Twin Sports Day and school happenings

On Saturday we had "Twin Sports day", which was really just a big soccer match between N.P.W and Pi'a - the other high school in the city. I believe they do it once a year and they alternate which school hosts it every time. So this year it was Pi'as turn. N.P.W's colors are black (or gray) and white, while Pi'a is blue and pink, so everything was decorated in blue and pink banners! The day started out with confusion as always. We met at 11 in front of the English office, thinking that we were going to sit in the stadium like the last sports day but we were hurriedly told that we had to be in the parade! Of course, we had no idea what this meant/ what we had to do but we grudgingly got into the van so they could drive us to the parade route. The parade route seems to be the same every time - it's down through the main street in town and then past the provincial buildings to the provincial stadium which conveniently is located next to our campus.

 (the parade in front of my bus/ van)

(Annubahn students watching the parade)

Luci, Mike and I (other foreign English teachers here) ended up sitting on this van/ bus thing for the parade and it was pleasant if nothing else. There were students behind us dancing and singing - they had these portable speakers with them. Of course, timing is not something that people here seem to worry about so we sat there for about a half hour before the parade started, having no idea what was going on . There were bunches of floats by both Pi'a and N.P.W....all very well done. There were students dressed in traditional village outfits and thai dance costumes and pictures of the king and queen...it was quite elaborate. Once we got to the provincial stadium, we had to wait for the governor or the former prime minister of thailand (I'm not sure which...as I said, we weren't really kept in the loop, so to speak).  This waiting ended up lasting about two hours - similar to the last competition actually. So the students and teachers told us that we could go get lunch or something while we waited - we had at least an hour. Luci and I took this opportunity to walk home and get some food....that was our first mistake....

(luci's puppy, Cookie)

(my students....student on the right is a boy!)

We got back form a pleasant hour of having lunch and playing with Luci's puppy (sooooo cute) to find that our English director guy had been frantically searching for us - we were supposed to be part of the opening ceremony. Originially, that's what we thought we were doing for the day buut we got put in the parade. We hadn't been told that AFTER the parade we had to go to the stadium to be in the ceremony....whoops! So we missed the opening ceremony, something the Director of the school wasn't so happy about I think...communication problems are frequent here.

(students in my van)

(part of the parade)

(cheerers in the stands and the soccer teams)

We made it to the stadium in any case and watched the 'cheerleaders'.  I explained a little about them before but they've got cheerleaders - like 10 or 12 of them all dressed up super fancy and everything....they are on the field. Then you have the cheerers...there's about 800 students in each half of the stands doing these cheers and it's really cool/ interesting to watch.  This time, we had some students cheering across the field in the 'teacher' stands. And so they would call back and forth to each other. Pi'a was on the left and N.P.W on the right so they made signs to each other with pom poms....our side said "NO NO" (spelled out with pom poms held high in the air) and then an arrow pointing to Pi'as stands. haha. it was great. It's difficult to explain though. The students also put on different colored shirts to make different messages that we could see...I'm going to post some pictures and maybe that will make it more clear.

All the while I've been watching the parade finish walking through the stadium from my seat up in the stands and I went down to the front to ask one of the English teachers a question about the schedule of the day...before I know it, they've got me leading cheers! I had noo idea what to do. This one man, a math teacher, seemed to be in charge of the cheering and so our assistant Director was mimicking him....when all the teachers get together it's quite a party. Everyone is laughing and telling jokes - they just seem to be having so much fun that it's even fun to watch (though I don't understand much).  So anyways, he pulls me up from my seat and says 'CHE-A!" and I was like, 'oh no'.  I ended up just copying his movements and 'running' the cheer for the teachers. They were laughing at me of course becuase I was standing there clueless. But I chalk it up to good experience. Some of my students were there and started cheering for me "teacher alix! yay!". It was interesting for sure.

Most of our schools were watching this game/ involved in some way - both N.P.W. and Pi'a. The game was played and there was no score on either side so the official score went down as 0-0. I guess they don't do shootouts or overtime here.... After the game, we had a party! (of course...why not?).  I was told we could change and so I went home to do so - I was quite sick of the uniform I had to wear all day. Of course when we get to the party (hosted by Pi'a) I was one of the only people that had changed! I stood out like a sore thumb. oh well. We took bunches of pictures in front of the hall and then sat down to dinner. The sitting didn't last long though as we had a band of sorts up front and after just a couple songs teachers were dancing and singing all over the place! About an hour into dinner/ the party, the former prime minister of Thailand showed up (He was the prime minister before Thaksin, who has been exiled from Thailand and causing some political strife here...he's now working in Cambodia and the Thai government isn't very happy about it. Thaksin was the prime minister before the current one.) This guy is pretty popular as he is from Nakhon Phanom (I think). He was very gracious and took pictures with anyone and everyone who wanted one. It was chaos but that's normal these days.

After the food was finished it turned into a karaoke/ dance party in the front of the hall. You just can't say no to these people soo of course I was up there dancing with them. One of the words they throw around a lot, like "beautiful" is "sexy". But I don't think they mean it the way we would use the word in the US. So they commented on our 'sexy dancing'. I think they used it as a synonym for 'beautiful', which is said about most everything. Sticky rice is 'kao niu' but regular rice is 'kao suay' - beautiful rice. holidays' are also beautiful as are things that are a lot of fun.

 

(cheerleaders! check out those outfits)

 

 (self explanotory - dancing time!)

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This week I haven't done that much teaching but have been spending a lot of time with the teachers. We passed the last dream school rehearsal so we are getting ready for the presentation on Tuesday, the 29th.  This involves a lot of canceled classes so that the school can be beautified and cleaned up and all the preparations can be done ahead of time. We had no class monday, and then just morning classes all week - it's a good bet that tomorrow we won't have any classes either. 

I have seen my students around campus though and a few of them told me that they missed me! Which was great to hear as so many of the students are uninterested in learning English.  For the classes I have had, I made some Christmas flashcards and we do a Christmas lesson - I think they enjoy it! I know I do. After we go over the flashcards (santa, candy canes, etc.) we either fill in the blanks for a Christmas song or we watch/ listen to Christmas cartoons (gotta love youtube). It's been a fun week though the Christmas spirit here is minimal at best. Oh well. 

I'm leaving tomorrow night on an overnight bus for Bangkok to pick up my family on Sunday! wooohooo! I cant wait :). Best present I could have asked for for Christmas! I'll be spending New years in Bangkok (should be wild) and then will bring the fam up to Nakhon Phanom to see where I live and meet the people I work with. Probably won't post much for a week or two as it's holiday travel time



Merry Christmas!!

Pictures from Ubon and Khon Kaen

Here are the pictures I promised!

These were our sleeping arrangements. We each had one of those mats and a square pillow.

Two of the teachers who teach English to the general students at my school! Simply put, they're awesome.  They are a lot of fun to work with and hang out with when we don't have class and both speak pretty good English.

Playing games in our room before dinner! It was sorta like camp for two days.

 

Dinner turned into a photoshoot and we took dozens of pictures. Here are some more teachers at my school, though they aren't all English teachers.

At the University in Ubon, where the educational tour/ competitions were held...this is a sculpture made out of wax. It was huge. The people figures are a little bit larger than life size.

This is the park at around 5:00 in Ubon. It was very quiet and pretty.

A super colorful tuk-tuk! Kara and I were walking some of the side roads on our way to this awesome vegetarian buffet. It was only 25 baht per plate (less than one dollar!) and it was great food. I would love to go back but it's quite far from NKP...

This is in Khon Kaen, outside of the new mall, Central Plaza.  There's a fairly large ex-pat community so there were Christmas decorations!! Here in NKP they don't do much for Christmas, though on Christmas Eve there is an event on the river some of us are going to attend.

This is in Ubon...it's the Candlestick that is in the center of a big park...they  have a big candle festival in Ubon every year, though I'm not quite sure of the origins...something to look up perhaps.

This is my little room in Khon Kaen! It was all i needed and about 4 USD per night. AND the bed wasn't made out of styrofoam. It was about a 20-30 minute walk to the 'nightlife' and right next to the food stalls with super cheap wonderful food. 

This is the lake in Khon Kaen...it was a Sunday when I was wandering around so it was pretty quiet. It was picturesque with the Wat in the background...I didn't get to the wat as it was too far of a walk and I was heading back that day. They also set up food stalls on the lake and have a place where you can paint pottery! Picture Plaster FunTime in Boston or Fire It up in DC...it was only a couple dollars and you could get some paints and set up a table on the lake. They had paddleboating too but it was too hot.

Khon Kaen is the province where dinosaurs were found and it has since become known for it's dinosaur museum. I wasn't able to make it on this trip but I am definitely planning to go back. This was inside the new mall, they had a bunch of robotic dinosaurs as well as people running around in dinosaur costumes...

That's about it on this trip. Lots of walking around and taking pcitures of things.

Yesterday was spent partaking in a parade and watching a soccer game between my school and the other big high school in the 'city'. Afterwards all the teachers from both schools had a party - food and drinking and dancing of course. The ex-prime minister of Thailand also came to the dinner! He is from NKP and apparently he was quite loved by his people becuase they were going crazy trying to take pictures with him! Of course, I took pictures so those will be posted soon.

Happy holidays everyone!

Ubon, Part 2

I only spent two days in Ubon but I feel that I know the city pretty well – the layout anyways. It’s relatively small, though it’s considered one of the bigger cities of the Isaan region. It still seemed quiet and very ‘isaan’, despite its bigger population. I really didn’t feel the hustle and bustle of a city that I would have expected though. The other volunteer with me, Kara, and I walked all over and eventually ended up at the night market. Almost every place you go to in this region, village or city, will have their version of a night market. Vendors start setting up at about 4 or 5 and are there until the evening. In the smaller areas, such as Nakhon Phanom, they close down/ pack up at around 8 or 9. But the night market in Ubon went until at least 10! They have all sorts of food stands – lots of Vietnamese food and some Chinese. Lot’s of Laos influence here. They also set up little clothing shops or second hand clothing stalls. The vendors sell everything from clothing to jewelry to hair things to food to household items. And it’s usually the cheapest place in town. I end up there almost every night here…

Kara and I got some food and then headed to the park to eat and people watch. An activity that seems to be catching on here in Thailand is aerobics and in most major cities there are a few aerobics ‘classes’. They are held outside, usually in parks or in NKP, along the Mekong. In Ubon there must have been over 150 people in the park doing aerobics! It was crazy. They play this asian/euro hip hop music and just have a blast. I’ve done it once and thoroughly enjoyed myself. It was made better by the fact that all the Thai women were ecstatic that we were there with them!

After Ubon we traveled to Khon Kaen where I was able to actually experience some hustle and bustle of a city. It was quite big and is the transportation hub of Isaan. It’s where all the planes come in, the train line ends (I think) and busses connect. They have a fairly large ex-pat community too. I hadn’t seen so many ‘farangs’ in ages! It was actually a little strange….

They have this new mall, Central Plaza, full of stores with American names. I went in for a little while and found an English bookstore! Everything is overpriced but I didn’t care at all, it’s impossible to get English anything outside of major cities and I can only watch so many movies. I spent most of my time outside though, wandering the city. They have a big lake that’s got several wats and the ‘spirit of the city’. It’s this huge pillar and I think many cities have them. But they are located at the old center of the city . They usually aren’t where the center is located these days but they are highly respected and have altars all around.

Khon Kaen was great and they even have a night scene! Two other teachers from my school were there so Kara and I met up with them and got a drink out on the town. It was nice to have things to do later in afternoon and also not see students everywhere we went. The following day was also spent wandering around and getting back to Nakhon Phanom. That turned out to be quite the ride as it was about 6 hours and we picked up everyone that needed a ride….it was like a local express or something. There were people jammed into the aisle’s and standing for hours on end….luckily I was at the beginning bus station and got a seat. It was quite hot but I couldn’t complain as I did get to sit down.

It was a wonderful trip and I hope to at least go back to Khon Kaen. It’s also a fairly scenic bus ride as it goes through the mountains in Sakhon Nakhon (province next to me). They have manicured all of the bushes into animals and the winding roads are relaxing, assuming you don’t get carsick. (Mom, dad, and Kel – that will be your bus route!! I hope you are looking forward to it….you’ll have a much nicer overnight bus though, don’t worry :) ).

At school though classes were canceled for most of the day. I think we only have a few more days of classes before January as it’s sports week next week….they go all out with floats and parades and crazy cheering routines. More on that later!

Ubon, part 1

**I sent this email home to family when I was in Ubon last week (Wed to Fri) with my school. So this was written on Thursday, after the first day. More to come about Khon Kaen and of course, pictures!**

I'm in an internet cafe in a place called Ubon Ratchathani...It's the province that is the farthest southest in Isan...It's where Cambodia, Thailand and Loas meet. I'm a few hours from the border
though.

So it's been a very interesting two days so far and has definitely shown me a side to all the teachers that I work with that I never knew existed! It’s been great to just ‘hang out’ with them and experience Thai culture without any sort of Western influence.  They mostly spoke in Thai so I tried to follow along and every now and then one of the better English speakers would explain a little.

We started yesterday morning super early - i was up at 4 am to get ready and get to the internet before I left on the trip - we were on a big double decker bus by 5 am and on the road at 520! I tried to sleep a bit but it was tough. Put a bunch of thai's together and you get mayhem...Everyone was excited and it felt a bit like a middle school or high school field trip.  Aand of course everyone was taking pictures. It was quite fun though. I tend to provide a lot of entertainment for the teachers as I try to listen to their conversations and figure out what they are saying...usually I have no luck though. It took about 5 hours and then we sat in an hour of traffic to finally arrive in Ubon at 11 or so. We came for an
'educational tour' as some of our students are involved in a regional northeast English competition down here. There was an area that was having a fair/ exhibition of sorts but of course us English
teachers (foreign and thai alike) were sent to this school where we waited around for hours….no one was really sure what we were were doing. We eventually figured out that we were waiting for a our student to finish her part of the competition (public speaking and multi skills). However we were slotted number 56 out of over 60 schools.

We finally got to the exhibition and it was pandemonium then trying to figure out where 50 teachers are going to meet the bus. There were probably thousands of people who came for this competition, there were people and huuuge vans/ busses absolutely everywhere.  It was really incredible and also a little overwhelming after spending so much time in a town of 31,000 people where moto’s rule the road! So we waited over an hour on the side of the road. The bus brought us to a 'resort' after it picked us all up. When us foreign teachers heard that we were like awesome! But apparently in Thailand it goes resort, motel, hotel in worst to best. So most of the teachers were laughing at me (yet again) when i told them that for us, a resort is the best place to go. Our resort turned out to not be that bad....as much of everything in thailand is, it was very pretty and surrounded by all sorts of trees and birds and such. Hoever, they are either rebuilding or just opening and they didn't have enough rooms for us....we all slept on the floor in this giant hall. there were maybe 30 of us sleeping on the floor on bed mats like 2 feet wide. It was nutty. I have a picture to post of course. All the other teachers called it a ‘homestay’

We ate and drank last night and sang karaoke (their favorite pasttime) and played card games. The first game was quite simple and was explained to me in English so I understood it.  After dinner we played a different game and this time none of the teachers explained it to me in English, just in Thai. There are a couple teachers who only speak to me in Thai which is great for learning but does get very frustrated sometimes. And they speak English well enough, they just want me to learn.  In any case, they kept saying “ngoo ngoo pla pla” which translates to “snake snake fish fish”. I found out later that day that it means ‘little knowledge”. Soo they were telling me that either I don’t know much in general orr I didn’t know much Thai. Either way, I don’t think it’s an insult, just an idiom of sorts. I was exhausted during the 2^nd game but we were playing in the same room that everyone was sleeping in and it was impossible to sleep with the noise…I have no idea how the thai teachers did it.  Whiskey is the drink of choice here in Thailand and there were a few bottles floating around late into the night. I finally went to bed at 1 or so (late for me these days!) and next thing I know it’s 4 am and EVERYBODY is awake…

I was laughed at by many people when i said it was too early.  And the card game was up and running again, as were the bottles of whiskey. Amazing.  I don’t have that kind of energy! I was completely exhausted and tried to go back to sleep…I managed until about 630 and then it was time for breakfast. Ah-han chao (breakfast) was either rice or noodle soup…it’s very plain and it’s actually their version of chicken noodle soup because they gave it to me when I wasn’t feeling well. It’s quite good though and I’ve gotten used to it in the mornings.

So off to Khon Kaen tomorrow and the adventure continues :)

Pictures from Sports Competition

So sports was a big deal last week and they had a huge parade (parades are big here) and each province had students/ teachers in the parade dressed up int he traditional dress of their region. It was pretty cool but again, we didn't know what was going on so it was a long day.

My students.

Across the way the stands are full of students - on the left are Pi-a students, the other high school in Nakhon Phanom city. On the right are the students from Na Po Wo. They did this really cool cheering thing....absolutely no idea how to explain it. And Pi-a made awesome signs ...see picture below.

They had several of these and were holding up some sort of plastic square? each student. So that it spelled something out and they changed them every few minutes. It was very well done.

All the students parading through and lining up on the green. After this they had a soccer game between Pi-a and Na Po Wo.

All this is pretty standard for any sort of celebration - all the kids and teachers get dressed up in traditional thai dance outfits and have a parade. The bands play and there is some thai dancing.

So just another window into things going on here. take care everyone!

Thanksgiving dinner and Honoring the King

Sorry it's taken me so long to update the blog! There have been a lot of things going on these past couple weeks and as I've lost internet in my house (no one knows why) I'm not on the computer nearly as often. Which is probably good for me but I can't say I'm all that happy about it.

Thing's at school have been interesting to say the least. It's the norm for only about half of my students to show up to class over the course of the day which has become an incredibly frustrating situation. I have to say, I'm sorry to any teacher I ever disregarded or was rude to! It's not the best feeling in the world, I'll tell you that.  Most of the students here don't feel that they have to attend classes. To their defense, classes are canceled more often than they are held. Teachers and students alike are confused as to when there are actual classes so some days the teachers don't go but the students do and others the students do and they have no teachers. It's gotten to the point where the students dictate whether or not we have class - if they show up then we hold class. If not, then 'free time!'. This whole 'free time' idea is great for those who are being paid to basically not teach but for us volunteers - it drives me crazy. They don't understand the fact that I'm here to actually do a job and not just 'relax' during school. The concept of planning for classes and making things such as classroom decorations is completely foreign. To be fair, the problems lie in the education system here. There are no consequences for being late or absent so students feel as they can do whatever they please. The school is basically a community center for the students as well - they are here at all hours of the day and night. While it's great for the students to have this place they can go to and feel safe, the concept of studying for something such as English or Math is completely lost on them now. But give them a song or a dance to perform and they do it 110%. So it's a battle to say the least. One I'm trying to work on.

But take this week for instance - today (Monday) we had off for the King's birthday. Which makes sense, we do this sort of thing in the USA. But then we have class tomorrow (Tuesday). However, some of the students are traveling to a competition as are some teachers. And there isn't a schedule for students who have those teachers or any sort of work for the students who are missing class. Then on Wednesday all the teachers are going to a province called Ubon Ratchathani for an 'educational tour' soo school is canceled. THursday is another national holiday - Constitution day - so there is no school. And thenn our school just decided to cancel school on Friday as well. So the students have one day of school this week. And NEXT week happens to be another sports week soo there is no school. Just sports aaall day long. It's no wonder that students don't come to class!

On another (happier) note, we managed to throw together a thanksgiving dinner here in Thailand - complete with turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes!! It was a hard week for a lot of people just being away from their families  - I got to talk to most of mine! so that made it a bit better. Our field director got a turkey from a woman here who knows the owners of a turkey farm - it's all about the connections. And we made mashed potatoes, salad, I made a fruit salad, stuffing (made on the stove!), coleslaw, bought a cake. It was awesome. And we ate on the floor in typical thai fashion.

My fruit salad! the pineapple was amaaazing. I love the fruit here.

Everybody working together and making our feast :)

Thanksgiving on the floor!

We even got wine. Perfect ending to a wonderful night.

Everybody enjoying the meal.

So beyond thanksgiving, we had a holiday this weekend for the King's birthday. The King is super important here and is a huge part of Thai culture. This year, the king's color is pink. So I wear pink every wednesday and for the ceremony on Saturday, we all wore pink. Us foreign teachers were told to wear pink and just show up at 4:00. Which we did. We were taken to the main road to stand with a bunch of other poeple in pink outfits - that or a traditional Thai silk suit. Of course, it is at this time that we find out we are actually marching in the parade and going to a ceremony at the Provincial hall about a mile down the road. I had nooo idea. There were thousands of people in this parade. So we get to the provincial hall and all have to line up....then we're told that we have to go onstage and bow to the king's picture with our director. Another surprise. Soo we get on stage and have to curtsy. Okay fine. The next thing is that we have to sing Thai songs and light candles...and everybody across Thailand is going to be doing this at the same time. So that's actually pretty neat. There were food stands set up around the perimeter of the provincial hall so while we waited for several hundred poeple to get onstage and bow, we got some food. There was also Thai boxing that took place after the ceremony was over. All in all, it was a pretty cool event to be a part of. A lot of the Thai teachers ask us what the word is in English for what we are doing - as all of their ceremonies have a name. And a lot of the time I have to say that we don't have an equivalent word. They have so many traditions and ceremonies here, it's hard to keep track. But it's incredibly interesting and an honor to be a part of everything.

Everybody getting ready to march

My students! I didn't recognize half of them with their outfits....they were real shy at first but once we started taking pictures they were all over it - they kept saying 'teacher, teacher, picture picture'. It was really sweet though.

Notice my pink Nakhon Phanom shirt - I have to wear that ever Wednesday. And the black jacket and black skirt were given to me by other teachers since I didn't have anything appropriate to wear!

After the ceremony when everyone left..this is the provincial hall. It surrounded by a moat! And this ice cream truck is pretty standard just about everywhere...they show up on campus and ride around town. It's something like 5 baht for an ice cream - that's like 10 cents :). Love the food here!

Tomorrow I've got class and then I'm headed to Ubon for a few days - I'm gonna stay a few days longer since we have such a long weekend and explore the area. It's where Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia meet and you can go and step in all the countries! And so I sorta want to do that and be a tourist for a few days. So more pictures coming your way!

goodnight :)