Thailand made me the best me. Past Review
By Linden Pearsall (University of Massachusetts Amherst / UMass) - abroad from 12/27/2018 to 04/10/2018 with
CISabroad (Center for International Studies): Bangkok - Semester in Thailand
I gained a new found confidence in myself and how I navigate the world. It was one of the most worthwhile experiences I have had to date.
Personal Information
| How much international exposure did you have prior to this program? | 2 weeks - 1 month |
Review Your Program
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* Overall educational experience
Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc. |
Classes are max 40 students, so coming from a big university this was really great. The class periods are either 2 hours or 4 hours. They have a lot of class options and times, which means you can make your schedule as flexible as you want it to. I was able to make my schedule only have classes from Monday to Wednesday, which means I had extra long weekends each week! |
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* Host Country Program Administration
On-site administration of your program |
Chuie was a godsend! He was great at connecting with us and making sure we felt safe. |
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* Housing:
How satisfied were you with your living arrangements? |
Bundit home had a pool and laundry facilities on site. It was also located right across from 7/11 and other dorms where international students live. All the food you could ever want resides in a big tent a little ways down the road. |
| * Food: |
GREAT FOOD! So cheap!! I ate for about 3 dollars a day maximum. I would stay away from the American food they try to make though, like pasta. The local food is a lot better! |
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* Social & Cultural Integration:
How integrated did you feel with the local culture? |
Learning how to communicate with someone from another culture who speaks another language was challenging,but it taught me lessons on how to better communicate with people in my own life now. Get ready to use hand gestures, read body language, and always have a few phrases handy. (Pad pak Khao means stir fried veggies and rice) |
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* Health Care:
How well were health issues addressed during the program? |
Thailand has some of the best medical care in South East Asia. The university and dorms are located right by a hospital. |
| * Safety: |
Never felt unsafe walking home late at night around where I lived. |
| If you could do it all over again would you choose the same program? |
Yes
Definitely loved both the freedom and the support I had during this program. |
Finances
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* Money: How easily were you able to live on a student's budget?
(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost) |
Costs of living are very low, it really just depends on how much you travel. |
| Not including program expenses, about how much money did you spend on food and other expenses each week? | probably about 30? If I traveled though including flights, food, and accommodation probably around 250-300 for a 4 day weekend. |
| Do you have any general money-saving tips for future study abroad participants? | Use www.hostelworld.com for cheap hostels, in Asia, they usually range from about 5-12 dollars a night. and skyscaner.com to see when the cheapest dates to fly places are. You can search across a whole month. Also always fly Air Asia! Super cheap flights. |
Language
| * Did your program have a foreign language component? | No |
Other Program Information
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* Where did you live?
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* Who did you live with?
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* Who did you take classes with?
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| About how many local friends did you make that you will likely keep in touch with? | 0 |
A Look Back
| * What did you like most about the program? |
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| * What could be improved? |
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| * What do you know now that you wish you knew before going on this program? | I wish I had known that it did not take place in Bangkok. It takes place in the quaint town of Salaya Thailand. |
Individual Course Reviews
| Course Name/Rating: |
Tourism Geography |
| Course Department: | ICSS 139 |
| Instructor: | |
| Instruction Language: | English |
| Comments: | The course changed the way I look at tourism. It is so much more relaiant on our landscape than we think. This courses specifically uses Thailand as an example of tourism and its positive and negative effects. We had a midterm and a final, as well as a semester long project where we outlined a way we would sustainably develop Freetown, Sierra Leone into a tourist destination. |
| Credit Transfer Issues: | The course is a lower level course, so I would talk to your home institution about how to best get it signed off! Mahidol University is a globally ranked top university. So even though this course is lower level it had the rigor of more like a 300 level class. |
