Friends, School, and Weekend Trips

This semester has been one of firsts. I never imagined that I'd make the friends that I have. The people studying abroad here are adventurous, world travelers, passionate, experienced, and intelligent. I'm constantly learning from the people around me. I researched vegetarianism and am giving it a shot thanks to some of my friends here who were vegetarians and vegans and were discussing the benefits of it for your body and the environment. It has been a week and counting now since I began. Surprisingly, as a sophomore I am one of the youngest students studying abroad. Only one other girl that I know of is a sophomore. A large amount of students are juniors and seniors, but older than the average college age, 23-26. We all are very different, coming from all over the world, with different interests, majors, and perspectives. I love it! I'm learning about school and life in Germany and am constantly hearing German, Spanish, and Dutch spoken in addition to Thai.

I'm getting used to not being tied down my phone and also not having much time to myself. Especially in my dorm, there is a very social atmosphere. If I'm in the dorm then I'm either sleeping or in the common area discussing travel plans, skyping, or gossiping. Getting used to school has been a bigger adjustment than I thought. People are always in the common area chatting, eating, working out, planning trips. or watching TV. It makes it difficult to study here. I stay up too late and have to get up and go to the library before class if I want to get any schoolwork done. All of my classes are an hour and fifty minutes. They involve a lot of lecturing. Professors hand out their powerpoints. Thai students tend to be late to class, chat with each other and play on their phones during class, and generally don't participate. My grades are basically made up solely of the midterm and final. Returning back to my home university next semester is going to be difficult because I'll not only have more classes but they will be much more rigorous and demanding as well.

This weekend I stayed in Bangkok for the first time. I visited the Grand Palace and went shopping. It was a pretty uneventful weekend and very few international students were here. I'm not planning on staying here anymore weekends because there is not enough going on. There are so many places to go visit that are easy weekend trips that there is no need to stay here. Next weekend I'm going to Cambodia to visit Angkor Wat temples, and the following week I'm taking advantage of a holiday, taking off a couple of days of school and going to Northern Vietnam to trek through Sapa and visit Halong Bay. I'm going on this trip alone because a few of the people I normally travel with are going to Myanmar, and the others, unfortunately, have midterm exams right in the middle of the trip. I am nervous, but I think that it will be good for me to be on my own and meet new people. I will be on organized trips so I will not be completely on my own, but it should be a good experience. I have two unplanned weekends at the beginning of November. I'm thinking I may go to Laos and then maybe somewhere in Northern Thailand for the following weekend since I have not been there. Mid-November I'm going to Koh Phangan with a large group of international students and after that there is only a week or so of school left before final exams in the first week of December. I can't believe how much time has already passed. I'm enjoying my time here so much and know it will be hard to leave this country and the people I've spent my time with. Until then, I'm continuing to take advantage of all of the opportunities that I can.

Picture from the Grand Palace this weekend! We had to wear our school uniforms in order to get in for free. It was so busy and hot.