Thai Day

Today was Thai Day at school. During this day, the children participated in different competitions: dancing, singing, playing instruments, arts, writing, etc. The school spent the last 2 days preparing for this day, so there were almost no classes. But the result was really nice. The school was decorated, we did some Thai dancing and just made a lot of fun. Thai people know how to party, even at 9am. All the teachers dressed up in traditional Thai clothes, and that included me J

Arts competition

A lot of posing :-)

Ban-ban on stage!

Music competition

This weekend, I finished the story-books and workbooks for my students. But I haven’t been able to use them yet. I hope tomorrow will be a normal school day, because I don’t have that many classes left before I leave and I still have a lot of plans. This Friday, there will be an English competition at our school, and the director decided last Friday that we would participate. So I’m busy practicing with 2 students for the speech. Normally, they would only have to study the speech by September, when there is the big regional competition. I shortened the speeches, because it takes the students a lot of effort to study the text. But they are both very motivated so I think we’ll make it by Friday. I feel a bit sorry for them, as I let them repeat the speech at least 20 or 30 times a day.  Also, apparently I’m in the committee of the competition on Friday, so I will judge the speeches. I can’t promise I will be an entirely impartial judge J

After our schoolwork on Sunday, Pongsuda took me to the ricefields of her family. During the weekend, they often go fishing there and prepare the fish on the "bbq". It was delicious!

Fishing in the mud. Didn't even know fish could survive in there.

Catch of the day.

On the bbq

Yum!

I also visited the “Surin Elephant Village” on Saturday morning. We did the elephant ride and saw the show. The people in this village, called the Suai people, are skilled in capturing, training and raising elephants. They have always used elephants to help them in their day-to-day work (at least, that’s what the travel guide tells me). The village is now an elephant study center.

This evening, I will take my little host brother, Ban-ban, to the cinema. Since he found out I’m afraid of spiders, he always imitates a spider and tries to scare me when I enter a room. So we’re going to see the Spiderman movie. I won’t understand a word of it, as all movies are dubbed in Thai here, but I guess the dialogues will not be the biggest asset of the movie.

Ban-ban, enjoying his octopus snack