Heat, Hallyu, and Happiness: First few moments in Khon Kaen

So, now I'm at Khon Kaen University! Yesterday, we had an excruciatingly long orientation session in which we received our cellphones, bedding, and motorcycle helmets. And we met our roommates! My roommate goes by Tik! She's my age and is probably the most adorable, generous person I've ever met. AND she likes K-pop and stans 2PM too!! She speaks English fairly well, but I still want to try to speak Thai more, for obvious reasons.

Saturday evening, we participated in a welcoming ritual (I'm not going to lie, I don't remember the name of it), in which a monk held a piece of string and unravelled a gigantic piece of string so that each of us held onto it (us = everyone in my program, our roommates, and the program staff). He chanted something beautiful, yet something I completely didn't understand -- although I did catch something about wishing us luck and protection while we study here in Thailand, so far away from home. After that, everyone in the program staff and our roommates came by and offered us their best wishes as we start on our journey. They each tied a piece of string around our wrists symbolizing their wishes, so I have a bunch. Lookie!

That night, we went to the night market with a few of our roommates. I didn't buy anything, but everything was so outrageously cheap! Want fake Ray Bans? 15 baht, please. How much is 15 baht? $.50, no joke. Want a huge coconut smoothie? 20 baht. Skinny jeans? Not more than 70 baht. That's a little more than $2. My roomie got an shaved ice + sweetened condensed milk confection topped with lychee and chocolate brownie pieces. Mmmm~

Saturday was our first day off. Ever. And our next one is at the end of next month, I think. So, after sleeping in, doing much needed laundry (forgot to mention that the whole time we were in Loei and Baw Kaew village, we all stank of BO and... well, more BO), and getting some cheap 20 baht food at the dining hall-esque complex behind my apartment, I finally got a chance to catch up on reading my unread items in my Google Reader, answering emails, and facebooking, of course. Then, Tik came in with P'Fai (I'm assuming she's my P', since Tik calls her P', and Tik is my age. So yeah.), her good friend and the roommate of one of the other girls on my program. They said that they were going to go to a concert at Central Plaza, the close Khon Kaen cousin of Central World in Bangkok. So we and three of Tik's other friends were picked up by P'Rung (SUP, RUNG FROM NU). She was basically the HBIC of the group both in terms of age and behavior; plus, she had good taste in kpop! One thing I've learned is that most Thai people have a basic understanding of kpop which is.. absolutely amazing. So when I first entered the car, I heard SNSD's Run Devil Run and then some SHINee (Replay and Romance). I recognized every song except for one by IU and another by F4.

Anyway, we arrived at Central Plaza! I heard a mixture of Mister by KARA in an electronics store, Tik Tok by Ke$ha on the 1st floor stage, and then Change by HyunA and Bad Romance by Lady GaGa on the same stage later. Mmm, pop culture.

So, okay, sidenote. Thai people apparently really like ice cream/confectionary shops. There was Gelate, Ice Monster, Dairy Queen, and many, many others.

Here's a picture of the 5 floors of the complex:

Oh, what's this?!

OMG.

This was actually what I had today (Sunday) when I went shoe shopping with a girl on the program (yay time discrepancies.. I wrote this entry last night, haha). Regular original + lychee + coconut jelly cube thingies. Nomnom.

Anyway, we went to the concert. It was a vocal duo called Boyd-Nop. Lookee.

There was also this musician/comedian that played in the middle. So he wasn't an opener.. More like a middler. I didn't catch his name, though. But he was pretty funny. For some reason, my video upload thing is all broken and OTL. So I'll try to upload the silly videos I recorded next time I get internet~

After that, we hightailed it back to KKU to celebrate the birthday of a girl on the program. We went to various Thai bars, which was. It just was. I also rode there on a motorcycle with P'Fai an Tik. It was my first motorcycle ride.. And it honestly wasn't too bad. Still kinda scary, though.

Anyway, tomorrow we're taking a tour of Khon Kaen and then going to our second homestay location, near Suan Sanook School. I won't have internet until next week, so wish me luck!

A series of long-overdue posts: Bangkok

This has literally been the longest week of my life. I've been constantly busy and only have today and tomorrow free before we go back to the villages. Okay. Let me recap.

Last time I posted, I was in Bangkok, awaiting orientation-y things. So, I did that. 8 hours of that. I met the other 9 people in my group, and they are all super duper. That night, I went to Siam Paragon, the now-biggest mall in Bangkok (RIP, Central World).

I had dinner with A and Pup from Thai Club at NU at some delicious Thai food place. Upon Pup's awesome recommendation, I had gang som pak + goong, which is like a soup with veggies and shrimp in a spicy/sour broth. Then, we went to iBerry, which was a sorbet stand inside of the mall. If there's one thing about Thai malls that I've noticed, it's that they love one-stop shopping and ice cream/yogurt/shaved ice while they shop. But more on that later. I had a Thai tea-flavored sorbet, and I thought I was going to die from the deliciousness.

The next day, I visited Chulalongkorn University, which is arguably the most prestigious university in Thailand. I heard a lecture by a professor from their political science department about the situation between the red shirts and the yellow shirts, which are two political parties in Thailand. Thailand is pretty strongly divided, so it was difficult to find a nearly-neutral professor to talk to us (I feel like she was slightly more pro-red shirt, but that's just me). From our perspective as a development & globalization program, it seems that under Thaksin, less policies were made that disenfranchised people in rural areas within Isaan. This may be a reason that the Isaan region is largely red shirt-dominated. Under current and past leadership, regardless of color divisions, policies were put into place that forced indigenous people from their villages in Isaan, where they had worked all of their lives, and put dams, eucalyptus tree forests, and power plants in their places. So, with that frame of reference, we're examining the lives of villagers affected by such policies and powers of development, among other things. And I still don't have a stance on whether I'm pro-yellow or pro-red, so please don't strike up an argument with me! D:

Anyway, after that, we went to see the Democracy monument and what was left of Central World, the largest mall in Bangkok which was burned down by the red shirts this past spring). Then, we drove to Thammasart University, another prestigious university in Thailand, had lunch, and toured the campus. We then visited the Grand Palace, which was really beautiful... Take a look!

I took some more pictures, but it was raining really hard (it's the rainy season here), so they didn't come out too well. So anyway, after that, I saw my dad, aunt, and grandma for a little while before I had to go to a mandatory dinner with the people involved in my program. There, my program, CIEE, paid for the entire meal, including cocktails for those who wanted them. There was a RIDICULOUS AMOUNT OF FOOD. Also, the program director, Ajaan Dave, definitely had a jagerbomb with one of the other students in my program. Awesome.

Then, last Saturday, we left Viengtai hotel at about 7 AM and had an 8 hour van ride to Loei. I slept most of the time. :) Next post will be about Loei!