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