Hello all! Thanks for checking in with me here, hopefully I'll be able to keep this thing pretty updated throughout the semester. These past few days have been really busy, although it seems like I've been here for a month and haven't done anything really.
The plane ride over was a lot more enjoyable than I thought it would be. I sat next to a girl named Lilly from UC Davis, who I'd arranged flights with although we'd never met. Another guy named Peter sat next to us as well, and he was really nice and social. He had just graduated from Chico, and bought a ticket to Thailand with nothing in particular to do. He gave us some travel advice, and we might try to meet up with him if he comes back to Bangkok during his travels.
We arrived into Bangkok on Thursday the 3rd, exchanged some money, and spent a few hours waiting at the passport check, which was unbelievably backed up. Once we got through all that, there was a cab waiting for me from the hotel, so it was a very smooth beginning to the trip.
We stayed at a place called Charlies House, which had actually overbooked (probably on purpose to many more money) so they stuck me with another girl from the program, Alicia from UCLA. A few other people were staying at the hotel, so I hung out with them a lot. A group of us went out to dinner at the food court of the mall (since we weren't feeling adventurous enough to eat at the street stalls) and then we went out to a walking street called Khao Son Road, which is really touristy, full of street vendors and bars.
On Friday we had a long day of orientations, where they each told us the same things over and over and we eventually signed up for classes. I get into everything I had wanted: Thai Economy, Gender Economics, Thai Society and Culture, Thai Foreign Affairs, and Thai Rural Development. The last orientation was just for the UC students, about how we're representing the whole system and how we have to act better than everyone else, which was kind of dumb. On the plus side, the UC Liaison said that he would take us out to dinner every month, starting with a dinner that evening. We each began picking a dish each, and then he just kept ordering dishes throughout the meal until we were all stuffed. Then he had his assistant, Pong, a Thai Thammasat student, take us out to get cell phones so that he could barter and explain everything to us. I stayed at the hotel that night and went to bed early, since it had been such a long day.
On Saturday I went with 2 girls from my hotel, Connie and Alex, to look at an apartment we had heard about, and we loved it so much we checked out of the hotel and moved in there within 3 hours of seeing it. Its called Rattanakosin Condos, and we got a 3 bedroom 3 bathroom penthouse, with a living room and kitchen, and personal roof access. Plus, a lot of the people we hung out with in the hotel decided to live there too (although no one else is in a penthouse like ours!!)We spent the rest of the weekend getting settled in, lounging by the pool, and hanging out with people from the building. I brought out the catchphrase game, and we played that for awhile. We also went to check out the nightlife on Khao San road. It was very touristy there, but a few streets away we found a really neat bar called Gazebo that had a band of Thais playing English cover songs.
On Monday we went to check out campus and make sure that we could find our way around. A few of us also bought our uniforms, which make me feel like a flight attendant when I wear it. Its not required, but its easy to wear, and international students feel less like tourists when they walk around Bangkok wearing the uniforms.
Tuesday, January 8th, I officially started school. To get to class we can either take a cab if there are a few of us willing to split it (it only costs about 50 cents each) or we can walk for about 15 minutes, and then catch a ferry across the river. Usually we take a cab there and a ferry on the way back with a big group.
Classes are long and haven't gotten too interesting yet, but hopefully the material will get better. None of my classes have homework, and grades are mostly just based on the midterms and finals, with the exception of papers for 2 classes. (20 and 25 pages!!) My classes are mostly international students, with the exception of my Thai Economy class, which has about a 50-50 mix. Although it doesn't seem like I have much class each week, those few days have been very draining, and we all tend to come home and just want to lounge by the pool or watch a movie instead of go out.
more to come later, don't forget to check out pictures at picasaweb.google.com/ksraser
