Written By Calvin, Latitudes Year ’22 Thailand
Hi! My name is Calvin Koscinski and I’ve been living in Thailand for just over a month. When I first landed in Thailand I was extremely sleep deprived despite spending the last 20 hours sitting on a plane or sitting in an airport. Note to Self: Don’t try to catch up on a whole season of multiple shows when you could be sleeping. However, I didn’t let that get in the way of my first experiences on the island. I was able to meet Amanda, a friend from my first semester, while I was waiting for a flight in Doha. Gus, another friend from my last semester, was delayed a couple days so he met up with me and Amanda when he landed.
Over the course of my first week on the island I completed my Open Water and Advanced Open Water Dive Certifications with Gus and Amanda, got one hell of a sunburn… sorry mom…, and to top it all off I had so much fun walking around trying to find some food. It was definitely some of the best Thai food I’ve had up until the other day, but I’ll get to that later. Once I had completed my dive courses, I packed up my stuff, mainly just clothes, toiletries, and the stuff my mom insisted I take with me, and hopped on a plane to Koh Samui. We spent three days on Koh Samui resting and relaxing after a long week of 10 dives (for comparison I am currently diving five days a week with two days off) and lots of exploring.
After three days of long naps and lots of food, we made our way to Koh Phangan by ferry. Since then I’ve been working with COREsea, a marine conservation and research center based in Chalok Lum, diving 5 times a week to collect data with a variety of methods for a variety of marine life categories. I love collecting giant clam measurements the most because of the fact that you look at an area that is 5×50 meters and all you have to do is look at the crazy different varieties of life that you don’t get to see as much from the surface. It’s such an amazing feeling to float around and see so many different creatures and structures both natural and manmade. Besides diving we also analyze the data that we collect. Some examples are fish population, coral predator counts, and coral cover. When I’m not diving or analyzing data I’m at a beach, playing cards, eating, or sleeping.
The other day Gus, James, and I went to go see a waterfall and ended up not finding it so we went to a beach that had an amazing view. We spent some time swimming and then went for food and found a place that had the best curries I’ve ever had. I tried their green and red curry and they were so good but also way more different than I had expected. The red curry was super sweet while the green had the perfect amount of heat to it so it got more spicy with every bite but not to the point where you would need to wipe your nose after every three bites.
I can’t wait to see what comes next!!
– Calvin
