The First Week

I am constantly reminded of how incredible it is for me to be living halfway around the world from where I grew up. I can't believe that I have only been in Thailand for a week. I have done and learned so much. Every day things become more and more familiar and feel more like home. I have met so many other foreign exchange students in my dorms from Germany, Spain, Canada, Austria and others. I not only get the to live, study, and travel in Thailand, I get to do all of these things with people all over the world. I have made friends with mostly students in my program because we were the lucky students that were led by an amazing guide and spent a few days together before everyone else arrived in Thailand traveling and bonding.

The first few days of my trip were under the careful watch of my resident coordinator. He planned the activities, the transportation, and ordered our food. Along the way he taught us Thai words and phrases, and introduced different Thai traditions such as the wai which is a sign of greeting and respect. We rode elephants, rafted, visited the bridge over the river kwai, rode in a baht bus, hiked to a waterfall, ate a variety of delicious Thai food, visited markets including a floating market, and he entertained with stories about his time in Thailand along the way.

On Wednesday I had my first Thai massage, which is actually my first massage ever. It was awesome! The masseur was not too hard on me, which was good. It felt wonderful and it was only 200 baht for an hour which is equivalent to right under $7. I will definitely be going back. It was even in walking distance of my dorm.

Thursday I learned that buses don't stop at all the bus stops on their route. They only stop when you press a button to get off of the bus. No one on buses ever seems to speak any english or understand any of my wild hand gestures. Public transportation is rater difficult to figure out at first. It left me in a market that Westerners must never go to because all of the locals stared at us as we walked through.

This weekend I came to Koh Samet, which is one of the closest beaches to Bangkok, with 17 other international students. It took us much longer than it should have to get here because of more difficulties with public transportation, but we finally made it and are staying at a place right on the beach. A 2-person room with a fan was 500 baht so about $8 per person. It has rained pretty much the whole time we've been here but it has been a blast! New experiences in an exciting new place with tons of new friends! 

On Monday classes start! We all had a nice long weekend at the beach to celebrate our first week here and our last days of summer.