Sawadee Ka

Hello, from Thailand.

I arrived in Bangkok around 4:30 p.m. on Friday and was picked up from the airport by June and Dumm. June is the administrative assistant for CCS and Dumm is the driver. The van was parked in at the airport and we had to push the cars (parked parallel to the van) out of the way to make room to get out. My first non-US experience.

My first impression of Bangkok from the ride from the airport is that it looked a lot like Mexico City. It probably looks nothing like Mexico City, but I saw both the first time just off of the plane and my brain picked up some similarity. The CCS grounds are in a quiet middle class neighborhood (lots of gated homes). They consist of three buildings and a little pond in the middle. I haven't had much time to explore more than the kitchen, bedroom and bathroom, but it is quite homey.My official orientation does not begin until tomorrow, so things have been pretty casual.

Today we (myself, Foon (CCS program assistant) and three other volunteers) went on a half day trip to a pottery market. To get to the market, we took a water taxi and then hired a covered long boat to take us the rest of the way. A man on the deck where we hired the boat was fishing for shrimp and when he noticed me watching him, he motioned me over to show me the shrimp that he had already caught and said "tom yum!" I laughed thinking he meant "tom yum soup" and maybe he did, but tom yum could also mean "shrimp." I need to look that one up.

The banks of the Chao Praya River where we were are lined with modern buildings, highrises and a few scattered homes. The further we went, the more residential it became and the banks were lined with houses. It must be so neat to be able to fish off of your back porch! And I can't forget the wats (Thai Buddhist Temples)!

They are everywhere. We made one stop at a dessert shop where I experienced my first Thai squat toilet. It probable isn't proper to go into details on this one, but lets just say it could possibly be an experience in itself.

The market was basically a tourist market, but we were able to watch a man make a pot complete with lid and stand. His set up was very basic, simply a motor attached to a belt, attached to another wheel which made the pottery wheel turn. For lunch, Poon ordered for us and we had rice in ice water (dubbed "ice rice") and a bowl of fried pork skin strips, fried fish balls and some carmelized Chinese vegetable for an appetizer. The main course was vegetables in oyster sauce, a plate of egg (somewhat like an omelet with nothing in it) and tom yum soup. The meal was good; the appetizer made for a pretty picture.

I'm not sure how much this internet cafe costs yet (I need to look up how to say that) so I'm not sure how much I can post. It is going to be hard not to write, because I'm sure almost everything is going to be an experience, but it will be a good exercise in editing (and budgeting).

I am looking forward to my time here; much more so when I was all by myself on the plane. It will be fun to learn the language and find my way around. There is a volunteer here who has been here since January and she gets around extremely well. I'm looking forward to getting to that place and all it takes to get there.