My City, San Francisco

When you hear "San Francisco" , what will you think of?

Fogs? Golden Gate bridge? Cable cars?

Well, after living in San Francisco for awhile, 

all I can say is..

Actually, let my video explain it to you what I think.

Hope, you feel the way as me ;)

Driving

Driving is not that difficult, but if you have to drive the other side that you've never driven before, that's difficult.

Yep, driver's seat in the US is on the left but Thai's is on the right. 

Yep, you drive to the right but for us, to the left.

Yep, turning lights are on the left and wipers are on the right..ours are opposite.

So, if next time you see somebody use wipers when it's sunny and then turn the turning light on, first guess is the driver must be Thai.

Today I drove for the first time in the US. No accident, no scratch and the window in front of my car is very clear...

(I can't help. I get used to turn the light by the right side!)

Songkran Festival!

Can you imagine that you throw water into somebody's face and he or she still smiles and laughs back to you?

We can do that! Let me introduce you "Songkran Festival in Thailand"

For short brief, according to Thai lunar calendar, April 13th is Thai New Year and we call it "Songkran Day". For starting our new year, we will go making merit at Thai temples and there will be the celebration there as well.  

Since April is the hottest month of the year, back to the time people will pour little water or spill some Thai fragrance (Nam Oop) to refresh each other. But now it has changed, it became a water fight! Even a foreigner who lives in Bangkok wrote his blog, Bangkok seemed to be one giant water “fight”. 

Back to me in San Francisco, some Songkran Festival celebrations took place in here too (mostly in Thai restaurants), but I didn't go and wasn't wet at all ;(.

 

Credit:Big Water Fight

Huhhhhh...I miss being wet in Songkran Day so bad!

What I got from studying abroad

Just imagine you are in somewhere you don't know anybody, cannot speak the language, no one can understand what you wanna convey, food tastes bad, you are super lonely...

That's too exaggerated. it's not really happen. Don't worry!

 Yes, there are some difficulties. I cannot speak English well (yet), and feel homesick sometimes 

But there are not only bad sides I confront, I get many good memories and learn something for life. I just feel the way Louise Littig feel..

"As much as I miss San Francisco I am truly happy that I chose to take this opportunity to study abroad in a different country. I am learning, experiencing and witnessing things that I would have never experienced if I hadn’t chosen to come. I look forward to see what these next couple months have in store for me! And of course returning this summer to the wonderful San Francisco!” 

Although I'm not a native San Francisco, I'm living and learning in San Francisco, and (this is so true) I can't wait for the wonderful summer of San Francisco too!

Life with IPhone

I just read a blog, "IPhone 4 Survival kit for students"...

Wow! I couldn't agree more with this quote.

I have my IPhone since 2008, the first year I came to the US. Despite my technophobia, I think I can use it pretty well. And not so long after that, I became IPhone-addicted.

Especially, for international students, many apps for IPhone are very useful. Here are some : 

1. Maps : I never get lost again, even living in space (kidding)

             2. Itranslate : Believe me, this is real survival kit for us!

3. Yelp : Not kidding, at least it tells me where I should go out eat. And please, mostly the answer of "what do you wanna eat?" is "I don't know, whatever"

4. Hootsuite : I was gonna say Facebook but this one comes with twitter and stuffs so I pick this. Thanks COM635 for introducing me this.

Just four for here but there are many more. And yes, IPhone really helps me living abroad easier.

P.S. This is not advertising or anything, just sharing!

I am Buddhist.

While most of Americans are christian, most of Thais are Buddhist. So do I.

I am not that religious but I like going to the temple. Just like when you go to church, you can feel peaceful and calm. I think that's why even though people who seldom go to church or temple, they will think of going there when their mind seem unclear or stress. 

  Since I came here, I gotta get through many things. Studying is hard enough, studying as an international student is harder. Of course, I feel super stressful, more than you can imagine. Then I need somewhere could be sanctuary.

Luckily, there are lots of Thais in the US, so they built Thai temples over the US, including in San Francisco. 

   Wat Mongkolratanaram is a Thai temple located in Berkeley. You can take Bart to Ashby Bart station. Even though you are not a Buddhist, you are very welcome to come, I guarantee. Especially, on Sundays there is a Thai food market (everything is yummy, I guarantee again!) So not only peaceful and calm mind, you'll also get your tummy full!

All I can say is..Thanks God..oops no Thanks Buddha!

Movie Time

I love watching movies. I can open HBO for all day long and watch it. And, back to Money Money Money, I told you I bought a TV, so it's very worth for me really.

However, when I was in Bangkok, movies in HBO came with Thai subtitles...

Trying to understand the whole story by listening to other languages is totally difficult literally, and thanks for CC-Closed captioning, I used it at the beginning, 30 minutes later, good bye CC-Closed captioning, its delay is very annoying. 

Then I get back to basic, catching some conversations plus guessing from the acting. Or read some synopsis before watching.Now I can go to the cinemas and enjoy (most of or part of sometimes) the movie.

The result might not exactly but I know I'm getting better. So let's watch movies (without subtitles)!