We arrived in Thailand two days ago, and it is so different from the air conditioned nation of Singapore! Departing Singapore was both sad and exciting, as I knew Thailand would be both culturally and developmentally different from Singapore, and could not wait to experience Thailand for myself. As the airplane started to descend, we could see the clear blue water of the Thailand shores. Thailand is hotter than Singapore, probably because it lacks the constant air conditioning, and hasn’t been structured to be as shaded by giant trees as Singapore has been. The ride through Bangkok to the university was marked by various images lined by flowers of the royal family which were placed on overpasses of the roads.
The students here at Mahidol University are so friendly, as is our Thailand coordinator, Nita. On the first night of our arrival, we got to taste Thai food at our welcome dinner, which was both spicy and coconutty. We were given leis made with real flowers to welcome us, and watched a demonstration of Thai boxing. Mahidol’s hip hop team also performed for us, and it was fun to see how our culture of hip hop music and dance has travelled and is enjoyed worldwide. After the boxing and hip hop demonstrations, we were initiated as students of the university by walking through a path of candles and then kneeling down. As we knelt, Mahidol students tied white strings around our wrists with hot candle wax to stand for the pain and hardships we may have to encounter during our academic careers, and they wished us good luck in Thailand.
Our second day in Thailand, we were introduced to the Thai language and culture. I thought I would be at least a little prepared to learn Thai since Chinese, one of my majors, is also a tonal language, but Thai is quite different! Firstly, Thai has more tones than Chinese, and they sound a bit different as well. We were not taught how to read Thai, but we were taught how to pronounce certain words. The Thai lesson was really interesting, and we learned some survival phrases, which we were able to use later in the evening.
When dinner rolled around, it was definitely a new experience. We walked alongside various restaurants and food stalls, finding one which looked both safe and tasty. Looking around, I saw rows of food stalls all side by side offering various dishes, locals wai-ing each other, dogs laying on the street... quite a different view from Singapore, although a bit more like Malaysia. We finally decided on a stall in which the cooks were making fresh food outside on the spot. We could not read the menu, as it was in Thai. When the time came to order, we had to put our new and limited Thai skills to the test. We managed to convey that we wanted chicken fried rice, but since Nicole is vegetarian, and we did not have to vocabulary to convey that, it posed to be a bit of a problem. After many hand gestures, pointing to ingredients in the stall, and making use of a Thai language guidebook, we managed to order our meals. Although we hadn’t quite managed to convey what we had wanted…everyone BUT Nicole ended up with vegetarian fried rice, and she was served squid fried rice… It was still empowering to know that even though there is a language barrier, and we do not know much Thai, we will be able to learn a bit of Thai and are capable of getting food and such in a foreign country on our own. We even managed to get a bit of the Singapore food culture we had experienced here in Thailand, and found that the stall next door sold the Indian pulled tea, which was delicious!
I am very excited for the many activities which have been planned for us, as well as getting to explore some on my own! Tomorrow I am going to old Bangkok, and can’t wait to see what I will find.
~Andrea :)
No comments:
Post a Comment