Tuesday, August 15, 2006
So, first day of school. I know! I had the prettiest uniform ever, it is so great. Seriously. It is a black pencial skirt, with a white blouse, and silver buttons and a brown belt with a silver chula belt buckle and black shoes. I found out we can personalize our uniforms if we put these little pins on our top button, so I got a pink chula (chula=chulalongkorn university) button and a pink chula belt loop. hehe. i love it. seriouslz. there are puppies everywhere here, seriously, i loves the puppies. dogs everywhere. my thai friends laugh at my fascination with the most laidback dogs laying on the ground. they all look similar, but they are different colors. they are so cute. seriouslz. heeh. they are my best friends. i wish i could touch them, but alas, i do not have my rabies shots. sadness. not having internet nor a laptop is the most annoying experience of my life, i decided. michelle has a laptop, so she is keeping a journal, which is good. no internet yet, i am just making a real effort to type with the opposite y and z's todaz. hehe. i type way faster than i could ever write, so i prefer to type, obviously. i think this is the greatest loss, i decided. i write almost everynight, so having my computer awol is extremely challenging for me. the novel will not continue as of yet. turns out my sister did indeed pack my camera... and packed her camera too. i know. still need to figure out how to send that home to canada with no incident. heh.
anyways, thailand. this place is so out of control. hehe i love it. so differnet then back home, yet so similar. thais are the most laid back individuals in the entire planet, including their dogs, as mentioned above. i wish i had the capital letters on keyboard figured out. i think it is rude to type all in lower case capitals. hehe. i mean lower case letters.
Topic 1) Thailand schooling. First class was marketing, started about 20 minutes late, as to be expected. the prof taught in america, so he has a sweet northwestern accent, though originally from thailand. he is so funny. the thais certainly do like to have fun, they laugh at us constantly. hehe. we are great source of amusement for the thai population, as i think i have done so many things wrong lately. the class has about 40 people, 6 of which are canadian, 2 americans, 2 hot swedish girls. hehe. it was very laid back, no midterms, no finals. only weekly presentations, and midterm presentations. i made the mistake of going to la washroom, so i am in the gorup with the 5 other canadians. go figure. they got to pick the groups. shrug, whatever, it will be fine to build up my canadian connections, mostly UVIC and Ottawa students. Business finance was out of control, kids just talk in class and get up to answer cell phones. the prof occasionally freaked and told some late comer to tuck in his uniform shirt, but otherwise it was so laidback. the class is earning me 4 credits back home, but today we covered 'what is a market' and other such things. i realiyed that some of it is going to be challenging to apply back home, as some things in finance are solely thai, but meh. all in the experience. had alot of fun passing notes to michelle and jin. heeh.
Topic 2) Thai food:
annnyways, my buddies took me out for lunch, where everyone is on lunch at same time. hehe. it was a madhouse. i stood out like crayz, and everyone looked at me. i couldnät figure out why people would mutter canada, until i realiyed that i had a canada flag attached to my backpack, a la christina. heh. i got some random food and ate my first meat product since saturday evening. i was brave. i am already sick of rice. after missing breakfast and a wee bowl of chicken and rice, i decided to go to a more american resuatrant, aka our hotel coffee shop and spend 10$ (a fortune in thailand) buying eggs and bread. mmm. my favorite. whatever, what is that? bird flu? hah, whatever.) i have to get this food situaiton figured out, but good.
Topic 3) Americans:
They are driving me bonkers here, i have no idea why. Okaz, I do know why, but seriouslz, this is unfortunate (the german is back.) thez are verz loud and consitentlz verz ethnocentric. i already had to tell some guy i didnät think it was cool that he was bragging about skipping out on buying the unirform, i found that so weird. he just did some halfway outfit, which i find disrepsctful, as we are hear in their country, at their university which has uniforms that they take great pride in and get excited about. ....and then the other american insisted he did not have an accent because (quote) 'the people in hollywood talk like me, so that means I do not have an accent. i am the only english speaker here without an accent.' I was like, ARE ZOU KIDDING? he was from detroit. word up rockstar, you are lacking. hehe. then the next one told me, and the korean kid i was with that since he was tall everyone should let him on the basketball team here, insisting he should not have to try out because he was so tall compared to all the other 'short asians' and went on to tlel all of us how the asians are so short and are not known for their basketball, obviously, and he would be on the team as the star. and if they made him try out, he was going to demand that he be allowed to decide after he tryouts whether or no he will play on the team. this is obviously common sense, but leave it up to the americans (i am judgemental) to insist on their ethnocentric views. no offense. i am out of control, only cultural issues i am having is with the americans running around being arrogant. am i any better than them, as i think that they should practice more respect and openness around new cultures? (huge generalization here) perhaps. i apologize to everyone, i just need to limit my exposure to them, or increase my exporsure and show them how we can be more accepting and respectful to foreign cultures that they have moved to 'for the parties.'
Hha, off i go bye hehe, just kidding, need a better ending then negativity. can zou tell i am extremely exhausted? i got up at 6 and did gym and yoga, it was grand fun. i loved it. it was bloody hot, certainly hotter than any hot yoga i have done back home. anyways, makes for a long day.
Topic 4) The Thai's and the university life:
the thais are the most friendly people i have ever experienced. they do smile quite a bit, and it is quite clean asides from the air pollution, which is barely noticable because it is so hot. that said, i have not ventured that far outside my little area, just up and down the main street here to and from school. not back for teh first 36 hours in bangkok. did get to the mall (this is insanely full of tonnes of shops and people EVERYWHERE.) so many people, feels like the few minutes after a hockey game or something, all the time. hehe. the campus is gorgeous, and i found out that it is a thai univeristy, aka they speak and teach in thai, except fro teh 400 kids (50+ who are exchange sutdents) who are accepted into the english BBA program, which is very prestigous here in thailand. haha i found this out as i got lost on campus and had to ask for directions. all very friendly, just some major communication breakdowns. i want to learn thai beyond my hello and thank you limitations right now. hehe. i will learn 'chicken with rice' tomorrow and also will learn 'sorry' and 'how much' right away. priorities. heeh. also, for those kids in economics, all the bartering is an excellent example of first degree price discrimination (yes, my degree does come in handy, evidently!) as they are trying to take all my consumer surplus. damn them, got to my bartering skills up there. hehe. and my thai skills.
anyways, friendly thais, interesting location and food, and life is great. time for bed. haha. 9pm. okay, off to cuddle the stray dog i brought home. he is nice, i am naming him Crackers Banana Pants. for kicks and giggles. hehe. there is the perky stef, hiding under the beer-exhaustion-sneezing-whining about americans-love with dogs self.
hehe. ¶ 8:24 PM
anyways, thailand. this place is so out of control. hehe i love it. so differnet then back home, yet so similar. thais are the most laid back individuals in the entire planet, including their dogs, as mentioned above. i wish i had the capital letters on keyboard figured out. i think it is rude to type all in lower case capitals. hehe. i mean lower case letters.
Topic 1) Thailand schooling. First class was marketing, started about 20 minutes late, as to be expected. the prof taught in america, so he has a sweet northwestern accent, though originally from thailand. he is so funny. the thais certainly do like to have fun, they laugh at us constantly. hehe. we are great source of amusement for the thai population, as i think i have done so many things wrong lately. the class has about 40 people, 6 of which are canadian, 2 americans, 2 hot swedish girls. hehe. it was very laid back, no midterms, no finals. only weekly presentations, and midterm presentations. i made the mistake of going to la washroom, so i am in the gorup with the 5 other canadians. go figure. they got to pick the groups. shrug, whatever, it will be fine to build up my canadian connections, mostly UVIC and Ottawa students. Business finance was out of control, kids just talk in class and get up to answer cell phones. the prof occasionally freaked and told some late comer to tuck in his uniform shirt, but otherwise it was so laidback. the class is earning me 4 credits back home, but today we covered 'what is a market' and other such things. i realiyed that some of it is going to be challenging to apply back home, as some things in finance are solely thai, but meh. all in the experience. had alot of fun passing notes to michelle and jin. heeh.
Topic 2) Thai food:
annnyways, my buddies took me out for lunch, where everyone is on lunch at same time. hehe. it was a madhouse. i stood out like crayz, and everyone looked at me. i couldnät figure out why people would mutter canada, until i realiyed that i had a canada flag attached to my backpack, a la christina. heh. i got some random food and ate my first meat product since saturday evening. i was brave. i am already sick of rice. after missing breakfast and a wee bowl of chicken and rice, i decided to go to a more american resuatrant, aka our hotel coffee shop and spend 10$ (a fortune in thailand) buying eggs and bread. mmm. my favorite. whatever, what is that? bird flu? hah, whatever.) i have to get this food situaiton figured out, but good.
Topic 3) Americans:
They are driving me bonkers here, i have no idea why. Okaz, I do know why, but seriouslz, this is unfortunate (the german is back.) thez are verz loud and consitentlz verz ethnocentric. i already had to tell some guy i didnät think it was cool that he was bragging about skipping out on buying the unirform, i found that so weird. he just did some halfway outfit, which i find disrepsctful, as we are hear in their country, at their university which has uniforms that they take great pride in and get excited about. ....and then the other american insisted he did not have an accent because (quote) 'the people in hollywood talk like me, so that means I do not have an accent. i am the only english speaker here without an accent.' I was like, ARE ZOU KIDDING? he was from detroit. word up rockstar, you are lacking. hehe. then the next one told me, and the korean kid i was with that since he was tall everyone should let him on the basketball team here, insisting he should not have to try out because he was so tall compared to all the other 'short asians' and went on to tlel all of us how the asians are so short and are not known for their basketball, obviously, and he would be on the team as the star. and if they made him try out, he was going to demand that he be allowed to decide after he tryouts whether or no he will play on the team. this is obviously common sense, but leave it up to the americans (i am judgemental) to insist on their ethnocentric views. no offense. i am out of control, only cultural issues i am having is with the americans running around being arrogant. am i any better than them, as i think that they should practice more respect and openness around new cultures? (huge generalization here) perhaps. i apologize to everyone, i just need to limit my exposure to them, or increase my exporsure and show them how we can be more accepting and respectful to foreign cultures that they have moved to 'for the parties.'
Hha, off i go bye hehe, just kidding, need a better ending then negativity. can zou tell i am extremely exhausted? i got up at 6 and did gym and yoga, it was grand fun. i loved it. it was bloody hot, certainly hotter than any hot yoga i have done back home. anyways, makes for a long day.
Topic 4) The Thai's and the university life:
the thais are the most friendly people i have ever experienced. they do smile quite a bit, and it is quite clean asides from the air pollution, which is barely noticable because it is so hot. that said, i have not ventured that far outside my little area, just up and down the main street here to and from school. not back for teh first 36 hours in bangkok. did get to the mall (this is insanely full of tonnes of shops and people EVERYWHERE.) so many people, feels like the few minutes after a hockey game or something, all the time. hehe. the campus is gorgeous, and i found out that it is a thai univeristy, aka they speak and teach in thai, except fro teh 400 kids (50+ who are exchange sutdents) who are accepted into the english BBA program, which is very prestigous here in thailand. haha i found this out as i got lost on campus and had to ask for directions. all very friendly, just some major communication breakdowns. i want to learn thai beyond my hello and thank you limitations right now. hehe. i will learn 'chicken with rice' tomorrow and also will learn 'sorry' and 'how much' right away. priorities. heeh. also, for those kids in economics, all the bartering is an excellent example of first degree price discrimination (yes, my degree does come in handy, evidently!) as they are trying to take all my consumer surplus. damn them, got to my bartering skills up there. hehe. and my thai skills.
anyways, friendly thais, interesting location and food, and life is great. time for bed. haha. 9pm. okay, off to cuddle the stray dog i brought home. he is nice, i am naming him Crackers Banana Pants. for kicks and giggles. hehe. there is the perky stef, hiding under the beer-exhaustion-sneezing-whining about americans-love with dogs self.
hehe. ¶ 8:24 PM
