New Adventure, New Blog

Hello all out there! I have been in Thailand for a few days now and every second has been incredible. The journey here was unexpectedly stressful and long. I accidentally missed my flight while in Shanghai... oops! Mostly my fault, but I'm here now and all is well. I'm just going to think of it as practice for The Amazing Race someday. Arriving in Bangkok hits you with a sensory overload. The city is hectic, lively, colorful, messy but still fascinating. I was quickly whisked off to Sing buri, just north of Thailand, about 2 hours north of Bangkok. My new home, called the Twin House, is located 10 minutes outside the city. It is tucked into the community which really makes you feel like a local. The complex is made up of a main house, which is open and is the common meeting area for everyone here. The bunk houses are located behind the main house down a cute little path. The whole complex is simple and charming, I plan on making a video of it soon so you can check out my new home.

So far the whole experience feels like summer camp, just in Thailand. There are kids from all over the world, mostly ages 19-22 and there are always people coming and going, staying for various lengths of time. The most common nationalities here right now are Swedish and Dutch, which I guess is pretty common. I am one of two Americans and there are only a few other native English speakers, we are definitely the minority. There are also kids from Belgium, Norway, Korea and France but everybody speaks great English so communication is no problem. Although, conversations do occasionally break out into Swedish or Dutch, and I am left listening to gibberish. Once in awhile friends will accidentally start speaking Dutch to me because they forget I only speak English. I think I should start learning Dutch instead of Thai.

Our 'summer camp' activities so far have kept us busy. We have been to gorgeous temples in the city of Ayutthaya, the old capital of Thailand. We have met some of the local children at a nearby school, they even came by the Twin House Monday night to give us a welcoming ceremony. We've also gotten to do a little shopping and eat some amazing food. Nights are usually spent hanging out at one of two bars across the street from the Twin House. Relaxed atmosphere, warm weather and cheap beer have made for some great nights so far.

After this week of introduction, everybody in the group will disperse into various programs. Some are going north to help at an elephant camp, some are going to help paint at an orphanage and others are going to learn about Thai culture and Buddhism. My program is a little bit more involved. After this week I will spend some time learning how to teach and get my TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certificate. After that I will be placed in a school in Sing buri town, so not too far away from where I am now. I will live there for about 2 and a half months. There are four other girls in my program but we don't know yet what schools we will be teaching. I don't know much yet, but not everybody in my program is here yet, so when they all arrive we will all get more information.

Many more activities planned for this week including Thai cooking lesson, visiting a monkey sanctuary, some Thai language lessons and visiting some more Buddhist temples. I have to get going, the fun across the street is calling my name.

Some pictures of life in Thailand so far.