The First Week!

I've been very bad about blogging.  Last week, my excuse was jet lag.  This weekend, I didn't bring my computer on our trip and last night I was working on a presentation.  Now that I've exhausted all possible excuses for procrastination, I'm finally going to write a long update...

On Monday, we got picked up from MU Place (our dorm) at 9 to go to our school (Mahidol University International College) for orientation.  There are 12 people in the class for the first session which is about medical anthropology.  They are hoping to have some Thai students join the class eventually but their exams don't end until Wednesday so we are on our own for now.  After we heard a brief introduction and overview, we headed to a bus to see several sites in Bangkok with a guide.  Our guide was very nice and explained some general information about Thailand as we drove...the only issue was her thick accent which made understanding her a challenge, especially with the noisy traffic around us.  Our first stop for the day was Wat Phra Kaew and the Grand Palace.  Wat Phra Kaew is the site of the emerald Buddha.  The walls of the temple are decorated with murals of the Ramakian story, the Thai version of the Indian epic Ramayana.  The entire temple was gorgeous but the emerald Buddha was especially breathtaking.  In the same complex, we saw the Grand Palace, which served as the house of the kings until Rama V moved to the Dusit Palace Park.  As we were leaving the grounds of Wat Phra Kaew and the Grand Palace, a group of Thai school girls asked to take a picture with us, which was very entertaining.  Our next stop was for lunch where our tour guide helped us order from a street vendor.  I got delicious chicken pad Thai that was made right in front of me!  After lunch, we headed to the Dusit Palace Park where we got a tour of the Vimanmek Teak Palace.  This is where Rama V moved when he left the Grand Palace.  It is filled with European artifacts and Thai treasures.  Our guide took us through the palace and explained some of the history behind it.  Rama V had many, many wives, five of whom lived in the Palace with him.  Each of the five wives had their own color with which the rooms that "belonged" to them in the palace was painted.  As we were leaving the grounds, we saw two Komodo dragons which was pretty unexpected and exciting.  The Thai people love their king and our tour guide was very emphatic about us buying things from the gift shop at Vimanmek because all profits go directly to the king.  Furthermore, there are signs and posters about the King everywhere in Thailand.  Our last stop of the day was Wat Pho, site of the reclining Buddha, which was gorgeous.  Tired, jet lagged, and sweaty, we got back on the bus with several bags of fruit from a street vendor to head back to MU Place.  Once back, we grabbed dinner (spring rolls and fried rice for me) and headed to bed.

Wat Phra Kaew

Wat Phra Kaew

The Grand Palace

Chicken Pad Thai

The Reclining Buddha

 Tuesday was our first day of class.  We usually have a 2 hour lecture, 2 hour lunch break, then 2 hour lecture every day.  After our first lecture, since it was our first day, we had a welcome lunch in the nicer restaurant at our school that is attached to the tourism school (where they train students).  It was delicious.. and the first Western food I had since I left the US.  On other days, we have the option of eating there or in the regular cafeteria which has a variety of options.  At the lunch, we met a few of the professors who will be teaching us as well as the dean of students at MUIC.  Once our classes were over, we got a bus back to the dorm.  Atara, Rachel, and I decided to go for a run so we walked to the track at the University.  There were tons of people using the track and playing soccer so it was fun to run and people watch.  After we got back from our workout, Atara and I started talking about music and spent a good amount of time listening and exchanging the names of people we like to listen to which was really fun.

On Wednesday, we had our usual classes but headed into Bangkok after class to Siam Paragon which is a huge shopping mall.  Siam Square has an extensive street market at night which we wanted to check out.  After a delicious dinner in the food court (McDonald's.  Sorry I'm not sorry.  I was craving it.), we headed out to the night market.  There were tons of vendors selling everything from food to clothing, jewelry, wallets, DVDs, music, etc.  I found a few bracelets that I liked but mostly we just people watched and looked around.  My few purchasing experiences showed me that I am VERY bad at bargaining.  Larry, who walked around with me, tried, unsuccessfully, to teach me how to bargain.  I get too nervous and don't have the guts to argue with the vendors.  I ended up getting 10-20 baht off on the bracelets (usually around 80 baht in price).  I'm going to need to work on that when we go to the wide variety of markets found everywhere in Thailand.

Thursday's first lecture was one of my favorites thus far as it was given by a Buddhist monk from Cleveland.  He was raised there but moved to Thailand to study Buddhism and become a monk.  Following lunch, we headed to Ramathibodi Hopsital in Bangkok where we heard from a Thai/Chinese doctor who studied in the United States.  Her varying cultural perspectives were incredibly interesting to hear.  After the lecture, we walked from the hospital to the sky train station and headed back to Siam Paragon to see HARRY POTTER.  We got there and bought our tickets for 120 baht each (popcorn was 30 baht).  Keep in mind, this was the opening day of the movie in Bangkok and we showed up 5 minutes before and got great seats.  The theater was probably half empty - quite the contrast from the American movie theater scene.  Before any movie in Thailand starts, everyone in the audience stands as the national anthem and movie with pictures of the king is played...Just in case the dozens of signs outside don't remind the people that they should love their king.  After the movie, Erin, Carla, Felicia, and I headed to Khao San Road to meet up with a Thai girl who we made friends with in the cafeteria at school.  Khao San Road is a very bright and vibrant street filled with vendors, tourists, backpackers, and young Thai people.  There are tons of restaurants, stores, bars, and clubs.  Once we found Saniya and met several of her friends, we sat outside for quite a while.  Vendors kept coming up to us to try and sell us trinkets and other souvenirs.  There was one very adorable 8 year old boy who took full advantage of his cuteness to sell flowers for 20 baht per flower.  He just kept grinning and posing for pictures with everyone.  It was really fun to hang out with Thai people our own age.  They all speak English very well so the language barrier is not an issue at all.  One girl, Nan, invited us to her birthday party next week which should be fun!  Hopefully we can keep making friends with Thai students our age.

That's all for now- more on our weekend tomorrow!

New friends!