Hello from Halfway Around the World!

Hello from the BIG city of Bangkok!

Since I left home at 3 AM on December 29^th, my life has been a whirlwind. Note to all of you: Emirates Airline is the only way to fly—it’s extremely nice. It has lights that mimic a sunrise, excellent meals, free drinks, over 600 channels of movies, and reclining chairs where the base scoots forward so you can lean back more. Dubai was just as AWESOME. No other way to describe it. The airport had a waterfall (pictured), squat toilets, Rolex clocks, reclining chairs, and free wireless. Oh, and the Duty Free Shop is supposedly the cheapest in the world. Our hotel was also excellent—lots of room for 5 people with 3 ½ baths, a kitchen, and two big rooms and a pull out couch.

Some highlights from the trip…I smoked shisha (hookah) for the first time. We took a double decker bus tour of the city and saw: the Jumeirah Mosque, the famous Gold Souk, the Dubai Creek, the Burj Al Arah Hotel (the seven-star hotel where Tiger Woods hit the golf ball off the top of the helicopter pad)(pictured), the Palm Jumeirah (one of the three artificial palm islands built in Dubai where property is in the upper millions…not to mention the artificial islands shaped like the world which is even pricier), the Atlantis Hotel which rests at the end of the palm (pictured), and the Dubai Burj (the tallest building in the world) just to name a few sights. This is not even mentioning the beautiful (and cheap) pearls and jewelry, the indoor ski slope, and the millions of shopping centers! Also, we took a desert “safari.” This consisted of sand dunning across the desert (which is horrible for the environment of the area) and going to an Arabian camp sight. Here, we had a great dinner of grilled meats, got henna on our hands, rode a camel for like 20 steps (pictured), and watched a show of belly dancing. It was an extremely long day, and straight from there, we jumped on our planes—me for Bangkok, the rest of the group for Singapore.

If this wasn’t enough of a whirlwind, Bangkok was even more so. Luckily, I slept the entire flight there—I needed it! I got through passport control and customs ok. I always expect customs to be as much of a hassle in other countries as it is in the US. However, I didn’t even have to put my bags through the scanner in Bangkok or dump my water, pull out my laptop, or take off my shoes in Dubai. I walk through customs, thinking someone would be there holding a sign for me…but NOTHING…nada…nobody! I sat around 30 minutes waiting for somebody, but nobody arrived. I had emailed a few times reminding them of my arrival but something happened between the internet and the airport. So, I got out money and called my friend in Thailand, Roy, for an SOS! Luckily, he’s awesome and arrived in 30 minutes to relieve me from my distress. I seriously was close to tears and didn’t know what to do. Anyways, got to my apartment, went to the mall down the street and got a cell phone and my uniform. Then, we took a river boat to the Golden Mount which is a popular temple and has a great view of the city from all 4 sides of the top. Our convo went something like this:

Chrissie: Oh my gosh, Roy, this city is sooooo big and dirty and overwhelming. WHAT am I getting myself into?

Roy: I seriously didn’t expect you to come.

Chrissie: So, my friend, Morgan, seems to think that I’m just coming to Thailand to prove that I’m a badass.

Roy: This is probably true.

Chrissie: Roy, are you aware that we are two badass Americans in Bangkok, Thailand?

Had street food for the first time that night—it was awesome $5 for TONS of food for two people. Normally, I just spend $1 a night for dinner. Crazy, huh? Anyways, that was my first day in Thailand.

My roommates go to the same university in Canada. Only 3 people in

my room though—the other girl decided to go to France. There’s 7 people from their university, a couple more from Canada, a few from Michigan State, University of Florida, and University of Wisconsin at Madison, some from Sweden, Finland, Japan, Holland, and maybe some more I’m forgetting.

So, one of the reasons I may not have had anyone pick me up from the airport is I seem to have been omitted from the listserv to the exchange students the entire fall semester. Therefore, I think I got ONE email from the exchange office all semester long. There were supposedly tons of emails sent out—getting to know people, pictures of people, roommate lists, class schedules, Facebook groups, directions to my apartment from the airport in Thai for the taxi drivers (which would have been helpful) etc. etc. etc. Whatever…I got here, but it would have been nice!

I’ll stop here…but I’ll write another blog about our experience today going to the famous Chatuchak or Jatukak Weekend Market (don’t ask me how to pronounce it)—it’s also known as the JJ Market. MY DREAM! AMAZING…JUST AMAZING.