Where do I start with this one???
Since my last blog, I made it into immigration where I got to fully appreciate the way a cow feels when it's being sent to slaughter. While this won't put me off of eating beef etc, I will appreciate it just a little bit more. After the initial confusion and fighting our way through a crowd that I imagine was akin to one of people attempting to flee a war-torn country, the oh-so-lovely immigration officer simply crossed out the date on the existing stamp in my passport and wrote a new one. Seriously. It looks like I've done it myself. But I'm now legally able to stay in Thailand for another 90 days.
Friday night was a "Welcome Party" at one of the other dorms for all of the international students. Their dorm is much nicer than ours! It's huge and looks like a mansion that's just been turned into a dorm! And they have a kitchen with an oven! And no rats! (I don't know if I've mentioned the rat situation already, but I will get to it later!) But I didn't stay long, I had to be up early Saturday morning...
Saturday was (as most of you would know) AFL Grand Final day! Christine (who is from America), Regina (from Germany) and I headed into Sukhumvit in Bangkok to Bradman's Bar to watch the game. We had all decided that we would barrack for the Saints and I was so happy when we turned up to the pub to be greeted by a large Aussie dude, saw Geelong & St Kilda colours everywhere and was asked if I wanted a pie, pastie or sausage roll at half time! And I just about peed with excitement at the pre-match entertainment (Jimmy Barnes, Mark Seymour & John Farnham! Does it get any more Aussie??). I personally had a ball! First I discovered I was sitting next to a Port supporter who happened to be from Largs Bay (AS IF!), then we got talking to some nice Melbourne boys, the match was exciting (if a little disappointing) and I had an Aussie burger, Strongbows and got a meat pie at half time. An almost perfect GF day!
The highlight of my week however has been receiving a parcel from my mum. Consisting of all of the essentials, Twisties (in both flavours), Vegemite & Redskins! Oh and tampons. Which are impossible to buy here and when you do find them, pretty expensive. I now have so many that I'm sure I'll become some kind of dealer in the dorm. It has the potential to give me power... (Insert evil laugh here.) We've agreed that no matter how much fun we're having, having little things from home, even if it's just your regular brand of shampoo, can make life so much easier. Not to mention how much I love emails, text messages etc from home. Not to mention facebook! I'm saving my Twisties & Redskins for an emergency homesickness situation though, along with my stash of Tim Tams that I bought the other day (cost me a pretty penny too!).
The lowlight of my week... Hmmm... It's a tie between the rats (and some of the grotty people I live with) and the American Psycho I encountered this morning. Let's start with the rats. We have them living in our kitchen. They're huge. Bigger than my dog, and I'm not exaggerating. Although my dog is a Chihuahua and pretty small by dog standards. But by rat standards, these things are large. And I understand that I'm not living in Australia anymore however I find rodents in my kitchen unacceptable, no matter where I am. And the situation is not helped by those who think that because we have a maid who comes in the morning, it is okay to leave their dirty dishes and left over food on the kitchen sink. First of all, it's not the maid's job to clean up after you. That's not why she's employed. She's not a slave. And secondly, if you have a rat problem, leaving food around is asking for not just the one or two that we already have, but for an entire posse. And thirdly, it's just plain filthy. We're all adults. We can clean our dishes.
The American Psycho... I had to change classes (don't get me started on this nightmare.) and dropped one class, replacing it with another in the appropriate time frame (i.e. add/drop which was on Monday). I attended my new class today for the first time to screamed at by the Professor (I believe this is not an appropriate term for it implies a modicum of professional behaviour), told that I could not be in class as it was full. I questioned how it was full when there were only about 12 students in the class, he screamed some more, I told him to calm down and that I would go speak to the International Office, he screamed again and stormed down to the Office himself to yell at the staff. I was mortified. Long story short, Eugene Jones of Mahidol University International College (yes, I'm naming and shaming) is an obnoxious, arrogant ass who clearly hasn't gotten laid in years. It's the only explanation I have for his behaviour.
So now I have the thrill of selecting yet another class, making sure it's appropriate and getting my university to approve it. Something that seems to take them at least 4 days to do. The only problem is, I only have til 5pm tomorrow.
We're off to the Amphawa Floating Markets this Friday, staying overnight and coming back Saturday. Google Image Amphawa Floating Markets Fireflies and you'll see why I'm excited!
Again, feel free to shower me with messages of love and updates from home. And if any of you feel the need to send me a present (my birthday is approaching), please contact me to get my address!
Love and Hugs! xoxo
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Thursday, September 24, 2009
See what I mean??
I just re-read what I had written and realised how cranky and unhappy it sounds! See what happens when I don't sleep??? Not that it's not pretty much true, but I have to point out that I am still having a blast and that I live with some pretty awesome people!!! It's not all bad! And I don't usually complain this much, I'm just so damn tired!
Maybe.
School's in. The trimester has started and from now until December, I will again be crazy study girl! So since my last post, we went and did our big "before school" shop so we could buy notebooks, pens etc and decided that we would go to a shopping centre we hadn't been to before and ended up at the biggest "supermarket" I have ever seen. These stores are like Kmart, Target, Coles and Woolworths all rolled into one. Highlight of the day: I'm casually going about my shopping, ignoring the not-so-discreet sideways glances and points when an elderly Thai woman comes strolling up to me, stands about 5 inches away from me and stares. And keeps staring. For a LONG time. I got the giggles and called Amber over yet still she stared. Then I started to get a little irritated. I can understand kids looking and pointing. But not an elderly woman. I don't like it and will probably never get used to it.
Monday was our first day of uni (check out the super snazzy uniform picture below)which I'm not ashamed to admit I was slightly apprehensive about. I won't bore you with the details, but I will say that 2 hour lessons for every class are a total bitch. And there's no seminar/tutorial type thing. It's all lectures, which I so far have found to be... tedious. The lack of interaction means it's so easy to tune out, leading to a severe lack of actual learning.
To make matters worse, I have one full night sleep since I got here. This whole dorm/shared living isn't always ideal for sleeping and I can only imagine how much worse it would be if I had a roommate. And if you don't know what I'm like without sleep, ask anyone who knows me well. I need a solid 8 hours a night to be remotely pleasant to others and least 10 to function on a normal level. However in a relatively small space with this many people, sleep seems to be a rare occurrence. Doors are slammed closed constantly, lights are left on all night and showers are taken at the oddest hours (ie 2am). The constant state of tiredness and irritability has also created bouts of homesickness. (Not enough to make me want to come home yet though!)I also think it's possible that I could be the odd one out in the house. My years of partying, drinking, clubbing etc are pretty much behind me unless there's some sort of special occasion. I don't know if it's the age gap (I'm one of, if not, the oldest in the girls dorm)or it's just me but I have no desire to get drunk every other night, stay up til the wee hours of the morning and feel like crap the next day. I personally didn't come to Thailand to do that. I'm here to learn and see stuff, not have hangovers and memory loss. Maybe that makes me boring, or a nanna. Maybe I don't care! But, hey. That's just me. If you don't like it, too bad!
Anyway, its almost 11.30pm here and I'm going to attempt to get some sleep because I have to head into Bangkok to Immigration tomorrow. Super fun. And if it doesn't go well, you could be seeing me a lot sooner than February! Then it's back into Bangkok to watch the AFL Grand Final on Saturday at an Aussie Pub. I do actually wish I could come back home for it though. Just for one day. For a pie with sauce. Or a sausage in bread with sauce and onion. And an iced coffee that doesn't have so much sugar in it that it no longer tastes like coffee and instead tastes like sugary water. Thai people load EVERYTHING with sugar. It comes with the condiments like chili sauce and ketchup in restaurants. Even a loaf of bread is severely sweetened.
Wish for sleep for me!
Miss you all loads and loads!!! xoxo
Monday was our first day of uni (check out the super snazzy uniform picture below)which I'm not ashamed to admit I was slightly apprehensive about. I won't bore you with the details, but I will say that 2 hour lessons for every class are a total bitch. And there's no seminar/tutorial type thing. It's all lectures, which I so far have found to be... tedious. The lack of interaction means it's so easy to tune out, leading to a severe lack of actual learning.
To make matters worse, I have one full night sleep since I got here. This whole dorm/shared living isn't always ideal for sleeping and I can only imagine how much worse it would be if I had a roommate. And if you don't know what I'm like without sleep, ask anyone who knows me well. I need a solid 8 hours a night to be remotely pleasant to others and least 10 to function on a normal level. However in a relatively small space with this many people, sleep seems to be a rare occurrence. Doors are slammed closed constantly, lights are left on all night and showers are taken at the oddest hours (ie 2am). The constant state of tiredness and irritability has also created bouts of homesickness. (Not enough to make me want to come home yet though!)I also think it's possible that I could be the odd one out in the house. My years of partying, drinking, clubbing etc are pretty much behind me unless there's some sort of special occasion. I don't know if it's the age gap (I'm one of, if not, the oldest in the girls dorm)or it's just me but I have no desire to get drunk every other night, stay up til the wee hours of the morning and feel like crap the next day. I personally didn't come to Thailand to do that. I'm here to learn and see stuff, not have hangovers and memory loss. Maybe that makes me boring, or a nanna. Maybe I don't care! But, hey. That's just me. If you don't like it, too bad!
Anyway, its almost 11.30pm here and I'm going to attempt to get some sleep because I have to head into Bangkok to Immigration tomorrow. Super fun. And if it doesn't go well, you could be seeing me a lot sooner than February! Then it's back into Bangkok to watch the AFL Grand Final on Saturday at an Aussie Pub. I do actually wish I could come back home for it though. Just for one day. For a pie with sauce. Or a sausage in bread with sauce and onion. And an iced coffee that doesn't have so much sugar in it that it no longer tastes like coffee and instead tastes like sugary water. Thai people load EVERYTHING with sugar. It comes with the condiments like chili sauce and ketchup in restaurants. Even a loaf of bread is severely sweetened.
Wish for sleep for me!
Miss you all loads and loads!!! xoxo
Monday, September 21, 2009
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Just Don't Think About It...
This blog was actually written on Friday, September 18th, however we have not had any internet access in the dorm since then either. Or water for a short time there... But that's another story all together! I seem to have "tricked" the internet into letting me use this site and am crossing my fingers and toes that it lets me post this!!!
UPDATE: My ankles have finally returned to me! I’ve chalked their return up to one of two things. First, they were mad at me for abusing and overworking them but then got over and came back, or I expelled that much fluid over the last 12 hours that my body just sucked it from wherever it could. More on that later. The good news is I no longer have cankles and look like a normal person again!
I also want to apologise if these postings are a little long-winded. I’ve decided that it’s better for me if I write as much as I can because, let’s face it, I’m getting old and my memory isn’t what it used to be! If I write a lot, it’s all recorded somewhere for me to read when the Alzheimer’s kicks in! And if you don’t like it, well, too bad really.
So we left yesterday (Thursday) for our beach break in Hua Hin which is about 3 hours away from our dorm by bus. We had found that we could catch an air-conditioned bus from Bangkok so we all made our way there to find ourselves on a bus that was from the 1970’s at best. And not even close to being air-conditioned. Suffice to say, we were pretty hot and sweaty when we finally arrived. For those of you, like me, have never heard of Hua Hin, it’s a coastal town that is famous for its night markets and known to be one of the favourite holiday spots for the Thai royal family. To make a long story short, we had lunch, wandered around, checked out the markets, had a cocktail or two and then made our way to sit on the beach and have a few drinks before heading back to the hotel around midnight. Around 4 a.m. I woke up violently ill. Shakes, vomiting, the works! So today, while everyone else spent the day at a beautiful beach, I became well acquainted with the bathroom and a rubbish bin. Lovely.
In between contorting my body into positions a gymnast would be proud of while writhing in pain and mad, panicked dashes to the toilet, and watching last weekend’s AFL matches (thank you Australia Network!) I started feeling majorly sorry for myself. I just wanted my bed, in my bedroom at home, my mum and my dog. Pathetic, really. So to snap myself out of it, I grabbed my notebook (thank you Mila!!!) and came up with the following lists (you will notice that a few of these are interrelated):
Observations About Thailand/Thai people:
1a – Thai people giggle a lot. Especially when they can’t understand what I’m saying. They don’t actually try to work out what I’m saying, they just giggle. Even the men.
2a – Thailand has an almost obscene amount of restaurants, food stalls, 7/11’s, cafés, coffee stands etc. I can’t quite work out if most of them sell the same, or similar, products and therefore, how they make any money and stay in business.
3a – There also seems to be a large number of petrol stations about the place.
4a – Thai people have a corn fetish. You can buy it on the cob from a street vendor, in bread, as a yoghurt or ice cream flavor, even in milk form!
5a –Some Thai people seem to be somewhat captivated by the way some of us “farang” (foreigners) look. Especially if we have blonde hair, or blue eyes.
Things I Love About Thailand:
1b – The fact that I can get a meal anywhere, anytime, for around $1.00 (see 2a).
2b – The ever-present state of total chaos. Cars driving on the wrong side of the road, people cramming into buses until there is not one spare inch of space etc.
3b – The kids! (see 1c!!)
4b – Premade Milo’s that are just so damn good frozen!
Things I Am Being Forced To Accept But Will Never Understand:
1c – Why I think Thai kids are adorable. I don’t like children (I don’t want to hold your baby) but for some reason, kids here just have to smile at me and I want to hug them. It’s quite unnerving for someone like me.
2c – The rat that is apparently living in our kitchen and the gecko that is living in my room. There is absolutely nothing I can do about either of these things, I don’t get why they’re here, and I just have to suck it up. It is things like this that have created our rule of “just don’t think about it”.
3c – That at any given moment of any day my nostrils can, and will be, assaulted by some kind of offensive odour. Like dried shrimp. Or some unidentified stench that just comes out of nowhere.
4c – The seemingly enormous gap between socio-economic groups. One second you have a brand new BMW or Audi driving past, the next it’s an entire family crammed onto a dodgy looking motorbike that may or may not have been used in World War II.
5c – The crazy manner in which people drive (see 2b!). Call me crazy, but I just don’t think it’s entirely safe to be driving a bus from the dark ages in the middle of two lanes, while going at least 120 kilometres an hour and talking on your mobile phone. And surely if you’re a cab driver who goes so fast that you’re occasionally airborne, you should probably be driving a car with seatbelts.
6c – The amount of attention that my lily-white skin, reddish hair, and blue eyes seem to get. Flattering at times, creepy at others. I understand that I am incredibly pale; however this in itself does not give you permission to stare, take photos or point. All of which I have experienced. I would be interested to see how people here would react to an Albino…
7c – How air-conditioning can mean one of two things: a barely-working system that is several decades’ old, or freezing cold. There is no middle ground.
Anyway, after making my little lists, I decided it was best to head back to my dorm to wallow further in self-pity at my run of bad luck (stolen phone, allergic reaction to anti malarial meds, idiot immigration officer at the airport who stamped my passport incorrectly meaning I have to take a trip to the Immigration Office in Bangkok next week, getting sick and not being able to go to the beach etc). On the bright side, I can have full use of the laundry facilities tomorrow and not be caught up in the rush when everyone else gets back! Therein lays the silver lining!
Loving and missing you all back at home!!! xoxo
UPDATE: My ankles have finally returned to me! I’ve chalked their return up to one of two things. First, they were mad at me for abusing and overworking them but then got over and came back, or I expelled that much fluid over the last 12 hours that my body just sucked it from wherever it could. More on that later. The good news is I no longer have cankles and look like a normal person again!
I also want to apologise if these postings are a little long-winded. I’ve decided that it’s better for me if I write as much as I can because, let’s face it, I’m getting old and my memory isn’t what it used to be! If I write a lot, it’s all recorded somewhere for me to read when the Alzheimer’s kicks in! And if you don’t like it, well, too bad really.
So we left yesterday (Thursday) for our beach break in Hua Hin which is about 3 hours away from our dorm by bus. We had found that we could catch an air-conditioned bus from Bangkok so we all made our way there to find ourselves on a bus that was from the 1970’s at best. And not even close to being air-conditioned. Suffice to say, we were pretty hot and sweaty when we finally arrived. For those of you, like me, have never heard of Hua Hin, it’s a coastal town that is famous for its night markets and known to be one of the favourite holiday spots for the Thai royal family. To make a long story short, we had lunch, wandered around, checked out the markets, had a cocktail or two and then made our way to sit on the beach and have a few drinks before heading back to the hotel around midnight. Around 4 a.m. I woke up violently ill. Shakes, vomiting, the works! So today, while everyone else spent the day at a beautiful beach, I became well acquainted with the bathroom and a rubbish bin. Lovely.
In between contorting my body into positions a gymnast would be proud of while writhing in pain and mad, panicked dashes to the toilet, and watching last weekend’s AFL matches (thank you Australia Network!) I started feeling majorly sorry for myself. I just wanted my bed, in my bedroom at home, my mum and my dog. Pathetic, really. So to snap myself out of it, I grabbed my notebook (thank you Mila!!!) and came up with the following lists (you will notice that a few of these are interrelated):
Observations About Thailand/Thai people:
1a – Thai people giggle a lot. Especially when they can’t understand what I’m saying. They don’t actually try to work out what I’m saying, they just giggle. Even the men.
2a – Thailand has an almost obscene amount of restaurants, food stalls, 7/11’s, cafés, coffee stands etc. I can’t quite work out if most of them sell the same, or similar, products and therefore, how they make any money and stay in business.
3a – There also seems to be a large number of petrol stations about the place.
4a – Thai people have a corn fetish. You can buy it on the cob from a street vendor, in bread, as a yoghurt or ice cream flavor, even in milk form!
5a –Some Thai people seem to be somewhat captivated by the way some of us “farang” (foreigners) look. Especially if we have blonde hair, or blue eyes.
Things I Love About Thailand:
1b – The fact that I can get a meal anywhere, anytime, for around $1.00 (see 2a).
2b – The ever-present state of total chaos. Cars driving on the wrong side of the road, people cramming into buses until there is not one spare inch of space etc.
3b – The kids! (see 1c!!)
4b – Premade Milo’s that are just so damn good frozen!
Things I Am Being Forced To Accept But Will Never Understand:
1c – Why I think Thai kids are adorable. I don’t like children (I don’t want to hold your baby) but for some reason, kids here just have to smile at me and I want to hug them. It’s quite unnerving for someone like me.
2c – The rat that is apparently living in our kitchen and the gecko that is living in my room. There is absolutely nothing I can do about either of these things, I don’t get why they’re here, and I just have to suck it up. It is things like this that have created our rule of “just don’t think about it”.
3c – That at any given moment of any day my nostrils can, and will be, assaulted by some kind of offensive odour. Like dried shrimp. Or some unidentified stench that just comes out of nowhere.
4c – The seemingly enormous gap between socio-economic groups. One second you have a brand new BMW or Audi driving past, the next it’s an entire family crammed onto a dodgy looking motorbike that may or may not have been used in World War II.
5c – The crazy manner in which people drive (see 2b!). Call me crazy, but I just don’t think it’s entirely safe to be driving a bus from the dark ages in the middle of two lanes, while going at least 120 kilometres an hour and talking on your mobile phone. And surely if you’re a cab driver who goes so fast that you’re occasionally airborne, you should probably be driving a car with seatbelts.
6c – The amount of attention that my lily-white skin, reddish hair, and blue eyes seem to get. Flattering at times, creepy at others. I understand that I am incredibly pale; however this in itself does not give you permission to stare, take photos or point. All of which I have experienced. I would be interested to see how people here would react to an Albino…
7c – How air-conditioning can mean one of two things: a barely-working system that is several decades’ old, or freezing cold. There is no middle ground.
Anyway, after making my little lists, I decided it was best to head back to my dorm to wallow further in self-pity at my run of bad luck (stolen phone, allergic reaction to anti malarial meds, idiot immigration officer at the airport who stamped my passport incorrectly meaning I have to take a trip to the Immigration Office in Bangkok next week, getting sick and not being able to go to the beach etc). On the bright side, I can have full use of the laundry facilities tomorrow and not be caught up in the rush when everyone else gets back! Therein lays the silver lining!
Loving and missing you all back at home!!! xoxo
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Missing: One Set Of Ankles. Reward Offered.
Ok before I start getting into what I’ve been up to for the past few days, I need to ask if anyone has seen my ankles?? They’ve been M.I.A since the second day I was here. Now instead I have cankles. Coupled with my pasty white skin and searing red sunburn, this does not make for a terribly attractive Sharna. So if you have seen said ankles, please let me know ASAP!
We had our Orientation Day on Monday, which was as you’d expect any university orientation day to be. We selected classes, had a “survival” Thai lesson (I’m so mad that I can’t take a Thai language class and get credit for it at Adelaide!), bought our Mahidol Uni belts and pins (yes, that’s right.), had a buffet lunch and got a tour of the campus. Well, some of it anyway. It’s actually so big they have these little tram things to take you from one building to the other… And they have so many clubs that you can join! I’m thinking I may need to join the “Volunteer Club”! It’s an entire club based on volunteer work in rural kinds of areas in Thailand!
Monday night a group of us went to an Indian restaurant in Bangkok, thanks to Wil one of the guys who live in our dorm who is actually from Thailand. It was freaking amazing. Fantastic food, including chocolate naan, apple flavoured sheesha and then jelly shots in syringes! Not to mention the restaurant itself was so cool and they had Jenga and Connect 4 on the tables!
Today (Tuesday) all of the international students went on a field trip to the Ancient City, which is a huge area of land with replicas of temples, monuments etc from all over Thailand, which we thought was a completely random idea. It turned out to be pretty cool though, especially when we figured out that one of the temple things was used for the final catwalk in America’s Next Top Model, season 6! There were also a ton of Thai school kids at the City who found us “farang” (foreigners) to be highly entertaining. They kept waving and laughing at us. Now, those who know me know that I do not like children. Ever. I just don’t. But I wanted to take some of these one’s home! They kept asking my name and telling me I was beautiful! Certainly good for the ego. I think there is a distinct possibility that I was the whitest person they had ever met, which might explain their fascination. Suffice to say that after a whole day in the sun (including another awesome buffet lunch. I’m going to get so fat here) I got burnt. Again. It’s not too bad though and I think I should expect a lot more cases of sunburn over the next few months.
Tomorrow we’re off to Bangkok to buy our school uniforms (I can hear you all giggling from here) and a whole bunch of us are going to spend a few days at the beach at Hua Hin before classes start so we’re catching a bus down there on Thursday!!
Hope everyone back at home is missing me as much as I miss them!!! (This, admittedly at times, is not much. I’m having way too much fun!)
Hugs and love xoxo
We had our Orientation Day on Monday, which was as you’d expect any university orientation day to be. We selected classes, had a “survival” Thai lesson (I’m so mad that I can’t take a Thai language class and get credit for it at Adelaide!), bought our Mahidol Uni belts and pins (yes, that’s right.), had a buffet lunch and got a tour of the campus. Well, some of it anyway. It’s actually so big they have these little tram things to take you from one building to the other… And they have so many clubs that you can join! I’m thinking I may need to join the “Volunteer Club”! It’s an entire club based on volunteer work in rural kinds of areas in Thailand!
Monday night a group of us went to an Indian restaurant in Bangkok, thanks to Wil one of the guys who live in our dorm who is actually from Thailand. It was freaking amazing. Fantastic food, including chocolate naan, apple flavoured sheesha and then jelly shots in syringes! Not to mention the restaurant itself was so cool and they had Jenga and Connect 4 on the tables!
Today (Tuesday) all of the international students went on a field trip to the Ancient City, which is a huge area of land with replicas of temples, monuments etc from all over Thailand, which we thought was a completely random idea. It turned out to be pretty cool though, especially when we figured out that one of the temple things was used for the final catwalk in America’s Next Top Model, season 6! There were also a ton of Thai school kids at the City who found us “farang” (foreigners) to be highly entertaining. They kept waving and laughing at us. Now, those who know me know that I do not like children. Ever. I just don’t. But I wanted to take some of these one’s home! They kept asking my name and telling me I was beautiful! Certainly good for the ego. I think there is a distinct possibility that I was the whitest person they had ever met, which might explain their fascination. Suffice to say that after a whole day in the sun (including another awesome buffet lunch. I’m going to get so fat here) I got burnt. Again. It’s not too bad though and I think I should expect a lot more cases of sunburn over the next few months.
Tomorrow we’re off to Bangkok to buy our school uniforms (I can hear you all giggling from here) and a whole bunch of us are going to spend a few days at the beach at Hua Hin before classes start so we’re catching a bus down there on Thursday!!
Hope everyone back at home is missing me as much as I miss them!!! (This, admittedly at times, is not much. I’m having way too much fun!)
Hugs and love xoxo
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Saturday, September 12, 2009
So here I am in my dorm room in Bangkok at 12.25am unable to sleep. For the second night in a row. I’ve been here for almost 24 hours now and have learnt so much already. For example, air conditioning and ear plugs are a god-send. Seriously. It’s so hot and muggy here and the air conditioning in my room is so loud. So you can see why I appreciate the ear plugs. I have learnt that I have not packed adequately for this weather. At all. Also, I have learnt that Thai people have no concept of personal space. None at all. You should see how many people they can cram onto a bus. And you should be one of those people crammed onto that bus. Anyway…
So I left Adelaide yesterday (was it only yesterday???) accommpanied by much fanfare from my family. Totally embarrassing and I thank you all for that. I arrived in Sydney, had a while to spare and then caught the long flight. For those of you who don’t know, I hate to fly. HATE IT! So the idea of a 9 hour flight was less than appealing. And at Sydney airport, I got one of those “holy crap, what am I doing” moments. It passed when I realised I got the aisle seat I had requested and found that I was in a row of 4, with an older guy on the other aisle and no-one in the two middle seats. Score! And then down the aisle comes the lady….with the baby. Great. 9 hours + 1 screaming baby = suck-fest 2009. Needless to say, I was stoked when she asked to move to another seat. About 4 hours into the flight, I realised that older guy in the aisle seat was a nose-picking pervert. I would look over at him to see him either staring at me or digging for gold. Nice.
I arrived in Bangkok after my not-so-fun flight around 11.15pm local time, tired and smelling like airplane and with no idea where to go. Eventually I found my driver (not dressed in a safari suit as I had been promised), 2 Canadian girls, 1 Canadian boy and an American girl waiting and we were ready to go! Stepping out of that airport was like being slapped in the face by suffocating heat. We all looked at each other and just cracked up. I seriously did not realise the heat would be like this! It’s terrible. Everytime you move, you sweat. Meanwhile the Thai people look fresh as daisies.
It turned out I was the only one who had been picked up at that time that was staying at my dorm (Green Park Home) and I was dropped off first. The driver didn’t speak any english and neither did the security guy that greeted me with a bow, handed me a key, let me up three flights of stairs, opened my bedroom door, bowed and walked away. Welcome to Mahidol University International College! Thank god I scored my own room and don’t have to have a roommate. And I will thank every god throughout history that my room is airconditioned. Even if it will end up costing me a small fortune in electricity charges.
This morning I met some of my dorm mates, Danielle from Canada and Isabel, Svenja and Regina who are all from Germany. Danielle’s dad is over here to help settle her in and do some business so she spent the day with him and the German girls and I decided to take the bus into Bangkok, which is about an hour away by bus. We caught the sky train to Siam and went to the Siam Paragon (look it up. AMAZING, I fell in love), grabbed some Peri Peri chicken and fries for lunch (not very Thai but the damn spiciest burger you’ve ever had) and wandered around shopping for bits and pieces. Then the torrential rain hit (rain that we in Adelaide would go to war for), the streets flooded and everything was soggy and even stinkier than before. Lovely.
On the way back home, we were crammed onto the bus like sardines or cows being herded to slaughter for an hour. Yes, an hour. Standing. After walking around Bangkok for nearly 10 hours. We finally made it back to our dorm only to discover my mobile phone had been stolen right out of my handbag. I tried calling it frantically (those who know me well know my attachment to communication abilities), made several almost tearful Skype attempts home, and then decided that at least I still had my purse, my cards, my cash and my fabulous ipod and headed downstairs to discover new dorm mates! 3 more girls from America and one from Australia!! Picked me right up! Finally, an Aussie!!! And she gave me a tiny tub of Vegemite!
So tomorrow its off to Tesco Lotus (the supermarket) to stock up on food for the week, hopefully get some fresh fruit, new pillows (ours are enormous, too big to sleep on) and food that doesn’t come from the 7/11.
So far, it’s been a pretty interesting introduction to Thailand. Stolen phone, heat, humidity, but seemingly awesome dorm mates!!
I will upload photos when I have some more and will not ramble half as much next time!!!
I miss and love all of you back home!!! Feel free to shower me with emails, facebook messages etc to make me feel a little better about the theft until I manage to get a new phone!! xoxoxoxo
So I left Adelaide yesterday (was it only yesterday???) accommpanied by much fanfare from my family. Totally embarrassing and I thank you all for that. I arrived in Sydney, had a while to spare and then caught the long flight. For those of you who don’t know, I hate to fly. HATE IT! So the idea of a 9 hour flight was less than appealing. And at Sydney airport, I got one of those “holy crap, what am I doing” moments. It passed when I realised I got the aisle seat I had requested and found that I was in a row of 4, with an older guy on the other aisle and no-one in the two middle seats. Score! And then down the aisle comes the lady….with the baby. Great. 9 hours + 1 screaming baby = suck-fest 2009. Needless to say, I was stoked when she asked to move to another seat. About 4 hours into the flight, I realised that older guy in the aisle seat was a nose-picking pervert. I would look over at him to see him either staring at me or digging for gold. Nice.
I arrived in Bangkok after my not-so-fun flight around 11.15pm local time, tired and smelling like airplane and with no idea where to go. Eventually I found my driver (not dressed in a safari suit as I had been promised), 2 Canadian girls, 1 Canadian boy and an American girl waiting and we were ready to go! Stepping out of that airport was like being slapped in the face by suffocating heat. We all looked at each other and just cracked up. I seriously did not realise the heat would be like this! It’s terrible. Everytime you move, you sweat. Meanwhile the Thai people look fresh as daisies.
It turned out I was the only one who had been picked up at that time that was staying at my dorm (Green Park Home) and I was dropped off first. The driver didn’t speak any english and neither did the security guy that greeted me with a bow, handed me a key, let me up three flights of stairs, opened my bedroom door, bowed and walked away. Welcome to Mahidol University International College! Thank god I scored my own room and don’t have to have a roommate. And I will thank every god throughout history that my room is airconditioned. Even if it will end up costing me a small fortune in electricity charges.
This morning I met some of my dorm mates, Danielle from Canada and Isabel, Svenja and Regina who are all from Germany. Danielle’s dad is over here to help settle her in and do some business so she spent the day with him and the German girls and I decided to take the bus into Bangkok, which is about an hour away by bus. We caught the sky train to Siam and went to the Siam Paragon (look it up. AMAZING, I fell in love), grabbed some Peri Peri chicken and fries for lunch (not very Thai but the damn spiciest burger you’ve ever had) and wandered around shopping for bits and pieces. Then the torrential rain hit (rain that we in Adelaide would go to war for), the streets flooded and everything was soggy and even stinkier than before. Lovely.
On the way back home, we were crammed onto the bus like sardines or cows being herded to slaughter for an hour. Yes, an hour. Standing. After walking around Bangkok for nearly 10 hours. We finally made it back to our dorm only to discover my mobile phone had been stolen right out of my handbag. I tried calling it frantically (those who know me well know my attachment to communication abilities), made several almost tearful Skype attempts home, and then decided that at least I still had my purse, my cards, my cash and my fabulous ipod and headed downstairs to discover new dorm mates! 3 more girls from America and one from Australia!! Picked me right up! Finally, an Aussie!!! And she gave me a tiny tub of Vegemite!
So tomorrow its off to Tesco Lotus (the supermarket) to stock up on food for the week, hopefully get some fresh fruit, new pillows (ours are enormous, too big to sleep on) and food that doesn’t come from the 7/11.
So far, it’s been a pretty interesting introduction to Thailand. Stolen phone, heat, humidity, but seemingly awesome dorm mates!!
I will upload photos when I have some more and will not ramble half as much next time!!!
I miss and love all of you back home!!! Feel free to shower me with emails, facebook messages etc to make me feel a little better about the theft until I manage to get a new phone!! xoxoxoxo
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Should I be packing instead of blogging??
A simple question really. The answer, much more complicated. Only room for 3 pairs of shoes. 1 pair of sneakers, 1 pair of school shoes and 1 pair of thongs. Uh oh... For a girl with as many shoes as I have, this could be a problem!
Monday, September 7, 2009
3 More Sleeps!
So... With just 3 sleeps to go, I've decided to blog about my adventures (or lack there of). If I can work out how to blog, and if I don't lose enthusiasm for this whole blogging thing!!
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