Bangkok is a beautifully chaotic place. The residents point and giggle when they see a group of white people walking outside the touristy places, but it’s never done in a mean way. Everyone seems so happy- even the old statues at the stunning Wat (temple) Pho complex are grinning. Khao San Road, where we all went immediately after landing, was also a curious sight. Here, the white people outnumber the Thai.

People are always yelling out to farangs (foreigners) to buy various things. These items can range from clothing to tuk tuk rides to shows where girls shoot ping-pong balls out of their vaginas. All the while, the heat is oppressively sticky. I haven’t even seen the sun due to overcast skies, but it is rough. Soon I’ll have to wear black pants as part of my university uniform. There’s just so much to see and absorb that it sometimes feels too daunting and incomprehensible.

Yesterday was my first full day here, and even though I only know a few phrases (thank you, I don’t want it, hello and cheers), I don’t feel frustrated by the language barrier. Thais are just so friendly. At an enormous open-air market where they were selling everything from Pringles to live water snakes, the group I was with was the only white people there. Still, people were extremely nice and pretty amused by our foreignness. Even better are the school girls that always giggle at us.

One thing I’m already in love with is the food, particularly the prices. I went wild on a chicken dish and pineapple shake that cost the equivalent $2.25. This was in a touristy place, too. A half kilo of spikey fruit was 35 cents, and a coconut to drink out of is 60 cents. I also received a $7 massage that lasted half an hour. It felt so good I didn’t even care it was a dude doing it.