Coming Home; The Biggest Culture Shock of them All

I’m now back home after what was an amazing, life changing experience in Thailand. I know that the people I met will be friends when I come back to San Diego for school and the life lessons I learned will stick with me forever.

After starting the program in Chiang Mai, we spent the remainder the last 5-6 days in Bangkok. Bangkok is, as my former JMS teacher would say, is an “entirely different animal.” Bangkok is much more populated than Chiang Mai and a lot more busy.

Every night the city streets would be bustling with street vendors and tuk tuks and taxi drivers.

New Experiences in Thailand

To say I was under-prepared for this journey would be an understatement. I wasn’t under-prepared in the sense that I didn’t know how to navigate airports by myself or travel in another country alone. As cheesy as it sounds, I was under prepared for the amount joy and pure fun that would happen on this program.

My first impression of Thailand was that it is more industrial than I imagined. A lot of the movies and pictures you see of Thailand are of the gorgeous beaches and thick jungles. Which is true — there are many beautiful beaches and being in the jungle here feels like you’re either on a movie set or on another planet.