What? A free day?

July 16, 2015. Friend's Cafe, Salaya. 12:16 PM

Currently, I'm on my third cup of tea in this cute little cafe that Kara pointed out to me a few days ago. Thanks to having a personal free day, I finally have the opportunity to go exploring around the neighborhood and catch up on some work I've been meaning to do.

Also, its really nice to have a day to recollect after having an incredibly long day yesterday. These past few days everyone in our group has had two music therapy sessions and a meeting with Dr. Register scheduled. Plus, we were allowed to observe any session we wanted to and that our schedules allowed. The way it worked out I had both of my sessions and my meeting yesterday, so by the time I got back to Bundit (our apartment complex) it was hard to think straight.

The first session of the day was at Sirindhorn National Rehabilitation Center. This place rocks; there are so many high quality and easily available resources for the patients! Not to mention a solid team of professionals. We met Susan, who leads the laughter yoga session right before the music starts. Susan was kind enough to let us participate in her session with her, and to be honest I find laughter yoga really intriguing. The basic principle is that because laughing is so good for you, and because the body can't differentiate between fake laughter and real laughter, if you force yourself to laugh for long enough you'll begin to see many good benefits. I had to look more into it, so if you're interested in more information click here.
Then, it was music time! The Thai clients wanted to give us American names, and we were given name tags written in Thai and all (mine was Omn, in case you're curious).Three Thai students and three American students set up in a row across from the patients, and we sang songs as the clients requested them. It's funny, the clients sang louder than we did, and they didn't even have mics in front of them! We sang a good mix of Thai and western songs, with Sha La La La, Que Sera Sera, and We Are The World all making their appearance. And the clients got so excited to hear us sing in Thai! I'm sure we mispronounced every other word, but they didn't seem to care.

After a short bus ride back to the college and a quick lunch, it was time for session number two of the day! Here, two Thai students and I worked with a 17 y/o male on the autism spectrum. Music was used to increase his use of non-verbal communication, and even throughout the span of half an hour one could see a difference. Who says you need to speak a language to make a difference? It still blows my mind how much one can do with music, and music alone.

A reoccurring theme on my mind lately has been perspective. For starters, I feel like I can empathize with the international students back at home on a whole new level now. Even just adjusting to a new culture alone takes it time...tack on a language barrier and life gets so much more difficult. Shoot, I have plenty of times where my professors at KU say things that are over my head, and I grew up speaking their language.

Hmm, maybe I'll start a list somewhere of life lessons to post by the end of the trip. For now, I'm off to go read research and maybe explore my neighborhood a bit more. This weekend we're taking more beach time, so expect more pictures than stories.

Ta ta for now!