It's Monday, which means I've been in Thailand for all of 3 days. We arrived Friday at midnight and finally settled into our dorms at 1am on Saturday. Today was our frist day of orientation in which we met the Fulbright-Thailand staff including Porntip who is the Executive Director of TUSEF. She is the sweetest lady, and gave us a 3 hour presentation on Thai culture and customs in addition to describing the ETA program and our role and responsibilities as ETAs in Thailand.
I've had two days to roam around Bangkok. So far it's been extremely interesting. Bangkok is somewhat grimy and reminds me a lot of Chinatown in NYC. Walking around and trying to cross the streets is an adventure in and of itself. Not only because they drive on the left side of the road here, but everyone speeds and there is a variety of vehicles to watch out for in order to make sure you don't get hit. In addition to regular cars and taxis that speed by (and I do mean speed), there are tuk tuks, which are three-wheeled motorcars, kind of like a fancy rickshaw. There are also mopeds or motorcycles, many in which do not provide helmts and their drivers are not insured. So basically, a death trap. Pedestrians do not seem to have the right-of-way here, so each time I cross the street I pray that I don't get killed.
Things seem to be relatvely cheap here. Street food and cheap restaurants cost an average of one to three dollars for a meal, which is really really nice. Today I ate lunch at the cafeteria of the University for less than one U.S. dollar! While I haven't been that adventurous yet with my eating (they say you need to give your stomach time to adjust to the food) everything that I have had has been delicious. Even the fried rice here was fresh and not greasy at all like it is at home. Although I'm not sure if I'll ever get comfortable enough to try fried crickets, red ants or worms on a stick. Doesn't really sound that appealing to me.
What else can I say about my time here so far? There are 12 of us here, of course 11 of us are girls. Everyone seems super nice. Four people have been here before, and at least two or three others don't know a lick of Thai, so I don't feel that alone. We are staying at the international house which is part of Chulalongkorn University. Our dorms are clean, air-conditioned, AND we have an American toilet! Woo hoo! We even have a green refrigerator in our room, so my roommate and I have stocked up on breakfast foods to save time in the morning and a bit of money. What's really funny is how much of a small world it is: my roommate Lana, did the same study abroad program in Rome as Sophie, so they know each other!
Other random things:
There are lots of stray dogs and cats here. Not my favorite.
The internet situation is not the greatest. We are not allowd to use the internet in the dorm we are staying in as we are not "official" Chulalongkorn Unversity students. The internet is also slower at night then it is in the morning because at night everyone is using it. Reminds me of the days when we had dial-up and on a Friday night it would impossible to get online. Oh well, this isn't worst thing that could happen.
Well that's it for now. I should probably go back to my dorm and practice my Thai. Right now the only thing I can say is "Sawadee ka" which is "hello". :-)
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