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!!