I'm sitting in the "Executive Loung" at the Millenium Hilton in Bangkok. Since dad is traveling around the southern part of Thailand this week, he let my friends and I stay in the hotel for a few nights. It's been really nice since we've been living very sparingly the past few months (at least, sparing compared to our lives at home).

Today we (Colin, Kasey, and I) treated ourselves to a MONSTROUS breakfast. We had so much food, it was unreal. Omelet, bacon, 2 orders of hasbrowns, 2 pain de chocolats, 3 croissants, 2 farm's rolls, 4 slices of bread, 2 English muffins, 2 banana muffins, a plate of pineapple, a plate of papaya, a plate of different seasonal fruits, 2 pots of coffee, 1 pot of hot chocolate, 2 pitchers of orange juice, a bowl of oatmeal, a bowl of cereal, 5 differents kinds of jelly, honey, salted and unsalted butter... and that's all I can't remember. I think there were a few more things. The best part is that we ate every single bite. It took us a good hour and a half of lengthy breaks in between, but we don't eat much western food, yet alone breakfast food, so we were in absolute heaven!

They are about to leave to go back to our apartment in Pathum Thani but I decided to stay here by myself for a night before dad gets back. They have a service at the hotel where they come draw a bath for you, and fill it with all sorts of essential oils and bath salts for only 400 Baht (which is about $12 or so)... so I've decided that I'm going to treat myself to a really nice bath, haha.

Yesterday we went to Bangkok's Chinatown for a few hours and walked around for a while. It was really overwhelming so we got very exhausted very fast. Afterwards, we went to Wat Traimit, the temple that houses the world's largest pure gold Buddha. Our travel book warned us that would be "particularly underwhelming", which it was, but I'm glad we at least took the time to see it. We also treated ourselves to a nice Italian dinner. Usually any kind of Western food doesn't taste so great in Thailand, but this dinner was delicious. It was well worth the expenses--about 190 Baht per dish, and we usually pay about 40 Baht (but 190 Baht is only $6 anyway!). Afterward, we went to one of our favorite Bangkok brew pubs called The Londoner. We found out that every Friday night when you order a glass of wine, you get another glass free, so Kasey and I ordered some expensive Sauvignon Blanc so we both got a glass.

That said, it's been a good week/weekend! And we're going to Cambodia next weekend!

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.)

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!

More photos from Kanchanaburi.

The Bridge Over River Kwai, also known as The Death Bridge. Built in the first several decades of the 1900s, over 160,000 workers died during it's construction. They were all prisoners of war, forced to work under horrific conditions.


There was a lot of touristy stuff around the bridge, including the opportunity to play with this little leopard cub (who was cleared being exploited for all the wrong reasons). This is my friend Novo from Mexico, he's on my program.



We also went to 2 caves that were filled with Buddhas and little worshipping areas.


The Erawan Waterfall at Erawan National Park. The water was perfectly clear, it was beautiful.



This sign is at the entrance of the trail to the waterfall. So funny! Unfortunately we didn't see any monkeys though...

Photos from Kanchanaburi

We had lunch on a floating pavilion that was pulled along by this little boat. As you can see, the scenery around us was beautiful! This is the River Kwai, by the way.


The next day, we rafter down the Riber Kwai on bamboo rafts.


The Taweechai Elephant Camp is located in the midst of the Pang Chang community, and there were several families living in huts like this. We rode through their neighborhood on the elephants!


You were supposed to pay 20 Baht to take a photo of this elephant, but I took this when the guy wasn't looking (obviously). Oops! But I don't feel bad... they'll do anything to suck the money out of foreigner's wallets.


The elephants that we rode! As you can see, each one has a guide/trainer and a bench for 2 people to sit on.

Today is the first day I've ever felt uncomfortable while walking around the town or campus. For some reason, I've noticed everyone staring more today, or saying things about us (quite obviously) then laughing with each other. I don't know why... it's really strange.

By the way, I'm going to interrupt myself for a second. Have I mentioned how unbearable it is to be in a classroom with Thai students? Believe it or not, their level of respect is so far below the standards we have at Goucher, it's a joke. Students talk with each other the entire time in class, refuse to talk when the teacher asks them a question, and barely take notes or pay attention. It drives me crazy! You could NEVER get away with that behavior in the United States, yet they preach about how respectful their culture is, how to be proper to those older and wise than you. If that was the case, I wouldn't have to shoot them the evil eye every time they distract me from taking notes.

For example, my friend Colin and I are in a computer lab on campus to check e-mail and whatnot, and there's several Thai students in here, doing some survey for an English class... or pretending to do the survey, rather, because all they're doing is watching movies and music videos until the teacher walks in, then they close those webpages and pull the survey back up like they've been working the whole time. Aren't they supposed to be in college? Isn't that something a high school student would do...?

It's just strange, and seems very hypocritical, that Thai students can get away with acting the way they do in an educational setting. I'm very grateful that two of my classes are all foreigners, all exchange students or people on my program, because I can actually hear everything the professor is saying without being distracted every 5 minutes.

a) I found my favorite dish, I think. All it says on the menu is "egg noodle in spicy sauce with chicken/pork/seafood". I get it with chicken, and the so-called 'egg noodles' are actually Top Ramen noodles, tossed in some amazing generic spicy sauce with sliced chilis and cut up green beans. It is sooo good.

b) Whenever you see the word "lemon" in Thailand, they actually mean "lime". I'm not sure why, but everyone here thinks limes are called lemons. My favorite smoothie is made of watermelon, ice, and lime juice, but of course, on the menu it says "watermelon and lemon". There's also a restaurant called "The Lemon Green Room"... I'm assuming they also mean 'lime'.

c) I might have already mentioned this, but every Thai person has an American nickname. I don't really know why, I haven't asked yet... but EVERY person I've met that's Thai has a strange nickname. For your reading pleasure, I'll list the people I've met so far: Nut, Ice, Jom, Jul, Rabbit, Fern, another Fern, Balls, Poom... and that's all I can remember. And yes, you read correctly: I met a guy named Balls.

I put some more pictures up on Facebook. They are of our trip to Ayutthaya, the old capital of Thailand. It was so beautiful! The rest of the pictures are from a night we all went to RCA, a street outside of Bangkok filled with really posh clubs. We went to one called Route 66 and it was a ton of fun. Usually, the cover charge is 200 Baht, which is about $6-7 in US dollars, but considered a lot of money here in Thailand... but we found out that every Thursday there's no cover charge!

Things have been good lately. School is starting to kick in-- I already have a group presentation due tomorrow (Tuesday) about contemporary Thai art. I complained at first, getting so much homework the first week, but I think it's good because it keeps us busy when we having nothing to do. We only have one Internet hook-up per apartment, and there are about 12 people in each apartment... so we can't waste time online like we do at home. Nice change of pace.

I'm still not getting used the heat. When it rains, the temperature drops about 5 degrees and the sky is very overcast-- it's still hot, but it's extremely not to have the sun beating down on you. We always talk about how we never quite feel clean here. Even after you shower and sit in the AC in your room, the second you walk out into the front room of the apartment or outside, you're sweating all over again. Laundry is quite a task, too... the machines are across the street, don't always work, and no one uses dryers here. It takes a long time to wash and dry your clothes so I don't really do it too often. I re-wear a lot of clothes until they're just downright dirty which is why I never really feel too clean.

My landlord lives in the apartment next to me with his aunt and her daughter. The aunt's name is Yupin, and I thought she was sweet and cute at first... but now she's just getting on my nerves. The Thai people have no concept of personal space or boundaries-- I'll be sitting inside on the computer, and she'll just walk in, start speaking to me in Thai, and standing over my shoulder watching what I do on the computer. She can't read any of it since she doesn't speak English, but it's still really weird and frustrating. She always calls my name and rattles of in Thai, as if I understand her... then laughs at me when I have no idea what she's saying. Yeah, she's really starting to get on my nerves. I think she's really lonely so she enjoys having us around. I've never seen her leave the house and Dan, the landlord (her nephew), is really dismissive when we talk about Yupin with him. Weird family, weird relationships.

Anyway, that's it for now. I'm going to try and find all the TV shows I watch online so I can catch up this afternoon. It's far too hot to do much this afternoon--over 90 degrees and no cloud cover whatsoever! No thank you.

Love and miss y'all! (ps. A lot of my friends have started saying "y'all" because I use it so often!)

I had my first Thai language class today. It's going to be really difficult to pick up on certain things. I think it's better for us to learn specific phrases than the alphabet and numbers, but we won't be learning phrases or words for several weeks. Looks like miming will have to do for now.

Today at lunch, there were these strange little white jelly dishes at the table. We asked one of our professors, who happened to be eating next to us, what it was, and it was some sort of lunch dessert made with coconut and flour. It was really good--it basically tasted like rice pudding, nothing like coconut at all.

Two days ago, we found this small market right near our apartments that has everything you can imagine... shoes, clothes, food, jewelry, massages, mini nail salons, underwear, ice cream... It's awesome. We've been going the past few nights to wander around and eat dinner. I bought Molly a really cute tank top that's black with a gold picture of Thailand, and it says "Thailand Stand Up". It's one of those funky graphic tanks that are really popular these days... even Thai people dress ultra hip if they aren't in their uniforms.

Speaking of uniforms... sooo unattractive! My skirt is a really awkward length below my knees, so I'm going to have my friend hem it. My shirt is giant and baggy, too, but oh well--it catches a nice breeze, haha. The Thai girls dress very... provacatively in their uniforms. They buy tiny, tight black miniskirts and white shirts that are way too small. They wear 4inch heels, make-up, designer bags, and pretty jewelry to school every day. We look so drab compared to them.

I've noticed my posts have been really disorganized... but that's because so many random things happen that I can't really make it all flow together.

Anyway, that's it for now. I have class in 10 minutes, Thai Civilization. The teacher is so adorable. She went to grad school at Temple University in Pennsylvania, then taught at Washington University for 4 years. Her English is impeccable, her name is Prinda, and she's just seriously the cutest woman in the world. K bye.

Thailand!

Okay so I'm already homesick. It never really hit me that I would be SO far away until I actually got here. I'm sure that once I'm really settled in and start classes, it will get a lot easier. I mean, I guess it's just like going to college all over again, so I sort of expected feeling this way for a couple weeks.

Anyway. The food is great! I was very happy to discover that Pad Thai tastes the same in Thailand as it does in America. I'm such a picky eater that I thought eating here would be difficult, but it really isn't... lots of chicken dishes, rice, and noodle soups. So far nothing has made me feel nauseous either, let's hope it stays that way.

The apartment arrangement is very strange. There's about 10 of us in one building. When you walk in from the street, you walk into our small sitting room with a TV, which is joined to our tiny TINY kitchen (sink, fridge, microwave). There's one single bedroom on the bottom floor, which is mine! I fought hard to get my own bedroom because sharing a room with a stranger does not sound apealing to me. Anyway, then there's a very long staircase that goes up 4 stories, 2 bedrooms on each floor--they're all double rooms. Shoes aren't allowed inside, you take of your sandels before going inside. You can carry them in if you want, which is what I do because I don't wnat them to get stolen.

I'm in a province called Pathum Thani, pronounced Pah-toom Taw-nee (I think?). It's supposedly a very nice suburb, upper middle class, but that means something tooootally different in Thailand... it's dirty and smelly. The nice thing is that we are about a 5min. walk from the university, and even less of a walk from a long strip of convenient stores, internet cafes, and restaurants/food stands. Basically everything I need is VERY close!

Oh, and of course it's hotter than Hades here. You walk for 2 minutes and you're drenched in sweat. Not fun! But cold showers have proved to be amazing.

I guess that's it for now... we're getting Internet in our apartment within the week and I hope to be able to share some pictures soon.