressed of long strips of carrots, cucumbers, squash, and maybe some sort of lettuce. It was topped with peanuts and extremly hot peppers.

Today I also have another amazing meal. NPR and the New York Timesactually had reviewed this place, but it was not a torrist attraction as you may think. There was only about 5 tables in the whole place which was the typical thai long garage style store. This older lane with her can took our order and whipped up an amazing dish of cocunut cream shrimp, crispy rice noodles, amazing fried salmon with salad and peppers on top, a red curry with chicken, and glass noodles with seafood. We shared these dishes family style over rice which allowed for us each to have the combination of sweet coconut milk and spicy red peppers rolled around in our mouth. Overall you can never doubt a restaurant with a good NPR rating!

Orderly memorizers or chaotic thinkers? Comparing Education

We have slowly bee learning about the Thai education system and one of the common themes is Thais do not like to learn. This is not in the same way that Americans do not like to learn, but in a way that there is less ambitions and personal motivation to gain knowledge. The Thai cultures centers around family and having fun- two things that are on the opposite end of the spectrum of a personal education. One teacher said that Thai education is more about the process of getting your students to appreciate gaining knowledge rather than actually gaining specific objectives. For these reasons a lot of good teaching tactics are based on group work, group think, and games. The idea of cheating is very common because of the collective culture and the lack of understanding of intellectual property.

Also Thai students do not like to think. Critical thinking is not a skill that has been valued for a very long time. It was only recently in a modification of the national curriculum that the government encourage creativity and learning centers throughout the community. Originally the value was placed on teachers lectures and students memorizes and recites- students were more like tape recorders than thinkers. (what is interesting is that I read an NPR article saying that education is going in a circle. America is becoming more like the Asians in encouraging memorization because of no child left behind and Asian countries are becoming more like America by starting to promote creativity and critical thinking). What this all means is that it is very difficult to get Thai students to participate in class or want to critically think about the knowledge they are gaining.

There is a lot (and I mean a lot ) of respect for the teaching profession. It is highly revered and sometimes even intimidating to the parents of the students. What a teacher says in the classroom is not questioned by the students or the parents even if the facts are believed to be wrong. For these same reason students are afraid to participate in class and loose face for answering the question wrong in front of an authority figure. (*** This is what I have learned so far and it in NO way generalizes every student in every province). This poses a big challenge for me as a western teacher who is trying to encourage students to learn English based on my experience in American classrooms let alone promote the new national standard of critical thinking.

So the question is: is it better to have an orderly classroom full of tape recorders or a classroom out of control who can at least think on their own?

The Wai/ Bowing to greet people

One of the things I have to get used to is greeting our lectures, directors, and all those older than I with the “wai”. This ia a traditional bow with your hands raised in a prayer position to your forhead. You are supposed to greet all those who you want to show respect to with the “wai”, and it is used very common. Every time I enter a room with someone older than me I always stumble to raise my hands to my forehead in order to pay respect, but so far I just look like I am having some kind of spastic reaction. It is especially hard considering when I usually come to class I have pens, notebook, or a coffee in my hand.

The other hard part about the “wai” is that all service workers will “wai” you and you are no supposed to “wai” them back. This is not because you don’t respect them, it is just the way it is apparently. It is very hard for me not to “wai” them back because I feel like it is some form of servitude, but them when I do “wai” them back they just giggle at my lack of cultural awareness.

Finally the other interesting thing about the “wai” is you are supposed to lower your body to those who are in a higher position than you almost like a bow- a more important person gets a bigger bow. For me a slightly taller western woman which means a very tall in Asian cultures I don’t know how much to lower myself since I am taller than most the people here- only by an inch or so, but it still poses an interesting situation.

So until I figure and master this process I will continue to look awkward and “wai” the wrong people for what is supposed to be a very natural and honored gesture.

Orientation Day one

Orientation Day one
I can’t explain how good it felt to be back in a classroom setting absorbing knowledge again. One because I was being fed vital information about living in Thailand and 2) I just think I am one of those weird people who like knowledge – and I love taking notes.

I arrived at school with my group of twelve other Fulbrighters right at 8:30am slightly moist from the humidity and the slight constant monsoon rain – Thankfully this is one this Kentucky prepared me very well. We were greeted with our first informal lesson …. Porn.
Porn is something you will see often in Thailand- in name and in words, but what porn means in Thai is blessing. You didn’t expect that one coming did you- The complete opposite ends of the spectrum for the meaning of the same word. I am thankful that this was addressed very early on in the lesson because I was getting slightly uncomfortable with my perverted head continually noticing the word porn.

Obama
Besides porn another very interesting concept is the role of that Obama plays abroad. I noticed the reverence or at least respect for Obama now in two countries, China and Thailand. It is so interesting what this national figure is doing to change the concepts of what an American is- an American can be black. In China a few of my fellow students and I were asked the question of how do we understand what Obama is saying because he speaks a different language, and another woman asked why we would elect a black person when there was a white person running. This is no prejudice this is pure ignorance. In a country where everyone looks the same it is very hard, let me repeat very hard, to understand the concept of an eclectic culture. Many people believe that all Americans are very white with light brown or blonde air. My director explained to us that Obama has helped Thais grasp the concept that 1) not all black people are Africans and 2) that African Americans can reach high positions

Black and White
This brings to another concepts we learned here the word black and white and synonymous with dark and light. For a Thai person to say “you are black” means you are dark or tan. They have a fascination with being lighter because being tan means that you have to work out in the fields all day or have a laborious job in the sun. In America being tan can mean you have the luxury to enjoy the beach or the pool or pay to go to the tanning bed. Having a nice sun-kissed glow is advertised and sold like cheese would be sold to a mouse.

The Internet

My upbeat experience was slightly tarnished when after a long day feeling jet lagged we all arrived at a coffee shop with free wifi. I was so excited to tell everyone back home I was safe and just to be able to connect with something from home just because so far no one from home knew where I was in the world and the promised phone call to Fred had not been able to take place. As everyone is logging into wifi, I have to reboot my computer for some reason and then when I am up and running my computer cant find the wireless connection. I wanted to throw my precious netbook against the rack of 2 dollar shoes.

SO for now I do not have internet in my room or in the coffee shop. I continue to write my blogs in a word document pretending that someone is listening. Maybe it is just a very therapeutic way to release my feeling. I also believe it is a very meditative way to say thanks for all the wonderful experiences I have had so far. I know it may not seem like a very positive experience, but it has. There are some very cool people in the program with me who have much better Thai than I who have been a godsend in ordering food and logging into the phone. The food is amazing and I love all the fruit! I cant wait to start orientation to find out more about my teaching experience.

And for all out there who are listening (for right now its my word document) thank you for all your support from many miles away. I can feel it- or maybe that is just the blessing/spirituality of the full dressed Buddhist monk I met in the supermarket.

ONE PM

At one PM we all met in the lobby of our building which is actually a large outdoor covered room with multiple, nice Picnic tables. Many other foreign students, mostly Chinese female students, are busy studying while our group takes the table closes to the door. The crazy thing is when we had a monsoon rain today – and I do mean literally because it is monsoon season- these students were still working hard away in the lobby as the rain poured down only inches from them but was still far enough away to keep their laptops dry.
The first meeting was surprisingly short. We received our first month salary and some moving in allowance, discussed very briefly a few events over the next year, and received some contact information. We walked to school which was about a fifteen minute walk to the college of Education where we will be having all our seminars over the next few weeks, and then were let free to settle in or make any purchases necessary.

Most of us ventured to MBK- A large 7 story shopping mall (Much like an overgrown pearl market for those of you who have been to China) where we all purchased very cheap Samsung phones and sim cards to be able to call one another as well as any other Thai friends we meet along the way. All of this was purchased for about 30 US dollars, plus about 15 dollars for 500 minutes. For those of you who have been to China or India you know the art of bargaining and to be very aware that your first price is usually a foreigner overcharged-let me make as much money price. Surprisingly the bargaining and price raising has not been as stiff in my previous travels. There were a few places that tried to sell these phones for 1,200 baht but we found a few who were upfront in selling them for 850 baht and some of us got the vendor down to 800 baht plus free Sim card which is only a difference of about $1.70. However we knew the vendor was making money when she went down the hall and purchased three Samsung phones and sim cards and came back to sell them to us- of the power of the middle man.

So far the day was pretty successful. We had ventured around much of our surrounding area, and I must say that so far it reminds me a lot of China- the traffic, motorcyclist on the sidewalk, some bargaining, the large buildings, the shopping center. The food is better, even though I loved Chinese food- it has a lot of the Indian spice that I love.

At one PM we all met in the lobby of our building which is actually a large outdoor covered room with multiple, nice Picnic tables. Many other foreign

First Day

I wake up at around 6:30 Am. I had thought after pure exhaustion and so much over stimulation my body would at least grace me with double digit sleeping hours, but instead I slumbered for a measly five hours. I decided to take the time to unpack, situate myself, decorate the room, and wash up. I always feel that if I can stabilize myself and have a comfortable home base the trip becomes much smoother of a transition. I am able to find a comfortable place after long days exploring.

All this activity managed to only take a few hours and I wasn’t due anywhere until one pm. Unfortunately I didn’t have any way to contact any of my fellow Fulbrights and my body was starting to feel the jet lag. I realized that with no TV, no internet (yes I do not have internet in my room but that is another blog post), no car, and no confidence (yet) to explore Bangkok that there was not much for me to do for the next couple of hours. My whole way of thinking of how to spend my time is going to change over the next year. I have very few distractions and luxuries of time wasting activities. Your world becomes so much more adventurous when you can’t sit at home and just sit on facebook. When I do decide I want to sit in my room and read – it is a much more purposeful read- A read that is about enjoying every emotion of the character and exploring every possible twist in the story line.

I made it to Bangkok

I made it to Bangkok! Although there were a few stress heightened moments along the way, I was quiet surprised how easily I made it through all the checkpoints and to my Guest House.
I thought through packing all my liquids in 3 ounce bottles, had my electronics all arranged to easily put them in their own crate at check-out, had triple weighed my bags to make sure I was not slapped large fees, but the one thing I DID NOT think through was the travel agent only gave my 18 minutes to land in Chicago and make my boarding time to Tokyo. To make this process even more emotionally heightened I had just said good-bye to my family and Fred for possibly are year, so it is very easy to say my nerves were very fragile. Thankfully the pilot of my Louisville-Chicago flight noticed my wrecked nerves and requested that my carry-on not be stored under the plane (since they were only allowing backpacks and purses to be stored on the plane) in order to save me fifteen minutes, and then very sternly suggested that I run to catch my Tokyo flight since the Chicago airport was so big.
My Chicago flight landed at 11:06 and I was off the plane by 11:10- 8 minutes before boarding time. Thankfully on International flights they start boarding roughly an hour before the flight departs. Slightly sweaty at about 11:30 I arrived in terminal B, for those who know the Chicago airport, just in time to use the restroom and be one of the last passengers to board the flight! The high of making the flight was neutralized by the low of knowing my bags would not make the same record speed time I had just achieved.
After a twelve hour flight with no individual TVs (what international flight these days does not have individual TVs?), two Japanese airplane dinners, a few 30 minutes naps, and 1 stretch break, I arrived in Tokyo- Well actually Narita which was a big let down since I didn’t get to see any of Tokyo’s skyline. Now the Tokyo’s airport does not arrange the airport by terminal just numbers- so having to find gate 36 was a little challenging, but those lovely Japanese sign-holders that float through the airport made the process slightly smoother. I must say Japanese women in general made me smile because here I am very proud that I look half-way clean in sweatpants and keens, and they look freshly showered in high heels and a blouse. I wish I could travel in such style.
After a three hour layover in the Tokyo airport which I saw nothing of because my adventurous self met and lost to my Jetlag self, I was seated in an aisle seat next to a navy geologist studying malaria patterns for the last 6 hours of the flight.
Speaking of people I encountered while traveling, I must report that it was so interesting observing travelers embarking on Asian travel. I met an elderly couple going to a wedding in Taiwan, an MBA student at Georgia Tech finishing his final project in Asia, a world hitchhiker visiting friends (who was an exact replica of Crocodile Dundee in his full Khaki outdoor wear slightly tanned face and sun-bleached hair), and a volunteer who was spending a month in Thailand, Nepal, and India respectively. I was actually quite surprised by the heavy presence of westerners both in Tokyo (well actually Narita I admit bitterly) and Bangkok. Besides the difference in the written language on signs I have not felt like a complete outsider. – I also credit this ease of culture shock to my India and China travels.
The process of arriving in Bangkok -passport check-baggage pick up-customs- then to meeting point 3 was something I had been dreading since I first stepped on my Louisville flight. I was completely terrified of getting lost in the Bangkok airport, but the process was surprisingly easy minus the slightly intimidating passport check crew who stare up and down at you while reading through your reasons of entering the beloved Kingdom of Thailand. My extremely optimistic Crocodile Dundee clone assured me that it was very easy to get around which calmed my anxiety greatly(he also told me he had a wonderful job in the United states if I would trade places with him for the year.)
Now at the final check point- Baggage claim. I waited behind all the chaos assured my new, shiny red four coaster suitcase set (best purchase ever) were not arriving tonight. I barely glanced at the baggage rotating from afar, but when the glimmer of light reflected off my bag turning the corner I unknowing jumped in surprise and very ungracefully pulled my bags off the turning strip!! Thank-you anyone who prayed for these to arrive with me!
With my bags in my possession, I made my to the meeting point with no trouble and my Fulbright director sent the first three arrivals including me off to the International Guest House to rest up for the night.
Looking back I am very proud of my first time traveling completely solo. I didn’t realize until Fred left the airport in Louisville that I had never traveled alone before, but this was a great way to start.