Friday, the 12th, was our technical last day of school. That following Sunday we had our Christmas program for the kids, and Monday we had a day off. On Tuesday we set out on a great adventure - a Scouting trip with my school! With my packed backpack, I made my way to the school on Tuesday morning at 7am. I quickly found the other teachers, had myself some yummy fried rice with veggies for b'fast, and before long, we were loaded on the bus with all the kids. Honestly, all I knew was that we were going camping! I was told that it would "be cold", but I thought that that was simply from an Asian perspective. My oh my was I wrong....
The trip to the camp was 3 hours from Bangkok. When we finally emerged from the bus, we set our things in our chalets and made our way to the meeting hall. We broke into our groups for the next 3 days, got our color-coordinated bandanas( I was light pink), and made our way out into the field for our first activity. This was rather rushed and unplanned, so we just made up an activity. The kids were to count the number of bedrooms, bathrooms, and steps in the house....??? After this, we rested a bit, and got situated in our rooms a bit better. After the kids washed up, they all broke into their groups and set up preparations for dinner. They made Tom Yum, omelettes, and stir fried vegetables. I was so lucky to be paired with Mrs. Un because I'm pretty sure that she's about the best Thai food cook EVER. She was quite considerate to leave out the huge amount of chiles that she usually uses when she makes those dishes.....thoughtful, huh? Although, I would like to add that my tastebuds are really starting to appreciate spicy foods :) After dinner, we had a meeting with the kids, and then they all headed to bed. I was told that Kanyarat(the EP 1 teacher) and I had watch duty. We were to stay in between the boys' and girls' cabins and make sure that no one crossed the line. Fortunately for us, we were assigned 9:30-10:30, which was before they even went to bed. I was so happy! This meant that I could get some sleep! I was exhausted from the trip in the bus and because I got maybe 3 hours of sleep the night before(couldn't sleep). But before bed, guess what I got??? A HOT SHOWER. While here in Thailand, I haven't had a hot shower. Not until I went to Laos was I able to finally get a hot shower. Let's just say that I may or may not have been in the shower for 30 minutes. I enjoyed every second. This would be because it was 40 DEGREES OUTSIDE! That's right - we were in the country and it gets really cold at night in the country. Unfortunately, I only brought capris with me on the trip because I didn't think it was possible to go below 60 degrees in Thailand. Boy was I wrong. By the time I headed back to my cabin, I was looking forward to that hot shower to thaw me out!
The next day was full of learning new things - mostly things dealing with Scouting. One of those things was learning new knots. To be honest, I never did get the english name for the knot group I was assigned to, but I can do it in my sleep now....I had to learn it so I could help the kids with it. I enjoyed the time I was with 2 other Thai teachers. At school I don't get to talk with them - mostly because A. They don't know English and B. We're always rushing to our classes. While we were teaching the knot, I got to use my little knowledge of Thai, but they were the ones who exercised their second language knowledge more....Anywho, it was a joy to get to know them on a more personal level - well, one more than just a collegue level. We spent most of the time giggling at my lack of Thai language skills....but hey, I can honestly say that I learned more in those 3 days than most of my time here. When you submerse yourself with the language and really have no choice but to speak it, you learn quickly. I was so happy!
While I was learning Thai throughout my 3 days on this trip, the Filipino teachers thought it would be fun to try and teach me some Tagalog words. Unfortunately the only 2 I remember are tu big(water) and nakikipasapalarun(trying his luck). Please don't hate me if you're Filipino and those are spelled wrong :( I cracked Jennifer up trying to say those words. But at least Tagalog isn't a language that depends on tones...makes life a bit easier.
The second and last night I was at the camp was quite fun. First of all, I downed who knows how many cups of coffee to keep warm. This may be the reason Jenn and I were quite giddy. All of the kids gathered around a "campfire"(which was 3 long sticks tied together into a tent shape with a light bulb hanging down the center of it) and sang Thai songs and danced around the "fire". While this was going on Jenn & I received Thai dance lessons from one of the other Thai teachers. Let me tell you - it is difficult! Your hands start to hurt because while you're dancing, you hold your hands out in a fashion where you bend your fingers back as far as they'll allow. It is a beautiful art and I'm pretty sure I was slaughtering it for her, but she was SO nice to take the time to show us the proper way to dance in a traditional Thai way. After a little bit of lesson time with her, we went out with the kids and used our newly acquired dancing skills to wow the rest of the teachers. It was a blast.
We headed back to Bangkok the next day, on Thursday. I was definitely glad to be home, but I was so thankful for that opportunity to get to know my colleagues so much better! They're amazing men and women and I feel so privileged to know them. And my Thai skills are getting better and better. I wish that a light bulb would just go off in my head and I would suddenly understand everything they're saying! Alas, that shall not happen.....unfortunately. I'll struggle through the few sentences I know and hopefully pick up some new words frequently so that I will know gist of a conversation. We'll see how it goes. I'll keep ya posted!
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