Day 13: Homey

All of the study abroad meetings mentioned that there was going to be a process when it came to adjusting to being here and I can say (with some amount of confidence) that I'm definitely at the stage where everything feels homey. Today was just an awesome day. I didn't go to any crazy Thai temples or anything, but the whole day was just very comfortable.

After class I went to La Casa de Nimman with Katie and Emma and had squid ink noodle green curry. The food was absolutely delicious and it was nice to just sit and enjoy the homey atmosphere. Plus their dog Chino was there, which is always really nice.

Katie G, Emma, and Chino

delicious!!!

After lunch, I walked (scary!) to campus to hang out with my friends Noi, Gig, and Man. I got a little lost and eventually Gig had to come pick me up from the language institute. I'm just glad it worked out!

To explain what I did next (and it's nothing bad), I have to explain the SOTUS program. SOTUS stands for Seniority, Order, Tradition, Unity and Spirit and is essentially a campus-wide hazing event for 'freshies'. Sometimes it's silly stuff like singing songs and wearing signs with the freshmen's name and major on them, and other times it gets pretty difficult. At first I had a really hard time digesting this idea, but from what I've heard, it's just a widely accepted fact of life. Even though it's not the most positive way to build unity amongst a class, it is the hardest thing any student will go through in University and if they can make it through SOTUS then they can make it through school with very few problems. (or so I've been told) I know that the engineering department is particularly rough with their freshman but the humanities faculties SOTUS activities are only the first weekish of classes. A few of the USAC students participated in the activities, but today I did too!

As their final activity, everyone got together to make offerings to give the Ajarns (professors) as a sign of gratitude for the opportunity to learn. We had to bend banana leaves into little cones and fill them with flowers and sparklers. The freshman (who were English/teaching majors) were very welcoming to me and had tons of questions to ask about the USA, the English language, and what I thought about Thailand. They were also extremely patient when it came to teaching me how to make the flower cones... as the first few I made were too small and the sparklers fell through the bottom. We made the offerings (called something between Pun and Pahn) in mass because the next day was the big ceremony where all of the students dress up in their formal uniforms and give the professors their Pahn (pun?)

Me with the offering (didn't make this one- Noi handed me a pretty one) photocred: Noi

Eventually I was kindly diverted from the Pun (pahn?) making activities (because seriously, my skills were severely lacking) and ended up having a really nice conversation with Man and some of the students about American vs Thai history and just travel in general. Man also taught me how to do banana leaf weaving and told me that I was a good student, despite the fact that my weaving looked like I'd tried to strangle the banana. I'm so glad that Noi thought to bring me to their activities- I thoroughly enjoyed getting to meet the new English majors and learn about the culture surrounding CMU

After doing SOTUS activities, Man took me to one of the outdoor cafeterias on the northwestern corners of campus where we got dinner! I had tom yum soup and some kind of chicken/veggie dish- he was very concerned that my food would be too spicy (and it was spicy) but it was delicious! We sat down to eat and ran into a bunch of other students at CMU and I got to make tons of friends! It's always kinda cool getting to run into other students in a group because everyone seems eager to practice their English and I'm a totally willing subject! Also, Ben, Tan, and the other students that we met gave me my Thai name- "Bua" (BOO-wuh), which means lotus. I also had the opportunity to try a bunch of new Thai desserts. I can't for the life of me remember the name of them, but one was flavored soy beans that were shaped like fruit, which was pretty good, and the other was mashed banana covered in sticky rice, which was AMAZING!

After food, Man gave me a ride back to Uniserv (which was both scary and totally fun) and we all hung out for awhile. After they had to leave, we pushed two beds together and watched This is 40 with Summer, Katie T, and Paige. It was just a really fun way to end the night!

I had a conversation with Ajarn Jah Jaah a few days ago and we talked about how some people "carry America with them" to Thailand and how that kind of impedes one's visit here. I'd never thought of travel and how I react to it in that way, but by being open to new experiences and forcing myself away from American foods and making a point to befriend locals has kept me from "carrying America" here (at least, I think it has) and I've never felt so comfortable in a different culture. I feel completely myself here and I can't even begin to describe how wonderful and different and unreal it feels to be so completely at home in a place that is completely different from home. I'm so excited to see where the rest of my journey here takes me!

Also, here are a few more examples of SOTUS that I've seen around campus but haven't really had a reason to post:

Humanities students singing

Engineering students running to class and singing. We cheered them on from our sung tao