Hi Everyone! I have started a blog to chronicle my time in Thailand, and to let everyone back home know what is happening. I don’t even know where to begin. I left LAX on June 1st. I flew on China Eastern Airlines to Shanghai, followed by a 4 hour layover, then to Bangkok. The flights were great, very smooth and they fed us a ton! When I landed in Shanghai, I met another girl on my program. We flew to Bangkok together, then after navigating customs found a cab and headed to the hotel. Our cab driver was very nice, and very enthusiastic about the fact that I was from California, or as he put it “HOLLYWOOD!!!”. He played some Justin Bieber in the car for us, and soon we arrived at our hotel. We stayed at the Bangkok Venice, so named because it is on a canal. By this point it was about 2:30 am, so we were very happy to have reached the hotel and went to bed. The hotel was very nice, air conditioned with soft beds and even a rainforest shower! I woke up the next morning feeling surprisingly good, and went down to the hotel breakfast. There were three options: The American Breakfast, or one egg, a hot dog (or sausage, as they call them here), and a piece of ham, a Continental breakfast, which consisted of a salad and toast, and the Asian breakfast, which was soup and rice. I chose the American breakfast, which I supplemented with extra toast, and the Starbucks Via I had brought (Good call Jess). After breakfast, we met a few more participants and all went to the famous weekend market in Bangkok. Shopping in Thailand is insane. Everything is sooo cheap, and many stalls and stores bear a resemblance to the TV show Hoarders. There is just stuff piled everywhere. In our travels we stopped to buy coconuts off the street and had coconut water, and my first try of street food: pad Thai After the market, we headed back to the hotel for a bit to rest. By this point, the rest of the participants had arrived, so in the afternoon we went exploring with them. We went to a mall, then a couple girls and I decided we wanted to try Thai massage, so we went in search of one. We found one for $9 and decided to try it. It was a bit different from what we were expecting: they give you a pair of pajamas to wear, then your massage is a combination of stretching and massage, but it felt sooooooo good. The next day, we had our first orientation activity. We went to visit the Grand Palace. It was very beautiful. We went on a Buddhist holiday (the anniversary of when the Buddha gave his first lecture) so a large celebration was in progress, and the Palace was actually closing early to the public as the King was coming in the afternoon. The rest of orientation was a blur of (trying to) learn the language, taking some abbreviated TEFL classes, and exploring Bangkok. On Thursday, we headed out to our placements!!