Land of Smiles

So this blog is way over due, so I figured that i would finally start it.

I came to Thailand on August 20th. I had no idea what i was doing. I had a interesting summer for one. as many may know I am trying to become a doctor and i just recently took my mcats. When did I take them you ask? Oh just about 4 days before leaving the country for four months. It was a little bit of a hectic process. I had a pretty excruciating summer that was riddled with a number of awful things that I'm positive most people don't want to hear about. ( And by awful, I really mean just exhausting and a lot of work. All and all it was a pretty great summer for me. ) But this blog isn't about what I did this summer.

I left for Thailand on august 20th, and like i said earlier I had no idea what i was doing. I had barely read anything about the program i was getting myself in to , let alone bother to learn ever the smallest bit of Thai. Normally i would consider myself a pretty flexible guy, and most things don't really get me anxious, but the second i got to the terminal at San Francisco airport and looked around, I'll admit, I was a little scared. I had a 18 hours flight to hong knong and then another 2 hour flight to Bangkok. The whole time I was a little anxious. The only thing that really would calm me down was the in flight accommodations. I got to watch Aladdin and drink Black Label, an occurrence that i have to say probably doesn't happen very often.

After getting off at the Bangkok airport i started to look around and try and get a feel for the place i was going to be for the next 5 months of my life. I looked around and tried to observe the people around me. The first thing i did was start talking to a young looking american girl, thinking maybe she had come to Bangkok for the same reason I did........ She did not. haha

Once i got my bags i began to look around for a way to get to my hotel room, the Viengtai hotel. Not knowing how to speak any Thai, i went to the first place I saw that said taxi. It turned out that i had rented a limo to get to my hotel from the airport. Surprisingly though it cost 1,000 baht, a mere 30 dollars in the states.

After getting to Bangkok i started to wander around with a few people that i met initially from the program. The street we were on was Khao San and apparently was one of the places that was a heaven for back packers. Initially i was a little taken back by the experience. I didn't really like the fact that i had come to Thailand and more then 7o percent of the people I was seeing on the streets were foreigners. However then i realized that it was just the first day and i got over it. After meeting the group, and some cool people the program began. The second day was a interesting time. While a group of us were in the pool at the hotel, it started raining harder then I've ever seen in my life. It was pretty amazing. We went out that night in the midst of flooded street and pouring rain.

After leaving Bangkok, we made our way to a a resort in northern Thailand for about a week. This was pretty gorgeous. the resort was in the hill tops and there was a creek running in the back and you could see the forest surrounding you.

This time periods was mainly for team building as a group. A major aspect of my program is international development and a strong component of that is working in teams to discuss problems that are faced with and observe. It should be a interesting experience because international development is a area that i want to work with in the future, however i dont think i really know the realities of the field. Reading journal articles can only do so much. Plus i haven't exactly worked in a group for quite a while, so it should be interesting.

After the retreat we immediately went to your first homestay in a village called Noon Jahn. This was kind of crazy. I clearly had know idea what to expect for our homestays. I had 4 days of Thai under my belt, and on top of that I really didn't want to insult anyone. At first i thought we were going to be living with a family in a town, with concreate walls and all. However while i was on the bus to the village, we kept climbing higher and higher and deeper in to the forest until eventually we reached a small Village.

Nong Jahn is a interesting village. It is completely self sustaining and ever house in the village has a solar panel located outside of their house in order to supply electricity. The village was located in the middle of a forest that the Thai government had declared a national forest various times. Due to this, the villagers at Nong Jahn had to repeatedly evacuate from their homes and lively hoods and relocate to a new area. However in the recent years they were allowed to come back, but not indefinable. When i first arrived to the village it was pretty amazing to see the sense of community they had. Everyone came to greet us with huge smiles.

My homestay in Nong Jahn was with a family of banana farmers. At first the communication was a bit difficult, but smiling surprisingly went a long way. The family had a 2 year old little boy named Poi Fai. At first the kid was pretty hesitant to come and greet me and my friend staying at the home stay, and he even punched me in the eye the first time i tried to pick him up, but eventually he warmed up to me. At the end of the trip i gave him the spiderman bracelet I had and he cried as we all went away.

After the homestay we reached Khon Kaen. At this point i was living out of my backpack for about a weekand a half, and was exhausted with no clean cloths, so being able to go to my room at Khon Kaen university was a refreshment. After exploring a bit i went out with a few people and a large group of Thai students that are our roomates and had a interesting time. Few things I want to say:

1.) Thai's love Likin park and limp bizkit. Its really odd. I hung out with a few thai guys on the street the first night and they handed e a guitar and asked me to play linkin park.... I can't remember the last time i listened to liknin park let alone played it. So i told them that, and they took the guitar away and played a song singing along to it in English. They can't converse in english, but they can sing Linkin Park. haha

2.) Thai's are extremely Friendly. I went out to the club one night, and just walking in, people started to invite us over to chill with them. At first it sounds a bit sketch, but it really isn't.

After staying at KKU for a few days I went to my next homestay. Originally I was told that this homestay was going to be with middle class families of students in the 4th grade at a school. The first day i went there i met Mooch, my little brother. He was a pretty shy kid, and didn't talk too much at first, but was pretty cool. We pulled up to his house in a song tau( taxi), and i realized the conditions i was living in were worst then the village. AS i walked in I realized none of the parents were home, which at first struck me as odd. So i dropped of my stuff and went off with mooch to take a walk. We walked around the area and eventually found a few kids that were playing soccer. So me and mooch took on 3 other 11-3 year olds in soccer. It was pretty hilarious. Doing rainbows over thai children to amaze them was pretty fun. Mooch liked that an warmed up to me afterward.

When we went home it was dark out. As i walked in the house, I realized that there were no lights on inside. The house had no light and eventually what i found out no bathroom. I began to worry a bit. However eventually the mother came and we had dinner and went to bed at about 9 o'clock.

The next few days were a little tough. I had to plan my days out and certain things. The experience i had leaving though became pretty crucial. I stayed with mooch and his family for about 5 days, and the one thing i will miss is walking in to and from school teaching each other words in Thai and english, and then going to seven eleven for a bowl of ramen. That homestay i have to say was pretty tough and exhausting. The conditions of the house just made me think about how the family lived, and what their daily reality was.