Hard to believe I've been here a week already--it's flying by, probably because I'm so busy. I've already seen three of Fodor's Top 25 To Do/See in Bangkok, a book that Mark's parent's gave me. Yesterday we saw the Grand Palace where the King used to live, the wat that houses the most sacred Buddha image in Thailand, the Emerald Buddha, and another wat that houses the Reclining Buddha, which is 46 metters long and 20 meters high (to give you an idea of how big that is, one of his feet is bigger than my twin bed at home). I'm going to try and post some pictures, but I have a hard time with that so far, so we'll see.
Last night one of the guys in the house, Alex, and I went to the Thai massage parlor down teh street and got hour long massages for 150 baht (about 5 dollars). It was amazing--kind of like Western massage, but they also stretch your limbs out, which I loved. I'm sure I'll be back several times before I leave Bangkok. The women at the massage parlor were so cute. They speak enough English to have a little conversation with us, and they loved my hair cut. One said she wanted to follow me to America so she could get the same hair cut (so good work, Julia :)) We'd planned to go out for drinks or something after massages, but we were sooo relaxed that we ended up just coming back to the house to hangout in the air con and watch Babel. And I won't lie, it was great to have some down time.
Today it's off to the weekend market, and who knows what else the weekend holds!
Friday, July 13, 2007
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Lists
Things I like about Thailand so far:
weird fruit like lychee, mangosteens, long gong, and dragonfruit
tuk-tuks!
cheapness of almost everything (fifty minute taxi ride = $5, then split that five ways...)
everyone smiles at me even when I have no idea what's going on
new friends
Things I don't like:
air pollution
traffic
pitting out every shirt I wear
weird fruit like lychee, mangosteens, long gong, and dragonfruit
tuk-tuks!
cheapness of almost everything (fifty minute taxi ride = $5, then split that five ways...)
everyone smiles at me even when I have no idea what's going on
new friends
Things I don't like:
air pollution
traffic
pitting out every shirt I wear
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Here I am
Going on 36 hours in this lovely and HOT country. The program is so well organized: after a delay in getting picked up from the airport (at least I didn't miss my flight like one girl did!) things have been very smooth. I'm bunking in a room with five other women and we have our own bathroom, then there are three other similar sized rooms. The house is beautiful and, even more importantly, has air con!
Yesterday morning we were sent out on what amounted to a scavenger hunt around the neighborhood, learning to navigate and negotiate with very little or no Thai. The neighborhood (part of the Bangsue district in north-central Bangkok) is very Thai--when we took the Skytrain downtown in the afternoon we realized how few tourists we saw in Bangsue compared with downtown. We spent the afternoon traveling by subway, skytrain (made me miss the El in Chicago, although it's WAY cleaner here) and river taxi, then saw Wat Arun (the Temple of Dawn) before a course after course dinner. Some people finished the night by going to a pingpong show....
My strongest Macalester-bred instincts had something serious to say about what is, in my opinion, dangerously close to sex tourism and I had to work pretty hard to keep my mouth shut and stay off my soap box re: women's rights, opression via exploitation, responsible tourism, etc. etc. etc. I think i managed not to come off as a huge prude, but obviously did not go. Instead I went out to a little bar near the house with a few other people and mostly chilled out and chatted. It's really an interesting group of people, but that's a topic for another entry.
Love from Thailand.
Yesterday morning we were sent out on what amounted to a scavenger hunt around the neighborhood, learning to navigate and negotiate with very little or no Thai. The neighborhood (part of the Bangsue district in north-central Bangkok) is very Thai--when we took the Skytrain downtown in the afternoon we realized how few tourists we saw in Bangsue compared with downtown. We spent the afternoon traveling by subway, skytrain (made me miss the El in Chicago, although it's WAY cleaner here) and river taxi, then saw Wat Arun (the Temple of Dawn) before a course after course dinner. Some people finished the night by going to a pingpong show....
My strongest Macalester-bred instincts had something serious to say about what is, in my opinion, dangerously close to sex tourism and I had to work pretty hard to keep my mouth shut and stay off my soap box re: women's rights, opression via exploitation, responsible tourism, etc. etc. etc. I think i managed not to come off as a huge prude, but obviously did not go. Instead I went out to a little bar near the house with a few other people and mostly chilled out and chatted. It's really an interesting group of people, but that's a topic for another entry.
Love from Thailand.
Thursday, July 5, 2007
t-minus less than 24 hours!
Oh man. At this time tomorrow I'll be sitting at a gate in the SeaTac airport, hopefully post coffee/breakfast with Gesse (somehow I scheduled myself a SIX HOUR layover in Seattle, but luckily I have wonderful friends there to visit me at the airport) and also hopefully sleeping, with just an hour to go until my flight takes off for Tokyo!
Mark and I decided to try and stay up all night tonight to help me get adjusted to the time changed--my five-thirty am flight out of Spokane leaves at what would be eight-thirty pm Bangkok time, which means I get to Bangkok at 8:30 am Spokane time, right when I need to be going to sleep. Eeep! So if I stay up alllll night I can sleep on the flight to Tokyo which is sort of approximately night time in Bangkok. I think if I were doing this all over, I'd plan to arrive at least a day early, because getting up at 7:30 for a full day of orientation is not going to be easy.
I'm so excited to go! There's just no way I can know what it'll be like until I get there, and I'm ready to find out :)
Also, if you're lurking--leave a comment! I'll be happy to know I'm not just writing into empty space (or send me an email, I think it's hard to comment on blogger?)
Mark and I decided to try and stay up all night tonight to help me get adjusted to the time changed--my five-thirty am flight out of Spokane leaves at what would be eight-thirty pm Bangkok time, which means I get to Bangkok at 8:30 am Spokane time, right when I need to be going to sleep. Eeep! So if I stay up alllll night I can sleep on the flight to Tokyo which is sort of approximately night time in Bangkok. I think if I were doing this all over, I'd plan to arrive at least a day early, because getting up at 7:30 for a full day of orientation is not going to be easy.
I'm so excited to go! There's just no way I can know what it'll be like until I get there, and I'm ready to find out :)
Also, if you're lurking--leave a comment! I'll be happy to know I'm not just writing into empty space (or send me an email, I think it's hard to comment on blogger?)
Monday, June 25, 2007
t-minus 11 (?) days = time to start freaking out
Argh! Traveller's checks,luggage tags, outlet adapters and making sure I don't fry my iPod, smaller-than-3 oz. shampoo/conditioner/face wash/toothpaste/lotion/sanitary hand gel, slip, do I have the right kind of shoes, why do I hate all of my swimsuits, should I have bought a one piece, I still don't have a TOWEL (do I even have room for a towel?), what if my credit card gets turned off, is it ridiculous to bring a GRE study book, I know I'm forgetting something.
Last night I had a dream that I somehow made it in to Thailand without my passport, but they wouldn't let me out.
Last night I had a dream that I somehow made it in to Thailand without my passport, but they wouldn't let me out.
Sunday, June 17, 2007
t-minus 18 days: a new wardrobe, my fellow volunteers, and all the things I still need to do!
I got my official placement email for Bangkok a couple of days ago--I'll be at APSW, or the Association for the Promotion of the Status of Women. APSW has an Emergency Shelter, which includes a clinic serving mostly young, unwed pregnant women, a Children's Home/Nursery, a Rape Crisis Center, an HIV/AIDS shelter, and a couple of youth programs that do reproductive health education. Awesome! I'm sure it'll be sobering and difficult at times, but I'm feeling pretty pumped about it as well.
At the same time I got my placement, I got a list of fellow volunteers: there'll be 18 of us arriving at the same time, joining 3 people already in the house (which has an in-house cook and snacks--including fruit--available 24/7. I'm embarrassingly excited about both of those things. Fruit! All the time!) Today I got an email from a 16 year old girl on the list; the only Trang volunteer I've talked to thus far is a 17 year old Italian boy. They both seem very sweet, but I'm hoping there'll be a few people a little closer to my age (oh god, how old am I that 16 sounds young?)
Today I went shopping with my sister, mom, and grandma and added some very light weight skirts, a dress, and a couple of tops to my wardrobe for dealing with 80-90 degree heat coupled with 60-70 percent humidity. Yipes! Actually, though, it's been so cold and gray in Spokane that I'm look forward to being able to walk around the house without wrapping myself in a blanket all the time.
It feels like there's still so much to do! Trips to REI for hardcore bug spray and sunscreen, locating a backpack that's big enough for three day weekend trips but small enough to be managable when I'm dragging a suitcase, the beauty supply place with my sister for new shampoo/conditioner/"product," packing, un-packing, and re-packing to make sure I haven't forgotten something or brought way more than I need.
I can't believe I'll be in Thailand in less than three weeks.
At the same time I got my placement, I got a list of fellow volunteers: there'll be 18 of us arriving at the same time, joining 3 people already in the house (which has an in-house cook and snacks--including fruit--available 24/7. I'm embarrassingly excited about both of those things. Fruit! All the time!) Today I got an email from a 16 year old girl on the list; the only Trang volunteer I've talked to thus far is a 17 year old Italian boy. They both seem very sweet, but I'm hoping there'll be a few people a little closer to my age (oh god, how old am I that 16 sounds young?)
Today I went shopping with my sister, mom, and grandma and added some very light weight skirts, a dress, and a couple of tops to my wardrobe for dealing with 80-90 degree heat coupled with 60-70 percent humidity. Yipes! Actually, though, it's been so cold and gray in Spokane that I'm look forward to being able to walk around the house without wrapping myself in a blanket all the time.
It feels like there's still so much to do! Trips to REI for hardcore bug spray and sunscreen, locating a backpack that's big enough for three day weekend trips but small enough to be managable when I'm dragging a suitcase, the beauty supply place with my sister for new shampoo/conditioner/"product," packing, un-packing, and re-packing to make sure I haven't forgotten something or brought way more than I need.
I can't believe I'll be in Thailand in less than three weeks.
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Placement news!
A very exciting e-mail from my program manager today. The program director in Bangkok is setting up my groups placements right now, and it looks like my request to work in women's health/women's issues in Bangkok is probably going to happen! This even more exciting given the more and more serious consideration I'm giving to going to nursing school to get a Master's in Nursing with a focus on Women's Health or on Nurse-Midwifery. Cool cool cool!
Anyway, there are two options for sites, one of which is a more common placement, and less outreach-oriented. You can read about that organization here: http://www.apsw-thailand.org/Intro.htm
The other organization, HAT, does a lot of sex ed work in the community and is a less common placement (which makes it seem kind of exciting), but also requires "many more hours" than a regular placement and might require me to work on weekends. You can read about that organization here:
http://www.hatfundraising.com/
I have to get back to my program manager about my preference pretty soon, and I'm leaning toward APSW because of the extra hours thing, but if you have thoughts or input, they'd be greatly appreciated!
Anyway, there are two options for sites, one of which is a more common placement, and less outreach-oriented. You can read about that organization here: http://www.apsw-thailand.org/Intro.htm
The other organization, HAT, does a lot of sex ed work in the community and is a less common placement (which makes it seem kind of exciting), but also requires "many more hours" than a regular placement and might require me to work on weekends. You can read about that organization here:
http://www.hatfundraising.com/
I have to get back to my program manager about my preference pretty soon, and I'm leaning toward APSW because of the extra hours thing, but if you have thoughts or input, they'd be greatly appreciated!
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