Came downstairs for coffee after face timing with my mom and grandma to find Jill making coffee. She turns to me and goes, "would you like a latte?"
In her hand is a coffee cup with perfect foam, which confused me a lot at first because I know there is no latte machine here at the base. Apparently she had packed her own latte maker in her luggage for the trip.
I have to admit, I'm warming to the woman. She has her priorities sorted properly. (Not that I wasn't to start with but anyone who packs coffee stuff deserves a little golden star for the day.)
Orientation started shortly after breakfast and began with the staff all introducing themselves one by one again, this time perhaps more formally than before. Then we went around and told a little about ourselves as well; who we were, why we were there, what we hoped to accomplish, etc. Following that, Jack drew and discussed a map of the surrounding area and where our placements were at in comparison to our base. They also showed us where close markets and stores were. We then discussed basic health things, what certain medicines do, as well as our scheduled activities.
A short break, then into a smaller room where we could stay cool to discuss Thailand and its history in a little more depth. Pimsuda did that for us, before Jack broke down the districts of Bangkok (50 in all) for us.
After this we were split into two teams: me and Sarah, Jill and Victoria. Each team was to go on a scavenger hunt, Jill and Victoria heading to a Wat (temple) while Sarah and I were to go to a local outdoor market and purchase fruits and greens.
We took a taxi as we like that they're metered. I quickly gave Sarah the money because you don't want me in charge of counting out a foreign currency. I'd probably just break down and start greeting everyone with "ohayouu gosaimasu!" Logic and location be damned, they've never stopped me before.
The market from the street looked totally suspect, with its crumbled cement alleyway, wandering stray dogs and lines of locals looking at you with eyes that say "you don't belong here." If ever there was a physical representation of "you just came to the wrong neighborhood son," this was it. So naturally we wandered on in! The first several stalls we passed were clothing and trinkets, and then off to the side we got to the greens. Our instructions were to buy two greens and two fruits we'd never seen before. This was easy, as nearly everything was new and exciting. It was funny to try and purchase certain sizes and fruits from these vendors, and we knew how ridiculous we looked but that was part of the fun. We purchased some sour bean thing, four things that turned out to be Thailand's version of an eggplant (good in curry apparently), what we suspected and turned out to be a Dragonfruit (bought purely because it was pretty) and finally something called The King of Fruit. We wanted the whole thing because the shell of the fruit was the most interesting thing ever. So basically we bought both the peasants and the royalty of fruits and greens.
We report back to the home base via tuk tuk, show them are goods, and wait for the other team to arrive. Once they show up we all discuss our little trips, and show pictures. Another brief break, and then the language lessons began.
They brought in a very charming woman nick named Apple (pronounced Appbun) who begins work with the Peace Corp on the 17th to teach us. I both really enjoyed and got frustrated with this class. She taught us as you would a child, i.e. the absolute best way to approach a new language. It was a lot of fun trying to figure out what she was asking as well as repeat her properly. The frustrating part was since all four of us were trying to figure out how to correctly say the words and phrases, I was mostly hearing people pronounce it incorrectly. One volunteer in particular has a strong voice and often drowned out the teacher when I was trying to listen. I don't feel any frustration towards her individually, as I know she was trying just as hard as all of us, but it made it more difficult for me to learn it as well. I found myself suddenly a thousand times more appreciative of those private Japanese lessons I was able to take.
Dinner was another noodle broth dish, this time seafood based.
I haven't finished a single meal simply from being too full suddenly. I hardly ate while in Cambodia and I think suddenly having three meals was too much, too much.
The sunset was beautiful, and we all gathered together after a trip out to plan places to go. No editing on the photo, the colors were just really rich.
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Location:รัชดาภิเษก 37,Bang Sue,Thailand
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