For 2 weeks in June, Manika and several of her classmates at IEC College of Fashion and Art, took part in a global classroom program in Thailand. They immersed themsleves in Thai culture, attended workshops and visited other fashion schools. This is Manika’s story of her adventure.
We visited Bunka Fashion School where we had the opportunity to attend lectures and seminars conducted by renowned professors in the field of fashion. On the first day of visiting the college they gave us a brief presentation about the school and it runs and how they teach the students.
We continued to attend the college for five days where we were given the experience on how the students study in the school. We were taught about the basics of stitching, drafting, gartment and construction and also on how to drape in the mannequins. Those five days were really worth visiting and learning many new things. We also got to know our failings and where to improve. I am really grateful for the college that provided me with such an opportunity. After attending the college we had a break for two days before we went for a workshop. Our workshop was for 3 days and each day we involved ourselves in different activities. On the first day we visited the place where they taught us how to work on making the bags and decorating them. It took only 4 hours of our day. Then on the next day we attended to make the accessories and following the other day we were given the option to choose between DIYs and making a perfume balm. And among the two options I chose to make a perfume balm. Understanding the cultural context of our studies was integral to our trip. We visited historical sites. Thailand is a country with many cultures and traditions including the temples. After our completion of attending college and workshop we went to visit different temples. Among the temples we visited in Bangkok, the temples I liked the most were Wat Arun and Ancient city.
Wat Arun is also known as the temple of dawn as it is worshiped for the god of dawn.. On the day of our visit, there were other numerous foreigners coming to visit as well. According to the locals, that day was the most crowded day in Wat Arun. Despite the crowd it was a really beautiful temple. The color white made it even prettier. It is a buddhist temple.
Similarly, Ancient city is a museum that covers over 200 acres in bangkok. It is also known as the world’s largest outdoor museum which has over 116
structures of Thailand’s famous monuments and architectural attractions.it is a historical place that defines the tradition and culture of thailand since the decades. Unfortunately, as it was far from the apartment we were living in, we arrived there late and couldn’t visit the whole structure. But it was such a breathtaking museum.
On the second day in Pattaya we visited the Nong Nooch garden which is one of the world’s largest man made gardens in the world. Despite the rise in temperature during our visit to the garden, it was really worth every single drop of sweat we dripped. Once again I was left in awe of how creative the people of Thailand are. The garden was really huge as well as the structures of the animals and birds there. From dinosaurs to dragons, and from leopard to tigers and everything, it looked really
realistic. It felt as if I time traveled to the past. There were also statues of insects bigger than me which really fascinated me. As elephants are the national animal of Thailand I got to meet many types of elephants which felt as if it was the first time I saw an elephant for the first despite the fact that i have seen elephants in nepal already. The way all the plants were taken care of made me fall in love with every single plant I encountered in the garden. The garden was so big that it took us almost a whole day for the tour.
After that, we returned to Bangkok which took us a total of 8 hours of travel by bus and rested that night and in the morning we took off for Nepal. Overall, this trip taught me many new things and made me think of many things. It was such a great experience. I got to explore many new things and think more critically and learned the differences.
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