America

Dama came to America for the first time when he was moving here to attend Trinity University. He arrived on August 18, 2009 in San Antonio, TX and stayed in a hotel for a short while before moving into the Calvert dorm. He already knew much about American culture from the popularity of American films and music abroad.

Interestingly Dama has gone through little to no culture shock since moving here, most likely due to his living in many different nations growing up and attending international schools that were taught in the English language. Dama said one of the few changes that he encountered since moving here was the level of religious faith of America. Coming from a predominantly Buddhist nation that is fairly secular the outward expression of faith was a mild surprise. Perhaps the most overwhelming change from Thailand to America that Dama experienced was the weather. Thailand is extremely hot and intensely humid and so the lack of humidity and temperature drop that he encountered in San Antonio was a shock, but a welcome shock.

Dama’s main complaint in regards to America is the almost complete lack of public transportation which was not a problem in Thailand.

Thailand

Dama moved to Thailand when he was fifteen years old and lived in Bangkok which is the capital and largest city in Thailand. The most interesting thing that Dama has told me about Thailand is his description of the intense respect shown to the King, King Bhumibol, by the Thai people. He is not particularly monarchist in his beliefs but he said almost all Thai people are and have a deep respect and admiration for the King, who is an inventor. An interesting fact regarding King Bhumibol is that he holds the record for the most honorary degrees given by universities of any living person. He says that the respect for the King can be taken a bit too far sometimes however such as the time someone posted a video on youtube critical of the Thai King that showed his face next to pictures of feet, which is apparently one of the worst signs of disrespect possible in Thai culture.

I went out to eat Thai food here in America with Dama and he said that the food did not even begin to compare to the quality of that in Thailand. His biggest complaint was the poor quality of mango that came with the Thai dessert “Sticky Rice and Mango” and said that the mango tasted as if it had come from a can.

South Africa

Dama moved to South Africa at the age of eleven, he lived in Pretoria which is one of the largest cities in South Africa. He attended a local English speaking private school that taught the Afrikaans and Sotho languages. He picked up on different South African slang terms while attending the school such as Yoh, which is an exclamation of surprise, and Eish, which is an exclamation of worry. While at school Dama learned how to play rugby, one of the most popular sports in the nation, which he says is more simplistic than American football.

Dama’s favorite trip within the nation was his trip to the township that the South African liberator, Nelson Mandela, grew up in. He is widely studied and respected as a beacon of freedom within the nation. As such Dama studied Mandela and his history of struggle in school. He says that seeing Mandela’s house in the township was inspiring in that it showed the poverty that someone could rise out of and go onto do such great things. Seeing the poverty in South Africa opened Dama’s eyes to how much of the world lives and interacting with these people led to his realization that more attention needs to be paid to how the poor live.

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Russia

Dama moved to Moscow, Russia when he was six years old and attended primary school from first to sixth grade at a French speaking International School. His favorite place that he visited in Russia was St. Petersburg as there was one of the biggest art museums in all of the world there. It also had a palace called Peter Hoff in St. Petersburg which is breathtakingly beautiful, it has a massive fountain in front of the palace and a statue of Sampson wrestling a lion.

His favorite thing about Russia was playing in the snow which he had never experienced at such a level before. Although he lived all over Europe he had never experienced weather to the extreme that it had in Europe.

Dama also quite enjoyed being able to visit the Red Square in Russia which contains Lenin's Mausoleum. He said it was fascinating to see Lenin's embalmed body, Dama said one of the most interesting thing that he learned was that Stalin had actually been embalmed and kept in the mausoleum next to Lenin for a while but was taken out during the de-Stalinization of the USSR.

Belgium and Poland

My suite mates name is Dama Dhumakupt and he is from Thailand but he has lived all over the world.Dama's father is a Diplomat for the Thai government which is the reason for the fact that Dama has moved across the globe. For this blog I plan on interviewing him and getting a better understanding of the different nations he has lived in. I will cover one nation he has lived in per blog.

He was born in Brussels, Belgium which is the capital and is the largest city population wise in all of Belgium. It is in Northwest Europe and is one of the founding member states of the European Union. The language of Belgium is Flemish which is a variation of Dutch that is only spoken in Belgium.

Dama moved from Belgium to Poland when he was three where he lived in Warsaw which is the capital of Poland. He attended a French speaking, Damas first spoken language, school for Kindergarten which was a multinational school with students from France, Italy, and Poland. His favorite word in Polish is ziloti which means green and is interestingly also the word for green in Russian. Dama's favorite memory of Poland was the home that the Thai government paid for for his family that was an enormous 4 story home.