Thai Rose Garden and other Thai happenings

Well, we had orientation. They bombarded us in typical education-industry style with too much information all at once and no one could retain anything. I got some information out of the session, but not all that much that was really helpful. I picked out my classes and hopefully I get what I want. Three political science classes, just like back home. I'm going to take (again, hopefully) Political Systems of Southeast Asia, Economic Problems in Southeast Asia, and Poverty and Rural Development in Southeast Asia. All depressing classes, all about Southeast Asia. Hopefully by the end of this semester I'll know something or another about Southeast Asia. At least the bad parts.

We went to this giant park yesterday known as the Rose Garden Country Resort. It was a lot like the American Indian cultural displays back in the USA. I'm sure the presentation on rural Thailand was probably offensive and stereotypical. Still, I got to ride an elephant with Ninja, a German girl that lives with us, and I haggled down a sweet box that I now store all my baht laundry coins in from 150bh to 120bh! It was my first time haggling and I enjoyed it. I got a lot of cool pictures there. One of the best sites in the park was the "butterfly garden" where swarms of butterflies were chilling out on flowers. When you walked near them, they all flew away. It was a lot like the pigeons in Bangkok, but less scary and shitty.

I was exceptionally tired (I figure the intense heat of this place combined with walking around and generally eating less food makes me more sleepy) and fell asleep rather awkwardly at 9:30, spread out sideways on my bed with my legs on my chair and my laptop on my stomach. After Anthony kindly woke me up, I went to bed early.

Anthony and I keep waking up really early, but today was through no fault of our own. Our air conditioner stopped cooling in the middle of the night and we woke up HOT. We're doing great with the time zone change, but man, the heat is something else here. Today, it must be like, 95. And humid. For a place that supposidly is in a rainy season, this shit is not raining. I haven't even seen the scattered thunderstorms that are predicted everyday in the weather report except for our first night in Bangkok. I even have tan lines on my feet from my sandals.

Last night, we went down to the pool and hung out there drinking again for a long time. Pools in this heat are exceptional and it's a great way to get to know everyone. Just making jokes, telling stories about life at home. We all come from different places and mesh together really, really well. Some of the guys are crazy and it's great. I really like everyone and my biggest fear, that I would be surrounded by assholes is gone.

Today we had to walk into town to run some errands. It was exceptionally hot and there are no shortcuts to campus to make the walk any faster. We walked through the blazing heat (mind you, it was only 9:00) into Salaya. We went to a Kodak shop to get pictures taken and some photocopies made. They made sure we looked exceptional in the pictures. I have cleaner, clearer skin than I had when I was born in these pictures. Anthony said if I ever put up a personal ad that I have to use these pictures. After we got our pictures, we dropped them off to Coco Pan, the Chinese lady on our campus who keeps track of us and then explored the "Friday Market," a weekly shopping event on our campus where tons of vendors come out and sell goods. We bought bike locks and a power adapter for US appliances, but couldn't haggle the prices down.

After that, we went to a bike shop and bought sweet Thai bikes. These things are incredible and only cost 1900bh ($60 USD). It didn't feel nearly as hot as we were peddling through the streets of Salaya on the Blue Rocket (Anthony's) and the Black Dragon (mine). They even have bells. I'm going to be sad to leave it behind. I'm going to look for a way to get it home, it's totally sweet.

The power adapter didn't work, so Anthony and I are still without our DSs. We keep looking for things and people keep trying to sell us or give us the wrong things, despite what we ask for. We're going to look in Bangkok this weekend hopefully and get the right converters. Then hopefully on Monday we'll be able to get to an island and spend a few days on the beach before our classes start. It's weird to be on a vacation of sorts while all of our friends are doing homework.

Oh, and I ate an egg on a hamburger today. That was an interesting experience.

Anthony and I are off to Bangkok with Dennis, a German, to watch some Thai boxing and get some dinner. It's going to be great. Hopefully someone gets kicked in the head and it isn't me.