My apologies. Between general distraction, general confusion, the emergence of actual homework, a visit to my Aunt and Uncle, glitches in body chemistry, and a handful of particularly irritable bug bites, I have been lax in contacting home. I've got three sets of questions from the global office waiting, and I figure the answers to those should provide ample material for an extra-long entry while I reorient myself.
First impressions and observations, go!
Surprisingly calm. I was expecting a massive shock, but instead I got a startling silence. Here in Chiang Mai, at least, the natural pace seems to be very slow. As terrifying as it is to cross the road, even the vehicles don't seem to be actually rushing. People in general seem to be very calm, just going about their business. My incompetence hasn't brought any frustration down on me, which I appreciate more than I can properly express. When I can’t get something across or don’t know quite what I’m supposed to do, I don’t feel like I’m holding anyone up or being pressured to move along - I can take the time to watch other people for cues. Pretty much all the pressure I’ve felt has come solely from inside myself. It's been a great help.
Description of the program's orientation, go!
To be honest, orientation was not what I expected. I'd figured that things would fall into place there - that we would be told what to expect and what to avoid and what we were supposed to be doing. I expected to be walked through things. Instead, I was turned in the right direction and nudged lightly.
In the morning, there was a meeting in which we signed the last of our documents, got our schedules, were briefed on a few points of basic etiquette, and met a few of the professors. Some of the students from the earlier session came in to chat, too, having been around for a few weeks already. We were given maps and assured that there were lots of great places to eat. Mostly, the message was to relax, be friendly, and figure things out naturally. (Also, not to ride a scooter here. At all. Ever. Because you don't have the necessary skill for that and you will die.)
The afternoon was the bulk of the orientation, and I can't say it was madness, but it certainly felt like madness at the time. We were whisked off in red trucks to the bank to exchange currency, then to a market stall just off campus where we could buy uniforms, then to the nearest mall so we could buy necessities, then back to the hostel where we were left to our own devices. That's how most of the group events have been conducted, really - we're transported off to wherever we're meant to be, told to be back at the pickup spot at a particular time, and... released into the wild. Now that I've gotten the hang of it, it's great, because Gabe and I have been encouraged plenty to go off and do our own thing, see things for ourselves and such, even though it was a bit alarming at first.
Description of the living situation, go!
We're in a hostel called Uniserv that is somehow affiliated with campus, situated about ten minutes' walk from what I believe is the campus's south gate. Gabe and I have been sharing a double room here. There are two beds, two chairs, a mini-fridge, and a television we haven't played with. There is also a long desk built into the wall, meant to accommodate two, with a set of shelves mounted above it. The wall to the outside is one big window, but we got the room with the other building's wall right across from it - we can still use the window to watch the lizards running about, at least. An air conditioner is mounted above the shelving. We have our own bathroom. Once a week, on Thursday, someone comes in and cleans while we're out for class. The floor is swept, the towels and bedsheets are changed, the soap in the bathroom is replaced, and we're given a roll of toilet paper. It's nice and simple, and for the most part we're left to our own devices when we retreat to our room.
There is a restaurant on the ground floor (an actual restaurant, I mean, not a cafeteria or some such) where we can buy meals, and we're right down the road from a lot of different shops and other restaurants. Shuttles are available at certain times early in the morning to take us to campus, but mostly, Gabe and I have been walking to class - a long but nice walk of 45-minutes or so - and then catching the ride back.
Description of the group situation, go!
It's been easy enough to meet them, but I'm not the most forward of people, so I haven't jumped to join in their activities. They've got different interests, anyway - checking out the bars and looking for parties to go to, a lot of nights, which isn't something I'm willing to get involved in at home, much less abroad. We've chatted with several of them at the restaurant on the ground floor of the hostel, since all the tables have four or more seats and we tend to sit with each other when we find other people from the group there. The overwhelming majority are staying here in the hostel. As a whole, we seem to be divided between the third and fourth floors - I think maybe some are on the fifth. It's not hard to find them, and we do tend to all run into each other coming out of classes.
Description of the textbook situation, go!
Textbooks? What textbooks?
Really, though, Gabe and I somehow managed to pick the two classes without them. Our Buddhist Philosophy professor posts .pdf files online and doesn't obligate us to read them anyway, while our Thai Civilization and Culture professor hands us printed packets of paper because he's drawing from several books for each of the different subjects we're covering.
So, yeah. We didn't get textbooks. Whoops.
Description of the classes, go!
Well, we'll be visiting a school outside the city for Thai Civilization and Culture soon, and I may be better able to elaborate then, but until that I can only speak from the two classes we're in. They both seem to be about as laid-back in atmosphere as a class can be. Our Buddhist Philosophy professor is from America, though he's spent much of his life traveling and has settled in Thailand pretty much for good, and although our Thai Civilization and Culture professor is Thai, he did a lot of studying abroad and is familiar with what we're used to from classes. They've both been very friendly and very helpful - coming from a western background, our Buddhist Philosophy professor has been able to point out some of the differences we've been running into and help us make sense of them, while our Thai Civilization and Culture professor has been able to explain a lot of small details and general cultural attitudes.
The classes themselves are specific to the program we're in, so it's just us study abroad students in them, which I admit is a bit of a shame. The Thai Civilization class is just four people (two of them being me and Gabe), with an occasional fifth student who has another class at the same time and switches between the two. The Buddhist Philosophy course is larger - somewhere around fifteen students, I think. Again, it's all been very casual, mostly just discussion, asking questions and seeing where they lead. Thai Civilization has more structure, and the topics are already planned out, while Buddhist Philosophy basically consists of the professor talking his way through whatever tangents our discussion leads to.
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