Same Same But Different

Things have been moving along fairly smoothly here the past few weeks. We were all comparatively busy with the end of the trimester, hence the lack of updates. I finished up with classes last week and just finished my last exam a few minutes ago. All I have left is a final paper and I'll be officially finished with my trimester at Mahidol.

Me, Fin, Whitney, Lilly, and Sara:

People are starting to move out of the house and fly home, which is sad. For UNC students, this is basically the halfway point in our program, but from now on we'll be traveling as a group rather than studying as exchange students. I'm sad to leave Mahidol because I'll miss all of the Thai students that I've met here. The classes here weren't totally satisfying, but I learned a whole lot more from just living here and traveling, anyway. I'll also miss some aspects of the house and a lot of the silly routines that I've developed over the course of the trimester (for example, raisin bread, iced coffee, and smoothies from the stands at school, crazy motorbike rides to and from school, and mass consumption of Frosties and Cocoa Frosties in the ice cave) .

Here's our largest Chaiyapruk house group photo, with a handful of pepole missing, taken at the neighborhood restaurant (we're all sporting peace signs in the style of Jung, the lone South Korean of the group):



I'll officially move out of the house on April 3. One strength of this UNC program is that we have lengthy breaks to travel on our own, but the drawback is that we are not provided housing during this time. I'm a little nervous about essentially living out of a suitcase for the rest of the semester. Our first break lasts from now until April 14. I'm still not sure where I'll be going, but it will likely involve a trip to Laos with friends, a few days in Bankok, and some possible beach time.

From April 15-27, the UNC group will be in the western province of Kanchaniburi, living in a homestay and observing village life. We're working in pairs and will be writing about specific aspects of the culture. From there, we have another 2-week break followed by a course on healthcare economics with a UNC professor. We'll spend a week in Bangkok and another week in Vietnam before finishing up on May 25.

From there I will stay in Vietnam for a few extra days, fly back to Bangkok and stay with a Thai friend for the weekend, and then fly to Sydney for 12 days. I've officially booked my flight home (to good ole RDU) for June 13.

P.S. As I discovered earlier today (when I tried to edit using Internet Explorer), my blog is best viewed using Mozilla Firefox. Yep.

When Throngs of Singaporians Attack

(for non-fans, this is a play on the Incubus DVD title, "When Incubus Attacks")

Singapore is a really nice city - way different from the rest of Southeast Asia. I think it's pretty unique in that things run very smoothly and the city is extremely clean and safe. On just about every road, you can see skyscrapers in all directions, but there are also trees and small, aesthetically pleasing buildings. In other words, it's a huge city without the claustrophobic feel of NYC or the sickening smells of Bangkok. Sounds pretty good to me!


We stayed at a neat hostel in Little India and had some great food there. Activities included...

- Crazy shopping street and malls - basically all we could afford were Starbucks and McDonalds sundaes
- Temples in Chinatown
- Asian Civilizations Museum: a really cool museum with all things Asian, including drums/gamelan, old Quran scripts, Buddha statues, and a whole lot that I can't remember.
- Singapore Art Museum, where, by the way, we were interviewed by a television station. I had to comment on art. No comment on that.
- Incubus concert, of course
- Singapore Zoo & Night Safari (super cool! and world famous, I think)
- Esplanade: a huge performing arts center which was holding a music festival

Here's a view from the river area on a lovely overcast day. Also notice Singapore's trademark symbol, the Merlion, in statue form (no clue where that originates):

The Incubus concert was absolutely crazy. It was all general admission, and we pushed our way to almost the very front-center by the time Incubus started. However, all hell broke loose when they started playing, and everyone rushed the stage. Basically everyone in the front was crushed and packed so tightly that we didn't even have our feet on the ground half the time. It was not a fun experience, so we headed for the side and wound up having a nice time and a great view. But I can say I was front and center for two songs, even if I was too busy trying to stay vertical to even pay attention to the music.

Here's one of my better pictures from the concert:
The Singapore Zoo is great as far as zoos go. It's located on a peninsula and part of a natural jungle, so a lot of the animals are free ranging, and those that aren't are very comfortable (except perhaps the polar bears, but they get a plush underground area). Plus, basically the entire island is environmentally friendly. The animals were all very close to us, and I got some really great pictures of all the big cats, all the typical safari animals, and just about every primate imagniable.

And the only animal pictures I'm able to upload at the moment... the orangutans were free-ranging and directly above us:

Lost in Translation

Last night I was successfully able to direct a cab driver all the way from Bangkok to my house, using a combination of gestures and Thai. I was so proud!

Temple entrance at the Grand Palace in Bangkok:

A lot of Thai people know some English, or at least key words. But a lot of times it's still hard to communicate because they say the words with emphasis on the wrong syllables. We've learned that the key is to say the word or phrase again, but stressing the final syllable of each word. So, for example, Victory Monument becomes Victo-REE Monu-MENT. Financial accounting becomes finan-SHUL accoun-TING. And suddenly we have successful cross-cultual communication! Unfortunately, there is not a similar instant-fix in the other direction... when we mispronounce Thai words, we tend to recieve a chuckle and a blank stare.

It's very easy to pick up key words or phrases in a new language... things like "hello," "not spicy," or "turn left." It's an entirely different thing to try to hold a conversation. The problem is that when I react to things, my reflex response never comes out in Thai. Or English. My friends and I tend to respond in our previously studied foreign language. For me, that's Spanish. Here's a sample conversation:

*in Thai*
Me: Salaya?
Cab Driver: Salay-huh?
Me: Salaya, Mahidol University
C.D: Oh, Salaya! Near Buddhamonthon park?
Me: (in Spanish) Sí!
C.D. *confused, since "si" in Thai means either color or four, depending on the tone*

And another sample:
Me: Excuse me, where is the sky train station?
Nice person on street: Oh, sky train? *responds a mile a minute in Thai*
Me: *panic* Qué?
Both: Gee, this is awkward!

In the case of awkward situation #1, I'm trying to get in the habit of saying "ka" (proper response), but that only makes the person think that I speak more Thai than I actually do, leading inevitably to awkward situation #2. A vicious cycle.

Victory Monument:

I am learning my way around Bangkok little by little. After school, I'm starting to take the bus to VictoREE MonuMENT and then the sky train into Bangkok. One of the malls has a Subway (the restaurant chain), Starbucks, and an English-language bookstore, which makes for a nice afternoon of studying and browsing travel guides.

Yesterday, I spent the day with my friend Alison (from the UNC drumline) who is teaching English in South Korea and was in SE Asia on her break from school. It was really nice to catch up and compare experiences, and it also gave me a chance to see all the "touristy" things in Bangkok that I hadn't visited yet. We saw the Grand Palace, Wat Phra Kaew (Temple of the Emerald Buddha), and Wat Pho (the giant reclining Buddha). I also discovered another great form of public transportation: the long boat down the river. Between that and the sky train, we got to see a lot of the city in just a day.

The reclining Buddha:










That's about all of the news from here. Next Wednesday we leave for Singapore, and Friday is the Incubus concert! I'm excited. Also, Maroon 5 is in Bangkok on Monday, but we keep forgetting to buy tickets. Hopefully it isn't sold out yet.