Genevieve | Thailand: Global Change, Communities, and Families

Today was our fourth day in Thailand, and the first few days were full of exciting new experiences. One of my favorite parts of the trip so far has been the food. Trying new Thai dishes is one of the things that I was the most excited for before leaving for this trip. The food has been different than I expected, but I am enjoying it a lot. Yesterday we had the chance to learn more about how Thai food is prepared at a Thai cooking school.

We began the day by going to a market to learn about how people purchase food in Thailand. We learned that Thai people generally go to the market each day to get fresh ingredients for the meals that they will prepare that day. I found this interesting, because it is very different from how people go grocery shopping in the United States. We saw how milk is extracted from coconuts. This was interesting because coconut milk is a huge part of Thai cooking. We had the chance to explore the market, and learn about how different types of food are selected and used for Thai cooking.

After the market, we went to the cooking school where we prepared four dishes: a soup, a papaya salad, a noodle dish, and sticky rice with mango. It was all fun to prepare and delicious to eat. One of the things that stood out to me the most during this experience was how fresh the food was. One of the owners of the cooking school mentioned that some of the ingredients come right out of her backyard. After learning that Thai people generally pick up fresh food each day, I was not surprised by how fresh the food that we cooked tasted. I have enjoyed this aspect of Thai food a lot.

On the other hand, I have also noticed a lot of fried food. We’ve had fried bananas, fried rice, fried dough, etc… Don’t get me wrong – the fried food is delicious too, but it’s very different from the fresh food that we prepared at the cooking school. Over all, I am enjoying the dishes that we are trying here whether they are coming out of someone’s garden or out of a deep fryer.

Hello! My name is Genevieve Locke. I am a sophomore at the University of Minnesota, studying Strategic Communication with an emphasis in advertising. I am also minoring in Digital Media Studies. I am the Sales Manager at the Minnesota Daily. I plan to go into a career in Account Planning. Outside of work and school, I enjoy running, crocheting, writing, and spending time outside.

I am excited to head to Thailand, and I think that the trip will help me to grow both personally and academically. One of the main things that drew me to the Thailand program is that it has an interdisciplinary lens, and the program focuses on many different aspects of Thai culture. I am excited to learn about education, diversity in Thailand, the hill tribe communities, human trafficking, Buddhism, and many other topics during the trip. I think that it will be interesting to see how the different aspects of Thai culture are connected.

I like hands-on, experiential learning, so I am excited to learn about Thai culture outside of the classroom setting. I think that this program will round out my education by broadening my cultural perspective through new experiences. Because I am going into a profession in strategic communication, it is important that I understand how different cultural backgrounds affect the way that people process messages. I hope that this trip will allow me to immerse myself in a culture that is very different than my own.

Personally, I hope to learn a lot about Buddhism on the trip. I have been very interested in Buddhism for quite a while now, so I am excited to have the chance to learn about the religion in Thailand, visit Buddhist temples, and talk to monks about their experiences. I also hope that the trip stretches me to step outside of my comfort zone and experience unfamiliar foods, activities, and places. I am very excited to see what the trip has in store!

Thailand: Global Change, Communities, and Families

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