Hey everyone!

My name is Rachel Diers and I am a graduating senior, majoring in marketing. This study abroad trip is my last requirement for my degree and to celebrate I will be staying for two weeks after our program is over in Thailand and traveling with my three older sisters and mom who will be meeting me in Thailand!

                                           These are my sisters, my mom, myself and my nephews.

I love traveling, music festivals/concerts, spending time with my family, hanging out with my amazing nephews and most anything dealing with the outdoors.

I’m very excited about a number of things we have lined up for our Thailand trip, the itinerary and course outline seem very well rounded and I really feel like we will be fully immersed into the culture.  A big goal I have for myself, which was stimulated by our second orientation as a class, is to try to fully understand the differences between my culture and Thailand’s culture with an open mind.  Acharn Cathy made a point during our orientation that really stuck with me, instead of looking at the garbage on the streets of Thailand and thinking it’s dirty and that people should be cleaner, we should try to understand why we’re responding that way. We should also try to open our minds and understand that it’s not just as simple as throwing trash in a garbage, you need the infrastructure to support the garbage system and everything that goes behind that. So overall a big goal I have for myself in this program is to try to have as open of a mind as possible and to appreciate why our cultures are different, why we handle things differently and to understand that that’s not a bad thing.

Can’t wait to experience Thailand together!