Growing up being an expat child I have developed an unquenchable thirst for travel and meeting new people while seeking out locations that make you never want to leave. Now 25 years old and being back in the land where this thirst began, Southeast Asia is again at the palm of my hand and I wish to discover every corner of it and what it has to offer. Currently I have made my way back to Bangkok, Thailand where my fondest memories are to be found due to the fact that I have lived here on two different occasions, however now it is all different, no parents of course; no family and I have finished my mandatory exchange semester at the prestigious Chulalongkorn University. Now I’m looking to tap into passion of traveling and being the ultimate travelling tourist.
What you have to understand that this is my journey, this is my background in a nutshell. I am not special in any way and don’t see myself as that. Being an expat child or person if you will you have the privilege of living a unique life, but we have our problems and issues as well. We are normal people but our problems might not be the same as others, and you can talk with anyone who has lived their life abroad they will tell you some of their stories and it will be different from mine. But what is great about our problems is that we can relate to each other in a way that others can’t, our problems are literally OUR problems and that’s what makes them so unique. Having the school bus break-down on the highway on your way back home, missing your weekend after school activity game because your dad over slept or not finding your favourite shirt because your maid cleaned your room and re-placed everything that was in a organized mess. They sound bizarre to you but so does not having enough money to get home on a bus from school to me or mom forgetting to buy you food that you can make once you get home from school, they sounded just as odd to me because we take things for granted that others don’t and vice versa, It’s just how it goes.
Where has it all
begun then you might ask, the story goes something like this; back in 1995 I
moved to Kuala Lumpur Malaysia as a little kid out of Eastern Finland, without
any experience of travel or the world outside. I was put into an English
speaking kindergarten where I was for a year before starting first grade of
school at the age of six in an American private school called International
School of Kuala Lumpur (known as ISKL), from then on the rollercoaster ride
just took off on its own, after two years in Kuala Lumpur we were off to
Jakarta Indonesia where I managed within a year attend two different private
schools and flee the country itself all together in under a day, this means we
were yanked out of school mid-lesson, told to pack our bags with only essential
things and head to the embassy from where we were taken straight to the
airport. Jakarta had become a war zone of sorts due to the brewing civil war.
After Jakarta we
all thought Finland was our next destination for the foreseeable future but it
turned out to be Bangkok, Thailand. Again I was put into an American private
school (ISB), and this is where I finally started feeling the sense of
belonging. I had also started understanding that this is the normal life for me
now; changing locations would always be a part of my life. Bangkok gave me
great memories and friends but it was finally time to head home to Finland
after three years. By far my biggest struggle was adapting to Finland as a sort
of foreign kid with very little Finnish language and culture knowledge (even
though I would spend all my summers in Finland), I didn’t have the privilege of
having friends there and I couldn’t talk about school or anything that had to
do with daily normal life because no one understood what I was doing and I
didn’t understand what they were. It was all a big blur, and suddenly Thailand
had become an option again. I didn’t want to leave, to be fair I never wanted
to leave any location I was at, that was just me. I had learned to adapt
quickly, I had to, and there was no other choice so naturally I didn’t want to
leave.
This time it
wasn’t Bangkok Thailand we were moving to, it was Chon Buri, a half hour drive
from Thailand’s notorious sex capital Pattaya. This location seemed odd and I
knew it would take time to understand it, we lived in the middle of nowhere in
a country club where people came only to golf. Our backyard was the fifth hole
fairway of one of the two courses and our school was located about 200meters
from our driveway. Coming in from Finland I was just so different as a person
again, I wasn’t this young naïve kid anymore, I had grown up (mind you I was
only fourteen going on fifteen). But the culture was so different this time
again, yes I knew the Thai culture but I was different so everything else seemed
different. Compared to majority of the
other kids I was just, older. In Finland you have to learn to be independent
from a very young age onwards. You don’t have the school bus or drivers taking
you to school and back, you don’t have the food ready on the plate as soon as
you get home, and you don’t have the room ready and cleaned for you every day
(not that I really cleaned my room anyways) and I was used to this all. To me
it was normal, so for a good year almost I stuck it out just focusing on my
then budding football career (I was playing with some of the very best expats
in Thailand against others in South East Asia and prior to that in Finland I
had intentions of moving to a very highly regarded clubs youth system before departure
came to intervene) as I didn’t know what else to do. When I finally hit high
school it all changed, my older sister was a grade above me and we were very
close, so naturally her friends became my friends. I stuck it out with older
kids from then on; I had finally found my place.
For the next
three years my life took a very unexpected but fortunate change, I had
found loyal friends who I can depend on still till this day. I was moving away
from that stereotypical Western mentality and had become just a diverse
individual and this I can only thank my friends for and the environment they
put me in. Now mind you some things were hard to change, for example I never
learned to eat with chopsticks (what can I say, I’m stubborn), I didn’t touch
sushi or any remotely odd looking Asian or foreign dishes however instead I can
proudly say just like almost any expat child that I can swear in about ten
different languages which is an achievement in itself, trust me it is.
As the years
rolled by and high school was nearing its end I was given the information from
my parents that it was time to pack up and leave back to Finland at the end of
the year, I was just starting my 11th year of school meaning I was a
Junior and had one year after that and I would graduate high school. As the year started to wind down we had
agreed with my parents that I would stay in Thailand for a year with a host
family and graduate, however a host family was not to be found and I was forced
to return to Finland a year from graduation.
‘’All this again, oh man!’’, that was my thought once again returning to
Finland, but this time it was easier. I had grown from the past experience and
the transition was easy, I had pretty much come into the same situation as
prior however I was older and so were my classmates and friends. Majority of my
friends from round 1 in Finland ended up in the same high school as me, the
expat community lives on even after you leave the country just so if you ever
were wondering.
Anyways, high
school, family moved abroad, living alone for the first time, getting a job, military
service, new job, and applying to school was all next on my plate in somewhat
that order. I don’t want to bore you with any more details but yes I am
currently a student at Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences and on the
verge of graduating (hopefully), and I finally learned to eat with chopsticks
and sushi is one of my favorite dishes. So there you have it, that was a so-so
accurate description of my life abroad thus far and my beginnings.
Through travel I
wish to experience the obvious things, see new places, meet new faces and
simply just see what wealth this part of the world has and share it with others
through blogging. Why do I choose blogging to share this? I believe to have an
upper-hand in blogging due to the fact that my family already boasts two
full-time bloggers; I have myself kept a blog, and I can be insightful and
portray what I see into diligent words while providing spectacular pictures of
everything I witness. Blogging can also hold endless sources of information in
the modern age and that is something I will utilize such as social media which can
provide information in a heartbeat for interested parties, through Instagram, snapchat
you can get the first sightings of my voyage as I keep it all updated. I’m on
my way, join me!
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