Thanks for the checking out the blog for this Global Leadership Adventures program!
Here are a few things to know and expect:
- Blog posts are written by onsite program staff and/or students and sent to our Headquarters team who will post the blog on this page.
- We typically receive 2-3 blog updates per week from each program, so please don’t be alarmed if you don’t see a blog post every day – that’s totally normal.
- Blog updates received late in the evening or overnight will be posted the following day.
- Blog updates received on weekends may not be posted until Monday.
- Due to many factors such as internet accessibility, program staff aren’t always able to send photos, so some blog posts may contain text only.
Thank you for your patience and understanding, and we hope you enjoy following along on these unforgettable adventures.
For frequently asked questions about the blogs, please visit our Program Blog FAQ page.
-The Global Leadership Adventures HQ Team
Click here to jump down to the most recent post!
BLOG POST FOR JULY 10
Hi parents,
All the students have arrived and GLA’s Elephants, Education, and Cultural Discovery program has kicked off in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
After long flights from around the world, GLA students arrived at Chiang Mai airport jet lagged but excited to meet everyone. The group hopped in vans and mingled with one another on the short ride from the airport to our home base. Immediately upon arriving to the hotel, the group ate their first meal in Thailand: pasta, stir fried chicken and veggies, and lots of fruit. Finally, everyone met their roommate and headed to unpack their bags in their new room.
In the afternoon, GLA leaders Meg and Andre led an orientation for students explaining the trip itinerary, code of conduct, and house rules. During orientation students played a few initial ice breaker games to get to know their peers. Soon after orientation wrapped up, dinner was served: roasted chicken, veggies, pineapple fried rice, and potatoes.
The group ended the day with some card games on the balcony and the creation of their community agreement, which consists of positive actions all members of the trip can take to ensure we thrive as a team over the next two weeks. Students are tired after a long day of travel but excited for what’s to come!
See you tomorrow,
Meg, GLA mentor
BLOG POST FOR JULY 11
Hey parents,
Day two of Elephants, Education, and Cultural Discovery started off this morning with breakfast at our home base. After, our local Thai staff, Nina, Aom, and Aoffy gave students an orientation on Thai culture. The presentation included cultural norms, explanations of thai foods, and a few Thai phrases for students to practice. Of course, there was also plenty of Thai snacks for everyone to try.
After orientation, we left home base for lunch at a local restaurant. Students enjoyed classic Thai dishes such as Pad Thai, green curry, and fried rice. Before our city walking tour, the group stopped by an ice cream stand for a classic Thai dessert: coconut ice cream with peanuts. The cool dessert was much appreciated as we explored three different Thai temples in Chiang Mai throughout the afternoon. The weather was hot and humid but a little bit of rain cooled things down as we headed to our Thai cooking class.
In cooking class, students had the option of picking four different dishes to cook: an appetizer, stir fry, curry, and dessert. We took a tour of the local market and explored the herb garden before diving into our cooking. Pad Thai, spring rolls, and mango sticky rice were all popular picks amongst the students. Four dishes later, and with full stomachs, the chefs headed back to home base to end the day and get a good nights sleep for tomorrow.
See you,
Meg, GLA mentor
BLOG POST FOR JULY 13
Hi,
today we first we took a long trip through the fog to get to the highest point in Thailand. We were looking out for a clouded leopard in the cloud forest and did a small walk to the point. Then we went to see the twin pagodas that were made for the king and queen. We learnt many interesting stories about the backstory of the Buddha.After, we had amazing food over a beautiful view at royal project! This place was one of the most successful conservation projects. Following that, we went to a beautiful waterfall and it was some of our first times experiencing one. In the afternoon, we went to the Sunday market street. Here we immersed ourselves in the Thai culture by haggling for lower prices and trying local delicacies like green tea and scorpions.At the end of the day we had our sunset circle and the new leader was crowned with the Burger King hat. See the next blog to find out who…
Your leader of the day,
Tara
BLOG POST FOR JULY 14
Happy Day 5!
It was an early morning today as we had to go teach at the local Thai school. We started the morning by eating breakfast at the hotel, then promptly leaving to the school. There were three blocks of 45 minutes. Each time we rotated to either grade 4, 5, or 6.
We left school around 12 to go eat lunch at Chom Cafe and Restaurant. After we went to the Elephant Parade. There we took a tour of the facility, learning about Mosha the Elephant and their goal as a company. Once finished we got to pick an elephant and paint it.
Once we got back to home base we had a quick talk about teaching and made our lesson plan for the next day. We had a break for about an hour, then had our sunset circle followed by dinner. Right after, we practiced our routine for our cultural exchange for the following day.
Bye bye,
Sammie
BLOG POST FOR JULY 15
In today’s blog, we started by conducting our second day of teaching the children English. After an entire morning of teaching, we left and headed for amazing lunch at the Dara Academy. Now, this was a lot of fun as there were many things that Dara Academy has shown us for the Cultural Exchange. We were with our cultural exchange buddies, introductions were given to each other as well as gifts. We gave the bracelets we made yesterday as a gift to them. Then, the students at Dara Academy gave us a presentation of what Dara Academy is. The presenters, who were students of Dara Academy, gave us a tour of the museum where Dara Academy first started and the origins of Dara Academy. We were paired with our cultural exchange buddies, so we did everything together. Another activity we did is the fan painting, where we painted handheld fans with your buddy in Lanna-style designs. After, the physical activities started at the gymnasium area. There, we gave them a show by performing two songs, which were What Makes You Beautiful by One Direction, and Hotel California by the Eagles. Everyone sang while one plays the guitar. The two activities, Sack Race and Disco Foot, were very fun. Sack Race is a game where you put both your lower half in a sack and jump or move your feet as fast as you can to the finish line, while Disco Foot is football, but everyone is dancing. Everyone was paired with their buddies and put into teams. Then, it was time to go back to homebase and have a small debrief for the plans for the third day of teaching tomorrow. After, we did our sunset circle and crowning of the next leader of the day for tomorrow with the Burger King Crown, before going to dinner and ending the day off with a small survey of the entire program. If you want to know who’s the new leader of the day, stay tuned for tomorrow’s blog!
Stay awesome, stay cool, bye bye!
Zach
BLOG POST FOR JULY 16
today we started off with breakfast at the home base as usual and then headed to the school for our third day of teaching! we had lots of fun teaching and playing games with all the kids.
after teaching, we had an amazing lunch at Khaomao Khaofang Restaurant. we all highly recommend, the restaurant (especially the bathrooms) was so gorgeous and the food was delicious!
we then headed to a market and checked out local snacks and items, which we later had for dessert after dinner (+ great explanations about the foods by the thai staff). after browsing the market, we had coffee and matcha in a lovely air-conditioned cafe nearby and planned for our next day of teaching.
we made it back to the home base and had downtime before dinner, some of us choosing to swim in the pool. after dinner, we played an exciting game of mafia (the villagers won 🙌🙌) which was wonderfully narrated by meg. we then rested and headed off to bed!!
tune in to tomorrows blog to find out the next leader of the day…
Alex
