As the title says: I’ve had a crazy last two months. Lots of traveling, made lots of new friends, lots of school- and work projects and deadlines. Let me go over every single topic to give an update on how I found myself in the position I am in right now.
Bachelor Business Administration
Oh yea, forgot about the reason I went to Thailand. Some of my friends kept asking me if I was actually studying, “because you never post anything about studying”. Even though, I study in Thailand, it is not that special to show what and when I study. Six courses which had three hours per week. That makes 18 hours of study per week. I did some studying okay.
The whole semester went pretty good for me, it was very good to combine with traveling around in Thailand. “But Elmo, you went to Thailand to study, but your study is online. So you could also follow it from here?” Yes, of course i could follow it from home. It would have been very difficult with the six hours time-difference. And besides that, I am in Thailand. One of the most beautiful countries in the world and ‘Land of the Smiles‘. I would give up everything to be able to learn about this country and see the most beautiful places. Okay, maybe I don’t have 100% attendance, but at least I tried. Let me give some special moments of when I was glad classes were online:
- Khao Sok National Park: this was the first time I had struggles of being the only one with classes on one of the days I was there. We did the boat tour which would take up the whole day. And of course, we did it on the day when I had two courses from 9 to 12am and from 1 to 4pm. First class was doable, we were in the van for some hours to get to the national park, opened up the hotspot of my phone and I was able to follow it.
Little did I know, no internet connection in the park. Luckily it was during the break in between the two classes. We arrived at the ‘floating houses’, a famous location in Khao Sok where you can sleep in the small houses, which are floating on water. We were about to stay there for 2 hours, perfectly timed for my class, which had a lecturer who ends the class after two hours. But the bad thing was that my friends obviously went kayaking, I would do the same. But I was scared of joining and not getting my attendance. Oh yea, the lecturer did the attendance at the end of the class, so everyone had to stay until the class is over. If you were not there while she did the attendance, you didn’t get attendance of the class.
- During the Mae Hong Son-loop: around 600 km in 6 days, that was the goal we had to accomplish, because my friend had to get her flight in time. I did not have class on Sunday and Monday, so we drove a lot these days, from Chiang Mai to Pai. We stayed in Pai for some time, and went to Mae Hong Son afterwards. We wanted to stay there for 1 night and visit the border with Myanmar. But guess who had a full day of class on Friday. Yes, me.
When I stayed home, at 1 place AGAIN, my friends did amazing things, AGAIN. They spend the whole day driving to, stayed at and drove back from the border with Myanmar. And I learned about…, I don’t even know what I learned, was not that interesting, I guess.
The next day we drove to the Flower Fields, and to Doi Inthanon after that. Four hours of driving. I was lucky enough to have 1 class that day, from 9 to 12am. And in the meantime I learned around what time the lecturer always ends the class. We had a lot to drive, so we did the following:
- Prepared to drive at 8:50
- I started my class at 8:55
- Said hello and asked how the teacher is
- Started driving at 9:00
- Had some stops along the way, and checked if my class was still in session
- When it was 10:25 we stopped for a break
- The moment I had my phone the following words were said by the lecturer: “This was it for today, let me take your attendance.”
- So I said ‘present’ and thanked the lecturer for the class today, and drove off to Doi Inthanon
So these examples were in between the midterm- and final exams. Which was like a more calm period with only assignments. From the end of November till mid-December things still got stressful. Something I didn’t expect, because everything and everyone in Thailand is chill and with 0 stress. This was in the period I was in Phuket. That is why I didn’t see that much of Phuket, at least I tried to see as much as possible, but more about that in another blog.
But at the end, everything worked out. I had big parties in the meantime, had even bigger hangovers afterwards, and finished all my courses. All the lecturers said, in the first course class we had, that you will pass the course when you have above 80% attendance. And that there is a low percentage of students who didn’t pass the semester.
At the beginning of the week I received a message of my university. They congratulated me on finishing my semester at Siam University. I don’t know how to feel about it. Because I have been living in paradise for 6 months, I don’t feel like I graduated. The best part is that I can celebrate my graduation for several weeks in Sri Lanka. I think I will realize it when I am back home. Feels even weird to write about the fact that I graduated…
