Bangkok

Hi! The daily life of a street food vendor starts very early and ends very late. Street food vendors start their day very early because they need to prepare all the food for the day. Their day usually starts at four in the morning. From there, they usually make and sell food the whole day, until maybe 11 or 12 at night. Then, that night (super early morning?), they usually buy the ingredients for the next day. This means that street food vendors' day ends around one or two in the morning. This means that a food vendor's day starts at four in the morning, and ends around twelve or one in the morning. On average, this probably gives them around four hours of sleep each night. I think that this shows how hardworking the vendors are. Every time I pass by any street vendor, they are always busy making new food. A lot of Thai food is fried, so a lot of the time that I pass by, the vendors are usually making and frying their food. Unfortunately, there is so much street food th...

Hello! This week I'm going to focus on describing the sights and sounds of Bangkok. For starters, Bangkok is a huge city, so naturally, it is very noisy and busy. The days start early in Bangkok because everyone is rushing to work and the street food vendors are busy getting ready for the day. When I was jet-lagged at the beginning of the semester and woke up at four in the morning, I used to go to my balcony and just watch the skyline. I can see a highway from my balcony, and at four or five in the morning was when the highway became busy with cars. People in Bangkok start their days very early. Usually, when my friends and I leave campus to go explore, we always see a lot of people out and about, no matter the time of the day. However, the streets usually get more crowded in the afternoon/night, when most people get off work. Usually the food stands and markets are full of people by this hour. The streets of Bangkok specifically are always chaos, there are always hundreds...

Hi! Even though I consider Jodie and me to be friends, in general we live pretty different lives and we are pretty different people.  For starters, Jodie is a Chinese girl, from Asia (obviously), while I am a Mexican girl from the United States. Not to mention that we also look very different. Jodie looks Asian while I look Western, and we also have different body types. Jodie is about three inches taller than I am, and she is also skinnier. She has a slim body, while my body is a bit sturdier and more muscular. However, this is random, but even though she is taller than I am, I have bigger feet and hands than she does.  Another difference between us other than the obvious one, is that I have two sisters while she is an only child. I found this interesting because, in China, couples are only allowed to have one child, it is illegal for them to have more than one kid without government permission. This was interesting to me since people in the U.S. are allowed t...

Hello! This week I'm going to talk about my friend Jodie's daily life. Since Jodie is currently a student, she is living a pretty simple and casual life right now, compared to before (when she used to work at a bar in Hong Kong). On an average weekday, Jodie said that she usually wakes up at 7:30 a.m, and doesn't have classes until 9. From there, she has classes directly until 4:30 p.m. The classes she takes are a history class, our Thai language and culture class, an accounting class, and a graphic design class. These classes really have no correlation with each other, and I think it's because Jodie still doesn't have a "major" so she's still exploring. If for some reason Jodie doesn't have class in the afternoon, then she usually tries to go to the gym where she does some cardio. On normal days though, after class, she usually chills and watches Youtube videos of cats or of cooking videos.  Jodie is obsessed with dumplings for some reason (...

Hi! Today I'm going to talk about one of the most interesting people I have met here in Thailand, my new friend Jodie! Unfortunately, I don't know her Chinese name yet, but I just know that her "American name" is Jodie. Jodie is 23 years old, and she is from mainland China. Unfortunately, I don't remember the name of the exact place she is from, but I know that she also lived in Hong Kong for a little bit. Jodie looks young, so I originally thought she was younger than me, maybe 18 or 19 years old, but she is actually 23 years old. Although she is 23 years old though, she is in her second year of university, while technically I'm on my third. Even though we're in a different school year, we are both in a Thai Language and Culture class, and that is where we met. My first impression of her was that she was a friendly person because she sat next to me in class, and right after class she asked if I had an Instagram. Even though she probably didn't...

Hi everyone! My name is Ana Andrade, and I am originally from Baltimore, MD. This semester, I am studying abroad in Bangkok, Thailand (otherwise known as the City of Angels), and I'll be here for the next 4 months. I am a Global Studies major and I am currently studying at Assumption University Bangkok.  Firstly, I'm going to start by talking about my favorite thing here so far...THE FOOD!! The food is absolutely delicious, and I'm a huge sucker for rice, so I try to get it with all my meals. Rice and pork, rice and chicken, rice and curry, rice with seafood...the list could go on and on. So far, all the food I have eaten has been pretty casual and "normal," except for that one time I ate a scorpion on the iconic Khao San Road (a.k.a backpacker central). I only had a claw (which was sweet) so I couldn't fully savor the scorpion, however, my friend and fellow student, Ava Haag, ate part of the body and she said it tasted like a sweet sauce on a crunch...