Remarkable Experience at Thaksin University

2/27/2017 12:00:00 AM

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By Angeline Agustina, Audi Nur Aqmarina, Ezra Raditya, Febrian Andika, and Yohana Mekar

 

Sometimes, things in life don’t always go the way we want it to be. As much as we all five hoped to give a good first impression, we kind of blew it off when we stumbled upon ourselves and showed up late on our first day of the camp. We were supposed to gather with other participants at 7:00 a.m, then left to the camp site. However, we woke up at around 7:15 a.m. and made everyone waited for us at the gas station nearby for about half an hour. We were really sorry, so we apologized to everyone we knew there. We joined other students in the bus then left the gas station soon after. We drove for about an hour to Local Wisdom Center at Satingpra, Patthalung, where our first activity was held.

 

The camp was led by Joseph, one of the lecturers from Thaksin. After the short introduction of the camp, we were told to form a group consisting of one foreigner and two buddies, or in some cases there’s a group of two foreigners and two buddies. The participants of the camp were thirty-one Thai English major students; six from China, five from Indonesia, four from Laos, two from Spain and one from France. We were divided into three groups; group one had to make a traditional Southern Thai dessert called Kanom Doo; group two had to make an organic shampoo and soap from a plant called Kontee; and the last group had to make pottery. The three activities were well-known in Songkhla. We were taught to do the three activities as the way the locals did.

 

After finished doing the three activities, we grabbed our snack (the Kanom Doo). We also visited Tungkai Botanical Garden at the Trang Province where we enjoyed some canopy walk. We were expecting plants and trees, but a series of raised walkways winding through jungle canopy some 18 meters above ground proved to be an unexpected adventure. Our first day of the camp was closed by a dinner of our own at a night street food market with our buddies. The night market was more of night food festival with both local and some international dishes offered, purposefully to attract the tourists’ interests. There were so many delicious food, we felt confuse to chose what we should eat. Our buddies was so delicated to explained us all of the food that they sold there. We bought some different foods and shared it together. They were so delicious! After that, we went back to the hotel.

 

Second day of the camp is beach day. But before going to the beach, we had breakfast at a dim sum restaurant. The dim sum was so yummy, we loved it. Then, we had packed and mostly physical activities on our second day. The day started by all the participants being divided into four different groups that later being called as a tribe. The activities itself called a Cross-cultural Communication Tribes, in which every tribes had their own protruding characteristic that showed when they are communicating with one another. First tribe consisted of people who acted aloof and slightly haughty; second tribe consisted of people who made a lot of gestures when they’re talking; third tribe consisted of people who were shouting and seemed to always look angry when they’re talking; and the last tribe consisted of gloomy and somewhat disoriented people. The purpose of this activities, was to show how different each tribes’ people would be and to learn on how each of the tribes’ people tried to deal with people from different characteristic and culture. It was a good lesson for us, because we met several people with several tribe each day, and we had to be an open-minded and non-judging person so there would not be some clash or conflict happened.

 

After the beach activities, we played basketball. All of us divided into two big team, and then each of us had to throwed a basketball to a basket. Team who had the biggest score will be the winner. It was so fun but too short, each of us just had one chance to throw the ball, but it was okay. After that, we had lunch at the hotel’s restaurant. There were western food likes pasta, salad,  sandwiches, and also asian dishes likes rice, soups, etc. As expected, food in the hotel is always great. We were so full back then. After that, we had a game that called the Amazing Race. Just like the TV show, there would be some missions for us to do and which team finished the fastest will be the winner team. It’s basically an activity where we had to overcome the cultural differences between our teammates and maintaining a great teamwork despite of it. We presumed our activities after lunch is over with a creative writing activity, in which we’re divided into small groups consisted of six people. We’re told to throw some dices and made a creative storyline from the pictures on it. It’s a fun activity though, highly recommended. It demand your creativity and imagination. After the packed day activities, we’re back to our hotel quite early because they gave us some time to prepare for the Cultural Show that night.

 

At the cultural show, we had a lot of fun! We danced to Macarena when the Spain team performed, learnt about Thai’s traditional games, watched a beautiful ribbon dance from China team, tried some complicated dance steps from the Laotian traditional dance, and got to know some traditional French lullaby from Adrien. For us, we performed an Indonesian traditional songs medley where the fifth of us both dancing and singing. We pulled a pretty good performance despite of the short time preparation. Actually we felt so embarrassed when we were doing the show, but after everything had done, we really feel proud of it. The end of the Cultural Show officially ended our summer camp too.

On our third day, we left the hotel early to had our closing ceremony at a waterfall in Phattalung. We did some kind of sharing with the students and the teacher there. We gained some good lessons again that day. After that, we had free time to enjoy the waterfall. Some students were played in the water, while the others were sang in the side of the water. Everyone had so much fun. Then we got ready and left to Songkhla for good. Despite of the short period of time, we were deeply enjoyed it. Through the activities, we learnt about new things about other countries’ culture, about the differences and about the people’s characteristics. Through the event, we’re able to get closer with some old friends while gaining new friends as well. We were truly grateful for this rare opportunity that has been given to the five of us. We will never forget about this remarkable experience and cherished every memory we made. Thank you.