Half of Year in Pages
By Marielle Sophie Elfi Mundt, Volunteer in Intercultural and Language (ICL)- RPK24 Phayao, July 2024
Introduction
I have already been here in Thailand for six months, it is crazy how fast time flies. My life and I changed a lot. And that's why the topic of this report are my experiences and changes I have lived through till yet. Honorable mentions are my dreams, hopes and fears for the future.
My daily routine
First of all, my daily routine changes day per day depending on the schedule. Most of the time I wake up at 6.30 or 7.00 o‘clock to get ready, do a TO Do list and wash my dishes from the day before. At 8.00 o‘clock everyone meets at the assembly hall for the morning assembly. Most of the time this ends at 8.30 o‘clock, but on special occasions it is longer. After that I have my English classes, which are very fulfilling especially with the younger students since they are always happy to see me and I get the feeling that they learn something, every time I am with them. After the English classes I am joining the activities with the students. There I try to start conversations in English as well as in Thai. These are fun but also bumpy. Since I have to improve my Thai skills and they have to improve their English skills. My favourite activities are crafting, where I can start most of the conversations, Music, where I am currently learning to play the saw, and drink mixing. In the evening I like to go boxing. There are a lot of really sporty students, who are trying to teach me different activities. On the weekends I sometimes take the bus really early in the morning to Chiang Rai. When I am there, I am most of the time shopping or sightseeing. All in all I like my new routine in Thailand and I really got used to it.
Holidays and Travelling
The Holidays started surprisingly early for me. Already at the end of February was the graduation and so the end of the school year. The holidays went from the end of February till the start of May, so I had a lot of time in my hands to see the country. At the beginning of March I had to travel to Laos for my Visa. There I made my first experience of traveling alone in a foreign country. And my first experiences of booking hostels, flights, buses, trains and activities. After my week in Laos I came back to Thailand, where I started my Journey in Chiang Rai. I really loved Chiang Rai, since it is a small city with a lot of art culture. After Chiang Rai I traveled to Krabi, the West Coast of Thailand, to meet some of my friends, there I met some really nice people and created connections with people from all over the world. In Krabi I also experienced my hopefully only hospital stay, since I got food poisoning. After this awful experience, I traveled by bus to Bangkok. In Bangkok I made new friends and I fell in love with the city. I also made a trip to Ayutthaya, the capital of the old Kingdom. For Songkran I went to Chiang Mai and I met some friends I made along my journey. The atmosphere was really happy and just extraordinary. In the end of April and beginning of May I traveled to the Islands of the East Coast, Koh Tao, Koh Phagnang and Koh Samui. In Koh Samui I met up with my mother and stayed with her there for two weeks. There I could show her what I learned about Thailand and which habits of this country I adapted. This was the end of my journey during the holidays. But by mid of June I had already traveled again, but this time to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Visa experiences
If you want to be a volunteer in Thailand for half a year or longer, you‘ll have to deal with various visa application procedures. It starts in your home country, for me it is Germany. When I applied for the Thai Visa in Germany, I thought everything would work out, because why not. I followed all the instructions of my organization. But then my co-volunteer texted me with the message, that the Thai Embassy messaged her with the news that there is a document. I hoped at that moment that she really just forgot to submit a document we already had. But soon they also messaged me with the same news- „one document missing.“ I was stressed out. The whole trip was in abeyance. My co-volunteer got the news that she got the Visa, but I had entered without a non-Immigrant O Visa and instead with a Tourist Visa. It was planned that as soon as the orientation camp was over, I should travel to Penang in Malaysia, but that didn't work out, since they needed a work permit. So instead of traveling to Penang, I was traveling to school to start my volunteer year. But since the Tourist Visa expired after one month, I had to travel to Laos to get the non-Immigrant O Visa, which expires after 3 months. Regarding this Visa in Laos I had to book an appointment. The whole experience was a bit spontaneous since I didn't know in which country I would have to go to get my Visa and I also didn‘t know if the documents would be there in time for my trip, since an overstay is illegal. So everything was a bit short-term, that's also the reason I had to stay for two weeks in Laos as I couldn‘t get an appointment as early as possible at the embassy in Vientiane. Luckily everything went well regarding the Visa in Vientiane. Three months later I had to travel to Kuala Lumpur to get a new Visa, but a document was missing, so I had to travel back to Thailand and I‘m here now with a Tourist Visa. Now I have to travel back there with the document, which is missing, to get my Non Immigrant O Visa in a week from now. The whole experience regarding the Visa was unorganized and stressful, but at least I could travel around.
New Competences
During this journey I experienced a few different key moments, where I realized I developed new competences. First of all while traveling I was a bit scared to do something wrong, to book the wrong hotel, flight, bus or train. But after a few times it became routine and I am now really confident in myself regarding the planning of trips. As I traveled a lot on my own I realized that I love to be alone and I am sometimes really happy to be by myself. But sometimes when I needed some social contacts I just had to talk to people in the hostels or on the trip. So I have become more outgoing since I came here. Since I got more confident in myself I am not too shy anymore to order something at a restaurant and I can manage myself through markets. The small knowledge of Thai that I have obtained also helps with this. Now I can also negotiate pretty well with Thais, that was also really hard for me in the beginning, as I never had to negotiate in Germany. My favorite experience was when I realized I could understand English and that they are really learning something from me. Since I started to teach at the school I am also more spontaneous and I can plan things very efficiently in a short time. To put it in a nutshell I became more confident in my skills, earned a few more competences and became more spontaneous.
Dreams, Hopes and Fears
In the next and also my last six months I hope everything will work well regarding the Visa situation. I want to improve my Thai and Saw playing skills and I would like to help some students to overcome their shyness regarding their English speaking skills. Hopefully I can help the volunteers to settle in. In the next few months I also would like to go boxing. My fears for the next few months are that I will be homesick, that I won't get the Visa and that I won't get along with the new volunteers.
We will see how that will work out.