Right now I'm sitting in the CIEE office in Khon Kaen. The AC is on full blast and I'm freezing. I'm not sure if that's better or worse than being hot and sticky. We've finally finished our two-ish week long orientation. So many things have happened to me so far,  but instead of getting bogged down with catching up, I'll start with right now.

We're about to leave for a four day long homestay in the urban slums of Khon Kaen. This will be the only homestay that we'll live at by ourselves. I've only had about 4 Thai language classes. I can say Hello, I speak a little bit of Thai, I'm vegetarian, don't add spice, I go to school at 8am, and I go shower now. I know the names of a few foods and fruits. There is little fresh food to speak of, aside from fruit. Mostly it's rice and cooked veggies and pad Thai and eggs. In thai, the word for eat isn't just "gin." It's "gin khao." To eat rice.

So, off I head to my homestay with some more Thai vocab in toe. After class today I can ask about future and past tense things. Wish me luck!

Also here is a picture of a dinosaur shaped trash can in Khon Kaen. They're kindof a big deal here.

How to Survive in Bangkok

1. Don't just look both ways; Look all ways. The general rule of traffic in Bangkok seems to be to go as fast as you can, until someone is in your way, then honk and shift lanes. Cars and motorcycles will definitely not stop for pedestrians. They barely stop for other cars. There aren't even pedestrian crosswalks. Instead, you have to climb a flight of stairs to walk across a little sky bridge in order to cross the street.

2. Rubber Shoes and Umbrellas are a must. It's the rainy season, which means that the shoe-sellers in the markets have rotated their stock to flip flops and rubber flats, which are both stylish and sensible. Every day between 2:00 and 4:00 pm there is a torrential downpour, so it's important to bring your umbrella too. My mom's friend Tom, who I'm staying with, always has his umbrella, as a protection against both rain and sun. Because it's the rainy season, the weather has been mostly overcast, and apparently not as muggy and humid as it normally is, which makes me feel bad for complaining.

3. Bug Spray. I'm being eaten alive, and I look like a leper. It's probably because I'm diabetic and my blood is awesome. 

3a. Keep your finger nails short.  So that you don't scratch all of your skin off. 

4. Stick with Tom! My mom's friend Tom is the most wonderful host, and so cool and collected in the face of frantic Bangkok. Together we road the crazy buses, the subway and the crowded sky-train, and navigated the multi-story Thai shopping centers. We cooked together (salads and buckwheat pancakes), and he happily let me go to bed at the jet-lagged hour of 6pm.


 He taught me key Thai words, specifically those relating to ordering food. He also taught me about some of the Buddhist merit making rules, such as: you can't give an amulet as a gift. The merit belongs to the person who bought it, so after Tom hastily paid for some amulets for me, I had to pay him back. We visited the incredible temple of Wat Pho, where the statue of the reclining Buddha is. It's enormous. 

How cool are his giant feet???

I'm definitely going to be sad to part ways with Tom and be handed off to my study abroad program this afternoon. It's been described as hard, challenging, confusing and the best semester ever. I'm very nervous, but I think I'm ready for challenge. These past few days with Tom have been a breeze. I've been able to just relax and be ferried around town by a local, almost too overwhelmed to take much of it in, and not quite ready to acknowledge that this isn't a vacation, it's my life. But soon there will be no turning back, and bug bites, mosquito nets and downpours will be my new pace of life, along with who knows what else. 

Last Week

Here are some pictures from my last week in Portland, in no particular order.

A doodle I made during my last session of Cultural Anthro

This awesome cat eating yogurt

How sweet are the people I work with? So sweet! They even took me out to lunch!

Watching the NASA Curiosity Landing at OMSI

Met some new family from Alabama

TREK IN THE PARK.

An adorable last-day present from my boss.

See you next week, Thailand!

A week from today, I will be in the air flying over the pacific. Actually, I think by now I might be in Taipei. Either way, I’ll have stepped away from the my home country, not to set foot back here for about 5 months.

I must be in major denial because I’m not nervous yet. Maybe I’ve been too busy soaking up all of Portland that I can, or maybe I’ve just spent too many months preparing and thinking about it that I’ve become numb to the reality of Thailand. However, I’m pretty sure that when I get there, it will hit me.

I guess I’ll set some guidelines and goals for this blog for while I’m away.

Guidelines: Post once a week. (Is this too much to ask? I’m not sure how intense the structure of my program will be, but I hear we’ll be kept pretty busy. Hopefully I can find time for posts, even if they’re quick and silly.)

I want my posts to be about the things that I’m learning. Hopefully with photos too.

Goals: I really really want to learn a lot while I’m in Thailand. As much as I want to think the learning will just occur, I probably have to work hard to really incorporate my experiences into life lessons, or something. I want to become a better journalist, and a more adventurous and responsible person.

While this may be too much to ask, I want to cement some kind of future goals while I’m there, whether it means committing to come back to Thailand at some point to teach and live, or a change of major, or a change in career goals. And I definitely, definitely want to bring what I’ve learned back home with me.

I want to learn how to do some solid Thai cooking, either from my homestay families or from Thai friends that I make.

Also, I want to come away not hating hot weather as much as I do here. I think this will have to be my basic survival tactic. Hot weather = the reality = fine with me.