I'll break the past couple weeks down a bit...
Chinese New Year:
The Friday that we got back from Cambodia was our school's celebration of Chinese New Year. In the morning at assembly the Chinese teachers (who are Thai but teach Chinese, of course) led the students in some songs, kids were walking around in "Chinese" masks and outfits, and offerings for the New Year. Then we heard some distant drumming and people ran in, set off fireworks everywhere, put on a show with dragons and then ran out! It was quite a whirlwind! And since the New Year lasts for a week they ran around Phrae setting off fireworks at random times during the day, many times waking us up thinking people were being shot! Crazy Thai people. The rest of the day though was really fun and the kids were so excited to celebrate!
The 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders went to different stations, tasting teas, making Chinese masks, and good luck bracelets. The 4th, 5th and 6th graders put on different performances in the afternoon and sang and danced their hearts away! It was pretty fun!
Our Chinese New Year celebration begins with a bang!
Cute little Book!
Two of my 6th Grade boys, K and Poom, yes both are boys under those masks!
Amanda, my co-teacher Kru Yui and Me!
Valentine's Day:
The students have been asking us about Valentine's Day since Halloween! They were super excited to make Valentine's Day cards, hearts to put around the room, and anything else V-Day related!
We taught them the song "Skidamarink" at assembly, which they thought was hilarious!
I had my 6th graders cut out hearts and fill it with things they love, decorate it and then we hung them all around the room. They were so funny,
"I love iPad." "I love Girlfriend." "I love Ben 10."
My students were super excited to tell me everyone's girlfriends and boyfriends, which I was all too happy to gossip with them about! I have never seen my students get so into coloring and drawing, they are usually "too cool." You just gotta make them color for their gfs and bfs!
Then the little kids gave us flowers, TONS of stickers, and some little treats! They were so sweet!
We were all definitely all LOVING our students by the end of Valentine's week!
A 6th grade girl's Valentine to her BF
"Dear Jump?
Happy Valentine's Day, I love you.
Miss you, I love you, Only you, xoxo
Love, Form"
Me, Kate and Soddy at assembly!
Poom from 6/3 makin a Valentine!
Chiang Rai:
This past weekend we decided to go to Chiang Rai since some of the other newcomers haven't been before. Amanda, Leah, and Mimi took off Friday and went on a trek in the mountains. The rest of us met Nick and Al in the city and did a bunch of different things! We went to the Black House, which is the house of a Thai artist that was SO weird. It had animal fur, snake skin, and skulls everywhere.
I also went back to the White Temple with Kate, Soddy, Brandon and Nick and Al. It was still as beautiful and as magical as ever!
The next day, Kate, Brandon and I decided to go visit some hill tribes! I have been wanting to do this for awhile so I was really excited that we were finally able to do it! We booked a tour through our hostel and it ended up being a personal tour with a guide who is from the Yellow Lahu tribe in Pai! It was so cool! He knows a ton of different languages and many different dialects. In one instance we were moving from the Akha tribe to the Karen Longneck tribe switching between dialects and he would constantly be speaking to both tribes in both dialects! It was really amazing to see! While at the Akha and Karen tribes, Kate and I bought some rings that they usually use to wear around their necks. We were interested to learn that they start when they are 5 years old and add a ring every year until their are at 25 rings! The highest number of rings is 28 and they are highly respected women in the tribes. The tradition started because of a legend about tigers coming into the mountains and biting the necks of the women. They didn't think the women could protect themselves so they put the rings on to protect them. Even though they are called long necks, their necks aren't getting longer, the rings are incredibly heavy, so it pushes on the sternum bones and pushes their shoulders down! Less and less are doing it and more and more are going to college so we felt lucky that we saw some that still had rings on. What is kind of sad is that if they ever choose to take the rings off the women are not able to hold up their heads because those muscles have not been used! So crazy!
They let us try on some neck bracelets to see how it feels and they were HEAVY!
Brandon doing weights with them
Kate lookin fab
Kids from the Akha Tribe helped us up a steep hill. They were so cute and liked playing with our hair
A man from the Karen tribe and his home made guitars, so cool.
the leader of the Lahu Tribe pouring us some tea
So happy!
Cremation of the Head Monk:
On Tuesday we were told that we needed to wear a white shirt and black skirt to school because a monk had died and there was going to be some celebration for him. We had no idea how big of a deal it really was! The teachers told us about a ceremony that would happen on Wednesday night and that the Princess of Thailand was coming! Of course, we were all intrigued. We headed over around 8:30 (it was supposed to start around 9) and woah it was already super packed! This nothing park had been converted into a stadium with this in the middle:
There were also monks everywhere and they were chanting over the loudspeakers. We all kind of split up and Mimi, Amanda and I ended up right by the monk headquarters, if you will. Different monks chanted for about an hour or so when suddenly fireworks started going off! There are some on strings that shoot all around the park, ones that come out of the elephant/dragon's nose and huge ones right above us that I am sure were not regulated! lol so Thailand. The last one ended on the Stupa by the elephant/dragon and it started burning. Eventually the WHOLE stage burned. Not just that little pagoda with the monk's body but the elephant/dragon and everything around it eventually burned to the ground! At one point Thai people were running away because the flames were so high and the the fire was so hot...it got a little scary for a second!
Monks taking some pics
SO many fireworks!
The stupa on fire
EVERYTHING on fire!
We ran into one of the teachers from our school, Teacher Tiantong and she told us a little bit more about what we had just seen. The monk was the Head Monk of the North and he was from Phrae. He was 95 years old and the Princess came in the afternoon with "fire from the King" and then left. :-( This is the first time there has ever been a cremation of a monk in Phrae so this was very exciting for our town. Tiantong said this was the first time she had seen it so we felt lucky to be a part of it. Here is a video that one of our teachers shot, it's kinda long but interesting!
I know this was a long one but SO much has happened! Thanks for everyone who made it through!
Love it! thanks for the update, so much has been going on!!!
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