Back To School

Don't be fooled, I'm not going back to school in America, but rather I've started the year off, kind of, at Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, Thailand. After my study abroad program ended, I decided to stay in Thailand to work and travel, despite a few unfortunate protests you may have heard about in the news. Though I am living in a city called Yasothon, and also in a village called Ban Non Yang, I decided to make a return trip to my ol' alma matter to visit some friends. As it happens, their school year is starting now. It's very unreal to be back here on my own- I feel like a true exchange student, and I also feel like a freshman again attending all of the welcoming events!

The new first years have arrived. You can tell that they're freshmen because they all have to wear ID tags the size of street signs. They look absolutely adorable trying to find their classes, making new friends and doing cheers in mass numbers like a giant, fluffy, PRC Army (People's Republic of China)- each department has a set of cheers they have to learn before they are officially accepted. Bring back any rememberances of your first days at university? I've gotten to go to a couple classes myself, and I've gotta say, their classes are more fun than mine. Everybody laughs at each other and gets really chatty, and they all looks dapper and swell in their black and white garb with individual selection of winnie the poo flats and hair ties, a stark contrast to the plaid and more plaid at Macalester. One community development professor asked me to introduce and explain the quote, "Learn to plan or plan to failllll," which I failed to plan for; though whole class offered an impressed, "ooooooooooo" when I told them I studied development just like them. When not in class students are also preparing for the big tournament of games, practicing softball, badmitten, and other sports with great intensity (see below and above).

So I'll be chillin hair, basking in memories of my freshman year and pretending to be student because i wish i was as hip and precious as them. When university life gets to be much, you will find me in a forest meditating on where my belly button leads to.










... sorry i only have photos of students playing softball. They're really are some more telling images. I just can't find them on my camera, haha.