Saturday two weeks ago at the unholy time of 8am most Freshmen students of Stamford gathered and got ready for the ride to Rayong while looking forward to a fun weekend with lots of activities and a packed programme. Seriously we were permanently busied from morning till evening. Sunday afternoon back home I felt like I needed another weekend subsequently however I made great memories and a lot of new acquaintances during these two days. Please excuse the medium quality of the pictures. I tried my best with my phone camera.
Though it was called a "camp", we slept in a comfortable resort in a 4-bedroom with air-con, bathroom and all the trimmings. The hotel waterpark was occupied by families and looked amazing! Do you see that slide? The first day we were divided into groups (mine was called "Spiderman") and played a bunch of games against each other. Obviously the typical team-building, getting-to-know-each-other, confide-in-someone matches. Living 7 months in Thailand, I know that Thais are really into these kind of activities while I am sometimes standing there with my deep-down German attitude and just chuckle. When losing a game, the punishment was a shower with baby-powder. You see, if this would happen at a university in a Western country, it would probably be on the newspaper the next day initiated by worried parents.
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| My lovely girls! |
We got one hour after the games in the afternoon to get ready for dinner and the ceremony in the evening. When I read this on the programme paper, I could not imagine what is actually meant by this point. As a surprise it was very touching and beautiful. We were led into the group room with a blindfold on our eyes, were told to sit down on the floor, put the blindfold away and found ourselves in darkness with candle light around us. The freshmen students sat in the inner circle, the seniors and headmasters in the outer circle. They had threads prepared for us and tied them around our wrists wishing us the best for our years with Stamford. At the end everyone had a very special bracelet made of countless threads - one wish per knot. The room was full of love and I was so grateful to be in this place at this time.
Then we started another competition aka "Fashion Show". We were asked to dress our superhero - ours was Spiderman - with simple materials like papers, markers, tapes etc.. The result was not too bad or would you like to tell me that you did not recognize our hero at first glimpse?
Presenting the outfit was just the first part, we had to act a performance with the whole group after. It was a blast! We have really talented dancers, actors and singers in our school!
Last point on the program the next day after breakfast at the again unholy time of 8am (!!!) was the beach cleaning as part of STIU CSR activities. When I am on holidays in Thailand, I always complain about the plastic trash along the seaside. It was a good feeling to help instead of just moaning.
During the bus ride back home I slept all the time trying to compensate my enormous lack of sleep.
But I was really happy for this experience with all my classmates who I will spend a lot of time with during the next years.
How was your study time like? Would you like to go back to school/university?
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