Jet Lag is Real

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Hello, Today was our first full day in Thailand. We woke up and ate a traditional Thai breakfast, which included pork kabobs, purple sticky rice, and fruit. In Thailand breakfast foods are no different than lunch and dinner foods. So pork, chicken, beef and rice are all fair game. After breakfast our buddies met up with us, and we had some time to get to know one another. The biggest “challenge” right now is communication. Oil and Nu don’t know much english and I don’t speak much Thai. A lot of laughter and smiles have been exchanged when we can’t understand one another. This helps to keep the mood light and fun. For lunch we had Pad Thai, green papaya salad, coconut rice with fresh mango. It was delicious! My favorite meal so far. the words “pad Thai” in Thai translate to stir fry, which i didn’t know.



After lunch our buddies took us to the bank to exchange our money into baht’s. This process was confusing and stressful but eventually we got everything transferred. We then headed to a mall, which was a row of streets with shops on both sides. My buddies helped me pick out a traditional Thai outfit, which includes a long wrap skirt and a blouse. Some of the patterns on the skirts reminded me of Indian culture. Around 4pm I started to understand the true meaning of jet lag. My body was very tired and I was having some trouble focusing. Thankfully this feeling should go away with each passing day. For dinner we had chicken stir fry, rice, pork shoulder/mushroom soup, and fruit. This was not my favorite meal, but thats okay.





Tonight’s main activity was going to the Walking street market. This market is huge and has so many vendors. All of us including our Thai buddies squeezed into the back of an open bus and rode to the market. There had to have been at least 32 of us in that bus. On the bus ride we sang/danced along to an American song (Havana), learned some more Thai words, and asked each other questions. Once at the Walking street we all split up with our buddies and shopped. My buddies and I stayed with Emily Ransil and her buddy throughout the night. Her buddy, Champoo, can speak english pretty well. She’s probably one of the best english speakers in the group. This really came in handy! We did a lot of bartering and got some pretty good deals. I bought two pairs of elephant pants, a skirt, a wind-chime, two packets of tea, some elephant key chains and a strawberry icecream popsicle. All together I probably spent 600 baht, which is equivalent to 20 U.S dollars. While shopping my buddies wouldn’t leave my side. Nu had his hand on my lower back at all times. Nu also wouldn’t let me carry my own bags. He insisted on carrying them for me. My buddies are so sweet and servant oriented. I think the Walking street was the highlight of my day. Goodnight

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