Post by ~Mike. Kruger
Coming into winter break, it was difficult for me to think of much else besides my upcoming trip to Thailand. I would lie awake at night conjuring up images of what to expect and how I would react to different environments and situations. It turns out that most of these assumptions were wrong.
First off, the flights were not as painful as I made them out to be in my head. Although I wouldn’t say they were comfortable, they were far from unbearable. I expected the Thai people to sort of gawk at the presence of Americans but as it turns out, people travel from all over the world to visit Thailand and the people seem quite used to having foreigners around. Because of this and the English being present enough in the cities, makes the culture shock not nearly as big of an issue. The biggest shock to me thus far was the shear size and expansiveness of the cities. Bangkok seems to be an endless maze of concrete, old and new culture, and construction. I am trying to put my assumptions aside from now on and see through my own eyes what Thailand has to offer.