Tuesday, February 21, 2012
6:46 AM |
Edit Post
Edit Post
Ok I have FINALLY figured out how to add pics through the iPad...it is a painfully slow process...I will try and get some more on. This pic is of past Rotary International President Bhichai Rattakul
5:14 AM |
Edit Post
Edit Post
It's hard to believe I have been here for just over a week now; the time has flown by, but yet I feel like I have been here a while to...if that's possible. I am starting to settle a bit more into a routine of some sort here, now that I have adjusted to this time zone (12 hours ahead for those of you back in Ontario). I have made some basic purchases for my room, a spoon, fork, knife a cup and a bowl so now I can have some meals in my room instead of always fighting the chaos of the city and it will be easier as well as the homework gets heavier then having to always going hunting for food. It is also a good reminder of how little we need to survive with instead of all the luxuries and excesses of home and how easy we can adapt to new and different lifestyles.
The course material is great so far, this week we have two instructors, Irene Santiago from the Philippines and Dr. Tom Woodhouse from England. He is also the author of one of our text books on Conflict Resolution.
One of the days we were assigned a topic that required some intense negotiation based on a real life scenario going on in the world today. Our class was divided into the two side to try and negotiate the best interest of each side, however within the sides there were team members planted to take a position that would not budge on the situation. The group as a whole was not aware of this and the few selected (me being one of them) had to really work hard to keep our positions and persuade the our side to bring forth our position in negotiations. This exercise took a whole afternoon and was exhausting, but an excellent exercise in not only negotiating on the same side/team but then bringing forth our wants to the opposite side. It was definitely a challenge and even though the activity was role playing the tensions were still felt between teams and within teams. It was a great way to see some of our group strengths and weaknesses.
There is a good balance of activities and lectures which I'm finding great for my learning style. I am learning so much outside of the class as well as I get to know my classmates and the challenges they are working on within their country or profession. I had interesting discussions on domestic violence in Kenya and India compared to how it is handled in our society.
This past Saturday we all attended the Thai Rotary District Foundation. Here we met with our host counselors, but in my case my counselor was away so I met with Dr. Apinya Luernshavee, she is the vice dean for the Faculty of Law at Chulalongkorn and the upcoming president for her Rotary club this year. She is from the same Rotary club as my counselor, Isara from the Sathorn Rotary Club. We then learned more about the history of Rotary International and The Rotary Foundation. We were also blessed with hearing Bhichai Rattakul speak he is 86 years old, a past president of Rotary International and the founder of the Rotary Peace Fellowship Program. Bhichai Rattakul presented us with our Rotary Foundation Pins.
After our day with Rotary About 15 of us met and headed Sukhumvit Rd, an area popular with tourists. We all had dinner together and the best part was it was at a Spanish restaurant! I was so happy, as Thai food isn't the greatest for me...although I had a good dessert of bananas in coconut milk the other day.
On sunday I attended Chatuchak market...that was quite the experience...a massive market where you can pretty much buy anything! It was jammed packed with people and hard to maneuver around in. It was also full of interesting smells, not so good. It was definitely worth experiencing but I will not be in any hurry to go back there. (Rocker if you are reading this there were all kinds of crazy knives you like, but sorry can't get them through customs, I will take a picture for you).
I started Thai lessons on Monday, but I'm really not sure how successful I will be with it! It is a challenging language but I'm gonna give it a shot!
I wanted to share a website with you called Playingforchange.com it's a website dedicated to making positive changes through music. There are several great compilations of music on the site. I particularly like the one titled La Tierra Del Olvido (the Land of the Forgotten) as it has over 75 musicians in it from across Colombia and as many of you know Colombia has a special place in my heart.
While in class we were setting up to start a group exercise and some one played One Love from this website. Now I have never been much of a music person but when this started playing people just started singing. It was an amazing moment to be in a room full of different nations and have everyone sing and sing such a powerful song and then just carrying on with class.
I hope you check out the site and enjoy!
I apologize for lack of pictures but can't seem to get pictures loaded to the blog from my iPad....I'm working on it!
I hope all is well back home and not too cold!
Friday, February 17, 2012
6:43 AM |
Edit Post
Edit Post
It is hard to believe the first week has gone by so fast already. The days have been jammed packed with 8 hours of class a day and then after class adjusting to the Thai life and culture and finding my way around this massive city.
Yesterday, the majority of class was in regards to Thai history and Thai political conflict. We also watched a short video of a speech by Chimanada Adichie on the Single Story and had a great class discussion in regards to it. Here is the link...well worth watching!
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html
Today was our presentation day. We all made a presentation on our current work and the basis for our Individual Conflict Analysis that will be due the end of the 12 weeks. It was enlightening to learn about each Peace Fellows area of work and the conflict they are working on. Although we all come from different countries, it is amazing that some of the conflicts around the world have similar underlying issues. It was a very opening day and a day full of learning!
After it class I then ventured out on the sky train to find my first Thai massage. That alone is worth coming to Thailand for!
Sorry no pictures yet, I haven't been able to upload photos from the iPad to the blog...will have to find a computer to do that I guess??
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
6:57 AM |
Edit Post
Edit Post
I'm up super early today...wake up at 3, then 4 then finally at 5 I decide to stay up and see who is online...maybe the downside of having wifi in my room...cause I probably should have went back to sleep.
Today was the first official day of class...here's how it starts:
- Expect the unexpected
- Brace yourself, you have no idea how shaken, amazed challenged, stimulated,pained and troubled you will be. You will emerge as a new person.
- And that's the beauty of the course: while being exposed to concepts and top class experts on conflict resolution, you are subtly being groomed, from head to toe, into a peacemaker.
We all knew what we signed up for and look forward to it immensely but can't help but have some fears, it is going to be one amazing challenge but one I'm sure I will be glad I took.
We are still waiting for two classmates to arrive and join our class and hope and pray they can make it, but sadly it is much harder for citizens in some countries to travel. Hopefully they will make it safely here by the end of the week.
On top of our regular studies we are being offered Thai language courses in the mornings before our regular classes, I will be starting that on Monday.
The campus here is very nice. There is a new sports complex with an Olympic size pool...so on top of everything else I am going to try and swim most mornings...I'll see how that goes, but shouldn't be a problem as it is HOT here 24/7 so I'm sure I will welcome a swim. So between swimming and the humidity I'm bracing for a 3 month stretch of bad hair! Haha
Tonight after class I ventured out for a few groceries, the stores here are massive as is the city. I did manage to pick up a few things to have breakfast in my room, but somewhere on my journey I lost the fruit I bought??? I'm really not sure what happened to it...so I will try again another day!
Sorry no pictures yet...hopefully tomorrow after class I can at least get some campus pictures to post!
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
1:01 AM |
Edit Post
Edit Post
Well after some tearful goodbyes back home and over 30 hours of travel door to door, i have made it to my new home for the next 3 months and I am super excited!! The flights were pretty good, as good as it can be being couped up on an airplane that long; I had a short stop over in Japan which I was pretty excited about as i got to have some real green tea! (not the stuff Tim Hortons calls green tea) I was greeted by my host counselor, Isara at the airport and met with a few other peace fellows there before traveling to the university. We got settled into our dorm rooms exhausted, but found that sleep just wasn't going to happen. So it was up bright and early to find my way around the campus to the Peace Studies building, luckily it's only about a 5 minute walk from the dorm. I had to get my fingerprints scanned to give me access to the peace center 24/7 and was introduced to the staff at the Peace Center.
I met up with about 8 other peace fellows and we venture off to the MBK shopping center to get some lunch and try and get phones and school supplies. MBK is an absolutely massive shopping center! There is a whole floor alone just dedicated to cell phones and a floor is not your typical shopping center this is the size of a large city block and hundreds of small booths set up throughout...slightly overwhelming...none of us ended up getting phones and slowly the group was dwindling as people were lost in the crowds, I came back in a group of three, hopefully the rest find their way back! I did purchase a router for my Internet which has turned out to be great as I was unable to access the wifi in my room previously; I think I now have all my Internet issues worked out! The last of the peace fellows are arriving throughout the day today and we have class starting at 9 am tomorrow. Its hitting the books right away as a lot of material to cover in a short amount of time. I also found out that my presentation is now due on Friday so it will buy me some more time to get it all finalized.
I haven't yet explored too far but so far Bangkok seems to be a great city and very busy! It is very hot and humid here as well, but hey it's better than freezing back home! I will write more soon, just letting you all know I arrived safe and sound.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
7:11 PM |
Edit Post
Edit Post
Also a big Thank you to my sister Lori for helping me with my blog and making it look good! :)
6:37 PM |
Edit Post
Edit Post
So it has finally really sunk in now...it's almost time to go! My friends and family had a great send off/farewell get together for me this past weekend!
Since I first found out I was accepted I have been working on crossing off things on my to do list in preparations for being away from home and work for three months. The list only has a few things left on it...I have to say I am actually pretty organized...well except for maybe two of the top things on the list I NEED to get done like..oh maybe PACKING and getting my HOMEWORK done! But I still have some time and it will all come together I am sure!
I am looking forward to meeting all my classmates as we all arrive in Thailand over the next week and prepare to begin our studies. My classmates come from a wide variety of work, education and cultural backgrounds each bringing their unique experiences to the class; representing Ghana, USA, Ireland, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Brazil, Argentina, New Zealand, Australia, Kenya, India, Nigeria, Syria, and Canada.
Looking forward to all the experiences that lay ahead!!!
Since I first found out I was accepted I have been working on crossing off things on my to do list in preparations for being away from home and work for three months. The list only has a few things left on it...I have to say I am actually pretty organized...well except for maybe two of the top things on the list I NEED to get done like..oh maybe PACKING and getting my HOMEWORK done! But I still have some time and it will all come together I am sure!
I am looking forward to meeting all my classmates as we all arrive in Thailand over the next week and prepare to begin our studies. My classmates come from a wide variety of work, education and cultural backgrounds each bringing their unique experiences to the class; representing Ghana, USA, Ireland, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Brazil, Argentina, New Zealand, Australia, Kenya, India, Nigeria, Syria, and Canada.
Looking forward to all the experiences that lay ahead!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
