Phuket, part 1

Hey! This is Phuket calling :) Or writing, anyway. As I mentioned in my previous post, I arrived here on Wednesday and after that I've been very busy. Although I'm not the only one who can say that. Asia Exchange students' semester (actually their orientation week) began here in Prince of Songkla University on Monday and their whole first week has been full of program both in the campus area and outside of it.

I joined the orientation week on Thursday but luckily the co-founder of Asia Exchange Harri has been here for the whole time. Actually Harri is staying in Phuket until November which I think is great thing for our students here in Phuket :) But anyway, even though I wasn't able to be here for the whole orientation week, I've hear a lot about it from Harri and especially from the exchange students. For me it's been once again great opportunity to get to know many new awesome people.

Almost every student has said that the orientation week has been very busy but on the other hand also very interesting. So I guess and I hope that the business of the first week hasn't bothered too much because the time has been well-spent. Many students told me that one of the highlights of the orientation week was a great lecture about Thai culture and traditions that was held on Tuesday. I'm pretty sure that the advices that were given in that lesson will be very useful in the near future.

For me one of the greatest moment during last week was the visit in the Asia Center Foundation (ACF) children's home that Asia Exchange has been supporting since 2010. It's a little bit similar compared to Seeds of Hope children's home in Bali but it also has some differences compared to SOH. Both are non-profit organizations that do everything they can to help the children from problematic backgrounds and it's been an awesome opportunity for me to visit both places and see how well the children doing in both places.

One of the main differences is that there's only younger kids (from 3 to 6 years old) in ACF's building in Phuket but in Seeds of Hope in Bali there's also many teenagers. Asia Exchange makes a donation of a specific amount per each of our student to support the work of ACF. Still maybe even more important than the money is the fact that every student can visit the place and see a completely different side of Phuket. I think the visit was a very touching experience for our students (and also for me).

So, the visit to ACF definitely was one of the biggest highlights of the orientation week and it can't he compared to any other experience. Still there was one more great experience for our students as we held the official ice-breaking event in the Phi Phi islands which are located near to Phuket and which are one of the most beautiful place in the whole world.

So we went there on Friday and came back on Sunday. Of course there was some awesome beach partying both on Friday and Saturday nights (partying even included jumping over a flaming jump rope). I think the parties were as well-deserved after the orientation week as they were in Bali. But the parties weren't only reason to go to Phi Phi islands. We also did an awesome boat trip to the other near islands on Saturday. We even visited the beach from the movie 'The Beach'!

So what can I say in general about the second orientation week I experienced here in Asia? Well, it was at least as great as in Bali. The students here in Phuket are great and I think they'll have an awesome semester after they have completely survived from the after effects of partying two nights in a row in the Phi Phi islands. I hope everyone has done that because today has been the first real school day of their semester.

Bangkok, part 2

At this moment I'm sitting in the Don Mueang airport in Bangkok and waiting for the departure of my next flight which is going to happen pretty soon. I guess this is what my life's going to be for the next two weeks. Every time I begin to feel a little bit like home in some place, I already have to leave for the next location. I also kind of miss Bali and especially all great guys that I have had chance to get to know. But at the same time I really like this part where I see new places and new people every day. So, life is good in overall.

But this post is supposed to be about Bangkok instead of my feelings. Unfortunately I don't have too much time so I just want to show you some pictures I've taken in the two universities I visited on Monday and Tuesday.

First I visited Siam University which is located in the western Bangkok. On Tuesday I went to Kasetsart University which is located in the northern Bangkok actually a kind of near to this airport in which I'm sitting now. Both universities were really great and especially modern places. They have great facilities and everything student needs (and maybe even more): sports fields, gyms, restaurants, ATM's, posts, stores... Kasetsart University is so huge that it actually has own bus service there. I also met some of Asia Exchange students both in Siam University and Kasetsart University. It was great to hear about student's experiences - especially because most of them were really happu about their studies and life in Bangkok in general.

So that's about the universities in Bangkok :) I hope that at some point I can write a little bit more about Bangkok (I'll probably do some recap post about all of the citiies I've visited after I come back to Bali) and post some pictures of Bangkok. Here's pictures from the universities. First from Siam:

And then some from Kasetsart:

So yeah, next post is going to be from Phuket!

Bangkok, part 1

Hi guys!

I arrived in Bangkok on Sunday and tomorrow I already have to leave this awesome town! It's a little bit shame but on the other hand I'm next flying to Phuket so that's not a bad choice either :) Especially I'm waiting to meet all new AE students in Phuket: their semester has only just begun!

But there are also great students here in Bangkok and luckily I got chance to meet some of them during last two days. One of them is Stephan from Germany. He studies in Siam university and his time as an exchange student here in Bangkok is actually almost over: there's only two weeks left of his semester. Yesterday I made a video interview with Stephan. In the video he tells his feelings about the whole semester. Stephan's a great guy, it was really nice to meet him!




So, yeah this was just a quick post to show you the video I made with Stephan. Also I wanted to tell you that I've really enjoyed my time in this huge (and extremely humid) city :) This is really differenr compared to Bali but mstly just in a good way. Hopefully I'm going to write more about Bangkok during next few days!

The third week in Bali

Hi guys!

It feels like it was just yesterday when I arrived in Bali but actually I've been living in the paradise island almost for a month! And after I've said that, it's good to note that I'm leaving Bali for over two weeks only days after I've learned to think my villa as my new home. Still I can't be bitter at all because next two weeks are going to be at least as interesting than my first weeks in Bali have been.

You see: I'm visiting Bangkok, Phuket and Kuala Lumpur because there's Asia Exchange's exchange students in all those locations. So for the next two and a half weeks this blog actually isn't going to about the student life in Bali because it's a little bit difficult to write about it when I'm not here. As compensation I try to write few short updates about the student life in Bangkok, Phuket and Kuala Lumpur during next weeks :) After that I'm flying back to Bali and then I'm reporting only about the student life in Bali until the autumn semester ends in December.

But the end of semester is not an actual topic yet. There's still lots of great experiences ahead both in the university and outside of it. One of them is coming already on this Sunday: Snoop Lion himself is playing in Seminyak in the beach party! I'm really excited about going to Bangkok but I'm still a little bit sad about the fact that I'm sitting on the plane when Snoop Dogg would be playing really near to my place. I hope many of you (who are now in Bali) are going to see that show :)

That's all about the future: I'm also supposed to write something about this week in the university. The beginning of the week (from Monday till Wednesday) was already pretty normal. It's a kind of funny to see how quickly everyone has adopted to the everyday life in Balinese university which has to be at least a little bit different than own school in the home country. Although I have to say from my own experience that the lessons I've been able to attend have been really similar compared to the Finnish university's lessons. Especially the Business law lesson reminded me really much of the Finnish ones. Bahasa Indonesia lessons on the other hand are pretty much shame than any other language lessons. I've enjoyed the Bahasa lessons a lot because it's so rewarding to learn more and more every time. Now I can already communicate with people in the restaurants and stores in Indonesian :) Or at least I can try to do that.

The most interesting moment of this school week was on Thursday, when Asia Exchange's students had their first workshop. For the most of the school weeks our students are going to have either a workshop or an excursion on Thursdays. Most of the workshops and excursions are about local culture but some may also deal business etc. I think the workshops and the excursions are really interesting part of the studies because there's no way you could otherwise get so good chance to get to know new things about local culture. In the first workshop the students made some nice palm leave ornaments with the help of the local students. The ornaments are used in Bali for example for decoration.

So that's everything about this week in Bali! ...Or actually not completely everything because there was of course more than just studying also in this week. Especially on Thursday there were some good full moon beach parties to complete this school week. And now it's a weekend again! Tomorrow I'm going to see the northern Bali before I leave this island for two weeks. What plans do you have for the weekend? Are you going to Snoop Lion's show?

There's some pictures from Udayana University's campus area in Jimbaran and some from Thursday's workshop:

First videos!

Hi guys! Finally there's the first video interviews I've made with the current exchange students during the first weeks :) There's going to be more in the upcoming months but these are the first ones. Enjoy!

Traffic in Bali

I guess I've already mentioned the crazy Balinese traffic in a some side note in my first two blog posts. In the future I'll be writing a long story about the craziness of the local traffic but now I'll just tell few basic facts:

1) The Balinese traffic is left-hand.

2) The Balinese traffic seems to have no rules - but it still does! Or that's what my intern colleague Jana has told me even though there's just a very little logic that I've been able to notice. But I believe her and actually the traffic seems to have more and more logic every day. So maybe in few weeks I'll be able to write an article about the traffic so that the future exchange students know more about the Balinese traffic than just the craziness of it.

But anyway, the main point is that everyone must adjust to local traffic because everyone has to be part of it - in most cases they also have to be driving themselves. That's because the public transport here is really weak: no trains and very few buses. So the only good options are either taking a taxi or driving some vehicle by yourself. Almost every time the vehicle is a scooter because it's the easiest one to handle. I would never drive a car here. So there's really many scooters on the road and that causes problems sometimes.

But I'll write a longer text than this in the future. The main reason I wrote this post is because yesterday I got a Facebook message from Aleksi, who's a current exchange student here in Bali via Asia Exchange. He had already made an excellent video about the local traffic! As usual, the picture (or in this case the video) tells more than thousand words, so I don't have to write more about the traffic now, because this great video tells everything that's necessary to know at least now.

The Kerobokan Getaway Bali 2013 from Aleksi Laitinen on Vimeo.

So, really big thanks to Aleksi! This is also a great moment to remind all of you current exchange students that you can send me some pictures or videos (e.g. from your weekend trips from Bali, Gili islands or anywhere else) if you want them to be published in my blog. And you other readers: if you want to know something specific, tell me! You can contact me in Facebook (Juuso AE) or with e-mail (juuso[at]asiaexchange.org).

The first weekend and the week after that

As I said in my previous post, there was a huge ice-breaking party for new students after the first week of Autumn semester. Actually the whole ice-breaking happening lasted two days: the first party was on Friday night and the second one on Saturday night. Between those two parties there was also a special surf lesson for our students in Saturday morning. All in all, the weekend was full of action, meeting new people and maybe also drinking few Bintangs (which is the famous local beer).

I think that most of our current students agree with me that the parties were well-deserved and greatly needed. The first week was really busy and also a kind of stressfull so it was extremely nice that for two nights we could just relax and enjou good music, company, food and drink. At the same time everybody could forgot their culture shocks and other little problems that they had had during first days in a completely new place.

Friday's party was held in Wingdome, located in Kuta, which is the biggest party (and also beach) area in Bali. The place was really nice: in the upstairs there was a big outdoor area where you could sit and enjoy the great view of dark Kuta area. Me and many others also liked Wingdome because on Friday they had a special offer: Bintang (the local beer I already mentioned) costed only 6 000 Rupias, ergo approximately 0,40 Euros. The offer was so popular that Wingdome ran out of beer during that night.

Besides the speciality of the place was very hot wings. Few of our students accepted a challenge where you had to eat extremely hot wings in a short time. Two of them succeeded but the feeling that came afterwards may not have been worth it (or then it was, maybe I'm just so sissy that I can't understand that kind of glory). After the beer had ran out and the wings were eaten, parties continued in many bars in Kuta. Most of us went to some of the Kuta's most popular places like Alley Cats, Engine Room or even Skygarden. 

So, Friday's party didn't end early but still 15 of our students were in Kuta Beach already on Saturday morning, when the surf lesson was held. The lesson was held by Pro Surf School that has been chosen the best surf school in Bali for three times. Bali's one of the best surfing places in world so you really should try surfing even though you wouldn't have done it ever before. Even I tried it this week and it was so much fun! I have to go surfing again next week.

The main event of the weekend was the pool party in Pro Surf School's Beach Lounge and it started on 5PM. The place was unbelievable. There were a huge swimming pool and you could jump into it from the second floor (the drop was maybe 3 metres). I guess I don't even have to tell that many of us made some crazy jumps during that nights. However, the pool wasn't only thing there. The place was huge, there was a great dj and cool lights. The feeling was like straight from some American movie.

So, in overall I would say the weekend was great. There's no better way to start new semester like a good party or even two :)

 

Also I should say that the second week in the university has went well. It's also not so stressful any more because the routines have started and there's not so many problems with practical arrangements any more. Also the courses have began properly. I still haven't had time to visit other courses than Bahasa Indonesian but those lessons have been really interesting and rewarding, as I already told last time. It's so nice to really learn something new every time.

Also this weeks has been a good time for students to plan some own activities, because there was no excursion or workshop on Thursday so the students had a really long weekend. There was a bonfire on Wednesday evening near to Uluwatu and also many students are planning their first trips to somewhere in Bali or even other islands. I'm going to see the Gili islands but it'd be nice to hear from your weekend trips!

First week of the autumn semester in Bali

Finally, this is the first blog entry about the autumn semester 2013 in Bali. For the new readers: as you can see, this blog has been in use already during the spring semester 2013 and now it's going to be used more frequently than it was during the spring (the plan is to have one blog post in English every week). For this blog's old readers: from now on this blog has a new writer. I'm Juuso, Asia Exchange's intern during the autumn semester that began here in Bali last Monday :) I'm especially responsible for writing blog posts and articles about the student life in Bali. A little bit more information about me can be found on this blog's sidebar. My goal is to give as wide picture about student life in Bali as possible.

The first week was very busy for the new students in Udayana university. First there were the orientation days in Monday and Tuesday. After that students had their first official school days on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Normally the school week at the campus area in Jimbaran lasts only from Monday to Wednesday (excursions and workshops are held Thursdays). So it's no surprise that most of the students were a little bit exhausted on Friday. Luckily Asia Exchange had organized well-deserved ice-breaking parties both on Friday and Saturday.

But before the parties could start, there was the first school week that started with the orientation days that were really interesting. Monday's program began with the traditional Indonesian dance show that lasted almost 10 minutes and was very imressing to say at least. It's hard to describe it if you've never seen it and you really should see it live in front of you.

After the traditional dance show, the first orientation day continued with an information about Asia Exchange and Udayana university. It was nice to see that even the local television channel (Bali TV) was interested in filming the beginning of the international student's new semester. They also interviewed Asia Exchange's managing director Harri Suominen and my intern colleague Jana.

The first school day started at 9AM and was over before 2PM. The second day started also at 9AM (like most of the school days here in Bali) but it lasted a little bit longer because in the afternoon students got a chance to visit Seeds of Hope children's home. As part of Asia Exchange's charity program, AE makes a donation of 30 USD per each of our exchange students to Seeds of Hope. The money is used to make the children's living conditions better and support their education. Every one of the children in Seeds of Hope (that are old enough) studies in a school.

 

It's still good to remember that money isn't everything: the really big part is also to care and to be part of the children's life. That's why you can apply for fulfilling your internship in Seeds of Hope with Asia Exchange's help. At this moment there's one intern in Seeds of Hope, Jutta from Finland. She's working until December. After that next possible starting day is 6th January 2014 and you can send your application until the end of this month (September 2013).

But even though you wouldn't be fulfilling your internship in Seeds of Hope, at least you really should visit the place when you're in Bali. It's so wonderful to see how important and good work everyone in Seeds of Hope are doing. The children's home was founded by an old couple Sandra and Tommy who really seem to love every one of the kids (over 60 of them) like they'd be their own. Everyone in Seeds of Hope seems to be a one big loving family. The older children are taking care of the younger. During our visit the children performed a musical show and after that we got a chance to speak with them and hear about their everyday life. I think many students were touched after the visit and so was I.

So, the visit in Seeds of Hope was definitely the best possible way to end the orientation days. But after that students had three more days in the university because all of their courses began during the following three days. I had time to attend only Bahasa Indonesian (Indonesian language) but it was so interesting and especially useful! Already after two lessons I could use a little bit Bahasa Indonesian when a policeman stopped me during the previous weekend when I was driving my scooter. And I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one whose life has already gotten easier with knowing few words of Indonesian. And even though I haven't had time to attend the other courses (yet), I will do it later. I've also heard that most of the other ones (Indonesian history, Business law, Indonesian literature, tourism management and economy of South East Asia) have been very promising.

So, that was the first week in Bali. Full of happenings and new things (and maybe a little bit culture shock) but also one of the best weeks ever, I hope. And of course the first week also included the weekend's parties but that's a completely other story that I'm going to talk about later.