In the beginning...

October 3, 2009

Woohoo! Landed in Bangkok late last night, and am currently sitting in my dorm room at Chulangkorn (??) university on my first full day in Thailand. We won’t be able to get internet access in the dorm until Monday, so I am typing this in Word and plan to copy and paste into the blog form later.

Flights were painless. On the way to Tokyo I sat next to a man who was traveling with his wife and 13-month-old son. Imagine my joy when he turns to me with the infant and says, “This is Chase, I’ll be holding him for half the flight.” Awesome. Luckily the little guy was incredibly well-behaved and cried only at the conclusion of the 10-hour flight. Good flight, on the whole, watched “The Hangover” which was great and hilarious and “The Proposal” which was neither great nor hilarious but passed the time in a reasonably entertaining fashion. Met up with some of the other Fulbright gals in the Narita airport and then got on the 6-hour flight to Bangkok. Took us a while to get our bags and through customs, and an hour later, we met Siriporn – the Thailand Fulbright Program Officer – and her husband. They are both incredibly sweet and kind. Her husband (whose name I have forgotten…) bought us all KitKats while we were waiting. Once all ten of us were collected, into the vans we went and to the dorm we’re staying at in Bangkok. Our rooms are really nice, complete with bathrooms, desks, TV, a fridge and two double beds. Holla.

Today we walked to a nearby mall-like structure that appeared to be a massive mall topped with something resembling a Wal-Mart. Then we met up with Siriporn who briefed us on the particulars of the next few days, finances and visa issues. Then she walked us to the school where we will be attending our orientation sessions for the next month. On the way back we stopped at another massive mall for lunch and phone-shopping. We had a little difficulty finding our way back to the dorm from there, but we made it back alright.

Initial impressions? I really like Bangkok. It reminds me of Cairo in some ways, and I’m feeling the city’s vibe thus far. I am enjoying the storefronts and people watching. I am dying to learn Thai so I feel less like an ignorant tourist. Being Thai-less reminds me how much I loved being able to speak a little Arabic and Somali, and how much of a difference it makes in how people respond to you. And my impulse to speak Arabic/Somali to people is proving to be somewhat problematic and confusing. However, the language barrier hasn’t been a real problem thus far, as we have so far stuck to touristy, English-speaking areas. But communicating with people with whom I don’t have a common language is nothing new for me, thanks to my Somali community back in Tukwila (holla Tukwila!).

The nine other girls that comprise the Fulbright group are awesome – down to earth, well-traveled and very bright. Between the lot of us, I think we’ve covered a good deal of the globe! Our orientation program begins Monday and will include lessons about Thai culture and language, local politics, teaching English and so on. I’m excited to dive in and educate myself about my surroundings.

As soon as I get consistent internet access, you better believe I’ll be hitting up Skype.

Missing and loving all my friends and family back home.

- Ali