From the Land of Asia!!!!!

Asia is AMAZING!!!!! We have already had such an incredible time here! I am here for the summer, teaching English classes; preparation for the TOEFL (Testing of English Foreign Language) examination. The University we are working with is Kasetsart University (KU) in Bangkok, Thailand and wow, what a crazy city! It is definitely a whole new world!

We've been in Thailand now for a grand total of about 12 days and it is so great! I am here with a friend from Utah State, Bill Munns - you'll see him in a lot of the pics - and we are piloting this program for our University, setting up a Service Learning Study Abroad. So for teaching English we get to come live here in Thailand for the summer and go on all sorts of adventures and weekend trips, I can definitely handle this. Since we are working with the faculty of Agriculture we get guided tours into parts of Thailand most tourists don't get to see!

So if you're reading this blog keep in mind that I am doing this for multiple purposes so some things may or may not be too interesting to read. As part of piloting this program I need to report weekly on how things are going here and my perceptions and thoughts on the experience, so keep in mind that you may want to skim or just skip certain posts. So being forewarned, enjoy what you will of this blog I am attempting to keep this summer.

First off my first thoughts of Thailand are . . . it's AMAZING!!! It's called the Land of Smiles and rightly so, the people are so nice and it is a very traveler friendly country! We have been so well taken care of, these people are the best hosts! Here and in China, we have received that same amazing hospitality. That is one thing I wish we were a little better at in the United States, the spirit of hosting and hospitality they have. Well at least it has been great for me to learn more fully and now I just need to put it into practice.

Oh, it must be said straight away, the food is SO GOOD!!!! I love Thai food! Yes, it is often spicy but oh so delicious, definitely not food for you TJ! ;) That being said, that is definitely one of the problems as well. The food is so good and we get fed so much, I think I might get fat over here in Thailand! Here is the dilemma, when you eat with a group here in Thailand you typically order the communal dishes and everyone scoops out for there own plate. But they order so many dishes and they want you to try them all and you want to try them all and they are so delicious that we eat to capacity pretty much every meal! I don't know how they all stay so little? Except there is a definite difference in the food and how it is digested for sure. Because you'll eat to capacity at a meal and an hour or two later you feel SO hungry!

But the fruit is SO incredible. Happy day for being in a tropical paradise! I have never had better fruit in my entire life and it is so cheap! Well the entire cost of living in general here is just really cheap. When we buy our meals in the canteen, you can get a good meal for around a $1.

Let's see many more posts to come but just to finish off this general account of Thailand, the traffic in this city -Bangkok is so CRAZY!!! I guess that is to be expected in a city with around 12 million people! Just the whole city is so immense, I can't even imagine how long it would take learning to navigate it?! Props to the taxi drivers! So Thailand and it's people are wonderful and I am loving this new experience here!