As my year comes to a close - Alex's birthday

The 19th of July was Alex's birthday - luckily this corresponded with a Buddhist holiday, meaning no school!

On the 16th Alex and I traveled to Bangkok and hang out at MBK before meeting Grace and Tori and going to the hostel. The hostel we stayed in was brand new and not too far from MBK. I was drew the short straw and was in a separate dorm to the others. At the hostel check in we met with Katie and Mariah.

Then, something very strange happened. It turns out the hostel owner (who checked us in) used to work at the same school that Tori and Grace work at now! He knew some Project Trust volunteers who were there a few years ago. At first we didn't believe him, but he soon started describing the school and showing us pictures. It was undeniable! He had been at the same school!

Anyway that night I decided to stay in and make the most of the comfy bedding, wifi and air-con that I had in the dormitory.
The next day I visited Bam's university and got to see his friends. I don't know if they expected to see me or not but they seemed surprised when I walked in - and of course I had photos taken. The class was really cool. It was just a catch up class so the teacher was talking to students one by one. So, the rest were singing into the microphone, taking pictures, talking and dancing. It was awesome.

When Bam was done with class we went to go get lunch. He ordered a dish called Kao Soi for me and it was freakin amazing! It's a dish that is from northern Thailand and is basically just noodled and meat but with a kind of creamy sauce. It was so delicious! Afterwards, we went downstairs and watched a singing competition, some of the kids singing were only about 5 years old and singing English songs such as 'Can you feel the love tonight?' in amazing voices!

After Bam collected his bag from his house we parted ways - he went to Nakhon Sawan whilst I went back to the hostel.

After waiting at home for a couple of hours I met everyone else and we went out and ate dinner at a pretty nice restaurant. We all decided to order in Thai and practice our Thai skills. The waiter was pretty impressed and asked us all to come back tomorrow :)


Afterwards we went back to the hostel and got ready to go out. Of course, we went to Kao Sahn Road again. We ended up in a bar where we played connect 4 and stoked the little dogs that were running around :) So cute!


On the 18th we visited MBK for lunch and then walked to Siam Paragon to go to the cinema to watch The BFG. It was okay, but I have to admit - I did fall asleep!

After this, we picked up our bags from MBK and got the BTS to Victory Monument before walking along to the van station. I think the ticket sellers were pretty surprised when 6 farang girls turned up wanting to go to Nakhon Sawan.
We had to wait over an hour for the bus and the 6pm one was full up. Thankfully, we were given a place to sit and wait.

We arrived in NS around 11pm I think. We walked to Sophie and Ronah's house. Ronah was already in bed but Sophie was still awake.
Whilst the other were getting ready for bed, Sophie and I cycled to 7/11 to get some food.

The next day I felt really ill for some reason. This meant I didn't get to go to slip n slide with everyone else. Needless to say, I was pretty upset. Slip n slide looked liked a water obstacle course - right up my street. Also, it was Alex's birthday, I wanted to celebrate with her!

Anyway, the others left and it was only Katie (who had just got a tattoo) and I left in the flat. Here we stayed until about 4pm when the others returned. Thankfully, by this time I was feeling a little better and I was able to come out for a meal with everyone.
We went to a restaurant called Burger Lab where they made amazing burgers! After this, we went to a cute cafe. This was a bit of a let down. We arrived close to closing time so they didn't have everything we asked for. To be honest our experience there was quite stressful as we were rushed to finish quickly. It seemed to be that we were the only table to be rushed, none of the Thai people were.

Anways, we walked back home and talked before going to bed.

On the 20th we returned home to Uthai Thani, of course the bus didn't stop at school like we had asked. Instead we drove past our school and got off at the bus station, where we had to pay for a tuk tukk to drive us back to school.
When we arrived at school we barely recognised it, everything looked so beautiful for the princess' visit tomorrow!

As my year comes to a close - AFS interviews

On the 27th June Alex and I drove with PeJib to another secondary school along with 3 of our pupils. The students were partaking in AFS interviews, and Alex and I were judges.

AFS is a voluntary organisation that send pupils to different countries around the world to study for one year. Our 3 pupils were all hoping to pass the interviews and get placed somewhere in America.

We had spent a couple of days preparing them for the interviews - giving tips on how to answer questions.
In my opinion, Alex and I were pretty well prepared for this job. A lot of the questions that were asked as part of the interview were similar to the ones we were asked by Project Trust on selection and training. Questions such as ' How will you cope with homesickness?' and 'What will you do if you can't get on with your host family?'.

In the actual interviews our students were some of the best (we were told by the other judges > <). Their English was amazing and they answered the questions well. When faced with questions about homesickness many other students answered that they would call or facetime their families whenever they felt homesick - exactly what you're not meant to do!

There were also two ex-students helping out at the interviews - both of whom had been away with AFS. One to America and one to China. The one who had been to America spoke amazing English (all be it with an American accent).

At the end of the day, everyone got certificates. Including us!

Our students had to wait a couple of weeks to find out about their placements. All three passed the interviews. The two girls got a place in Italy whilst the boy got placed in America!

It's up to them whether they accept the placements or not, as they can be quite expensive. I'll keep my fingers crossed for them!

As my year comes to a close - The English language competition

So on the 7th of July Alex and I traveled up with PeJib to Nakhon Sawan for a meeting. The 8th was the day of an English language competition and a few of our students were competing.

I was a judge for M4-M6 storytelling along with a Thai teacher called Tom and another teacher called Dr. Ody. We had to decide how we were going to mark the storytelling and what mark boundaries there were.
Of course, no meeting is complete without pictures and lunch.

The 8th was the day of the competition. Tom, Dr. Ody and I sat in a room downstairs and after a few words to all the students competing we began the competition. 

One of the pupils was from UTW. I had been helping his pronunciation for ages and basically knew his story off by heart. He had particular trouble saying the word 'trembling' and always pronounced it as 'trambling'. Everyday I helped him we seemed to go over this particular world a million times. 

Anyway, on the day of the competition he got the word perfect! I was so happy. 

I wasn't allowed to mark my own students but I would've given him 100/100.

Other students were amazing and you wouldn't believe that English was their second language - others not so great and gave up before even finishing their story.

At the end of the day we tallied up all the scores and my pupil came in third place! I was so proud of him! 

Of course, I couldn't tell him until the results were officially announced - which was torture for both me and him!

Pupils that took part in other areas of the competition also did amazing. I think we had three pupils come in first and one come in second. Great news!!

Some of the UTW pupils

As my year comes to a close - Wai Khruu Day

So I'm writing this post on Monday the 25th of July.

This week at school is test week - meaning no lessons. Also meaning lots of time to update my blog!


Okay, so first up: Wai Khruu day!
Wai Khruu day is a day in Thai schools and universities where the students pay respect to the teachers. Our Wai Khruu day took place on June 25th.
The previous day there had been a lot of preparation for the day with afternoon lessons cancelled so that students could create their paan wai khruus. They're basically a beautiful structure of flowers and other decorations (I can't explain very well but you'll see pictures). Each class in the school made 2 paan wai khruus - one by the boys and one by the girls.



On the 25th there was a big ceremony in the morning. All the teachers (including us) sat in chairs by the stage. 2 representatives from each class came up to the teachers on their knees with their       and passed their paan wai khruus to us. Some of them were absolutely amazing!

The teachers and the student council

After the morning ceremony there were lessons for M1-M3 whilst M4-M6 seemed to just do loads of fun activities around school - usually involving blindfolds and water. Many teachers also got visits from their students who would sit on the ground and wai them. Even ex-students showed up to pay their respects.

As my year comes to a close - The princess of Thailand

Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn

On the 21st July the Princess came to visit our school in Uthai Thani.

The Princess owns a house in Uthai Thani and the people of Uthai love her a great deal. A lot of the town is painted purple in her honour. 

A couple of facts about her:

• She is second in line to the throne, after her older brother
• She is incredibly intelligent and has done a great deal of studying:
• Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok – Bachelor of Arts, History – 1976
• Silpakorn University, Bangkok – Master of Arts, Oriental Epigraphy – 1979
• Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok – Master of Arts, Oriental Languages – 1980
• Srinakharinwirot University, Bangkok – Doctor of Philosophy in Educational Development – 1986

She came to our school to learn about STEM learning which is a scheme the school has in places to do with science and maths. Students from others schools also presented there ideas. 

Preparation had been going on for weeks prior to her visit. There was even an afternoon off timetbale so that the entire school could be cleaned by the pupils.

Roads were re-tarmacked, statues re-painted, tree and plants were planted and a fountain was even built. It was not uncommon to see 13 year olds still working outside at 11pm at night.

   

The English Camp

On the 1st of July Alex, Hayden and I traveled up to Nakhon Sawan in order to get the train to Tori and Grace's school in Thae Rua.

Our day was going fine until we realised that the last train was at about 4 and our bus wouldn't get there in time. So, we had to quickly arrange out tuk tukk driver to drive us up in his car. Thankfully, we got there with plenty time to spare. The train was delayed, as usual. We met with Rhys, Dan and Sophie at the train station.

When we arrived in Thae Rua we put our bags in one of the teacher's cars and we walked through the market. Sadly, it started raining and the market started to pack up. So, we walked home. Halfway there, we got picked up in some teacher's cars.

At school we were shown to the ASEAN room where there were two pupils waiting for us amongst a pile of balloons.
Our first task of the camp was to blow up loads of balloons, each with a letter inside ready for a spelling game the next day. Thankfully, with all of us helping this didn't take very long.

The next day the camp started at 8AM. We all wore our yellow polo shirts that had been given to us as well as our nametags.
We sat with the students in the hall and eventually we introduced ourselves. Then we played the first game. We had each given Tori and Grace a fact about ourselves, we then all had to spread out and stand in a different place around the room. Tori and Grace would read the facts out one by one and the kids had to run to who they thought the fact belonged to. It was pretty fun!

Afterwards, us volunteers split off into different groups. I went with Hayden and Dan to run the treasure hunt.
In the treasure hunt activity the kids were split into four teams. Each team was given a riddle to solve about where the next clue was. They ran there, and read another riddle, and then another one. After the third riddle they had to figure out where the treasure (a tub of sweets) were.
This was so much fun to run, although a little tricky at first because we didn't know where the sweets were hidden either!
Also, a couple of times, the wrong team got to another team's sweets meaning the other team was left with no idea where their sweets were!

We usually had a few minutes to spare at the end of each rotation of kids, so we played lots of games of Duck, Duck, Goose!

After all groups had finished everyone re-convened back in the hall where we sang some songs. Obviously, the Cha Cha Slide came up as well as another song about bananas which I had been given the pleasure of singing into the microphone.
We then tried to do the challenge of sitting on each others laps in a circle. We tried to demonstrate this on stage with great difficulty and before we knew it all the kids were in one big circle trying to do it.
It was not completed, but we tried!!

At the end of the camp we had to choose out camp king and queen and then we got to do the fun job of throwing out sweets to the crowd!
Eventually, the camp finished and we all had to say goodbye to the kids who all waied us.

Of course we took lots of photos with them! We were also all given wonderful gifts by the staff at the school which was a fantastic surprise!






When everyone was leaving, a load of the kids stayed longer and took so many photos with us! They must've stayed for about 30 minutes after the camp finished!






That evening, we all went out for a meal with a couple of the teachers from the school! It was such an an amazing meal - with an omelette to die for (soooo buttery). Afterwards, I tasted the holy grail of ice cream - Thai tea flavour with little balls of jelly inside! It was amaaaaazing!!!!

Back, at the flat the others stuck on 'The Hunger Games' whilst I called my family who were all on holiday together in a 'cottage' in England. It was so great to talk to everyone, some of whom I haven't talked to since coming over here!


Overall, the camp was so amazing and fantastically planned by Tori and Grace. Apparently, this camp happens every year because last year's volunteers did the same thing!