August 24, 2010 August 23, 2010: (ding dong ding over the PA system) 'สวัสดีทุกคน พรุ่งนี้จะมีชั้นไม่มีเพราะเป็นวันวิทยาศาสตร์!' (Hello everyone. Tomorrow there will be no class because it is Science Day!) Cheers erupt from the teacher's office once we've had this translated for us by T. Oil. We had no idea what to expect, but we knew if Science Day was an all day affair we were going to be in for some great surprises. Per usual, it did not disappoint. August 24, 2010: We arrived at school as usual (actually a little bit earlier as we usually have EP Staff meetings on Tuesdays, but it was cancelled due to Science Day--
of course we weren't informed of this.) Anyway, we spent part of the morning on our laptops getting things ready for later in the week until we heard the music cue from the stage downstairs. We grabbed our cameras and were greeted by a crowd of students watching, with eyes glued, as a group of M5's (11th graders) performed a less than conservative dance on the stage. Ah yes, what would Science Day be without some booty pops and body drops. After the show I spent a while wandering through the various exhibits and activities. It was actually a pretty cool set up. There were projects that the kids had done display
ed all over (posters, drawings, diagrams, crafts, etc.), older kids showing the little ones how to dissect a heart, a laser and lights show, crazy gooey stuff, rocket races, things to do with air/propulsion, and the list goes on. It was really cool to see the older kids running the various stations and working to get the younger kids excited and it was equally hilarious watching the little ones in awe of some of the experiments. After releasing my inner science nerd I made my way to the next section of the festival: the food section. Now, I'm thinking that this was supposed to be some sort of application of the food sciences? I'm not really sure how selling cups of Coke or Sprite are science related, but maybe the use of carbonation is something they studied. Anyway, the food was amazing and had everything from Thai sweets to Japanese takoyaki to pad thai to bbq to smoothies to pretty much anything you can think of that can be poured, cooked, grilled or eaten. I spent a good amount of time with some of the Thai teachers who I've gotten to know pretty well (Pe Den, Pe Naeng and Pe Nok)--the
Pe in front of their names is a sign of respect you use when addressing your elders in Thailand. Anyway the 4 of us stood around over a ceramic tub filled with hot coals and talked in broken Thai and English for a long time, all whilst grilling some kebabs and little octopi (yes octopus is actually really tasty on the grill.) It's really a cool feeling to know that I've been here long enough that I've established some great relationships with the other teachers and can just stand around and shoot the breeze with them even if we can't always understand each other--which usually makes for some great laughs. I've learned a lot about Thai culture from them (including that Thai men still pay a dowry to get married--an amount determined by the woman's family and that it is the woman's family's duty to give the newlyweds an amount of money for the future. This confused me as I don't understand why the man doesn't just keep the dowry and use that for the future, but I guess it's just a cultural thing.) After full stomachs we parted ways until the afternoon's festivities. The signal that something was going to happen soon was the projecting of Madonna's Like a Virgin over the 
school's PA system followed by some Beyonce and and other 'school appropriate' music! As I left my office I was met by groups of my students dressed in various costumes of plastic bags, cardboard and other recycled goodies. One of my ladyboy students (who asks on a regular basis if we can get married) was dressed in a halter top garbage bag 
dress complete with giant homemade butterfly wings reminiscent of the ones used by the Victoria's Secret Angels. This place never ceases to amaze me :) We found out shortly that the costumes did in fact serve a purpose (whether it was related to science of not is still up in the air.) A boy and a girl (or a ladyboy and a girl) from each
of the high school level classes were paired up and competed in the Mr. and Ms. Recycle runway fashion show. I have never seen something like this before and man was it entertaining. Some of the kids looked ridiculous covered in plastic and newspaper while others actually had some really well crafted and stylish designs. There were cheers and screams and struts and hair flips and crossdressers and everything else you would expect to see at a Science Day Fashion Show--that has to be an oxymoron. I guess if nothing else it was a good use of recycling and got the whole school banded together (and got us out of teaching classes!) 
No comments:
Post a Comment