Thailand post 2

First things first: It is so inconvenient not knowing Thai, mostly because it takes me ten minutes to figure out how to post a new blog on this darn page! Besides the stuff the students post, all the writing is in Thai script…iy yi yi! In all seriousness though, it’s quite humbling to be in a country where you can hardly communicate. Humbling, or frustrating, whichever way you want to look at it.
Second, you'll have to forgive me if the excitement of blogging has faded rather quickly...With two journals (one for a personal keepsake and one for the program), notes during the lectures, notes back home, and a blog, the writing thing gets pretty old. how many times can I write down what I've done today, really? But I'll try to save the fun stuff for here. You can be the judge of that comment.

So, where did I leave off? {{It is so hard to keep track of the days here-- my roommate and I had to draw a calendar on a piece of notebook paper to tape to the wall so we could "X" off the days and stay sane.}} After the welcome dinner, it's all business. Sort of. On Monday, we had our first lectures. Quick random background info first, if I haven't already said it: Doug is married to Noi, and he and Noi pretty much organize the whole program-- set up all the speakers and field trips to hospitals/clinics; Noi is Thai, and one of their sons [Jurian, age 23 or 24 maybe?] is here and is a wonderful help because he has no accent at all when he speaks English [he attends U. Utah]. Anyway, Monday morning, Doug introduced us to a nurse who spoke to us about the history of Thailand and outlined Thailand's health care system. it was very interesting, and made me feel bad about being so ignorant.
we had lunch in the lecture room. it was fantastic. Zack, forgive me if I come back 100lb. overweight...they were right: the exercise thing isn't very doable, considering the impossibility of running down the sidewalk, and the absence of a treadmill or [usable] hotel pool...

After the guest speaker, Doug spoke more in depth about his experiences on (in?) the international scene. I won't bore you with every detail, but basically, I loved his talk. The information itself was valuable, but mostly, it taught me about myself, and how I still have SO much to learn, much of which can only truly be learned through experience.
After the lectures, we took a water taxi into downtown Bangkok to explore. It took quite a while, but the ride was pretty neat-- it is so strange to see little tin shacks on stilts, over the river, right next to these breathtaking temples. Talk about contrasting landscapes. Downtown was cool, too, I guess. Just really crowded mostly, but it was fun to get to know the rest of the program members. everyone is very nice, but I tell you what, I guarantee the experience would be different if I didn't have the same roommate-- she is fantastic. In the picture, she's the one next to me in the black pants. Everyone else is older than 30 [except one who's 27], which isn't a problem at all, it's just that there's an age gap.

Then today we toured a Health Promotion Center, which I THINK is under the Minstry of Public Health (MoPH). I really enjoyed being there, seeing the facilities, and meeting the doctors, nurses, and patients. Two speakers also presented-- one was an OB and the other was the advisor on nutrition for the MoPH--and gave a lot of interesting info on Thai health care practices. Again, I won't bore you with the nitty gritties here (ha, like I'm not already giving way too much detail). A funny note: the nutrition advisor has a daughter who watches Gossip Girl everyday to improve her English. That made me chuckle. But on the tour, one thing I really found interesting was that although the facility itself wasn't some multimillion dollar modern marvel (in fact, it was only air conditioned in a few rooms), the patients still received good care, and quite possibly better, more personal overall care. We also had lunch provided to us here, and I'm just going to stop making you jealous by leaving out the meal details (except for dinner, I'll tell you that we went to Pizza Hut. yum?)
We also visited the old capital city of Ayuthaya today, which had ruins that were quite superb, as far as ruins go, I guess. you can decide:



Okay, well morning is right around the corner, and many long days lie in wait. I'm sorry if I have made your eyes tired from reading, but you know me...
Hope you're keeping everything in line for me in the States. till next time...