The menu at the bakery! Those are different scoops of ice cream at the bottom.
More of the menu! You can choose what you want...waffles, pancakes, giant toast...then put ice cream or nutella or bananas or matcha on it etc.
The Spiderman Party Bus
Good morning U.S.A! It was nearly impossible to get WiFi at our Garden Resort for the past few days, but I just moved in to my dorm at KKU (Khon Kaen University) today, and finally have the resources/time to tell you all what has been going on!
We began our trip from Bangkok in a very unusual way. After a beautiful breakfast at the Great Residence Hotel, we gathered to meet our bus that would take us to Khon Kaen (my home city!). Little did we know what was in store... I like to refer to this bus as the Spiderman party bus that blasted Ludacris for 8 hours... But it was so much more than that. It had numerous shrines to the Michelin Man, and its interior was decorated with the following characters:
Pokemon, Donald Duck, Winnie the Pooh, Dalmatians, Santa Claus, Pandas, and even more shrines to the Michelin Man (not sure why...). It had a disco ball and strobe lights and subwoofers, and we blasted Thai hip hop and random American rap for 8 hours, I repeat...8 hours. But it was definitely worth the experience.
We arrived at the Garden Resort which was really something out of a dream. I described it as the background that is painted in the zoo behind the animals. It was unreal. We had to immediately drop our bags then leave for the 1000 step Mountain Temple, which was really beautiful. But after that, we were so exhausted that we ate dinner and went to bed in our slumber party style rooms with 8 bright pink beds. Everyone is so nice and interesting here; it's actually quite easy to get along.
And then began the Thai lessons... Thai class is 4 hours a day every day. From 8 AM to noon. We cannot speak any English in the classroom, so naturally I learned “Oi!!! Chaan pood pasaThai maidai!” (Ugh, I cannot speak Thai!). But actually it is so fun and I'm so glad that I will have communication ability. It was really hard on the first day feeling like some sort of weird, rude alien. I really love Thai numbers. We even played a game with refrigerator magnets where we had to quickly form whatever number was said in Thai. Needless to say, I took it as an intense competition and won. I love numbers! Also, in Thai texting we can use “5555” for “hahaha” because “haa”(rising tone) is the word for the number 5!
Something else about Thai language; Instead of “how are you?”, Thais ask “have you eaten yet?”. This country LOVES food. There is always food. All the time. And it really varies! There are so many different dishes and interesting foods to try. Today we learned all types of food words in Thai class... We then had a challenge to ask some of the staff (no English) the most complicated sentence we could think of... We had to speak it in Thai and they wrote what they heard for our Ajaan (teacher) to read. Mine was actually perfect! Bear with me while I tell you the sentence I used (they said be creative!!!): “I would like thick coffee with salty fish sauce and spicy peppers in it, yesss delicious!!”. Needless to say, the Thai woman responded with laughter and “Mai Arrroy!!” (not delicious!!!). The coffee here actually is quite delicious. It comes in packets called “3 in 1”s that are 51% sugar and 15% coffee. They basically taste like chocolate.
Anyways, we also had lectures on Thai Etiquette (body language, how to not freak out our roommates with our nasty American habits, etc) and Health & Safety in Thailand. I learned how to avoid the packs of wild dogs while out on a run, which came in handy the next day. Thai people are very friendly, and certainly find my white skin fascinating. It is because I am “farang” (foreign). When I growled at a wild dog, the Thais around me thought it was hilarious. But seriously, there were wild dogs chasing me. I also learned that in Thailand “the bigger vehicle has the right of way, because it can kill you.” Good to know.
We did lots of group bonding activities, and got to adjust to Thailand a little bit before entering KKU life. We met several monks who taught us about Buddhism and gave us many blessings. We also offered plenty of food to their community and thanked them with the traditional "wai" (bow). It was incredible to be around such inspiring people. In other news, our roommates are all really wonderful. My roommate is named June, a Chinese History major, and she is so sweet. She will help me learn Thai, and I will help her learn English! It's all very overwhelming, but I am trying to take it as it comes. Tomorrow after class we are going to a fair at the university, and I am meeting some of June's friends “who are also gin jay (vegetarian)”!
I apologize if my English seems a little broken. I've been trying to communicate for the past 3 days with lots of expressive gestures and smiling.