So I finally arrived. I have been here for about 2 days now. My thai group partners Duke and Meg picked me up at the airport at around 11:40. The flight was delayed a little bit from South Korea to Thailand. It was so easy to get through customs because I already had a visa. There were other people that were confused and taking a pretty long time to get through. Initially I was pretty overwhelmed walking towards the exit of the airport. There were many many people around and I wasnt exactly sure if I was going to be able to pick out Meg ( I didnt even know Duke was going to be there). Luckily Meg was able to pick me out from all the other Farangs (thai word for western looking people) that were leaving the airport. They drove me back to Suksit which is the international house at Chula. I got there at about 12:30 a.m. I cant have visitors upstairs so they just dropped me off with my belongings and told me they would come pick me up the next morning at 11. Suksit is an okay place to stay. I have my own bathroom and porch. Everything is kind of old (US 1970ish). But for only $15 a night I think that it is well worth the money. A maid comes in and puts two water bottles in my fridge each day and cleans the suite up.
I woke up before Duke and Meg were supposed to arrive and took a walk to the local grocery store. Its Tesco Lotus. Tesco is a UK supermarket and they just added lotus to the name to make it sould more asian! At first I was pretty confused. Its not a traditional super market initially. I walked in and there were all sorts of little shops all around the first 3 floors. I was wondering where the super market was. Finally on the third floor it appeared. I bought a bottle of water. ( Later I found out its the most expensive brand in Thailand and only the rich people drink it. It costs 70 baht which is about 2 dollars. Way to be a typical tourist american huh?)
I got back and Duke was waiting for me and Meg was sick so she stayed home . We walked to MBK which is a 6 floor mall about a 15 minute walk from my housing. The wall was also very interesting. Most stores are not traditional American here. They have a lot of little stores (just like the carts in the middle of malls in the US) that make up a majority of the stores. At MBK after a few hours of pricing the different shops out for a cell phone and camera we decided to get some lunch. We went to a all thai food court. The food was very good. Then we decided to go to the train station and see if I could get a ticket for a trip to Chaing Mai. Unfortunately they are all booked until atleast January 1st. I am going to try to book a place to stay from the 1st until the 4th and then see if I can get train tickets for those dates.
We went back to MBK and I let Duke buy the phone and Camera with my money for me. They have two different prices for items: Thai price and foreign price. Also since Duke is a native speaker of Thai he can bargin for the items a lot better than I can. I finally got a phone for about $36 usd and a camera for about $150 usd. At that point we got dinner and Duke walked back with me to Suksit. Later that night I made another trip to Tesco for some water and snacks.
Today I woke up and went to the 711 to get another phone card because mine already ran out calling home and Andrea. Another girl that is staying at Suksit gave me here password and username so that I can go on the internet. She isnt Thai but is still some sort of Asian. It is funny how I communicate here. Except for Duke and Meg who speak very good english, I typically speak half thai and half english when I need to talk with people. I guess you could call it Thai-lish. I wish I could speak fully in thai but that would take a lot more studying. Maybe I will get the hang of it before I leave.
For lunch I asked some of the students here (in thai language) where to get some food. They referred me to Tesco but then I told them food from a thai resteraunt. They told me to go to chula soi 4. I live on chula soi 6. It was a street market and I was excited to try some food. An asian man who said he was from Denmark helped me buy food. I got noodles and pork soup for 25 baht. That is a really good price according to the students over here. Im glad there was someone there to help me because I would have had no idea how much to buy it for. Its all about bargaining here. I got it to go and they put the soup into little plastic bags. I didnt have a bowl, fork or spoon yet so I headed to Tesco once again.
There have been a lot of protestors driving around lately. The supporters of the prime minister who was just impeached from office are driving around in pickup trucks. They wave red flags and shout things through loud speakers. Duke was telling me that they are saying things like " We are the real democracy of thiland, the others are all traitors!" He said that the red shirts can be quite agressive. They carry weapons and sometimes will attack the yellow shirts( people who just got their candidate to be the new prime minister). He said that the yellowshirts are not as agressive and only carry weapons for self defense. I just need to make sure I wear neutral colors and stay away from large groups of people!
I have been thinking about how people percieve me here. Its funny because I definitely stick out. Thai people are so friendly but their economy also thrives on tourisim so westerners often spend a lot of money. I will go down the street and taxis and tuk-tuks will beep and pull up to me about every 2 minutes. I have learned that if they start approaching I just need to shake my head no and they will keep going.
Its about 2 in the afternoon here and I think I am going to try and find out where the gym that Chula students can go to is. I think my professors said that they have not had access to it in the past but Duke seems to think since I have a little card with my name on it and it says Chula then I should be able to get in.
After that I will explore a little bit more but I will have to keep away from all the protestors.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Friday, December 26, 2008
Royal Palace and Chopsticks
I got another stamp in my passport! South Korea allows americans to stay for 3 months when they immigrate. I could have stayed here until the end of my IQP if i wanted to. The transit tour was really interesting. I started it off by feeling sick. Fever, coughing, runny nose. I hope that doesnt become the common theme of my trip! The ride from Incheon International to Seoul took about an hour.
Our first stop on the tour was the Royal Palace from the Joeson dynasty era. The Joeson was the last dynasty to rule Korea before Japan took over the country in the early 1900's. The palace wasnt exactly what I would picture a palace to be. It was more of an estate. It had traditional looking asian buildings all over a huge amount of land. Living quarters, entertaining halls and huge court yards to have ceremonies in. Maybe I am just not familiar with what palaces are but I was surprised because all the buildings were connected. The palace has a pretty dramatic background of mountains. It makes it look that much more majestic.
After the palace we went to a museum that was right inside the palace grounds. It was all about Korean culture and life. Our tour guide gave us the brief tour but none the less it was still pretty interesting.
The city on the other hand is pretty westernized. I hope that globalization doesnt make all parts of the world look the same. Apart from the South Korean writting on signs, buildings and the layout of the city, it was pretty similar to that of a U.S. city. The layout seemed so disorganized but maybe its just the engineer in me. The buildings were facing all different angles on streets.
After our tour of the palace and museum our tour guide brought us to a road with a market on it. The road was called Insa-dong. Our tour guide Jane gave us "30 minutes and 30 minutes only on this road!" She was very funny speaking in english about the road. She said "You go straight, no left, no right, just straight down road! You understand? We meet at the 711!" She probably repeated that 5 times on the way there. Then she also told us that if we werent at the 711 by the end of the 30 minutes she would leave without us! She said that it is a very tight schedule and the tour is only supposed to go for 5 hours so we need to be back or she leaves without us.
I walked down the street with an Austrailian guy from Perth. We had talked throughout the tour and he was very nice. He is a mechanical engineer and is heading to Canada to get a job and live there. He had a watch which was the main reason I chose to walk with him. I certainly did not want to be left in the middle of Seoul with no Korean speaking abilities and have to find a way to get back to the airport. We walked in and out of many different shops. I saw some really interesting traditional masks from Korea but decided against them because they were so expensive. The masks i was looking at were about 150,000 won which is approximately 115 usd. We continued walking and my Austrailian friend picked out some paper with Korean prints on it to give to his girlfriend. He said she is the artsy type so those would make her really happy. I then wanted to get something to remember my little trip to South Korea by so I bought these two little wooden statues. They have the traditional mask type face on them (if you ask me they look like monsters). Those only cost me 15 usd which was definitely more in my budget. Then we were tempted. We knew our tour guide said dont go left of right just go straight but we didnt listen. We took a left down a little side street that had more stores and flashing lights. It looped around and went to an indoor market. There I bough some earrings for Andrea.
We then made our way back out to the road. I kept bugging my austrailian friend..what time is it? what time is it? I really didnt want to be left behind! We wondered into some more stores. He bought a silk tapestry sort of thing. His souveniers were a lot more artsy than mine for sure. Then we did another thing that you are typically not supposed to do. We indulged in some street food. He bought something at first. I dont remember exactly what it was. Again his peer pressure (not that he actualy said anything, it was just he did it first and it convinced me to also) led me to do something. The 711 store was insight so I felt okay stopping one last time. I went to a stand and bought this little pancake looking thing. It was really good and really warm. I was excited to get some hot food in me because it was about 32 degrees F out. I was walking around in just my new fleece from northface, which kept me pretty warm. The little pancake was a really sweet bread. It wasnt your typical pancake mix. Inside the pancake was a very sweet fruit/sugar mix. It was pretty thick like molasas but also had little fruit seeds in it. Overall I was very satisfied with my choice of street food! We will just have to see if my stomach is satisfied with that choice later..
From there we were taken to a korean resteraunt. We had two choices of food ( already paid for by the tour which only cost 25 usd) it was either a beef stew or vegtable stew. I ofcourse chose the beef stew. The funniest part about the vegtable stew was that our tour guide played it off as a vegitarian choice but then said "ohh but it has beef particles in it too"
Along with the stew there was a spicy cabbage, two different types of seaweed, and some sticky rice. We only had chopsticks to eat the food with and a spoon came later for the broth. So I dont know how to use chopsticks but i learned real fast. With our tour guide rushing us around all the time i wanted to make sure i got to eat my lunch. It was the first time i had eaten since about 3 am that morning. (it was about 2 pm in the afternoon) Drinks werent payed for and again i fell to peer pressure. After watching other people get coca colas and beer i decided i would buy a drink. The only problem is i didnt have any south korean won to spend because i didnt have time to exchange any at the airport. So i aksed if i could pay in usd and of course they accepted. Its in their favor. I gave them a 5 dollar bill and they accepted that for the bottle of beer. I am pretty sure it should have only cost 2 usd but i wasnt about to start asking them to make change in won. It wasnt a 12 ounce bottle but it wasnt as big as a liter either. Really interesting size. It was called "OB" and wasnt that much different from an American Light Ale. I am pretty sure OB stands for original beer. It said Original beer since 1933.
From there we headed back to the Airport. It was a really fun trip. There were about 20 people on the tour with me. I met people from France, Canada, Wales, Austrailia, Los Angeles, and Germany. They were all so friendly and it was definitely a good experience.
Our first stop on the tour was the Royal Palace from the Joeson dynasty era. The Joeson was the last dynasty to rule Korea before Japan took over the country in the early 1900's. The palace wasnt exactly what I would picture a palace to be. It was more of an estate. It had traditional looking asian buildings all over a huge amount of land. Living quarters, entertaining halls and huge court yards to have ceremonies in. Maybe I am just not familiar with what palaces are but I was surprised because all the buildings were connected. The palace has a pretty dramatic background of mountains. It makes it look that much more majestic.
After the palace we went to a museum that was right inside the palace grounds. It was all about Korean culture and life. Our tour guide gave us the brief tour but none the less it was still pretty interesting.
The city on the other hand is pretty westernized. I hope that globalization doesnt make all parts of the world look the same. Apart from the South Korean writting on signs, buildings and the layout of the city, it was pretty similar to that of a U.S. city. The layout seemed so disorganized but maybe its just the engineer in me. The buildings were facing all different angles on streets.
After our tour of the palace and museum our tour guide brought us to a road with a market on it. The road was called Insa-dong. Our tour guide Jane gave us "30 minutes and 30 minutes only on this road!" She was very funny speaking in english about the road. She said "You go straight, no left, no right, just straight down road! You understand? We meet at the 711!" She probably repeated that 5 times on the way there. Then she also told us that if we werent at the 711 by the end of the 30 minutes she would leave without us! She said that it is a very tight schedule and the tour is only supposed to go for 5 hours so we need to be back or she leaves without us.
I walked down the street with an Austrailian guy from Perth. We had talked throughout the tour and he was very nice. He is a mechanical engineer and is heading to Canada to get a job and live there. He had a watch which was the main reason I chose to walk with him. I certainly did not want to be left in the middle of Seoul with no Korean speaking abilities and have to find a way to get back to the airport. We walked in and out of many different shops. I saw some really interesting traditional masks from Korea but decided against them because they were so expensive. The masks i was looking at were about 150,000 won which is approximately 115 usd. We continued walking and my Austrailian friend picked out some paper with Korean prints on it to give to his girlfriend. He said she is the artsy type so those would make her really happy. I then wanted to get something to remember my little trip to South Korea by so I bought these two little wooden statues. They have the traditional mask type face on them (if you ask me they look like monsters). Those only cost me 15 usd which was definitely more in my budget. Then we were tempted. We knew our tour guide said dont go left of right just go straight but we didnt listen. We took a left down a little side street that had more stores and flashing lights. It looped around and went to an indoor market. There I bough some earrings for Andrea.
We then made our way back out to the road. I kept bugging my austrailian friend..what time is it? what time is it? I really didnt want to be left behind! We wondered into some more stores. He bought a silk tapestry sort of thing. His souveniers were a lot more artsy than mine for sure. Then we did another thing that you are typically not supposed to do. We indulged in some street food. He bought something at first. I dont remember exactly what it was. Again his peer pressure (not that he actualy said anything, it was just he did it first and it convinced me to also) led me to do something. The 711 store was insight so I felt okay stopping one last time. I went to a stand and bought this little pancake looking thing. It was really good and really warm. I was excited to get some hot food in me because it was about 32 degrees F out. I was walking around in just my new fleece from northface, which kept me pretty warm. The little pancake was a really sweet bread. It wasnt your typical pancake mix. Inside the pancake was a very sweet fruit/sugar mix. It was pretty thick like molasas but also had little fruit seeds in it. Overall I was very satisfied with my choice of street food! We will just have to see if my stomach is satisfied with that choice later..
From there we were taken to a korean resteraunt. We had two choices of food ( already paid for by the tour which only cost 25 usd) it was either a beef stew or vegtable stew. I ofcourse chose the beef stew. The funniest part about the vegtable stew was that our tour guide played it off as a vegitarian choice but then said "ohh but it has beef particles in it too"
Along with the stew there was a spicy cabbage, two different types of seaweed, and some sticky rice. We only had chopsticks to eat the food with and a spoon came later for the broth. So I dont know how to use chopsticks but i learned real fast. With our tour guide rushing us around all the time i wanted to make sure i got to eat my lunch. It was the first time i had eaten since about 3 am that morning. (it was about 2 pm in the afternoon) Drinks werent payed for and again i fell to peer pressure. After watching other people get coca colas and beer i decided i would buy a drink. The only problem is i didnt have any south korean won to spend because i didnt have time to exchange any at the airport. So i aksed if i could pay in usd and of course they accepted. Its in their favor. I gave them a 5 dollar bill and they accepted that for the bottle of beer. I am pretty sure it should have only cost 2 usd but i wasnt about to start asking them to make change in won. It wasnt a 12 ounce bottle but it wasnt as big as a liter either. Really interesting size. It was called "OB" and wasnt that much different from an American Light Ale. I am pretty sure OB stands for original beer. It said Original beer since 1933.
From there we headed back to the Airport. It was a really fun trip. There were about 20 people on the tour with me. I met people from France, Canada, Wales, Austrailia, Los Angeles, and Germany. They were all so friendly and it was definitely a good experience.
Out of darkness..into darkness
Could a 14 hour flight really seem short? Well this one definitely did. I am not sure why. I was in JFK by around 8 p.m. The traffic on the way to the airport was nothing. It gave me a couple hours to spend with Andrea which was great. I decided to go through security at about 10 p.m. because I didn't know exactly what it would be like. It took andrea to encourage me a lot to finally go to the "ticketed passengers only" area. I was the bigger sap than her. The security was nothing. It only took me about 5 minutes to get through it. Most of which was just taking off my shoes and putting them back on. It was just the same as a domestic flight really.
While waiting by myself for the plan I started to read the book " The world is hot, flat and crowded." It is a pretty interesting book to read especially right before travelling internationally. The only downside to reading the book at that point is I took nothing in. All the thoughts running through my head of apphrehension and excitement really kept my mind away from the words that my eyes were going past. Before my plane took off to South Korea I met a man who was also on that flight. He was sitting next to me and we just began a conversation. He was a very intersting guy. He told me about his life and how he had come to America from S. Korea about 40 years ago. Right when he was about my age he said.
Coincidentally he is a Chemical Engineer and works for Johnson and Johnson. He has travelled all around the world. We spoke about how he liked chemical engineering and he explained to me that he was ready to retire. He plans to pursue being a professor and he is welcomed at most colleges because he has a p.h.d. Meeting him and having that conversation was good to get my mind off things.
When the flight took off i was a little sad. For some reason the whole time I had this feeling of ..you can still get off..you can still turn around. It was such an odd feeling for me because typically I am so excited to do new things. I really like experiencing different things but I guess everyone gets that feeling for atleast a little bit. I thought all sorts of things at the begining of my flight. I almost convinced myself that I should never travel alone again! I started to feel terrible at the begining of the flight because I have been pretty sick lately. I started to get a headache and fever and was just miserable. Then they handed out the headphones on the plane and we could watch movies on the individual screens on the seats infront of us. I watched a movie and fell asleep. I think that was just as we were over the greatlakes and into Canada. I didnt wake up again until we were over the russian/chinese border. I felt much better when I woke up and then the excitement started to hit me a little more. I know I am going to get to come back home and see everyone and spend time with them. But I will be in Thailand soon and thats something to look forward to.
On the plane I was sitting next to a phillipino couple in their late 50's. I didnt really have much conversation with them until the end of the flight. They were really excited about my trip and what I am doing over in Thailand. Thats basically the same message I got from the Chemical Engineer I talked to earlier too. It makes me feel really good that my project is going to make a difference.
As we approaches S. Korea it was very interesting. I could see lights but it wasn't the American Landscape that I am used to. Their were very few lights on. When I fly over america I see lights all over the place! The lights were few and far between. It was also very flat. When I fly in the U.S. I see sky scrappers and 3 deckers. Here all the lights just seemed ground level. Maybe it was really that way or maybe it was my imagination of such a different world compounded with the fact I was at 38000 feet.
Now i am sitting in the Incheon Airport. Getting free wirless and relaxing in the transfer lounge. This airport is way nicer than any I have seen in the U.S. Its just really inviting. I am laying on something that looks like a fully reclined couch. Its about 6:45 a.m. I got here around 4:50 a.m. Its really confusing when my computer clock says that its 4:45 p.m.! In an hour or so I will be going to explore the airport a little more and find the transit tours desk. Hopefully there I can get a tour and see a little bit of South Korea during my 13 hour lay over. Plus I will get another stamp on my passport!
After that its back onto the plane for a 6 hour flight to thailand. Then my Thai group partner meg is going to pick me up and I can get some rest in a real bed. Then its on to having more adventures.
While waiting by myself for the plan I started to read the book " The world is hot, flat and crowded." It is a pretty interesting book to read especially right before travelling internationally. The only downside to reading the book at that point is I took nothing in. All the thoughts running through my head of apphrehension and excitement really kept my mind away from the words that my eyes were going past. Before my plane took off to South Korea I met a man who was also on that flight. He was sitting next to me and we just began a conversation. He was a very intersting guy. He told me about his life and how he had come to America from S. Korea about 40 years ago. Right when he was about my age he said.
Coincidentally he is a Chemical Engineer and works for Johnson and Johnson. He has travelled all around the world. We spoke about how he liked chemical engineering and he explained to me that he was ready to retire. He plans to pursue being a professor and he is welcomed at most colleges because he has a p.h.d. Meeting him and having that conversation was good to get my mind off things.
When the flight took off i was a little sad. For some reason the whole time I had this feeling of ..you can still get off..you can still turn around. It was such an odd feeling for me because typically I am so excited to do new things. I really like experiencing different things but I guess everyone gets that feeling for atleast a little bit. I thought all sorts of things at the begining of my flight. I almost convinced myself that I should never travel alone again! I started to feel terrible at the begining of the flight because I have been pretty sick lately. I started to get a headache and fever and was just miserable. Then they handed out the headphones on the plane and we could watch movies on the individual screens on the seats infront of us. I watched a movie and fell asleep. I think that was just as we were over the greatlakes and into Canada. I didnt wake up again until we were over the russian/chinese border. I felt much better when I woke up and then the excitement started to hit me a little more. I know I am going to get to come back home and see everyone and spend time with them. But I will be in Thailand soon and thats something to look forward to.
On the plane I was sitting next to a phillipino couple in their late 50's. I didnt really have much conversation with them until the end of the flight. They were really excited about my trip and what I am doing over in Thailand. Thats basically the same message I got from the Chemical Engineer I talked to earlier too. It makes me feel really good that my project is going to make a difference.
As we approaches S. Korea it was very interesting. I could see lights but it wasn't the American Landscape that I am used to. Their were very few lights on. When I fly over america I see lights all over the place! The lights were few and far between. It was also very flat. When I fly in the U.S. I see sky scrappers and 3 deckers. Here all the lights just seemed ground level. Maybe it was really that way or maybe it was my imagination of such a different world compounded with the fact I was at 38000 feet.
Now i am sitting in the Incheon Airport. Getting free wirless and relaxing in the transfer lounge. This airport is way nicer than any I have seen in the U.S. Its just really inviting. I am laying on something that looks like a fully reclined couch. Its about 6:45 a.m. I got here around 4:50 a.m. Its really confusing when my computer clock says that its 4:45 p.m.! In an hour or so I will be going to explore the airport a little more and find the transit tours desk. Hopefully there I can get a tour and see a little bit of South Korea during my 13 hour lay over. Plus I will get another stamp on my passport!
After that its back onto the plane for a 6 hour flight to thailand. Then my Thai group partner meg is going to pick me up and I can get some rest in a real bed. Then its on to having more adventures.
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