Since the last time I wrote I have been mostly caught up in project work. The science experiments that we developed for the schools are going okay but definitely caught a few snags along the way. Whether its the teachers not being familiar with how to run an experiment, the students being unfamiliar or us making a mistake there have been multiple things gone wrong. Along with that we are only in the Sakon Nakhon region for 5 weeks. Its definitely a short time and requires constant attention to the project. I have been probably working 16 hour days with a break every so often. Its intense but I guess thats how its supposed to be.
I have made some great relationships with students, teachers and other people we have interacted with. One of the teachers has really gone out of his way to take care of us. His name is Ajarn Pornsin ( or Professor Peter in english). He brings us places on weekend, brings us to the grocery store when we need to go and he even hung up a hammock next to our house for me! He is really just a great example of how welcoming and friendly Thai people are. Its going to be a weird transition back to U.S. life, where everyone is caught up in there own life and typically dont go out of there way just to make sure you are happy.
I have taken a couple of trips over the past two weeks. First we went to a province on the Laos border called Nakon Phranom. It was actually really beautiful. We looked across the Mekong River to the Laos side which is not developed and really typical of what you see in Asian Landscape pictures. It has mountains that seem to rise out of nothing, very abrubty. During that trip we visited a few Wats. We then visited a Christian church where 6 people have a shrine built after them. Many years ago Christians were persecuted in Thailand for their religion and these 6 people did not hide it. Unstead they chose to sacrafice their lives and become martyrs. When we arrive to a place we were going to have dinner, the director of one of the schools we work with spotted me. I didnt even know that he was supposed to be coming. He called me up to this resteraunt up on the porch overlooking the Mekong river. He explained to me that he had been waiting there since noon for us and drinking the entire time. He then order more bottles of beer and insisted I sit with him and drink.
From there we took a boat crusie on the Mekong river. It was about 2 hours long and they served some appetizers. Many teachers from the other science teams schools were present. When we finaly got off the boat we had some dinner. My group then stayed over in a hotel that night. We went and sang kareokee ( thai people love it for some reason, there are rooms you can rent out with tv's and machines, they bring you drinks, its an intersting experience). The following day we went to a indo-china market which was anti-climatic. I thought it was going to this extravagant place but it was not better than most of the fairs we have already been to. (Redcross fair and Seo Festival).
This past weekend I went to Koh Samed which is a tropical island. My group partner Sofia and another student Miguel came also. We stayed in Tonsak resort which is directly on the beach. We stayed in a garden bungalow which was very nice. We did pay for it though. It cost $120 usd a night to stay there. I think it was worth it because it seems as though the hotels that arent on the beach or dont cost a lot are really the opposite end of the spectrum. That weekend we explored the island on bikes and went snokeling in a coral reef area. I have never seen water so blue. It was absolutely gorgeous and just like the pictures that you see in magazines. The water was also as warm as bath water which was a nice change of pace from New England ocean water.
Each night we went out to a few bars. The first night we stopped where there was a large gathering of people on the beach infront of a place called Ploy Resort. There were people there doing a fire show. Atleast 10 teenage boys were throwing around these metal poles which had been drenched in some sort of fuel. They could throw them 50 feet up in the air and catch them on the only part that wasnt burning. They were doing acrobats and standing on each others shoulders while throwing these things around.
On the day before we left Sofia and I got Thai Massages. It was absolutely amazing. It cost around $9 usd and I got a full body massage for an hour. The lady who owned the place was so nice and the people were friendly throughout the whole thing. Personally I think I would get sick of giving people massages. I dont know how they do it. At the end we got to sit down with the lady and her daughter and just talk.
Koh Samet was definitely alot of fun but I think 2 nights was enough. Any more and that island might have started to get a little boring. It was small enough to go across on bike and basically everything was throughout the island was the same.
Now since there are so many deadlines coming in the next week for my group, we are going to be working the entire weekend. Its not exciting because Id like to enjoy Sakon Nakhon, the people, and the fresh air for the last weekend I am here. My project grade is definitely important though so I guess I have to make a sacrafice. In less than 5 days I will be back on my way to the streets full of tourists and polluted air of bangkok.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Sakon Nakhon and New Experiences
So I have arrive in Sakon Nakhon and have been working on my project for almost a week now. The difference between the people of issan province and those in Bangkok is very large. The people of Bangkok have so many interactions daily with westerners that they are just accustomed to their presence. Whereas the people of Issan do not often see Westerners and are very excited and interested to meet someone.
It has its advantages and disadvantages. First of all the people are such good hosts. Since I got here I have been invited to so many different places and taken care of so well. The people here really want to make sure you are having a great time and that you leave loving the area and wanting to come back. The headmaster at the school I am working at had some of the teachers stay over at the school the first few nights just to make sure we did okay. On the last night a teacher came up to us when we were walking out to the soccer field to look at the stars and said "Matthew you are happy?" and I said of course I am happy. He told me that we all looked so sad. We are always hard at work. It was really interesting because the more I think about it..we are always working. We often have to solve difficult problems and I think our expressions come across as if they think that we are not enjoying our time here. I explained that we loved it here.
I think I definitely like Sakon Nakhon more than Bangkok. The only thing that I wish I had was easier transportation. I am the type of person that absolutely hates having to rely on other people. I think its very American because I was explaining it to my Thai group partners. Although I know that the people here are just trying to do things for us, I often feel like a burden to them. I also just really value my freedom of being able to travel where I want when I want. I think that is a big change for me to deal with.
Another is feeling overwhelmed with the friendliness. Everyone here is so excited to see you. I cant even count the number of photos I have taken with random people. They just want photo's with the westerners. It is also getting a little tiring being paraded around. We get invited everywhere and then the people who invite us want us to meet everyone they know. I know that this is completely a cultural misunderstanding but it feels like to me that they are trying to show off that they know westerners. Its just how it feels although I am sure in Thai culture it is interpreted completely different than how it makes us feel.
Last year the education office said that people felt that the students closed their doors too often and didnt interact enough. So we tried this year to interact as much as possible. I think we have outdone our selves because now within the first 5 or 6 days here we feel so overwhelmed that we just need some time to ourselves. Its also so hard to explain when we want time to ourselves without offending anyone. We are here representing our school, country, and generally the western world. It would be a shame to give everyone a bad impression.
Anyways enough of that.....
We have seen a lot of very interesting things while here. We saw a Buddhist Wat (temple) in the center of Sakon Nakhon central as well as walked through a park that a thai princess who passed away last year had created. There was a legend and many statues representing the legend which was very interesting. We also ate Korean food that night which was absolutely delicious. There was a large hot pan in the middle of our table and then a buffet of all different meats, noodles, vegtables that you could choose to either grill or boil on the hot pan. Of course i stuck to mainly meats and noodles/rice.
We also went to the redcross fair. I am not sure exactly what the point of it is. It is much like the agricultural fairs we have in the northeastern united states. Live bands, agricultural exhibits, shopping, carnival games ect. It is sponsored by the international redcross I assume. I am wondering if it is a fundraiser? I am not completely sure though. It was a lot of fun.
We also experienced a campfire at the school. They had 2 days filled with boyscout and girl guide activities. It all culminated with a great campfire that we were the guests of honor at. 2 grade levels attended (M1 and M2) which amounted to about 500 students. The headmasters and teachers had us sit on top of a hill on leather couches to view the campfire. Everything is about respect here..from being on higher ground to sitting in leather couches. The district educational representative for Kusuman came to the campfire. He was supposed to be the chairman of the ceremony but had to leave mid way through and was about to turn it over to the headmaster. Instead the headmaster appointed sofia, one of my project partners, to be the new chairman. From what I have been told that was a huge honor because of the whole respect hirarchy here.
We were then approached as guests of honor by girls dressed in traditional thai clothes. They were all giggling because the headmaster told them that they were supposed to bring us to dance with them. It was a huge ceremony and I danced with one girl who spoke very good english. She asked me my name, if i spoke any thai, and then out of nowhere asked if i had a girlfriend. Apparently that is a common question to ask people when you are getting to know them. Thats what my thai group partners told me atleast. At the time i was so confused at what she was saying though. I just kept saying "may cot chay" ..which basically means in english " I dont understand". I finally came to the conclusion that she might be asking me what the names of the girls in our group were. So I said sofia "kap" (and) kelsey. The girl exclaimed "KAP?" and i said yes and. So after analyzing the situation i realized she was asking if i had a girlfriend and what her name was. Right now there is one really confused thai girl who thinks i am dating both of my project partners. Interesting what a language barrier can do right?
Anyways the girl was very excited to dance next to mean and everytime we would go by a group of students sitting around the campfire all the girls would scream. Duke said thats how the girls act when they think a boy is cute. Its basically a confidence boost that I dont need haha. I think they also scream like that when a western guy walks by because its just so interesting and funny to see one doing a thai dance. (at least thats what my modest side tells me)
We watched all sorts of skits and songs that the students put on as well as did a dance of our own. We taught them cotton eyed joe.
Another thing that we did twice this week was attended the ceremonies for a monks funeral. He was a very old monk and buddhist funerals are very interesting. Its a celebration of life rather than a funeral. There is a session of praying (which i got to do). The monks chant in sandscript. It sounds so interesting and foreign. I really enjoyed it. Then basically the whole wat turns into a carnival with movies, games, live performances. All of them celebrating the monks life. I think it is such a better way to do a funeral by celebrating a life rahter than mourning their death. They do the praying and carnival many differnt nights. They do a fake burning and then an actual cremation. The fake burning is to confuse the devil so that the spirit will get safe passage when they actually do cremation or so i have been told.
We were there for the actual cremation but had to leave early. There were fireworks going off and the burning ends came down and landed on my thai project partners neck. He was slow to react and has a second degree burn on his neck. I just barely got out of the way of a burning piece of fire work as it flew at me. He is doing okay now that we stopped at a pharmacy and got him some medication.
The food has been good but repetitive. There is rice at every meal. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. There isnt really such a staple in my diet at home. I guess the closest would be white bread but even then I dont eat it every day.
I am having a lot of interesting experiences and the project with the school systems is progressing. We are very lucky to have 2 native speakers with us. I mean we could get by with the Thai we know but there would be many more confusing situations and the communication aspect would take much much longer.
Hopefully I continue to get to see new and intersting things and we have a great impact on science literacy in Sakon Nakhon!
It has its advantages and disadvantages. First of all the people are such good hosts. Since I got here I have been invited to so many different places and taken care of so well. The people here really want to make sure you are having a great time and that you leave loving the area and wanting to come back. The headmaster at the school I am working at had some of the teachers stay over at the school the first few nights just to make sure we did okay. On the last night a teacher came up to us when we were walking out to the soccer field to look at the stars and said "Matthew you are happy?" and I said of course I am happy. He told me that we all looked so sad. We are always hard at work. It was really interesting because the more I think about it..we are always working. We often have to solve difficult problems and I think our expressions come across as if they think that we are not enjoying our time here. I explained that we loved it here.
I think I definitely like Sakon Nakhon more than Bangkok. The only thing that I wish I had was easier transportation. I am the type of person that absolutely hates having to rely on other people. I think its very American because I was explaining it to my Thai group partners. Although I know that the people here are just trying to do things for us, I often feel like a burden to them. I also just really value my freedom of being able to travel where I want when I want. I think that is a big change for me to deal with.
Another is feeling overwhelmed with the friendliness. Everyone here is so excited to see you. I cant even count the number of photos I have taken with random people. They just want photo's with the westerners. It is also getting a little tiring being paraded around. We get invited everywhere and then the people who invite us want us to meet everyone they know. I know that this is completely a cultural misunderstanding but it feels like to me that they are trying to show off that they know westerners. Its just how it feels although I am sure in Thai culture it is interpreted completely different than how it makes us feel.
Last year the education office said that people felt that the students closed their doors too often and didnt interact enough. So we tried this year to interact as much as possible. I think we have outdone our selves because now within the first 5 or 6 days here we feel so overwhelmed that we just need some time to ourselves. Its also so hard to explain when we want time to ourselves without offending anyone. We are here representing our school, country, and generally the western world. It would be a shame to give everyone a bad impression.
Anyways enough of that.....
We have seen a lot of very interesting things while here. We saw a Buddhist Wat (temple) in the center of Sakon Nakhon central as well as walked through a park that a thai princess who passed away last year had created. There was a legend and many statues representing the legend which was very interesting. We also ate Korean food that night which was absolutely delicious. There was a large hot pan in the middle of our table and then a buffet of all different meats, noodles, vegtables that you could choose to either grill or boil on the hot pan. Of course i stuck to mainly meats and noodles/rice.
We also went to the redcross fair. I am not sure exactly what the point of it is. It is much like the agricultural fairs we have in the northeastern united states. Live bands, agricultural exhibits, shopping, carnival games ect. It is sponsored by the international redcross I assume. I am wondering if it is a fundraiser? I am not completely sure though. It was a lot of fun.
We also experienced a campfire at the school. They had 2 days filled with boyscout and girl guide activities. It all culminated with a great campfire that we were the guests of honor at. 2 grade levels attended (M1 and M2) which amounted to about 500 students. The headmasters and teachers had us sit on top of a hill on leather couches to view the campfire. Everything is about respect here..from being on higher ground to sitting in leather couches. The district educational representative for Kusuman came to the campfire. He was supposed to be the chairman of the ceremony but had to leave mid way through and was about to turn it over to the headmaster. Instead the headmaster appointed sofia, one of my project partners, to be the new chairman. From what I have been told that was a huge honor because of the whole respect hirarchy here.
We were then approached as guests of honor by girls dressed in traditional thai clothes. They were all giggling because the headmaster told them that they were supposed to bring us to dance with them. It was a huge ceremony and I danced with one girl who spoke very good english. She asked me my name, if i spoke any thai, and then out of nowhere asked if i had a girlfriend. Apparently that is a common question to ask people when you are getting to know them. Thats what my thai group partners told me atleast. At the time i was so confused at what she was saying though. I just kept saying "may cot chay" ..which basically means in english " I dont understand". I finally came to the conclusion that she might be asking me what the names of the girls in our group were. So I said sofia "kap" (and) kelsey. The girl exclaimed "KAP?" and i said yes and. So after analyzing the situation i realized she was asking if i had a girlfriend and what her name was. Right now there is one really confused thai girl who thinks i am dating both of my project partners. Interesting what a language barrier can do right?
Anyways the girl was very excited to dance next to mean and everytime we would go by a group of students sitting around the campfire all the girls would scream. Duke said thats how the girls act when they think a boy is cute. Its basically a confidence boost that I dont need haha. I think they also scream like that when a western guy walks by because its just so interesting and funny to see one doing a thai dance. (at least thats what my modest side tells me)
We watched all sorts of skits and songs that the students put on as well as did a dance of our own. We taught them cotton eyed joe.
Another thing that we did twice this week was attended the ceremonies for a monks funeral. He was a very old monk and buddhist funerals are very interesting. Its a celebration of life rather than a funeral. There is a session of praying (which i got to do). The monks chant in sandscript. It sounds so interesting and foreign. I really enjoyed it. Then basically the whole wat turns into a carnival with movies, games, live performances. All of them celebrating the monks life. I think it is such a better way to do a funeral by celebrating a life rahter than mourning their death. They do the praying and carnival many differnt nights. They do a fake burning and then an actual cremation. The fake burning is to confuse the devil so that the spirit will get safe passage when they actually do cremation or so i have been told.
We were there for the actual cremation but had to leave early. There were fireworks going off and the burning ends came down and landed on my thai project partners neck. He was slow to react and has a second degree burn on his neck. I just barely got out of the way of a burning piece of fire work as it flew at me. He is doing okay now that we stopped at a pharmacy and got him some medication.
The food has been good but repetitive. There is rice at every meal. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. There isnt really such a staple in my diet at home. I guess the closest would be white bread but even then I dont eat it every day.
I am having a lot of interesting experiences and the project with the school systems is progressing. We are very lucky to have 2 native speakers with us. I mean we could get by with the Thai we know but there would be many more confusing situations and the communication aspect would take much much longer.
Hopefully I continue to get to see new and intersting things and we have a great impact on science literacy in Sakon Nakhon!
Monday, January 12, 2009
Kanchanaburi and Royal Palaces
So I havent written in quite a while. For some reason my internet stopped working and I had to wait until they had all the user names and passwords for WPI students. Previously I had just been using one of the thai students user name. All the students from WPI are here and we have begun our project work. The first week everyone was here we had orientations and time for sight seeing. I spend the time helping people get around bangkok at first but now everyone is very good at it! I visited this place named "Jim Thompsons house" (eerily familiar anyone?) who is a dead american. He was a silk trader that fell in love with Thailand and built a mansion out of traditional thai houses. It was really interesting.
My group had to begin project work a lot earlier than any other group. Its was kind of frustrating at points because we had to do work when everyone else was still relaxing but then again its life. Oh well. We had our first meeting on thursday the 8th with ajaarn (professor in english) Siripastr. She is a very nice lady who was educated in the United States and is part of the Royal family. We basically just identified things in our project that we needed to work on and got prepared for our presentation at the royal palace. ( Which was today but Ill get to that later).
Then for the weekend from the 9th to the 11th we went to Kanchanaburi. On the way we stopped at a Coconut sugar processing place, a floating market, and then a national park. I will post all my pictures on photo bucket. The floating market was a lot of fun. We took a canal boat ride for about 5 files. It was a high speed boat and a lot of fun. Then we got to the floating market. It was really overpriced so I did not buy too many things, just food. I decided I would bargain for a traditional thai looking mask. The man originally said "best price for you is 1200 baht". I decided I would start speaking some thai and get him down to around 500 baht. I sucessful did after much bargaining. I got him to 600 baht at one point and then pretended like I was going to walk away. He said out of desperation "okay okay 500 baht". I really didnt realize the economoic downturn was hitting people all over the world until he agreed to 500. I felt bad afterwards but even when he went to 500 baht I said no and walked away. I know I can get it cheaper for somewhere else so I guess it was just a smart buisness move?
Then we went to a national park where there were 7 different waterfalls. I have many many pictures of them as well as a video of some monkeys fighting. They were only about 5 feet away from me. We got to swim in the waterfalls and slide down some of the rocks. We also got to jump from the top of one of the waterfalls which was a lot of fun.
We also ate lunch at a resteraunt that was directly infront of the famous bridge on the river kwai. We were supposed to take a historical tour of the bridge on the way back but couldnt due to time constraints. It is dissappointing because I didnt have my camera at that lunch so I didnt even get to take any pictures.
After that we went to the resort we were staying at for the weekend. The resort was only acessible by boat and the boat was basically powered by car's diesel engine which was just attached to a propeller. The resort was beautiful and we stayed in things that looked like tiki huts. We ate lots of thai food, explored a cave, visited a mon hill tribe village, and floated down the kwai river in life jackets.
On the way back we visited an elephant conservatory where we could ride elephants and watch an elephant show. I have many picture from that including a picture of elephant dung that the guide thought would be very funny to take a picture of with my camera.
We arrived back in bangkok at about 7 pm. I had to get some western food because my stomach was upset after the bus ride back. I was ready to try any thai food at that point so I got a pepperoni pizza. Most expensive pizza every by the way because the wheat, cheese, and pepperoni all have to be imported. It cost $17 usd for a large.
We then worked on our presentation for the officer of her royal highness princess maha chakri sirinihorn's projects until about midnight. I woke up this morning and got my clothes ironed and then we were picked up by a van driven by a palace guard. There was a sign in the window that said "official wpi delegation". I felt like it was a huge deal. I am sure to my Thai group partners it was even more important because the royal family here is so highly regarded. Our meeting went very well although I wish the presentation was a bit more rehearsed. We found out that on our first night in Sakon Nakhon (the NE province we will be going to) we are going to be staying in the princess's palace! I thought that was amazing. How many people get to say that they have slept in a palace before? Again no matter how excited I am, my thai group parters are so much more excited and their families are very very proud of them.
So on a not exciting side not I had bed bugs. They are terrible. I did some internet research on tropical bed bugs and now I am pretty much terrified to sleep in my bed. I had welts all over my leg but then they went away while I was in Kanchanburi. I slept last night in my friend Stefan's room from the netherlands. He has a single and I am going to sleep in that room again tonight. I had my thai group partner explain to the dorm staff about my bed bugs today and all they did was change the sheets and told me they would give me some lotion tomorrow. Not really the response I was hoping for. Although they would have to basically exterminate the whole room to actually get rid of the problem. I called my professors and they are going to have their contact at the school call the dorm staff tomorrow and ask them to get me a new mattress. I dont know if it will help though because those little suckers can even hide in the walls. Which my room has terrible ripped wall paper and I am guessing thats where they live. Apparently they jump out and have heat sensing antenas and hop around until they find someone to eat. Its pretty gross so hopefully something can be done about it.
Tomorrow we will keep working on our project and maybe things can finally slow down to a managable pace.
My group had to begin project work a lot earlier than any other group. Its was kind of frustrating at points because we had to do work when everyone else was still relaxing but then again its life. Oh well. We had our first meeting on thursday the 8th with ajaarn (professor in english) Siripastr. She is a very nice lady who was educated in the United States and is part of the Royal family. We basically just identified things in our project that we needed to work on and got prepared for our presentation at the royal palace. ( Which was today but Ill get to that later).
Then for the weekend from the 9th to the 11th we went to Kanchanaburi. On the way we stopped at a Coconut sugar processing place, a floating market, and then a national park. I will post all my pictures on photo bucket. The floating market was a lot of fun. We took a canal boat ride for about 5 files. It was a high speed boat and a lot of fun. Then we got to the floating market. It was really overpriced so I did not buy too many things, just food. I decided I would bargain for a traditional thai looking mask. The man originally said "best price for you is 1200 baht". I decided I would start speaking some thai and get him down to around 500 baht. I sucessful did after much bargaining. I got him to 600 baht at one point and then pretended like I was going to walk away. He said out of desperation "okay okay 500 baht". I really didnt realize the economoic downturn was hitting people all over the world until he agreed to 500. I felt bad afterwards but even when he went to 500 baht I said no and walked away. I know I can get it cheaper for somewhere else so I guess it was just a smart buisness move?
Then we went to a national park where there were 7 different waterfalls. I have many many pictures of them as well as a video of some monkeys fighting. They were only about 5 feet away from me. We got to swim in the waterfalls and slide down some of the rocks. We also got to jump from the top of one of the waterfalls which was a lot of fun.
We also ate lunch at a resteraunt that was directly infront of the famous bridge on the river kwai. We were supposed to take a historical tour of the bridge on the way back but couldnt due to time constraints. It is dissappointing because I didnt have my camera at that lunch so I didnt even get to take any pictures.
After that we went to the resort we were staying at for the weekend. The resort was only acessible by boat and the boat was basically powered by car's diesel engine which was just attached to a propeller. The resort was beautiful and we stayed in things that looked like tiki huts. We ate lots of thai food, explored a cave, visited a mon hill tribe village, and floated down the kwai river in life jackets.
On the way back we visited an elephant conservatory where we could ride elephants and watch an elephant show. I have many picture from that including a picture of elephant dung that the guide thought would be very funny to take a picture of with my camera.
We arrived back in bangkok at about 7 pm. I had to get some western food because my stomach was upset after the bus ride back. I was ready to try any thai food at that point so I got a pepperoni pizza. Most expensive pizza every by the way because the wheat, cheese, and pepperoni all have to be imported. It cost $17 usd for a large.
We then worked on our presentation for the officer of her royal highness princess maha chakri sirinihorn's projects until about midnight. I woke up this morning and got my clothes ironed and then we were picked up by a van driven by a palace guard. There was a sign in the window that said "official wpi delegation". I felt like it was a huge deal. I am sure to my Thai group partners it was even more important because the royal family here is so highly regarded. Our meeting went very well although I wish the presentation was a bit more rehearsed. We found out that on our first night in Sakon Nakhon (the NE province we will be going to) we are going to be staying in the princess's palace! I thought that was amazing. How many people get to say that they have slept in a palace before? Again no matter how excited I am, my thai group parters are so much more excited and their families are very very proud of them.
So on a not exciting side not I had bed bugs. They are terrible. I did some internet research on tropical bed bugs and now I am pretty much terrified to sleep in my bed. I had welts all over my leg but then they went away while I was in Kanchanburi. I slept last night in my friend Stefan's room from the netherlands. He has a single and I am going to sleep in that room again tonight. I had my thai group partner explain to the dorm staff about my bed bugs today and all they did was change the sheets and told me they would give me some lotion tomorrow. Not really the response I was hoping for. Although they would have to basically exterminate the whole room to actually get rid of the problem. I called my professors and they are going to have their contact at the school call the dorm staff tomorrow and ask them to get me a new mattress. I dont know if it will help though because those little suckers can even hide in the walls. Which my room has terrible ripped wall paper and I am guessing thats where they live. Apparently they jump out and have heat sensing antenas and hop around until they find someone to eat. Its pretty gross so hopefully something can be done about it.
Tomorrow we will keep working on our project and maybe things can finally slow down to a managable pace.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
New Years and Exploration
The past few days have been really good! Finding a gym was a day long affair. It took me 3 hours to find it! Then it took me 20 minutes to walk back get changed and then I spent an hour at the gym. Overall that little trip probably took 5 hours. I would have done so much better if I knew more Thai but I guess I'm learning. Recently, I made friends with a lot of the Chula university students staying in the same dorm as me. Most of them are masters students and around 23- 26 years old but I couldnt tell at all. I thought they were younger than me. On December 30th I went to a place called central world. Its a huge department store but really its the size of an entire mall. Outside of it is where they have the biggest new years eve celebration in Bangkok. All of the different beer companies had a part of the courtyard. They all set up a stage and have very popular Thai bands playing. They compete for customers basically. That was interesting and we walked around a bit. Then the two thai students that I was with wanted to take me to Koh San Road. Its the most western and touristy place in Bangkok. It was really kind of dirty though. There were bars all over the place and lots of restaurants. We walked though and basically watched all the western people making fools of themselves. Its bad enough when they come to Thailand and dont know the language or culture but then they are just really obnoxious. I saw western people yelling at the Thai cashiers because they cant sell alcohol after midnight. The western people couldnt understand them and were just getting really mad. It is seen as very immature to get mad in Thailand and thai people are often not very direct when they are upset. Bascially the westerners were embarrassing themselves but I am sure they didnt know it.
The next night was new years eve! One of the same thai students and others wanted to go out for new years. They didnt want to go to central world because it would be too crowded. So first we went to a park that was on the Chao Praya river. It was really suay ( beautiful in thai). We then took a tourist river boat and I got to see the Bangkok skyline. From there we went to a thai restaurant that was right on the river. They ordered the food and I am not even sure what I ate. The menu was all written in Thai.
They decided for the count down that we should go somewhere. They didnt want to go to Central World because it would be too crowded. So we went to Koh San road and sat in a bar. The bar was pretty nice. We sat upstairs and there was a porch overlooking the street. We sat there until it was about 11:50 and then walked down to the street where there was a countdown area. After the count down ( by the way ALL thai people know how to say happy new years in english) we went to a club. We ended up coming back to the dorm around 2:30 am. That day we rode in a bus, tuk-tuk, and taxi. I dont really have a great sense of direction in Bangkok yet but I will figure it out sooner or later.
There is a new student here from the Netherlands. His name is Stefan. Today I went to get lunch with him at MBK and we walked over to Central world where we got a pitcher of beer and sat and talked for a while. I am glad I have people to walk around Bangkok with.
All the other WPI students will be arriving in about 3 days! I know that they are going to ask me to show them around and I am excited to do it!
The next night was new years eve! One of the same thai students and others wanted to go out for new years. They didnt want to go to central world because it would be too crowded. So first we went to a park that was on the Chao Praya river. It was really suay ( beautiful in thai). We then took a tourist river boat and I got to see the Bangkok skyline. From there we went to a thai restaurant that was right on the river. They ordered the food and I am not even sure what I ate. The menu was all written in Thai.
They decided for the count down that we should go somewhere. They didnt want to go to Central World because it would be too crowded. So we went to Koh San road and sat in a bar. The bar was pretty nice. We sat upstairs and there was a porch overlooking the street. We sat there until it was about 11:50 and then walked down to the street where there was a countdown area. After the count down ( by the way ALL thai people know how to say happy new years in english) we went to a club. We ended up coming back to the dorm around 2:30 am. That day we rode in a bus, tuk-tuk, and taxi. I dont really have a great sense of direction in Bangkok yet but I will figure it out sooner or later.
There is a new student here from the Netherlands. His name is Stefan. Today I went to get lunch with him at MBK and we walked over to Central world where we got a pitcher of beer and sat and talked for a while. I am glad I have people to walk around Bangkok with.
All the other WPI students will be arriving in about 3 days! I know that they are going to ask me to show them around and I am excited to do it!
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