Home Sweet Home

Alas, after one more awesome week, we have given our goodbyes to our new Thai friends and returned home. But despite how happy I am to be reunited with my family (and my food), I still have the slightest hint of sadness mixed in with my joy. It's just a little sad remembering my experiences and my friends in Southeast Asia, and knowing that I probably won't ever be there again. Although I suppose I should never say never.

Coming home has allowed me to stand back and reflect on the past two months, and realize just how much I have gained from this experience. On top of all I have learned about Southeast Asian culture, I now understand so much more about myself, working with other people, and the world as a whole. In just two months, I have learned more than I have in years of school, and I'm quite sure I wouldn't have gained this knowledge any other way. It is amazing to me how many simple things about myself and my country I had never realized until traveling to the other side of the world. It is because of that that I am so grateful for having this great opportunity, and I couldn't be more thankful to my professors and those planning the program at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and of course our donors, Alston Gardner and Barb Lee.

As for now, I am about to spend the next 5 weeks relaxing and getting ready for another semester at UNC. My life may be considerably less exciting now that I am back to my normal life, but I will try to continue posting occasionally- you never know what adventures I might run into right here at home.

An Afternoon in Ratchaburi

Yesterday night we returned from our excursion in Ratchaburi, where I had one of the highlights of my trip so far. We were fortunate enough to be able to visit the Tham Hin Border Police School, which is a K-6 school near the border of Thailand and Burma. It's called a police school because the area that the school serves can be unsafe, so police officers are trained to teach there so they can help keep the children safe. The children that the school caters to are generally not very well off, and 20 of them are actually from a Burmese refugee camp. But that didn't keep them from smiling from ear to ear during our whole visit. We were first given a presentation and a short tour of the tiny school, which was really interesting. I liked seeing the colorful kindergarten room, because there were pictures and numbers on the walls just like there were in my kindergarten class, but everything was in Thai.

Some pictures of fruits labeled on the wall of the kindergarten room. Note the difference between the fruits here and those from American classrooms.

There was a nice garden where the kids grow their own lunch food, and everything that they don't eat is sold in a local market to help raise money for the school. There was also a fish farm, a chicken coop and a place where they get trained to cut hair. After finishing this school they can move on to higher education, but the higher level schools are in cities that are pretty far from their homes, so they often don't get education after completing 6th grade. For that reason much of the police school's focus is to teach them skills that they can use on their local farms and in the town and such.

It was easy to tell these little boys were the trouble makers of the class, and they really loved having their picture taken. They are so cute!

After touring their school we were able to spend a little while hanging out with the kids during their snack time. I couldn't understand a word they were saying, and they couldn't understand anything I said, but we still had so much fun! I started taking pictures of them, and they thought my digital camera was the coolest thing they had ever seen. The fact that you could take the picture and then look at it again 2 seconds later was just fascinating to them. So I let them borrow it and I ended up getting a bunch of pictures of myself with my head cut out. It was so adorable, and I wanted to take them all home with me. But alas, after a little while we had to wave goodbye to all of their smiling faces and head back to the city life here in Bangkok.

A New Side of Thailand

Well, we are now on the final leg of our adventure, and currently spending our time in the Thai states of Kanchanaburi and Ratchaburi. These states are quite close to the border of Thailand and Burma/Myanmar, and are also made up of very different terrain. Whereas the Bangkok area is flat, Kanchanaburi and Ratchaburi are home to some beautiful mountains.

The view from one of the scary bridges of the death railway.

We have spent most of our time observing the scenery and visiting historical sights. On Friday we visited a World War II memorial and the death railway, which includes the famous Bridge over the River Kwai, and despite the fact that I was still recovering from a nasty flu, it was a really enjoyable trip. We were able to walk on the railway, which was one of the scariest things that I've done since I've been here because the bridge portion of the railway seems very unstable, with many broken planks and holes through which you can see the ground hundreds of feet below. But I just teetered down it muttering "Do one thing that scares you every day. Do one thing that scares you every day..." and eventually made it out alive.

Feeding an elephant in Kanchanaburi.

Yesterday we went to a national park and "trekked" through the woods in what was quite possibly the most intense stair-climbing venture I have ever experienced. At the top of the trail there was a cave and we got to go inside and check out the stalactites and stalagmites. Later we went hiking and spent some time in a really cold mountain river with crystal-clear water. I've never seen water so clear and blue, and it was so beautiful! Most of today has just been spent travelling to Ratchaburi, but I'm excited to find out what we get to do tomorrow.

A Very Thai 4th of July

Okay so really I just wanted to end that last post so that I could make this one separate. Today was of course the 4th of July, but being that we are in Thailand, there were no parades or fireworks, and people just looked at us like we were crazy while we ran around being so excited that it was "July 4th," which to them of course just sounded like a regular date. Earlier today we actually had an activity in which the whole group took a bus to Ayutthya, which is the old capital of Thailand. There we got to check out some really cool ruins and, my favorite part, ride an elephant! It was a great day, but as the evening approached, we all got antsy to have a party to celebrate our independence. So our professor invited us to the house that he is renting, and we got all of the American food we could find and ended up just hanging out and watching Venus and Serena battle it out at Wimbledon. We were packed like sardines in that tiny house, but it was really fun to just hang out and be as American as possible for a few hours. Unfortunately fireworks are illegal here, but Dr. Steiner did throw out the idea of waving around incense sticks in place of sparklers. We ended our little gathering by singing the national anthem and, of course, our alma mater. :) It ended up being a really great end to a rather unusual 4th of July. And now as the rest of you are probably about to start your festivities, I am off to bed. Set off some fireworks for me!

Goodbye Singapore, Hello Thailand!

Sawatdee Kah from Thailand! We arrived a little over week ago (I've been slacking on the blog posting, I know) and so far, it has been a totally different experience. Of course the language barrier was apparent from the beginning. But other than that we also noticed a clear difference in personalities of the people in general. Thailand is known as "The Land of Smiles," and for good reason. Nearly everyone is smiling here, even when they are upset. Right from the start, we noticed that the students here at Mahidol University were very welcoming. They even had a ceremony for us on our first night here. Outside of the college atmosphere, life in and around Bangkok is generally much more humble than Singapore was. Last weekend we went on a canal tour, and got to see firsthand how the lives of the lower classes here are so much different from what we are used to. There were many shack-style houses with people bathing in the river. But as we saw in Malaysia as well, these people were so happy and beaming with excitement as werode by on our long-tailed boats.

A view of the canal from a bridge. You can see smaller patches of those scary green plants we charged through all across the water.

Speaking of the canal tour, that was an interesting and terrifying experience all around. The boats seemed pretty rickety, and I wasn't sure if I was going to be surviving that trip. I was already scared of the boat in general, and then we came across a thick patch of water weeds reaching up to about my shoulders (you can probably see them in the picture). Of course I figured we would be going around them, when all of a sudden the boat driver just hit the gas and sped straight through the plants. Naturally, this did not help to ease my fear, but I finally got over it and began to really enjoy the tour. We took multiple stops along the way in different places, including a lotus farm, a nice place where they make delicious rice snacks, a beautiful orchid farm, and my personal favorite- an orchard. All of the stops were very nice, but the orchard was especially cool because they had fresh fruit waiting for us when we got there, and I discovered two new amazing fruits: pomello and jackfruit. They were so fantastic, and naturally I proceeded to buy exhorbitant amounts the next time I found myself at a market. Also at the orchard we got on the back of a tractor that was even more horrifying and fascinating than the boats, and took it to go see a rice field. The tractor was different from anything I've ever seen in that the driver had to lunge to either side in order to turn it. He especially loved to make incredibly sharp turns at high speeds, and make us think we were about to be thrown off the cart and into the river. But despite how scary it was, it was also a lot of fun.

Some of my friends passing us on their boat. Clearly they weren't as scared as I was, because I was wearing a life vest and holding on for dear life.

I think I should probably go now, but I have so many other exciting adventures to talk about from Thailand, so hopefully I will be able to give another update soon.

Off the Beaten Path

At the moment I am typing this up while listening to my amazing new Amr Diab CD, which I bought in Little India the other day for a pretty good price. I got so excited in that store and ended up buying two Bollywood (Indian) movies and some Hindi and Arabic music, things that are quite hard to find in the States, and CDs and DVDs here are cheaper here in general. So hooray for that!

Me and Sathya at Marina Barrage

The past few days have been quite eventful. On Wednesday my new Singaporean friend Amir drove Sathya and me out to this place called Marina Barrage. It's basically this huge funny-shaped thing built on top of a dam, and you have to drive to get there, so it would have been pretty much unaccessable to us if he hadn't taken us there. It has an excellent view of the city, especially at night, and it's just a great space to go hang out and talk with your friends. I felt like by going there we got a taste of what locals really do and I loved that we got off of the tourist track we tend to stay on.

Wow, it's 2:00 a.m. here, but I have so much more to write about! I guess I'll just have to add more tomorrow. Good night!

Monkeyin' Around in Malaysia

Alright folks, brace yourselves, this is probably going to be a long post. I just got back to my room in Singapore, and let me tell you, Malaysia is AWESOME! If you're ever in Southeast Asia, go there!! Even after just stepping off the bus at immigration, I could already tell Malaysia was going to be very different from what we'd grown to be used to over the last 3 weeks. We saw a few pieces of trash on the ground and said "Yep, we're definitely not in Singapore anymore."

Our trip started with a short walk through the mangrove forest down to the southernmost tip of Asia. It was really interesting to see how all along the coast, there was absolutely no beach at all. Instead, the trees held everything down, protecting the land from erosion. There were also cute little monkeys everywhere. I swear, they were like squirrels in Chapel Hill- all over the place.

On Saturday, we got up bright and early to take a tour of the historic areas of Melaka, which is the town in which we stayed. I thought it was cool to see the really old buildings there, because they were built in the 1500's, which is something you're simply not going to find in North Carolina. Then we went shopping (of course!!) at the night market, which is set up every night on one of the streets in Melaka. It had lots of cheap stuff, and the merchants were usually ready to bargain. And with the exchange rate, the prices in US dollars ended up being way cheaper than they looked (1 US Dollar = 3.5 Malaysia Ringgits).

Finally, this morning we checked out of our fabulous hotel (one of the nicest I've ever stayed in) and headed off for our bike ride. I had a chance/obligation to use a "squatty potty," since we were away from the tourist attractions, which really just got me rarin' to go on a 6 mile bike tour! After putting to use my amazing wilder-peeing skills and being so so thankful that my mom made me pack Charmin To-Go, we hopped on our bikes and started down the trail. It actually ended up being more intense than I thought it would be, with hills and lots of really rocky terrain. But I only wiped out once, which was fun (not) and now I'm hoping to be able to go mountain biking again when I get back home. But the most important thing we got out of our bike ride was being able to see the Malaysian backcountry. The people that lived there definitely didn't have a very rich lifestyle, and were a complete turnaround from the Singaporean society. But despite their humble living, they seemed to be so much happier! When we rode by the houses, there would often be people sitting on the porch smiling and waving, or little children peering around a corner (probably to stare at the weird people with big eyes and noses). At one

house there was an elderly woman looking about as happy as she could be, waving and shouting what I am guessing was the only English she knew: "Hello! Hi! I love you!!" These people really just made my day, and they were excellent proof that you really don't need money to be happy. But finally our ride came to an end, and we left with sweat, helmet hair, and big smiles on our faces.

Even though it was nowhere near as clean as Singapore, I found Malaysia to be extremely refreshing. The atmosphere there was just so much more relaxed, and I feel like everyone I came across was so happy to see us. Given the chance, I would definitely choose to spend more time there.

Chocolate, Biking and Skyping

Well, I am in an unusually giddy mood, especially considering it's 2:25 a.m. right now, and I have to wake up at 6:00. But I'm so excited because I just paid $5.95 for a whole month of unlimited calling with Skype, so I can talk to anyone in America as much as I want, much to the delight of all of my grandparents, I think.

This week has been quite good. I'm starting to find dishes that I enjoy, and-dare I say it-crave, which is so nice because there's nothing worse than craving your mom's fried chicken, and knowing that there's no way you can have it for another two months. Also, class discussions are starting to get controversial, which has been especially fun for me recently. Then last night a group of us went back to Max Brenner's chocolate bar for round 2, which was nothing short of fabulous! I ordered the dark chocolate cheesecake, and I think it's pretty safe to say it was the most delicious cheesecake I've ever had in my life. Too bad it costs $12.

Today we went back to East Coast Park, this time as a whole group, and we were able to ride bikes again. It was a great idea, since we're going on our 6 mile bike tour in Malaysia on Sunday, and some of us hadn't been on a bike in years. There was actually one girl who had never learned how to ride a bike before, so we taught her today, and I'm so happy because now she'll be able to join us on Sunday.

Speaking of Malaysia, I am leaving to go there at 7:00 (in about 4 hours; I really need to go to sleep) so I will be without internet access until Sunday, which means there will definitely not be any blog posts for the next couple of days (sorry Arielle). Although after that fun little excursion I should have plenty to share hopefully. But for now it's time for me to pack and take a nap. Goodnight folks!

Coffee Break

Wow, sometimes time really gets away from me and I lose track of how long it's been since my last blog post. But in my defense, I had an essay test this morning, a 4 page history paper due tonight at midnight, and various other assignments due tomorrow. So, since I'm going to be busy for the rest of the night with those aforementioned various other assignments, I thought I'd just throw in a side story about my daily morning routine that I've developed here. Every morning, I leave my room about 45 minutes before the start of class, and go downstairs to the canteen/food court in the basement of my dorm here. And just about every morning, I end up buying a coffee for here, and a coffee to go (or "take-away", as this is all they understand here) and this bread-like thing called prata (basically very very thin dough folded up and grilled until it's brown, flaky and delicious). My dad, who is even pickier about coffee than I am, would probably be appalled at the coffee that I drink here, as they make it rather dark, and when it comes time to serve it they pour it in a glass about halfway, and fill the rest of the glass with water. But each cup is only 40 cents Singaporean, so I give them a break. I have actually developed a real taste for sweetened condensed milk though, which they love to put in/on everything here- so far I've had it in my coffee and on my toast, and both have been quite good. Today, however, I had a sort of interesting ordeal with the not-so-nice coffee ladies. I was running on about 4 hours of sleep, and had a test and class very soon. So I attempted to order coffee without my beloved sweetened condensed milk, so as to ensure that I wouldn't crash from the sugar later. Our conversation went something like this:

Me (trying to order a black coffee to go): Hi, can I get a coffee with NO milk and NO sugar take-away please?
Coffee Lady #1: Coffee wit no sugar no milk.
Me: Yes, that's right.
{Coffee Lady #2 proceeds to make my coffee and add milk to it}
Me: Oh, wait, sorry, but I said no milk and no sugar.
#1: You should have said no milk no sugar.
Me: Oh, yeah, well I know. I mean I did.
#1: Black coffee. You suppose to say black coffee.
Me (thinking I had no idea they would know what 'black' meant): Oh, sorry.
#1: Yeah, black coffee. You no say black coffee, we put sugar.
Me: Oh, okay. I'll say black coffee next time.
#2: Yeah, black coffee.
{Continuous babbling in broken English by coffee ladies about black coffee}
Random Guy in Line (honestly trying to be helpful): Oh, you gotta say black coffee, or else they'll put milk and sugar in it.
Me: I GOT IT, OKAY?!
#1: Yeah, black coffee.
Me: Yes, I understand. Thank you.

Oh, the joys of being in a country where customer service isn't important and they like to pretend that their primary language is English. But it's okay, now I know from now on to order my coffee black.

The Other Side

Alas, I have finally done something I can blog about. This past week has been so crammed with school work that I haven't done much touring for the past couple of days, and I was worried that Arielle was going to go crazy from my lack of posting. Fortunately, we don't have class on Fridays, so tonight is basically a Friday night for me. My friend and I decided to go on an adventure earlier in East Coast Park, which is on the opposite side of Singapore from our school. The park is 11 kilometers long, and it was really a neat place, with bike trails that run along the beach, and hawker stands with guys that grill satay right in front of you. It was just great to be surrounded by nature again. We spend so much time in the busy city atmosphere, and I'd completely forgotten that we hadn't had fresh air in a while. 

But after walking there and biking around we were exhausted, and decided to take a taxi back to the MRT (or subway) station. Apparently the station we thought we wanted was difficult to drive to from there, with a lot of one-way streets involved, so our driver told us the better station to ask for next time so our ride won't be so long (and costly). Then he didn't charge us the full price because we didn't know any better. I was so appreciative of his kindness, and surprised, because one thing I've noticed while I've been here is that customer service doesn't seem to be as important as it is to many businesses in the United States. But this guy was so nice, and just by saving us a few dollars, he really made my evening.

Tomorrow we'll be heading to the Ministry of Home Affairs for a presentation, and while I'm not entirely sure what that will entail, it should be very interesting.

Hooray for AA's!

I have finally managed to track down a pack of AA batteries, and since my camera eats them like candy, hopefully these will last me a while so that I can supply you with more pictures.

Today was a great day. Our only planned activity was lunch at a charity Indian restaurant. The restaurant is staffed by volunteers, and after you eat their delicious Indian food you can pay as much or as little as you feel is necessary. After lunch, our whole group headed off to Chinatown and pretty much dissolved after that. A couple of other girls and I then made our way toward Arab street, and checked out the Masjid Sultan mosque, which I believe is the oldest mosque in Singapore. Unfortunately, we got there too late to go inside, so I will probably go again later. 

In addition, we checked out a Buddhist temple and the oldest Hindu temple in Singapore, so I've really had a multi-religious day. Afterwards we spent our evening mall-hopping (basically because you have to in order to get anywhere in Singapore) and finished off our day at Max Brenner's chocolate bar, where we enjoyed the most delicious (and expensive) cup of hot chocolate I have ever had.

After that busy day, I'm wiped, and I am really not looking forward to getting back into study-mode tomorrow. But I am so glad that we've had a chance to roam the city in small groups and figure our way around. I think we're all definitely starting to feel more like  Singaporeans and less like deer-in-the-headlights tourists.

Today's Great Discovery

This morning, I discovered what is quite possibly the #1 best thing about being in Singapore: juice. Everywhere you go, there are fresh juice and smoothie stands, and they usually sell large pieces of fruit as well. And I'm not talking apples and bananas. I mean huge chunks of dragonfruit, kiwi slices on a stick, and the most delicious pineapple I have ever had. Naturally, I gorge myself on fruit at just about every meal now, but today I found my new favorite morning treat: pineapple-orange juice. Now I have had these two flavors mixed together before, usually in a bottle, and they are quite good. But when you order a $.90 pineapple-orange juice from this stand, the little juice man runs huge pieces of fresh-cut pineapples and oranges through his juicer, pours it in a cup, and hands it to you. It just doesn't get any fresher than that. This little cup of sunshine is almost enough to brighten my next  three hours of class time, and if this morning is any indication, I'll probably be drinking 2 or 3 cups a day. Yay for meeting recommended daily amounts of fruit!

Tiny Rooms for a Tiny Country

Well, I have officially arrived in Singapore, and the batteries in my camera are dead so I haven't really been able to take many pictures. But, I do have pictures of my lovely room, which is tiny but cute, and since it's a single, it's just my size! Note that the bed only has one little blanket there on the bottom. In this weather though, that little blanket is all you'd need.

We noticed the heat literally the second we stepped out of the plane and into the loading tunnel (if there is an official word for that thing then I don't know what it is). It is very hot and humid, and also it was raining in a huge downpour as soon as we arrived, but it's really not that bad once you get used to it. As soon as we put our stuff in our rooms and took a quick shower, we headed off to see some of the buildings we'll be using, and then went to dinner in this cool little place where there are lots of stands to choose from. One thing that I've noticed already that I really love is the pricing for everything. Food costs around 3-4 dollars, and they don't add sales tax to everything like they do in America. Also the conversion rate is quite nice such that my 5 dollar meal only cost me about $3.45 in American money.

Well we have a full day of errands and such planned for today, so I need to get ready. But I'm excited for the adventures ahead!

Howdy from Hong Kong!

Hey guys!
So we just arrived in Hong Kong about an hour ago, and still have a couple of hours before we board our final plane for Singapore. Luckily, there's free wifi here in the Hong Kong airport! So far our trip has been great. I didn't crash on my first plane ride, despite my friend's warnings- "You'll be fine, Virginia. Just make sure you have your seat belt on when the plane starts doing flips in the air!" My friend was so kind as to offer me his window seat since it was my first time flying. (Thank you Donnie!!) And surprisingly, the 14-hour flight across the ocean seemed less boring for me. Probably because they fed us more.

For now we're just kind of hanging out now, making use of the free internet- literally every one of us is sitting here with a laptop in our laps. Also, so far China looks quite pretty! There are some really cool-looking mountains surrounding the airport. They almost make up for the fact that security just confiscated my favorite pair of scissors. Anyway, I see that I am running the risk of rambling on about an airport, so I will go for now. I hope all my American folks stay safe while I'm gone, and don't do anything I wouldn't do!

Hello World!

Virginia here. I've rejuvinated this 4-year-old dormant blog in order to document the fun and exciting events of my summer study abroad program in Singapore and Thailand. (Let's just hope I actually keep up with it.) At this point in my life, I have yet to travel outside of my own time zone, or fly on an airplane, so this should be interesting. :)

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Facebook: Virginia Sparks

Email: virginias@tarheeljeep.org

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Enjoy!