Hi everyone! Welcome to our blog! As many of you may know, we’re in Thailand, the Land of Smiles! Thank you so much for your emails. With that said, it’s been really hard to answer everyone’s question in the short amount of down time that we have had. So, we hope this does the job!
DAYS 1 and 2: THE FLIGHT
After I (Danielle) picked up Christina from LA, we boarded our flight to Taipei, Taiwan. This would be our longest flight totaling 14 hours. We were able to find seats next to one another and quickly realized that we had talked about nothing in the past month aside from “OH MY GOSH WE’RE GOING TO THAILAND!” Soo it was really nice to catch up for the first few hours. Other than that we slept, read, ate, watched movies, and drank tea. The eating situation was interesting to say the least. Lots of rice, strange looking meat, fruit cocktail, cheesecake and a concoction of meat and fruit? Very different but it did the job. We were on our way.
Everyone was very friendly until we would sneeze/cough/sniffle. Their masks came out immediately and a look of utter horror would appear on their faces. Not kidding, everyone of Asian descent on the plane was wearing a mask. Continuing on the germ free theme, we landed in Taiwan only to find the cleanest and emptiest airport that we had ever laid eyes on. We could honestly see our reflection in the ‘waxed to the max’ floor. Finding our gate was easy but getting to it was not. In this airport all of the gates were a floor below the walking area, and thus we had to take an elevator or stairs to the actual gate. This is where we encountered a bit of a dilemma…we were stuck. In a 3 foot by 3 foot elevator that smelled funky. Uh oh. After 203423 attempts at pressing the open door button, it obeyed and we found a staircase nearby. Phew. Crisis diverted. We boarded the plane and prepared ourselves for another 3 hours of flying. Not bad. On a side note, the movie that played on the plane was none other than Mall Cop. We were embarrassed to be Americans and hung our heads in shame.
At 1:30 AM Monday morning May 25th we arrive in Bangkok, Thailand! WOO WOO! Getting through customs and obtaining our luggage was a breeze. We then headed up to meet our future colleagues and the infamous Dr. Supa that we had been in correspondence with during the entire application process. Supa and her assistant Pongsak quickly handed us a bottle of orange juice, a bottle of water, and an unknown fruit. We hopped on a van with the two other girls that had flown in from Chicago and Portland: Megan and Jennifer. We took a 45 minute van ride to what would be our new home.
When we arrived at King David, (our place of residence for the next year) we were warmly greeted by several teachers that are graduates of DePaul and have been here since October. They helped us with our bags and after filling out some paperwork we headed up to our new rooms. Room 327 and 328! The rooms are very nice and very clean. They have a very hotelesque feel to them, complete with a television, fridge, bathroom, desk, bed, chair, and table. Seeing as how it was almost 3 AM, we crashed immediately.
DAY 3: PONGSAK
The next morning we woke up and met with Pongsak to create our own bank accounts and handle some other matters of business. Then we made our way to Tesco, which is the equivalent of walmart+target+grocery store. We all made some necessary purchases, including cell phones for approximately 1000 Baht (little over 30 dollars). We then had our first experience with authentic Thai food. YUM. Shrimp fried rice and fried omelets. We definitely love the food here thus far. It’s always delicious and unbelievably cheap. Nothing more than 100 Baht (less than 3 dollars). I could get used to this. J
We got back to King David and quickly headed out to a bar with some of our newfound friends from DePaul. It is very close to campus and is owned by two Bangeleshi brothers. We had to remove our shoes at the door and sit on pillows while we enjoyed some authentic Thai beer. Soon Tina, Dave, Griffin, and I were joined by the other teachers that had just arrived: Clare and Russell Beaver. Great additions to the group!! So far everyone has been so nice, and we seem to get along wonderfully.
Day 4: BANGKOK
We took a taxi into the city, about 1 hour away. A whopping total charge of 300 Baht for 4 people. That’s about 2 dollars per person. Crazy…not even TK was that cheap! We arrive in Bangkok and purchase day passes for the sky train (100 Baht). This takes us around Bangkok quickly and safely. The city is hard to describe in words. Everything from beautiful shopping centers, to prostitutes, to elephants roaming the streets, to street vendors selling anything and everything, to amputees begging for money, to a skyline that puts New York City to shame. And for all you Notre Dame alums out there,
we even found a bar called Finnegan’s!
We roamed around the city just trying to take it all in. Eventually we found ourselves at a bar and grill called Malone’s. We chatted and played a lot of pool, which is a very popular past time of the people here. After a few hours, we headed to the other Assumption University campus that is directly in the city, Hua Mak. We met some of the other teachers that live near this campus at a place called BaBa. Here we socialized, enjoyed each other’s company and most importantly indulged in our first street food experience. We were not disappointed. The rest of the night was full of music requests for Akon, The Dream, and Jai Ho. The Thai people are always smiling and giggling. We had a great time.
DAY 4 and 5: PATAYA: OUR FIRST TRIP
The next day we decided to take an overnight trip to the closet beach. We took two different buses, complete with ornate curtains, and Thai sitcoms (FYI that stands for situational comedy J) on large flat screen TVs. We arrived in Pataya and immediately rented two hotel rooms… 600 Baht for each room. 200 per person. That’s around $6 each. We then headed out to explore the scene. There is a street where there are no cars and tons of entertainment: Walking Street. We quickly found ourselves at restaurant complete with Elvis/Beatles cover bands. Very entertaining! After, we all headed to our hotel. The rest of the trip consisted of going to the beach, eating bugs from a street vendor, and having a good time with new friends.
DAY 6: TODAY!
Today we woke up very early and met with Pongsak once again to sign our contracts and take care of more paper work. Tomorrow we will have a 5-hour orientation at the Hua Mak campus and learn how to be teachers, as our first class begins on Monday. Crazy, but we have heard nothing but good things about being in the classroom. We have been told that teachers are very highly regarded in Thailand. The order of importance goes something like: King, monks, doctors, teachers. We have big shoes to fill.
So far so good as our first week comes to an end. It’s been a whirlwind thus far and we are very excited to be immersed in the Thai culture. We have a found a few prospective volunteer opportunities at orphanages and with refugees and are very excited to start experiencing this side of Thailand.
Until next time, we miss you all! xoxo
