Bangkok weekend getaway

So, after a few days of settling in Hua Hin it was time for an excursion to the capital of Thailand, Bangkok. This was a trip destined to be both for pleasure and business. Let’s do the business part first, shall we??

One of the key persons behind the project of studying in Thailand is Håkan Alm who has his own business here in Thailand and at the same time works at the School for business and informatics at the University of Borås. He also has a position with the Thai-Swedish chamber of commerce here in Bangkok that enables him to interact with Swedish people working in Thailand as well as Thai companies doing business with Sweden. Every first Thursday of the month there’s a group of people that gets together for a relaxed social gathering at a local pub. For the first meeting of the year Håkan had arranged for all of the students to join in.

The meeting began at six o’clock and continued for a few hours where we had a few beers, some really good food, but most importantly made new contacts with people who are either executives or owns a business in Thailand. The time in Thailand aims at developing us as individuals as we are put into a position where many of us has not been before, far away from home where it is hard to communicate because of language barriers, where your best friends and family are far away. The meeting we had on Thursday aimed at trying to get us students in touch with some of the people who might be able to help us out with internships for those who wish to stay a few extra months and gain some invaluable knowledge and experience. To the best of my knowledge the meeting was a great success and some serious networking took place. I know that a few people have already sorted out where they want to do their internships and some have almost sealed the deal! Companies that were represented at the meeting were Nordea, SEB, Oakwood hotels, Oriflame and ScandAsia, just to mention a few.

Stay tuned for an update regarding the rest of the weekend in Bangkok!

For now, peace out!

Logistics exam and Bangkok

This week has been kind of hectic. On Thursday we had the logistics exam which I hope was alright! After that we went to Huntsman pub for the third networking meeting with the Scandinavian society here in Bangkok. It was a lot of people and so much fun speaking and sharing stories with them. Friday was only afternoon class in political thai economy and then just relaxing in our houseJ really needed that.

Saturday was matchday with football and this time we managed to play a good game. Final score 5-0 win!! The weather is crazy right now. Its so hot you don’t even want to be outside and this is just the beginning, all Thai people I meet only says “ yeah, wait until April” haha. After the game me and Daniel went to a pub, watched some football and had a pint.

If we go back to the Thai lesson I guess I should continue teaching to count to ten. 2 - song
3 - sam
4 - si
5 - ha

Also I should tell you about a cultural crash I just came to understandJ In Sweden its very common to hug friends doesn’t matter which gender. But here if you meet a girl and just hang out you cannot hug her good bye, hugging and kissing is when you have a relationship here. Good to know when you come hereJ

This week I´m preparing for midterm in Thai economy and I will try to focus on things I forgot to do this last couple of weeks. Just got a picture on my mail, do you think this is true? J

See you

Pilip

Another of the most amazing weekends ever!

The weekend started after my political Thai economy class which is my elective course here at AIT. I went home and quickly changed because I was going in to Bangkok for a dinner. I took the Thamasat van in to Mo Chit which is the closest sky-train stop. It costs 30 baht which is around 6 Swedish kronor  and actually really comfortable! The dinner was the best I had in Thailand so far, we were sitting in a garden by a really trendy house and they served like international Thai-food. I had something called Shanghai noodles and it was great. I think it will be to hard to explain where the restaurant is located but it was close to Sukhumvit road which off course is very large;)

Saturday and Sunday was all about the football and golf tournament. First time I met the guys playing in Scandinavian Vikings and they were really cool guys. Of course we won the game by 5-0 and one of the guys scored two amazing goals, one directly on a corner kick. The golf was also a Scandinavian tournament with people from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Thailand and I think someone from Island but I’m not sure. I played with three Danish guys and one Thai girl and it was so much fun, even though I played like crap! The end of Sunday night was drinking whisky/soda to celebrate a good dayJ.

Monday came and we were back to school, this time with a new professor. Jonas Stray is his name and so far he has shown us some really good teaching skills by the blackboard. Also a very nice guy having a conversation with.

The Team

After class a few of us had signed up to play football for the president team in some sort of AIT sports event. Said - the president of AIT - had managed to recruit some real talent and we were ready for a tough game against the student team. It ended 2-2 but we won on a penalty shootout which by the way consisted of nine penalties and only three of them went in J haha.

This week two things that I know will happen is the Chinese new year and the second time of Swedish networking in Bangkok!

I´ll be back.

Pilip

So far - an awesome experience

This is me

Okey, so my name is Filip and I'm studying at the University of Borås but present our class, IBE 2, has the oppurtunity to study for one semester in Bangkok, Thailand. So far it has been an awesome experience and I'm in love with this country.

I thought I start with a quick recap of whats been going on the last week since we were at the wakeboard park. Monday to Friday we have classes so we usually don’t leave campus for more than a nice dinner or some shopping.

A typical day at campus is to wake up and eat breakfast. After that you pack your bag and head over to the pool area for some tanning or exercise. After that we eat lunch and attend class for a couple of hours, often we are pretty tired during class because there so much to do here. Campus is really awesome, it has a football field which I love, gym, tennis courts, basketball, volleyball and a nice 9-hole golf course. That’s it for now about that because I want to write about more fun stuff like when we go to Bangkok.



Great view from Sky Lounge!

From previous you can see that we were on a Swedish networking and this happened again. This time it was a Nordic Young Professional night with a superb tapas buffé and a lot of good drinksJ. I would specially recommend red bull/vodka haha. After this gathering ten people from our class went to the most crazy nightclub I have ever seen. There were balloons falling from the ceiling and they had 5 different dance-floors, it was intense and we had such a good time there. Back to campus at 0600 AM! Crazy night J

 This weekend I'm going to play a football match and a golf tournament, probably some partying as well even though I shouldn’t!

That’s it for this time, I just wanted to get started! Enjoy and I´ll be back;)

Pilip   

Networking in BKK

Today we got a chance to do some networking with the members of the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in Bangkok. We met around 60 persons at the well-known Landmark Hotel. There were global companies like SAAB and SAS, but also companies with their origin in Borås, like Eton. The president of AIT, Said Irandoust, was also present together with his staff.

 

I started off the meeting byt introducing the University of Borås and the 18 students who are present in Bangkok together with Daniel. We hope that this networking will enable trainee jobs in Bangkok during the summer.