Children's Day

Today, we celebrated Children's Day at school.

Happy Children's Day!

It was like Christmas-

gift exchanges

raffles and prizes,

some of which I had the honor of handing out

games,

this one involved tying a long cucumber-like vegetable around your waist and then racing to hit the ball to the finish line (and yes, they know exactly what it looks like)

And lots of snacks! No wonder the students get so excited.

There were also dance performances like there are at every school event/ festival.

This kindergarten student was very into her dancing.

Students of all ages joined in.

Other students showed their talents in other ways.

Trust me, hula hooping while kneeling is not easy!

We had ice cream too so I'll chalk it up to a good day.

Monday is Teacher's Day I was told this morning.

"Cool, what do we do on Teacher's Day?" I asked.

"We don't teach."

December

The last month of the year fast-forwarded to 2012.

Here's what happened in pictures:

Sukhothai Historical Park, Sukhothai

Sukhothai (which means "the dawn of happiness") was the capital of Thailand during the 13th century and is famous for its Historical Park which holds the ruins of the ancient city. I'd been wanting to visit for a while and finally got the chance to do so last month.

Buddha's footprint

My favorite was Wat Si Chum (Temple of the Bodhi Tree).

The Buddha is seated in a square brick building that it (he?) barely seems to fit in and peeks out of a tapered triangular entrance.

Ramkhamhaeng National Museum, outside the Historical Park

Royal Flora Expo, Chiang Mai

Some of our students made the regional competition for singing/ dance and boy scouts. The five-day competition was in Phitsanulok province and the teachers decided to turn the opportunity into a bpai tiow (field trip). I tagged along. One of our stops was the Royal Flora Ratchaphruek, Southeast Asia's biggest horticultural expo.

The Royal Pavilion

Malaysian dance at the Malaysian garden exhibit

I couldn't miss my change to take a photo at the exit with cardboard cutouts of mustached foreigners and a "Bye Bye" sign.

Amazing Thailand

Random shots I found strange/ interesting along the way

Dancers (left) practice for the regional competition while ladyboy instructors (right) look on. I unfortunately didn't capture the essence of their ladyboy-ness. You'll have to look closely to see the chest on the ladyboy third from right. They are not to be trifled with, however; as you can see he also carries a big stick.

Thai people like to take photos of themselves.

That's real. I'm pretty sure.