Living alone in Sathupradit

2 weeks ago, I moved out from Rangksit, where we lived in Pui's house. Why? Rangksit is about 1 1/2 hours away from the center of Bangkok, so it was quite a hassle to go downtown to attend meetings.
So now I live in what we call "the Swiss flat" (because there was a Swiss flag hanging in the room when we went to look at it).

These are the beauties of living in the Swiss flat:
- It's small and simple but perfect for me.
- It's right under the roof, which is huge and only used by me. (Very nice: take up some Thai mattresses (straw things), candles, food and music, and then look at the city at night.) (On the picture below you can see the view from the roof)
- The bathroom is outside (no, nobody can see it from anywhere), so when I have a shower in the morning the sun shines right down on me and I can suntan and shower at the same time!
- There is a woman that sells gau grapau gai (spicy chicken with rice) right in the same building down stairs.
- There is the best gau man gai woman of Thailand across the street. (it's my favorite dish: Rice and Chicken, yeah I know, it sounds very plane but it's just delicious the way she makes it!)
- There is a Chinese vegetarian place also across the street!
- Weaw and Gut are very cool neighbours!

Just that I'm probably the first farang (white person) who ever lived in this area. (OK, apart from the Swiss who used to live in the Swiss flat before me, and several others I guess). I get stared at as if I just came down from mars or somewhere. First week, everyone just gaped at me. Now people know that there is someone strange walking around the neighborhood and somehow everybody who sees me waves and shouts "Hello my friend!" Which is funny but strange. And I thought that in Rangksit people used to react strangely to Rob, Rina and me, but oh I tell you: It's nothing compared to here.

But I figure out: living alone is no fun! Rob, Rina and Pui, I'm looking forward for you guys to come back from IC! And Chregu, I miss you a lot and thinking that I have to wait half a year until you will move back in with me in Bern seems like forever!

Fedalölatschöö

The best mispronunciation:

Non: "... because she is a fan of Fedalölatschöö."
Me: "What's a Felalölatschöö?"
Non: "Oh you MUST know him!"
Me: "Never heard of it."

...General staring at me in disbelieve...

Non: "But he is the most famous Swiss guy!"
Me: "?"
Non: "The best tennis player of the world! Fedalö Latschöö!"

For all those angry now: I admit, my Thai is not perfect eighter :-)

Ab in den Süüüüden!

yeah, yeah, I know, I am already in the south... But that is not keeping me from going further down!

Cause I just booked my flight to Singapore to visit CK!

From Friday the 8th of September until Monday morning the 11th for 140 SFr (including taxes)!
Jehee, I'm excited and looking forward to explore a new city, hanging out with ck and getting to know his people there!

Educating Kids ...and myself

Last weekend, LC BU (Bangkok University) organized a two days trip to Rayon, which is about 4 hours south-east from Bangkok on the beach. They invited me to join, so I did.

The purpose of the project was to visit a poor school and to teach the kids there some English. So on the first day, after we arrived there we spend a whole afternoon with the cutest kids, teaching them words like the weekdays, months, time, how to say "My name is..." They did quite good. After the educational part was done, they had some games for the kids and many gifts prepared and it was really cute to see how enthusiastic they were. Stefanie, you would have loved it!

Later we headed for the site. We were supposed to have a session, but that didn't take place any more, since we were already late on schedule. So we moved on to dinner. Uhhh you should have seen this: Dinner on the beach! the nice smell of saltyness in the air, a million different dishes (OK, most of it seafood, chili and garlic), comfortable chairs... it was very nice.

The next day, we got up, some went swimming, we had the session about AIESEC identity packed up, went for lunch, to some market and then home.

Yes, it all sounds wonderful. It surprises myself that these were actually probably the most difficult days since I have been here in Thailand. In many different ways.
First of all it was a truly Thai spoken weekend. So many times I really just sat there and tried to guess from their faces, what they could be talking about.
Then one thing that truly shocked me, was this: about 80% of the participants (AIESEC members) don't know AIESEC! By that I don't mean they are not 100% familiar with the Balanced Scorecard or AIESEC 2010... no, I mean it very basic: They simply stare at me, when I tell them that I work full time for AIESEC in Thailand and ask "what's that?" And after a longer explanation they nod and ask "so are you an exchange student then?"

I was suddenly filled with a feeling of being totally lost and I guess you could say culture shock, yes. Not that I wouldn't have noticed it yet, but this weekend just made it clearer: Asian students ARE very different from Europeans. VERY.

But hey, what would a life be like, in which you never break out of your comfort zone and never put yourself into a situation that challenges you? What are the moments when you truly learn? Not those ones when everything is fine and routine. It's moments like this Saturday, when you need to leave the room to think, receive words of motivation (thank you Yavor), go back in and unexpectedly end up in a very cool conversation. (Thank you Ta) And in the end, it just feels good when you say goodbye and people tell you "I'm so glad I learned more about AIESEC." "I'm looking forward for the workshop." etc. It's gonna turn out good.

Some Clubbing

You won't believe it, but Friday was the second night that I went clubbing here in Bangkok. So far I just didn't really have the chance very often, and on those times that I did, I always had to get up ridiculously early the next day to go to some place. (OK, not that this would have been any different on Friday, I had to get up at 7 the next day, but I guess I just didn't care...)

So we had this Workshop-Dinner at my place with Pui, Rina, me and 5 participants about Communication and Negotiation skills with Dinner on the roof top. (mmmmm gau man gai...)
After the participants of the workshop had to leave, Weaw joined in, and we left for what was possibly the biggest club I have ever been to.
Very good concert, good cocktails, and most of all good company. Thanks Rina, Weaw and Pui!

When we got home, Rob was waiting in front of the locked door. What followed was a cosy night of all of us sitting together and talking, talking, talking... I will miss you guys when you'll be in Poland.

Tears

The night after the conference, for the first time I get to relax alone, I'm standing in the hallway, looking out of the window, tears keep streaming down my face.

2 months back, when sitting in robs room and talking about my summer plans, would I ever have thought that this talk would lead me to experience such deep and intensive learning moments? That it would lead me to an environment, where I would suddenly start to see my life clearer?
9 month back, when sitting in that classroom and listening to those people running an info event about what is AIESEC, would I ever have though that this would lead me here to Thailand, to stand in front of people and change their lives?

Tears of happiness, the sort of tears that leave your body when you feel a Spark within yourself.

The beginning of a roaring fire

I'm sitting in the office, waiting for the others to pack up their stuff and get ready to leave for the conference site.
I take a moment and look back. I can't recall any week at all in my life, that I ever worked that hard, that long every night (not one night that I stopped working before 1 am.), and at the same time that passionate. Planning, outlining sessions, designing power points, practicing, discussing... intense, thrilling, exciting, overwhelming.
But now I feel ready (more or less) and I can look forward to my first national conference that I planned as MC member. Nervous? Yes! Definitely.

Ok, it's starting... The four of us are going out there and create a SPARK!

Exaltation and Suffering

I finished my book: The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand.
It has challenged many of my beliefs and left an impression on me that I wont forget very fast, I' sure. Reading this book was to me like understanding and stating many of my thoughts and feelings, that have shapelessly been floating somewhere around my mind in the last years, but that I could never quite touch.

This Week...

...I haven't gone any further away from my house than approximately 200 meters at all. Within this range I can find all my heart desires right now: My room, Rob's room, Pui's house (=office), food, ice tee, ATM machine, massage place and even a small coffee shop. There was somehow no need, but especially no time to go any further.

Because this is what's been going on:

We are one week away from the national induction conference. That means the whole team is very busy right now designing sessions, planning the exact time and all the details that come up. As I mentioned earlier, I've never been involved in the planning and creation of a conference so far and I have to say, this is extremely exiting stuff! It has never before crossed my mind that I would enjoy being a facilitator, but now I suddenly am, and I quite like it so far.
I get to live out my creativity by creating my own sessions, present them to the others, receive feedback, go back again and think about different ways how the session could be run, and in the end I will be standing in from of the delegates and run them through my own baby!
But I guess some of you can imagine how much there is to do one week before the conference. Well, its a lot.

Then next to that, I have now started to get in touch with the coordinators of some of the global partners (Electrolux, DHL, Cadbury Schweppes, ABN AMRO and PwC), to see how we could set up cooperation. There is promising stuff going on!

On top of that we did some redesigning of the national SN recruitment process.

...So much about the professional side of my life.

Personally Im wondering why on earth I feel like I need about doubled the amount of sleep and food here than in Switzerland, even though I barely move my body at all. The 2 flights of stairs I have to walk up to my room is really all the exercise I get (appart form rehearsing the MC dance :-) ). That is strange and annoying at the same time, since Im in a state of exhaustion almost all day. Im glad I got over my cold though.

Im starting to really like this spicy food they have here. Im not as far in this process as Rob is, Im sure. But Im getting better. Yesterday I arrived at the state where I would add chilli to my noodle soup because I found it too plain! (the sort of soup that Im sure would have killed me at the beginning of my stay)

This was a longer update. My goal is to have more and shorter posts, but I guess it's my tiredness that has been keeping me from that.

Exlporing the North in a Daytrip

Saturday morning I got up at 5 in the morning (which was a killer considering that I never got up earlier than 10 since I'm here) took the bus here in Pathum Thani at 5:40 to meet P'Pui in Bangkok at 7. There we met the others (Weaw, Oh, Ploi, Peng) and drove in Weaws car about 2 hours to the north.

Wonderful, suddenly I found myself in the middle of banana trees and rice fields! No noisy tuck tucks around me, just clear air (as far as I could judge). The tripheaded for 4 different attractions, that were newland to the others as well. I got to say here that these were all attractions for Thai people. In that sense it was a most non-touristic trip, which I liked a lot.

Our first target was a big aquarium and crocodile farm. It was nice as there was a big lake and so many fishes in all colors and sizes. It made me think that I should go down south after my CEED is over and try to do some diving. I might get a licence... Apparently that's quite easy and cheap here. In the crocodile farm I saw something like 20 real crocodiles! And a sort of show as well, which I didn't like very much. I guess that goes along with my general aversion against animal shows in circuses and zoos!

Back on the road wedrove to a village, which is one of the oldest in Thailand. It was set up by Chinese immigrants and it is very well kept. It is known for the oldest fresh markets and it's got many old houses. It was quite cool, because they preserve them and you can actually go in and look at everything!


And again we took the car to our next destination: Some sort of a open air museum, where they show how Thais used to live about 500 years ago. Those who have ever been at "Balenberg" in Switzerland know what I'm talking about. It was a big park, where they put up different styles of Thai houses and agricultural fields. They even had some buffaloes to show how they worked with these animals before they had motors. Unfortunately, this is the point when the battery of my camera went flat.

Last stop before returning back to Bangkok: A big Buddhist temple. It was actually more a monastery. I probably saw the tallest Buddha in my live. it was at least 10 meters high! No kidding! It was also very interesting to get a better insight into Buddhism, as my guides readily and patiently answered all of my questions! Thanks especially to P'Pui for all those very good and detailed explanations on Thai culture and customs all through the day.

Finally we got home after an awesome dinner at a kalaoke place (of course...). Totally exhausted I arrived home in Rira's (Rina and Laura's) Swenian empire, and after a long and very random conversation I finally fell asleep at 1:30 to wake up at 6 the next day to attend a traditional Thai wedding...