7 Jan/Day 4: CMU

It was back to work today as we slotted the fun, carefree day out yesterday in among our other Chiang Mai memories created over the previous days. Our first order of business was at Chiang Mai University, CMU, where we were given a lecture on globalization and the opportunities and challenges it meant for the city. While it was difficult to dethrone Mae Fah Luang University of its title as most beautiful given its blessed landscape, CMU had its own scenic views, such as the picturesque lake, as well as many other spots we did not have the time to see but I knew with certainty existed. Walking along the corridors of CMU, I was reminded of NTU by its openness and the many common areas for studying.

By now, our group was rather familiar with one another and knew better of each other’s strengths that we took up roles we were most comfortable and best at to facilitate our fieldwork. Having gathered more experience with surveys and knowing the particular questions that required more explaining, we split ourselves into two teams, one to collect more survey responses and another to conduct the focus group discussion with a few of Fye’s friends. This way, we worked more efficiently and I felt more bonded with my groupmates in the way that we checked up on one another’s progress when we took breaks as well as supporting one another when approaching CMU students. Again, just like our first day of street surveys, the students were incredibly polite and willing to help us in our data collection. I even got the chance to have a conversation with a couple of Fye’s friends who were just as interested in Singapore as I was in Chiang Mai.

This opportunity to travel overseas for a study trip sparked the chance to foster new friendships, allowing us to learn not only by observing and simply being in the presence of a new environment, but by gaining insights through others, especially locals, who are familiar with the secrets of the city. In a conversation I had with Fye, she explained to me the CMU culture of the way the seniors treated the juniors who were supposedly inferior, as well as the way the students had to dress a certain way with their uniforms. She also told me of the way the universities represented different values and how each university and their faculties functioned like a family which you could choose to be a part of or not. I felt that these little hidden bits of information could only be discovered only through getting to know a local student and I was grateful we had Fye to learn them from. Furthermore, I was appreciative of the community spirit we had in NTU which seemed quite different compared to CMU where our seniors took care of us freshmen instead of berating them as Fye had told me they did in Chiang Mai.

Culminating our trip to CMU with the spectacular view of its lake, the rest of the day was spent as usual, in our own small groups exploring the night markets nearby. Our nightly adventures around the local night markets never got old as we would explore as far as the market extended to. There always seemed to be something new that would catch our eye and pull out our wallets. I couldn’t believe that we only had two days remaining and tried to soak in as many memories of the sights and sounds of Thailand in my mind.