Around the World for 180 Days
After spending the last ~three weeks adjusting to my new life in Bangkok, my fingers have been itching the last few days to finally get some of my experiences down on paper. One of the regrets I always have after traveling is not taking the time at the end of every day to simply jot down the events of the day. The afterglow of trips taken persists, but it’s always nice to go back in time to entries and live a day over again. So much has happened over the last three weeks that I decided to sit and write about not only what has happened, but also give some thought into how this experience so far has made me feel: about the country I will call home for the next ~6 months, my job and people who I will call my friends and coworkers, and the way I hope to be affected by living abroad. At the outset, as I sit down to write, and as I have noticed over the past few days, I am somewhat taken aback by how I feel about moving around the world and settling down into a new routine. This might be naïvety poking through, as it is only week three, but I genuinely thought this would be more stressful. I have some people to thank right off the bat for making this this easy for me so far.
Firstly, I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for Youth Challenge International (YCI). The position I have received is thanks to a program of theirs called Innovate ME which is funded by Global Affairs Canada. If the thought of interning abroad appeals to you, check out the Innovate ME website. Over the next three years, YCI will send 86 more interns to six different countries. I am working for EDC in Bangkok on a project called COMET (Connecting the Mekong Through Education and Training) and currently my friends in Gabon who I orientated with are working for the WWF and my friend in Senegal is working for EDC as well. There is an emphasis on career building and networking at all stages of the program- I feel super fortunate to have reoriented myself down this path and would highly recommend applying. However, I wouldn’t have found out about this opportunity if it weren’t for my parents who I owe a massive thank you to... for many things. And although I miss them and my friends a lot, here in Bangkok, the office staff at EDC have already made us feel so welcome. A special thanks to Lyss for helping me prepare for my trip and for being a source of great happiness for me.
Note: You can learn more about EDC here and our project here and here.Towards the end of this post I’ve written more about the project and my role in it.
Here is as close to a day by day of my trip this far:
I left for Toronto early on May 10th. I made my way to Centre for Social Innovation- Dundas location from Central Station and began my three day orientation with YCI. There I met the Innovate ME program leads Miriam and Katie in-person. I also met the other interns in my cohort: Tiffany and Yasaman who would be traveling to Senegal, Lauren and Daphne who would be traveling to Gabon, and my travel partner and fellow intern Kira. We spent two days going over important topics like intercultural sensitivity, health and safety, and how to enact YCI's key mission objectives abroad. On the third day, we had the pleasure of meeting Billy Anderson, the founder of the Courage Crusade. We spent the day in a very constructive workshop. I found many things helpful, but two things stuck out. The first was the values assessment we were asked to fill out pre-training. We identified 10 values that we felt strongly for and then worked on creating ways to incorporate those values in decision making. You can do a free values assessment of your own here. Another portion of the training that really stuck out was when Billy asked us to write our own eulogies. I found this to be a very emotional and revealing exercise. In addition to the training I enjoyed spending time with Lauren and Yasaman on the second night of training- we had a nice dinner at a Thai restaurant (Yes I know) and then went to go see The Second City. It was an amazing performance. It seems like so long ago (casual reminder to myself here not to let so much time go by without journaling -.- ).
That brings us to the flight. I caught an Uber to Pearson on Saturday night and got into the Terminal without a hitch. I remember being taken aback at how modern the terminal was. There were hundreds of IPads available to use for free and I spent the time talking to Lyss. I remember being excited. Unfortunately, somehow my favourite blue dog towel fell of my backpack and I was unable to find it after so that was pretty traumatizing. Kira came and we got on the plane. The plane was beautiful and spacious. EVA airways had a fully stocked bathroom (very important) and I remember getting food relatively quickly- a service to try and get us temporally adjusted. I stayed up for about 5hrs watching Modern Family and This Is Us. Finally at what would have been around 7am EST, I took a Gravol and could almost immediately feel myself getting drowsy. When I woke I was astonished to find that 7hrs had passed! Definitely will be taking Gravol with me for any future long flights or future Star Wars movies. The rest of the flight was uneventful.
We landed in Taipei and immediately went to go get something to eat. The terminal we were in was large. We walked around a bit and I changed into shirts and shorts because even inside the Terminal, the heat was ever-present. We eventually settled on a Ramen type dish and grabbed some juice (beers) too. We had about 5hrs to kill and spent it checking out the different vendors and taking advantage of free samples of $60 face lotion. The flight to Bangkok was about 4hrs. We were both excited and started talking about some of the things we wanted to do once we got there. Thai massages were high on both of our lists and we agreed we would get them as soon as possible. Upon arriving in Bangkok we retrieved our bags without a hitch. This was a relief as Miriam at training had mentioned that she had lost bags going to her internship and this made me nervous. There was a large path of sorts at the edge of the terminal and we walked down it passing groups of people holding signs with peoples names on them. Eventually we saw ours and the person holding it had a big smile on her face. It was Ta. Over the next few days she would show us the very best in Thai hospitality and how to be a caring person period. Within 15min of meeting us, she already told Kira she loved her- and you could tell she meant it. I was feeling tired leaving the airport. I remember thinking it was hot and muggy- but I knew it could get a lot hotter. It felt like a “cool” day. We talked to Ta in the van and she mentioned that the driver could give us good rates if we ever wanted to travel outside the city-definitely something to keep in mind for future travel! Originally, we had planned on going straight to the house in the neighbourhood of Thong Lo, but at some point in the conversation Ta asked us if we wanted to go the office and we said yes. I’m glad we did. I’m a little fuzzy on whether we went to the office first or went to the house first. Either way, when we got to the office we were warmly greeted. They were surprised we were there but everyone stopped what they were doing to welcome us. I only recognized Aranya, Oak, and Apple from my interview but everyone was so kind and friendly. We were probably a little bit delirious from the travel but I remember smiling a lot.
The house wasn’t going to work. We were under the impression that our rooms would be in the big main house, but instead, they were in the a smaller building off the side of the house which was doable but not ideal. Catfished by Joke Mango the realtor. The house was nice- but definitely not how the pictures suggested it to be. Once again we have Ta to thank here. I wasn’t too impressed with the house and Ta agreed we needed to eventually find somewhere else to stay. Back at the office it was decided we would spend one night there- which made sense…. We were exhausted. Open returning to Thong Lo we got Thai massages at Annanya Massage. I remember being surprised at how cheap they were! 200B ($8 CAD) for one hour! It was a great massage and kickstarted my obsession with Thai massages. To date, I’ve already had four. It’s interesting because even though I’ve been to two parlours now and had three different masseuses, they have all followed generally the same routine. It is a full body masssage that starts you off on your back and works on groin flexibility and quads and then moves on to calves and your feet. Then the arms are massaged. At about 30min in, you’re flipped onto your back and your hamstrings are released. One day when I was really tight, Mae, from the massage place just down the road in Ekkamai, used her feet to step on my hamstrings right beneath my glutes. It was as painful as it sounds.
Back to the first night- we left the parlour and went just a block over to a little market where we got our first Pad Thai’s. I wasn’t too impressed! But that is the thing about Thai street food. Yes there is a lot, but the quality does vary. What I have learned from going to the market is go to the places where the locals go- but also find out what you like to eat. The stalls have a lot of food and the busy ones will likely nail the dish- but if you don’t like it, it won’t taste good! At this point I would say my favourite dish is actually dark greens rice with red curry sauce on top. Thai food is just as good as I expected. We got lost on our way home, but after asking some Spanish tourists if we could use their phone to see where our house was, we were soon back on track.
I awoke the next morning and was pleasantly surprised at how beautiful the house looked in daylight. There were palm trees all around making the compound very green. I went over by the pool and then explored a side of the house that lay vacant. A Grab car (the company that purchased Uber in SE Asia) was supposed to come around 9 but it did not get there until 9:30. One of the housemates actually called us another Grab car while we were waiting- hoping he didn't get penalized as that was the last time we saw him. Another thing that happened this morning is that I was headed down the street to get some Schnitzels when a dog (from the other side of the road!) started chasing me. This was pretty scary and I ran away as fast as I could. Ever since, I have been wary of dogs although many seem docile, there is the odd aggressive one. We arrived at the office (this time in cleaner and more appropriate clothes!) and spent some time working with Ta (and others in the office) at finding a suitable place to live. About an hour later, a broker came to show us some places not too far up the road. They were just past the Asok BTS station and they were nice condos, but I am glad we didn’t settle for them. They were all close to the ground although two had amazing views of the pool. With that being said, after getting an idea of what condos in Bangkok looked like and assessing the positives of living in one, I am happy we took a moment to reflect and explore different living accommodations. At this point we had all but decided that we would live in a condo but decided once back at the office to book a hostel for that night. We looked at more buildings and found some promising buildings in Ekamai, only 3 stops away on the BTS from the Asok station. We traveled there with Ta and entered a different type of neighbourhood- more residential than the businesslike Asok district and the more traditional Thai neighbourhood of Thong Lor (although our original house was about a 10min walk off the BTS in a more secluded neighbourhood. We started our condo search in the Lumpini Plaza building. I can’t remember exactly what the rooms looked like (although the rooms in both condos roughly follow the same format) but we must not have felt they would do as we asked Ta to help us organize more showings. We were lucky enough to find a broker that would show us rooms at the Aspire Rama 4 just across the street and so we walked over. I fell in love with the building as soon as I saw it. Unfortunately, the showings were called off, but we rebooked for the next morning at 10am. We sat on some benches outside the building to catch our breath and talk with Ta. We learned more about her and her daughter and she answered a lot of our questions. We made our way back to the office to grab one of our suitcases and then made out way over to the hostel- I can’t remember the name of it. It was a nice hostel although we had some difficulty paying as they were asking more than was advertised online. Eventually we sorted it out (I think). The first week overall I struggled with fatigue on and off because of the jet lag. I was taking Melatonin at night to speed up the adjustment process but it was still difficult. I remember crashing hard at the hostel that night although I also remember having a mild panic attack the next morning because I thought someone had stolen my Lenovo! It was actually just in my other suitcase which I realized after a few minutes of frantic searching and silently cursing the snoring man in the bunk next to mine who I could not help but pin as the number 1 suspect.
The next morning we successfully navigated the BTS to Ekamai and although we exited from the wrong walkway, we were soon back on track thanks to the GPS’s on the phones Ta had helped us set up. She really has done a lot for us and we need to get her a gift. So far the plan is Canadian maple syrup. We made our way to the Aspire Rama 4 and were shown some amazing condos. The first one blew our socks off- it had an amazing view on the 26th floor. All the apartments to follow had their pluses and minuses but especially after seeing the pool and fitness area, I 100% knew that this is where I wanted to live. I waited until the very last room to make a decision. It was a little more expensive than I had hoped at around $600 Canadian- but it has everything I could need and then some more. A stroke of good luck had Kira finding a unit on the same floor only about 8 doors down. Very convenient! I signed the contract on the spot and paid the landlord first month’s rent plus 2 months’ rent for deposit. The apartment has a Family Mart right at the entrance to our building. Such a great find, and once again, thankful to Ta for helping show us around as well as thankful that we took the time to look around. We spent the rest of the days settling in and that night I slept in my condo for the first time. It needed some things, like bedsheets- which I somehow managed to spend a whole week lacking -.-, but within the coming days a few trips to the grocery store and Tesco had me kitted out with everything I need.
The next morning we had to wait until 1300 for the internet man to come. Afterwards, we traveled (perhaps on the BTS- I can’t fully remember) to the office for our orientation. However, because we were running behind schedule, our orientations were pushed until the next day. We spent a few hours in the office familiarizing ourselves to things, getting our laptops and emails set up, and then went home for some well-deserved rest. I tried out the pool and put in a short workout. The gym has about 7 pieces of cardio equipment, a Lat pulldown machine, a chest press, a bench, and a few free weights. Honestly all you really need for basic workouts and super convenient.
The next morning we made our way to the office for 9am. I believe we made it on time even though it (might) have been our first time doing the BTS/MRT double double. The BTS is Bangkok’s above ground Skytrain. Unlike the publicly funded MRT subway, the BTS is privately owned and has a daily ridership of around 600,000 people. Despite this large figure, I have found commuting on the BTS to be a positive experience. The cars are sometimes packed, but after getting used to being in close quarters with people, that doesn’t concern me anymore. Actually it’s fun and refreshing to see people working together to 1) let people off 2) fit people in. I haven’t seen a single incident on either the BTS or MRT yet. The stations are clean and it is well organized. It’s also interesting how the fee structure is set up. Instead of paying a flat fee to travel anywhere one wants, the price of a trip is calculated by the number of stops one travels. To travel one stop it is about $1 CAD or 25 Baht. Anyways, upon arriving to the office Michael, Aranya, Apple, and Neung gave us an informative presentation on an overview of EDC as a global organization as well as a high level presentation on our project- the USAID COMET (Connecting the Mekong Through Education and Training). Interestingly, the name of the project, even though it is in year 3 of a 5 year lifespan will likely be changed to USAID-LMI COMET. The LMI stands for the Lower Mekong Initiative and is a US State Department project started by Hillary Clinton. To get this position, I summarized the year 3 report and have included my summary of it below:
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In November 2017, we released the USAID COMET Project third annual review. This blog post will provide a brief summary of that review. The full review is available here.
2017 Data Highlights
492 (85%) of our instructors are using the MekongSkills2Work Network Portal. Our annual target was 135 and we exceeded this goal by 364%.
We trained over 580 instructors and surpassed our goal of 176 by 329%
Over the last 3 years we have reached 44,551 students
We have overseen 203 Workforce Development Initiatives
On our Facebook page alone, we have reached over 1,138,000 unique views on our posts and received 93,000 interactions!
2017 Key Achievements
In 2017, we developed a comprehensive instructor certification system and online course system to assist in our ultimate goal of institutionalizing our program as a regional leader in innovative education. Instructors will now go through 3-step certification process that includes face-to-face workshops and online courses. Lead and Master Instructors will be capable of leading professional development workshops which will assist in our goal of creating a sustainable and reciprocal system of educator development.
Our brand new MekongSkills2Work Work-Based Learning Toolkit provides our program participants with guidelines and tools to help prepare them for their internships and how to leverage that experience for future employability. The creation of this pilot toolkit was based off feedback from industry partners that many students are not internship ready. By starting with observation-based work exposure, and then progressing to longer experiences like job shadowing, students are not only better prepared for internships but are able to build relationships with potential employers.
Additionally, our project partnered with YouRock.Jobs, an organization that facilitates the creation of rich, dynamic profiles that speak to employers. This component of the project is scheduled to be completed by early 2018 and will allow program participants to creatively diversify their résumé.
In July 2017, the project completed an analysis of multinational partnerships focusing on companies from the United States. As a result of this study, the project has deepened its connection with Amazon Web Services, Cisco, Intel, Texas A&M University, and National Instruments and is excited to see how these collaborative arrangements will benefit students in the future.
Following the success of three of our teams in the YSEALI World of Food Innovation Challenge, our project is now advocating for the use of challenge-style competitions as a best practice for supporting project-oriented learning. The project has partnered with Texas A&M University and Intel to provide training for Mekong Learning Centres (MLCs) so that they can send teams to the Invent for the Planet Innovation Challenge at Texas A&M University in 2018.
Finally, the project has continued to monitor its level of institutionalization by gauging quantitative and qualitative feedback. Overall, the project has been well received but it has been broadly reported that the additional workload it puts on instructors is creating time management challenges. Additionally, data collection from former students has proven to be a challenge.
Our project is excited to gear up for 2018!
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Following our overview meeting, the entire team was called into the meeting room to go over the following presentations:
EDC Thailand and YCI: Roles and Expectations
Thailand: Culture, Health, Safety and Security
That afternoon I met again with Nancy, Neung, and Michael to go over my role from a birds eye view. I found this session informative and was excited to meeting with my individual supervisors to discuss the explicit tasks I was to complete. They were impressed at YCIs organization when it came to the work plan front. I now have a clear outline of what my objectives are. I was pretty fatigued at this point and was looking forward to sleeping in the next morning. My first few nights I had found myself waking up at strange hours of the night, but as the week progressed my sleep schedule was starting to feel more and more normal. Nonetheless, I slept 14 hours that night! I spent the weekend mostly relaxing, cooking some chili, and watching some movies. It was good to catch my breath as the last week and a half had been a true whirlwind. I still feel prepared for what I am doing and what I am trying to do now is break the protective mental cocoon I created to protect myself from the rapid change I’ve recently been through. There have been lumps to swallow these past few weeks that I am still working through, but I know that the way past them is to revisit the mentality I had of the past that sought the uncomfortable- especially on the physical front- I am already making positive steps to regain my fitness as I know the best version of myself is on that path!
That brings us to last week. After meeting with Nancy on Monday I set out to complete my support of the Stage 2 Revision process. COMET is a workforce development project and my specific task involved editing documents in the teacher education package. I enjoyed this task immensely as it brought me face to face with the teaching philosophy of the program. The overall gist, while acknowledging the risk of not doing enough here to properly encapsulate the impact, is to provide youth with more job specific education so that there is less of gap between education received in post-secondary institutions and skills required in the work force. A large part of this is teacher education as many university instructors are never actually taught how to teach. I spent the week going over all the documents and getting used to the day in and day out of a 9-5pm. I would spend my lunch hours a few blocks down the road at a large food market. A recurring problem we have had is the shock of seeing so much food often makes us incredibly indecisive as to what to eat! A good problem to have no doubt. The food has been delicious and though, among my family at least, I enjoy my food on the milder side, I have been initiated into the world of spice through a baptism of quite literally fire. And spider crabs in allegedly vegetarian dishes!
There have been some amazing sights that I have already witnessed. From the markets and street vendors to the amazing rooftop views of the Octave Bar at the Marriott. I've immensely enjoyed my time thus far in Bangkok and it's hard to believe that this is only week 3 of 24! This past weekend I took a short ferry ride from the Wat Khlong Toey Nok Pier to the island of Bang Krachao. Nestled right next to the sprawling metropolis of Bangkok, Bang Krachao was quite literally a breath of fresh air. It's nickname is the Green Lung and from the pictures below, it's not hard to see why:
Until next time!
Prak
