The Thailand Experience: The Beginning.

The following blogs will have the sole purpose of documenting my trip to Thailand May 22nd-June 14th. This trip was the result of a wonderful opportunity through the University of Minnesota as my internship for my Master's in Environmental Education. I was incredibly lucky to have been able to do this, and want to keep things fresh in my mind the best way I know how: Teaching others what I have learned and experienced. As is my way, I love to write, and on this trip, I journaled every day, or at least documented each day when I had time, so I am able to look back at all the little things I may have forgotten as I went through so many new experiences. For those of you reading this, thank you, and I hope you gain something from it in your own way.

Going into this trip, I was anxious, nervous and feeling somewhat unprepared. I had spent so much time getting ready with all the little details, that I hadn't really had time to let it sink in that I was going halfway around the world for almost a month.

What types of expectations did I have? What was going on in my head on the way there? First and foremost, I wanted to be safe. I received only three of the six shots I was supposed to, and was very worried about drinking the water and getting bitten by mosquitoes, let alone anything else. I was also expecting to get a solid understanding of how the education system of Thailand works, and how EE fits into it. I was fortunate enough to be placed at a school that may not represent the majority of Thailand (it is actually one of a kind, I hear), but it does an amazing job of bringing it's youth one on one with nature in ways they hadn't seen already in their daily lives.

Before leaving for this trip, with all these things in mind, as well as my pending decision on getting to go to Africa, I had to focus on this safety concern. The night before was spent with a bottle of this:
No, not a bottle of liquor, but one of odorless permetherin, a very strong insect repellent that is for your clothes, not your skin. It is supposed to last 6 washes, although I wasn't able to wash clothes all that often, if at all while there, so I have no basis for comparison.

A late night and a fortunate not so early morning led us to the airport, ready to go. The plane ride was less than exciting. It was cramped long, and I must say, my digestive system was immediately off, and never really recovered from having various issues to this day. About twelve hours later, we arrived in Japan. This was the first time I realized how excited I was, after it hit me that I had just crossed the Pacific Ocean.

Regardless of my excitement, the first thing I did, of course, was find a bathroom. Such a petty thing wouldn't be so eventful to most people, but this trip truly made me a bit obsessed with bathrooms (or toilets as they are called in Asia) and their accessories. This especially includes toilet paper, a serious luxury for the majority of the time we were gone. In Japan, I found two very interesting bathrooms. The first had an entire panel of push-button features.














I realize these pictures are difficult to read, but to help you understand the weirdness of this, you have the capability here to stop whatever it was you told it to do, spray your bootie, (I can't seem to read the next one, but the picture says it all), and the kicker is that you can make a flushing sound (for the sake of being polite?) and adjust it's volume. Wow, wow, wow. Who knew using the toilet was so high tech?

The next amazing Japanese airport bathroom experience I had was right before we boarded the plane to Bangkok, three hours later.





















Above left, you can see the door. I was in a hurry, as all the other people in my group (roughly 14 of us teachers, plus our professor) were all lined up to get on the plane. I made it to the bathroom via signs, and was completely baffled. Was this a door, a wall, what?! And how on Earth do you open this door? Well, to the left, both in the picture and here, there are buttons on the wall, clearly marked "open" and "close" in both English and Japanese. Simple enough, I suppose. You hit the open button, and just like something out of Star Trek, the door slides open, and there is a corresponding button arrangement on the inside. Go Japan.

I made it back in line just as Rebecca (my trip partner) was handing her ticket to the airport worker and taking my carry-on for me.

The flight to Bangkok seemed to go faster and I tried to sleep, but ended up watching movies the whole time instead. Who can sleep when they are about to embark on a near month adventure on their first trip overseas? Certainly not me.

An overview of my travel there: I instantly lost my toothpaste to Minneapolis security, the brand new one I had bought just for the trip, leaving me to depend on Rebecca's for the entirety of my journey. Upon arriving in Japan, I instantly lost my knitting scissors to a regretful Japanese man, who seemed understanding enough as he pulled out his tape measurer right from his front shirt pocket. These guys don't miss a beat. I saw that he was sorry as he slowly put them away. I really liked those scissors too. Thailand took nothing from me, so I'm 2 for 3 on that one.

To end this blog of traveling, I note some wonderful things you have to try if ever sitting in the airport in Japan for three hours:

Number one, the green tea ice cream. This may look strange, being green and all, but it is very very good. I do recommend having something near you to drink along with it. Even this small container was quite a bit for the palate to take. I opted for, what else, green tea.







And number two, the bottled green tea. It makes all the green tea in similar bottles I ever had in the U.S. taste like water, and I don't think I'll ever think of it in the same way again. I'll miss that stuff. I found later you can also get equally good green tea in Thailand.

More to come in future blogs about the trip. I promise, you will see many pictures of sights in Thailand.