-Adjusting to a rural, developing country is not the easiest to say the least. On top of being in a place with unfamiliar food, unfamiliar, language, unfamiliar customs, me and the rest of the 20+ study abroad students were trying to adjust with one another.
The majority of people came alone, like me, but there were a few people who came with friends, and even one boyfriend/girlfriend couple. But what I did notice is that people seemed pretty reserved when we first came together.
THE LEADERS
TEAN (The Education Abroad Network) does a superior job at organizing us. We had one director who was from Australia but had been living in Thailand for a while, and another director who is a native to Thailand! Lauren and Nala. They had us meet at the designated meeting spot, a 7-11 to give us a tour of the street.
This is a picture of our dorm building.
CHIANG MAI UNIVERSITY
I was finally here. I dreamed about this for over two years and it was really sureal. My first impressions were how humid it was. The girls I had met up with at the airport and me stayed together at first, but I also am outgoing and wanted to meet other people. I was introducing myself and asking everyone their name. It seemed everyone was younger than me, after all it was my last semester needed before graduation. Most of these people were sophomores/juniors. They were like 21, and I was 23. Doesn't seem like a huge difference...but think about it, it kind of is in a maturity standpoint.
Me being me, I am kind of assuming that everyone is as friendly and eager to be friends with each other as I am, I learned real quick that wasn't the case. People kind of kept to themselves, which is totally fine. Really, it is. It's just...I don't get what you expect from a study abroad? Isn't part of the experience to make friends?!
Lauren took us on a tour of the street in front of our dorms and across from the University. She showed us the best pharmacy to go to, the go to shop for miscellaneous items, and told us there really was no in between for a pharmacy and the hospital...so if you got sick and the pharmacy couldn't help you then the next step was to go to the hospital. Great.
We checked in the dorms, which was quite small, but private bedrooms! It was small, just a bed and a desk and some shelves. The bathroom was small and the shower was probably my least favorite shower I have ever used-not complaining here just trying to paint a perspective of the quality. The living room had a couch and a small fridge and a TV that we never used.
TEAN had lots of meals provided for us the first week and first few days, particularly because we went through things together. We had orientation at the school, and walked through the campus. It was so exciting! It was quite big- they showed us the golf carts/shuttles that drove around campus and would be taking us to the building because our class was in the LAW building and was quite far. Once we went to the classroom, we had a talk from one of the Thai teaches, he was teaching the Thai language course, a presentation from the teacher of the Buddhist course, and Nala and Lauren both spoke.
One thing they talked about was some things we should be aware of in Thai culture-a few important phrases were. The one that stands out is-
GO WITH THE FLOW-IT'S NOT WRONG, IT'S JUST DIFFERENT
This was probably the summary of what we were told. And if I could go back in time and open up my brain and force myself to embody this concept-I would! Boy I can't think of any other advice. They can try to tell you, and you can think your a good "go with the flow" type of person. But you don't know until you've lived in a foreign country. Little did I know just how much I would need that advice.
After orientation they take us to a restaurant where they basically had pre ordered meals, basically it was pork, or chicken with rice or noodles. I was less than thrilled. I got pad thai vegetarian, thinking it would come with an abundance of veggies. But really it just came without meat. Oh boy, go with the flow advice starting to come in handy in 3..2.....
ELEPHANTS
Before the first day of class on Monday, TEAN had an Elephant Sanctuary trip planned for us!! This was an all day event on Sunday. In situations like these I do have an internal struggle regarding missing church, because I love the reset and reminder I get from having the weekly church and taking the sacrament, but I also think it's my choice and up to me to decide. I need to go with what I feel. I knew that I had paid a program fee that included this, and I was in Thailand after all, this elephant sanctuary wasn't exactly a hop and a skip away from my dorms as if I could organize the trip on my own.
So we went in two vans, it was about a 2 and a half hour drive away! When I got there and finally saw the elephants I was IN LOVE! I felt something I had not felt in a while. I am not even an animal person but I was so delighted with what was happening with my soul.
When I saw the elephants eyes, I no longer had any other care in the world. All I cared about were the elephants. I wanted them to be happy. I just wanted to be with them. Why did people care about likes on isntagram? Why do people fight about dumb things? Call me a hippie or pocahantas but these elephants were really bringing out joy in me.
We learned that it is really bad to ride on elephants, and the box that has to be put on their back is SO heavy, even to those large creatures. TEAN was really good about doing ethical activities. This mean also, not going to the ever famous tiger kingdom. At this particular elephant sanctuary, only the volunteers could bathe them. We did get to feed them though!
Did any bonding happen? I remember this was the day I talk to most people. I try to be as friendly as I can be. From my perspective I felt people were holding on to their one buddy. I felt people found their "person" and felt no motivation to reach outside their bubble. A foreign concept to me. WHY CAN'T WE ALL BE FRIENDS. It's not that anyone was downright unfriendly, but I I didn't get a whole lot of engagement...it was odd. New for me. I believe everything is a lesson though, so I wonder what I am supposed to learn. Self acceptance probably that's usually what the lesson is. Oh, did I mention it was really hot and humid?
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