It's Christmaaaas!

Even though Thailand is a predominantly Buddhist country they, like many other countries, still celebrate Christmas - although not to the extent of the UK.

In the week leading up to Christmas all of my lessons were Christmas orientated. I had intended to teach all my M1's 'The Twelve Days of Christmas' song. My M4's were meant to be playing a Christmas game whilst my M6 class was meant to do a quiz.
On a Monday I teach 4 M1 classes and they all seemed to love being taught the song so I just decided to teach every year group the song.

I printed out flashcard for each of the twelve days and taught the kids what they were before putting on the music and getting all the kids to sing along (even though they took a lot of encouragement!). They all seemed to love singing '5 golden riiiings'!
After they all sang the class split into their lines and each line would have to stand up when their part was sang. As they needed reminding when to stand up I had to run up and down the front of class gesturing for each line to stand up and sit down! This was a source for great amusement for the kids.

Not the most thrilling pic I was too busy running up and down the classroom to take pics.

Friday 25th of December was Christmas Day! Everything operates almost normally - including schools.

At school first lesson was cancelled due to the Christmas ceremony that was held. The director opened the ceremony with a short speech in English (that we had helped write!). The two hosts for the show were two girls from M2 who introduced acts in a very scripted way but they were still super cute! 

M1/3 (my class, as show above) did an awesome dance. Then us farang teachers had to go on stage (with Hayden dressed as santa) and ask some Christmassy questions to the students - any student that came up on stage and got it right won a soft toy! 

Finally M3/1 also performed a dance, which included a kid that we met at PeTong's tutoring dressing up as a girl!

M3/1 - sorry about the quality

Hayden and the director

Christmas Day was Kelsie's last day at school - she had to go back home to Canada, it was also PeOi's(?) birthday so upstairs we took photos and ate cake!

PeUrai and I

Matt,Alex and I

After school that day (which just involved me helping with Alex's lessons as my first lesson was cancelled) we rushed home to go and get changed  before rushing to the bus stop outside school.

I had packed me suitcase which caused one of my distressed M1 pupils to ask 'Teacher, are you going home?!' I explained that I was just going up to Nakhon Sawan for Christmas and that I'd be back on Monday. 

Alex and I managed to get the bus (which is a task as all the writing on the bus is in Thai) and we get off at Big C (a department store.) We went in and bought a load of food for Christmas dinner before meeting with Dan, Ronah and Sophie (3 Nakhon Sawan volunteers) and getting pizza!

We didn't do a great deal that evening the other volunteers weren't arriving until tomorrow and so we just stayed in and watched 'The Grinch'.

Mariah and Katy arrived early the next morning so we went to Big C the next day as well where we met with Tori and Grace in Black Canyon Coffee. I ordered a white chocolate mocha - it was so gross even after a million packets of sugar and creamer.

In the evening we all went out to the market where we spent aggeesss looking at all the different stalls. When we got back we talked, did our secret santa's and played twister (which Alex and I had bought up.) 

For secret santa Dan got me a notebook, some colouring pencils, 4 fans and a hand mirror!

Our humble abode

So yes, on December 14th Alex and I finally moved into out own home after delays due to a lack of a water pump.

PeAe and Ong met us at the house with some new bedding for us as well as some hangers and laundry baskets.

We spent that evening sorting out our rooms. Finally for the first time since coming to Thailand we could fully unpack all of stuff. Our clothes could be folded or hung up and our photos could be placed on walls. It was great!

Alex's room

My room 

My room post decoration

Ignore the incomplete mosquito net

Pics from home including Noi's drawing of us 

That evening was also the first evening that we went to the market by ourselves. As we were still unsure of the way PeTong dropped us off near the market and after a bit of wandering aimlessly around we managed to find our way. Without a Thai person with is I felt like we attracted more attention than before. We heard the word 'farang' every two seconds!

We commemorated our first evening at home with a photo shoot of us eating the first meal we had bought by ourselves from the market.

Days out

On the 6th of December Alex and I traveled to Lop Buri to meet up with our friends Tori and Grace. Lop Buri can be described as a place overrun with monkeys. As we were walking round on our way to the market we were attacked. They stole our bag of food and proceeded to try and steal my suitcase - thankfully it was way too heavy!

After a stroll around the market (which we had to pay extra for cos we're farang *) we went to the train station to get a train to Tha Ruea - where their project is. This cost only 6฿! The market in Tha Ruea is right by the train station so we went there to pick up some dinner.

The next challenge that we faced was that our only forms of transport were our legs or the two bicycle's that Tori and Grace owned. So we attempted to ride two to a bike - with me carrying my suitcase.

We managed for about 2 minutes.

Thankfully some of their students (they teach in a secondary school too) saw our struggle and helped us. We each got on one of their bikes whilst two of them rode the bicycles!

The apartment was really cute. There was a living room with a TV and DVD player (luxury), a kitchen, a bathroom and two bedrooms which were decorated with Tori and Grace's pics from home.

That evening a Thai girl came round to talk with us. She regularly visited Tori and Grace to try and improve her English. She is a law student in Bangkok.

We spent the next day browsing the shops in Tha Ruea before travelling back to Lop Buri where Nune's family came and picked us up!

December 10th

On the 10th of December we spent the day out with Nune and her family. We went to visit Sam Chuk Old Market in Suphan Buri. Whilst we were there we went on a boat trip to some sort of oldish model village which was amazing!

Alex, ,me, Bam (little girl), Noi, Ma and Pa

After walking round the market for a couple of hours we hopped back into the car and drove to a little aquarium!

December 13th was our last day with our host family. We had dinner with Nune and Bam, Noi drew a picture for us and Pa dedicated a song to us on stage. I felt pretty emotional.

On the 14th we moved into our own house! This was extremely exciting! This would be the first time Alex and I didn't share a room since coming to Thailand. 

In the morning we ate breakfast and got ready for school as usual. After breakfast we had photos taken with the family outside their home. They then gave us flower garlands (like the ones given to us by the school). This was so amazing and I was very close to tears! We then paid respects to the grandmother (we kneel on the floor to do this). 

After some more hugging and saying goodbye we went off to school.

I'll update you about the house in the next post!

*Yes, lots of places in Thailand - especially touristy places charge foreigners a higher price than Thais. Personally, I'm okay with this as Thailand does rely on the tourism industry. However, it makes me think. If this was done in Britain there would be angry outcry's at this form of racism. Is this racism?

Interlude

So as well as being rubbish at keeping this blog updated it seems that I'm also a complete failure at keeping my diary updated.

So instead, I'm going to give you a brief overview of my life here.

I teach 12 lessons a week.
The year groups at my school are M1-M6, aged 12-18. In M1-M3 there are 10 classes in each year. M1/1 is the best, followed my M1/2 and so on. In M4-M6 there are 7 classes in a year.

I teach M1/1,1/2,1/3,1/4,1/5,1/6,4/1,4/2,4/3,4/4,4/5 and 6/4.

Recently I've been teaching my M1's about clothes and clothes shops (with some very fun lessons where they tried on my clothes). My M4's have been learning about sports celebrities whilst my M6 class have been learning about university interviews.

On November 24th Alex and I changed host family. We moved in to Bannogrimna restaurant with a 15 year old called Nune and her family.

Outside Bannogrimna

Our first meal there

November 25th was Loi Krathong day. Here the Thai people float a krathong on the water and make a wish as they do so.

My Krathong

My Krathong floating in the river

After school we got driven by Ong's mum to the centre of town where we watched the parade - which was long! Every school in the town had a section! 

It was insanely beautiful though and so much fun!

After watching the parade Ong, his friends and us went to a little ice cream parlour to have some food before continuing down to the river to float our krathongs.

We met up with Tos and his friends and went with them to get dinner. It was on this day that something of great significance happened.

I, Emily Murray, vegetarian of 8 years - ate meat. Voluntarily. I even documented the moment with a picture.

Pork

PeAe had persuaded me to eat meat whilst in Thailand. I want to get as much as I can out of this experience and I think to do that I have to experience as much of Thai culture as I can. This means trying as much food as I can. Of course, I also want to be able to recommend dishes to mum,dad and Anna when they come over.

.

On Saturday the 28th Ong, Nune, Noi (my 10 year old host sister) and their friends took me to Walking Street market. Unfortunately, Alex was ill so she couldn't come.    

I should probably buy a different t-shirt

This is a huge mound of crushed ice with some sort of liquid flavouring, coated with nuts and surrounded by bread.

Noi and I

Nune and I

After the market I got taken to the temple on the other side of the river which was really beautiful!

This temple

The next day Nune, Noi, her friends and us went to Nakhon Sawan. Here, we proceeded to watch The Hunger Games in Thai - with no subtitles. It was pretty hard to follow, even though I had read the books.

We ate Sukiyaki for lunch - which is a Japanese name of a dish where everything is just tipped into hot water.
Okay, it's more elaborate than that but my description gives you an idea.

Sukiyaki

After lunch we visited the park - which was so beautiful!

We even got to stand on one of the bridges over the water and feed the fish.





December 5th was Father's Day (as well as the King's birthday) in Thailand. As this was a Saturday, on the 4th the school had a ceremony. The Thai teachers all dressed up in their smart (I guess, ceremony robes?) clothes, whilst us farang wore our 'Bike for Dad' polos. To celebrate the King's birthday there were nationwide bike rides  for people to participate in.

Echo,Alex, me, Kelsie and Hayden

In the afternoon loads of the school participated in a bike ride around the town. Alex and I couldn't join them because A) we had no bikes and B) we had to go and spend the afternoon having blood taken and sorting out our visas. Can't say I was that disappointed - we saw the course of the bike ride and it was soooo long, also it was a very hot day so I felt nothing but sympathy for the kids (and teachers).