Kittichai "A" Sojiphan First Blog ^^

Sawasdee everyone,

"Sawasdee" means "Hello" in Thailand. My name is Kittichai Sojiphan. My family and friends usually called me "A", my nickname. I also have Chinese name, Zhen You Ming. I was born in Lampang, a city in the northern Thailand and lived there for 15 years. My hometown is famous for horse carriage in which tourists always enjoy having a ride around the city. However, I only get to be on the horse carriage once in my whole life, about 20 years ago. I came to USA for the first time during a summer after my 7th grade with groups of thai youths for cultural exchange in USA for 40 days during which we spent time living with American host families, visiting elementary schools, traveling to different places, and visiting a Thai community in Chicago area. The most favorite part is to visit the American schools in which the educational systems and activities student participate is very different from school system in Thailand.

I came back to USA again after finishing my high school in Bangkok in 2000. I spent the first year at a preparatory school called Pomfret school in Connecticut. After that, I study at Northwestern University for my bachelor degrees in Materials Science and Engineering and Manufacturing Engineering. Then I came here for a M.S. degree in Welding Engineering since Autumn 2005. After graduation hopefully in June 2007, I would like to continue Ph.D. education in USA.

During free time, I like watching TV, playing badminton, tennis, and sometimes basketball, or table tennis, and playing video games. My favorite TV programs are college football especially Ohio State and Northwestern or Big Ten conferences, and Tennis Grand Slam. My current favorite players are Roger Federer, Maria Sharapova, and Martina Hingis. I also like watching Olympics Games and World Cup. I am cheering the German and English teams right now. I also join a small bible study group with the International Friendship Inc which some of you might heard of before on Friday evening. However, my study groups are not continuing during this summer. I love traveling especially to historical and natural places. I have dreamed of traveling on a cruise around the world to visit Alaska, Hawaii, and the Caribean Seas and travel to South America and various parts of China and other coutries some day.

I am glad to get to know all of you and hopefully we will become good friends. Please feel free to call me "A" rather than my real name and if anything I can do for you like taking you to have Thai food, please let me know :)