I arrived in Thailand ready to try something out of the ordinary. Coming to study abroad was something totally out of the norm and was a pretty spontaneous decision for me to make. But after countless paperwork, "informative" meetings, indecisive reasonings, and almost 20 hours later on the airplane, I stepped foot on the motherland. And what was the first thought that crossed through my head? Was it "I'm so excited " or "I can't believe I'm finally here"? Nope. In fact the first thing that crossed my mind was "It's hot." HAHAHA. Depressing right? I haven't even been in Thailand for 5 minutes and I was complaining about the weather. WHAT A WAY TO START. Anywhoos...I spent the rest of the day being smothered by relatives and food. By the end of that day, I had set eyes on the brand new pride of Thailand...Siam Paragon, a mega- mall filled with designer brand name labels that most people can't afford and an AMAZING FOOD COURT that I could easily spend hours in. I also got to visit the Aquarium at Paragon. Yes, gosh darnit...the aquarium, a place filled with exotically weird looking fish and huge sharks. (on a sidenote: I wanted to be a dolphin trainer when I was younger. don't laugh.)
I had to admit though...jet lag sucked balls. I felt pretty much like I was on Vicodin for the next week and half. The first week was pretty much filled with visiting relatives, unpacking, finding a place to live, meeting fellow EAP students and various foreign exchange students, then packing again. I finally found a place to live, Rattanakosin Island Condo. M. is a pretty chill chick, so it's all dandy. Everyone's pretty chill, but then again we're still in the "honeymoon" phase. Anywhoos...the first week of school was pretty much only 2 days of the week. Tuesday was the Queen's birthday so no school and more partying. Thursday, school was closed for Commencement, so yes,once again more partying.
School's pretty interesting. Actually...it's already slowing driving me nuts. You know the saying "When in Rome, do as Romans do."? Well here in Thailand, doing as the Thais do is how you slowly become insane. School and class has limited structure, traffic sucks, taxi drivers are gutsy and crazy, stray dogs are everywhere, and lastly, it's hot. HAHAHA. However, despite all the wildness of it all, Thai people pretty don't give a crap and live by the saying of "jai yen yen", meaning "calm down, no worries". Oh how I missed the motherland. So I guess what I'm trying to say is "When in Thailand...do as the Thais do." That's the way to go.
Until next time.
R.
