Day 1 – A whirlwind

 

Picture from the Flower Festival in Chiang Rai, credit: Victoria Chang

In a word the trip so far has been a blur.

Prior to coming, my group mates and I predicted that there would bound to be many smokers here in Chiang Mai. Maybe its because most of our impressions of Thailand have been based off the busy city of Bangkok. Unfortunately, we’ve yet to see any smokers. This has been very worrying. In fact, even after interviewing some locals and a doctor, we found that most of our pre-trip expectations have not turned out to be true at all.

At the moment, I’m feeling very lost. It feels like all the preparations we did before coming might have been for naught. This is more than a little disappointing to be honest. My group and I are also feeling pretty lost about what to do for our media deliverable – we’re not exactly sure what kind of footage we should be getting.

Before this trip, I was feeling a little anxious and I had no idea what to expect from this trip. I had thought actually coming here would clear some of my doubts. Unfortunately, I’m feeling even more confused and overwhelmed.

Thankfully, Prof Nat has reassured my group that this is completely normal. I mean, this module is called fieldwork and documentation after all. If everything we learnt theoretically had been true, there would have been little significance coming all the way here. That did make me feel a lot better about being so lost, ha ha.

Also, I’m really glad that my group mates have been really great to work with so far. Even though we’re all feeling very lost, at least, we’re all still a pretty optimistic bunch. I’m really liking this positive energy I have with my team! ?

Right now, I’m hoping that everything will work out and that my group and I will get out of this blurry mess.

Here’s to a clearer day 2!