09-01-2009

The NTU campus has sixteen residence halls. The all have highly creative names such as hall 2, hall 3, and hall 4. Hall 3 and hall 16 are the two newest halls and it is widely known that these are the only halls with "air con." All of the RPI students are staying in these two halls and is a mild sore point among the other exchange students. A sample dialogue:
"So which hall are you staying in?"
"Hall 16."
"Oh..."
The RPI students are apparently recieving preferential treatment in many regards. Steve was having trouble with his schedule and some full classes, but when it became apparent that he was an RPI student things were quickly shifted around and smoothed out for him. This is the first semester of RPI's new REACH program where students are sent from RPI to NTU and vise-versa and the idea is to expand the number of exchanged students in the coming years. Therefore things must go perfectly for all students involved; I don't think all RPI students will be getting AC next year.

This is what hall 16 looks like from the outside.

Here is what my room looks like from the outside. You are never really "indoors" until you actually enter the room; the entire hall is very open. All of the locals leave their footwear on the floor outside their rooms. Sam has started to do this as well but I see no reason to.

Here is what my room looks like from the inside.

Hall 16 consists of five "blocks" A - E. This is a bridge connecting block D to block E which is where I reside.

Last night we went to see a Thai kungfu movie called Ong Bak II. The film was highly action packed with a failing plot and little dialogue, yet very entertaining to watch. Movies here are 8.50. We followed that up with some ice cream and apple pie from McDonalds. Now I see why the estimate for "personal expenses" was so high; everything here seems to cost money.