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PostPosted: Sat Jul 28, 2007 11:15 am 
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Ursula wrote:
Field trips: None in Idar-oberstein when doing colored stone id. Not even to a cutter. Yet there are plenty of these workshops in town.


That sucks.
Request a trip to the Eiffel looking for hauyne.
Ask your instructor to organize a trip to visit some cutters as well.
Find out if Si and Ann Frazier will be in town while you are a student. Ask if they could give a guest lecture.

Good luck with that!


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 Post subject: The Value of AIGS
PostPosted: Wed Aug 01, 2007 5:53 pm 
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Location: Bangkok, Thailand
AIGS has a long reputation for quality education in gemology. While there are certainly weaknesses and a variety of complaints, the number of students who have begun successful careers here speaks for itself.

While other cities are developing as gem centers, Bangkok is still the main hub. AIGS is most valuable, in my opinion, because it is here, in the middle of the action. Students can come down 6 floors in the lift and be in the middle of active gem trading. Sit in the coffee shop, and brokers will soon be showing rough and stones. Travel to Chanthaburi and neighboring countries will only increase exposure to not only the stones, but to the wide range of interesting personalities which adds to the overall allure of this business.

AIGS is a good place to learn gemology. Bangkok is a great place to learn the gem business. The combination has started rewarding careers for many over the past 10 years.

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American-Thai Trading, Bangkok

http://www.americanthai.com/


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PostPosted: Wed Aug 01, 2007 10:48 pm 
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Location: HNL, BKK, MADA
hello, folks. I was a student at AIGS for 5 months recently, taking every course but the diamond course(which I hope to attend in the near future).
I must say that I personally had not much to complain about the school except for the the fact that my colored stone class was a month of a room full of stinking guys. My other two classes, I was graced by the presence of some from the female species.

The thing I like about that place, is that none of the students were from there at all. We were all from some far away place, trying to make sense out of all the noise that goes on in that god-forsaken city that is lovely bangkok. For those of us that were there to actually get our learn on, we got to become very good friends. Helping each other with life in Bangkok. We shared pretty much everything we figured out in the lab and exchanged information about anything that had to do with gemology.

Classes were great. Teachers were awesome. Library was fantastic(except when it was closed). I found an early 20th century translation of an alchemist's recipe written in the 1st century of gemstone treatments there!! High five to the person who gathered those books there. I hear Richard Hughes spent lots of energy gathering books. Not to take credit away from others that did. Anyways, I gathered so much information from the books available from AIGS, I'm still going over them.

What I'm trying to say is that you have to be a go-getter. gotta want it and go and get it. seize the day. get my drift?

I hate writing long messages. Fist time writing here too.

In the end, what I valued the most out of my education at AIGS are the friends I've made. People told me that the people in this business are not to be easily trusted. The classes were filled with people that had the same mind set as I did, and we developed helping and trusting relationships. With people from all over the world, I might add. That's big in my book.

hehehe... my two cents

Maybe I'm just not a big complainer.

aloha


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 Post subject: aloha
PostPosted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 12:22 am 
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Location: Silom, Bangrak, Bangkok
Aloha and E komo mai!

I lived on the big island for a couple of years- leeward side. What do you do in the big city? I dream of going back but school and business have kept me away for too long. I'm in Korea now and will be in Thailand next but hopefully after that I will go back "home".

Thanks for the post and welcome to the forum.

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Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. ~Mark Twain


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PostPosted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 12:31 am 
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Welcome playgroundking!
I really enjoyed reading your post.
I am so glad you joined us!


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PostPosted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 7:43 am 
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I agree, it's a great advantage to have all kind of nationalities in the class. We can learn so much from everybody experience, culture,... It's a very good start to make contact there that we could rely on in the future.

Of course to have such a great atmosphere in class makes the difference. It's good to be only 10 students per class, so we can get the opportunity to know each other well.
I always enjoyed after class to go look around with classmates that shared gemmology passion. It's nice to try to get an idea of the market price, treatment, or unusual gem. It feels good to have advice from classmates. And when we would find something very different, it was fun to go to the lab and check it. Share opinions. Even the staff would help us to identifiate some gems that we would be unsure of.
If we ask the teacher, he would advice us about a purchase, even if it's not the class subject. I enjoyed to have teachers that works in the market, knows about it and likes it. The teacher would also offer to make up some class on his free time for students that had missed class for visa reason. Thanks to him to be so open :-).

Ursula : It's too bad that you can't even visit cutting company. Idar Oberstein is so well known for beautiful cutting. Are you gonna be still there in Oktober? Maybe it will be easier to make contact at the fair.
It's too bad that some companies see us only as students, looking not buyer. They don't realise that maybe later we could be buyer.

keemoog99 : Too bad you're already gone. Maybe in your next visit....

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PostPosted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 1:01 pm 
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Hi Agate,

no, I won't be in Idar in October for the fair. I will be back in BKK.
However, I hope to be able to visit one of the big trading companies with the help of a goldsmith friend. Stones in Idar are beautiful but prices...

I will start a thread later on about my experience studying at DGemG. Very different to studying at AIGS. But not every student is happy at DGem either.
I enjoy the course but I don't really enjoy Germany.

Ursula :D


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PostPosted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 1:33 pm 
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Hello Ursula,

Thanks for your quick answer. I'm glad to "meet" you as I heard about you from a long time.
I was the other student willing to take the diamond class that was cancelled. Too bad we were only two interested, but things happen for a reason. You got the chance to go to Burma, now to study in Germany and you can get the opportunity anytime later on to take this class with the teacher you like.
I had shared your feeling about knowing it in the last minute.
But finally it worked out well in some other ways.
I hope your visit in the cutting company will work out.
What don't you like in Germany? Idar Oberstein itself?
I'm waiting forward to read your thread.
Have a nice week end

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 Post subject: Can't wait to get there...
PostPosted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 4:47 pm 
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This thread just made my desire stronger to get to the aigs and Thailand in general as fast as I can!! As soon as I finished my FGA here in Europe I'll be over there sniffing that familiar bangkok smell. Maybe the negative posts will scare off certain people that shouldn't go there anyway. It just might make for a more interesting group of classmates.


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