No Postings until Sunday night!

Check it out, Dolce & Gabbana sunglasses for only $3! (I'm sure they are real . . . riiigggghhhhht)

This weekend I'm going to Pattaya! Beautiful white sand beaches. I can't bring my laptop, so there won't be any new postings until Sunday night. :( Sorry!

I miss you all so much!

p.s. I'm feeling better!!

Eating at a Thai restaurant in the Mall

In this Thai restaurant, you have a pot of boiling water in the middle of your table and you cook everything yourself!

Tukta added some egg.

There were all sorts of weird things to add.

I tried to help, but I'm not very good with chopsticks!

Does this look good? My stomach said "NO MELISSA!"

Instead of salt and pepper at the table, Thais can add garlic, spicy peppers or sour lime juice, depending on how they like their dish.

Going to a Thai MOVIE THEATER!

I was excited about seeing Pirates, but I was even more excited to try strawberry popcorn!

That's right, in Thai movie theaters the popcorn is strawberry-flavored!
(Anders, why did I keep thinking about that stupid YouTube muffin movie you showed me . . . "STRAWBURRY")

THAI SUBTITLES!

McDONALD'S!!!!!

The picture really says it all! My stomach has been so upset because of all of the weird food, so I finally fed it something it recognized . . . McDonald's! A six-piece chicken nugget, a coke with no ice and some good 'ol fries actually helped to settle my stomach. I am doing better!

Thais eat all of their meals with a fork and spoon. They use the fork to push food onto their spoon, and then they eat it from the spoon. However, they eat french fries with a fork. WEIRD! :)

Sick in Thailand!

My stomach can't deal with this foreign bacteria! Luckily I hear it only lasts 3-4 days. Ugggghhhhhhhhh.

Hanging out with the Thai girls!

We had a picnic on our dorm floor last night! We had all sorts of weird fruits! I had leftover seafood pizza. My stomach wasn't doing so well.

Check out the different fruits! I didn't recognize any of them!

Nim knows how to give a Thai massage too! She said that when she comes to the U.S. this August (for 1 year) she will give our friends Thai massages!

Tukta was afraid we'd get ants if we left any crumbs. I don't think our dorm needs any more creatures!

THAI MASSAGE!

Ana, Nim and I were super excited for our Thai massage! Tukta is too small to get a massage (after all, she told me she only weighs 90 pounds!), so she took pictures!

The Thai massage was painful at times, but no pain, no gain, right?! :) I felt amazing afterwards! And it was only $6.50 for an hour and a half!

This little girl was working hard outside sweeping. Apparently the child labor laws are different here.

Chemistry in Thailand!

Yesterday I decided that I better cool it with my adventurous eating. I ordered a plate of plain rice for lunch. The lunch lady looked at me like I was crazy! It was $.16. Regular lunch costs only $.32! Can you believe it??!

Me and Nim! :)


Tukta was helping me prepare different concentrations of HCl for the lab I'm doing next week.

Nerd in the U.S. still equals a nerd in Thailand. :(

We were working hard!! I broke a 100 mL graduated cylinder. OOPS!

First day observing class at Mahidol!

First day of school picture! Aren't we cute!

Believe it or not, this looked like the safest choice for breakfast.

Many Thai people like porridge for breakfast. Please sir, can I have some more? (Right Sarah?)

Each morning at 7:30 a.m., all of the students line up in rows, sing as the flag is raised, pray and listen to school announcements.

Lunch was interesting. I liked the rice and cucumbers.

We met Oom, another chemistry teacher (center). She loves to play badmitton!

The Thai students are very motivated and hard-working. Much different from the U.S.!

Moving into Mahidol! (The School)

My first Thai school lunch!

There was a salamander in our dorm room! It freaked me out! It was big and black! Tukta came to help look for it. She couldn't find it. It's still a mystery. Ana and I named the salamander Mahidol, after the school.

My side of the room! Right by the air conditioning! Living out of my suitcase!

Thankfully the Thais were up for pizza that first night! It was raining out, so we couldn't go out for dinner. The pizza in Thailand doesn't have tomato sauce and the cheese is imitation or something . . . WEIRD! Not to mention the toppings!

The seafood pizza is one of the most popular in Thailand! I actually liked it!

Farewell Bangkok!

We woke up early on Monday morning to leave Bangkok for our schools, but first we met with everyone at the Thai graduate students' university.

We were unexpectedly asked to get up in front of everyone and talk about ourselves! From left: Top, Ying, Sara and Carrie.

Brian looks jet-lagged! From left: Mark, Brian, Biek, and Kay.

From left: Brita, Tracy, unsure, Earth and Jo.

From left: Nim, Tukta, MEEEE, and Ana.

Last night in Bangkok

Professor Fred took us out for a fancy Thai dinner on our last night in Bangkok. I had crab fried rice! It was delicious!

Koh Kred Island

The boat we had to ride to get to the island was packed! It was only 2 baht to ride though! (around 6 cents)

The Thais use umbrellas to protect themselves from the sun, so of course I had to buy one too.

The food at lunch was VERY SPICY! I was joking around in this picture, but 5 minutes before I was sweating even more, and my tongue and lips were on fire! Top is in the background doing the "crazy" sign (the Americans put him up to this!)

Ana, me, and Ying! The little girl is Yao, she was soooo cute! She loves the Little Mermaid.

It was sweltering hot! The Thais pointed out that my black shirt had salt deposits on it from where I had sweat and it dried. Thanks guys.

Even though I have a sweet tooth, I did not like the Thai desserts. One favorite Thai dessert shown above is made from egg yolk and syrup! I tried it, but I hope that's my only time.

The river water didn't look that clean, but the fishing would probably be good! They were jumping everywhere!