Old People's House

The second service during the conference I went to Old People's House in Banglamung along with a small number of delegates. This was an orphanage for those who had been left or disregarded by their family so they would come here and live their life.

This service project was separated into 3 main parts, cleaning the beach, planting crops, and getting rid of the climbing plants on both sides of footpath on the way down to the beach. My first duty was to go down to the beach to clean up as much as possible, but it was almost impossible to completely wipe out everything that was there because the waves keep hitting the coast, and either drawing some trash back or giving me trash but at least we did put some effort to make the beach look a little bit cleaner after my duty even though we knew it would have been the same the next day anyway. My second ship was to plant some crops that would be sent to this Old People's House and would later be used for food, the process was only to put a soil in a pot, plow the soil, water the soil and plant some seed. And the last past was to clean the footpaths along the side to the beach, which was the hardest physical job in the day because shovels were needed to scrape off everything on the surface.

Later that day in the afternoon, we went and did what they regularly did in the Old People's House, playing Bingo. I was to team up with one of the senior resident and even though it was not clear but I could see them enjoying being companied by foreigner friends and at the end of the day, they did ask us to come again in if possible.

Our goal, just like at the Fountain of Life Children's Centre, was to entertain them and to be there for them if they needed anything and we accomplished that goal and looking back at how we achieved it, it was rather impressive because we did face probably only one difficulty, the language barrier. There were some residents who knew how to speak a decent english but most of the residents could not and this was the main problem.

But after all, that day was a big success both for us, and for all the residents at the Old People's House as well. We did give out our effort to help them and appreciation was received and I felt grateful for what I had done during that day and had been appreciated back and there was one thing I learnt that, no matter how uncanny it might have sounded for foreigners to go help them without knowing the existence of this place before, the kindness was still sincerely appreciated and for that I would like start devote myself to help those who are not as fortunate as I am to be living their life happily.

Barazza practices & sessions

Barazza = Equality within the same level

For our major Roundsquare conference that was coming up in October, every Barazza leaders needed to practice their facilitating skills and leaderships skills that would be required for the three actual Barazza sessions throughout the conference therefore several Barazza sessions were organized for Barazza leaders to prepare themselves.

During each session, there would be one topic according to a previous speech either from a keynote speaker or some source of information and my job as a Barazza leader was to facilitate the discussion and pick out some key points that were made. The biggest difficulty I had faced was that the awkward atmosphere made each member of the group feel uncomfortable to share their ideas and the fact that none of the members knew one another before made it more difficult for them to share their opinions to the others but I managed to get the conversation going by picking on a person who had not spoken during a discussion.

The more I had practiced in each session, the more I had found out about how to improve the next session and do's and don't's and I managed to break a barrier in the discussion by the end of the last Barazza session by using some powerful ice-breaking activities .

It had always been a stressful time before every Barazza session but once I learnt how to lead it properly, I found myself enjoy every minute of it and after the last Barazza session during the conference, I realized one thing that even though we were from different parts of the world but surprisingly we had much much more in common than we thought and once each of us started to be open to one another , one can incredibly be sincere to everyone.

International Day 2009

International Day of Regent's School : A day of internationalism

What was the activity ?
My role for international day was to participate in international world cup tournament and to decorate the Thai room to show and share our culture to people around the world.
International Day was held at our school of Regent's Pattaya and organized by our international pillar leader. This event was consisted of many international booths representing traditional cultural items and customs and also there was international 5-a-side futsal competition throughout the event.



What did I do?
My job was basically to decorate and to organize the Thai booth as part of senior Thai student. The area for Thailand exhibition was held in the roundhouse and we had made a lot of presentations related to Thai cultures such as traditional thai fruits and translation, posters about thai's way of living back in the days, and we also served Pad Thai and other Thai desserts. This had attracted a lot of visitors to come see our exhibition but unfortunately roundhouse was not exactly where people regularly walked past so I did expect more number of visitors to come.
A lot of difficulties were encounters such as during the preparation week, I had asked many Thai students in lower years to come help with the decorations but not a lot of them seemed to care how important it was seeing it was an annual event. But as the day coming closer, I managed to convince some more students to help out and we finally finished the Thai booth before the day.


Indonesia, Thai and Belgium. :)

What have I gained?
As a co-leader for Thai during the international day, I thought the event was a big success, our booth had received many positive feedbacks , food and drinks that were served were also given a lot of compliments and I found that I had developed my leadership skills from the preparation time until the end of International Day and even though I was not firstly selected to be a co-leader for Thailand but I had to step out for a leadership position otherwise our exhibition would have not come out the way everyone expected and sometime in life , the best decisions are the ones you decide by taking the leap and challenge your fear.

Barazza week with JUMP Foundation

JUMP Foundation for the leadership skills of youth

What was the activity?

Our school of Regent's had gotten a great chance to arrange a one week visit to Koh Chang IDEALS center for every Barazza leaders who would be running Barazza sessions during the Roundsquare conference that was coming in October of the year 2010 and we had a great privilege to be accompanied by JUMP Foundation led by Justin Bedard who had been running a program to help improving leadership skills in youth. The trip was meant to enhance and bring out leadership skills in every Barazza leaders so everyone would properly be ready to lead a Barazza group.


Me and Rasmus during our talented performace.


What did we do ?
We were taught on how to be a good facilitator by learning to know how to be a good leader in a group discussion and how to pick out key points from a keynote speaker's speech. And also we did get a chance to get out of the comfort zone and get up in public and make a speech in front of the crowd, which to me was one of the biggest challenge but practice makes perfect , and I had managed to overcome my fear of public speaking to a certain extent during that trip. And in group discussion training, we learnt how to be lead facilitate a discussion by knowing the meaning of the body language , group member's action , or what to do if this happens, and also learnt the main rules of do's and don't's when leading a discussion.
By the end of the week, I found myself more comfortable in a Barazza session. I knew exactly what to do in what situations and I also felt more comfortable to speak up in public. I must say I was proud of myself once I found myself able to cope with the fear of public speaking but there was of course some difficulties along the way. It took me quite a while to get myself out of my comfort zone and I was never good at public speaking but attempts after attempts I finally managed to improve my self-confidence .


The Barazza Crew! :)


What have I gained?
A week in Koh Chang with JUMP Foundation had improved my leadership skills and I never thought I would have improved this much in only 5 days and now I find myself eager to improve myself in term of leadership and now I realized that if was offered another chance to make a speech in front of a crowd again, I would never hesitate and take a chance right away.

Pattaya to Phi Phi Triathlon

Open triathlon event for every interested marathoners

What was the activity?
Pattaya to Phi Phi triathlon was a sport event organized by the Physical Education department of the Regent's School Pattaya by challenging every student, parents, staffs, or anyone who was interested by either walking, running, skating, biking, or swimming.
The event started from 4.00 PM and went on until roughly 8 PM that night and large numbers of participants did put support and attend the event. The total distance at the end of the event exceeded the distance from Pattaya to Koh Phi Phi which was a great success and also a trophy was given to the team who made the longest distance.


The participants!

What did we do?
We did not come across any hardship during the event but there were some minor points that quite bothered me when I saw some students did not participate as dedicatedly as the others did but beside that I appreciate the spirits of everyone who gave out everything they got to just to run around the oval nonstop, I could sense the perseverance of hundreds of students and teachers everywhere and no matter how long the distance in total was , we all still managed to accomplish our goal and even though all of us did not get any trophy but we all did received one most important gift, a participation trophy.


Jeff and Harut on the rub. :D

What have I gained?
I did not actually take a serious part in the event but I did observe some very important point of the event. I realized that there was a wide range of people from young pupils to senior parents who participated for this charity event. I felt touched by how much they were willing to participate without expecting anything back. It's amazing what people do to others sometimes.


The girls in tutus :)

Summer Concert 2010

Summer Concert held at Globe, Regent's School Pattaya

What was the activity ?
Sumer concert is an annual musical and orchestral concert held at Regent's School of Pattaya. The whole performance consists of numerous pieces of greatest songs of all time and every student has devoted themselves to each rehearsal and lessons.


Jazz band performance.


What did I do?
I started to pick up my music skills again once the second term started because of 3 reasons. Firstly because I needed to get creativity hours for CAS, secondly because the part I used to play during the time when I was in Thai school needed extra players, and lastly and probably the most important, I wanted to be known as someone who had got some musical skills and this would be the great chance to start and I started joining the orchestra band ever since.
But to be honest, deep down inside I truly wanted to be a great musician but unfortunately I had not motivation when I was a kid and just started learning piano. After 8 empty years of motivation, I quit but I had always known this could have been the path to what I would end up doing in the future and starting off again with french horn was not quite a bad idea.


Me playing my mellophone during brass band performance. :)


What have I gained?
I learnt how to play french horn before when I was in Thai school but picking up again after a couple of years without it was kind of a challenge for me so I continued to play french horn in the school orchestra band in the Regent's School of Pattaya. Firstly I inly wanted to pick up my music skills in general so I could go back to study piano again but after a short while of french horn session with the brass section members, I found myself enjoying orchestra band a lot more than Ithought so I decided to take extra french horn class with one of the music teacher to follow my dream of becoming a great musician.
As strong as my motivation may sound, there were also some obstacles on the way. Time did not give me any chance to make immediate decision and before I knew another year of IB had gone and here came the last year of my high school so I saw this as the last opportunity to take away as much as I possibly could.
My first performance on the stage was the Summer concert 2010 where I had gotten my first chance to play french horn in public. After the concert, I quickly realized how much I had been enjoying music and how much it had made my life more lively and so I had made up my mind that I would have to master on instrument in this lifetime.
Once you have received motivation to what you truly want to do , it is hard to let it go without achieving it to a certain level. I think I could say that to my case. If I had not gotten myself to join orchestra band at the beginning , I never would have been so willing to carry on my musical skills.

Service project : Pattaya Bed-race event

Charity event for local groups : 31/1/10


What was the activity?
Pattaya Bed-Push Event was a charity event for those who would like to raise money for organizations who were in need of aid, by designing a trolly with fancy decorations and complete a lap around the beach road and the second road in Pattaya.
I was one of the students who were interested in this event so I signed up for it. More than 30 local groups of people participated but me and other students still managed to come in second. My job was basically to run a trolly with 3 other students past the finishing line and the trolly was decorated by our female students.


Hardworking much?

What I did and what I gained
Coming in second was rather impressive but not after when I found out that the other teams did not take the race as serious as we did and we also did not win any prize for finishing the second but considering it was a charity event so I did not let that fact bother me. Another hardship we had faced was that the actual race did not start until late afternoon but we were told to be there right after the first glimpse of dawn, the heat and the humidity throughout the day was a major hardship as well but still, one thing that amazed me was that no matter how long every participant had to wait, no one gave up, even a person in the weirdest costume, and I was sure the hottest costume to be in at that time, no one backed out before the first blow of the race. I deeply appreciated the spirits of whoever was involved in one way or another. I think the only thing that kept them to endure the the extreme condition was our will to be supportive to those who were in need in any possible way.

The crew :D

Volleyball team

Volleyball matches & practices

Volleyball team in the Regent's School of Pattaya was formed when I was in year 12 of IB and so I immediately joined the team considering I was a natural athlete and I was always interested in any sort of sport activities so I saw this chance to take my volleyball skill to one whole level.

Our volleyball was just formed and run in the same year so we had not had much practice and the first match was chasing behind us so winning one match would be totally acceptable and so had few of the matches gone, we started to in shape as in individual and as a team. At the end of the season, everyone in the team improved their performance and had made the team's performance better too even though we did not have a lot of practice because we did not have a proper time to practice together while the opponents had formed their teams for quite a while and had a proper coach to train them. Although we all did not have an actual time to practice or the team together but we still managed to get better as a whole team.

Joining the volleyball team was very challenging at the first time, especially on the first match we had, I thought it was going to be just like in a football pitch when I was more familiar to but it was totally different, new kind of atmosphere, new kind of pressure, and new kind of adjusting I had to do. But as an athlete , I found that rather positively challenging. There was never one second that I though I would give up so I continued to improve myself and as well as encourage my friend to join the team.

I realized a couple of things about myself and being in a co-operative sport team that it was not about one person being incredible amazing and so you will win but it was about that one person making the whole team being as good as that person, as I had heard a lot in a football practice ' the team is only as good as the worst person on the team'. And so I learnt that in order accomplish something for the team, me myself had to set up a goal and achieve it first and therefore the whole team would soon accomplish the team's goal.

Jester's Fair 2009

Jester's Fair 2009 : Diana driving range

Loy Kratong Day event was held in The Regent's School Pattaya on the 9^th of November 2009 where there were many performances and shows throughout the day. Loy Kratong Day had been one of the most traditional Thai day where Thai people would worship the goddess of the river.

As an inter-house competition event, I was selected as a Noppamat for blue house to compete in a pageant and I was to be given a question to answer and a competitor with appropriate answer would win the Noppamat of the year.

I was selected to be the blue house's nominee and I knew that I would have to be on the stage which including having to speak in public, which was my potential weakness. I was never good at making a speech in front of a big crowd.

But knowing that sooner or later I would have to speak in public sooner or later anyway so I challenged to get on the stage on do my best in public speaking but then I realized I was not this nervous when I was to speak publicly in Thai and it was because of the language barrier that had made me this nervous. And even though I did not make one eloquent or magnificent speech when answering the question but my endeavor awarded me with Mr.Noppamat title for this year.

Loy Kratong Day 2009

Annual Loy Kratong Day at the Regent's School Pattaya 2009


What was the event?
Loy Kratong Day event was held in The Regent's School Pattaya on the 9th of November 2009 where there were many performances and shows throughout the day. Loy Kratong Day had been one of the most traditional Thai day where Thai people would worship the goddess of the river. As an inter-house competition event.

Me and other contestants for Noppamas of the year.

What did I do and gain?
I was selected as a Noppamat for blue house to compete in a pageant and I was to be given a question to answer and a competitor with appropriate answer would win the Noppamat of the year. I was selected to be the blue house's nominee and I knew that I would have to be on the stage which including having to speak in public, which was my potential weakness. I was never good at making a speech in front of a big crowd. But knowing that sooner or later I would have to speak in public sooner or later anyway so I challenged to get on the stage on do my best in public speaking but then I realized I was not this nervous when I was to speak publicly in Thai and it was because of the language barrier that had made me this nervous. And even though I did not make one eloquent or magnificent speech when answering the question but my endeavor awarded me with Mr.Noppamat title for this year.


Blue house dancing crew.

Koh Chang

CAS trip to Koh Chang : Early September 2009

What was the activity?
Koh Chang CAS trip was a 4 days trip for year 12 students who were newly introduced to IB and for year 13 students who were on the brink to actually start their last year of IB. For me , everything was new because it was just my first 2 months in the school of Regent's and I had to catch up with the pace while everyone had been prepared beforehand to the concept of CAS but in a short while I managed to understand the concept of it and the my first CAS hour for IB was received from this trip.

What did I do and learn?
Basically for yea 12 students, it was a trip to collect CAS hours from three different action activities that each individual of us had chosen before we came to Koh Chang and I chose Jungle Trekking where we had to spend 3 hours trekking through the jungle , across the torrential river, under the pouring rain, to the destination. The whole journey took about 6 hours in total because we had a local hunter leading the way and keeping us unharmed by the wild animals and some dangerous natural beings. The second part of the trip was meant to be camping but because of the unexpected amount of the shower of rain , the plan was changed that whoever chose to go camping would be cooking with limited ingredients instead. And for the rest of the trip , I was basically introduced to the principle of CAS, IB, and ToK. I had never ever done such things as jungle trekking before in my life, or at least, not with these conditions but I had discovered my potential that if I was ever put to go through the same situation again I would be able to calmly cope with it.


Us year 12 breaking the recording to keep the ball in the air. 73 touches! :)

Koh Phi Phi Service Project

Koh Phi Phi : 17/10/09-24/10/09


What was the activity?
Koh Phi Phi project was a project where we were to spend our one week of half term break in Koh Phi Phi, which was an island down to the south of Thailand, to be helping by the construction site for a local school who was affected by Tsunami and in need of facilities. Along with the Cobham Hall School from Britain, this was one of the most memorable service trip I have ever been to


Regent's and Cobham Hall School united. :)

What I did and learn?
At the beginning of the week , we were told that there would be two construction sites for us and once we complete with one we would be instructed to another construction sites. During the time we were there, a lot of progress had been done such as wired frameworks for the building structure were finished, cement sheets were moved up to the building site for further process. Along the time I was there I had gotten a chance to take a look at how people in this area lived and how poor the school facilities were for children who one day will become the hope of the whole village.
As I am a Thai speaker, I had spoken to some of the children who was at the school when we were there as well and the children told me how much they appreciated our support for coming to Koh Phi Phi for many consecutive years. This has made me realized that this service trip was not just my opportunity to collect CAS hours , I had never felt this grateful in my life for what I had done for them and this feeling was worth more than whatever number of CAS hours I would be receiving.
This service trip had raised my awareness of how many people out there who are currently in need our support and I realized even students from Britain did care to spend their precious time to take a half-a-day flight all the way to Thailand just to help these children. I was amazed by how people from different race, different religion, different culture, cared about the less fortunates. If there was any possibility that I would be able to come back to Koh Phi Phi again, I would simply say yes to the offer and spend as much time as I possibly can.


Taking a break from hardworking hours. :)

Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu

Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu : First term activity choice

What was the activity?
It was my first year at The Regent's School and I would like to put myself out of comfort zone , to try something I have never done before and I have heard about Brazillian Jiu Jitsu before and it really caught my attention to know what it was about.
Brazillian Jiu Jitsu is a martial art and combat sport that focusses on grappling and submission moves which are to make your opponent surrender.


One of the submission hold , taught by Mr.cooke.

What I did and gain?
Purposes of this activity were just to learn some basic idea of how it operated and there was no intention to take things seriously during each session, everyone was keen to learn, had fun and tried to have their aims high to improve.
Unfortunately I could not continue taking Brazillion Jiu-Jitsu during the following term but I found myself enjoying to further study this sort of martial art because for the past of life I have been influenced by my uncle who , more than 40 years, has been a judoist and now a judo master and I really enjoy listening, and being demonstrated on how to perform each action. I never would have been so interested into Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu if I had not chosen this for my activity and this had become one my favorite hobby to do in my free time.

More videos on Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu : http://www.submission101.com

Phuket football tournament

The Regent's senior football team : 2nd place [12-15 November 2009]

Our school of The Regents have participated in this tournament for many times and this time our goal was to claim our trophy back since we lost in the final last year. With our skilled and talented players , there seemed to be no problems take position back. We have chosen footballers who have experienced real football matches before and 10 of us were chosen. Me, Youp Van Kervelen , our captain and defender. Christian Leat, Kevin Aamlid, Jonathan Chen, Atthaphon Prins, Ricksel Namgyal, Gagik Nushikyan, Joshua Hirst and Harry Webb.

Every single game during this tournament was way beyond my expectation. Once I had stepped into the field after the whistle was blown, I could feel pressure filling up my chest and I started to lose my self-confidence to play like I always had. But as I had more matches coming up I started to get back into my own pace and finally was able to stabilize my performance on the field as a player but there was always some obstacle. The heat in Phuket made exhaustion approach me faster and greatly affected the game but again as we became familiar with the heat, it was nothing to worry about.

It was my first time participating in such an event and I had eventually realized how much pride each of my teammate has taken from being involved. Even though we did not come first but we all believed in one thing that we were good enough to accept our defeat, practice harder, and come back again next year and take the trophy.