News from Bangkok!

Sawatdii kha! Hello!

It is Tuesday about 2:30PM and I just finished a morning full of very interesting lectures. One was on Thai Culture, History, Religion, and Society and the other was on Teaching English in Thailand. Now I am in the School of Education Library at Chulalongkorn University (where we are doing our orientation) checking email for the first time!

A lot has happened in the four days I’ve been in Bangkok…I’ll just give a brief overview of some of the highlights!

I’ve had some wonderful Thai food and amazing fresh fruit. There are vendors selling all sorts of things along almost every street. On Sunday the other ETAs and I went to JJs market. We took the sky train to this huge weekend market where you could basically get anything under the sun. For instance, I bought some nice “Armani” sunglasses for 160 Baht (about 5 U.S. dollars) and then had delicious Phad Thai! So far being a vegetarian has been okay.

There are ten of us in the Thailand ETA group. We are all getting along really well, and are having fun exploring the city. This afternoon we are going to the Grand Palace and hopefully I can upload some pictures of it the next time I am on internet.

I saw a baby elephant walking down the street the other day, and my friend Paige and I got to feed it some food. It was very random, and I wonder how often that will happen while I’m here?

I’m very excited to go to the Sukhothai province where I’ll be teaching. It sounds like a beautiful place and we’ve been learning quite a bit about it in our history classes since it is the original capital of Thailand (during the 13th and 14th centuries).

My Thai is coming along, slowly but surely. So far all of the people I've met have been extremely friendly, helpful, and patient! Mai Bpen Rai (don't worry/it's okay) is a very common expression here!

Time to go, but I hope you are doing great. Thinking of you!