Good Morning America!

Well it's night for me, but morning for you all... I'm still working on this time difference thing!

Thailand has been such a whirlwind learning experience for me thus far, and it can only continue! After my 26 hours of travel, I finally arrived in Bangkok- the capital city and the largest city in Thailand. I was overwhelmed! There was so much happening and so many sights, smells, sounds, and people EVERYWHERE! (For those of you that know my Pamplona story, Bangkok might have it beat!)

While in Bangkok we (some girls who were on my flight from Tokyo to Bangkok) had heard about some cool river boat tours so thought that would be an awesome way to see the city! So we hopped on a Tuk Tuk thinking we were going to the main river boat hub... not so. 1. We got ripped off by the drivers and paid WAY too much and 2. they took us to their buddies on a weird little boat who in turn ripped us off by not doing the tour we all thought we signed up for and paid too much for! Whatever. So the tour was nice, it was cool to see the city by boat, the water was icky brown, blah blah blah. We get off at a market, look around and then go find Wat Pho, the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. This was the highlight of Bangkok for me! Is was so cool and the Buddha itself is like 40 meters long and 15 meters high! HUGE! and the Wat (Temple) was gorgeous! Leaving was another story. We thought we were getting a good deal from this van driver, but we shoved 8 girls into a taxi van! We were shoved in so tight, I didn't think the door was gonna stay closed! I've never been so cramped in my life! We literally fell out when we opened the doors!

Day 2 in Bangkok was a failure. We never found what we were looking for and ended up giving up after a couple of false directions and went back to hang out in the hotel pool. That night we had our Xplore Asia orientation meeting, met the group of people we would be with for the next month, and lickity split hopped on a bus to Hua Hin the next morning!

Hua Hin is GREAT! I like it here so much better than Bangkok! It's much more relaxed, it's a smaller city, and the beach is here, so that's cool! Our first week was jam packed full of excursions and introductions to TESOL theory and Thai language and culture.

We went to a Muay Thai gym (Thai martial arts/ boxing) and learned the basics with some very experienced and fun instructors. We went to a pineapple farm and got to see them growing and ate some freshly picked goods. Visited an elephant sanctuary! I about died from joy! These creatures are so amazing and they were all so loving! There was this baby girl elephant named Song Kran who was born April 13, 2008 (We share a birthday!) who would play soccer and hug you! Ah it was just too cute! Then we went to a Temple and were blessed by a Monk who also dabbles in magic and other religions. Finally, we visited Xplore Asia's non-profit, Rescue Paws. This group focuses on combating the stray dog population in Hua Hin and get these dogs back to good health and snip the boys so that they stop producing litters of dogs doomed for the same fate. If you're interested (which you should be!) Go to their Facebook page and check the out! the link is below:

https://www.facebook.com/RescuePawsThailand

The Thai Language and culture lessons are great! "Thai language is easy!" as our instructor Pear loves to point out! And what do you know?! Thai is easy! Kinda... There is one verb tense- present, so that's real nice after learning Spanish which has about a thousand various tenses, so this is a nice change! The only problem is that Thai is a tonal language, so say the word "maa" wrong and you could be talking about riding a HORSE on the beach, or a DOG on the beach! Fun stuff huh? But slowly I'm getting it! I can do simple greetings, counting, and a few other simple phrases. I'm sure that once I'm placed in a Thai town where it is very possible I'm the only Westerner, I'll pick it up much faster!

Yeah so placement is starting to amp up! We had our initial meeting already to discuss what we want, are hoping for, or expect, and have our second meeting this week, where we could already have some job offers! Scary stuff! I decided to chuck any preferences I had and just go with whatever they gave me. It all works out in the end right? Doesn't help the fact that I'm shitting my pants a bit about this whole process! But I think I'll become more comfortable with the idea that I'm actually going to be teaching English in Thailand... Taking the TESOL course here was the smartest decision because we get real world application and practice before being thrown to the wolves.

So long post. End. I had a crazy first week here in Thailand and cannot wait to see what the rest of my time in Hua Hin brings!