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!