Day 20: Nathan McNamara

Hello everybody,

My name is Nate McNamara. I am a sophomore at Massachusetts Maritime Academy and a student in the International Maritime Business program here at MMA.

Today was the day 20 of our experiential learning trip here in Thailand. We woke up at 9:00 and were to be downstairs for a wrap up session with Dr. Sujata Bhatia. The last time we had a meeting with her, it was the first day of the trip, and we had an incredible time getting to know her and learning from her. We were all very much looking forward to seeing her again. As expected, the meeting went amazingly, leaving all of us much more confident about our presentation skills in preparation of our group presentation scheduled for tomorrow.

Just like day 1, this session was very hands on where she divided us into groups and actively engaged us. At the end, there was a segment on mutual appreciation where we appreciated each other for the contribution we made to this EL in Thailand and growth as a team.

After that, we were off to a town called Wat Phra Ram in historic Ayutthaya. Dr Ghosh was generous enough to buy us all a ride on elephants as we all wanted to ride them after our visit to the animal park in Pattaya.

After a “quick” hour and a half ride from AIT, as we looked out of the window, we knew we were there as we saw several elephants walking down the street. As soon as we got out of the van, we lined up to get on top of the elephants, which is easier said than done!! Several of us had not seen a real elephant before this trip, let alone ride one!

We then set off on an unsurprisingly bumpy ride down some trails and even on the roads right along with cars and scooters. When we were done with our ride, we even got a chance to feed the elephants with various fruits and vegetables.

After the elephants got their fill, we loaded right back up into our vans, and headed to another one of the many malls that Thailand has. We were off to find our favorite places for lunch in the mall. Of course, a few of my friends and I found some of the famous mall massage chairs to kill some time after lunch.

After returning to AIT, as a group, we decided to meet in the main conference room and work on our slides for tomorrow’s big presentation.

A few of my friends and I took a small break from making the slides. We walked to the 7-11 at AIT and grabbed some snacks and other things we needed. Thereafter, we all decided to do a mock presentation to practice and ensure we knew exactly what we would be talking about tomorrow.

Finished off the day with some late-night basketball and, of course, writing my blog.

Overall, today was very fun. Again, I would like to thank Dr. Ghosh for giving us the opportunity to ride elephants. A special thank you to Dr. Sujata Bhatia for taking the time to come to AIT and prepare us for our presentation.