Changes and Reflections

Well, reading back over all of those old e-mails from my undergraduate days certainly was enlightening, in a bizarre way. What struck me the most as I typed them all in to this blog was just how young and immature I really was, and I didn't even realize it. So much of my writing was about how much I partied and how many times I went out on the town, with apparently very little cultural insight or appreciation of all the travel I was so unbelievably fortunate to undertake. I noticed that by the second time I studied abroad, during my semester in Hong Kong, I had already begun to pay more attention to cultural differences and the really fascinating things about traveling, but I was still quite the party animal and that definitely continued to dominate the narrative. It wasn't until my sojourn to South Africa that it seems I really grasped the idea that travel was about more than just drinking and going out. There are valuable things to be learned and experienced everywhere we go. It can probably be attributed more to the fact that my South Africa journals were meant to be read by my professor (as opposed to the earlier e-mails sent to friends back in the US) rather than to some sudden leap in maturity. Still though, it's interesting.

China - April 2004

Tuesday, April 13
It's that point in the semester where every possible big presentation and term paper is coming up all at the same time, so lots of work to catch up on. Last week was our spring break, during which I intended to do enormous volumes of work, but that didn't happen bcuz literally 24 hours before a small group of friends was scheduled to leave for Beijing for the week, I found out that my China visa had gone through and that I could just barely financially pull off one more trip, so I went.

We took a 26-hour train to Beijing in sleeper cars and were trying to decide what to do when we got there bcuz our friend David wasn't meeting us till Monday evening and it was only Saturday and his girlfriend wanted to avoid doing too many touristy things in Beijing without him. So as soon as we got to Beijing, we bought train tickets for that night for an overnight train to Hohhot, which is the capital of Inner Mongolia. It's still technically China, so you don't need an extra visa, but the culture and everything is still Mongolian, and they're considered like an autonomous region or something. Unfortunately, we forgot to get sleeper car tickets (probably cuz we can't speak any damn Mandarin) so we were in the insanely crowded regular car for the whole night and were thoroughly miserable. Honestly, we had the worst night! I ended up sleeping on the floor underneath the seats for 3 hours and I'm sure that is one hilarious photograph. But it was completely made up for by the fact that our day in Inner Mongolia was freaking amazing. We took a tour of the grasslands and rode the furriest horses you've ever seen on the Mongolian plain. I tell you, there is nothing there. It is the most desolate, barren place. I can't imagine it in winter, it must be a frickin wasteland.

Thailand - March 2004

Tuesday, March 9
A crazy week with 2 hot ladies... Kari and Christine came to visit Thursday before last, and we had the best time for their spring break. We just hung out in Hong Kong for the first few days, went up to Victoria Peak, went to a few malls (since Hong Kong is basically just one huge shopping mall anyway) and got trashed at night. But then on Saturday we left for Thailand and had the best trip ever. We stayed on Khao San Road in Bangkok the first night with nine other international students from my school and it is just one huge dirty street with all the backpackers' hostels located on it and tons of clothes, CDs, and bars for really cheap. The baht is my new favorite money, it goes so far! On Sunday I sat for 4+ hours in the middle of Khao San Road in the extreme heat and humidity so that these 12-year-old Thai girls could pull at my hair. I got dreads and they kinda looked like crap but I kinda liked em too. I don't know, I was torn. I know Kari liked em and Teeny didn't, and honestly I'm not sure who I agreed with.

Hong Kong - January 2004

Monday, January 5
Ok, whoa... I'm just a *little* overwhelmed right now. Ok, how about a lot. And I've only been at school for less than 4 hours! Which seems impossible, considering I feel like I've been here for days already. Our plane left LAX at 10:30 on Saturday night, and we landed this morning (Monday) at 6:00. I only got 3 hours of sleep on the entire 15-hour plane ride, so right now I feel like the walking dead, kinda tired and cranky and shit. For me (and all of you in CA) it's 9:00 Sunday night but in reality it's 1:00 Monday afternoon. I have never had my concept of time screwed up this badly, I feel like it's just been one hellishly long day that isn't even close to being finished yet, and NOBODY here seems to speak English even though everyone and their mother told me that everybody in Hong Kong speaks English. Plus, the mattresses are like ROCKS (you have to feel it to believe it... I can't believe I have to sleep on it for 4 1/2 months). And Pepperdine in its typical fashion told us that there were all these things that would be taken care of for us when we got here, and we arrive to find that NOTHING has been done. We can't get food money, we don't have bed linens, and the Hong Kong Baptist University people told us we have to pay HK$550 which is like $80-85 as a damn room deposit. Does Dean Phillips sit with his thumb up his ass all day??? Honestly. Plus, I'm almost out of money in my bank account already. ???? How? I'm not sure.

London - March / April 2003

Monday, March 10
Today is the first day in a long time where I've felt like I don't have anything to do, and it's GREAT. I love it! Haven't really done much in the past week beyond homework (yes, believe it or not). Saw "Rent" on Thursday, and really liked it. It was a mediocre production, but it was OK since I'd never seen it before. Went to a hookah bar on Friday night and out drinking, but otherwise I've done shit! :) I've read 500 some pages of a Russian novel though. Wow, my life sounds kinda crap. Haha!

Ireland & Spain - February 2003

Monday, February 3
The year just keeps picking up more and more speed, I swear I'm gonna be back in the States tomorrow, it's going so fast. I don't really have anything to say about the week before last. Our friend Molly came to visit from Florence, and the only stuff we did was go see the Salvador Dali exhibit (which was really cool) and see a play called "This Is Our Youth." It was interesting, it's a 3-person show and this particular run is starring Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Chris Klein and the girl who played the ditzy winner in "Miss Congeniality." Yes, some of you may be saying, Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Chris Klein on stage?? It's not quite as bad as it sounds, but they didn't really do much to convince me of their acting abilities, which I've never been too impressed with from their movies. Oh well. The story was basically good and Freddie WAS affecting at times, and it was really funny to see those 2 guys smoking joints onstage, even fake ones.

European Vacation - December 2002 / January 2003

Monday, December 2
Well, middle of finals week. My Religion class is now completely out of the way, and I only have 2 more tests and 1 paper to go. Thursday we have to be out of the house, and everybody is getting all sad cuz some people are leaving and not coming back next semester. It feels like our house is being broken up and it feels really unfair. I'm actually surprised myself at how much it's bothering me that the house is gonna be different next semester. I guess even the people I barely ever talk to I've just gotten used to, and now they'll be gone. Oh well. I have Christmas break to look forward to so this week isn't too bad.

On Thursday, me and Tina and Bree leave for Geneva and after 2 days there, we take a train to this condo in the Swiss Alps and we're there for a week. Bree is gonna leave us there and we're gonna get Adam joining us from Buenos Aires, which is very cool. Then me and Tina and Adam go to Rome for 5 nights, then to the French countryside where Tina's host family from when she was a foreign exchange student in high school lives. We'll be at their house for Christmas, which will be nice to have a family to be with. Then we're going with Tina's older host sister to Paris for a few days and staying with her friends or something [a shame this never happened]. Then we go to Barcelona for New Year's Eve, there almost a week, and then to Amsterdam for the last 6 nights of break before me and Tina have to take the ferry back to London so we can be back the day before classes start again. 5 weeks of traveling, freaks me out a little bit. But it's really exciting too. And it's also been really cool to have to plan the whole thing. Makes me feel strangely independent. Happy Christmas and a merry New Year, or whatever it is they say.

Scotland & Prague - November 2002

Monday, November 4
As my good friend Mary Jayne said last week, "You know, our house is kinda like 'The Real World'... only with 40 people and a lot less sex." Ah yes, it was inevitable! We've all regressed back to the mental level of high schoolers and the petty drama is running full force. This last week had so much drama actually, it was the first time I've wanted to go home since I've been here. Well, first there was the major drama, that wasn't petty at all, which happened at room checks last Tuesday night. The RAs "randomly" searched certain people's desk drawers. Funny how the "randomly" searched desks all belonged to members of a specific group of friends. Yeah. So anyway, a tiny bit of Bacardi was found in Bree's desk drawer and she came THIS close to being kicked out of the program, which really really sucked. I don't think a lot of people really understand what a thread she was hanging on to. There are a lot of extenuating circumstances in her case that just barely saved her ass, and we are all very grateful for it. But it is way too much of a detailed story to get into here. Let's just say that a good third to half of the house strongly dislikes the RAs and the Program Director right now... I believe EJ called them "the gestapo." But whatever. It's over now, so that's good. Then of course, there's all the high school drama shit. But once again, there's so much of it and it's all so petty, it's not important. It's just, when you throw 40 people into this kind of living situation, you're bound to end up with problems. A lot of people in this house really don't like each other anymore. So yeah, drama abounds.

London & Greece - October 2002

Monday, October 14
Well, this week was interesting, cuz I was way sick for most of the time but I got to do some really cool stuff anyway, so it was a nice mix of good and bad. Well, first off, yeah, I'm more sure than ever that too much partying is NO GOOD. I was really sick on Monday, and then Tuesday, I was SICK. Hardcore sick. My Religion professor actually told me to go upstairs and go to sleep cuz I looked horrible and there was no way I was gonna profit from anything he said that day. I missed Great Books too. 2 classes missed, and trust me, absences when you're abroad hurt a LOT more than absences on campus. At least it was Tuesday. An absence on Monday or Thursday counts double.

London - September 2002

Continuing the nostalgia kick that I was on earlier in the summer, I've decided to transcribe the e-mails I sent to friends during my sophomore year studying in Pepperdine's London program (albeit somewhat edited). I feel like it'll be interesting to see just how young and green I was during my first time living in England right as I'm preparing to move back for another academic stint. Let's see, shall we?

Monday, September 9
London is fantastic. We left LAX at 9 PM last Wednesday and landed in London at 3 PM on Thursday, so jet lag was kinda weird. I sat next to this really cool British girl named Jules on the plane who had the perfect accent and I just listened to her talk for like 3 hours. :) When we got to the house, all 40 of us got acquainted with it and explored, and let me tell you the house is beautiful. It has 5 floors and a basement, and me and my roommates (Josh, Jason, EJ, K, and Travis) live on the 4th floor (which in England is actually called the 3rd because what we call the first floor they call the ground floor and what we call the second floor they call the first floor... a little confusing). But yeah, so Tina and Bree and Kari live in the basement, and I said I would leave my laptop in their room so they could use it and listen to music whenever they wanted, and between the basement and my floor there are 97 very steep steps!!! It's pretty crazy. I'm constantly winded from running up and down this huge building.

South Africa - Reflections

[Reading some of this stuff in retrospect is eerie and enlightening.]


May 31, 2004
I think I've said before that I try not to have any expectations when I go abroad simply because I know it's futile. Things will never be the way you expect them to be, ever. For as much as I profess to be free of expectations, however, it would be impossible for that to be completely true, and this actually gives me some satisfaction since whatever mild expectations I do possess seem always to be exceeded wildly. I can already tell this will be the case with South Africa, just as it was the case with Hong Kong. The more I hear about things to come, the more excited I get. I was already excited about the HIV/AIDS unit in Durban and the trip to Kruger, but now I can also look forward to skydiving or swimming with sharks in Cape Town, getting a feel for what the rest of Africa is like in St. Lucia, and watching the Atlantic and Indian Oceans crash into one another. I feel like I am getting a rare opportunity to experience a lot of amazing things and I feel genuinely lucky to get the chance.

Swaziland and Kruger - June 2004

Sunday, June 20
I really like Swaziland. It's funny how different it feels from South Africa. You can definitely get the sense that you're in a different country. I really like the Swazi people as well. They seem very friendly and helpful. And they're all so attractive! Today we kicked off the day at a Baptist church in Mbabane, which wasn't too exciting since I may as well have been back in the States. The service was just like those I attended my whole life. The trip into town afterwards, though, was neat because we were able to see just what makes Swaziland different from South Africa. It was clear that the country is a little more prosperous overall; there were houses everywhere and not a shantytown in sight. It was certainly more integrated as well. I saw multiple interracial couples walking around and many white, black, and coloured children all playing together. Much safer too. Much much better than Shady D. Plus our hotel rocks! It's so nice! All in all, liking Swaziland quite a lot.

Durban - June 2004

Sunday, June 13
Hmmm... this morning was our visit to the Durban Christian Centre. Certainly the most interesting church I've ever been to. By about 5,000 miles. I mean, we got it all in today's service. Speaking in tongues, healing by laying on of hands, people really feeling the Holy Spirit, even an exorcism (or something of the like). I was actually really enjoying the service for a while. The music was awesome and the people all seemed so happy and Pastor Nel Roberts was quite funny and enjoyable. I was able to really understand how Christianity has gained so many followers in Africa. I'd never realized just how much hope and joy people who probably have next to nothing could get from their faith. Poverty was no longer important, the service was almost like a release. Of course, me being the cynic, I felt slightly bad that these people were being given what I consider to be a false hope that by simply having faith they will be rewarded. Come on now, maybe in the next life, but in this world, the majority of these people will never get richer or better off, materially speaking, just by being pious and righteous. Not gonna happen. Then of course the service lost me when Pastor Fred Roberts went into his whole rant on Islam and the "healings" started occurring. Gimme a freaking break. About the Islam thing I mean. After that I was watching the clock. 2-hour service. Shoot me. Anyway, tour of Durban later on. Not much to say. It's a city. Then bowling at night, actually quite fun. Hadn't done that in a while, I ended with a 104. Broke 100! Yes! Love our group. Mark and Holly and Laura in particular crack me up. Great kids. Tomorrow is the beginning of the AIDS unit. Prepare to be depressed.

Cape Town - June 2004

Sunday, June 6
Cape Town rocks. At least, I think it does. Obviously, it's a Sunday in South Africa so the town was pretty dead our entire first day here, but it already feels so much nicer than Johannesburg. Mountain scenery, the ocean, fresh air; the atmosphere of this city just feels so much more pleasant. Didn't do too much today besides read and eat, but tomorrow is our first city tour and a trip to Table Mountain! Sounds exciting! Hopefully Cape Town will live up to its promise.

Johannesburg - June 2004

Wow. So I was digging through some of my old crap today now that I am back at my parents' place in Redding for the summer, and I found the journal entries I was required to write during my trip to South Africa in 2004. Since that trip planted the seed for my interest in international development, which I will finally start studying for my masters in this year (only six years later!) I thought it'd be kinda cool to copy them into a blog entry, one city at a time, starting with Johannesburg. Ahh, nostalgia.

Sunday, May 30
Well, I'm not sure I could be much more exhausted right now. Today was our first day in Johannesburg. We arrived this morning at 7 AM after a 10-hour flight, a 7-hour layover in London, and another 11-hour flight. And I still haven't gone to sleep yet! I know that the best way to get over jet lag is to get yourself used to the new time immediately and not to go to sleep till it's time, but right now I'm kicking myself because I'm so tired. I didn't do too much today... after we got to the hotel in Sandton, I ate lunch at the mall in Nelson Mandela Square and walked around, used the Internet, etc. etc. We had an orientation meeting later in the afternoon, though, and Brooke and Susan were mentioning things that they had noticed about being in this foreign country that they would need to get used to, like cars driving on the left side of the road and stuff like that. I just thought it was funny that the things they brought up were things I didn't give a second thought to. That kind of stuff doesn't really seem foreign to me anymore. That realization struck me a little. I guess I am getting more used to living outside the US than I knew.

Transitions

What a weird month. It's now been just over 3 weeks since my final day as an English teacher and the day that I left Haseong behind for good. I haven't missed it once. I'm sure a general longing for certain aspects of Korea will surface eventually, probably after I've settled in for the summer and stopped moving around long enough to process my departure. But Haseong specifically? I will not miss that crappy little village one bit.

My first week back in the land of unemployment was spent in Amy's apartment in Kyungnidan. It was quite refreshing to enjoy my last week in Korea by lounging around Seoul and spending time with friends. I wrapped up loose ends, went to visit the Korean War Memorial Museum, and had an almost-perfect farewell evening out on the town. When the time came to fly out of Incheon Airport, it was a cold rainy day... I didn't look back.

The Wedding of Ji Young and Sung Hee

Best wedding photo ever!!!

Who, you may ask, are Ji Young and Sung Hee? I don't really know. All I can tell you is that I was given the opportunity to bear witness to their nuptials this past weekend and it was a pretty neat experience. And no, I am actually not a wedding crasher. My friend Amanda is dating a guy named Mark who teaches an adult English class at a business school on weekends. Two students who met in his class got married this past Sunday; naturally, the entire class was invited. I was having coffee with Amanda on Sunday morning when she spontaneously asked me if I'd like to join her and Mark at the wedding that afternoon. I was uncomfortable at first because I had never met the bride or groom but Mark confirmed that it was fine with the couple if I tagged along. The thing I had to accept very quickly so that I could just get on with it is that weddings in Korea are an entirely different animal compared to weddings in Western countries. They are extremely fast, nowhere near as solemn, and largely uniform in nature. Typically, the bride and groom invite nearly everyone they know even marginally, and due to the nature of Korean wedding hall culture, it is no big deal for randoms like me to end up in attendance. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Nearing The End

Wow. It's been almost 51 weeks since I first arrived in Korea. I only have seven more days of teaching before I am done forever. This has been a strange year. I've grown a lot and realized many things about myself. As was to be expected. But I am not regretful about leaving in the slightest and I am more than ready to get back to California. This may be because I know I'll only be in the US for 5 months before I leave again; I may not be so excited if I were heading back to the US indefinitely. Still, at this moment in time, I am ready.

It's not that I am desperate to leave Korea per se. There are so many things I love and will miss about this country. I will miss the food, the cost of living, the general demeanor of Korean people, the level of safety, and the amazing public transit system. It has been no secret, though, that I have not enjoyed my job or the house I've been stuck in or my ugly podunk little village. Or the weather!! Before Jen left Korea for good last month, she told me that she wished I could have had a different experience in Korea, one more similar to hers, so that I would have enjoyed my year more fully. I certainly echo this wish, but I also understand that everything happens for a reason and I'm positive that this experience has taught me many things, some of which I may not even be aware of yet.

I will not miss you, 하성.

Angkor WHAAATT!!!

OK, so it's been about 10 days since I left Cambodia, and if I don't write something about my final vacation week soon, I'll never get around to it. On to the highlights!

Alone with the waves and the cows.

So in the last entry I mentioned that I took a bus from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville, which is in southern Cambodia along its relatively short stretch of coastline. I'd heard a lot of negative things about Sihanoukville, along the lines of it being crap or dirty or a waste of time, but I really enjoyed my 2 days there. I think the beaches are underrated, honestly, and I didn't even get a chance to go see any of the offshore islands which are supposed to be stunning. I stayed in a guesthouse in the main tourist area of Serendipity Beach and I honestly wish I'd taken the time to find something more off the beaten track, as some of the isolated clusters of huts and bungalows I saw on my long long beach walks looked pretty damn enticing. Serendipity is at the far western end of Occhuteal Beach (I still don't know how to pronounce that), which is a white sand beach probably a couple of miles long. On my first day, I walked along the water's edge, feeling the warm waves lap up around my ankles as I directed myself eastward, watching the string of bars and restaurants gradually peter into nothingness as I marched further and further down the coast. At the end of the beach, I ran into a big headland that separates it from the next massive stretch of sand, Otres Beach. So after walking over the giant hill, I naturally decided to walk the full length of Otres as well, basically just going until I could go no more. By the time I reached the end of Otres, I had been walking for 2 hours and there was no one around but me and a bunch of cows (yes, cows on the beach, which is awesome). The water was shallow for quite a long way out and I just wandered in, basking in the unbelievable weather and quiet solitude. It's so rare to be in such a beautiful place, especially a beach, and just have no one in sight. Man, I loved it.

Things Get Heavy

Whoa. Well, I guess this vacation couldn't all be frivolous fun.

The view from my bus window for a full 2 hours.

On Friday afternoon, I was scheduled to take a bus from Battambang to the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, a trek which should usually take about 6 hours. Sam, my couch surfing host in PP, was supposed to pick me up from the bus station. Unfortunately, our bus broke down on the side of the road in the afternoon heat about 2 hours into the trip, leaving me and a bunch of Khmer people (no other foreigners) stranded until another bus could be sent to fetch us. In the end, the trip took a full 8 1/2 hours, which ate up my entire day and resulted in Sam missing my pick-up. Upon arriving in PP, I had to hunt down a guesthouse to sleep for the night. If there was one good thing about the breakdown, though, it's that it helped me realize that I am indeed capable of being in such situations without stressing or freaking out. I mean, I was stuck in the middle of nowhere in Cambodia with nary a soul that spoke more than a couple words of English, and truly had no idea what the hell was going on, or if we were going to get picked up, or how I was going to contact Sam (my Korean phone doesn't work in this country)... yet precisely because of the complete impossibility of getting any answers, I just sat back and listened to my iPod and zoned out, having no other choice but to just trust that something would work out. If this had happened in a place where everyone spoke English, everyone would be throwing fits and my stress level would subsequently be up to here. On that note, it was also somewhat enlightening to see the way Khmer people just sat back and waited, almost shrugging as if these things happen all the time. No freaking out or shouting here. Just acceptance and patience. Says a lot about the culture and also says a lot about the country's level of development that bus breakages are just par for the course. (I should note that about half of all the country's buses are old hand-me-downs from Korea, as evidenced by all the hangeul written on everything. So clearly these buses are not in the fresh stages of life.)

Crossing Borders

Rickety old train

Wednesday was my last day in Thailand so I decided to make a day trip to Ayutthaya, the second capital of Thailand (during approximately the 1300s-1600s), and see all of the old temples and palaces there. It's only a 2-hour train ride from Bangkok and the fares are absurdly cheap, probably because the trains are so old and relatively slow. I paid only 15 baht to travel from Bangkok to Ayutthaya which is about equivalent to 50 cents. Considering that one ride on the Bangkok subway or Skytrain will run you anywhere from 20-40 baht, a 2-hour ride for 15 baht is a freaking steal. Of course, the Bangkok train systems are much newer and nicer; it's kind of awkward actually that Bangkok has essentially 3 different train systems: the MRT, which is an underground subway, the BTS, which is a train elevated above street level, and the Airport Express train. None of these systems are integrated so you have to buy different tickets when you transfer between systems. And none of that takes into account the State Railway trains to cities outside Bangkok. It's a weird public transit situation.

Busy in Bangkok

Bangkok is really a pretty awesome city. I'm not sure what it would be like to live here full-time, but I've found myself fully enjoying the time that I have and appreciating some of the more interesting facets of Thai culture. Sure, there are traffic jams and smog that make Los Angeles look positively glowing by comparison, and crossing any street (or even just strolling on the sidewalk) often makes you feel as though you are playing a particularly dangerous game of human Frogger. And the culture is so laid-back on the whole that "customer service" can be something of a misnomer. But those are things that one just has to take as part of the experience when being introduced to a totally different culture. Overall, Thai people are generous and friendly and cook absolutely amazing food. Consider me sold.

On Sunday I checked into a new hostel in a very central area of Bangkok that is unbelievably massive and clean and yet still so cheap: only about $10 a night, which in Europe would get you a flea-ridden bed in a hellhole somewhere. I ventured out of the hostel to find some dinner and got approached by a random girl who not only happened to be staying at the same hostel as me, but also happens to be a GEPIK teacher on vacation from Korea as well. We're like mosquitoes, we're everywhere. So we joined forces and hunted down the most incredible Indian restaurant in the nearby Muslim district and gorged ourselves on naan, pappadums, lassi, about 8 different types of curry, and some masala tea. We shared a leisurely two-hour meal, good conversation, and then walked 30 minutes down Silom Road to the big gay club in Bangkok for a night of dancing and general fun. It was unexpected and a total blast, which is exactly why I love traveling alone. The random people you meet and stuff you do can never be predicted and are usually so much fun.

Stray Dogs and Full Moons

At long last, it arrived. The day I got to leave the freezing bitter cold behind, say "peace out" to my crappy little village, and leave on a loooong-anticipated 3-week adventure in Southeast Asia. About damn time.

Arriving in Thailand was pleasantly familiar and not at all a culture shock. I was slightly surprised, considering I'd only spent 5 days in Thailand before this trip, back in March 2004, almost 7 years ago now (!!), but I think it helps that Thailand is such a tourist-friendly country, possibly the most tourist-friendly on Earth. It is so incredibly easy to get around, and the Thai people are so incredibly kind and friendly... It is no wonder that people from all over the world flock to this place for a relaxing or exciting, reasonably affordable vacation. In my first week here, I've heard every possible language spoken around me (Thai and English naturally, but also Spanish, French, German, Italian, Finnish, Swedish, Russian, Korean, Chinese, Portuguese, Serbian, and others I completely failed to recognize). In fact, I've only met one or two other Americans on my entire trip. When I joined up with Kevin and David on Koh Samui, we did not meet a single American the whole time we were on the islands. Very unusual having been in Korea, where every foreigner seems to be from the US or Canada. Thailand is so global, it's wonderful.

Une tasse de café viennois

My first day I woke up in Seoul at 3.30 AM Thailand time and did not arrive at my destination in Bangkok for approximately 15 hours, after several buses, trains, and two planes connecting in Shanghai. Suffice to say I was exhausted when I finally met my Couch Surfing host that night and all I was really able to do was eat dinner before passing out. I honestly have never been that dizzy just from being tired (and at the tail end of a cold). My host, Sup, was a really nice Thai guy who is currently halfway through his residency to become an optometrist. He lives in a very nice studio apartment in Sukhumvit, the "nice, trendy" area of Bangkok. His culinary recommendations were outstanding. On Saturday night, he took me out to eat snail curry with beef salad, spicy chicken skewers, and shrimp balls in shrimp paste, topped off with bananas in syrup and coconut milk for dessert, and on Sunday morning we went to a famous creperie run by an actual Frenchman and gorged ourselves on the most incredible crepes and Viennese coffee. The food here is seriously heaven. I've only had one bad meal, and that was because I was on a train... otherwise, literally every meal has been superb. My most vivid memory of my first Thailand trip was how much I loved the food and I have certainly not been disappointed the second time around.