June 30th . . .
I step out into the gritty smog filled air of bangkok, I find myself overwhelmed by the smells, sights, and sounds. Thai is a tonal language making it fairly difficult to pronounce correctly, but it can be very pleasant to listen to, its odd how listening to people converse in a different language is more akin to listening to music that one can’t understand than a mass of people communicating their wants needs and desires. . . I distinctly remember sitting on the plane in a tight economy class seat dreaming about what it would be like to come back to Thailand. I had such vivid memories, experiences, but to physically take that first step out of the airport was much different than those warm and familiar dreams that had pacified my thoughts on that 24 hour mind numbing flight which would bring me to the other side of the world. The initial shock soon wore off as survival needs set in, sleep, food, security. Of course I made it to Khon Kaen without too much trouble, the whole way thinking of ways that I could learn Thai faster, wishing that I could simply input the Thai language into my brain through some space age form of osmosis, but obviously thats nothing more than a pipe dream. . . I will say that my Thai has really increased by a good deal looking back, but moving into next semester I want to set my self up for a very large increase in my Thai. Give this goal of “conquering the Thai language” more of structure or framework.
Khon Kaen
Back in the city, that as a study abroad student, I had called my home for 5 glorious months of personal growth and transformation. I had butterflies walking into the CIEE office for the first time. Of course, little had changed, giving me a false sense of security. A sense that I had gone through this unique educational model and already had a fairly concrete understanding of what my job would entail. . . If you could see me now these thoughts are particularly laughable.
The next months followed with a period of time where “the family,” as I like to refer to us, spent an absurd amount of time together. It was at time tiresome, but nonetheless really exciting. Knowing that these people would be there for me over the next year. That these people were going to be there for me during the bad and the good times, in sadness and elation. In hard mornings and long nights. I have found myself frustrated with these 4 individuals at times but the good has always outweighed the bad and those hard times make the good ones even better. All of those habits and patterns began to emerge among the five of us. We began to feel more comfortable interacting with each other. To a point where we could be down right indignant with each other, and it was okay, for we always knew that deep down we were all inseparably tied to one another.
The five of us, in a strange land, with none of our familiar social support networks, our families on the other side of the world, and a job that will keep us in extremely close proximity, felt dedicated and genuine about building strong healthy relationships built on trust and respect, any other type of relationship would end in torture, more or less.
Its funny how hard we tried to become a team, and never fully functioned the way our superiors wanted us to, but I think our determination is worth quite a lot by itself. Coming out the final days of the fall 2010 program, we all felt our spirits rising, with new opportunities, a common understanding of accomplishment and failure. I feel a great deal of fondness to my peers. I see their strengths and weaknesses. They are really amazing people . . . its really very difficult capture an entire semester in a blog post. Really impossible actually, for theres the working relationship that I have began to outline, theres the work with the students, communities, the creative aspect of re visioning what the educational model at CIEE is and is becoming. The job is very multi-dimensional, with the constant possibility of an evolving and changing job description.
One example of how my job became even more multi-dimensional began at the beginning of the semester, though it wasn’t actualized till Unit 5. The basic structure of CIEE begins with an orientation, which begins to form a group within the students, they then transition into a mock unit which gives context to the structures and roles that the students will find themselves in. The students then begin a process of facilitating themselves through the 5 units of the program. The group learns together, makes collective decisions, and learns to work together while at the same time realizing the value and worth in group decision making and collaboration. I come in on Unit 5 facilitating a student group of Thai students who are following a parallel program as the students which intersects at certain points. What an experience to see the program progress throughout a semester, and finally seeing my role in Unit 5 as a facilitator for a separate group of students, who are come from a very different ethinic and cultural background from myself. The cultural stretching that I went through during this period was seemed difficult at times, but has taught me a lot of patience and gained me a good bit of respect as well.
Heres some pictures below that I picked out from the semester. . . one is our christmas card, the other the 5 of us Program Facilitators went to a local potter and enjoyed a relaxing day playing with clay.
Any questions feel free to ask for clarifications on anything. . . or if anything sparked some interest you know what I mean. . .
newmansnewstand 