In 4 days I will have been here a month, and I am officially a Junior in college. That is terrifying. This past week was my first week of classes. However, it really didn't feel like a full week. We never have school on Fridays and this past Wednesday was the Queen's birthday which coincides with Mother's Day so we didn't have school.
My week started off fairly interesting when I was ready early for class (thanks to my uniform) and I decided to unpack my flip flops from Cambodia. The last night in Cambodia was rainy and I had my Rainbow flip flops on. Less then 12 hours after getting back to my hostel, we had to get on the bus to go back to Bangkok. Since my flip flops were disgusting from rain and mud, I put them in a plastic bag and packed them. I arrived back to Bangkok with less then 12 hours before I went to Ko Samet. In a rush of unpacking to pack again, I threw the flip flops on my floor in the bag and left for the beach. The first day of class I decided to finally unpack the Rainbows from Cambodia to find them covered in mold...it was pretty disgusting. I asked around and googled to find out how to clean them. I ended up getting a toothbrush and delicate hand/body soap and scrubbed them down. It was an experience to say the least. They really aren't the same, but I can wear them which is all that matters. More adventures of learning how to travel....
With the start of school comes a sense of a routine and schedule which is nice since we have constantly been on the move and going places. As Loyola students at Assumption University, we all live on the Hua Mak campus. The main campus, Suvarnabhumi, is a 45 minute bus ride away from Hua Mak. Almost all of us take classes at Suvarnabhumi on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Since Suvarnabhumi is the "main campus", it is huge and bustling with tons of Thai students. I am not even sure how many students there are at AU, but I would assume somewhere around 25,000 which is very different then the 4,000 at Loyola. The bus ride and walking around that campus is exhausting, but going to that campus has allowed me to meet a ton of Thai students that are friendly and so excited that there are international students in their classes.
At Assumption, all of the classes are taught in English, so all of the Thai students know some English to varying degrees of proficiency. In my Society, Politics, and Economics class, I began talking to a Thai girl who was sitting next to me. We talked all about the food that I was trying, Bangkok, and what I was doing in Bangkok and AU. I told her that the one thing that I missed was dessert. Dessert in Thailand isn't popular. Thai people love brownies, cookies, and pastries, but no one really eats them. If you have dessert, it most likely is fruit. She told me that her Granny makes the best desserts and that she was going to bring me some. The next day in class, she walks in with a plastic bag filled with 5 pots of dessert!!! The dessert looked like a birds nest, and ended up being a bread pudding ish flavor with egg flavored topping. It wasn't very sweet, but it was tasty and free!!!! All of the Thai students are so nice, a little shy, and love Facebook. Over the course of just two days of classes, I made about 5 new Facebook friends.
This past weekend was super busy. On Friday, we took a trip down the road to the local elementary school, Khlong Ka-Ja. Over the course of the semester, we are going to go to the school and volunteer with the kids. When we all showed up, the kids went absolutely crazy. All of them look at us like we are celebrities. They look up to us and want to do everything that we do. They are absolutely adorable, and getting to reach out to the local community and volunteering was something that I knew I wanted to do when I came to Thailand. My group consisted of about 20 3rd graders. We played the Thai version of duck-duck goose and Miss Mary Mack. They were all so excited to see us and play with us even though we knew minimal amounts of Thai and they knew a few words of English.
Friday was also the Feast of the Assumption. Since we attend Assumption University, a Catholic university, there was a special mass and ceremony for the Feast on the Savarnbhumi campus. What I find funny about attending a Catholic university in Thailand is that practically 90% of Thai people are Buddhist. However, there was a large crowd for the mass, celebration, and reception. After the ceremony, Father Kelly wanted to take us out to a nice dinner and show us a part of the city that we hadn't seen yet. Everything with Father Kelly is decided last minute, but we are learning to just go with it.
We all ended up adventuring down to the Chao Phraya River where all of the 5 star hotels are located in Bangkok. We all paid 500 baht for a buffet feast at the Hilton Millennium Hotel, one of the many hotels along the Chao Phraya. 500 baht is a splurge for us for dinner, but the food was unlike anything I have had since being here. The two highlights of the meal was the "Cheese Room" where there were tons of different cheeses paired with bread, rolls, crackers, and fruit. I had authentic parmesan and brie for the first time since being here, I ate at least 500 baht just in cheese. I also had an avocado salad that was amazing. When I spotted the avocado, my eyes grew to the size of them. One of the fun things about these hotels is that you take a boat to them along the river. At night, there are booze cruises and lights from clubs and bars lighting and lining the entire river. At Hua Mak, there aren't many Westerners making it a more authentic Thai experience, however, when we ventured down to these hotels, we all encountered the first Westerners and foreigners since being here which was fun. We all felt more like tourists on vacation then students.
The next day, we all woke up early to go visit Wat Pho, one of the most recognizable sites in all of Bangkok. Wat Pho is one of the six temples in Thailand that are considered first class royal temples. Wat Pho is also known as the "Temple of the Reclining Buddha". The reclining buddha is a buddha that is lying down in Nirvana. The reclining buddha is HUGE. You can't even get a good picture of the whole thing. Wat Pho is very Thai. The history of the temples is so sacred and old. Going to Wat Pho made me realize how little I know about Buddhism, but that is why I am in Thailand is to learn about things that I know nothing about.
Something that makes Thailand so interesting is that things that are legal in Thailand would never be legal in America. To get to Wat Pho, we all got on the Khlong. The Khlong is a boat that makes stops(more like pulls over) and picks up people. If you ask anyone about the Khlong, the one thing that everyone says is how bad it smells. The water way that the Khlong goes along is the sewer. It is dirty and disgusting. The boat pulls over, and you jump on even if there is no room....the experience of the Khlong was fun, hot, smelly, and very Thai. If you come to Bangkok, riding the Khlong is a must and you avoid the traffic that never seems to stop.
Last night we were all planning on going to a foam party. We were all excited to see what it was going to be like, and have some fun since Sunday is always our "free day". We all figured out our outfits, most of us wearing a bikini with a coverup or a tank and shorts over it, ready to get wet and foamy. Arriving at the club, we walked in to find no foam....
None of us were too upset since the club was still so much fun, but as we look back we laugh that we all thought and were dressed for a foam party, and there turned out to be no foam.
Tomorrow is the start of the first full school week. We are still testing out classes and trying to solidify the classes we are all taking. My accounting class hasn't started yet and I am wondering how life will change once it starts. The three of us taking it don't even know what day it actually starts.
We are all exploring the city and finding cool places and things to do. Each day my bucket list grows a little longer.
Love
xoxo
I'm going to post pictures in another blog post!!!
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