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Landscapes, portraits and various buildings were everything my eyes could see as I was walking the paved streets, admiring the variety of artworks painters around me were working on and selling. I also wanted to paint beauties I could see in this world, wondering about opportunities the coming days would give me. The following morning, for the first time of my life I went to the airport to take the plane. There, I had planned to meet another intern from the teaching program we were hired into. We got along well and his presence reassured me as he was used of traveling to our destination and could thus tell me about what was awaiting us. He was able to speak Thai and teach me basics of it, tell me about the culture and give me advices. Before that upcoming journey, I never went anywhere on my own without any authority figure, and particularly not abroad and even less on another continent. During our flight, I remained fascinated by the window. The delight caused by the first sight of that new land will always remain painted in my memory: the sunrise was reflecting in the rice fields, the sky going from dark grey to shades of yellow and white without any definite horizon. I could feel the heat right when going out of our mean of conveyance. At this moment, I had lost all of my points of reference: I have to admit that I had been dependent of my comrade, as I couldn’t read the writing, as we needed to change money and as the way to use the metro was different compared to what I had seen before since it was an overhead one. That allowed us to admire this new city we were going into: what I first noticed was how green it was, and was amused at the presence of coconuts palms, best reminder of exoticism. I could also view huge advertising posters, among which some were animated. I observed buildings which baffled me with how dirty and old they were, in surprising juxtapositions as besides big rich ones we could find a very modest area. My colleague was leading, showing me habits I needed to take, giving me many tips about how to get by myself abroad. That was very formative, I learnt a lot with his company and this is still useful for me to this day. When we set foot on the street, we decided to stop a taxi. There, we needed to choose well: the ones with the red light on. Indeed, other ones were either already taken or a scam. We also had to pay attention when crossing the road. As such, I took some habits: running the first half of the road when coming cars were far enough for their speed and as none would stop, stopping in the middle, and run the second half of it. We also had to pay attention to motorcycles as they drive on the street. Never walking across the road had been so dangerous! This apparent anarchy made sense when in the taxi, I discovered the offering of protection. It looked like a flower necklace attached at the rear-view mirror. According to the explanations I received, they believed that there were spirits in all things, even in cars. There were so many things to see in that new city, I was baffled at everything, I wanted to learn. I wasn’t bothered by the dirtiness and the overall smell. When we left the taxi, I could finally have more contact with locals. Streets were full of vendors, who would sell all kinds of things at a low price. Thai people had a nice and helpful behaviour, coming by themselves to help. That last quality has proven me right at many occasions as they intervened when I really needed assistance, which inspired me in doing the same. Coming there for the first time was a cultural shock. However, coming back to France had been even worse as in the end, I have never felt as peaceful as when I was living into this other culture.