Reason One: The King
His Majesty The King’s birthday is celebrated as “Father’s Day”, and the Queen’s birthday as Mother’s Day. So Monday Dec 5th was Father’s Day across Thailand. The King is turning 84 this year, or reaching his 7th cycle (a cycle is every 12 years). If you don’t know much about the King of Thailand, they say this King has been the best in history. Thailand’s monarchy is really amazing, because it seems to work so well, and the current King is actually the longest reigning monarch in history. The Kings in the past have been wonderful leaders, and want to do everything they can for their people. This King has been a magnificent example, having visited so many of his subjects in person and caring deeply for them. He has even put forth some of his own money to help many projects in the countryside and in Bangkok.
I had a rough week preceding the King’s birthday. I have been missing classes left and right for things like Thanksgiving dinner in Bangkok, English tournaments and class trips. Sometimes my classes don’t show up, or lately the boys don’t come because it’s “soldier day” and they have to practice. Or, the morning announcements would take so long that first period class is ten minutes long. That happened last week too. I was getting very frustrated with my lack of teaching, and then went to my 11th grade geniuses, and they asked me if they could have the period free to work on a project for another class! I was so sad! It has actually been several weeks since I have taught that class because of Loy Krathong, Thanksgiving, soldier days, and now The King’s birthday. But mai bpen rai. This is Thailand.
On Friday I only teach one class, and I was able to reschedule my class and have the day free to join the 12th graders on their field trip to Dtak, the neighboring province. P’Sonya organized the trip, and I get bored on Fridays, so I thought it would be a fun adventure. I thought it was only going to be a visit to the government building in Dtak to meet with the governor, the mayor and the sheriff of Dtak who are all graduates of Sawananan, and of course used to be students of P’Sonya. Turns out that was only for half the day. After that, with plenty of snacks along the way, we went to the biggest dam in Thailand, and to see some petrified wood from a tree that grew 800,000 years ago.
We boarded nine double decker party buses (I kid you not, these party buses are legit) and had a two hour ride of very loud karaoke on the 2nd story of the bus, complete with strobe lights and lots of 12th graders dancing. The trip was fun; I got to bond with the 12th graders.
None of them are my students, but Tide, my spelling bee prodigy, is in the highest section of 12th grade. For some reason all of the students dressed in their gym uniforms, maybe to be more comfortable...except for Tide. The space cadet wore his normal school uniform. I couldn't help but laugh at him every time I saw him stand out from the rest of his class. 
The trip took the entire day, and involved so much food! After the buffet lunch, I didn’t want to eat for the rest of the day, but our next stop had free ice cream. And the stop after that, some juice and pastries. Good thing I was stuffed full on the trip, because after that I was meeting Muak to drive up to Chiang Mai, and I knew we wouldn’t be stopping for food.Because of the King’s birthday, school on Monday is closed (more classes to miss…) so I decided to go up to Chiang Mai for the weekend. Luckily Muak was going too, and let me ride with him. We got there pretty late at night, but Pong and Charin are the best and were fine with me coming in late. The trip to Chiang Mai was exactly what I needed after having such an annoying week. Even though I woke up early every morning to help them around the house, and stayed out late, it was still a very relaxing weekend. We went fishing on the Ping in the morning, which really consisted of Charin chatting away and not catching any fish.
And Pong, the wonderful tour guide that he is, took me around to see some new things around Chiang Mai. My friend Sarah that has been teaching in Lampang came up to meet me on Saturday along with some of the other ETAs. We checked out the Chiang Mai nightlife on Saturday and Sunday night, including trying a fish foot spa!
and gossiped about Fulbright and how weird of a job this is compared to what we are all used to. Talking to them was great, because it made me realize how awesome of a school Sawanana Wittaya is, and I am really lucky to be there. Even though classes are cancelled all the time, my kids are much more studious than at many other Thai schools. A lot of my friends here would never assign homework, but I give my kids homework and classwork every day. I think it would also be nice to just play games all the time, but I like that my kids are beyond that and are capable of writing essays and reciting a speech. It comes with extra hours of grading, but I don’t mind it….so far.. =)
Reason 2: midnight snacking
(Rachel and Sarah, amidst the Sunday Walking Street in Chiang Mai)
After our nights out, Sarah and I walked home from the bar and stopped at the night market for Som tam and sour mango. They were the perfect midnight snack! I never thought I would like unripe mango, but it is my favorite thing now. And now there is a lady at my night market in Sawankhalok that sells unripe mango every night. Yay! On Sunday night, Sarah, our friend Rachel and myself wanted to meet at the Sunday Walking Street, Chaing Mai’s famous weekly night market that shuts down the city’s busiest streets. It is a huge event, and more crowded than the subways in Tokyo. Sarah and I spent two hours trying to find Rachel, but it really only took that long because we were buying many things along the way. Our second night, Sarah and I were looking for a tuk-tuk home, and were surprised by a tuk-tuk that stopped right in front of us as three ladyboy-turned-women were getting out. We told the tuk-tuk driver where we were going, and after some discussion with one of the “women”, “she” insisted “she” should come with us to make sure we got home safe. Writing this now, it sounds like somewhat of a threatening situation, but “she” was harmless, and really wanted to make sure we got back to Pong’s okay. The best part was this all happened in Thai…very slow Thai, but in sloppy Thai nonetheless, and I was proud of me and Sarah for actually ending up at Pong’s house.
Reason Three: the festivities
Muak brought me back to Sawankhalok early on Monday for a day of festivities. I got to Soi 8, our night market for the parade that was supposed to start at 4. Well, maybe it actually did start at 4, but at the pace it was going, by the time it got to us just a few blocks down it was almost 6. The parade was massive! I was really confused, because it was in my little town, not the city of Sukothai, and I don’t know where all these people came from, and how there were people left in the town to be walking around and watching the parade. I am actually fairly certain that there were more people walking in the parade than watching the parade, and I wonder where else in the world that happens. Most of the parade was made up of schools from our district or a neighboring district, with their marching band then a bunch of random people in pink polos following the band.
It went on like that for….maybe an hour. Then came our school, and we totally rocked it. The section for our school was huge, and each class basically had their own section. I saw so many of my students, it made me so happy! And the parade was moving so slowly, so I got a picture with every single one of them. And every single one of Steven’s students. (pictures are on Steven’s camera…coming soon) We were in the spot with the lull, and we often were where the students would put their instruments down, fix their makeup, or sit down and text message their friend, before resuming. And then entered a Chinese dancing dragon! Steven warned me that a few months ago they had the same dancing dragon at Soi8, and it was a disaster. Dancers tripped over each other, the dragon frequently got dropped, and then the dragon climbed a pole and they set off fireworks from its mouth. So I got a little nervous as the dragon approached Soi 8, and they brought out a pole.
The dance was terribly choreographed, and hilarious. There was a while where the dragon was eating or scratching his tail…I asked Oom why it was doing that, to which she replied that maybe his tail had an itch. After chewing his tail, the dragon proceeded towards the pole, already staffed with ten dancers. The pole was about the height of 5 people on top of each other. The dancers stationed on the pole passed the dragon up so that it slithered around to the top of the pole. And alas, they set off fireworks, basically right into the audience. I have never been so close to real fireworks (I don’t count the ones I set off with my neighbors), and I’m pretty sure the kid on his dad’s shoulders in front of me hadn’t either. And I’m pretty sure he didn’t like that. It was quite an exhilarating display, nothing like I’ve ever seen.
The parade was followed by a candle lighting for the King. Everyone from the parade, participants and observers, gathered in the public school’s (the other, less cool than Sawananan school in Sawankhalok) football field where there was a billboard size poster of the King. We lit our candles and they turned off all the lights as we (as in everyone but me) sang the King’s songs in Thai, then chanted what I think was Long Live the King. It was kind of epic. Another fun thing they’ve done for the King’s birthday is set up a temporary festival market outside of our night market. They sell everything, including tons of snacks, cheap clothes, kitchenware, and BUNNIES! (alive, not to eat). Oh, but they do sell insects to eat, which is not uncommon in Thailand. Our night market sells them too. I went to the festival market with Mint one night, and she insisted I try one. We had a selection of I think fried worms, maggots, cockroaches, and I’m not sure what else. So Mint got 20 bhat worth of maggots, and assured me it tasted like fried chicken. So I tried one, and it did not taste like chicken, nor was it delicious. There might be one food in Thailand I will never like.
The day after the King’s birthday, the festivities continued at school. The day started very serene and slow. The school sat by the Buddha statue in the middle of campus, and we sang songs for the King and prayed several times. This was followed by giving food to the monks. There are 50 or so students from our school that are being ordained as monks (explains some of the absences), and are about in the middle of their 2 week ordainment. I didn't get a clear explanation on the process, but I recognized some of the students (I can now say I am friends with a monk on Facebook), and saw them on campus this week. The director made them go to school after they had missed the first week, even though they can’t eat after noon, you can’t call them by their name, and you can’t point to them. I didn’t have to teach with any monks in my classroom, but Steven did and it was really confusing when they would raise their hand, because you can’t really call on them. I don't know how I would have handled that. It feels really strange just to “wai” my students and they think it’s hilarious. So after we gave the monks a variety of ramen noodles, uncooked rice and dried anchovies, the morning ceremonies were basically over (one thing I learned about monks that Steven told me is that they often receive too much food that they end up giving a lot of it to the poor. That made me happy, and feel less guilty about only giving them ten packs of tom yum koong flavored ramen noodles. I hope they get vegetables from someone too).
You would think we would resume classes after our morning ceremony, but no. We had “Sawananan Wittaya’s Got Talent”, which is a free for all talent show. And a Battle of the Bands in the cafeteria. This lasted well into the afternoon, and I lost hope on teaching for the day. There were classes, but nobody went to them except for some teachers that tried to get through a lesson with staggering attendance and compete with the loud music. The talent show was fantastic though. The best were the lady boys; there were at least two groups of lady boys that put on quite a show. They dressed in high heels, wigs, and provocative clothing and mimicked promiscuous American pop culture more convincingly than I thought possible for Thai boys. Steven and I watched in disbelief, doubting that this should be allowed at our conservative school, and displayed in celebration for Father’s Day of all days. We convinced ourselves that this was only allowed because they’re boys, and if girls tried to put on such an act, it would be stopped. Well we were proved wrong, as a group of 12th grade girls followed with a chair dance. Oh Thailand, you are full of surprises.
The rest of the week of course pails in comparison to the festivities for the King. We decorated a Christmas tree…I actually have never felt so American. Not because I was partaking in the decoration (they put on way too much tinsel!), but because there were three people working on the tree, and about ten of us standing there, watching. For like an hour! I got impatient and walked back upstairs, escaping to do something more productive. Haha.
Reason four: My students
I still haven’t seen my 11th graders in full, as we had another soldier day this week and I had no boys again. I am slightly concerned (well to be honest, more than slightly concerned) because they have midterms in a couple weeks, and I have nothing to test them on. I haven’t taught them anything! I haven’t even really seen them since before Loy Krathong! And we are approaching another 3 day weekend, which means I won’t see them again….But I can only be a little upset. I see Noom and Fifa, two of my 11th graders, after school almost every day, and they update me on when they will and won’t be in class. Every time they tell me they won’t be in class I get so sad, and they tell me not to worry. That it will be okay. On Wednesday, I went into my last period class totally deflated from the holidays, and discouraged about not teaching enough and missing my students. Then I remembered why this class is my favorite. This two hour class has me laughing almost the entire time. Even Boat, the trouble maker in the back of the class, is an English genius, and can speak English better than my smartest students, but usually isn’t awake for long enough to do so. The worst students in this class try the hardest, and finish class by following me into the office, quizzing me with my Thai, and pretending to give me their participation dollars when I get a word correct. Just when I was losing inspiration and feeling disheartened, and a little homesick, my amazing 10th graders reminded me why I love being here.
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