Recap Nov. & Dec.

In attempt to get back into blogging let me go back and share some things that have happened.  I do hope to be better at blogging in the future ;)

Thanksgiving was a great day.  We did have school all day.  Friday was a teacher development day, so no kids but had to go to meetings.  After that Moe and I went to a friends house for Thanksgiving meal. There were 3 couples there.  I made mashed potatoes and corn and we cut up veggies.  I had not ever cooked for that many people before so I had no idea how much to make.  PLUS we had to ride the motorbike.  So it was interesting to say the least.  We are getting very good at being resourceful!  Anyway, dinner was wonderful.  We enjoyed our time for sure!!

Christmas was great as well.  Moe and I both had 2.5 weeks off of school.  We spent a great deal of time relaxing and spending time together. Christmas Eve we watched a movie together and pizza for dinner at our favorite place.  I went to a candle light Christmas Eve service at 11pm with a friend.  It was very nice.  Christmas day we pretended that we were home and everything was closed.  We slept in a little.  Then made French toast and bacon for breakfast.  We took naps, skyped with family, opened presents, and made dinner together.  We made barbecue chicken, mashed potatoes, and corn.  It was wonderful.  We enjoyed our holiday.  Hopefully here is a link to look at some pictures.  Christmas images  (included in there are my doors from school.  I love to decorate for the holidays!!)

Also we got a handful of gifts from our family.  We are truly blessed by those of you who sent us things.  Thank you so much.  While we can get many things here, it is such a treat to get a box at school full of goodies!

Overall we had a wonderful holiday break.  We enjoyed not doing much and spending time together.  I however am ready and excited to get back to routine and to school!!

I trust you all had a wonderful holiday as well.  Love and miss you!

Thai Day at school

Today was Thai Day.  Every year the school has a special cultural day.  It rotates with International Day, so next year we will have international day.  It is a celebration of culture, music, dance, games, crafts, food, and more.  This year Thai Day focused on the coming together of the ASEAN community, southeast Asian countries.

Brief schedule of the day:
  Normal first period... yea right!
  Second period get ready for ceremony - changing and make up
  9:30 head to ceremony
  9:45 ceremony
  11:15 (An hour and a half LATER!!)  ceremony ends. Back to class to change
  11:30 Lunch
  1:00 Games/activities begin
  2:30 LEAVE

Ok I am going to be very honest... I was very nervous for this day.  The whole school was involved plus parents plus community.  New things happening when I am supposed to be in charge scare me!  The day did not go as I thought it would.  I was frustrated most of the day.  Looking back on it though I realized my outlook affected my kids almost as much as it affected me.  I now know that I need to be energetic and try to enjoy things no matter what so that my students can try to do the same thing.  Lesson learned for sure!

Anyway, we separated guys and girls for changing.  The guys had pants and shirts - easy peasy!!  The girls were a whole other story.  Skirts that needed pinned, tops needed pinned, scarf things worn like a sleeve, hair, makeup the works!

I jumped right in pinning things saying over and over "I have no idea what I am doing!"  At one point I was not doing anything and asked a Thai mom what I could do.  She suggested makeup.  I was nervous.  So I carefully put some simple eye shadow on a girl and some lip color stuff.  The girl thought it was fine.  Later I noticed it was not fine because the mom took over and put more, LOTs more makeup on.  Make up was on almost, if not all, of the girls in K-6th grades.... crazy-ness!  OH and I had one of the Thai moms put flowers in my hair.  She thought it was so fun!

Then we headed to the ceremony.  Here are some pictures of the students who performed.  Each performance was in honor of something and all quite meaningful for the Thai folk.  For me, just seeing the costumes and the styles of dance were so fun!  The ceremony was quite long and warm but we made it.

4th Grade

4th Grade boys

4th Grade again - I couldn't resist!

5th Grade

 

6th Grade

Pre- kindergarteners.  They were SOO cute!

3rd Grade

Kindergarten

2nd Grade

High School Dancers

  

Models from fashion show...

 After lunch, we did some activities.  Each elementary class went to three different stations.  There were lots of stations with kids everywhere.  It was so fun to see what everyone was doing.  We did: Making Thai food, Muay Thai, and Painting Bags.  At the food station, we watched them cook a simple meal and sampled it (right after lunch might not have been my choice but thats ok!).  At Muay Thai (Thai boxing) we learned three simple moves, punching, kicking, and kneeing (is that a word?!).  I am sure my students would have rather learned more though!  Painting Bags was probably the favorite! We were in the shade - Thank goodness! - so that always helps.  Each student got a small draw string bag and painted it however they wished.  They turned out great!!

food making

Muay Thai

 Painting bags

By the end of the day we were all exhausted and ready to go home.  It was a day to remember for sure.
Sadly Moe and I did not get a picture together.... I guess we will just have to dress up some other time too!  I did get one picture with a kid, so here it is cropped and what not.

Sorry for the super long post full of pictures, but hopefully you enjoyed it!

Valentine's Day

Valentine's in Thailand is very different.  Only similarities:  Everyone goes out to dinner and everyone buys flowers.  Both are quite cheap here.  Other than that it is different.  Valentine cards (for kids) are not possible to find here.  There are some "Happy Valentines Day" cards like what 'grown ups' send.  Limited special Valentine's candy is made, but chocolate is popular to buy.  No fun heart candy or sweet hearts or anything like that.

Anyway, at school we had some fun.  Last week I had no idea what to do but was suggested to do the felt heart weaving basket.  It was fun! I learned a lot about my kids while doing it!

My school is blessed to be able to order some supplies for crafts and things.  I had them order me felt. I got way more than I needed.  I had about 100 pieces of 5x12 in. I am so sad that I forgot to take a picture of the GIANT stack. It was silly how much felt I had, and still have.  I gave half to my buddy teacher.  After her class and my class did it and a few mistakes, I still have 35 pieces left.

Anyway, it turned out great.  It is hard to tell in the pictures but the hearts do open.  I hot glued the edges a little so candy and things could stay in it without falling out.  I'm not really supposed to share kids pictures but I wanted you to see their crafts and the only pictures I had were with them!

The other thing that we did during our party time was play Valentine's Bingo.  It was a huge hit.  Even for my boys who HATE Valentine's Day as I was told so so SO many times! 

Finally, my Valentine/February bulletin board in our hallway.  Each student made a heart and wrote what book they LOVE reading and why.  I think it is so cute!

Anyway, enough about school.  Moe and I came home from work and relaxed for a little bit.  I took a nap. Moe played games.  Then we went out to a nice dinner and went grocery shopping.  Nothing fancy.  We enjoyed time together that is what really matters right! ;) Holidays aren't as important for us right now, especially Hallmark created ones as Moe says constantly.  I will say I was slightly sad that Moe did not buy me flowers since they are so cheap here. But he made up for it the following night by insisting I buy some clothes that I really liked.... I am trying to be adventurous with this whole clothe shopping thing here! More on that later though!

Bo Sang Umbrella Festival

This week was the Bo Sang Umbrella Festival.  Bo Sang is a small village area just about 10 kms out of Chiang Mai.  We were told that Friday night was a parade and ceremony.  Since we had a half day of school because of Teacher Appreciation Day (which is a whole other story), we decided to head out to celebrate!

We went with friends a little information about what to expect other than umbrellas!! We were not even that sure how to get there or where it was.... adventure right!?! We found a sign that said we needed to turn and when we got up to the intersection we found out we could not turn because it was right there! We found a great parking spot and let the adventure begin.

This is the entrance.... beautifully covered in umbrellas!

We walked in and were instantly confused!  There was a crowd formed with people sitting on both sides of the road, however seated very differently.  On one side was 'normal' people sitting on the sidewalk or on small stools, chatting away, with little groups all over.  On the other side was elevated stage with couches and chairs and special people sitting. We still dont know who those people were but they were special.  They had only pink, yellow, or blue shirts. Representing/honoring the royalty is our assumption because I think those are their colors.  There were podiums on one side and speakers making announcements.  Occasionally something was said in English but it was hard to hear so we really had no idea what was happening!

We decided to keep walking because it looked like the action was up ahead.  As we walked we past lots of umbrellas, lining restaurants and shops. Sometimes they were set up in fun things like this heart where you could go behind and take your picture!  It was very popular.

As we kept walking we finally ran into the parade! It was so cool.  We could hear the marching band before we could see them.  Yes it was night time but still a very lively parade. And escorted by a car nonetheless.

It really was an all out marching band! It was so fun. They played familiar tunes and we were dancing along like we would at home.

After them was a group of women dressed in white with white umbrellas.  Sorry for the blurriness but you get the idea.

Then there were pageant girls.  The girl in the middle was so so so so tall. Let me rephrase. She was TALL for Thailand!  We think she was about 6-4 with her 3-4 inch heels on.... Here that is very tall! The girls were beautiful though.

We were then surprised to see this beauty drive past!

Different pageant girls and boys!  As you can see they were holding banners similar to parades in the States, though we could only read the numbers.

More beauties being escorted on samlaws - three wheeled bicycles. 

As you might have guessed by now there were lots and lots and lots of what seemed like beauty pageant girls, all dressed differently and escorted semi-differently.  We are now on to being escorted, rather carried, by men.

More girls being carried by men.  As you can see people were still walking around and sometimes through the parade.  The atmosphere was very different.  Still lively but different.  People would run up, put there kids next to the person and take their photo, or just take photos of the people in the parade.  It was interesting!

 There were also lots of people playing music, which kept things loud! All kinds of different instruments were used, though mostly percussion.

Now we are entering the float like section of the parade.  These trucks were covered in umbrellas and lights. Each of them had a picture of the king or the queen and a girl, sometimes very young, sitting on a throne of sorts.  They did not wave or anything but sit and sometimes smile.

Oh also there were groups of people in between wearing matching clothing and carrying matching umbrellas. Sadly again we are uncertain of who they were or why they were there.

This is the turning point of our night right here! Suddenly the processional stopped.  We waiting where we were standing for about 5 minutes and still no movement. So we decided to keep walking.  We walked all the way to the end, which seemed to be forever, and back before it started moving again.  This seemed to not be standard as everyone was confused, tired, and restless.  We felt so bad for those wearing heels or uncomfortable costumes, and for the men carrying the women! It was so bizarre.

More elaborate floats

People dressed up as llamas.  They danced a little too.

 Another beautiful float

Umbrellas everywhere. Being carried, hanging, and acting as lights. It was beautiful.  Oh also you can notice the 30s everywhere. This was the 30th anniversary of this festival so again big celebrations.

 Standing in front of a wall of umbrellas!

We walked back to a section that advertised watching people make the umbrellas, but when we got back there no one was doing it.  It was sad but we still got to see beautifully hand made umbrellas.

They varied in size and design.  This one is probably 6ft in diameter.  There were some with elephants and people and scenery and everything you can imagine! Gorgeous.  The colors are amazing.

As soon as we walked out from there we saw fireworks.  No Thai celebration is complete without them! They were very fun though short.

Here is the umbrella that we bought.  It is about 3ft in diameter and cost us 50baht which is less than 2 dollars! We love the addition of color to our very white house!

After our adventures we were very hungry.  We went out to a true Italian restaurant and enjoyed ourselves. It was lovely.  Another wonderful night. 

Christmas Day festivities

Christmas Day started like many other days and I forsee many days to come.  I woke up and did some reading while Moe slept in.  I played with Chico and took some pictures of our Christmas tree.

Then, I put a bow on Chico and went to wake up "Daddy".  He wasn't too happy to say the least.

But Chico is very cute!!

We then skyped with Moe's family as they opened presents.  And this was captured which I love.  I wish we  would have and could have had the actual picture as well.  

After skyping with them, Moe went back to sleep and so did I..... I mean I watched Home Alone with Chico. 

We then went out to lunch at an western place.  I had French Toast, banana, and bacon.  Moe had ham and cheese sandwich with french fries.  Then we went shopping.  I got some new clothes. We got some treats for  Chico. Moe got something but I forget what! We came home and relaxed together, enjoying our care free day. 

For dinner, we made it fancy.  Moe made stir fry pork, potatoes, and onions.  We had corn and bread to go along. I set the table up nice as well.  Please ignore the giant piece of bread on my plate... I like my bread, what can a girl do?

Finally we ended the night by skyping with my family and watching them open gifts.  They got our package yesterday so it was quite perfect to get to watch them open it on Christmas day.  

Overall a very different but great day.  We are so blessed!

Loy Kratong

This Wednesday was the full moon of 12th month of Thai lunar calendar which means the celebration of Loy Kratong.  I am told it is not generally on a Wednesday and thus some interesting events happened.  Basically all week was a celebration.

Loy means floating and kratong describe the floats that are created.  Loy Kratong is known as the festival of lights. Which means fireworks, lanterns, candles, and all sorts of things happening all the time.

In Thai class all of the elementary students made kratongs.  I was very intrigued by this whole process and asked the Thai teachers if I could come along with the students.  They graciously accepted me! Kratongs are made out of natural resources such as banana stalk, banana leaves, flowers, and candles and/or incense.  I did not get the details of why things are they way they are but here is my kratong!  The leaves had a specific process but for the flowers and candles I could do what I wanted!  These kratongs are then supposed to be lit and placed in the river.  I did this outside off our deck area.  It was very cool! Kratongs filled the river for days!

Just realized some of my leaves are the wrong way.  The angles were all supposed to face the same direction.  

Every night after the Yee Peng Festival I blogged about last week, the khom loys have been filling the sky.  It has been beautiful to see.

Fireworks have also been going non-stop.  Our restaurant neighbor across the river has had quite the display of fireworks.  Here is a video of a section of fireworks.  I was standing on our roof when I shot this.  They were literally right across from me.  There were a few that literally exploded right above me! It was sooo cool.  The sound is loud so be careful but it is worth hearing for a few seconds to really feel there!

On Thursday we had a little party of our own.  Food and festivities.  The weather was not on our side so it was a shorter event than we had thought. But it was fun.  We watched a few fireworks and let off some of our own.  Here is one of the really cool ones that a friend brought over.  The base of this is a clay pot.

Bottom line. If you can ever visit Thailand, consider coming during this holiday.  It was by far one of the coolest things we have done here.  It was such a cultural experience that is so unique and exciting.