There's something deliciously jarring about arriving to a place completely foreign. For me, It's the best feeling in the world, knowing that this whole new cultural universe is open and ready to be explored. There are little peeks of it on the flight over- the exit sign and how the pilot would always speak in Korean first, which meant that the first 15 seconds of any plane announcement was an internal dialogue of "What the hell is he even- OH! That's definitely Korean, duh." But after FINALLY arriving in Thailand, after more than 24 hours of plane flights, it was incredible to land and be swamped with the realization that I'm no longer in the Carolinas.
We grouped up outside of our gate and walked to customs (which honestly, looked like the customs place in the Bahamas, which is to say, it looked kind of hilariously lax). And we all made it through just fine (no surprise there). And when we got to arrivals, there was a group of about 20 thai students going "USAC?! USAC?! THAILAND!" Our greeting party was the director of the program and all of our new "Thai Buddies", or students who are studying English and spending the summer hanging out with us for class credit. But all of our new buds were incredibly sweet and very eager to show us around.
From the airport, we took open air taxis over to our hostel. Now, taxis in Thailand are basically small busses that don't have a back door or window, and after my initial hesitation about riding next to an open door (don't freak out, Ma) I was so excited to see everything that I spent the entire ride over with my head out the window.
We got paired up and settled into our rooms and it was harder to say if I was more excited to shower, sleep, or brush my teeth. Either way, I crashed and the sleep was glorious. Tomorrow I'm going on my campus orientation- can't wait!
I took pictures of my side of the dorm room... I would've shown the bathroom too but my roommate was mid-shower. Tomorrow I'm going on my campus orientation- can't wait!
Thrilled,
Haley
We grouped up outside of our gate and walked to customs (which honestly, looked like the customs place in the Bahamas, which is to say, it looked kind of hilariously lax). And we all made it through just fine (no surprise there). And when we got to arrivals, there was a group of about 20 thai students going "USAC?! USAC?! THAILAND!" Our greeting party was the director of the program and all of our new "Thai Buddies", or students who are studying English and spending the summer hanging out with us for class credit. But all of our new buds were incredibly sweet and very eager to show us around.
From the airport, we took open air taxis over to our hostel. Now, taxis in Thailand are basically small busses that don't have a back door or window, and after my initial hesitation about riding next to an open door (don't freak out, Ma) I was so excited to see everything that I spent the entire ride over with my head out the window.
We got paired up and settled into our rooms and it was harder to say if I was more excited to shower, sleep, or brush my teeth. Either way, I crashed and the sleep was glorious. Tomorrow I'm going on my campus orientation- can't wait!
Thrilled,
Haley
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