life at uwc thailand
Where do I begin? The past 2 months have been the best two months of my life. I’ve experienced things I never imagined possible, gone through phases of having 10 hours of sleep one day and 2 hours the next as well as pulling through 3 days with a total of 7 hours of sleep. I’ve made friends with people from countries I never knew existed, done things I normally wouldn’t do and sort of made a family away from home. So here’s an insight into my life so far at UWC:
I seem to have developed somewhat of an increased sense of national pride, but I think that comes when you’re at UWC. I’ve become more conscious and aware of what goes on in my country, what I’m proud of and how I can share this love for my country with others. I’ve learnt to stop looking at its negatives so much and start looking at its positives. I was given my first opportunity to do this during my first Merdeka (Independence Day) away from home. On the 31st of August, a few of my friends came over to the villa and I cooked up some pre-made roti canai to be shared in Malaysian spirit! Not to my surprise, everyone loved it.
I got another opportunity during UWC Day to share Malaysian food when Russell and I, with the help of Russell’s mum, held a workshop on how to make nasi lemak (neither Russell or I have made nasi lemak before) but it turned out amazing and I was pleasantly surprised with the positive reaction we received.
On a side note, my first UWC Day was amazing. We participated in service projects on and off campus (I was on campus working on Tyre Furniture) in the morning, and then we proceeded to workshops in the afternoon (where we had our nasi lemak workshop). It was really nice doing the service projects in the morning because we got to know the younger members of the community, as well as build on our leadership skills.
There was one week where I really missed my mum’s Indian food, so Phoebe’s mum drove Phoebe, Magnea, Lauren, Shloka, Krishna and I to a South Indian restaurant, The Little Prince, about 20 minutes from campus, recommended by my Theatre teacher Wendy from Singapore (I love her because she’s from Singapore which is virtually Malaysia (!) and we share basically the same food - it’s great!). The food felt like home, and we left content and with their menu for delivery, promising ourselves another meal soon.
I’ve also become involved in a wide range of activities, enough to keep myself occupied through the week. On Mondays and Wednesdays after school, and some lunchtimes on Tuesday, I’ve got rehearsals for the musical, Grease, in which I landed the role of Rizzo. This was really exciting for me as I previously played the role of Eugene in Grease in my previous school, so having a second chance to play Rizzo which happens to be my favourite character was a dream come true.
After rehearsals on Monday, I’ve got MANTA, which stands for Marine Animal & Nature Trust Association. MANTA has two main groups, focusing on mangrove planting and preservation as well as coral monitoring. Phuket is home to mangroves, which make up an important ecosystem, so we make it a priority to preserve them. We plant baby mangroves on campus and, when they’ve matured enough, we take them out to the swamps to be replanted. As for coral monitoring, Phuket houses some of the sea’s most beautiful corals, but with lack of awareness and care for them, they have been plagued with coral acidification. Through MANTA, we go diving to monitor the corals and collect data, hoping to effect change somehow by the nature of our location and resources. Right now I’m working in the Research and Advocacy group where we raise awareness about coral acidification as well as other issues under MANTA’s radar. I’ll be getting my diving license next half term pending doctor’s approval, but I can’t wait to dive right in (pun intended) and get to work with these corals.
On Tuesdays I’m involved with the LUIB Committee (LUIB is a sport played here, learn more about it in my previous post), where we work on expanding the sport internally and externally, as well as advocating for the organisation we associate ourselves with: Child Rescue Nepal. Here, we plan workshops on Anti-Human Trafficking as well as explore ways in which we can raise funds for the organisation. This past half term, I’ve been working on designing a new kit for LUIB as well as designing the merchandise. We’ve also been working hard to plan a few exciting LUIB trips out of Thailand - more information on that in the weeks to come!
I’ve recently taken up volleyball, which I play on Thursdays after school. I went into the CCA (co-curricular activity) with little or no knowledge of the game, but I’m really proud of the progress I’ve made over the past half-term, being able to somewhat engage in a game and contribute to a certain extent. The whole team is very supportive of new players joining, and they’re very helpful with coaching us. When Isaac’s not badgering me or being the annoying self he is, he’s actually a decent coach and is always surprisingly willing to help me out with my passes and serves.
Now to one of my favourites if not my favourite: Shaka. Shaka is a student-run cafe that serves coffee, iced tea and Thai Milk Tea, with all profits going to Global Concerns. I have about 5 shifts a week, but I tend to help out whenever I’m free because it’s such a chill place to be and work at, plus there isn’t really anywhere else I’d want to spend my time. Working at Shaka, through processing about 10 orders at once, has taught me how to be efficient in order to get our orders out as quickly as possible. You also learn to multi-task, as well as be extra vigilant while multi-tasking, considering you’re working with money. Shaka also unearthed my love for iced coffee, which came as a huge shock to me considering I never drank, and actually hated, coffee before coming to UWCT. It helped me pull through the darkest of days where sleep was a foreign concept to me, and I am eternally in debt to it.
Onto lighter matters, after my Shaka shift after school on Fridays, I have the Senior Vocal group. Members of the group range from Grade 6-11. Through the group, I’ve been able to work on my vocal skills, and I’m especially glad that it’s given me the chance to work on harmonising, something I found rather difficult before. I must admit that it’s tiresome at times working with Grade 6 students who are easily distracted, but it does teach you patience and resilience, and at the end of the day it gives us an opportunity to connect with the younger members of the community.
I’ve also got involved in introducing the Buddy System here, which hinges on the idea of having Grade 12s and 11s paired up, hoping to form new bonds of friendship across the two grades. The buddies were selected at random, with two Grade 11s paired with one Grade 12, by nature of Grade 11 being a larger cohort than Grade 12. We held buddy activities during DP day as well as goals for each month, with the goal for September being for buddies to have a meal with your buddy. We were hoping to have it such that the buddies had some sort of cultural connection so individuals were paired up with a second year from the same country or similar cultural context so it would be like someone from home, but because of our late introduction of this system, we’re looking at introducing that concept next year (these ideas are all in the air so don’t hold it against me haha!)
Something that has been instilled in me over the past two months that that has really stuck with me is this: “If you want something done, do it yourself.” UWCT is a relatively new UWC, so it may not have as many of the traditions that older UWCs do. When we brought up that we didn’t feel it was a real UWC, Aggie (Philippines), our second year said “If you want something done, do it yourself.”, and then it hit us that it was our job to make it a UWC. A UWC is only as UWC as its students make it. I gave this concept a try after UWC Day. I raised a point during UWC that we lacked the UWC spirit on UWC Day as we celebrated it without our flags or national costumes, with everyone going off and doing their own thing once the day was done. We then came up with the idea of a Peace March in conjunction with Peace One Day. So Magnea (Iceland; also the intern), Aggie, Lauren (Armenia) and I sat down and planned it out for the next day. It was a huge success and really felt like a UWC event, with everyone in their national costumes and flags making it a picture-perfect evening. It was especially beautiful to hear everyone sing John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ as well as going around the circle hearing people say the word ‘peace’ in their own language.
Some pictures from our Peace March
This concept of getting things done struck me a second time a day before DP Day, at about 3am when I was up talking to Sarah (Germany). Sarah and Diogo had been guiding us over the two months with the Buddy System. We had to plan some activities for DP Day and had had about 2 weeks to plan it, but through ineffective communication over Messenger and not replying to each other's texts we had not got anything done. When I turned to Sarah at 3am asking her for help, she took a step back and reminded me that she was merely there to guide us and not do the work. We had had 2 weeks to do this, so the fact was not that we were incapable of coming up with activities but rather that we lacked creativity and initiative to come up with it sooner. This really struck a chord with me and resonated with what Aggie had said about making your own change, and within an hour I had an action plan prepared with what we as a team needed to have done for the activities. It was a great lesson in planning and preparation for me, and only meant I had so much more to learn from here on out.
I then got more opportunities to do this, helping Mariam and Magnea organising the first Open Mic at Shaka and then taking charge of organising the second one when the second years were buried in their books, busy with their IA deadlines.
Now onto more relevant matters, something almost all IB/UWC students battle with: studying and sleep. I’ve struggled with this battle on multiple occasions since I’ve got here, and I’ve promised myself to fix my sleep schedule after October break. Here are some interesting stories about study and sleep:
This was me the morning of my first Chemistry test. I had been going to the gym every day and wasn’t willing to sacrifice it for a test because priorities amirite. So this was the compromise.
Anna, my late night study buddy for about a month before she got scared into sleeping early by Kru Ann who told her she would die 10 minutes early if she slept late (or something along those lines).
And then there’s Mariam. Mariam (Georgia, Grade 12) and I have a unique work dynamic, where we only get work done when we disturb each other. We also work off a system where we wake each other up from our ill-timed naps and keep each other motivated to do work when the other gets distracted.
This was us, fully clothed, right after we jumped into the pool while the rain was pouring down. We were forced to run back from the Green Shop in the rain, so we thought we might as well jump into the pool considering we were already wet
Also, we have this weird family structure for some reason where Magnea is our mum and Mariam is my sister. I have no idea how it came about but I love it.
Pictures taken at Phuket airport at the start of October break (Mariam was heading to Singapore while Magnea was heading to Sri Lanka for three days before joining me in KL)
We also celebrated Pari’s birthday at the villa, and being the resourceful UWC students we are, we made 17 pancakes to symbolise her 17th birthday. It was difficult to orchestrate, with Abi, Purnika and I getting in our workout for the day by running to the Green Shop at 7pm to get ingredients, but the surprise on her face made it all worth it in the end
I can’t talk about study and sleep without talking about procrastination because that would just be hiding the truth. At UWC we have different levels of procrastination, as such:
The first level would be simply starting your work late due to poor time management and lazing around. This includes sitting in the living room on your phone, late night walks to the Green Shop to avoid confronting your work or simply laying in Mariam’s bed because where else would I go? I admit I am a victim of this, but hey I’m working on it and that’s what matters!
The second level of procrastination would be staying up late and talking to people, hearing all their different stories. This has been by far my favourite level of procrastination because I find it so fascinating to hear how different some people’s lives are from my own, yet how similar we are in so many ways. There was one particular night that stood out to me. It was Huma (Pakistan), Rishi (India), Sarah (Germany) and I, sitting on the couch in the living room. The discussion lasted for about 4 hours, from 11pm to 3am, with us educating each other about Western vs Asian ways of life, from discipline to taxes and insurance to extra-curricular activities in our own countries to arranged marriages. I found it so eye-opening that pets have taxes and insurance in Germany. When Sarah asked us what happens in Asia when our pets get sick, we had to explain that we take it to the vet and try whatever possible, but if we can’t afford surgery we have to put it down. To this day I still find the concept of pet insurance mindblowing.
The final stage, rare now but common during the first month of school was being pulled into the pool at about 10pm. That was the life. When we could afford this level of procrastination, get our work done and still get a decent sleep. We would spend about an hour, singing, dancing and just fooling around in the pool, oblivious to the many deadlines we had waiting for us inside the villa.
Important to note that these were on two different occasions (and not including the many other times I was pulled in and it was not documented)
Everything aside, the thing I value the most here is the family I’ve formed. I have my mum, Magnea, and Mariam who’s practically my sister. And then Joalis who is my niece and part of my royal family (inside joke haha I’m sorry).
I have Sarah, with whom, in the simplest ways, we help each other get through the day. Every day we ask each other ‘How has your day been?’, and this is the time we each rant about our day. No matter how simple this gesture is, it’s always nice to let it out - what was good, what was bad and how much work we have to do that we could be doing instead of ranting. We’re also each other’s go-to person for Grey’s Anatomy, hyping each other up every week till we reach Friday, then sitting there squeezing each other’s hands throughout the episode, only to rant for about half an hour after.
I’ve also got a great friend group, namely Phoebe, Isaac, Jhanati and Zane. I’ve got many others, but these guys are the real OGs.
Also, this sunset didn’t fit into any category but needed appreciation. This was during DP Day, by far the best sunset I’ve seen since I’ve arrived. And was even better to have had the privilege of kayaking out to sea with Fleur while watching this ❤ (I actually created a video with footage from DP Day on the Erosion of National Pride as my ToK Art piece. If you're interested, check it out below!)
And then, of course, I’ve got Elisabeth, Joalis and I jamming out and dancing to the Grease songs instead of doing our work, because how else are we going to get the moves down to perfection if we don’t practise?
In all seriousness though, I personally feel I’ve developed a greater sense of independence - doing my own laundry, sorting out the credit on my phone each month, doing my own shopping for personal necessities, watching out for my own health and wellbeing. It’s taught me that you have to take care of yourself, because other people can give you advice but at the end of the day it boils down to you making sure you’re eating right, getting enough sleep and, overall, just watching out for yourself.
I’ve seen myself grow over the past two months, yet all I can see is more and more growth over the next two years. And while I do see all the IAs and written tasks and summatives ahead of me, I also see all the wonderful new experiences that come along with it, and I’m genuinely looking forward to every single bit of it.