Felicia Andersson & Linn Samuelsson, Occupational Therapy programme, Chiang Mai University, Thailand

Our names are Felicia Andersson and Linn Samuelsson and together we have experienced Thailand for five weeks and also got the opportunity to experience occupational therapy in another country. This was not anything that we could imagine to experience when our education first started. We are so happy that we took this chance and make this trip together. The trip was a perfect ending of our final semester. It gave us a lot of motivation, strength and knowledge and it also gave us energy to go back home and finish our education.

We got the opportunity to do our fieldwork in Thailand, and the course that gave us this opportunity was ”Occupational therapy on a new arena”. The class was the same for us as for the students back in Sweden, with the only difference that we made our fieldwork in Thailand instead. Pediatric was the area that we were placed in on the institution in Thailand. Our main focus was to follow Thai students and their menthors out in their fieldwork. It was very interesting to see an orphanage in Thailand and also we went to see a training center for children with different diagnosis. We got to both observe and affect the thai student’s work together with the children. Both the students and their menthors were very kind and helpful and made us feel welcome and appreciated.

The teachers in Chiang Mai helped us with finding somewhere to stay. They’ve had a hotel that belonged to the university, which we stayed at for all weeks. It was nice and cheap and it was really close to the school. Beside the hotel there was a park were we could take a walk or do some workout.

Thailand is a very cheap country for us to live in. We exchanged our swedish money to Bath before we went to Thailand, but there were also a lot of opportunities to exchange money in Chiang Mai. To find out how much something in Thailand costs in Swedish crowns, you just divide the price by four. For example, a lunch at the university costed 25 batch, which equals around 7 Swedish crowns. At a lite more fancy restaurant, you could order your dinner for a price between 100 and 400 Bath, which is 25 to 100 Swedish crowns.

We are both experiencing that this trip has developed us. Partly, we have got a chance to see how occupational therapists works in a different country. We have also seen similarities and differences between cultures, both in everyday life and in occupational therapy.

We also think that we have grown as humans since we have had to manage to solve a lot of new situations were we could not speak Swedish at all. This has made us believe that we can manage to do a lot, that we didn’t think three years ago.

Advice to you that want to do a similar trip that we did is to enjoy it a lot. The time pass by so quick. Don’t be afraid to ask what you are wondering about and don’t be afraid to not be understood. The people in Thailand are overall very kind, generous and friendly which will make you feel taken care of. And don’t forget to do a lot of fun stuffs on your time off!

Advices:

• Do thaimassage.
• Go on tours to see for example tempels and the djungle.
• Eat a lot of thai-food and fresh fruits.
• Do this trip with someone you enjoy spending time with, it will make everything easier.

Conclusion

As we wrote in the beginning, we are extremely happy that we went on this trip. We have no regrets. It was such an awesome experience to get to see how occupational therapy works in a different country. It is really something unique to experience something like this and we think that this will promote us in our future role as occuational therapist.

Thank you for reading and hope you get inspired to pack your bags and go to Thailand.

Best regards, Felicia and Linn