ALSA CAMP

After I backed from Malaysia, I have many things to do that make me busy. I have to catch up with classes that I missed, lucky that my friend recorded and gave me lectures, thank you so much! Anyway, there are still a lot of ALSA activities too. My father blames me a lot that I do too many activities, I did negotiate with him but it become a victorious defeat T^T. Anyway; on March, there will be a study trip, which the students from Waseda university of Japan, will participate in this activity. We have to prepare ourselves for this big activity. Therefore, my senior arranged the camp for us to prepare ourselves on February 1-3 at Nakornrachchasrima province. This camp was arranged for the students who would like to be the part of ALSA AU, it was a kind of training camp. As a delegate of ALSIC, it makes me to be a member of ALSA AU automatically.

I believe that many of my friends in Eng II class [I, Dollaporn, Chingtong, Chompoonut, Tinnapat, Phanphatchara] wrote about it in their blogs already, because we went there together!

On the first day, we left the university at 9.30 and arrive there at noon. The weather at Nakornrachchasrima was great, not too hot and not too cold, the air was fresh! I love it, the accommodation was nice as well, and we stayed together in the big room but separated boys and girls. We started the activities with ice-breaking activity that was so funny, then we were explained about ALSA structure to let’s us know more about ALSA. Then they asked us to create an academic project that we had to work in team of six people. I was in the same team with Tinnapat and Phanphatchara again!!! I could not escape from them! And also three other friends, one of them I have never seen him before, but he is a nice guy. We could do it very well, we had quite the same idea and we are flexible, so our team worked smoothly. The project that we created is “School of law and ALSA AU Open house 2008” which is the project for PR our university, faculty and ALSA to the high school students who want to study law. Then in the evening, we had to present our project to the seniors and our teacher to let them commented. For my team, we have not edited a lot; just changed some plans and activities in the project.

For the second day, it was a real training. The senior let us us edited and talked together again about project, and then they imitated that we going to do this project to as real! They pretend to be departments that we have to contact when we wants to do the project, there are ALSA advisor, AUSO, sponsors, university staffs, etc. we had to pretend that it was the real situation. It made us so busy, stress, tired, and sick with account that we created, too much expense and a lot of number to calculate +.+!!! Anyway, our project went well and while we were working there was a big rainbow appeared af ter rained, it was so beautiful. Then in the evening, we had to elect the new committee of ALSA AU, at first I was asked to be the secretary but I refused, but I was chosen to be an assistant of academic department, which was great. Because I think I more suits with academic activity than documentary works. Then, there was an evaluated activity to evaluate the project and spent time to talk together, open minded!

For the third day before backed to Bangkok, we had to do the year plan for the next semester that sounds great, many interesting activities; such as academic sightseeing, public speaking, moot court competition, table discussion, ALSA meeting, etc. Moreover, the project from my team was chosen to do as real, but maybe we have to change to Moot court Camp that sounds more interesting! Then we backed to Bangkok.

This camp gave many things for me that I learned a lot from my seniors, that made me love ALSA a lot and proud to be one part of them. And I will try my best as an assistant of academic department. Next semester will be another hard working semester! FIGHT!!!

MY MEMORABLE MOMENTS

In facts, there’re still many things about ALSIC that I would like to tell you, it was my memorable moments but now I would like to write something up to date!! However it is still about ALSA. I hope that it is not bored you… ^-^, now let’s see some pictures from my “memorable moments” instead reading, because one picture can explain millions words, hahaha!!!





Malaysian highest court, commision of wildlife trafficking, cultural night with Korean delegates



Thai girls in Hunbok
Korean girl in Thai costume, Melaka trip, Petronas, at the parliament






AU delegates- cultural night, dinner with bar council, farewel party at Genting

These are some of pictues that we took, there are more than thousands pictures!!!

WHAT I RECEIVED FROM ALSIC?

From the ALSA conference, I received lot of knowledge from activities that we did there. Moreover, it made me had an opportunity to practice myself with many skills. Now I know how to work in team, how to do research, I have improved my English skill, especially to improve myself. However, the most important thing that I found is “friendship” that it was a great chance to know people from other countries and become friends and we still keep in touch. For the things that I have to improve are my English skill, knowledge that I should know a lot more, it was the time for the real practicing and I realize that my English and other skill are not good enough to use for the real situation. Sometime I could not express what I would like to say or I had no idea what I was listening, because I have no knowledge about it before that made me could not gain all good knowledge.
I think, in our faculty should have more academic activities to practice students to do research, to let them have a chance to give opinions, to know what is a table discussion, practicing moot court or arrange it into competition in order to let them to be more efficient law student.

MOOT COURT COMPETITION

It was my first time to do my moot court. Before that I really interested in moot court; therefore my senior, Kaew gave me an opportunity to do it. I did it with Tarn [Miss Jittima] the third year student. Not only me but also Tarn, that has never done moot competition. So we had to do a lot of research about the law of war; such as Geneva Convention, ICC Statute, Hague Convention, etc. there were many materials that we used. I really want to thanks everyone who help me, THANK YOU SO MUCH. I realized that it was very hard working and we have to care of every word that we charged them with crime. We have to prepare it carefully. I first I was confuse because I do not know how to do it and felt discouraged. But because of their help (also your help) and suggestions that made us did it. Although we got no prize from this competition and it was not good enough, we did satisfy with it. Because, the most important thing that we received is experience and friendship. I think I can improve myself a lot from doing moot competition.

For the competition, there were primary round and final round. They divided teams into A and B. Thailand is in A side, we had to competed with Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia in the primary round. Assumption mooters as a prosecutor of ICC ,and Chulalongkorn mooters as a defendant. For us, we took two rounds with Indonesia and Japan as a prosecutor. In the first round that we competed with Indonesia, we defeated. Because I think our reasons is not strong enough and I was really exciting and nervous because I was afraid if the judge would asked me questions and he did! But lucky that the question was the question that we prepared in the night before competition, we forced delegates from Assumption to see our practicing and let them asked questions, it help a lot. For the second time, we won Japan! Because in the time for defense, they did not defense us for the charges that we charged them but they defense us at a rebuttal time. They made a mistake, so we win. For the round that Chula mooters competed with Singapore, I had no chance to look this round but I heard that they did well but Singapore is better, so we lost this round too. Therefore the result from three rounds of primary round is 1 point from three, could not pass to the final round, but it was better than no point. Therefore, we satisfied with it but we have to improve a lot if there is another chance for moot court.

Second day: Table Discussion1 – Academic visit – Table Discussion 2

11/1/08 FRIDAY




Today I woke up at 7 am and had breakfast, and then it was a time for table discussion. Table discussion is an activity to exchange the legal knowledge between countries. The topic that I was given is “wildlife Trafficking”. So my commission is to discuss and present about the problem of wildlife trafficking in Thailand to other delegates in my table group. In my group there are 17 people; 1 from Singapore, 3 from Philippines, 2 from Indonesia, 2 from Malaysia, 3 from Korea, 2 from Hong Kong and 4 from Thailand.

Anyway, I will tell you about what I presented them in the table discussion about “wildlife trafficking”. From my research I found that “wildlife trafficking” is the world’s third largest crime, which directly cause of losing biodiversity, many of them are extinct. Thailand, as a hot spot for illegal trade in Asia, wildlife trafficking is a big problem that we must concern. Many species are threatened and it us surprise that the center of wildlife trafficking is in Bangkok, the capital of Thailand. Wild animals and wild plants are sold without fear of law, while the police officers cannot arrest all of the wildlife smugglers; therefore this problem become more serious.

From the three months survey of WWF Thailand, Forestry department and other related associations, found that the largest place where is wildlife trafficking occurs is “the weekend market” or we know as JJ market in Bangkok; especially in the pet zone, wild animals are sold as pets. Almost wildlife are from the north and the northeast of Thailand; where is a bountiful forest, some of them are from neighboring country. The wildlife traffickers in JJ market will set-up other shops; such as clothes shop or food stand to conceal what is their real purpose. They also have special and complex methods to avoid from the police, such as hiding animals, give the false information, counterfeit the license, or cite that they are raised animals. There are catalogs of wild animals and let the customer choose and appoint to get the animals later from their set-up shop. They do it as a cycle, there are persons who always help and report the trafficker to avoid from the inspection of the police.

The volunteered staff told that most of the wildlife traffickers have method that is more complex that make more difficult to detect. There are also groups of influential person or mafias support them, and the officials who have a duty to detect in the market are always the same person; therefore, it is easy to recognize them and they can hide their goods promptly.

From the detection, most of wildlife that we found is “birds”; they are birds, which are protected by the act of wildlife protection and preservation. In addition we found others wildlife such as rare turtle, alligator, snake, etc.

Moreover, there is a survey of customer’s opinions in JJ market about wildlife trafficking, we found that
- 58.8% know that there are protected animal are sold in the market, and still want to buy.
- 81.58 % do not know that the animals, which they are going to buy, are endangered species.
- 85.35 % do not know that buying the animal, which they are going to buy, is illegal.
- 79.60 % know that the number of wildlife in Thailand is decreasing.
- 62.50 % think that wildlife trafficking cannot be absolutely eliminated from the country.

From my research about the general view of wildlife trafficking in Thailand, I recognize that human is a disaster for animals and it makes me want to do something to help them. So, I decided to do this commission my best, because in the third part of table discussion, we can suggest the solutions that there’s a member from WSPN; the organization that work for the animal will join the discussion and bring our solutions to use as real. I hope that our solutions can help!




For the afternoon section, there was an academic visit to the parliament of Malaysia in the city. We were asked to wear black suit that make me look like a real lawyer! For the visiting, the parliament officers explained us about the parliament system of Malaysia and other information about Malaysia that quite boring and make many delegates felt sleepy, as well as I [ha ha]. Then it was a tea break, they treated us a local desserts, one of them is strange; it is sticky rice, which there is curry coconut on the top; it is taste was weird! Then we were brought to walk around the parliament, it is so big and beautiful! We took many pictures there. Then we backed to the hotel and prepared for the second part of table discussion. On the way backed to the hotel I chatted with delegates from Singapore, Hong Kong and Korea about law of their country. I found that my friend from Singapore love chewing gum, even it is prohibited in their country. He told that gum in Singapore is sold as a medicine for the people who have a problem with their teeth. Moreover to buy gums, they have to sign their name for that gum!!!

For the second table discussion, we discussed about the ways to solve the problem of wildlife trafficking that we will present to the officer who works with this problem. Anyway, now it is 2am already!!! Tomorrow there are workshop, symposium and table discussion three.

First Day: Malaysia, truly Asia

10 Jan 08

Today is the first day in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We left Bangkok at 7.10 am and 10.15 we arrived at Kuala Lumpur [KL local time- time in Malaysia is faster than Thailand for an hour]. Our caretakers brought us from Kuala Lumpur International Airport to the Pearl International hotel. We arrived here quite early, so we had some free time to have lunch and prepare for welcoming party.

In the evening, there was a welcoming party. We were brought to the big shopping mall and took a ferry to the theme park. The ferry was amazing; it brought us from a small canal to the river outside through the water gate, which can descend the level of water. The scenery was beautiful, it amazed me a lot! We were the first group that arrived at the restaurant so we spend time to walk around and took pictures in the theme park. There are many interesting things, the thing that I like most is the ice factory. There are many carved ice-bricks, it was very cold inside but so beautiful, I did take many pictures!

Then, it was a party time. The theme for the party is “floral night”, so everyone dressed with flower-pattern outfit. I dressed with a brown dress and decorated with a rose pin, which look quite formal, I think I should dress with another colorful dress but it’s too late to think about it T-T. One of my senior decorated her hair with a big lily that was so beautiful.

For the dinner we were treated with local food in buffet style; it was Chinese-Muslim food, which quite strange for me but the taste was good. After dinner, there was Malaysia dancing show, which called “Saba dancing”, it quite similar with one of Thai dancing called “Laos-kra-tob-mai” that use bamboo sticks to tap in steps and let the dancers dance across them, but Saba dancing is more exciting with fast step. My caretaker told me that, In Malaysia there are two big state; Saba and Sarawak. This show is a kind of dancing of native people from the state of Saba , so it called “Saba dancing” , they dressed with the native outfit that contained with many big red feathers.

Then it time for introducing the delegation from eight countries, there are Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Korea, China, Singapore and Thailand. There are also three observers from ELSA Poland [European Law Student Association]. For Thai delegation, we introducing ourselves by sang the king’s song, name is “Oh, I say” in harmonize style and dance, which could interest other very well. The M.C. of the party was so funny; He cans talks in many languages! And he taught us one of the Malaysian native song, which sings “ rus sus sa rung hae, rus sus sa rung sa rung hae, hae ree hut no na jao, rus sus sa rung sa rung hae” which I do not know the meaning but he let us sang many times till I can remember it.

The party was finished at 11 pm. I was so tired, because yesterday I went to bed at 2 am and woke up at 4 am. Then we backed to the hotel and I had to prepare for the table discussion for tomorrow. Now is nearly 3 am, after I finish writing my journal, I will go to bed immediately!

PUBLIC SPEAKING

7 Jan 08

Today, my faculty had an activity “Public Speaking” at the C building. This activity organized for law student who would like to know how to speak efficiency in the public. The lecturer for this topic is the famous lawyer in Thailand; he is also my senior’s father, Mr.Pramarn Luengwattanawanich.

This activity was divided into two parts; morning section and afternoon section. For the morning section, the lecturer talked about how to speak efficiency in the public and techniques of pleading a case in court. He suggested many method to speak efficiency; such as gesture, eye contact, how to stand, how to use your voice, how to speak, what you should speak or should not, even how to dress! I think it is useful for us, especially for the law student who will be the lawyer in the future. I think one problem of Thai children is “public speaking”, Thai children do not know how to speak efficiency and they are discouraged to express their opinion. Therefore, I think Thai children should practice to speak! If we can speak efficiency, we have a plus. I am the one who try to speak in public, because next week is my test! ALSA Conference is coming and I have to present what I am doing research about wildlife trafficking. I will do my best.

For the afternoon section, there was a practice of public speaking; it was also a competition. We had been asked to pick a topic before we spoke only five minutes. They said that it is a practice of crisis thinking! There were many topics; such as mercy killing, blogger’s rights, inequality wealth etc. more than twenty topics! I had to speak about the rights of the apprentice, which I had no knowledge about it! And it was the same topic with my friend who was speaking then! , and he did it well. I was really nervous and panic. Because there were teachers, who listened and gave us points. Therefore, I just speak what I know and try to add my opinions. I think I did not really well, because I felt harden to speak and I could not speak what I want to that made my face looked so serious, haha. Anyway, it was a good practice before going to conference in Malaysia. I am so exciting, it just three days lefts and I have not ready my luggage yet, there will be a lot of stuff.

Today is also my best friend birthday, but so pity that I had an hour free for her and her party birthday will set on the day that I will be in Malaysia T-T. For tomorrow, I have to go to Chulalongkorn University to have a moot court practicing. My senior and I went there many times before to prepare our indictment. I found that it is really hard working. It is my first time and I will try my best. Anyway, thank you for the website of ICC, it help me a lot to find the provisions. After I back from Malaysia I will report you about conference there in the journal.

LATE!!!!!

First, I'm so sorry that I update my blog so late, because I have a problem with my computer!! now I'm using ABAC's computer!!! it's very fast, I love it hahaha....
Anyway, I'd like to report you about ALSA Conference that I participated on 10-18 January. I may be not up to date, but it's the great experiences of mine.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

I know that it is too early, but it is better than late

to say

"MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR"

We wish you a merry Christmas

We wish you a merry Christmas

We wish you a merry Christmas

And a happy New Year.

Glad tidings we bring

To you and your kin;

Glad tidings for Christmas

And a happy New Year!

PSYCHOLOGY ASSIGNMENT

Before Mid-Term examination, my psychology teacher assigns homework to search for any topic, which interested.As a law student, I chose the topic...

“Remembering and Forgetting of Eyewitness”

Eyewitness is the person who has seen a thing happens and can give evidence of it. Therefore, in the legal proceeding, eyewitness testimony is a powerful tool as a great evidence for the trial. However, sometime the testimony of eyewitness can be incorrect or unreliable; therefore, we have to study their memories as a part of human memory about remembering and forgetting.
There is a phrase of Huff & Rattner said “the single most important factor contributing to wrongful conviction is eyewitness misidentification”

There are three stages to examine human memory in case of eyewitness, They are…

Stage 1: Witnessing the incident.
When witnessing an incident, information about the event is entered into memory, however, research has shown that a number of factors can influence the accuracy of this initial information acquisition.Take the duration of the event being witnessed for instance. In a very simple experiment conducted by Clifford and Richards in1977, an individual is instructed to approach a number of police officers. They are told to engage in conversation for either 15 or 30 seconds. Thirty seconds after the conversation ends, the experimenter asks the police officer to recall details of the person they have just been speaking to using a 10-item checklist. The checklist contains items relating to the persons appearance such as hair colors, facial hair etc. The results of the study showed that in the longer 30-second condition, police were significantly more accurate in their recall.

Stage 2: Waiting period before giving evidence.
This stage is concerned with the period of retention between perception by seeing an incident and the subsequent recollection of that incident. Unsurprisingly, research has consistently found that the longer the gap between witnessing an incident and recalling the incident, the less accurate the recollection of that incident becomes. There have been numerous experiments, usually related to a staged event, that support this contention. For example, the study case of Malpass and Devine in 1981, for instance, compared the accuracy of witness identifications after 3 days (short retention period) and 5 months (long retention period). The study found no false identifications after 3 days but after 5 months, 35% of identifications were false.

Stage 3: Giving evidence.
The final stage in the eyewitness memory process relates to the ability of the witness to access and retrieve information from memory. In a legal context, the retrieval of information is usually elicited through a process of questioning and it is for this reason that a great deal of research has investigated the impact of types of questioning on eyewitness memory.
The most substantial body of research has concerned leading questions, which has consistently shown that even very subtle changes in the wording of a question can influence subsequent testimony.

From the three stages of experiment found that there is a problem of eyewitness testimony also. I found a case study in the internet. It is a study of American psychologist, Elizabeth Loftus who has conducted many experiments that demonstrate how eyewitnesses can reconstruct their memories based on misleading information. In one study, participants watched a videotape of a car accident involving two cars. Later, they were given a questionnaire about the incident, there is one question asked, “About how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?” For some groups of participants, however, the verb hit was replaced by smashed, collided, bumped, or contacted. Although all participants viewed the same videotape, their speed estimates differed considerably as a function of how the question was asked.

The average speed estimate was 32 mph when the verb was contacted, 34 mph when it was hit, 38 mph when it was bumped, 39 mph when it was collided, and 41 mph when it was smashed.

In a follow-up study, participants were asked a week later if there was any broken glass in the accident scene. In reality, the film showed no broken glass. Those questioned with the word smashed were more than twice as likely to “remember” broken glass than those asked the question with hit. The information coming in after the original event was integrated with that event, causing it to be remembered in a different way.

We can say that language could have distorting effect on eyewitness, which can lead to inaccurate accounts of eyewitness event. It is possible that the original memory had been reconstructed. However, it is also possible that the original memory may have been replaced or experienced interference. Therefore, questions or words used in police interviews of eyewitness are important. We can say that human memories of events tend to be fragile and easily to distort and reconstruct, for example by suggestions, misleading questions, and false information.
Not only the problem of language that distorting on eyewitness memories, but also the problem of duration. We found that the duration effects on human memory; longer time, more false identification found, because we forget it. We can explain the question “why people forget” ,that Under most conditions, people recall information better soon after learning it than after a long delay; as time passes, they forget some of the information. We have all failed to remember some bit of information when we need it, so we often see forgetting as a bother. However, forgetting can also be useful because we need to update our memories continually.

GOLDEN COMPASS

Today is Saturday, in the morning I have a German class at Goethe institute. When I finished class, I had an appointment with my friend, Phanphatchara. We went to siamsquare together to take a student photo that looks so funny, my face is round and looks strange, I will take a new one again later. Then we had lunch at MK restaurant and went to Paragon shopping mall because Phanphatchara wanted to buy new shoes (again). There are many nice shoes but the prices are not nice like them. I suggested her to go shopping somewhere else not Paragon where everything is so expensive. So, I asked her to go shopping at Platinum mall before Christmas with me and Dollaporn to buy some new clothes and shoes which is very much cheaper than in Paragon.

Then in the evening, I had an appointment with my brother and sister to watch a movie, “Golden Compass”. It is a fantasy film, which based on the trilogy of Philip Pullman, which I haven’t read them yet. The story is about an orphanage girl named is Lyra Belacqua, her world is a world very much like ours, in a parallel universe. In her world, a person’s soul lives on the outside of their body, in the form of a daemon or a talking animal spirit that accompanies them through life. Lyra was brought up among scholars. One day she heard Lord Asriel, her uncle talked about an elementary particles called “Dust” were flowing from a parallel universe, in far north. They believed that “dust” had something related with children and their daemon, so they sent Lord Asriel to the north to explore it. Shortly after Lord Asriel goes north, Lyra’s friends; Billy Costa and Roger disappeared, and she believed that the folkloric “Gobblers” had taken them away to the North. Lyra has vowed to rescue Roger, and found her chance when a visiting woman of great importance, Mrs.Marisa Coulter, offered to take Lyra to the north as her assistant. Before she left, the Master of the College had given her an “alethiometer” or a golden compass, which can tell all the truth to the person who knows how to use it. After a while staying with Mrs.Coulter she found that in fact Mrs.Coulter was head of the General Oblation Board, the real “Goblers” who had been kidnapping children. So, Lyra escaped from her and saved with the Gyptians and find the way to help the kidnapped children. Along the way, she met
Iorek Byrnison, an armoured bear who promised to help her until she reach the victory and another important charactor is Lee Scoresby, an aeronaut.

In the movie it just only the first episode of the three books. Nothing is clear. So it makes me really want to know what will happen next. I cannot wait for the next film, so I decided to buy all three books, but I realize that the Mid-Term exam is coming, so I must keep them away with other books that I have not read yet, they are many. I also found that today Thai’s version Harry Potter was released today too, but I will not buy it until I finished all exams, because I will finished it before reading textbooks for sure!

Legal Sharing Seminar on Loykratong day

Yesterday, I participated in the legal sharing seminar at Chulalongkorn University. The seminar began at 8am and finished at 4pm and I had to wear suit that made me look like a lawyer. This seminar was an activity of Asian Law students Association of Thailand (ALSA Thailand). The topic for the seminar is “Copyright”. In the morning section, there was a symposium in Thai; the topic is “The Intellectual property law in Thailand” They talked about general view of Thailand’s intellectual property law, which I had read a bit before. After that, we had a table discussion that we had to separate into four groups and discussed about the problem of copyright that they gave us and presented it. I like this kind of seminar that let the participator to be a part of it, but it was my first time to have a group discussion in a topic that I have such a little bit knowledge, so it make me like a fool that couldn’t express my opinion or just a rubbish, I have to work hard now!

After lunchtime, there were another symposium and moot court show from the students of Chulalongkorn University. Another symposium, they talked in English and the topic is “Copyright Infringement and Copyright Protection in Thailand and the International Cooperation”. This topic let me know a lot more about copyright infringement in Thailand. I think it is funny that, in Thailand, there is an act to prevent and punish the infringer, but it is still the big problem for Thailand. We can see many illicit CDs or DVDs along the street; such as on Silom road. There is law but they do not afraid of it. It is a crime of stealing but they still sold them. In fact, the customer is also an important part in this problem, because we still buy them too, they are cheaper! So why do we have to buy an expensive one, right? I think law is only a little part to solve this problem. It is also a problem of economic. We can say that it related with a reason of demand and supply, between price and ability to pay for goods. I think the companies do take advantage of their customer; they are greedy. Therefore, we have to find other ways to solve this problem; sometime law cannot help! We have to solve the problem from the source not a tail.
Another activity was a moot court show. It was great, they did excellent and it was so interesting. Their English skills were excellent too. The topic is still about copyright. They made me really impress of it.

So yesterday made me know that, I have to improve myself a lot! As a delegate from ALSA Thailand in ALSA conference in Malaysia, I have to be a diligence and smart woman, so I have to work hard and have a good preparation, in order to make a good reputation for my country and my university. I will try my best!

ALSA

ALSA or Asian Law Students Association is a non-governmental, non-political, and non-profit organization that has the objective to understand the ideals of law through exchange and communication among Asian law students, which consisting of 9 countries and special administrative region which are Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Japan, China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Korea and Hong Kong. Since its establishment, the association has been organizing various legal forums and conferences annually, which have been held in different participating Asian country from year to year.

All above is just information about Asian Law Students Association or ALSA. However, what I want to tell you is not this information, but I want to tell you about the conference, which National University of Malaysia is being the representatives from Malaysia of this association who had taken the initiative to lobby for the hosting of the annual Asian Law Students International Conference in January 2008. There are 200 delegates 48 universities 11 nations 1 event. ABAC school of Law is the one of the member of ALSA, so we have to send the representatives to join this event. In the conference there are many activities, include of table discussion, the ALSA Symposium, the ALSA moot court competition, academic visit, cultural night, and Kuala Lumpur City tour.

The interview for this conference was held on 14th November, and I am the one of many persons who want to get such a great chance to go there, so I decided to sign the application form and went to interview. I knew that they wanted only three persons to go with six others staff, so it was quite difficult to be selected as a representative to join this event. There are three rounds of interview….

Round 1!
At the first round, I was interviewed in English and I was really shaking and exiting. The four interviewers are my seniors, they asked me about Thailand’s constitution 2007, which is the new one. The question is “Do the judiciary has more power than the past and how do you think about this?”, luckily that you gave me the news about it in the second English II class, so I could answer this question (thank you so much). The question for this round is general questions to test about my English skill, performance, self-confidence and legal knowledge.

Result: PASSED!!! (There are five persons passed)

Round 2! This time I had to interview with my two teachers. I was so exiting that made me forgot everything! Questions are really difficult. I was asked about the politic, law and the constitution again, but this time I was asked to do some homework and sent it to them in the following day. Moreover, I was asked about the Thai culture that which culture I would like to present to the foreigner, I chose Thai dancing that made me had to show them how to dance! (For many times, because there are new interviewer came and wanted to see!) Oh! My homework is to find out what are the mechanics that used in the new constitution to prevent corruption. (Quite difficult, doesn’t it?)

Result: … assigned some homework that made me did not sleep
and made me feel so stress.

Round 3!
In fact, there’re only two round but because of the assignment that made me to be interviewed again with another new interviewer and the another who assigned a homework!
After I presented my homework, I was asked for many difficult questions that test my thinking, sagacity, responsibility etc.
I think I did it quite good, so I satisfied with it, although I was selected or not, but…

Result: I DID IT!!! I was selected to be a representative to participate in Asian Law Students International Conference in January 2008. I’m so happy and proud of myself that I can did it too.

Laughing with tears [Pornrutai’s version]

PS. Please read Ms.Dollaporn’s journal before mine or read them alternately!

7th November is my birthday. This year was so special that made me so happy. I will tell you about my birthday in a dairy form of 6 days before my birthday!

1st, November 2007
At noon, I went to “The Mall” department store with Phanpathchara and I came back late for criminal law class. Therefore, I asked Dollaporn if I could borrow her lecture and she gave me. I was sure that I kept it in my folder but when I backed home, I could not find it. Then I told Dollaporn that I lost her book, but I said I will find it or copy the new one for her if I really can not find it. I knew that she was angry but I felt false, and I found that not only her book that was lost but also another lectured book of mine too, so bad!

2nd, November 2007
On Friday, I have a psychology class at 12.30 but I went to ABAC at 8 o’clock in order to find Dollaporn’s notebook. I did look for it everywhere but I could not find it that made me came late in psychology class but I did not told her that I did look for it, so she thought that I cared nothing about her note book, so she really angry at me. I think I did say sorry to her, but it seemed she would not forgive me. I had no idea what to say ,so it was better to say nothing and it went worse. I felt really really bad.

3rd, November 2007
On Saturday, I have a German class at 8.30-12.30, then I had an appointment with Phanpathchara to find the beverage shop for Loykratong day on 23rd November at ABAC and then we went to Siamsquare. I met my friends; Beau and Ohm, They told me that Dollaporn would come too then Beau called her if she wanted to join us but she said that she would not come because I was there. She made me felt troubled again. I did not think that she did not angry me so much because it was one page in that notebook! Why she had to angry me like that, so I told them to leave and backed home.

4th, November 2007
I stayed at home all day and contacted with no one.

5th, November 2007
It was Monday, the first class is your class. You might notice that why I did not sit next to her as usual, but I moved to sat with Chingtong. After class, it is a long free time that I always with Chompoonut, Ms.Leelawat, Phanpathchara, Tinnapat, and actually, Dollaporn. We always together but not this day. I separated from them and spent time reading law books in the library alone. Moreover, my grade was released on this day that made me felt worse, because I got c+ for “Introduction to legal principal”, it was not too bad but I did felt unsatisfied with it. Therefore, it made me so headache and had a lot of stress that could my other friends noticed and asked me, but I said I was ok.

6th, November 2007
Today, I stayed in the library all the free time, because I would not like to meet them. In the classes, I studied quietly and did not talk to any one. I began to felt lonely and a bit sad. I did worry about my friend than my grade!
In the evening, after class, I went to watch a football match between faculty of Law and Engineering to relax but it seemed the week of bad luck. When I was inattentive to the match the ball crash my head heavily that made me got more headache! I hope that the following day would be a good day because it is my birthday. One of my friends wished me to have a good day because he knew that it was my bad time, and I hope so.

7th, November 2007
Today is my birthday, In the morning I received many messages from my friends which they sent to wish me. It seemed that their wishes came true. In the morning, I found a cute guy who I like and he also said happy birthday to me that made me really happy. But after the first class, Leelawat told me about Dollaporn seriously that made me felt bad and my feeling nearly to explode, but fortunately that I could controlled myself, if not she would find that I will become a devil [like my friends said when I angry somebody]. In the afternoon, one of my old friends called me to say happy birthday and then I did express all of my feeling at that time that made her shocked that I cried on my birthday. Then I have a cheering rehearsal for AU Games, I did not know what will happen. Then my seniors asked me that why I didn’t sit with Dollaporn as usual, then Dollaporn told them about the reason and I did reply back that why and I began weeping. Because at that time, it was full of stress than I can kept inside, then the birthday song was sung that made me so surprised and felt really angry at the same time and can not say any word. Suddenly my senior slapped a cake on my face! And in the last they told me all the truth that everyone knew about the plan except me! How fool I am!

The truth
-Phanpathchara who always talked and always with me was a master of this plan! Friend in need is a friend indeed, but sometime I cannot rely on them!

-Everyone knew about it.

Want to say
- I did angry about their plan. They did too much and cared nothing about my feeling, so wicked, almost week that made me had a bad feeling. Don’t do it again! it is not funny.
- Thank you all of my friends and seniors that made me have such a special birthday.
- Be careful, now it is my turn!

STARDUST

Last month, somebody gave me a free movie ticket of EGV. Today I had a free time, so it was time to use it, but only me that had a free time…, then I decided to watch a movie alone, so lonely. There are many interesting movies; such as “Surf up”, “The Kingdom”, “Stardust”, “Draymen the movie”, finally I chose to watch “Stardust” and bought a bucket of popcorn and cola in a penguin mug, which can make me gain weights -*-. This movie is a romantic-fantasy movie, about a young man named Tristan who wanted to win the heart of one woman; Victoria that cared nothing about him. Therefore, he said that he would bring her a fallen star, which fell in the magic land over the wall of his village. But the thing the he found was not a star but a beautiful woman named Yvaine, she is the star that fell because of the ruby that the king of the magic land used for choosing the new king crush her (the story is a bit busy). Therefore, they had adventure together; to escape from the witches, who wanted star’s heart to make them young again, met the pirates etc. and finally Tristan find that Victoria was not his true love, his true love is…the star! Then the movie ended with happiness like a fairy tale. Although it is quite fancy but it was fun and can make me happy with the story.

THE FIRST WEEK OF THE SEMESTER II

This week is the first week of the semester 2 of the year of my freshman in ABAC School of Law. It is a busy week. In this semester I have to study for 6 subjects; English for law student II, philosophy of law, general psychology, criminal law I, legal acts and contracts, and property and land law. They are so difficult and so important, because they used as the basic of law that I have to understand all of them and I have to use it for other subject that I have to study in other 3 years.
I told you that, it is a busy week, because I have to adapt myself with the new schedule that quite strange. On Monday, I have an English class on 9.30-11.00 and I have another class at 5 pm-7 pm, there is a long free time that I do not know what to do on this free time (maybe I will spend for read law books). Moreover, the class in the evening finishes so late that make me back home late most everyday. I think I have to work and try harder to pass this semester with the good GPA!
Not only my schedule that make me busy, but also books that I have to find and buy them, they are so expensive!!!, now I spent about one thousand for them, but there are still many that I have to buy (goodbye my money!). They are expensive and very thick * o *, I can use them as a pillow and let the knowledge inside absorbs to my head! -_- .
Oh! There is Ms.Leelawat and Ms.Chompoonut’s birthday in this week too! Their birthday is on the first and the third of November and my birthday is on 7 November! November is the month of pretty girls ^-^ (ha-ha…)
I think, there is nothing to tell you anymore about my busy week. I hope that next week will be better...or not. Because my grade of all the first semester subjects will be released!!! .... I think I got sick -*-

INTRODUCING MYSELF

First, I would like to introduce myself before I begin my first journal!
My name is Pornrutai Chotvijit, you can call me “Joy”. I am 18 years old. I was born on 7 November 1988 in Chinese family and I am a Wednesday child. I have one sister who is older than me for two years, she studies in ABAC too, but she studies in the faculty of Art-French, and another is my brother who is younger than me for three years, he studies at Bangkok Christian College. I finished high school from St.Joseph Convent school where I studied there for twelve years since I was 7 years old, you maybe know my school from the news that there’s a mad woman stabbed four students in the school two years ago, it was a really big news but luckily that no one die!
After I finished high school, I choose to study in ABAC School of Law. Because I like it and I think, law is so important for the society and who got knowledge of law is advantageous, and I would like to be the one part that can help the people who taken advantage and has no money to hire a lawyer. It would be great if I can help others!