Day one! So far, Amazing!

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I woke up at 8:00am today, for some reason 2 hours of sleep seems to be doing me well. Can’t say why though. Went to the gym and worked out! It was nice, the gym has good equipment but it’s hot!! There’s an AC unit per treadmill/elliptical but the weight machines are underneath the AC units so you don’t feel the cold air on and you have to turn them on individually, there isn’t AC for the gym itself. Anyway, I had a good workout.

I came home and showered and Sidney was awake and getting ready to go out. Her friend Julia – who is also studying at Mahidol but with a different program and is staying in our building – wanted to get some breakfast so we all got ready and went down to the restaurant in our complex. It was sooooooo good! I got the green curry and it was absolutely delicious but hot as a mutherfucker! I could hardly eat it my mouth was on fire forever!!! Sidney got PadThai and Julia got something she didn’t remember what it was called and we got some friend rice to share, and some coffee and everything was just the best food I’ve ever tasted ever! But the best part was that it only cost us about $10 for the EVERYTHING! My coffee and curry was probably only like $2. So awesome!!

After breakfast we decided to go wander around Salaya. Our apartments are at the end of an ally/dead-end street so we walked out towards the main road. Its really interesting that there are a couple café’s and even some more apartment buildings on our street. When we got to the main road we noticed that most of the shops were on the other side of the road so we crossed and started walking. Passed a bike rental place – mental note, a few spas – mental note, and even met up with some students from another program staying at a different apartment but also going to Mahidol. We were about to head back when we saw a supermarket up ahead and decided that we should go in and check out what they had.

Sidney and I desperately wanted new sheets for our beds because even though I trusted ours to be clean, they were stained pretty bad. We also needed hangers and a few other things. For the life of me I can’t remember what the place was called, but it was something like Marks – but in Thai. Anyway, it was a big super store like cosco but didn’t require a membership or anything like that.

I got a little reading light since we don’t have any lamps in our room, new sheets for my bed, some hangers, some hand soap for the sink, and we bought some air fresheners because there’s a weird smell in our bathroom we keep forgetting to tell someone about. We didn’t’ get any bags for our stuff though so we needed to take a Taxi back to our apartments. All I had was the address that Eduard had emailed us a long time ago, but I showed that to a security guard who actually spoke pretty good English and he got us a taxi and told the driver where to take us. We piled everything in the back seat and squeezed in next to it.

Our driver took us right up to our apartment and we thanked and paid him – it was 53 Baht so I gave him 60 and let him keep the change. Sidney and Julia had spent most of their money on shopping and they offered to pay me back but I figure that in the three months we’re going to be here it’ll all work itself out.

We got back to our apartment at 12:30 and at 1:00 we met up with our on-site director, View, for a tour of the apartment complex and some information about the area like where to buy things etc.

She basically told us everything we had already figured out, but then she took us to a little market that was the other direction on the road we had walked down to the supermarket. This was a little shopping center with a few stores that sold clothes, a nail salon, and like a 7/11-type store. I bought some coconut chips and some nori for snacks at the little store but when we got back to our room, the coconut chips were sadly very gross. They smelled like plastic chemicals and tasted like it too :/

Also, so far it’s been impossible to find coconut water! How in the world am I in Thailand and can’t find coconut water?! I asked View and she said usually you can just get it fresh, like the actual coconut from vendors and while that would be amazing and delicious! I still want a few bottles to keep with me and take with me and have in my room when I want them. Especially since I feel like I’m having trouble staying hydrated even though I’m drinking plenty of water. This is a problem I have back in the states too that is usually solved by coconut water but now it’s a challenge. As soon as I find someplace that sells it I’m going to buy the entire stock! Lol



So that’s it for today so far. Sidney’s taking a nap and I think I’m about to follow her in that one 😊 I still have no idea how I’m able to function on so little sleep, but I’d really like to stay up and go to bed early since we have orientation in the morning. We have to be outside the building for van pickup at 8:15. Idk what else to do right now though so…. Nap time!

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Photos

Green Curry Noodles
Never knew that anything like this could taste so delicious! And soooooooo spicy at the same time!

Taxi ceiling
Couldn't tell, but I think this is like a blessing of the cab rather than just a bunch of squiggles.

So many different flavors of Lays!
Gunna have to try the nori flavored one sometime soon!