Amazing Friends and Family

This is going to be a quick post just to tell you all what amazing friends and family I have!! Today I received a care package from my mom and a letter from my friend Brittany! It means so much to me that I have such thoughtful friends and family back home. It makes being away for so long a lot better! I was starting to hit that 5 week homesickness that I knew was coming. (I knew because thats exactly when it came when I lived in France.)

When I came home from class this morning I had a package, a letter and message from very special people in my life!

These are the letters I got from my amazing brother and sister

From Nixy

From my little brother Jordan. He's awesome

I also took a picture of my picture board that I have made from a pictures frame in my room. I just taped all my pictures over the actual art. 

This makes being away from home a little bit better!!

Love you all!!

Koh Chang!

Oh my gosh! What a weekend! This weekend was the first time in the 3 weeks I've been in Thailand that I got a chance to leave the city! What an amazing trip it was! A bunch of the exchange students decided together that we were going to spend our weekend in Koh Chang. It's a little island off the Eastern Coast of Thailand and only about 6 hours away from Bangkok by bus. So, Thursday morning, we all woke up early, hopped on a bus and headed out of the city. I was sooo excited to get out of the hustle and bustle of the city and finally get to smell some fresh air! The bus ride wasn't too bad, there were 14 of us all together and the bus wasn't sold out so we were able to stretch out and have plenty of room. After about an hour, the bus stopped for a break and we jumped out and grabbed some food. There was a little roadside stand that was serving Thai food and sandwiches. I jumped at the chance to have a sandwich! Normally it is very difficult to find cheese here in Thailand because it's not a part of their traditional diet.

After about 30 minutes, the driver got up and went back on the bus so we all followed. The bus ride went by fairly fast and before we knew it, we were at the Center-Pointe ferry waiting for the ferry to take us to Koh Chang! Almost there! It was about 1pm, we all decided well if we are just going to sit here waiting, we might as well have some beers. Chang beer it was! simple and classic Thai. After about an hour on the ferry we got to the island. When we got off the boat we had to find a taxi to take us to our hotel. Everyone decided to grab the first taxi we saw which ended up charging us 70 Baht each! Now I know your are thinking, hey thats not bad! thats only like $2 each, well that's really expensive when you are used to paying 20 Baht at the most for cabs here in the city. But we had no choice.

Once we got to the hotel, we had a very interesting path to get to the bungalows.

After crossing a very jenky wooden bridge, we had to get across this floating bridge! believe me not that fun when you have gone out and done a bit of drinking on a beach before hand.

After getting settled, we got into our bathing suits, and laid around on the beach! It was sooo nice. It was amazing to just sit and not hear cars honking, or buses going by and to be able to smell fresh air was absolutely amazing. We could look up at the sky at night and actually see the stars! Oh the little things in life that you don't realize are so amazing until you don't have them anymore. 

The first night we all went to grab some dinner in town and went to a club right on the beach. I didn't stay out too late because after traveling all day I was super tired. The next morning I woke up much earlier than everyone else because I had gone home earlier. I went out by my self and walked along the beach and tried to get some good pictures of where we were staying. 

After checking out the beach, we grabbed some food and then got massages! 300 Baht for an hour oil massage! I wasn't passing that up! It was amazing to lay by the sea, listen to the ocean and get a massage. I absolutely loved it! so much that I actually got another one the day after. After our massage, we all got ready and hiked to this waterfall that my friend Maria read about. It was supposed to be about 600 meters to the waterfall, buuuut I believe we walked about 2 miles. Thats alright though because we got to see a bunch of stuff! There were elephant camps, which are actually really sad cause you can tell that they don't treat the elephants right. We also saw these HUGE spiders that are, not even joking, about 10 inches from leg to leg.

Here's a picture!

These suckers are HUGE! don't get too close to them. We really have no idea if they are poisonous or not but I wasn't trying to find out. After walking for about 30 mins or so, we finally reached the entrance to the national park where the waterfall was. With out student cards, it was only 100 baht to get in. We realized that the 600 meters, was from the entrance of the park to the waterfall. So we started on our way. It only took about 20 minutes and we finally reached this beautiful waterfall!

These are the elephant camps that we saw, but we just didn't feel like they were treated well so we decided against riding them. We are going to go elephant trekking when we go up to Chang Mai. 

We found a puppy!!

Hiking up to the waterfall!!

We finally made it!

Lucas trying to do some modeling haha. 

When we got back from the waterfall we just laid by the beach and got some food. That night we decided that we were all going to stay at the hotel and lay by the beach drinking some beer. It made me think of the Zac Brown Band song Knee Deep. It was amazing. 

The next morning we woke up and I got another massage. Hey you can't blame me! It only costs $10!! Then Hannah, Lizette and I decided we were going to spend the day riding scooters around the island. After spending most of our time with everyone else (there were about 20 of us in the group) it was nice to have some time with our small little group. It was really fun being able to ride where we wanted to and for a second I really started to understand why my dad LOVES riding motorcycles so much. While I love riding horses more, I do understand the freedom of being able to go where you want and to have the wind in your hair! 

Part of the motorbike gang!

This is how you buy gasoline on the island!! 

For some reason this little guy kept giving me the dirtiest looks! he was mad at something! 

After riding around all day it was time to go back to the hotel, take showers and get ready for dinner. We went out for dinner and drinking at a local bar which was really fun. The next day we just packed up our stuff and jumped on the ferry to go home. It was an amazing weekend and I am so happy we got a chance to get out of the city. 

More to come on our next adventures later!

Life in the Big City

So I haven't posted for a while, sorry guys, but thats because life is just chugging away like normal here in Bangkok. I'm started to get used to the smell and the RAIN! You would think, coming from Oregon that I would already be used to the rain, but not here. It's crazy! the HEAVIEST rain I've ever seen! And the most amazing thunderstorms I've ever heard.

I am constantly amazed at people's ability to survive in the most hopeless of situations. People live on the streets here, sleeping on the "front porch" of 7-11 and are still able to smile at you in the morning. The people are so happy here! It truly is the land of smiles! The more I travel around the world, the more I realize how amazingly lucky I am to have a house to go home to and an amazing support system who will always make sure I'm ok.

My classes are going amazing! Its so cool to be able to take similar classes as I have taken in the states and see them from a completely different perspective. I love that many of the teachers here bring in marketing executives and guest speakers to teach the classes every once in a while. My global marketing class is actually taught but the CEO of Marketing for PepsiCo in SouthEast Asia! It's really cool to hear real life experiences of the theories and practices that we learn about in class.

This weekend we are going to an island called Kho Chang (Kho = Island, Chang = elephants, hence it is the island of the elephants!) I will for sure be spending money to go elephant trekking through the forrest on the back of an elephant! I can't wait to get out of the city and spend time on a quiet beach that smells good! I can't explain how amazing that's going to be. I will for sure be putting pictures up as soon as I get back!

Life is still going good here!
Will update more when I get back

Downpour in Bangkok!!

Today was for sure one of the most interesting and eventful days we have had in Bangkok!! We woke up this morning and realized it was the Queen's birthday! Which also means it's mother's day here in Bangkok. (Yes I wrote on my mother's wall :D). We swam a bit in the morning and then got ready to head to the Grand Palace to watch fireworks and all the cultural events. We took a river taxi there and got to see a little more of Bangkok. These river taxis are absolutely crazy! It's only 10 Baht and it will take you to any river taxi stop along the river. After we got off, we walked along the road for about 30 mins till we got to the Grand Palace. I got a bunch of pictures of food and people along the way! Pictures will come soon!

Once we got to the field in front of the Grand Palace, we sat down for a while and took in our surroundings. After about 10 mins, we had a bunch of Thai students, young boys and girls, coming up to us and asking to take pictures with us. It was crazy!! It was like we were celebrities and they wanted pictures with all the "beautiful girls". Hannah and I were very flattered.

About 20-30 mins later, we looked over and realized that there were some very VERY dark clouds to the right of us. Hannah mentioned that we should probably leave while it wasn't raining, but unfortunately none of us listened. Within in 15 mins, we were crammed underneath tent with a million other Thai people waiting for the monsoon rains to stop! After a while re realized it was never going to stop, so we set out to find a way home. Luckily after walking/running for about 10 mins, we found a Tuk Tuk driver willing to take us home! I would have paid anything just to get home but fortunately he only charged us 100 baht! which in retrospect is a ridiculously good deal.

When we finally got home, we jumped straight into the pool with the rain! It was super fun. But surprisingly, today was actually a cold day in Bangkok! Currently the temperature says its 79 degrees, but it really feels like 60 or 65. Maybe after it being almost 90 degrees with a ridiculous amount of humidity a slight change in temperature is greatly noticed.

Here are some pictures from today!

This is a picture of the Queen! It was her birthday!

This is Hannah and our friend Lucas! He's from Germany!!

This is Jan-Maartin! He's from Holland. We love him

A child. 

REALLY MANGLY DOG!

This is the color of all the water in Bangkok! It's sooooo disgusting!

I don't know what this is. haha

An elephant!

Thai cowboys!!! hahaha how cute!

This is Maria our roommate. I LOVE here! She is from Germany!

The monks! Don't touch them or look them in the eye! (if you're a woman!)

Those German men. 

First day of classes

Woah! What a crazy couple of days we have had. I started school on Monday and didn't end up having class until 4:30pm! The class was 3 HOURS long! It's definitely something I have to get used to sitting for 3 hours dressed up in a nice skirt, belt and shirt. I'm so used to less than 2 hour classes in yoga pants and sweatshirts so this is a big change for both me and Hannah. We have had a lot of fun meeting the other exchange students and getting to experience other cultures and let me tell you, the Thai culture is VERY direct! If you don't want to hear something negative about yourself don't come to Thailand.

When we first came to Thailand, we went with our Thai buddy to get our uniforms and we were talking about how our butts won't fit into anything that the Thai's sell, and our buddy said, in a very polite way, well hopefully the apartments you are living in will have a gym! Hannah and I both just laughed because we know that no matter how much we work out, our butts are what we were born with and we love them! I'm not trying to change that. :D

I am starting to get used to the heat here! It's starting to become more bearable (if thats a word). I don't start sweating automatically so that's nice. Especially because we have to wear such fancy clothes to school haha.

Here is our first day of school picture!!

 More to come later!

Dani

Living it up in the Evergreen

So it's been a couple of days, but Hannah and I have been living it up in the Evergreen! Its been really nice to get here before everyone else! We scooped up the MASTER bedroom in our apartment! I mean hey, we were here first right? :D Pictures will be up on Facebook lata.

We spent the last couple of days laying by the pool and getting ready for school! We opened our bank accounts today and finally got the last part of our school uniforms! We will for sure be putting up "first day of school" pictures. :D It's kinda nice having uniforms. We don't have to think about what to wear to school and if we look cool or not. haha. I've noticed the women here are waaaaay more adapt at fashion than Hannah or I. We are so used to going to school in yoga pants and sweatshirts and that shit don't fly here! haha.

We have a pretty nice set up here at the Evergreen. The past couple of days, we have made friends with the door man names Samai! He's the coolest! he always makes sure we get a good price on cabs and always makes sure we are taken care of. I really like him. Today we met a couple of other students that will be studying at Chula as well! They are all from Germany I think. They are actually our neighbors! we met them down at the pool when we went to lay out. Super nice guys, if I remember their names right its Lukas, Tobias, aaaand the other guy I couldn't remember or pronounce his name so I call him Martin. He said that would be fine! haha. It's nice to finally be seeing other students in the program and who we will be spending time with the next couple months.

Hannah and I want to plan trips with other people so that it is cheaper.

Tonight our friend Christine invited us to a bar crawl with some students from ASU (Arizona State!). Its 300 baht for a wrist band and 100 baht for each drink. ( for references thats 10 dollars for a wrist band and about 3 dollars a drink). But she also said that if we have the wrist band we will get free drinks as well. Sounds good to me!! I'll let you all know how it goes tomorrow....

Love from Bangkok

Dani

Going out in Bangkok

What a crazy past couple of days! We check out of the Siam Kempinski (sad day) and made our way over to the Evergreen! This is the hotel/apartments that we will be living in for the rest of our time here. It is really nice to be able to be in the same place. I'm starting to feel a little more comfortable being here. We haven't done much over the past two days. We spent time lounging by the pool and taking advantage of the  nice weather. We want to go and do some sight seeing soon, but we found out yesterday that once we get our student ID most of the tourist places are free! Thats a price I like.

Last night we went out to Khoasan Rd again. The place with all the foreigners, or farangs as they call us. Hannah and I bought a pint of Hong Thong (Thai whiskey) and split it. The funny thing about Thai whiskey is that it is actually rum. They think its whiskey but its not. It's sweet. after that we grabbed a cab and went out. We sat at this little bar on the side of the road and our friend Christian ordered 6 vodka buckets!

 This is a picture of the buckets that we bought. They are literally sand castle buckets! wayyyyy too much alcohol last night. We met some really cool people at bar. If I remember right, two french guys who ended up buying us all roses that the little kids were selling. It was nice to try and practice my french, though I really don't know how well I did. I think he was just being nice by saying I spoke it really well. At some point we ended up in some club dancing for a while. Then about 2am we hopped in a cab and headed home. It was one crazy night!

Today is a lazy/hung over day, I'm thinking tomorrow is going to be a spa day! For a 2 hour traditional thai message and a 1 hour foot message its 700 Baht! thats $23!! Definitely worth the money!

More to come when we start our sight seeing!