” The sojourn of two ladies in The Land of Smiles”

Education can be a room for competition. It may be worst or best you could ever have. But Femie and I had seen the beauty of it rather than what we can get from it.

Travel Experience

The University of the Immaculate Conception (UIC) had sent two delegates for the SEAMEO Pre-service Teacher Student Exchange Batch 7, last 5 January 2019. I and my co-Sea Teacher Femie Goles, were chosen to be part of this one month internship held in Valaya Alongkorn Rajabhat University under the Royale Patronage Demonstration School, in the province of Pathumthani, Thailand.

Before our scheduled flight on January 05,2019, we made sure to pack all our personal things and the needed documents for the travelling abroad. After we successfully showed all the needed papers in the immigration, we were now about to board. It was a mixed emotion because finally, we were so close to it.

During the whole duration of our flight, we talked about our expectations, the places we should visit and then drifted off to sleep. We spent more than three hours in the plane travelling from Manila to Bangkok. It was overwhelming to see the beautiful view below us. I was excited to see more and take a picture of it when we landed. When we arrived, we admired the sophisticated structure of the airport and to be honest, the moment we stepped on the so-called “land of smiles”, I knew we will be having great experiences and memories.

Thanks to the school who gave us the privilege and made it possible for the two of us to be there. To secure we would arrive there safely, Dr. Virgion Mamonong accompanied us all throughout the trip on the 5th and 6th day of January 2019 and we arrived in Klong Lhuang airport at 10 in the morning via Cebu Pacific. It took us long to find the immigration, but luckily, we found the right way going to arrival area where Ms. View and the two students of VRU College were waiting for us. They were holding placards to welcome us. We took pictures as we waited for the van. We talked for a moment and when the van arrived, we immediately went inside and drove for almost one and a half hour going to Pathumthani province, the location of our receiving school.

When we were at the guesthouse, we noticed that we were the second delegates to arrive there. So, we immediately chose our comfy room. We scanned each room and decided to occupy the room upstairs. In the afternoon, we met other buddies and took a picture together while holding our banner. After they took us to the family mart, where we can buy our food and other necessary items, we returned to the dormitory and pack out our things. Once we were done, Dr. Virgion Mamonong, who accompanied us in the trip, went back to Bangkok to stay overnight. We were left alone there and decided to take a rest as the other delegates from different universities in Indonesia and Philippines had arrived.

The eagle has landed on its own homeland

I say thank you and not goodbye!

February 02, Saturday, marked the end of my sojourn in the so-called Land of Smile, Thailand. At 5:30 in the morning, the van arrived to take us to the Suvannabhumi airport with Ms. Piimlak. We spent one hour to reach the airport. . When we arrived, we bid goodbye and thanked Ms. Piimlak and directly went inside to prepare. Our emotion was mixed; excited because we will be seeing our loved ones and at the same time we were nervous because this was our first time to travel by ourselves. At 10:40, we boarded and flew to Manila. We arrived in NAIA at 2:30 p.m. and then got ready for the next flight going to Davao. The flight was delayed for two hours, so we arrived at 8:30 in the evening in our city, Davao. We were greeted with happy and eager family and friends. At last, the eagle has landed on its own sanctuary.