Classes at the illustrious Mahidol University International College

Believe it or not, I'm actually in Thailand to study. I know that sounds positively ridiculous that when studying abroad, you have to do work, but the sad truth is, you have to go to class. It's incredibly disappointing.

I did come to Thailand to study though. I mean, I don't really like it, but I do it. I find that it's very hard to study here, though. There are so many potential distractions. In literally 15 minutes, I can be in the middle of one of the most populated cities in Asia and the possibilities of entertainment there are absolutely endless, not to mention the rest of this very distracting country.

My first class, which is at 8:00 on Monday/Wednesday, is Poverty and Rural Development in Southeast Asia and is, by far, one of the most boring classes I have ever attended. I like the teacher, he seems to have a lot of experience in the region and I think if we can get him to open up he'll have some bizarre stories to tell us, but instead he spends the entire class trying to understand how to use PowerPoint. Once he figures that out, he reads the slides to us (that he already printed for us) for two hours. I have never doodled so much. If he didn't have an attendance policy, I would honestly not go and just teach myself through the slides, because after three classes now, he has not told us a single relevant fact that wasn't listed on the slides.

My second class, which is at 10:00 on Monday/Wednesday, is Economic Problems in Southeast Asia. I like the teacher in this class too. Not that she could ever replace him, but she reminds me a bit of Dr. Warkentin in her teaching style, emphasizing discussions on readings more than lecturing, though she does lecture a lot more than Dr. W ever has in the four classes I've taken with him. The readings are very interesting, if not a little redundant. We talk a lot about the causes of problems, like corruption and culture, which I find to be an interesting angle. We spent a great deal of time talking about farming techniques and deforestation and I actually found myself a lot more interested than I ever thought I would be in either.

My third and final class is a Tuesday/Thursday class at 12:00, Political Systems of Southeast Asia. The professor is an American and has the best ability I have ever seen of a college professor in nearly four years of schooling at getting people to talk in class. It's not even awkward, "well, no one else is talking so I should say something or we're sitting here in silence for five minutes talking" like I found a lot in some of my other political science classes (particularly History of Political Thought, which I absolutely loved but apparently no one wanted to ever talk about it). Everyone seems generally enthused and he likes to pose a lot of hypothetical questions that push people to think about things. I mean, I've been asked "what is citizenship really mean" before, but for some reason it's exciting to hear other people respond to what they think about it, especially because the class is mostly Thai and they all have very different outlooks than I do.

One thing that I have noticed that I'm not particularly enthused about myself is the fact that Thai people in my classes often make casual references about the evils of America, but I don't feel that I can politely say anything about Thailand's ills. I mean, I love this country, but there are problems here too, just like in America. I'm not going to be rude about it or anything, but I just honestly don't feel comfortable at all voicing my opinion on Thai politics and culture, which is quite a change for me. I mean, half of the discussion in most of my political science classes thus far is generally a current events critique framed around whatever we're studying. But, because of the laws here, I think more people are apt to keep their mouth shut about the problems. I don't really have all that many observations anyhow, but I would like to feel more comfortable voicing my opinion as an outsider.

I thought the reason that people went to other countries was to give their input, but apparently not in Thailand. In Oswego, I would have no problems having a friendly discussion with an exchange student about American political life and I think I would enjoy hearing their opinions on politics in the states. It's almost like at work at the movie theater: if I have a problem with a projector or a film build, I call in an outsider to point out what I'm doing wrong and offer suggestions. Maybe things are different on other foreign exchange programs, but I'm not sure. I read in one of my travel guides to Peru that it's also considered very rude for foreigners to comment on politics in Peru.

I don't know if that's really true or not, but it makes me appreciate the high levels of freedom of speech that we do have in the United States. A lot of people may disagree with me, but at least in the United States you can say you hate George W. Bush's politics and not have to worry about being kicked out of the country. I know that I'm probably biased in saying that and I'm sure there are lots of Thai's that would love to discuss things with me, but I feel like I can't with the average person. I even had a discussion with a Thai girl I met on Koh Chang saying how much I respected His Majesty The King of Thailand, and she told me that I shouldn't talk about him (I was saying that I wanted to get a yellow shirt to show my respect for the country, as millions of Thai people wear yellow shirts to celebrate him). It's strange.

But, I guess that perhaps one of the best reasons for studying abroad is gaining a new appreciation of where you come from and who that has made you. I feel like I have a stronger love for life in America now that I have seen another part of the world that is very different. And that doesn't even relate to the simple things like toilets that all work the same way or food that I miss, just daily life in general. I mean, I don't ever stop and think about how incredible it is that, in America, there are thousands of nice, reliable roads to drive across. That there is electricity everywhere. Clean water is abundant. I can literally go anywhere and find high-speed Internet access. Yeah, America isn't perfect, but there are a lot of great things there too.

One thing that I have decided from this whole experience is that I want to be more friendly to foreign exchange students in Oswego. I don't know how I'm going to go about that, but I want to make a positive effort to at least say hello to them. I mean, I have Anthony here and that's a tremendous help at getting past homesickeness (one girl already left and went back to the states), but there are a lot of foreign exchange students who come to Oswego that have no one, no transportation, just their dorms and their (probably) American roommates that probably don't spend all that much time with them.

I used to joke that they all the foreign exchange students clustered around each other and didn't seem to get involved with Americans, but I do the same now and it's simply because it's incredibly intimidating to go up to someone and say hello when you're 12,000 miles away from home and probably don't speak the other person's language very well. Considering all I can say in Thai is "hello," "thank you," "yes," "no," "kiss," "Thailand," "Thai person," and "too expensive," I have a hard time imagining that I'll have a whole lot to say to the average Thai person. But, I suppose all of this is more incentive to learn some more Thai (which I can't remember as each word can be said five different ways, depending on the tone of your voice) and get out there and meet people.