don’t bring durian on the subway

Three weeks ago, I stepped off of Korean Air flight #651 and stepped on to Thai soil (or at least the shiny floor tiles of the Bangkok International Airport). After approximately 25 hours of waiting in security lines, sprinting from one terminal to another, and sitting on three different planes, I had arrived in the country where I will be spending the next five months.In a haze of excitement, anticipation, and jet lag, I made my way through customs and successfully met up with Steve and Wanida, my gracious hosts for my first few days in Bangkok. 

As we made our way through the parking garage to where their friend’s taxi was waiting, I was amused to see that parking spaces and traffic patterns were of little concern in the multi-story building; cars were angled into impossible configurations wherever there was the slightest bit of space, much akin to a giant game of Tetris. This moment was my first glimpse into Thailand’s infamous urban traffic patterns which can only be described as utter pandemonium. 

A visit to Bangkok’s Grand Palace, followed by my first experience inside a Buddhist temple

After spending the next two days wandering wide-eyed through street markets, visiting Bangkok’s Grand Palace, Wat Phra Kaew, and Wat Pho by boat bus, and getting my first tastes of Thai food (and sampling durian, a notoriously-controversial fruit), I finally found myself on the last leg of my journey to Chiang Mai.

Several other USAC students and I found each other in the International Arrivals area, and despite having only ‘known’ each other for a few short months based on our social media profiles, it felt like a reunion. The rest of the day was filled with moving into our apartments, eating durian ice cream at a funky cafe-bookstore-arts collective just a few miles away, and exploring the street market that happens every night outside the northern edge of the Chiang Mai University campus. 

The rest of my first week in here was filled to the brim with our program orientation: introducing ourselves to nearly all 80 other people in our program, getting a crash-course on Thai communication and etiquette, buying our school uniforms, choosing classes, and beginning to familiarize ourselves with our surroundings and one another.

Tie-dyeing cloth using indigo ink grown and processed at Chiang Mai’s “Cotton Farm”

We barely had a moment to rest between a craft and culture tour (consisting of tie-dyeing cloth using organically-grown indigo ink and learning how to make a traditional banana leaf-wrapped Thai dessert) and a temple and city tour (which involved visiting the gardens of the Bhubing Palace, climbing the steps at Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, and walking through the bustling Sunday night market where we sampled everything from jackfruit to taro ice cream mochi to deep-fried crickets and silkworms). 

First day of school threads (and my outfit for the rest of the semester!)

Last weekend, my friends and I ventured to Pai, an enchanting town nestled among northwest Thailand’s forested peaks where there are more waterfalls, vegan cafes, and scooter rental shops than I ever thought was possible in such a small area.

We returned home to begin our second week of classes at Chiang Mai University, and in the past few days alone, I’ve become friends with some incredibly friendly, hip, and hilarious PoliSci students, I’ve received not one but two Thai nicknames (“Ma fuang,” which means “starfruit,” and “fon,” which translates to “rain”), and I’ve begun to master the art of pad Thai, thanks to my weekly cooking class. While the ratio of sauce to noodles needs improvement, I fortunately have another 4.5 months here to perfect my skills. ​​