DAY 5 (8 JAN) ☆ AMAZING RACE + AMAZING BINGSU ☆

(Day 5) ? –> ? –> ? –> ?

I cannot believe today is the last official day we have here in Chiang Mai, and I CANNOT believe that we will be flying back home tomorrow! Although I am rather sad to be going home (And facing the new semester), I do miss the comfort of my home and family a lot. Anyway, we began Day 5 with an amazing race bright and early in the morning.

To be very honest, I was really dreading the race. I hate amazing races so much. Mainly because the ones I have attended before are always 5/6hours long with way too many stations to complete, and after awhile it gets super exhausting and I just do not see the point in participating anymore. However, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed myself this time around! ? It was probably because it was only 2hours long, hence it was not very draining, BUT mainly because I was blessed with such a fun group to go on the race with! We were all so energetic and bubbly, and our enthusiasm bounced and radiated off one another, it was so contagious. We had lots of fun completing the tasks and stations, and were so determined to do our best. That however is not to say we did not encounter any problems on the way. In fact, we encountered 2 petty big challenges. Firstly, we had 2 temples to go to, and while we were so focused on finding temple number 1, we completely walked past temple number 2 and missed it. Hence, we wasted a lot of time due to our carelessness. Personally, I did learn something rather valuable from this. It reminded me of how sometimes in life, we are SO focused on achieving a certain goal or something we want, that we miss the other things in life that are also really valuable to us. Sometimes we unknowingly overlook or forsake other things or even people in our lives in our attempt to achieve our goals. For example, I am often guilty of neglecting my loved ones in times of stress, like when I am caught up with assignments and tests, so much so that I fail to spend time with them at all.

The second problem we encountered was going to a totally wrong location. However, we managed to get back to the hotel early and gained points for that! To be honest, although we did not complete all the stations, I can safely say that none of us really cared about that because we were not focused on winning. Rather, we were all just there to have a good time and enjoy each others’ company. Through the amazing race, I learnt a lot more about my fellows group mates and their different personalities, and it definitely helped me to feel closer to them. You can only imagine how shocked (AND ELATED) we were when it was announced that our healthcare group was the winners of the amazing race! ???

After the race, we rewarded ourselves with some Bingsu (my favourite Korean dessert) ?

At night, we went to watch a cabaret show and it was such an eye opening experience (literally). Interestingly, what struck me the most was the confidence that all the performers possessed. They kept me so captivated with their confident voices and dance moves. Despite some of the judgemental stares they might have been receiving, they were brave and strong and confident, and that is really something we could all learn from them. Overall, I had an amazing last day spent in Chiang Mai with the most amazing peers! ?