Muskrat goes to Thailand: Just another "normal" week

Last week was a pretty normal week for me. When I say “normal” though, I mean I, unexpectedly, only taught 9 out of my 20 class periods due to another sports day. A full week of teaching is not a normal thing here in rural Thailand. Something will always pop up at the last minute and change any plans you had made. But that’s ok because it’s Thailand! You just have to be able to sit back, relax, and go with the flow… no matter how slow that flow is.

Last Wednesday was the first “normal” day of the week for me. The director of WorldTeach was coming to my school to do a teaching observation. I was really nervous about this teaching observation, but in order for her to observe me teaching, I needed to have some students to teach. But no students came, and when I went to find them I was told that they were setting up for sports day.

That afternoon at lunch, I was told that the soccer team had a scrimmage, and since I was asked to help coach, I wanted to go (I don’t think I was asked to coach because of good coaching skills, but more so they can claim that they have “an international coach”) When I asked “when the scrimmage was?” They told me to go change because they were leaving in 10 minutes… so I did and there for only taught 1 out of 4 classes that day. The next day, I showed up for my first two classes, but my students did not. At lunch time I was told that I did not have to teach that day because the students were setting up for sports day, haha that would have been nice to know earlier, and so I could just “lelax” (they pronounce most “R”s like “L”s so he meant “relax”).

Sports Day is sort of a misleading term considering it was only one soccer match against another school. But they were making out like this game was the World Cup. They spent days setting up/ cleaning up, building bleachers out of bamboo poles, practicing cheers, actually having soccer practice(first I’ve seen since I’ve been here, usually they just playing full sided games), and what would a game be with out a trophy ,”big enough for the Champions League,” as my director said it. And he wasn’t kidding they bought a huge trophy that cost as much as two months salary for me… again where the money comes from and how it can be allocated towards something like that??? I don’t know.

I was pretty excited when Friday finally rolled around. The students from both schools had a parade thru town with marching bands, girls dressed up in traditional Thai outfits, girls dressed up in tootoos/ dolled up with a ton of make up(not sure why), and four male students dressed in traditional Thai carrying a decorated platform with the trophy on top.

so the thai people, especially where i am, dress very conservatively but for some reason for any type of parade/celebration they are allowed to dress 'sexy' as they would say. i guess its like halloween in the US and how girls use it as an excuse to dress slutty but here its just more frequent

can you guess what they are supposed to be?

'oh so beautiful' is what they say when describing their outfits...?

the primary school kids watching the parade go by

the principle giving the team a motivation speach

It was a fun event and the game was really good. We were down by one, tied it, went down again, and tied it again, and then the game ended. And yes I mean it ended… haha what the hell, no winner? So I grabbed the microphone and said “After all that damn work, after all the hype about how we must win that trophy, you’re going to tell me that no one wins?!?! Not even over time, PKs, or hell I’ll flip a coin to determine a winner.” Haha so I didn’t really say that but I wanted to. They didn’t even think twice about it, not a disappointed look on any of the players. I guess it’s just part of their mai pen rai attitude or something. Mai pen rai, just smile and go with the flow.

the teams sharing the trophy

This past weekend was also my birthday and it was a great one. All of the volunteers, plus a few other friends, met up in NKP for a sunset booze cruise. It was my first boat ride on the Mekong and an hour cruise only set us back 50 baht (about a $1.65). After the cruise we all went out to dinner and then out for a few drinks. The best part about the night was that we all got hotel rooms for the night and… the hotel had Hot Water!!! It felt sooo good to wake up and have a hot shower for once. In fact, it felt so good that I was probably in there for 30 minutes haha. It was a great weekend with great friends.

the sun setting behing the catholic church

This weekend should be an interesting one. Saturday is Teacher Sport day and I am getting dressed up in a traditional Thai outfit for the parade… just another “normal” day here in Thailand.