Gemma Farrell

La Trobe University, Australia
Exchange to Mahidol University International College, Thailand

My Thailand experience was absolutely amazing. Living in a country with such a diverse culture, where their social norms are quite different to the “Aussie” way of life. At first I was so overwhelmed with the Thai way of life, from the crazy taxi ride from the airport, to seeing the many street vendors cooking on the side of the road. You think to yourself this definitely wouldn’t be allowed at home!

The Thai people are so hospitable and are the friendliest people that I have ever met. They always want to feed you and help you out wherever possible. The Thai students at Mahidol were the same, although, while you are wanting to improve your Thai, they are wanting to improve their English, so it’s kind of a one way street. I did get the opportunity to learn a bit of Thai while I was over in Thailand, however it is such a hard language to learn and I was a little rusty at times.

Studying abroad gave me the opportunity to learn about new cultures, meeting so many different students from all over the world. Living overseas for six months, these students that I met became a part of my family.

Whilst studying, I got the opportunity to experience most of Thailand, from visiting some beautiful islands in the south to trekking in the far north. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to visit surrounding countries but that’s my excuse to go back to Thailand. I can’t wait until I have completed my studies as I wish to continue my world travels. Once you visit one place overseas, you definitely get the travel bug.

As a part of our exchange, we were required to do a ten-week internship at the Dusit Resort in Hua Hin, a small coastal resort town two hours south of Bangkok. During my time at Dusit, I worked in the kitchen prepping for meal times and large functions. Although the staff in the kitchen spoke minimal English and me speaking minimal Thai, I still had a great time working with such wonderful people. You definitely do get around the language difficulties and make some amazing friendships.

One thing that I did learn from this exchange experience was that you definitely appreciate your country more. You think you’ve got such a hard life at home, but after seeing what some people live in, you realize that your situation isn’t so bad.

I encourage everybody to at least visit Thailand once in their life. I promise you, you will have the most amazing time and fall in love with such an amazing country.

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