When I went to Thaliand for a school service summer trip, I experienced a culture totally different from what I was used to. Not having any background in Thai, I knew this was going to be an interesting trip. Living in the small village of Udon Thai taught me a lot about the closeness of the Thai who live in small villages. People here were highly sociable and chose not to cook so they could eat out and bond with friends and family. This was a rural area filled with farmers so they were really proud to show off their grains and produce to the tourists. While they had little to offer in terms of wealth, they offered us social acceptance and a warm place to stay instead.
- Wanting to fit in on our first day there, we helped to build a house for a local family. We actually did something new each day. The activities ranged from playing soccer with the locals or teaching the local kids how to swim. Language was not a problem for us, apparently the honest friendship shared between people overcomes that obstacle. On adventurous days, the locals would dare us to eat exotic food like larvae and crickets. We were not used to it but we tried it just to see if we would like it. Plus we did not want to be rude to our hosts. So we ended up teaching them about America, while they taught us about Thaliand. It was a fair exchange of cultures.