Let’s Party!

We had a very nice time visiting Chiang Mai over the weekend. We went to the World Flower Festival or Royal Flora Ratchaphruek 2006. The festival is to celebrate the King of Thailand’s 80th birthday and his 60th year on the throne. The Thai people are very proud of their King and will tell you how much good he has done for the country in the past 60 years. We didn’t have time to see everything at the festival so we picked a few things that interested us. The first was the Orchid exhibit where they had some amazing and rare orchids on display. They also had and orchid garden competition and orchid plant competition. There were some very beautiful flowers. In the pictures, I am standing in front of my favorite orchid garden competitor and an example of the incredible colors that were found in these gardens.


We also went to the Royal Pavilion which was a Buddhist temple dedicated to the King. Below the temple was a bit of a museum telling about all the accomplishments of the King. After walking around that we wandered through the international gardens. Many countries were represented there from the Netherlands and Spain to Qatar and Bhutan. Unfortunately, the US did not have a garden there. Actually, Karl says the US was represented because the whole festival was a bit “Disney-fied”. To exit the park we had to walk a gauntlet of venders who were selling everything from “Long Live the King” T-shirts to souvenirs from Kenya, India or other countries that had gardens in the park.

We also visit Ba Song where they paint paper umbrellas and Doi Suthep the Buddhist temple on top of the mountain. Both were very much the tourist traps we aren’t crazy about. Doi Suthep was very crowded because so many people were in Chiang Mai for the Chiang Mai University graduation ceremonies. We had to walk up 300 steps to get to the temple and we were almost shoulder to shoulder with others visiting the temple. So much for the quiet monastery that Karl remembers from his visit over 20 years ago. It is a beautiful temple and has a spectacular view over Chiang Mai city.

Back in Wangpikun this past Monday we taught our first English classes. Karl’s classes went much better than mine. He had the distinct advantage of being able to explain the lesson in Thai. Fortunately, I had some patient Thai teachers supporting me and giving me some tips to help the students understand what they needed to do. The tip I get most often … speak slowly! I was a bit concerned that I wouldn’t get the hang of teaching through the language barrier but as the week went on things have gotten better for me.
Tuesday and Wednesday there were no classes. Instead there were parties! First on Tuesday was the Teacher’s conference for the school district. The conference started off with a very long ceremony directed by the local Buddhist monks. There were lots of prayers and a hymn for teachers. After the ceremony was lunch and we quickly learned that a buffet table in Thailand functions a bit different then the ones in America. There is no orderly line where each person waits their turn. People would just go directly to the table and take what ever food they wanted. I was quite surprised that there were no hard feelings when one person would reach over another person to get something. Lunch was followed by Patong (a game with balls that is similar to horseshoes) and soccer tournaments. We went home for a nap and then returned in the evening for the big party. Dinner was a catered affair with many courses of various Thai food (much of it spicy). There was ongoing entertainment of singing, dancing and a raffle. It was a lot of fun. In the first picture, you see us at the Teacher’s conference with many of the teachers from our school. The second picture is the students who were playing for the ceremony with traditional Thai instruments. The last picture is some of the people who shared a table with us at dinner. The two ladies teach at our school and the gentleman is a principle from another school. He was trying to get us to come teach English at his school as well.

Wednesday’s party was to celebrate the school’s birthday! The day started with flying kites which the students had made themselves. Some kites flew beautifully and reached amazing heights. Others only left the ground when the students threw the kite into the air. All the kites were beautifully painted; you could tell that the students had spent some time on the pictures they painted on the kites. Just before lunch there was a ceremony directed by the monks and the monks were given donations made by the teachers and students to help develop the local temple. The buffet lunch with the students was a bit more orderly. The teachers were allowed to get their food first and then the oldest students. As each grade took turns at the buffet table one teacher was on the loud speaker calling out instructions to keep things in order. I didn’t understand any of what he said but he often elicited lots of laughter from the students. After the students finish cleaning up the lunch area, it was time for the entertainment. This included karaoke, crazy contests among the students and a raffle of gifts bought by the teachers for the students. Because we are guests, we were “encouraged” to do karaoke. Fortunately, they had a few in English as I can’t read a bit of Thai and we tortured the students with our off-key version of Jingle Bell Rock. After some additional cleaning around the school, the students went home but we came back later in the evening to have dinner with the teachers. The leftovers from the buffet lunch and the karaoke machine were brought out and the party continued well into the night. Karl and I called it quits about 10:30 and went back to our house. Thursday morning there were a few teachers that looked as though they needed to find a dark corner to take a nap. In the picture, Karl and I are making our donations to the “money tree” that goes to support the local temple.

Thursday we actually had to teach. We had some difficulty getting out of bed because we hadn’t gotten to bed on time two nights in a row. We managed some how and got to school just before the national anthem. My classes went very well today thanks to some of the tips I received from the Thai teachers. The students understood what was going on and actually seemed to enjoy the class. Of course as with any class, you have the class clowns and the students that would rather be sleeping but they are the minority. Thursday evening, at the request of some of our fellow teachers, I attempted to make spaghetti sauce with the ingredients found in a Thai market. They really don’t have tomato sauce only ketchup and if you ask for tomato sauce you are given ketchup. Needless to say the spaghetti sauce had a distinct ketchup taste to it but the teachers seemed to enjoy it.

This weekend we are headed to Lom Sak where we will meet Tang’s parents and spend some time exploring the mountains and waterfalls there. Due and his family are also coming to meet us there so we will get to spend a bit of time with Due.