Date : 25/7/2006

News Release
by Ms. Yupawadee Sutham
MIM-18

Exit trip. What a name! What are we exiting from? Being students and acquaintance? The much more important element is that what we are entering to - a life long friendship or even partner for some. The trip marked not just our departure from MIM program and educational achievement, but also doubles as celebratory reminder of how far we have gone since our first day at the program and with these familiar faces of whom we have spent countless hours of sleepless nights with.

Ironically, our meeting point for the exit trip was the same spot for our departure for orientation 2 years back—things have come to a full cycle. The bus left Tha Prachan campus early Saturday morning, heading for Village Farm and Winery in Nakorn Ratchasima, but our first stop was at the launch pad for rafting at Kang Hin Poeng rapids. The bus ride was noisier than usual now that we had not met in such a big group since our oral comprehensive exam—needless to say how chatty we can be. I must say that most of us looked fabulous sans the dark circle around our eyes resulting from late night report work. Several of us even lost the weight they gained during MIM course, and many of us were in line for upcoming job promotion. For those who were job hunting, wonderful news of call back interview and recently hired were exchanged. And the biggest progress of all was one of our friends would take a plunge into a marriage life—currently, she is engaged to be married!!! Before we know it, we have arrived at our first stop for lunch and rafting.

Our rafting trip was extra fun; we caught a good break after the previous 2-day heavy rain fall in the area, so the water level was higher than usual, producing strong current—what a special treat from Mother Nature. After the fun in the sun (and water), we headed for our stop for the night. Shortly after our arrival, we were greeted with the wine testing session from the resort. After dinner and more wine were served, we proceeded with THANK YOU remark from our class representatives to none other than our charming Director, Ajarn Elle, our kind and always with smile, Ajarn Buarat, our spunky gals, P’ Penny, K. Orn, K. Paen, K. Pai, K. Aey, and last but not least P’Tan. Once again, without these people, M-18 would not have such a smooth ride during our 2 years of study. We had a brief moment to see where it all began with class presentation. We had seen some changes of some of our classmates before our eyes. I must say being in winery where they value aging process is a good place to be. To be politically correct and in sync with our winery surrounding, if we were a bottle of wine, we would be something that a critic would describe as “young and snazzy with underlining sophistication”. Enough wine talk, it’s party time!!!

The next day, we reached Bangkok in the evening. In my opinion, the weekend was a good reminder for me of what I have achieved. All the energy and sacrifice that I have put in for the past 2 years in lieu of not just a piece of paper, but knowledge, sense of self, experience, and friendship—It is worth every minute of it. I can say that we are ready to embark on our journey with knowledge and ethics that MIM has instilled in all of us. We continue to follow our dream knowing that there is this group of friends who will travel with you and keep you in check. Take care of each other, shall we?