so when i went back there, the first thing i always said when the plane touches down "i'm home". and this time, i'm back to bangkok, visiting lovely friends @ spafa for another exciting adventure in the form of 4-day conference.
i haven't seen any of my spafa friends since that fateful time when the airport closed at the end of november - early december in 2009. so this feelslike reuniting with old friends that became my family fora week i was in bangkok 2 years ago.and this timei was not alone, i was accompanied with a dear friend of mine for more than 10 years, topang (that's the name i called him by and it'll always be the name i'd call him by andyes we're that old) so i know it would be a good time.
on our first day, it was "hi, hello, how are you" day for me and lots of hugs from familiar faces!!!! it was go great to be back among friends, and i was glad that everyone were great. and it's really great to hear kevin's signature laugh again :)
i was a bit confused for the dress code, because i went to a spafa workshop where we're all on our most comfortable outfits. i was on converse all week long,and then i'vebeen to spafa's conference where i was wearing heels and acted all professional :) and this was a conference, but it's for youth. so itried to meet halfway, i packed my dresses, bitch shoes and flats, and abandoned my converse :) turns out it was a mistake for me to abandoned my beloved converse, because kevin told us we candress down. but hey i'm still wearing the bitch shoes for my presentation!!! *hell yeah*
the conference itself delivered everything i remembered about spafa's events, learning and fun!!! i mean, of course the 5-day affair in chiang mai is still one ofthe best time in my life, this conference, kind of gave me glimpses of the memories :)
on the first day, in addition of having cool presentations on howto communicate the dangers of climate change through arts, we had theater workshop at the end of the day. we had to map out our country's problem in the sense of climatechangewith all therecyclables that they provided us. for that afternoon, i've becamecambodian, since there was only one participant from cambodia, and a surprising number of participant from indonesia (i think it also reflected that indonesia is the most populated country in southeast asia :p)
the surprise of the afternoon for me is that one participant, yahya, who came out of nowhere started acting all funny, and blew me and topang away. all in all it was a fun afternoon that day, and i learned so much!!! and it's true, another man's trash is the next man's art project :)
one thing i learned in this trip, me and topang are old and responsible :) if i was two years younger, i would just be out all of the nights, but i had my presentation the next morning, so topang and i collectively opted to stay in for the night, just went out to grab some dinner thenwork on our presentation, topang's presentation is still on wednesday.
the workshops were lots of fun! and i always love ajan (i hope i got the spelling right) wajuppa's session. i was really waiting for the little cricket story though, didn't happen this time :( but hey, we got lots of new stories.
meeting ajan wajuppa made want to pursue the path of cultural studies again, although i know it would be useless in my path of work at the moment, so it made me want to change jobs... *i should've taken the woman studies master program thing omajig*
all in all, the workshop is about fun learning, taking the whole meaning of 'presentation' in another way. not sticking to power point (power boring), and meeting new friends!! meeting young people who are making such a great achievements, made me feel guilty about myself. where was i when i was their age (if you knew the answer, don't answer that, it's a rhetorical question!!! :p) but seeing their accomplishments and where they've been made me realize that i really have to sprint to get where they're at now. maybe by the time they're my age, they've already finished with their doctorate (the thing i have been dreaming for when i was 16, getting my doctorate before 30...) so i really need to run, i need to make my mark, i have to do something, set my name in stone and be someone :)
thank you friends, for a wonderful week, and i hope the relationship we've built for the short time, can last a lifetime!!
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