July 4

This post spans the past week since I went to Khao Sam Roi Yot.


Class resumed as usual, with my LCA class on Monday. Our first assignment will be due in two weeks, but it will probably require a significant amount of time to complete.

Actually my other two classes this week were postponed until after the Buddhist holiday. So, I was left with only Thai language class this past week, several games of frisbee, and leisure time to read and hang out with friends.

On Wednesday on campus during lunch, there was an H1N1 rally? It was really odd and pretty funny, many college students were banging on drums holding up signs and chanting. The only words on the signs I could understand were H1N1, so it must have just been about awareness. I understand the severity of this pandemic, but seriously if we spend this much effort on some flu strain that has killed a relatively small number of people worldwide, why can't we spend more efforts on simpler problems like AIDS. So many more people suffer from AIDS and many cases could easily be prevented. This doesn't make sense to me.

My friend Raley, who I will room with in the Spring at UNC, is in some international organization at school that hosts conferences where you meet a lot of other students from around the world. Two years ago, he met Ning from Thailand. Then he went to Thailand last summer through UNC's SEAS program and met up with her in Thailand, while she showed him around Bangkok. The other week I received an email from her, because Raley told her I was in Bangkok, and she wanted to meet up and so we exchanged a few emails. We planned to meet at Sirikit Station on Thursday, and Ricker and I both were down in central Bangkok anyway, just wandering around, so then we met. It was really fun and it's really hard to imagine that you might randomly have a friend or know somebody on the opposite side of the world. That's crazy. We ate dinner together and then rented bikes in an urban park. Ning goes to Chugalongkorn University in Bangkok, which is the oldest University in Thailand and well-known internationally. She is studying English Literature and it's incredible how well she speaks English, but I mean what would you expect for an English Literature major. She is a bachelor's student as I am, which was also cool since everyone at JGSEE is older because I am taking Master's classes.

From biking-ning

All of the UNC students had high hopes for the Fourth of July, only to be dissappointed by going to a ridiculously over-the-top America festival. After about 30 minutes at some 4th of July party at the "American School" in Bangkok, we had enough of the hamburgers, hot dogs, barbeque, and other American things. The whole place was just really expensive and hot and pretty similar to America. If only we had our own grills, I think it would have been a better party. We could have stuck around our apartments and kept it low-key, but I will admit it was interesting to observe how July 4 is celebrated in a foreign country. Basically the festival was some sort of corporate fair where a lot of American companies gave away promotions and then food was really expensive. We were told there may be a party at the US Embassy in Bangkok, but when we walked to the Embassy after the fair, it was very quiet and there were only Thai guards who spoke little English and effectively said the embassy was closed from July 3-6. Without a fourth of July party, we were all pretty tired anyway and just went back to Ban Suan Thon (our apartment complex) and played cards and then went to sleep.



















We had to get up early on the 5th, becuase JGSEE was sponsoring a cultural tour for us to travel to Ayutthaya. This trip fulfilled our lack of Fourth of July fun because Ayutthaya was awesome. Our school rented out two vans and eighteen people went to Ayutthaya. Eight UNC students, several Indonesian students, a Nepalese student, and then three Thai students went to Ayutthaya. We went to a former palace of the king, ruins, and some Royal Project.





Christina and I in front of one of the former palace's many sculpted elephant shrubs. We were standing at the wrong end, haha.




















<--The JGSEE group (The school bought a poster to prove that they paid for this trip, so the joke was when were we going to take the stupid picture in front of the sign)


Ayutthaya, visually, presented one of the most unique places I've been. However, it is hard to imagine that all of the ruins are born from destruction. It was sacked by the Burmese in 1767, being the former capital of Thailand, and then it was a bustling regional center. Many Thais kept their home and businesses in this city once according to some scholars as large as Paris. Now it pales in comparison to Bangkok, the city which effectively replaced Ayutthaya and hides among the greater reaches of the Chao Phraya river.

From ayutthaya ruins

From ayutthaya ruins

There is a Buddhist Holiday this week that the Thai government mandated for many people to close schools and take off work in order to create a mini vacation. Usually the holiday is not significant, but the government wants to boost tourism and stimulate the economy by giving people a chance to travel. I have class on Thursday. Some of the UNC students and I may try to go to a national park close by tomorrow, or just hang out around our apartment.

Cheers
Noah