I walked into the room and was shocked at what I saw: A sea of blonde hair! Since 99% of the people around me have black hair, I really did a double-take when I walked into the room full of exchange students from Finland, Germany, the US...
Today we had the student orientation for the nakrien farang (foreign students) at my school. After the students went around and introduced themselves, it was the ajarn (teacher's) turn. We were also supposed to give a little bit of advice about living in Thailand.
The advice from the 10 ajarn was actually quite interesting. Christian started off by telling a story of seeing one of the students taking a picture of the traffic that morning. His advice: "Don't worry, you will have many many chances to take pictures of traffic in Bangkok!"
Much of the advice went along the lines of "Have patience" and "Learn the meaning of mai bpen rai (no problem/no worrries)". We also told them, "Talk to your teachers. Ask the questions that the Thai students are too afraid to ask."
And what was my advice? "The best thing you can do in Bangkok is to get out of Bangkok. Thailand is an amazing place. But the most amazing parts of Thailand are outside of the city limits. Go to the beaches. Visit the mountains. Learn about the hilltribes and the rice farmers. Don't be afraid to be the only white face in the crowd. Go to an Isaan folk concert and let everyone stare at you for 10 minutes and then watch them knock each other over to share their food and drink with you."
But perhaps the most interesting bit of advice came from Ajarn Gary. He read a few passages from a book on Buddhism. He has been on a bit of a crusade (poor choice of words, perhaps) lately to try to convince his lazy students that Buddhism teaches people to work hard. Not only that, but Buddhism teaches that you should honor your parents and your teachers by learning as much as you can. Families and teachers are making investments in the students' futures, and the students should then, in turn, show respect by actually trying to learn something. Now that is some good advice!
