A Life Changing Move to Rural Thailand

Women Who Travel | Condé Nast Traveler

Condé Nast Traveler

Society & Culture, Places & Travel

4.4 • 636 Ratings

🗓️ 19 September 2024

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Ever contemplated studying abroad? Charissa Enget needed to find an engineering course she could afford and eventually found one in rural Thailand—drawn in by a scholarship and low living costs. In a listener dispatch, Charissa shares how she learned Thai in six months, made a new circle of friends, traveled around the country in her free time, and finally decided to make Thailand a permanent fixture in her life.

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi there, it's me, Lale Aricoglu, with an episode of Women Who Travel,
0:09.2	where we hear another of our regular listener dispatchers. My name is Karissa Engett.
0:28.7	I applied to a bunch of universities for master's programs and decided to move to Thailand without knowing anyone there and without speaking the language, just to have the adventure of a lifetime.
0:43.4	In engineering courses in the U.S., I had a lot of foreign teachers. That's just kind of the nature of engineering.
0:49.1	They were from all over the world. I knew that whatever courses came my way I could handle them. I was just more
0:56.9	afraid of making friends and not being lonely and being able to learn the language and making
1:02.9	sure I had fun while I was there.
1:21.5	Many American college students take a study abroad program that's set up and regulated by their alma mater, and it often costs quite a bit of money.
1:27.7	Carissa Engett wanted to find a cheap opportunity to study in a different country for her whole degree.
1:36.6	I didn't do it through my old university. I just enrolled and applied for an English speaker scholarship.
1:42.4	I didn't have to pay for my university at all. It was completely covered. I also got a graduate salary.
1:45.7	So my housing, my food, it was all covered.
1:51.3	The cost of living there is super inexpensive, so I was able to afford to go to islands on the weekends or go on weekend trips. This is her story of her move from Texas to Thailand,
2:00.3	with very little solo travel experience behind her,
2:03.6	and she had a fair share of hiccups.
2:05.6	So she's here to share learnings on how to live and study overseas.
2:09.6	I think living abroad is a lot different from traveling abroad,
2:15.6	just because you really get to know the people and experience the culture and it changes your way of thinking a lot more.
2:25.3	Thailand changed the way I interact with people in a lot of ways and I feel bonded to Thailand for the rest of my life.
2:33.3	It really changed the way I want to live my life, and I'll never stop loving Thailand
2:38.9	or traveling back there as much as I can.
2:42.6	I wasn't planning to go that far originally.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Condé Nast Traveler, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Condé Nast Traveler and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.