A Glance at the Past Month

It's hard to believe that my time in Thailand is quickly coming to a close. I'll be taking my finals in two weeks and going home in 5. I'm having an incredible time. I'm very sorry that I've slacked so much on my blog... I've been very busy and traveling a lot! Here's a quick update:

My trip to Phuket was incredible. The last time I blogged I was packing up for the long weekend. I spent two days in Phuket exploring the beaches and the crazy nightlife. However, I spent most of the trip with 5 friends on Kho Phi Phi. Kho Phi Phi (pronounced Pee-Pee) is a small island in a string of beautiful islands of the eastern coast of Phuket. It is tiny but magnificent. I had a really fantastic time there hiking, snorkeling, and bronzing with my friends.

I returned from Phuket just in time for midterms. The exams weren't too challenging, and were definitely different than exams in the US. The difference was mostly in the procedure of taking the exams than the tests themselves. Needless to say, it was very interesting.

The next weekend, I took bus on my own up to Sukhothai, the first capitol of Thailand's first kingdom. Sukhothai is a small town that is roughly 7 hours north of Bangkok. There, I rented a bicycle each day and explored the old city and temple ruins (they were built between 1238 to 1438!). It was very impressive. I also checked out a few museums to get a better understanding of the Sukhothai period and its importance (its greatest king invented Thai scripture). In the evenings, I went to a local festival that was oddly reminiscent of Northbrook Days. The festival was a week-long event that had live music, movies playing in a park, tons of food, and games with cool prizes.

I returned to Bangkok for class and a trip to the floating market later that week. Classes having been going really well. My professors are very nice and helpful; I'm learning a lot and experiencing a great deal. My Thai Civilization class took a field trip to the floating market to see another aspect of Thailand. The floating market is a market on the river. Customers hop on long tail boats in the river and are guided through swarms of boats selling things. It was very pretty and definitely unique.

The next week was spring break for the International College. To start the week off right, the university sent the entire Int'l College to the beach for the weekend. It was a blast and really fun way to get to know other students and the faculty. From there, I took a bus with my friends Keisha and Erin to Krabi (a southern province full of beaches and islands). We swam and worked on our tans for two days and then went to Ao Nang, another beach. In Ao Nang, we got our nails done, met tons of travelers, spent a day kayaking through limestone caves (with monkeys!), and trekked through parts of Railay (a beach covered in cliffs and caves). It was fantastic.

After several days at the beach, I was ready to see something new. So on Friday I jetted off to Singapore for the weekend. Singapore was really neat. I stayed just off of Arab St. by a gorgeous mosque. From there, I was explore Singapore's Chinatown, the botanic gardens, little India, little Arabia, and more. Singapore is extremely diverse and was an interesting change from Thailand. At night, I went on a night safari just outside of town and got to see herds of exotic animals. I also went clubbing at Clarke Quay, shopping at the 24-hour Mustafa mall, and rode the Singapore flyer (a giant ferris wheel). It was a lot of fun and an amazing experience.

I have tons of great pics that I would love to show all of you! I'm working hard to upload them as soon as possible, I promise. However, they will likely not be up for another week since I leave for Vietnam tomorrow. I'll be in Vietnam for the week with my friend Lacy and will see both Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) and Hanoi. I am so excited and can't wait to get there. It should be an amazing adventure.

Again, I'm sorry that it's taken me so long to update this.** I'd love to hear from you and find out what you've been up to. Love you!

** I'll try to do better, I promise!
*** I know that I don't talk a ton about my classes, so please ask if you have questions. In between all of my travels, I do still manage to go to class and am taking some fascinating classes. :)