Seewatdeeka Thailand, My Loves (Pictures coming soon)

Oi, leaving has been one big emotional wreck. I now write to you from Haifa, Israel, but I'll start from the beginning.

Exams went... smoothly. Remember how in my last entry all the libraries were closed during finals? Well, as it turns out, to give Thammasat credit that was a national holiday. That didn't end the strangeness of finals week for me, though. The day I took my three-hour long accounting final (which was, by the way, absurdly difficult) a marching band held practice outside the classroom... the whole time. I think it was orientation week for at least the BE program, and the school was more packed than I had ever seen it. All I have to say is thank goodness I'm not taking these classes for a grade.

For the last week everyone was really good about hanging out as a group, the way things started in the beginning. Wednesday night we had a "Christmas in Thailand" party (which I can't wait to add photos for you to see) as one last official goodbye before people started trickling off. The theme was inspired by Brian, Bruno and Dylan's apartment, which came with a fake Christmas tree. We've joked about it all semester, and for the party we brought it up to the penthouse (more space there) to decorate it with rambuttan fruits and other Thai ornaments. Jake even bought lights to make the tree really look right. We played Christmas music and beer pong (although I didn't because the event was unfortunately scheduled the night before I had a 9 a.m. final) and in all reality the night felt like a very warm Christmas.

The best part of the event was white elephant gift-giving. For those who don't know what white elephant is, it's a game kind of like Secret Santa, in which each person buys a gag gift, usually with a price limit (ours was 200 baht, or $6), and then draws numbers. The lowest number gets to choose a wrapped gift, and the second person gets to choose whether he or she wants to steal that gift or grab a new one. If #2 steals #1's gift then #1 is allowed to draw again, and the whole process continues with the rule that one gift can only be stolen twice. Gifts included:

- a wooden Khao San frog in psychedelic colors (mine)
- a scale
- an ab toner
- a Same Same But Different shirt
- a yellow Rama IX shirt
- a bucket kit
- a stolen Rattanakosin poster
- a Vietnamese boat hat
- fisherman pants
- a back scratcher

...and best of all... a picture of the king!!! I've been telling my friends that this is the one item I had left to buy, and I drew it! It was really the best surprise. I even kind of held it out of sight hoping that no one would steal it.

The night illustrated how cohesive our group of friends is. Though we are a hodge podge of Americans, Canadians, Europeans, Australians and Thais, we get along so well, especially that night when we were all so merry.

After that the goodbyes just got hard. I said goodbye to Jake first, since even though he's staying the summer, he and Brian left for Laos and Cambodia Friday afternoon. I felt like a mess when he left, and was so thankful to get back to my apartment only to immediately receive a call from Brad, who wanted to know if I was okay. He and Jon came up to comfort me and we just hung out, all bummed and unable to think about anything except leaving.

I left last night, and had a really touching goodbye. I spent the day consuming all the street food I knew I would miss, then topping everything off by going to Chote Chitr for dinner. Eleven of us went, and everyone kept calling it the last supper, as we gorged on family-style curries, soups, and fish, then ended our meal in the street with the famous buttered-bread-with-bananas-and-chocolate dessert I love so much.

Everyone came over to the apartment while I finished packing, since I was the first of the night to go, and we watched Charity's wonderful dvd. She's been taking short movies on her camera all semester, and put a ton of time into making a 20-minute long compilation of the videos mixed in with pictures of us, all edited in iMovie. It's an awesome video, because it captures so much of what I've already forgotten. It's also amazing what video can do to capture our interactions that still film just can't. My plan is to show it to everyone back at home to brag to them about the friends I made in Thailand.

Just before I left I gave everyone printed pictures I've taken with them or of them all semester, and tried to decorate the frames according to each person's personality. I'm going to miss everyone so much. :)

Then off to the airport, everyone walked me downstairs. Jon and Brad gave me a gag gift just before the cab came, which of course made me start crying. This made Meris, Charity, Sophie, even Bee and Brad cry, too. We're all messes! Brad, in his loyal fashion, drove with me to the airport, which is no small feat since it's a 45-minute drive. I was really thankful that he offered to do that, because it would have been a lonely drive otherwise. He's been such a good friend to me this semester.

Once I was off to Israel I started sobbing, which made the man sitting next to me pretty uncomfortable. Soon enough, though, I fell asleep, only to wake up every so often to a meal placed on the tray in front of me.

Even though my flight was 45 minutes late, Elana was waiting for me at the Tel Aviv airport, and I found her with no trouble. What a comforting face to see! I missed her so much. I've had no trouble with luggage or customs thus far, and I'm now in Haifa, in the northern region of the country. The only thing that has popped out at me has been the hoards of soldiers, the most conspicuous of which to me are the females. Elana pointed out their giant guns (which I was somehow oblivious to) but told me they're not loaded. (Then why...?) Now I'm just settling in and eating falafel and a wonderful chocolate with Pop Rocks in it, and we're going to visit the Ba'hai Gardens this afternoon. Her boyfriend came over to meet me and brought along with him olives and cheese for snacks. He's a very bubbly person, and tomorrow he's going to spend the day with me and Elana (he's in the army and only gets one day off a week). He tells me he's going to lecture me with all sorts of information about the country.

I already miss Thailand, and more than that I miss the people I became friends with there. It's cool to have friends all over the country and the world now, and I'm looking forward to Andy's birthday, four weeks from now in Las Vegas. This won't be the end of my blog, but Seewatdeeka Thailand!

Love,
Abby

p.s. I got my hair cut really short. Think Carrie from Season five of Sex and the City.

Finals in Thailand

I love Thailand, and more than that, I love Thammasat. We have finals this week. Back at home this means cramped libraries, 24-hour coffee houses, and a sense of panic erupting from every bleary-eyed student who discovers the school printers are malfunctioning.

I didn't expect the same from Thammasat. That's fair to say. But when Jon and I headed to school today to photocopy our accounting course packs, what I really did not expect was for the campus to be empty. Cafeteria closed. Libraries locked. Lights off. It was a ghost town.

We were in such disbelief we just roamed the dark hallways, laughing to ourselves at the absurdity, and appreciating possibly the greatest cultural difference - at least the most surprising - we've encountered in this country.

I'm close to being done with school. I've finished with two classes and have two more to go. The last one will be the worst - three hours of grueling management essays - but it's the one class I have a very good shot at getting an A in. I got an 82 on the midterm, not great by UT standards, but that was the highest grade in the class! Must be some massive curving going on. In my other classes, since we don't get grades back, I honestly have no idea how I'm doing. That took me a long time to get used to, it really did. Thailand is no place for someone who likes to calculate grades.

With the wrap-up of school also comes the wrap-up of everyone's time here. Alex already left, and Lilly is effectively leaving tonight. (She's actually staying the summer, but tonight was the last time most of us will get to see her, since she's visiting Cambodia in the morning.) I, like Meris and most of us, am getting pretty depressed about leaving. It doesn't help to count down our time, either, which I can't seem to stop myself from doing. "But we only have x amount of days left," seems to be the phrase of the week. I wake up sad and don't know why, and then I think about going back and I remember. It just sucks.

Mai pben rai, I know I'll be back, and hopefully soon enough to experience the same Thailand I did while I was here. In the meantime I should get excited about fusion sushi, Tex-mex, and finally getting to hug my little brother.