Sah wat dee ka!
In case you don’t know Thai, that means ‘hello’. But wait! Not just anyone can go saying that. No, that ‘ka’ at the end indicates a female is speaking. So if you’re a male, you need to say ‘sah wat dee khrap’.
The first day of orientation started bright and early. We were all given jasmine flower necklaces, which smelled divine. Jasmine blossoms are very common in southeast asia, but to me they were so exotic and different, that I felt pretty regal when they were put over my head.
The orientation was a two day ordeal. Although it was very interesting, it was also very tiring. It was an overwhelming amount of information, and we walked around a lot. That combined with some hard core jet lag was a little much to handle. But I survived! And I am still trekking along.
I was relieved to find out that all of my classes were going to be in the same hallway. The Chiang Mai University Campus is extremely large, and I am still struggling to find my way around it. There are shuttles that will take you around, but I still haven’t figured out where I need to catch them and where they need to drop me off. Luckily, I am pretty sure I have the 30 minute walk from the Uniloft to campus down. I think. Probably.
Growing up I went to some very interesting schools, but I never was required to wear a uniform. The best thing
about it is you don’t have to figure out what you’re going to wear to school everyday! The white button up shirt is very stiff, but the skirt is nice and flowy. The belt has a cute buckle with the school insignia on it, and there is also a small silver elephant pin I wear on the right side. The guys have the option to wear a purple tie, and their pin is gold. I am still getting used to the stiff material in this sweat inducing climate, but at least I don’t have to wear full length black pants all day (sorry boys!).
I have only had one class so far (on August 25), but I am already excited to learn. The word for professor is Ajarn (pronounced /Ah-jahn), and all of my Ajarns seem incredibly interesting and fun.
I hope that this blog stays fairly interesting to all you reading it, but I can tell at this point I am going to have trouble organizing myself. There is so much to talk about, yet I have no words to explain it. I am going to organize this the best I can, and if you bare with me, I am sure I will get better at this.
Khop khun kha (thank you) for reading!
Rebekah
P.S The spelling might be a little off… but I’m going for phonetic here! I’m a newbie.