Adventures in Thailand: Getting settled in...

I landed in Thailand at about 2 pm on Saturday and made it through security without any trouble. A nice man from the program greeted me at the gate. He didn't really speak English so he called the woman who runs the program in Thailand at Mahidol University and she told me that he would take me to where I was living and that some Thai students would meet me there to show me around. The drive from the airport to our dorm was about an hour. Everyone here drives SO fast and changes lanes with approximately 1 inch between every car. It was slightly nerve-wracking. Anyway, we are living in an area that is outside of Bangkok called Salaya. It is about 20 minutes from the center of Bangkok. When I arrived there, three students named Gift, Fame, and Chong greeted me and took me up to my room. My roommate wasn't there so they offered to take me to get some food and drink. I also had been rushing through the airport to meet my driver so I hadn't exchanged any money so they took me to a bank. After that we walked to a 711 (they are everywhere here) and I got a bottle of water for 7 baht ($0.23). Everything is so cheap here. Then they drove me through Mahidol University and told me about it. They are just regular students there because, although we will be studying with Thai students in our program, those students have an exam tomorrow (Monday) so they were busy studying all weekend. In the car, they were listening to the exact same music I would expect to hear at home (Beyonce, Adele, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, etc.). Chong had seen Beyonce on her Crazy in Love tour in Thailand so we talked about that for a while. It was really cool to talk to them about music because it was so universal regardless of the fact that we come from such different places. They told me that area we are in is basically a college town because most people who live there are students at the university. This is pretty nice because the area is not at all touristy and everyone is very friendly. After they gave me a brief tour, they dropped me off back at the dorm and my roommate was in the room so we met for the first time. Her name is Erin and she just graduated from Columbia. Our dorm is great. It has air conditioning (crucial since it's between 90 and 100 degrees during the day and VERY humid) and internet, as well as TV (1 or 2 English channels). Every room has a bathroom and a small balcony as well as a mini fridge, closet, two desks, and a vanity. Everyone in our program is on the same floor so Erin and I went around just like we were first years in college again and met people. She already knew two boys and a girl who lived in the rooms on either side of us. After we unpacked, Erin, Sarah, Dylon, Larry, and I went to get dinner. We basically walked out of our dorm in the direction that we had all been driven by our Thai guides. Larry had been to lunch at a good restaurant and we thought we could go back there. It turned out to be closed so we just continued along the same road. Typical Americans, we decided to go into a place that said "Pub and Restaurant" in English under the name (which was in Thai) because we weren't sure of where else to go. When we got inside, it was a small restaurant with egg crates on the wall for decorations (or acoustics.. we weren't sure). They were playing American music but when they brought us menus, it was all in Thai and no one spoke English.. so the English on the sign outside had been somewhat deceptive. I guess that's the downside of being outside of the touristy areas and Bangkok where more people might speak English. We used hand signals and Sarah knew a few Thai phrases so we ordered 5 chicken fried rices (fried rice gai) and 5 beers. We tried to order pad Thai gai (chicken pad Thai) but they had no noodles so they some how told us they had chicken fried rice. By the end of this process, we were all laughing and pretty much every employee at the restaurant was laughing at us too. More and more Thai people our age kept arriving to eat and by the time we left and paid our bill (110 baht or $3.60 each), it was full so we must have picked a good local place. We kept walking further down the street and came across a place called "Get Bar" (http://getbar.net/). Obviously the English signs enticed us again so we went in and there were two guys playing guitars and singing so we decided to sit. We ordered a pitcher of some blue drink that two girls were sharing at the table next to us and enjoyed some Thai music. Soon they switched over to covering American songs which was entertaining. They performed a good version Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours" as well as "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson and a few others. By the time it was 11 pm, we were all exhausted from traveling and jet lag so we decided to head back. When we got back to our dorms, we fell asleep very fast. The next morning, once everyone was up and ready to go, Erin, Larry, Carla, Jen, Sarah, and I headed out to get some more food and look for a camera for Erin. We walked down our street and finally came to a store that sold phones and cameras. A nice Thai couple who was about our age helped translate for Erin so she could get a camera, memory card, charger, and case. Every Thai person we've met so far has been incredibly nice and helpful. Then we went back to the place that Larry had been for lunch on Saturday. The menu was in English and Thai which was very nice and the waiter spoke a good amount of English. I ordered green curry chicken and my friends got fried rice or a fried pork dish with three different sauces which they said was delicious. After we finished eating, we asked our waiter about going to the floating markets that we had heard about. He told us that they were about an hour away and were usually morning markets but then he came back and told us about a closer market called Don Wai (http://www.bangkok-daytrips.com/don-wai-market.html). He wrote down the name in English and Thai on a paper so that we could show the cab driver. We headed back to our dorm to get Dylon and when we got there a few more people on the program had arrived. The women at the front desk called some cabs for us and we went to the market. It was pretty crowded with lots of vendors selling everything from fruits and vegetables to noodles, seafood, chicken, rice, candy, and toys. At the back of the market, which was along the Nakhon Chaisi River, we found a place offering boat rides for 60 baht. The boat ride was about an hour long and we finally got some chicken pad thai while we were on the boat. It was very delicious and they made sure not to make it too spicy for us (when we ordered they asked us if we wanted it without spice and laughed). The boat driver gave commentary in Thai while we moved along the river but we obviously couldn't understand what he was saying. It was so interesting to see the contrast in houses along the river. There was everything from shacks to mansions as well as tons of Buddhist temples. At one point in the ride, a smaller boat with two people on it pulled up along side our boat and tied up to us to sell ice cream. We got two small cups of it and all shared it. It had peanuts on top and some strawberries mixed it. It was delicious. Once we got off the boat, they had pre-printed these pictures of our group onto a plaque with the name of the tour on it. Most everyone getting off the boat was getting one for their group. I got one for 100 baht ($3.30). The entire thing was very touristy yet we were the only non-Thai people on the boat. When we got back to the market, we walked a little further through it, got some popsicles and cokes, and then headed out. Back at the dorm, we relaxed and decided to go bed early since we are getting picked up at 8 am tomorrow to go to a bunch of temples and the palace which I'm really excited about. Here are a few pictures from so far.....