Bangkok

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.