Ten days after my wedding, I went to Bangkok, Thailand to pursue my Master of Engineering under the Agricultural and Land Water Development Program at the Asian Institute of Technology. I grabbed the opportunity because of the full scholarship from AIT and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). It was my first time going abroad and being on my own as a foreign student. And on top of that, leave behind my husband. So challenging!
AIT is 42 km north of Bangkok. It is an international postgraduate institution and its rich multi-cultural environment caters to hundreds of faculty members and thousands of students from more than 40 countries.
In my class of about 20 students, I was the only female student and we were only three Filipino students.
I slowly overcame my homesickness because of the socio-cultural activities with my fellow Filipino students through the AIT-Filipino Association (AIT-FILA) and spiritual bonding with the brethren in the AIT Christian Fellowship (AITCF).
Every term break, I let go of the opportunity to travel to Singapore and Malaysia by train just to spend more time with my husband. Good thing, we were also brought to other places in Thailand through educational field trips and visits to my research area.
I soon became fond of khao pad (fried rice), tom yam (tastes like spicy sinigang), and phad thai (similar to pancit) but I never failed to mention mai pet (not spicy) every time I ordered my dishes. Haggling in the market was easy if you knew the numbers in Thai.
I had not gone back to AIT since graduation but I will always cherish the intellectual advancement and rich cross-cultural experiences I gained from my two-year stay there.
Sawasdee!
