Hello again! I've arrived safely in New Orleans for my summer internship with CrossRoads Missions. I'll be doing construction again in areas still recovering after Katrina. Starting June 13th, we will have volunteers coming weekly to help in our efforts around the city. More updates to come as I get situated and have stories to share!
Please be in prayer for the CrossRoads' ministry here in the city as well as my relationships with the interns, staff, community, and volunteers. Also, please pray for the political turmoil taking place in Thailand right now and the effect that it has on the Thai people and the Grapevine ministry. Thank you for all your prayers and encouragement over the past year, and I look forward to hearing about all the experiences that God is leading you into as well. Take care and God bless †
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Rain, Fireworks, and Electronics
Whew… the past two weeks have been full of lots of fun things :) Here are some of the highlights:
6/30
Souper Tuesday got a bit washed out tonight, but it was still a good turnout in the end :) The rain started pouring around 6pm and didn’t stop until 7:30 or so. Five or six Thai students braved the storm, so it was a good time just to get to know them better and share a meal. After the storm had passed, more students came for games, worship, and discussion. We talked about brothers and sisters and how we are all family at Grapevine. Afterward, we played cards for a while just hanging out and talking. I’m excited to see lots of new faces to Grapevine that are continuing to come back.
7/1
Happy 4th of July! :D We had a big American Independence Day celebration this evening. Although there weren’t many students at the party to begin with, it was hopping by the time fireworks started! Thankfully the Lord held off the rain, and we were able to have a great display of color and loud noise :P We told the apartment manager we were going to be setting the fireworks off, but we failed to tell the families that have recently built shacks across the pond… they weren’t too thrilled. But nevertheless, it was totally worth it! We had watermelon, chili fries, and funnel cakes as well as some face painting, patriotic music, and line dancing. Dave (I met him earlier today) came to the party as well as my freshmen friends Fang and Fa(a)ng! It was the first time that my friends from SIIT came to a Grapevine event :) I also had the opportunity to meet quite a few new people and build better relationships with the friends I have already made. I also played the longest game of Uno ever with three people from Norway and four from Thailand. It was another great evening staying late at Grapevine playing games!
7/2
I was sitting outside today before going to class, and I saw one of the girls that goes to Grapevine named Par today at school. I ate a mid morning snack with her and her friends name Art, Bu, and Kwan. They are all Chemical Engineers and reminded me a lot of friends at Tech :) I look forward to getting to know them better and hopefully seeing them around Grapevine sometime. Also, I finally met a few people in my Transportation Engineering class! My professor was 20 minutes late to class which gave me a chance to talk to the few people that were on time. Then later he split the class into two groups to work on a problem. I thought it was a pretty dumb decision because it is impossible to work with 15 people on a relatively simple problem, but hey, I got to meet some more students! I think making friends in class is one of the hardest things for me to do. Hopefully I will meet some more students over the next few weeks that I can study with for midterms – or rather use midterm studying as an excuse to hang out with them :P
7/3
Yay for meeting new people! I ate lunch with another exchange student from Germany named Leon. While doing so, another one of my friends named Raymond sat down near us and introduced me to his friends, Aum and Oud. Playing badminton this afternoon also lent itself to meeting more students. As things become a little more routine, I’ll hopefully be able to form deeper friendships with them. And finally, we finished off the evening with a meeting at the Coley’s house with the student leaders in Grapevine about a new idea called Branches… more details to come on this later :)
7/4
So today was awesome! I went with my friend Fang, her mom, and her brother Feun (who goes to a Christian university in Bangkok… I need to ask Fang more about it), to buy her a laptop. We went to this convention center where they were having a computer expo of sorts with lots of different brands and vendors. She was able to get a nice Samsung laptop with lots of free accessories for around $600! But getting to spend time with Fang, her mom, and her brother was much better than the laptop :D It took a long time to get to the center, look around, and then finally buying the laptop, all of which allowed me plenty of time to talk to Fang. We at lunch in the food court afterwards and then headed to her aunt and uncle’s house. They live in another part of Bangkok so we took two different buses which again gave us lots of time to talk. When we finally got to their home, they were very hospitable. Her uncle is a professor of architecture at a university and they were very excited to hear that I went to Georgia Tech. They kept commenting on how good of a student I must be, and her aunt gave me a purse from northern Thailand just because “good students deserve good gifts” :D It’s amusing hearing people from halfway around the world talk about how great Georgia Tech is. But anyway, they took me to get knitting needles and yarn, and then we all went out to dinner. Although it was a little awkward at times because I didn’t quite know what to say or how to respond, it was a great time spent with Fang and her family. I thank God for the opportunities I have to build relationships with my Thai friends in any situation.
When I got back to campus later that evening, I went to a restaurant with Julia and Earland, a guy from Norway. It is always exciting to be able to spend time with them and just discuss the differences between so many different cultures all around the world.
7/8
I got to school early this morning so that I could call my parents, and after I was finished two of my friends JanJao and Dear walked by. I went to sit with them while they ate breakfast where we talked about boys, relationships, and traveling. Both of them are hoping to do a work abroad program next summer in the States. In addition, they plan on finding American boyfriends :P
7/7
We didn’t have Souper Tuesday tonight because Buddhist Lent Day is tomorrow. Instead we went to the main canteen and had dinner with any of our Thai friends that were free. Afterward, we went back to Grapevine and watched Kung Fu Panda :D One of the new students at Grapevine named Long came by with one of his friends and watched the end of the movie with us. I pray that as the semester progresses, people will feel more at home just to stop by Grapevine whenever the lights are on and join in with whatever is going on. It’s awesome to see that happening even with people who have only been two or three times, especially when they bring their friends along!
7/9
Matt, Chris, and I had dinner with Goi (on staff) and the Thai student leaders Bank, Milk, and Jen. Since we don’t see them often outside of structured Grapevine events, it was good just to sit and eat with them. We talked about our boyfriends/girlfriends and some of the differences in dating between the two cultures. As time goes on, I look forward to learning a lot from them about being a Christian in a Buddhist nation. I also pray that I can be an encouragement to their faith in God.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Souper Tuesday!
It has been a little while since I have posted last, but things have been pretty busy. We taught English in the slums the past two Sundays which has been a great experience. I've been helping with a group of middle schoolers playing games like 20 questions, performing skits in English and then asking them questions about it, teaching them fun campfire songs like Baby Shark and Little Cabin in the Woods, and trying to get to know a little about their lives. I cannot imagine living in the circumstances that they live in.
This past week, I got to see Transformers 2 with a large group of staff and students from Grapevine. The movie was great, the theater was comfortable, and it only cost me $3.50! :) In addition, I went to the weekend market in Bangkok with Julia and another girl from Japan, played some badminton, swam a few laps, did some aerobics, played games at the Coley's (a family on staff) house, and watched a few more movies. Paying my housing bill for the month was another exciting adventure of living in a foreign country. They had incorrectly billed me for 403 units of electricity. One of my Thai friends came to the rescue and talked to the apartment manager for me. It ended up that we had only used 140 units, and therefore only had to pay 850 baht instead of the original 2,400 baht. Yippee!
Also, we are preparing for our American Independence Day (4th of July) party tomorrow (July 1st). We will start off the evening with games, followed by real American songs like the Star Spangled Banner and the Electric Slide :) We are also planning on having funnel cakes and watermelon to celebrate the festivities. And of course, it wouldn't be the Fourth of July without fireworks as a grand finale to the night! :D
Prayer Requests:
- Souper Tuesdays and all the new faces at Grapevine
- the Fourth of July party on July 1st
- my relationships with Thai students
Saturday, June 20, 2009
A Long Update
For lunch on Wednesday, I decided to sit with some of the exchange students from Germany that I have seen a few times but not really had the chance to talk to. I’m not sure if they were excited to let me sit down or not, but they didn’t seem to mind too much :) I ate lunch with them and talked about all the differences between school in America and school in Germany. It was a scandal in Germany for the government to start charging 500 Euros a year in student fees because education should be free. I just smiled and said that I would be jumping for joy if the US charged each student only $800 a year to go to college. Also, if you fail Calculus I four times, you cannot ever graduate from a university anywhere in Germany, and that if you ever fail out of one major, you can never attempt it again in Germany. Heh :) I wonder how many people wouldn’t have degrees if that was the rule in the United States. After we finished lunch and two of them had to leave, I was invited to get coffee with Zani and Patrick where we continued discussing differences in politics and construction and governmental practices between Germany and the United States. I’m glad that I’m not only learning about the cultural differences between Thailand and the US, but also about lots of other countries.
The kickoff party on Wednesday night was a success! There are only three Christian students involved in Grapevine with another twenty or so Buddhist, Hindu, and Muslim students that come to activities on a regular basis. I don’t think that all twenty students were able to come, but nonetheless, we had close to fifty people at the party! :D I met a lot of students that had never heard of or been to a Grapevine activity until they received the flyers we passed out on Monday and Tuesday night before the kickoff. It was exciting to see how excited they were to be there and despite not knowing a lot of other friends there (Thai people like to do things in groups), they had a good time.
We started the evening with some snacks and small group games like Uno and Pente. It’s funny how what seem like simple games we play all the time are very difficult to explain :) I met two new girls who had never been to Grapevine named Ham and Gift while playing Uno. Then we had live music performed by some of the staff including Jack Johnson and Dido. After that, we moved into large group games. We played “I’m awesome, and you’re awesome too, if…” and the person in the middle finishes the sentence with a fact about themselves. If the fact is also true about you, you have to change spots with someone else in the circle and the last person in the middle is the next to make a statement. The best was when a girl said “I’m awesome, and you’re awesome too, if … you are beautiful” and quite a few of the guys changed places in the circle :P To bring everything back together, we had some more live music with one of the Muslim students named Anas singing. All of the girls were wooing over his great voice :D We then introduced the staff and what Grapevine is about and the activities that go on every week. I was sitting with a different group of girls that had never been to Grapevine, and it was encouraging to see how eager they were about coming to Fun on Campus (games and cookies near SIIT on Mondays and Thursdays around lunchtime), Souper Tuesdays (family style meal with soup, games, worship music, Bible study and prayer), and Love Your Neighbor (teaching English to kids living in the slums of Bangkok on Sundays). And finally, you have to end the night with karaoke, of course! I attempted singing a Thai song with a girl named Mae, but she completely dropped the ball and forgot the melody… not that my here and there Thai butchering of words were much better :P
The party started around 6pm but there were still students (even ones that had never come before) there until 11pm helping us wash dishes and mop the floors. All we can do now is pray that the new students will have a desire to come back and join in more Grapevine activities and that the students already involved are growing towards having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
On Thursday night, I went down to Bangkok with another exchange student I met in my Thai studies class from Germany named Julia. We walked around for a while looking for the restaurant and eventually found it after walking a full circle around Victory Monument. We ate cheeseburgers at a place called Saxophone that had live jazz music every night. I really enjoyed being able to go and listen to the music as well as form a better relationship with Julia. I’m going to the weekend market with Julia and Pu today, and hopefully they will join me to a cookout at our church afterwards.
Yesterday was pretty chill. I was a bit stressed out about trying to find classes that would transfer to Georgia Tech, get responses back from my advisors, and register for them before add/drop ended, but it’s all over with now :D I ate lunch again with Fang, Faang, Mae, Once, and a few other freshmen. Hopefully I’ll be able to get them out of their dorms a little more in the coming weeks :P Before watching some episodes of 30 Rock with Matt, Chris, and Cat, we went to 7/11 to buy a few snacks and use their microwave to pop my popcorn. I guess they don’t have microwave popcorn here, but one of the guys that worked at 7/11 kept stopping our popcorn thinking it was going to explode because of the popping noise. It was very amusing trying to explain to him that it was supposed to do that :) After that we joined Goi, Mae, Buck, and a girl named Amy at a nearby coffee shop. Amy is from southern Thailand, graduated from SIIT, and was one of Mae and Buck’s friends when they were exchange students here in 2003. She was the first person to become a Christian through the Grapevine ministry. It was exciting to meet her and to see how the ministry has grown since then.
Here are a few names to be praying for:
Leon, Zani, Patrick (German students)
Ham, Gift, Aum, Pouy, Prae, KoKo, Long, Ton, Ing, Bell (people I met at the kickoff)
Julia, Pu (Thai studies girls)
Fang, Faang, Mae, Once (some of the freshmen)
Matt, Chris (exchange students from Tech)
Cat (summer intern)
Buck, Mae, Goi, Greg, Allison, Andy, Mic (staff with Grapevine)
Amy (first Thai Christian at Grapevine)
The kickoff party on Wednesday night was a success! There are only three Christian students involved in Grapevine with another twenty or so Buddhist, Hindu, and Muslim students that come to activities on a regular basis. I don’t think that all twenty students were able to come, but nonetheless, we had close to fifty people at the party! :D I met a lot of students that had never heard of or been to a Grapevine activity until they received the flyers we passed out on Monday and Tuesday night before the kickoff. It was exciting to see how excited they were to be there and despite not knowing a lot of other friends there (Thai people like to do things in groups), they had a good time.
We started the evening with some snacks and small group games like Uno and Pente. It’s funny how what seem like simple games we play all the time are very difficult to explain :) I met two new girls who had never been to Grapevine named Ham and Gift while playing Uno. Then we had live music performed by some of the staff including Jack Johnson and Dido. After that, we moved into large group games. We played “I’m awesome, and you’re awesome too, if…” and the person in the middle finishes the sentence with a fact about themselves. If the fact is also true about you, you have to change spots with someone else in the circle and the last person in the middle is the next to make a statement. The best was when a girl said “I’m awesome, and you’re awesome too, if … you are beautiful” and quite a few of the guys changed places in the circle :P To bring everything back together, we had some more live music with one of the Muslim students named Anas singing. All of the girls were wooing over his great voice :D We then introduced the staff and what Grapevine is about and the activities that go on every week. I was sitting with a different group of girls that had never been to Grapevine, and it was encouraging to see how eager they were about coming to Fun on Campus (games and cookies near SIIT on Mondays and Thursdays around lunchtime), Souper Tuesdays (family style meal with soup, games, worship music, Bible study and prayer), and Love Your Neighbor (teaching English to kids living in the slums of Bangkok on Sundays). And finally, you have to end the night with karaoke, of course! I attempted singing a Thai song with a girl named Mae, but she completely dropped the ball and forgot the melody… not that my here and there Thai butchering of words were much better :P
The party started around 6pm but there were still students (even ones that had never come before) there until 11pm helping us wash dishes and mop the floors. All we can do now is pray that the new students will have a desire to come back and join in more Grapevine activities and that the students already involved are growing towards having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
On Thursday night, I went down to Bangkok with another exchange student I met in my Thai studies class from Germany named Julia. We walked around for a while looking for the restaurant and eventually found it after walking a full circle around Victory Monument. We ate cheeseburgers at a place called Saxophone that had live jazz music every night. I really enjoyed being able to go and listen to the music as well as form a better relationship with Julia. I’m going to the weekend market with Julia and Pu today, and hopefully they will join me to a cookout at our church afterwards.
Yesterday was pretty chill. I was a bit stressed out about trying to find classes that would transfer to Georgia Tech, get responses back from my advisors, and register for them before add/drop ended, but it’s all over with now :D I ate lunch again with Fang, Faang, Mae, Once, and a few other freshmen. Hopefully I’ll be able to get them out of their dorms a little more in the coming weeks :P Before watching some episodes of 30 Rock with Matt, Chris, and Cat, we went to 7/11 to buy a few snacks and use their microwave to pop my popcorn. I guess they don’t have microwave popcorn here, but one of the guys that worked at 7/11 kept stopping our popcorn thinking it was going to explode because of the popping noise. It was very amusing trying to explain to him that it was supposed to do that :) After that we joined Goi, Mae, Buck, and a girl named Amy at a nearby coffee shop. Amy is from southern Thailand, graduated from SIIT, and was one of Mae and Buck’s friends when they were exchange students here in 2003. She was the first person to become a Christian through the Grapevine ministry. It was exciting to meet her and to see how the ministry has grown since then.
Here are a few names to be praying for:
Leon, Zani, Patrick (German students)
Ham, Gift, Aum, Pouy, Prae, KoKo, Long, Ton, Ing, Bell (people I met at the kickoff)
Julia, Pu (Thai studies girls)
Fang, Faang, Mae, Once (some of the freshmen)
Matt, Chris (exchange students from Tech)
Cat (summer intern)
Buck, Mae, Goi, Greg, Allison, Andy, Mic (staff with Grapevine)
Amy (first Thai Christian at Grapevine)
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
List of Names
So here is a list of some and a little description of the people I have met in the past two weeks. Keep in mind that most if not all of these people aren't Christians and some have never even been exposed to Christianity and what it's all about. Although you don't know them, your prayers for them would be amazing!
Mae - devout Buddhist that comes to Grapevine to work on her English and learn about Jesus' good moral teachings; I'm going swimming with her on Friday :)
Bank, Milk, and Jen - student leaders at Grapevine who are the only three Christian students at the ministry
Nui - graduate student at Thammasat who is reading a book written by a woman who converted from Buddhism to Christianity
Na - relatively involved in Grapevine and participated in Love Your Neighbor, a ministry where we teach kids in the slums English, last Sunday
Gai Ja - graduated from Thammasat and lives in Bangkok; she comes to Grapevine events when she is available
Lilly - a freshman I met last Wednesday that has introduced me to lots more of the freshmen
JJ - a very enthusiastic freshman girl who wants to show me around Bangkok
May - freshman girl who is having a bit of a hard time adjusting to college
Fang - studied as a exchange student in Arizona her junior year of high school and is thinking about joining the karate club and the folk song (really pop music) group
Mae - another freshman I met through Fang who likes to play badminton
Fang - a different freshman girl who is interested in learning more about Grapevine and will hopefully attend some of our events
Julia - German girl who is an exchange student here for the semester and whose boyfriend will be coming to Thailand in August; hopefully I'll get to know her better before he comes :P
Pu - girl I met in Thai Studies class who took me down to Bangkok on Saturday where we met her cousin, boyfriend, and Julia to do some shopping and exploring one of the temples in town; I might go visit her home during our break in October
Paul - student obsessed with Manchester United and comes to on campus activities with Grapevine
Mint - another freshman girl who is nervous about speaking English with me :)
Am - yet again, another freshman girl who is very quiet, but I look forward to getting to know her better
Gad - freshman girl who finished her high school in New Zealand who hates physics but loves biology
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Lots of new people!
Three fun stories from the past two days :D
1) Yesterday (Tuesday) was a Thai girl named Jen's birthday. During our celebration for her we ordered a dessert with 6 different scoops of ice cream and little cake rolls on top. I'm not sure where the idea originated, but somehow we ended up all feeding the person to our left a spoonful of ice cream. Each transaction was a bit awkward but the ones with a guy feeding another guy were the best. Finally at the end, Matt decided to feed Jen one last big scoop of ice cream with a cake on top which ultimately failed with Bank catching the sticky mess in his hand :)
2) So education is looked upon highly in Thai culture and most "educational premises" require "proper dress". At Thammasat University, the uniform is a white button down shirt, black skirt or pants, and a black/brown belt with a flashy buckle. A somewhat acceptable alternative to wearing the uniform is to have a shop jacket with your school's colors and emblem. This coveted piece of clothing allows you to wear jeans and a t-shirt as long as you have it on in some form or fashion. Also, because they don't want everyone having one of these jackets (especially not the freshmen), it has become sort of a black market type deal. Seniors usually pass on their jackets to underclassmen or you have to know someone to help to find the person who can make you one. So anyway, we ventured yesterday with one of the Thai students named Bank to find the guy who sells the jackets. We were sent to multiple buildings in which no one knew what we were looking for or suggested that we try looking in the bookstore. Finally we found a guard who knew what room we were looking for and she led us through one building and down a walkway to what looked like a janitors closet. The room had two doors with no windows and a padlock on one of the doors. The guard's master key was unable to unlock the doorknob on the un-padlocked door and out of no where, a guy walks up to us with a key. He led us into the room where there was a rack of shop jackets in each of the sizes. We tried them on, told him what size and school we wanted, and handed him the 580 baht (outrageously priced compared to most clothing items here). He proceeded to put them in opaque bags which we assume were so people didn't see us walking out of the room with these jackets. We aren't sure what this guy does, if he is employed at the school, or how he has a janitors closet of sorts in an academic building, but apparently he moves around each year and has a pretty lucrative business. Although I'm sure they are just trying to keep it a secret from the freshmen, it definitely felt like a drug deal :D
3) And the best thing about the past two days has been meeting a big group of freshmen today. Lilly came up to me in the library today after I was talking to another Thai student and asked where I was from. She participated in an exchange program in high school and lived with a family in Minnesota. The couple met in Savannah, GA so they had named their daughter Savannah. A few minutes into our conversation a group of her friends joined us. Fang, JJ, Na, Mint, and a couple of other names I can't remember invited me to eat lunch with them. She ordered rice and chicken (my staple food items) for me and we I had a good time meeting even more people. The best thing about meeting freshmen is that they have only known the people they hang out with a week or so, and therefore they are more willing to meet new people. Perhaps Lilly wanted to know where I had gotten my shop jacket as well :P But nevertheless, I ran into them a few more times throughout the day and am planning on going shopping with JJ on Saturday. I pray that God will continue to give me opportunities to meet new people and develop relationships I have already started in the last few days.
Prayer Requests:
- Kickoff Party at Grapevine Wednesday, June 17th
- Advertising for the party on Monday and Tuesday nights
- Safe return for the staff this coming weekend
- Acclimation to Thai culture
- Opportunities to build relationships everywhere we go
1) Yesterday (Tuesday) was a Thai girl named Jen's birthday. During our celebration for her we ordered a dessert with 6 different scoops of ice cream and little cake rolls on top. I'm not sure where the idea originated, but somehow we ended up all feeding the person to our left a spoonful of ice cream. Each transaction was a bit awkward but the ones with a guy feeding another guy were the best. Finally at the end, Matt decided to feed Jen one last big scoop of ice cream with a cake on top which ultimately failed with Bank catching the sticky mess in his hand :)
2) So education is looked upon highly in Thai culture and most "educational premises" require "proper dress". At Thammasat University, the uniform is a white button down shirt, black skirt or pants, and a black/brown belt with a flashy buckle. A somewhat acceptable alternative to wearing the uniform is to have a shop jacket with your school's colors and emblem. This coveted piece of clothing allows you to wear jeans and a t-shirt as long as you have it on in some form or fashion. Also, because they don't want everyone having one of these jackets (especially not the freshmen), it has become sort of a black market type deal. Seniors usually pass on their jackets to underclassmen or you have to know someone to help to find the person who can make you one. So anyway, we ventured yesterday with one of the Thai students named Bank to find the guy who sells the jackets. We were sent to multiple buildings in which no one knew what we were looking for or suggested that we try looking in the bookstore. Finally we found a guard who knew what room we were looking for and she led us through one building and down a walkway to what looked like a janitors closet. The room had two doors with no windows and a padlock on one of the doors. The guard's master key was unable to unlock the doorknob on the un-padlocked door and out of no where, a guy walks up to us with a key. He led us into the room where there was a rack of shop jackets in each of the sizes. We tried them on, told him what size and school we wanted, and handed him the 580 baht (outrageously priced compared to most clothing items here). He proceeded to put them in opaque bags which we assume were so people didn't see us walking out of the room with these jackets. We aren't sure what this guy does, if he is employed at the school, or how he has a janitors closet of sorts in an academic building, but apparently he moves around each year and has a pretty lucrative business. Although I'm sure they are just trying to keep it a secret from the freshmen, it definitely felt like a drug deal :D
3) And the best thing about the past two days has been meeting a big group of freshmen today. Lilly came up to me in the library today after I was talking to another Thai student and asked where I was from. She participated in an exchange program in high school and lived with a family in Minnesota. The couple met in Savannah, GA so they had named their daughter Savannah. A few minutes into our conversation a group of her friends joined us. Fang, JJ, Na, Mint, and a couple of other names I can't remember invited me to eat lunch with them. She ordered rice and chicken (my staple food items) for me and we I had a good time meeting even more people. The best thing about meeting freshmen is that they have only known the people they hang out with a week or so, and therefore they are more willing to meet new people. Perhaps Lilly wanted to know where I had gotten my shop jacket as well :P But nevertheless, I ran into them a few more times throughout the day and am planning on going shopping with JJ on Saturday. I pray that God will continue to give me opportunities to meet new people and develop relationships I have already started in the last few days.
Prayer Requests:
- Kickoff Party at Grapevine Wednesday, June 17th
- Advertising for the party on Monday and Tuesday nights
- Safe return for the staff this coming weekend
- Acclimation to Thai culture
- Opportunities to build relationships everywhere we go
Monday, June 8, 2009
One week down...
So this week has been a blur. Sorry I haven't had a chance to write since I left the States. I have experienced lots of new things so here are the highlights :)
Monday (First day in Thailand)
- Moved into my new dorm that costs all of $115 a month!
- "Bought" a cell phone, the essential fan, fitted sheets (flat sheets are hard to come by here), a laundry basket, hangers, and a trash can in the Grapevine auction of old exchange students stuff :)
- Ate my first two meals at the restaurant near Grapevine fondly named ee-sip-hah-baht because almost every meal costs only 25 baht (the equivalent of 75 cents)
- Cleaned Grapevine after three months without use... needless to say it was pretty dirty
Tuesday
- Ventured down to Tesco Lotus, a Walmart of sorts, in order to buy the rest of the essentials we didn't get in the auction
- Rode a Song-tau ("two benches") for the first time. Picture a truck with a bench on either side of the bed and a canopy over top.
- Played frisbee golf around campus
- Watched an episode of "Worlds Apart" (produced by National Geographic... if you haven't seen it before, you should definitely watch one on YouTube!) and had some brief culture shock training
Wednesday
- Met with advisor to find out that most of the classes we wanted to take aren't offered this semster :(
- Explored Future Park - a mall filled with tons and tons of college students
- Cat, my new roommate from Ohio, arrived as a REACH intern for the summer
Thursday
- Exchange student orientation where we got to meet the other 10 foreign exchange students while learning some useful information about school
- Tried a new Thai dish with some sort of fish that was much too spicy for my taste :(
- Spent the rest of the afternoon/evening learning Thai phrases through song and "Moose Moose" the game and hanging out with students already involved in Grapevine
Friday
- Scavenger hunt around campus where we collected exotic flowers, did aerobics in front of giant snake statues, and made fools of ourselves trying to figure out what the written Thai word for toilet meant in English :D
- Traveled into Bangkok to register at Bumrungrad Hospital which is as nice as most 5 star hotels in the US
- Experienced Bangkok traffic at rush hour
- Visited one of the famous shrines that is a product of the melting pot of Buddhist, Hindu, and Islamic religion in Thailand
- Walked around at Central World mall catering to the "farangs" or foreigners in the city
- Surprised(ish) Matt with a birthday assortment of cakes :)
Saturday
- Purchased a pretty pink bike with a basket and passenger seat at the sale on campus - my most expensive purchase yet for $75
- Celebrated Matt's birthday by watching Hancock at the Grapevine with Thai students!
- Had a really good conversation with one of the Thai students named Mae about her Buddhist beliefs and just how they play out in her life... she is involved at Grapevine to practice her English and because she thinks Jesus is a great teacher of morals... it's cool to think that the campus minstry is made up of mostly non Christians and at the same time very challenging to know that Christians here are the minority
Sunday
- Went to a Thai church in Bangkok... didn't understand a word of the sermon but was still awesome to see a Christian gathering in a country where less than 1% claim to be Christian
- Shopped at the Chatachuck Market which claims to be the world's biggest weekend market - whether it is or isn't, it is most definitely lots of people and lots of sweat :P
- Took the wrong bus home (not really wrong, but it didn't take us all the way back to campus), took the wrong Song-tau next (not really wrong again but dropped us on off in the wrong side of campus), then took the campus shuttle to the middle of campus where we finally got off and walked to rest of the way: total trip = 2 hours when it should have taken us 45 minutes... but hey! we learned a little about the city in the process as well as the crazy transportation system
Anyway, school started today and we got to have "Fun on Campus". I got to meet some more Thai students and am looking forward to when I actually start classes. Now, we are headed to the on campus market tonight to perhaps try fried cockroaches and other assorted things :D
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