The Night Market

One of our favorite things to do so far is to go to the night market on campus. This is also a favorite of the Thai students, as it is packed out by 4 p.m. every afternoon. Hundreds of tents are set up behind The Complex, which is similar to UNF's newly constructed Student Union Building, and sell everything from clothes and shoes to smoothies and squid on a stick. (I'm not sure what this is called in Thai quite yet - I haven't been brave enough to order it.) For a smoothie (second picture), you pick the cup with the fresh fruit in it that you want, and then they dump out whatever is in the cup and mix it all together. My favorite thing to eat are the strawberry smoothies (straw-berri bun) and waffles! These aren't leggo my eggos, these are hot from the griddle, coated in sugar crystal Thai waffles!

Everything is so cheap though: a pair of jeans is just 100 baht, which is roughly $3 in American currency! My routine smoothie and waffle cost just 35 baht together. That's right, $1. Beat that Jamba Juice! :o)
It has been fun serving the Thai students because of this by buying their dinner or treating them to their own treat.

It takes about 20 minutes to walk from our apartment to the center of campus, which is where the night market is at. During that time, we all must walk single-file because the driving is absolute madness on the roads. There are literally a thousand motorcycles zooming all through the streets - nearly 80 percent of the students have and drive motorcycles around - and they aren't too fond of stopping, or even slowing down, for a line of Americans. I feel like a line of little ducks following whoever is leading us to campus that night. I can only image what the Thais are thinking ...

Sawadeka, Holli