Travelling and human interaction are important to me

Good evening! 11 July 2020

This week last year I was about to end my full-time work in Sai Gon. I did not have enough time to say proper goodbye to my dear colleagues. I cried at the last night in InnEdu when I say bye to a teacher in the center, I called one colleague to play guitar and sing for the last time, he was busy and I didn’t have the chance to sing with him. Still remember he said “Can it be another day?” It was the last time I heard his voice in Sai Gon. The last time I packed my stuff and left for a solo trip in Da Lat, I had 20 minutes for packing. Chi Xu gave me a book “Nhung giac mo o hieu sach Morisaki – Dreams in Morisaki bookstore”. I had some seconds to hug her to get in the night bus on time. I hurrily book a Grab bike towards Mien Tay Bus Station. Grab bike was the most common transportation for me that time as the service provided plenty of discounts.

July this year is the month of travel, making up for the whole 4 months physically staying still. I realized I can’t enjoy life with solely investigating with the laptop. No matter how interesting the research data could be or how many engaging online conversations I could have, there is a thing that I can’t live without called “travelling”.

The last week of June, I went cycling 35km. The first week of July, I went to Koh Sichang in Chonburi. This week I am at Bang-pa-in and just came back from Siam Paragon. It was not a discovery trip but being with warm humans- P Rung family, Khun Pimnara, Noodie, new member – Nalin, and grandmo. I was missing my grandmo recently, I felt missing her when I held the grandmo’s hands to walk around the shopping center. I observed the flow of young people passing by, people have multicolored styles. Noone was busy. The luxury of the mall shined my own clothes but sometimes made myself lost behind. But my consciousness told me that “I am here with a grandmother. I am happy to take care of her.”

This week has been remarkable and revolving for me. The Teaching Assistant work for my professor gave me a source of transformation in energy and intentions. I didn’t fully focus on my internship but still found my journey meaningful by catch-up calls with Gen, Justin and Ella. Let reflect one by one:

We had so much fun playing on the beach of Koh Sichang. We played a true-lie game. We spent money on food, kayaking, coffee, alcohol. It was worthwhile. Money brought happiness, more or less. The trip fulfilled my missing feelings for travel and feed my soul after so much desk-based work. The replacement holiday allows me to have 2 days off from the internship. During the trip, I made up my mind related to my priority for this time. I found that nothing is ever “enough” if I keep trying to exhaust myself out. I heard that voice and sent a long email to my mentor.

I was replenished at sea!

Following the trip, I had 2 days involved in 2 active events with the students on Campus. I felt the vibe of educating people though I didn’t play that role. The TA job mostly had to do with technical stuff like switching slides and delivering paper to students. I like that I could come to students’ groups and talked to them, seeing them interacting together, seeing collective ideas eventually creating something cool. I learnt much from the students as they debated on stakeholders’ roles in shaping the Education system of Thailand. Some could really felt as the learners that they stood up to speak for their rights. Some got a bit of stuck for not understand much what their actual responsibility are like. Ultimately, Ajarn was successful to project a big picture of complexity existing in every corner of social issues. Students are not yet asked to solve any big things but at least imagine the puzzles of social entrepreneurship.

Regarding the Orientation Day for the Freshyear students, I was such a damn long time since I did the facilitation work.

I was so inspired and touched by my own voice... more than that, by students' eyes.

I had only 30 minutes to do the get-to-know section. The event was in a big theater hall so my initial idea collapsed. I decided to facilitate a game called PICTURE ME for 60 students to make students better connected. What I learnt is: Flexibility is the best solution to tackle the uncertainties. The first simple plant was to let everyone one by one’s name together with one action they like. I had some hiccup in giving the instructions but later it went up the energy. Foohhhh ~ I also learnt that the social distancing policy actually failed to separate the young for the nature of human beings that they will come together to survive and grow rather than stay detached.

#wander

p/s. this post only has nice pictures, not so nice content. but I don't care. it's me.