So currently wrapping up my second day of 'work.' The Thai's seem to be incredibly relaxed about things and I've already started adding 10 or 15 minutes to any scheduled time. Showing up early is out of place!
So Saturday afternoon they had us all gathered together. Met the 8th guy - Kirk from Idaho goes to Western Kentucky, so Purdue definitely wins the big school catagory on this trip. They talked for a bit about logistics before taking us to the skytrain and to the weekend or J.J. markets. Thank goodness I got some market experience in before coming because this place was definitely sensory overload. The size of 5 football fields and completely brimming with stalls selling everything from clothes to illegal animals. We spent a couple of hours there. In my case mostly searching for work clothes. They don't bargain chinese style, I think they're overall too nice for it - and I'm basically guaranteed not the best deal since I don't speak Thai. Nonetheless things are CHEAP. I'm lovin the exchange rate. Picked up 3 skirts and 2 shirts for around $20. Not too bad. Headed back to the dorms sweaty and probably a bit dehydrated. We all ended up meeting to head over to MBK (the big shopping center about 2 blocks from where we live). The place is a life saver as it has everything you could possibly need. The cafeteria is on the 6th floor and you can get incredibly cheap food - around $.50 for a meal. Then back to our rooms for a welcome shower and some sleep.
Sunday morning we were all up and they took us via skytrain to a major pier on the river where we caught a river taxi to the Grand Palace. Definitely an interesting trip down the river, as old style huts and houses are crowded together on stilts. Bangkok has many canals and along all of them are delapidated shacks that teeter on the edge. Needless to say the water was none to clean... Thank goodness for malaria medicine! Apparently there have been quite a few cases of Dengue fever spread around by mosquitos as well so they've been telling us to watch out. The Grand Palace was absolutely incredible. Although it might not sound incredibly descriptive, the place was just so sparkly. All the buildings were covered in either gold leaf or shiny mirror pieces. Colorful to say the least. We wandered around and went into the main temple to see the Emerald Buddha. Lots of group pictures to prove to the NSF that we showed up in Thailand. Next was lunch before headed to the world's largest golden teakwood mansion. Interesting enough as mansions go I suppose. Built by their King Rama V around 1900, lots of European influence as he traveled there quite often. We did get to see a display of traditional Thai dance and fighting before taking the tour. After that we were all wiped out from the heat and headed back. Enough time to do my laundry and hang out with Hannah in MBK.
Monday was the first day of work and the 4 of us (me, Elliott, Doug, and Matt) who work at CRI (Chulabhorn Research Institute - funded by Professor Dr. HRH Princess Chulabhorn who got her Ph.D. in organic chemistry) were all picked up by Dr. Poonsakdi in a van. Finally met the american professor that helps with the program - Dr. Brauslau who is in Thailand for just a week. She came with us to the institute for the day. First we had presentations from all the PI's telling a bit about what our projects would be. I made the mistake of somehow having my advisor be one of the head honchos, so to date I have only met him 2x just long enough to say hello. At any rate, my Thai student 'Oi' (they all have really long names, but everyone goes by much shorter nicknames even amongst themselves) is really nice. After that they showed us around the buildings and our labs. A HUGE lunch, Thai style, where one person orders several dishes and they are just passed around the table. Definitely a good chance to sample everything from green curry to fishcakes to rice noodles and coconut ice cream. Back to the institute where I started reading Oi's masters thesis for background. Coffee/tea break at about 4 until it was time to go home. All of us had dinner with Rebecca to discuss and turn in paperwork and then basically gave up for the night.
Today was our first day to make it to CRI on our own. We have to take the Skytrain about 15-20min to Mo Chit where we get out and get on a bus or a taxi. Today one of the students Boon met us to show us which buses to take and where to get off. Traffic wasn't bad and so we made it to the institute (or at least the highway near by it) in about 20 min. Then you walk down the highway and across a railroad track to get to it. It's out close to the airport which could be convenient for friday evening flights.... So we got here about 8:45, coffee when Oi and the girls showed up at 9. Then I checked my email and sat around. Hung out with the boys - Elliott's PI was out sick today, so he didn't have anything to do either. Lunch at 11 down in the cafeteria. Definitely cafeteria food and will get very boring by the end. I'm not up to Thai level hotness by any means so that's going to be a problem as well. I just don't look forward to EVERY meal being spicy. Anyway, out of here by 5pm every day to miss traffic!
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