Re-cap of my first week in Thailand

So I've been here a week and a day now and it's already been such an experience, unlike anything I could have imagined, and surpassing and disapointing my expectations! I've seen beautiful things like the gorgeous Koh Samet beach with aqua water and fine grain sand, breathtaking beaches and little dirt roads through the jungle littered with spirit houses where people worship. At the same time, I saw a captive elephant being led around as a tourist attraction. The eyes of this enigmatic animal looked so sad and it just about broke my heart to know that this creature spends his life not with his own kind, but as a means of attracting tourists like me.

I've seen the mysterious Bangkok with it's colorful array of fruits, and smells of strange meats and spices that drift down each street from little rolling carts, but I also have seen the worst kind of poverty imaginable with people blind and missing limbs begging for change, and stray dogs suffering from mange and itching their skins off. It leaves me with a feeling of selfishness that I cannot, or do not help them.

I've seen the Thai people, friendly and faithful, willing to lend a hand to a "farang" in need, but I've also felt lost amongst these people of which I cannot relate. I have starred smiling into faces that do not understand me, as I do not understand them.

Above all else, I have seen ME, pushing my way onto crowded trains and through dirty streets, with eyes wide to take it all in. I am proud of the small successes so far - finding an apartment, navigating my way around the skytrain, learning the transit system (somewhat), and basically scratching the surface of life in a foreign city so far from home. It seems real now, a dream I had for so long that's come true. I know there is so much more I need to learn and I'm overwhelmed, and fearful, but also full of excitement for they strange and beautiful journey ahead.