Life as I Know it Now

This will be a short entry of mostly pictures and captions to give you a brief glance into what is different about life here in Thailand and how I spend my time. By no means are these differences necessarily bad or difficult. I am very comfortable where I live now. These are just merely pictures into my daily life that show the differences between home in America and home in Thailand.

Stairs. Lots of stairs. I live on the 3rd floor so having a dog, I climb these stairs numerous times a day.
Also, I climb many stairs to and from the sky train each day. Let me just say, my legs are stronger than they've ever been!

Take your shoes off before you enter the house. This is my entryway room. This is nice since everything is tile and you're not tracking in dirt all the time.

Fans are life. I have one in the main room and one in my bedroom. Strange how quickly I adapted to living by fan as opposed to air conditioner.

I have AC in my bedroom that I only use when I sleep at nights. This helps me have a good night's rest!

I do not have clean water in my apartment so I have to go and fill jugs every few days. Not complicated, but just requires a little extra thought, especially when you want to cook.

I also do not have hot water.
This means during winter and rainy season my showers can be extremely cold.
But the cool showers certainly feel nice on these extra hot days of summer!

A tiny fridge. No stocking up for the month with cold stuff like I would in America!
But that's ok because there's plenty of fresh foods, produce, and meals available every day on the streets for cheap.

No dishwasher. But really I only used one back home when I cooked big meals.
Here, I don't really cook big meals because I don't have a full kitchen.
I usually hit up the street carts or 7-11 for meals!

My kitchen consists of a very old microwave that shocks you if you touch the metal parts and a toaster oven that doesn't bake evenly. You all know how much I like to bake so this is sad for me, but this is more than a lot of Thai people have so yay! A lot of Thai people don't cook in their home at all because street food can be purchased for so cheap.

I have a hot plate to cook on, but it is super annoying because you have to use specific pots/skillets or otherwise it doesn't register that there is anything on it and won't turn on. Yay for smart technology always making things more complicated!

There are tiny ants that get into everything. Not even ziploc bags are good enough. Must use tupperware.
Gotta keep my American candy safe that my parents brought me! Thankfully they are not here all year.

I share a washer with the other people who live at the church. There is no dryer so I hang things outside on this tiny balcony.
If it's raining hard, I have to bring it in to finish drying at a much slower speed. I miss the dryer for removing lint and dog hair from clothes and bedding. But with all the sunshine and warmth in Thailand, drying outside makes a lot of sense instead of having a dryer to heat up your whole house more than it already is.

My taste buds have changed and I eat many new and different things. Most people back home are shocked by what I eat these days just because I was such a picky eater back home. This noodle dish was delicious, but back home, I probably would not have even tried it!

Things like pickles and cheese are a luxury purchase here. They often cost close to $10 each.
Personally, I prefer the vlasic spears, but I take what I can get when I'm craving a little taste from home.
This is actually the only jar of pickles I've bought here.

Must apply for visa extensions once every 4 months or so which means I have to miss school and sit at immigration for 4-5 hours. Boo. I hate missing class and have to miss one of my favorite classes tomorrow morning to do this.

School is fun and I love going on field trips with my classes.
It's one of the few times I get to get out and see new things here in Bangkok.
I could explore on my own, but it's more fun when you have a Thai person explaining things to you!

We laugh a lot in class. The teachers like to laugh and create a fun learning environment!

This is all of the teachers except one. These are the people I talk to most in Thailand.
They seem to really care about me as a person and how I learn.
They are always encouraging me to keep trying and let me know that it's ok to not understand and make mistakes.
I've actually had class with all but two of them.

I try to run every day Monday-Friday after school. I typically run between 5-6 km.

Here is just a quick view into my life during the week. Monday through Friday I go to school. I arrive between 8:30-8:45 for my 9 am class. The class is 3 hours with two breaks, one 15 minutes and one 10 minutes. This month I am wrapping up studying about social problems here in Thailand. It has been a fun and interesting class! I have a one hour lunch break from 12-1 and sometimes grab something quick and eat at school or sometimes walk somewhere and eat there before coming back. My afternoon class is from 1-4 pm with two breaks also. This month I have studied speaking level 5 and it has been pretty easy because I remember a lot of it from a previous reading and writing class. After school, I typically change clothes, leave my bag at school, walk to a nearby park, and run for 40 minutes. Altogether, that takes about 1 hour and 20 minutes before I return to school. I cool down and drink some water before catching the sky train back home. Don't want to be packed in the sky train rubbing my sweaty body all over everyone else who is stuck up against me! Once a week, I have private lessons at 4 which pushes my run to 5 instead. I return home, cook dinner, eat dinner, and shower. I was teaching a student math each night, but school is letting out for the summer so no more teaching. I then start my Thai homework and studying. Usually I'm up until 11 or 12, sometimes even 1 if I've really procrastinated, doing my homework. Then I crash for a few hours to wake and do it all again the next day!
Saturdays, I don't do very much. I do laundry and clean house which is a must here in Thailand. I have to sweep, mop, and wipe down surfaces at least once a week because of the black dust that settles on everything here in Bangkok. I also try to make myself get out of the house for a little bit, whether that be going to the market, going to get groceries, or going to see a movie. I don't think it's good to stay home alone all the time.
Sundays I go to church in the mornings. Everything is in Thai. My Sunday school class tries to help me with learning Thai and makes me speak Thai for the first few minutes of class each week. It used to make me nervous, but now I'm used to it. Plus, I already understand most of the simple sentences they try to teach me. During the worship service, I practice trying to read fast so I can sing along with everyone else. But if it's a fast song, I can't keep up at all. My reading has improved, but I still read pretty slow. After church, everyone eats together. I usually eat with the only two other Americans there and we speak English. I know I should try speaking in Thai with others at the church, but it's also my only time to speak to anyone else in English. I don't know enough Thai to speak freely about anything and everything so it's nice to get to speak to others in my own language for one hour a week. After that, I maybe go to the market or a mall, but usually just stay home. In the evening, I do my Thai homework and studying.
And that's about it! Life as I know it here in Thailand. Not bad by any means, just different. I am completely comfortable where I am and enjoying life! In between all of those things, you can add in play with Lucy and take Lucy outside time.