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Published: April 7th 2008
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Entrance to College
There is a cascading fountain here. At the top in kind of a courtyard is a traditional salaytai surrounded by a water feature with lillys and gold fish. Very peaceful and nice I have been here for 5 days now I think and have done a lot. The first blog only covered day 1 and I cannot write that much for everyday but it seems like there is just as much going on. This will be the last time I can post anything for about 10 days as I have spotty access to the internet and will be away traveling.
The next day was Thursday and I kicked back and stayed put. Tom has classes but the slacker only has 2 so he still has plenty of time. I had hoped I would sleep in but I woke up at 7, something that I still do despite my best efforts. Nevertheless, jet lag has never kicked in and I haven't once been tired until maybe 10PM. This was my first day to look around at my surroundings. I am staying at Mission College, one of the few Christian universities in Thailand. It is however one of if not the top ranked school in all of Thailand and surprisingly the graduation is a royal affair with the princess in attendance and a national TV broadcast. Many of the teachers rotate in from the
school system in the USA and there is one from Walla Walla right now actually. With the exception of the nursing classes, the entire program is taught in English and is very much an international school. There are many Thai students here but also many from Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, China, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, etc. I have met more of them at the school than those from Thailand and particularly the Cambodian people who speak the best English and are also some of the friendliest. Only 2 from the US and 1 from Germany.
The school itself is beautiful to say the least. The campus was built in the 80's so it is quite modern and the grounds are amazing with flowers everywhere, water features, traditional Thai resting places and immaculate landscaping. All the buildings are open air similar to WA-HI with air-con classrooms. The cafeteria is all Thai food with home type cooking that is not outsourced, a nice change from colleges at home. The students complain about the food but to me it is delicious and very cheap. The property is quite large and in the countryside about an hour and a half from Bangkok.
There is a small town about 10 minutes by motorbike. I have made a few friends already and many know my name even though I am not a student.
I was actually only planning on staying here for about 2 days but it has actually been a perfect way to begin the trip. Even though it is an international school and many speak English, it is an ideal way to learn about the culture and meet lots of people on a much more common ground. It has also been an excellent way to learn the language which I am working hard at. I lack any polish but can count from 1 - 100 and am close to getting the remainder up to 1000. I can also say hello, goodbye, how are you (and response), little bit, water, ice water, how much (polite way), No thanks (both polite and informal), fried rice vegetarian, and some other as well. Knowing all this before I go into other parts of Thailand is a lot better because the people will treat you better, less chance of getting ripped off etc.
It is the hottest month of the year and it is indeed
hot and very humid. I can deal with it and in fact right now sit in a really hot dorm room with the ceiling fan on since the computer lab and library closed for holiday. However, despite being the dry season it has rained everyday. Usually just once or twice and it doesn't last long but it is always inevitably while I am walking some where or an otherwise inconvenient time. Right now we are getting the hardest rain I have seen yet, torrential really with loud thunder and lightening, it is pretty cool and there are lots of people out running around and playing basketball in it. This is good because it will cool off for a bit. I think that I last left you with the water having run out at college. It was broken for about 24 hours which was bad news for showers and drinking. They did fix it the next day but no sooner than I had taken a shower and gotten some water it went out again for about 12 more hours. It is a foreign country and people work at their own pace.
That describes my surroundings and the general flavor of
things for the past few days but next I will tell of what I have actually been doing.
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M. McClure
non-member comment
Good to hear from you
Your blog is taking me back to Thailand. I can feel the heat and smell the city. Have fun. I look forward to the next entry.