Good 'Thai'dings to You

Christmas Week 2009:
So in the end Sathit Bangna came through in terms of celebrating Christmas. It's such a weird time to be away from home and family and all the traditions, but come Christmas week, our school was alive with holiday spirit (even though we're convinced they think that Christmas Eve is actually Christmas day)

A lot of class didn't happen this week as kids were getting ready for the Christmas Eve show and for Sports day on the 25th, but I spent pretty much every class of every day I had it doing various Christmas projects with my kids. We did everything from writing cards to Santa, to making 3D Christmas tree ornaments to origami elves to Christmas wordfinds/mazes. My best craft was with my science class: we've been learning about habitats and organisms, so we went outside and collected different types of leaves and flowers and glued them on paper circles to make Christmas wreath ornaments--AWESOME. I feel that at the end of it all the kids kind of get a little Christmased out considering all us foreingers teach about, but it's still fun and better than doing in class work.

December 23rd Dr. Absorn threw the foreign teachers a Christmas party at her house on Soi 35. It ended up being a pretty good time despite them being 2+ hours late. We had loads and loads of pizza (obviously a Christmas tradition) along with some Thai fruits and drinks. We ate fresh tamarind which I actually liked even though it looks like a small alien fetus when peeled from its shell. Teacher Beth (a Filipino teacher) was DJ which made for an interesting playlist--nsync, celine dion, filipino techno, Christmas tunes, etc. It was quite the diverse party as well with 2 thais, 3 filipinos, 7 americans, 2 chinese and 1 burmese...can't say I thought I'd ever experience that!

December 24th we all dressed in red or green to celebrate Christmas and the foreign teachers started up morning assembly with rousing renditions of Jingle Bell Rock and We Wish You a Merry Christmas complete with Santa hat costumes. Then Ryan F (fully clad in santa costume/beard) began Ho Ho Ho-ing and throwing candy to the kids. I actually thought I was watching a pack of hyenas descend upon an injured gazelle--kids were screaming and clawing and pushing and shoving to get at the candy as we all watched in horror and humor. Assembly lead us to the football field where we watched the opening ceremony for Baby Games (a Sports Day extravaganza for the little ones) and then over to the stage to watch the Christmas show which was amazing. Different ages sang and danced to our holiday favorites including Jingrr Bewrrs (Jingle Bells), 12 days of Kistmas (Christmas), Ret it Sanow (Let it Snow) and Ding Dong Merrirry on High (Ding Dong Merrily on High). The two best were 4th grade doing a hand mime dance to Give Love On Christmas Day(I think by the Jackson 5) where they spelled out different words to the lyrics and 3rd grade who did an amaaaazing dance to Last Christmas by Wham. I don't think I've ever laughed so hard in my life--Ake was in the center and rocking out the whole time while Pooh, Oom and the others were following right along. Those two grades have Teacher Beth and she does the greatest things with them.

That night we all got dressed up and headed back to school for the staff Christmas party which turned out to be a blast! The entire night was in Thai and, even though we had no idea what was being said, the MCs were hysterical. We ate a 5 or 6 course meal and watched as different departments and staff members performed on the stage and/or did karaoke. Don't worry, even us foreign teachers got a chance to shine: all of us got up on stage and performed a rousing dance routine to Last Christmas by Wham (don't worry we didn't steal all the moves from the 3rd graders.) I figured 'Go big or Go home' and the crowd loved it--during the dance 4 different Thai teachers ran up and gave me roses. I guess all that HUMO training paid off :) There was also a gift exchange which (after we opened our gifts) was pretty funny. Someone would draw a number and then get a gift from whoever had that number and so on until all the gifts were gone: now we were told to get thoughtful gifts that weren't cheap cuz last year some of the Thais were upset with the presents they got. So, I got a nice glass juice pitcher and glass set for breakfast and what did i get in return? A white and yellow plastic table clock (that has clearly been used before)with a cow on it who has a bell around it's neck that swings back and forth like a pendulum--oh and it doesn't have a battery so I don't know if it works yet. HAHA We were all just laughing at our presents as Josie opened up a tiny shrine to the king complete with miniature elephant tusks and Ryan got a bright green blender. It was one of those times when you just smile and shake your head: Oh Thailand.

December 25th The school has been preparing for this day for the last 2 months and it finally culminated in a glorious day known simply as Sports Day. Every Friday afternoon (and some m-th) we didn't have class randomly so that kids could get in their sports teams, practice cheers, practice their events, etc. The school was divided into 3 colors-Orange, Blue, Pink- and each team had different outfits/themes (ie Pink Punky, Blue Chill, etc.) and there were sports competitions held for pretty much the entire day. These events included your standard race events (which almost all kids ran barefoot) and some new additions that I wouldn't have considered sports, but made for some grand spectating. For example there was a race in which 5-6 little kids all hopped on a pole (like riding a horse) and raced down the field holding the pole, relay race w/ 2 people holding a ball between their chests, a race where kids literally rolled a rubber tire down the field, around a cone and back and a 'cheer' event.

The cheer event was actually shocking to all of us foreigners as we watched the high schoolers parade around like little prostitutes in front of parents/administrators. It sounds a bit intense, but there were literally 3 teams of 16 year old girls (and ladyboys) that had coreographed dance routines and cheer numbers dressed in very un-Thai outfits. The orange team was wearing fishnets, tall leather stiletto boots, tube tops and tight leather jackets as they rolled on the ground and did a chair dance while the pink team (w/ slightly less cleavage) danced on a stage to Britney and Lady Gaga and emulating many of their scandalous moves. Granted we all thought it was kind of humorous once the shock wore off, but we are still baffled that the parents were sitting their cheering and videotaping these girls when we are made to feel 'unpolite' if we walk around in shorts. I guess we'll never understand, but it sure made for an entertaining day. After lunch we waited around to get our HUGE Christmas bonus--well it was actually 2000 baht which is only like 60$ but it was a really big deal to all the staff and in Thai terms is a pretty good set of change to add on top of your salary.

After that we went home and packed for our big trip. Josie gave me a haircut which was an interesting experience considering it was her first one--it actually turned out pretty well until the very end when she was trimming the back and rather than following my existent hairline, she created her own jagged path up my cranium. Good thing hair grows fast and I really don't have anyone to impress over here :) Well free is free and I'll probably ask her to do it again.