Sports Day 2010 กีฬาสี ๑๔๔๒

Another year, another Sports Day here at Yamsaard School. This year's Sports Day was a little different from my previous ones. For the first time in a few years, the Chairball competition was cancelled and an Exhibition Tug-o-War between combined teams of Teachers and Parents was held. As usual, the Games began with a parade around the neighborhood, but we were treated to an unexpected lighting of a tin foil cauldron of fire! Our school grounds are very small. Each team was sent to one corner of our rubber field.The whole past month, since the teams (Yellow, Pink, Orange and Blue) were selected, I've been talking trash to the kids. Teacher Malcolm and I were on the Yellow team again. Actually, I think the teachers were given their same color as last year.So, as Yellow Team is reigning chairball champions, we talked it up with the students, getting them all riled up, getting the competitive juices flowing! We didn't just beat them all last year, we DESTROYED them!Well, the competition was cancelled this year as a new competition (Speed Stacks) took too long and time ran out. Kind of sad because it was going to be nice to rub another embarrassing spanking in the faces of all of the kids...but technically Yellow retains the crown of champions, until such time that another team knocks us off!!In the place of chairball, they put Yellow and Pink together and we took on Orange and Blue in Tug-o-War. I had heard that they did this competition in previous years, but this was my first time. I used to love watching the sheer power on display when we had joint service field days in California when I was a Marine. Our Marine team had an awesome pulling technique that normally proved too much for the Army, Navy and Air Force teams.Walking up to the rope, being the first in line of 12 on our team, and looking across and seeing Teacher Kenneth in his snug-fitting orange polo was concerning, but I've always been told that it's not size that matters!

As the referee blew his whistle and the rope snapped taut from the opposite pulls of the two teams, the bigger team seemed to have the advantage. My feet slipped along the rubber playing surface, but I finally got my footing. The rope snugly tucked between my arm and ribs, I leaned back and began to push with what the kids termed my "chicken legs" (perhaps cuz they are so skinny combined with my yellow soccer socks that I wore as a gag).

As our team began rocking and pushing rearwards we gained the technique advantage over the Orange/Blue losers, the rope began hopping in our direction, a couple inches with each rhythmic tug. Grunting and groaning, squeezing the rope with all our might, we twelve found ourselves robbing the other team of their will, of their power and their confidence!Soon the Whistle went, signaling victory number one in a best-of-three competition. I turned around to Teacher Malcolm and Teacher Ariel and the parents. Everyone was rubbing their hands, just like the little tiny kids when they compete, only much larger. The faces were just as red as the rope burned hands. Our combined strength got us through round one, which we couldn't lose since we talked ourselves up all week prior! I counted 7 men and 5 women on our team, two male parents pulling barefooted!The teams switched sides and went at it again, but this time our team much more confident of victory. The kids excitedly beat their makeshift drums, cheered their cheers, and we claimed the championship in a quick but hard-fought second contest!It was the most energy I've exerted in a long time! It was fun and now Yellow officially holds the Yamsaard Tug-o-War AND Chairball titles! As holders, I'm sure we will continue to talk trash!I think the Pink team claimed the overall Sports Day title this year (student competitions) both boys and girls. I saw a Yellow Team third grader crying earlier in the day during the running competition because we were eliminated in the qualification rounds, relegated to fourth place, right out of the medals. Poor kid didn't get a medal. At least he had the desire and passion and gave it his all!These are a few of the pictures showing some of the events, the Tug-o-War as well as a bunch of the kids who pulled, ran, stacked and had a good time in the Bangkok sun during this years Sports Day.

Sperm Hats

Don't ask! Well, I guess some explanation is needed here. We have been studying about reproduction of animals in fifth grade science. The kids get a giggle out of the mention of testes and sperm, however are less giggly at ovaries and eggs.Drawing pictures on the whiteboard is always an adventure with 10 year olds, but from their drawings, they seem to "get it". So one girl came to class with some winter hats as gifts for some of her classmates. Somehow during the trying on of the hats and the wearing of them that first day, they got the nickname "Sperm Hat". I thought they looked more Dr. Seussy but hey, at least they were speaking English and making a valid comparison based on the sperm pictures in their textbook.

Now you know!

Thai Food is Unrivaled

Pae was in Bangkok for a Hong Kong flight again this past week. She flew pretty much during the daytime and was available for hugs, talking and catching up on each other's lives during the late evenings. I worked during the day while she slept and recovered from her flights.Our opposite schedules did not however keep us from doing what we do best, EATING! Can I just take this small moment of your day to say...
IN YOUR FACE!Dayummmmmm! We went to an all night market two nights in a row to get fed, and let me say, there is no food in the world that compares to Thai food! What are we gonna do when we leave Thailand? I just can't accept eating fast food all the time. Might have to learn to cook Thai food or find a cheap place close to wherever becomes our eventual home!We ate some pretty awesome grilled prawns and steamed crab straight from the aquarium. All of this food you see in the photos is from one night's meal and was for the two of us alone!! I wish there was a Food Olympics cuz we are eating champions!

It's Christmas time again

Another Christmas here in Thailand. When I asked three students in an extra class that I teach on Fridays "What is Christmas?" I got two "A day we don't have to learn" and one "A day when we get a present". Pretty much what I expected from 4th graders though.This morning the school decided to throw pointy dunce hats on everyone and have an impromptu Christmas assembly. Our principal didn't react well to the speech given by Teacher Joyce, Filipina art/substitute teacher, who gave a true history of Christmas, it's meaning, Jesus Christ, etc.The Principal's face looked like she was gonna eat somebody at every mention of Jesus, religion, etc. I think she wanted a speech about Santa, gift giving, jingle bells, etc.After the Jesus speech, there suddenly appeared a microphone and sheet music in the foreign teachers' hands and they expected us to sing. Didn't happen, but we stood there and smiled.Jingle Bell Rock was the song we were supposed to sing, but after an awkward two minutes of silence mixed with someone trying to find the correct track on the CD player. I mouthed the words to "Feliz Navidad" when they played the first verse by mistake, to the amusement of the kids in the front row. Eventually we just sang "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" or something like that! Not to be Grinch or Scrooge or anything, but, a little preparation?We did have a surprise Santa this year, a student rather than a teacher. I took a few photos of the proceedings and thought I'd share. I'm glad there are very few of me in my dunce cap...at least on my camera.Christmas is not as celebrated as New Years here, and although they come wrapped in Christmas paper, the kids bring us a lot of cool New Year's gifts. This one that G.M. gave the teachers is a model sail boat, unique!O.C. dropped off some sushi candles this year to go with the brownie candles and heart candles of previous New Years. There are cookies, chocolates, candies, calendars, highlighters, diaries, blinky pins, and key chains also bulging out of my desk drawers, all from the kids. Kids are cute when they come and give you a piece of candy wrapped in a piece of recycled paper with "Happy New Year" hastily penciled on the outside!No matter the size of the gift, it's really the thought that counts, and some of the kids are satisfied with a "Merry Christmas" and a high five from T. Guy! Santa on the other hand, never mind wearing his clothes backwards, looks like he's worn out already, and he's still got the rest of the world to get to! Get to work Santy!!!

Friday Foto - December 24, 2010

In our annual Sports Day run up, we take care of some of the preliminary rounds of events like running, swimming, and Tug-o-War a week or so before the final events. This year, my Yellow team has already been eliminated from the gold medal round of pretty much every event! I think we made the bronze medal match in most events (not hard since there are only four teams! hahaha) The Gold medals will be determined on the actual Sports Day, after Midterm Exams.I watched a lot of the tug-o-war prelims this year. They are held after the kids finish their lunches. There are four events for tug-o-war; Boys events and Girls events, 1st-3rd grade and 4th-6th grade. I snapped this photo of this cute 1st grader giving it her all during the qualification rounds for Girls 1st-3rd. Cute.

I guess this is one way

Pae and I were shopping in a book store in Bangkok the last time she was in town from Amman. I had to take a picture of a sign that was posted in several aisles. I guess it's not really funny since it's just warning people to be on the look out for some shoplifter, but the words they use and when the words are spoken, it sounds very funny to me.

First a super quick Thai language/society lesson. Thailand has a very very very visible gay community, lesbian community (not referred to as "gay" here) and a large and in your face transvestite and cross dressing community, often referred to as Ladyboys or Kateuys.

There are probably 10 Ladyboys in my apartment complex alone. They tend to be very flamboyant, like to stare and give you their best "I-used-to-have-a-ding-dong" smile. Well, I couldn't tell you how many are post-op, how many are on estrogen or how many are surgically enhanced, although that's one of the major giveaways that they are not a woman, meaning that Ladyboys tend to be exceedingly LARGE "mammary glandularly". I love making up new words!! Another telltale sign, other than the Adam's apple, very large hands and giant feet stuffed into small-fitting flats or high heels, is the raspy, whiny voice that usually scratches your brain like fingernails on a chalkboard.

I'm not making fun or trying to degrade the Kateuy. For many it's a stage in their lives, and many of these just go as far as cross dressing...a social thing, where they feel they fit in. For the more serious, they go ahead with whatever level of surgical hocus pocus they can afford and live relatively normal lives, with normal feelings, and concerns in their lives. I've seen a couple who have lived in my apartment complex since I moved here 4 years ago who are my age. They go to work each day and bring home the bacon just like the rest of us. In the malls, almost every cosmetic counter will have one Ladyboy.

The closer you get to the touristy districts in Bangkok, there are actually bars that cater to tourists who like Ladyboys. From what I hear, this area is frequented by middle aged Japanese men, but again, this is not my area of expertise!

Every sitcom and Thai drama has at least one Kateuy and of course they always fill the comic relief role. Highly accepted and included...not "tolerated". Personally I like this part of Thai society...I'm not down with snipping my important parts and wearing women's lingerie, but I like the fact that "Ladyboys, gays, Lesbians, etc." are pretty much like "white, black, Asian, Italian, Irish" is in New York or Boston, a part of society, contributors to communities, not someone to demean or harass with hatred.

Of course there are elements of Thai society that do indeed look down on this lifestyle as well as many who don't agree with it, but it doesn't polarize people, the words they use to describe each other aren't hurtful words "Homo, Faggot, peter puffer, dike, etc." These are just mean and they don't just stop at lifestyle choices, but race as well. I've never liked this. The only people I think who deserve any bad names, harassment and general poor treatment as human beings are the New York Yankees and their fans. Yuck the Fankees!! (Yay, got my Red Sox REPRESENT jab in for the day!!) All this being said, I'm sure there is hatred and resentment towards different lifestyles here, I'm just not seeing it or reading about it on the bathroom walls like I do back home. And then again, perhaps it's a "lost in translation" thing.Anyway, before this post blows up into something much bigger, here's the funny picture. As I was saying earlier, it sounds funny because they use the word "Kateuy" instead of "person", "shopper", "shoplifter", etc. There is also a word "doot" or "toot" but I think this is a cuter version of Kateuy. I wonder if this is effective? I mean, since a Ladyboy is basically a man in disguise...just sayin'!

Friday Foto - December 17, 2010

Walked into my fourth grade science class earlier and Nampeung, translated "Honey", walked up to me with her hair flipped over her head and gave me the zombie look. I called her "Zombie girl" and her living dead face turned to an irreversible grin. By the time I snapped a picture, her hair had gone back to pretty much it's normal position, but you get the idea!Oddly, a few hours later in my sixth grade class, Linda pulled the same act but with limp wrists and was smiling from the beginning. Not sure if there's a new zombie movie out or why they were doing this, but it was funny whatever the reason.Pae operates AMM-BKK-HKG-BKK-AMM today and through the weekend, so we'll see each other very soon! Happy weekend!

Goofball

Posted this picture of our teachers and office people on Facebook already. Figured I'd throw it up here too. I guess it really speaks for itself. It may look posed, but to actually get a picture with me acting up, I had to wait right until the teacher taking the picture was releasing the shutter...otherwise she would scold me. So I just broke into the sudden spaz attack as she got to 1-2-3. I won but she did scold me after the fact, "Teacher GUYYYYYYYYYY!!!!"I figure, in the age of digital photography (translated - memory cards vs. film) they have several megabytes of chances to get the desired photo. This photo did not however make the "yearbook" which is just a little magazine that comes out for our Annual Show for the parents. I wonder why? Odd... **wink**

My homeroom class

In the English Program here at my Bilingual School, we teach from 1st to 6th grade, considered Primary School here (Elementary School). Our Kindergarten is less than a kilometer down the street.

Each of us foreign teachers is assigned a homeroom class, basically where our desk is and where we can be harassed by the students when we are trying to get work done. I am the fifth grade homeroom teacher, or at least my name is on the door and I have a desk there!

Our fifth graders number 16-17 strong, depending on who's quitting the program, going back to Australia, or just sick and absent for a semester. The photo below is our English Program 5th grade class. They are in their Cub Scout and Girl Scout uniforms, here lumped all into one organization just called "Scouts". Different from scouting back home in many ways yet connected I'm sure somehow.

We have two boys in our class, G.M. and Klao. Prem, the boy next to me in the photo was transferred by his father to our Standard Program about a month ago. The rest of the class is all girls. Even have a set of twins, Wan and View...I don't call them by name, cuz I can't tell who's who and they're always messing with the seating arrangement so I can't memorize by seating!! I just yell "TWIN!" and point at one of them and smile!

The girls are both girly and tom boyish at at the same time as there don't seem to be any clear gender roles established within the predominantly female classroom. They spend all of their time together teasing about boys and forgetting that our two "gentleboys" are sitting among them during their girl talk. Then, straight from girl talk, they'll break into talking about computer games, Speed Stacks, mud fights and dog poo and pretty much all the normal 10 year old boy things. It's funny, because our sixth grade girls are the total opposite,the epitome of pre-teen girls, giggling, whispering, blushing. We'll see if this bunch suddenly changes once the hormones start kicking in.From the front row left: Pear, Amy, TWIN, Zoom, NayNay, Ploy, Tomm. Middle Row: G.M., Prem, T. Guy, T. Bik, Klao. Top row: June, Bright, Nuna, April, Snooker, GungGing, TWIN.And what would any class photo be without a class clown? Actually, Zoom and Snooker tend to fill the clown role quite well at times, but as they've started this semester to develop crushes on some of the 6th grade boys and don't want to look like goofy idiots in front of their love interests, I've had to pick up the slack!

Well, that's my homeroom class

Yamsaard Ladprao Annual Show 2010

Another year here teaching at Yamsaard, another Annual Show. This years show seemed to go off without a hitch, the ministry important person showed up for a photo op, the teachers ran around performing their various tasks, the students trickled in with their parents prior to their performances.All in all it was a quick, easy day, although as with other shows, we had to be there on what should have been a day off, national holiday. What made it even worse for me personally was that Pae was in town from Amman, and was leaving later in the evening. I would have much rather spent the day with her. I was put in a reception role, but after one minute behind the reception table, I decided to roam outside of the main entrance and greet parents and students.Much funner, much more interaction that didn't include taking people's money for their ticket to the performance. Instead, I got lots of high fives and smiles.I took some pictures away from the performance. While pre-schoolers all the way up to sixth graders were inside putting on a show, I was outside with my iPhone, so I didn't get any of the kids on stage. Here are some that I was able to take though.The above picture is one of some of my sixth graders. Namwan, Nick, Linda and First. Different levels of ability in the classroom, but when they are together they're a little buddy group.Our traditional dancers were out in force this year. From previous years, I remember only a handful of dancers, but yesterday we had a half dozen or more. Here they are awaiting the arrival of the ministry dignitary. From right to left: Ink, Ice, Fah Sai (clear sky), Mint, Proud and Fern. It was cute, because when their teacher wasn't around telling them to stand up straight, etc., the younger girls in pink were holding tiny babies, taking pictures with them and pinching their cheeks, while the older girls dressed in blue were gossiping and rolling their eyes in true pre-teen fashion. It was cute.Who knows if I'll be here for another Annual Show. If nothing else, it's a chance for me to eat at the nearby Au Bon Pain.

Friday Foto - December 10, 2010

Today at school was a practice day for our annual show, also known as the SCB show. As many of the students were in rehearsals (live dress rehearsal as the show is tomorrow), classes were canceled. My fifth grade class was almost full so I taught them anyway and when we finished the lesson, about vascular and non vascular plants, the kids pulled Christmas balloons off of the wall and began doing their own "static electricity" experiments at the expense of G.M. one of only two boys in a 16 student class! He acted like he didn't like it, but you just know that inside he was eating up all of the attention!

Cost of living?

Okay, I need a little help here! Since I've been living in Thailand, the past four years, I've gotten used to Thai prices and the Thai cost of living in Bangkok. I live in an area with a high concentration of students, so the accommodation here is relatively cheap. Of course, I say "cheap" as a person who most recently was paying over $800 per month for a shared apartment with my own small room and shared common areas. Now I live in a little square studio apartment about the size or a normal bedroom. The cost of the apartment is relative, cuz I now make around one seventh of the salary I was making as an accountant in Boston.

So, Pae and I were shopping last night for stuff for her to take back to Amman with her when her days off are over. I was looking at stuff that I could buy and cook or eat and ran across a bunch of stuff that I would have normally just tossed in my grocery cart without thinking twice. But here, in Thailand, perhaps because of import taxes, these things are out of my reach money wise. I can pay for them, but it seems ridiculous to pay the prices they are asking for such products. I took some pictures and was wondering how much these products run you in the States. A little help?

Okay, before we start, the exchange rate here between the Thai Baht (THB) and the dollar (USD) is about 30 THB to 1 USD.Two pounds of cherries? How much would this cost? Here in Thailand it runs you about $30 (30 USD)!!!Does anyone often pay $20 for a pound of strawberries? These are "long-stem strawberries" but who eats the stems? hahahaha!!Is $7 for a can of cheese spray spread sound reasonable? From what I remember, you'd normally spend about $3.00 or something like that right?A little sparkling apple or grape cider anyone. Martinelli's of course! On sale in Thailand, $5.66 this sounds a little more normal.What's better than SPAM!!??? Well, SPAM on sale of course! Three bucks back home? Here , right around $5.00.My favorite Ocean Spray flavor? Cran-Grape rocks, but it's hard to pay $6.25 for a bottle when I can get something half as good for 1/5th the price.Microwave meal that can sit on the shelf at home until I want or need to eat it? Hormel Compleats! Perfect for Thanksgiving here in Thailand, Turkey and dressing!! Cost you a little over a five-spot!

Anyone give me some hints as to how much some of these things would cost in the area where you live? I'm sure there are some price differences depending on regions (Hawaii for example). And, if you had to cut, for example, a $100 food budget down to say...$18, would you pay these prices? My answer up front, I don't, although a cup of Cran-Grape to wash down some SPAM musubi would be awesome right about now!

Friday Foto - December 3, 2010

This weekend (December 5th) is the Thai King's birthday, and as he is looked upon as the father of the country, it is also celebrated as Father's Day. A few years ago, one of my kids drew this picture of the King and it's been on my desk ever since.Happy Thai Father's Day to all of the dads out there (especially mine, Dad Hakam here in Thailand, Dad Lynn and Dad Uda back in the States).

"Long Live the King!"