Journey of Pictures

So I don't have the best camera but I've aimed to try and take good pictures and maybe even post them at the UG coffee shops once I come back.
I'm posting these somewhat chronologically to show you what my schedule has been looking like. It's been quite chaotic and lovely.

Bangkok/Royal Palace
So the second day at Bangkok, they took us to the Royal Palace that the King used to live in [I think he lives somewhere else right now] but the place is surrounded by several different temples.
The background of this blog is a picture I took of the Palace.

The city of Bangkok from outside our hotel. I like the massage sign. We stayed in Bangkok for three days, then left for the resort by the countryside.

I think this one had Cambodian/Laos influence. The tour guide was kinda hard to understand. D:

I think this was called Wat Suoy - meaning Beautiful Temple. 

The group! Severely dominated by the females.

We were already bonding :) 

I call these albino watermelon and sea urchin. Thai people call them dragonfruit and rambutan.

The nature walk after leaving Bangkok and heading for the resort. More like mud trek seeing as how it rained up a storm the night before. Therefore - leeches. But it was beautiful! 

Part of the resort. They had small lakes (ponds?) with fish and gazebos. We stayed here for a week focusing on group process and four hours of Thai O_o

After a week at the resort, I'm at the university now, living with a Thai roommate. I'm headed off to spend four days at another village/railroad community so I need to sleep. Check out the rest of my pictures on Facebook!

Pad Thai, Crocs, Mud and Leeches

So it's almost been a week here [whoa, I'm in Thailand] and I'll just summarize things since updating a blog on an iTouch isn't too fun-I'll explain why.

I think I can sum up what I've learned in 10 random points

1. Pad thai doesnt taste much different from Mai Thai's. It's less salty as the popular street food you buy for a dollar. Yum.

2. It's fun to see crocs on a nature trek but not really to trek thru mud and mud and MUD only to find thumb-sized leeches on your ankles when you take off your shoes. (Didn't happen to me but my classmates found some)

3. A Thai journalist told us that the obelisk in DC is covered in aluminum, not gold, because aluminum was considered YOUNG MONEY.(the Europeans used gold, a thing of the past but aluminum had just been discovered as some fad).

4. The new friends I'm making totally seem to understand the jokes I make about raging uteruses and yawn-gasms (Dale and Jan) so these things have led to nicknames like K-Rage for a Katie, AyBayBay for an Aiden and Future PastandPresent for a Daniel Pastan haha.

5. Taking four hours of Thai language everyday has led me to learn that farang means both guava and foreigner & eem (Korean pronunciation of my last name) means full -which is what I always aim for when I eat :)

6. After abruptly suffering from acute gastroenteritis [basically my intestines hurt a lot], I found that the private hospitals here are very nice - almost like a hotel room for a single person with a hospital bed. I took a shower, got free wiFi and yummy soft Thai food. The only terrible thing was the IV in my hand - that wasn't pleasant.

7.Villagers know more about happiness in simplicity and yet their children leave the local hospitality and love that promises you can always find food in the forest to instead fight for money in the pushy, uncaring streets of Bangkok.

8.  Chewing on sugarcane straight from the fields tastes amazing and not excessively sweet at all.

9.  Rice planting is done all over Korea and yet the first time I plant rice is in a Thai field with my village mother and other women laughing at my fumbling in the mud.

10. Getting at least two mosquito bites a day SUCKS. But buying shirts and shoes for 100 baht (US$3) is something I'm never gonna get sick of.

I really have to update the blog sooner - I'm forgetting the little details that matter.
I'll be uploading pictures soon!

[And as a bonus for those who read my blog, tell me what you'd like for me to buy you and I'll do my best to get it for you!]
Missing you all.

the beginning

so how do you like it?

it's simple really. mostly because I can't figure out how to make some epic blog layout. I think this is pretty nice considering how many buttons I clicked on to get to this point.

To tell you a little more about the title...
It was all thanks to HAESEON CHANG'S genius mind.
David Chin was over at my place and I was trying to brainstorm some titles like I had earlier with Dale. David wasn't as helpful. He was coming up with things like THAI-lenol, THAI-ger, Thai-me-up, and whatnot until Haeseon saved the day. 
I really love it because it explains a little bit about why I decided to go abroad. 
Of course I went to travel - everyone's been everywhere in Georgetown so I really gotta get on this ridiculous level (still need to hit up Europe). 
But I also just needed a little time away from Georgetown and the timing couldn't be better.
Not that I don't love Georgetown and all the people in it (see, don't cry about it)  but it's such a bubble - everybody knows it. To leave such a wonderful comfort circle would have to be for a dramatically new experience so I've chosen to go - but only for a little bit :) 

Therefore, it's about time and it's about me - time for me to be a little selfish and figure out what I want, what I can do, what I need, and what I'll be.
I'm hoping Thailand helps me figure that out. 

That's one of the things I'm scared of, quite frankly. I'm infinitely nervous about whether I'll measure up to my future classmates or the assignments or the experience. I'm not absolutely positive that my career will always and permanently be in public service, like some of these students have already decided. Now that I'm some 15 hours away from my destination, I keep wondering - what if I don't get enough out of this? what if I don't learn enough or leave not having done enough or created something on my own? what if this is what Thailand expects and what Thailand will give and I'll have nothing to give back? 
I don't know who has higher expectations for an amazing experience - me or the program haha.
you know?

Anyway, I'm currently at the Incheon Airport. Monday, a family friend drove me up to Houston and from there, I went to Los Angeles for a 12-hour flight to Korea. Turns out I still can't sleep on a friggin' plane, even with one of those plushy donut pillows. It's just a different type of uncomfortable - I think it's because I'm short, sigh. Now I've got a good 7 hours before my last flight to Bangkok (and this is after I've done a substantial amount of wandering and getting lost).
Oh and they lost my suitcase. It was supposed to be dropped off at Incheon and it wasn't at baggage claim D:
sooo I have no outlet converter for my laptop (thank god for my ipod touch. thanks esther!) and i will have no clothes if my suitcase is not found. wheeeee. Hopefully they'll find it and drop it off at Bangkok because this is the lightest I've ever packed for a semester [one medium suitcase, duffel bag and backpack) so that's less of the nothing that I brought lol. So now I'm sitting at the "internet lounge" to write this blog and the mouse acts like it's moving drunk with one blind eye, one functional leg, and a concussion.
There is one plus though - Incheon has a relaxation area that offers free showers soooo spending 48 hours in planes and airports shouldn't be as gross now.

I miss everyone incredibly - I haven't spent nearly enough time with my family and I've gotten quite attached to all the people I've bonded with over the summer [David, Frank, Fagel, ShAleena] I still think about the friends in New York and if I think hard enough about Monica, Dale, Mia or Jan, I swear I'll cry so don't make me do it!

I think it's that, once again, I'm alone for a new journey - one that I feel will hold much more meaning for me than past journies - and I already feel like a stranger in a Korean airport. [I'm so whitewashed.]
I realize this is just the awkward part for now - that slow transition. Maybe it'll just be like summer camp all over again [shout out to my CTY nerdpeeps].

Looking forward to it.