I am so annoyed that half the time I come home, there are complete strangers working on something that doesn't need to be fixed in my bedroom. They unlock it, let themselves in, move my stuff around, and never let me know where anything is or why they came into my room.

I already spoke to my landlord, and told him how uncomfortable it made me feel... and they're doing again today. It makes me feel so violated, I don't even know what to say anymore. :ADFSOIfghjaaaaa;wae8rtu3wfuhs ;JL!!

I'd like to write a blog about lèse majesté but am too worried about having the Thai police come knockin' on my door and taking me away. If I were write anything that could come off the slightest bit negative, I could be in big trouble.

By the way, I can't access the Wikipedia page on the King because the government has blocked it. Fascinating, huh? Guess I'll have to wait almost 2 months until I'm back in the states.

Mom, Molly, and Dan have been in Thailand for a week now. We were in Bangkok for a couple days when they first got here, just walking around the streets, checking out the vendors.

Then we went to Ayutthaya for 2 days and passed through my neighborhood, Pathum Thani, on the way there. With the exception of our driver who really creeped us out and kept taking photos of Molly with camera phone, it was awesome to go back to Ayutthaya. I went earlier this semester with my program, but knew that Mom would want to see all of the ruins. They really are beautiful and originate from the 14th century!

After Ayutthaya, we flew up to Chiang Mai which is where we are right now. The most exciting part of the trip for Mom, Dan, and Molly was visiting the elephant camp where they got to ride elephants, travel in an ox-pulled cart, raft on a bamboo raft, visit an indigenous tribe called the 'Long Necks', and afterward, they went to the tiger camp and played with tigers! Unfortunately, I had food poisoning that day and I was in bed for hours, so I had to miss out...

Chiang Mai has a lot of night markets and cheap vendors, so we also bought a lot of stuff for ourselves and for friends and family back home.

I would write more but I just lost interest, haha sorry! I'll write more once I'm back in Pathum Thani (since I will have to study for midterms but will need a break!).

I get to see Mom, Dan, and Molly tomorrow! Then after they leave, I have a week of midterms, then Dad and Chandelle are visiting! I'm so excited!

I guess that means I should clean my room. I haven't cleaned a single time since I've been here. Nor have I unpacked my suitcases. I hate unpacking more than anything. Almost more than loading and unloading the dishwasher, but thankfully we don't have a dishwasher (or any dishes, for that matter).

Still very itchy. I think I got bit by that bug again. More bumps are showing up.

Um. I don't really have anything to say, I'm just bored... Everyone has left for break already (Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Chang Mai, Koh Lanta--we're all over the place!) so I'm here alone. I've been watching lots of TV and I'm starting to get cabin fever. I guess I'll be productive today and clean my room, do my laundry, and go for a walk to find our smoothie lady (who makes the best watermelon and lime smoothies IN THE WORLD).

My eyes are officially opened.

As my time in Thailand has progressed, I've found that I have very mixed feelings towards this place. Perhaps it's because I always learned about Southeastern Asia through Western eyes, but I always thought it seemed like a relatively magical place with beautiful architecture, kind people, strange ways of life, and a culture that thrived on respect and tradition.

Well. Respect and tradition my ass. If I've learned anything at all, it's that America is an amazing country and I'm ashamed to have ever lost faith in it (which I did for quite some time, as if I've been alive long enough to say that).

There are so many stigmas about American culture that other countries place on us, even ones that we learn about in our classrooms at home, as if we are the root of all evil or something. We dress too casually, we're loud, girls act too provocatively, we care too much about what others think, we're obsessed with TVs and other forms of mass media... We're too this, and too that. We've lost sight of history, of reverence, of tradition... The list goes on. Layer after layer of negative stereotypes.

And even here in Thailand, in my Thai Language and Thai Civilization classes, they teach us all these rules about how to act towards the elderly, how to bow properly, how to speak formally... because God forbid we do something wrong to disgrace their culture and further shame ourselves as 'ferangs', what they call foreigners (literal translation: white person).

Guess what? Not once have I seen a Thai student treat the elderly how we are taught to treat them. Not once I have seen a Thai student treat a waiter at a restaurant like a human being. Not once have I seen a Thai student give anything to the poor or the crippled that beg on the streets. Not once have I seen a Thai student respect a professor in the classroom.

The girls dress more provocatively on a daily basis than me or any of my friends have ever dressed in our entire lives. Girls who are wider than a yard stick believe they're "fat", so they wear more make-up and higher heels to feel prettier. Every restaurant or street-side vendor has a TV on some Thai soap opera or a radio blaring Western Top-40 music. Students absolutely never listen in class, nor do they take notes, nor do they show any interest whatsoever.

That said: why have I always learned about my own culture from such a negative light when we aren't any different than the rest of them? Why do all these unfavorable stereotypes fall on our shoulders and not theirs? It isn't fair that when we travel we're told to be careful because so many people dislike us. It isn't fair that we're considered 'racist' for having slavery when I hear Thai people yell "FERANG!" at me at least twice a week.

Believe it or not, this isn't a rant against Thai culture, regardless of the harsh or negative statements. This is the first time I've put these thoughts into words, and they're things that have been frustrating me since the day I became accustomed to life here. At first I just got angry all the time, angry at how hypocritical Thai culture seems. Then I realized that the anger stemmed from a new found pride I have in being American, and I came to see that we aren't nearly as "bad" as we or others are told.

Every culture is one in the same; we just live differently. (And thank God for that or else this world would be boring as hell.)

Okay so I don't have Scabies. But I'm having an allergic reaction to an insect bite. I'm still extremely itchy but the doctor said it should go away within a week. Hopefully.

I found out yesterday that Thailand's rainy season will end in a couple weeks, then it will be winter. But winter just means that the temperature cools off a few degrees, but it's still fairly warm. Regardless, 75-85 degrees is far better than 80-90!

I don't really have anything to say, just wanted to say that I don't have Scabies. Yay!

The last few days have been pretty crazy around here.

1. Tyson went to the hospital for a day and a half because of a serious bacterial infection that was causing him to vomit a lot.

2. Arjun, Ryan, and Ian went with a guy they know to get bamboo tattoos and were pulled over by the police on the way. The guy had a warrant out for his arrest, and since my friends were with him, they got put in jail for 4-5 hours.

3. I have Scabies! I'm actually very glad that I don't have something 10 times worse, but the itching is beginning to drive me mad. My Thai friend took me to several pharmacies--no Benadryl pills to be found. But luckily, another girl on my program has Benadryl cream and I'm currently waiting for that to start working before I scratch all my skin off.


In other news, my mommy, Molly, and Dan will be here in a week!! I'm very excited.

It's amazing how quickly it can go from being beautiful and sunny, to pouring down rain. It's like clockwork. The rain is a blessing here, though, because it cools down the temperatures to a bearable level.

We've had a really nice relaxing weekend. The majority of the people at our apartments went to Koh Phangan this weekend to experience the Full Moon Party. They took an overnight bus (15 hrs long) last Thursday evening and are coming back on the same bus tonight (Monday night). I guarantee that if I had decided to go, I would have gotten there, regretted it, and been stuck for 4 days on a beach with crazy, drug-taking, alcoholic travelers. No thank you!

Saturday we spent the day at the Siam Center in Bangkok, a large area with 3-4 giant malls, malls so big that NOTHING in the United States could even compare. It was unreal! Each mall was at least 5 stories high, some had 7 stories, and were filled with expensive stores like Gucci and Coach. We wanted to go on a glass-bottom boat ride (yes, inside the mall!) at the Siam Ocean Aquarium, but it was really expensive, so we settled for a 4-D x-venture movie instead. It was a cute little film about turtles and how humans have invaded their habitats, like an interactive 3-D movie (water sprayer in our face, our chairs moved around--it was really fun). Then I had Subway for dinner! Real turkey and real cheese! It was so delicious.

Instead of taking a taxi back, which costs up to 300 Baht to get back home, we decided to figure out how to use Bangkok's public transportation. We rode the SkyTrain north to its last stop (35 Baht each), then rode the bus to Rangsit (the town we live in, 22 Baht each), then rode on the university's transportation until we reached campus (6 Baht each), and walked home from there. We saved around 30-40 Baht this way, which is how much a meal costs.

Oh yeah, last Thursday night was really fun, too. We went to Future Park, the huge mall in our province, to have dinner and see a movie. We watched "Pandorum", some new movie with Dennis Quaid, a sci-fi thriller. It was pretty good. The popcorn was funny, though... They had three flavors: original, sweet, and cheese. I got a mixture of original and cheese, only to discover that "cheese" isn't quite the same here as it at home. It tasted good, for sure, but it was like a weird mixture of spices on popcorn. We were so confused as to why it didn't taste like cheese, but then we remembered that they don't have cheese in Thailand, so they had no idea what it was supposed to taste like!

Last night we wanted to out for pizza because we've been craving Western food, but everything is closed here on Sundays, just like at home. Hopefully we'll try again tonight! It's expensive in terms of Baht, but cheap in terms of American dollars. About 160-200 Baht for a Large pizza (which is 5-7 bucks).

I'm really distracted now so I guess that's it. I've uploaded a few more photos on Facebook, check them out if you get a chance!

Howdy.

Hey, I guess it's been a little while since I last posted, but I don't really have anything to tell you. At least not anything exciting.

My friends bought a duck. Did I say that already? Well he's cute and his name is Doug. He's getting bigger day by day, so they've been looking for somewhere to take him when he's full grown. Apparently there's a monastery near campus that took our friend's rabbit last year and she was allowed to visit it whenever she wanted. We're thinking that'd be ideal because he's so freaking adorable, we just don't have the space or knowledge to keep him well.

Isn't he the cutest?!


A few people that I live with are starting to drive me nuts. I can still tolerate them with ease, but it's becoming increasingly difficult not to get frustrated every time they open their mouths. I'm not the only one that feels this way, either, so I know I'm not being irrational. They're just... not positive people. And I don't like to be around people that act like Debbie Downer's all the time.

In other news, Kasey and Colin are who I've gotten the closest to. Here's a cheesy picture of us right before we had lunch on the River Kwai:



Colin goes to UMass Amherst and is from Massachusetts, somewhere rural. Kasey is from San Diego and is transferring to Southern Oregon University this Spring. They're awesome. We've already talked about visiting each other and such.

K, I guess that's it. Colin's brother just moved to Bangkok with his girlfriend so they're here to hang out with tonight. Bye!