Wow! It seems like this Christmas season is just zinging by. My schedule is packed through next Friday already. Last weekend we celebrated Christmas at the Bang Na Daycare .
Yesterday was my language school's Christmas party.
You could tell that morning that everyone had an extra skip in their step. Even though we were all testing that morning, no one seemed to be thinking about it rather they were getting ready for our big party! The kitchen was packed with people and food. Even our principle had donned an apron over her pretty red and green outfit and was helping prepare some meat. 
One dish we had been told about all week was Werner's spaghttie! We were released early and Ping came home with us. After eating lunch we went up to Sarah's apartment to watch part of the original Pride and Predjudice movie while we decorated Christmas cookies. We got to back to the train station near our school earlier than we thought so we decided to stop for some coffee, and man was I surprised! I had almost forgotten what real coffee tasted like. It was amazing and of course we got to eat a Christmas cookie on the side! 
By the time we got to school most of the teachers were in a full frenzy! Some had already done their makeup. Some were walking around with cowboy hats on. Some were in traditional Thai dancing outfits. The principle was still in an apron cooking. The husbands who had to come early because their wives were Thai dancing were helping carry food downstairs, and bringing clothing, hairdryers, shoes, makeup, etc. It was just crazy! My teacher Phimjai went straight to work caking my face in make-up. All the while Ping was running around taking pictures of everything, 
Robert was playing Sudoku, Hak and Kelly's kids were having a great time playing with each other, Sarah and Hak were practicing their lines while Cuthatip corrected them and instructed them how to be more emphatic. When Phimjai donned orchids in my hair, I was finished and she declared that I had taken off the American look and now looked Asian! All I had to do was don my Thai sarong and I was ready to go. The party started with an introduction to the evenings activities, as well as Christmas songs, a reading from Isaiah in many different languages and a devotion by a Finnish Lutheran pastor who is a current student.
You could tell that morning that everyone had an extra skip in their step. Even though we were all testing that morning, no one seemed to be thinking about it rather they were getting ready for our big party! The kitchen was packed with people and food. Even our principle had donned an apron over her pretty red and green outfit and was helping prepare some meat. 
One dish we had been told about all week was Werner's spaghttie! We were released early and Ping came home with us. After eating lunch we went up to Sarah's apartment to watch part of the original Pride and Predjudice movie while we decorated Christmas cookies. We got to back to the train station near our school earlier than we thought so we decided to stop for some coffee, and man was I surprised! I had almost forgotten what real coffee tasted like. It was amazing and of course we got to eat a Christmas cookie on the side! 
By the time we got to school most of the teachers were in a full frenzy! Some had already done their makeup. Some were walking around with cowboy hats on. Some were in traditional Thai dancing outfits. The principle was still in an apron cooking. The husbands who had to come early because their wives were Thai dancing were helping carry food downstairs, and bringing clothing, hairdryers, shoes, makeup, etc. It was just crazy! My teacher Phimjai went straight to work caking my face in make-up. All the while Ping was running around taking pictures of everything, 
Robert was playing Sudoku, Hak and Kelly's kids were having a great time playing with each other, Sarah and Hak were practicing their lines while Cuthatip corrected them and instructed them how to be more emphatic. When Phimjai donned orchids in my hair, I was finished and she declared that I had taken off the American look and now looked Asian! All I had to do was don my Thai sarong and I was ready to go. The party started with an introduction to the evenings activities, as well as Christmas songs, a reading from Isaiah in many different languages and a devotion by a Finnish Lutheran pastor who is a current student. After that we moved to the other side of the patio and got our food!!!!! 
We all sat on the ground-Thai style and ate everything from Salsa to Phad-thai. While we ate were entertained or entertained each other with various performances, karaoke, and gift drawings. "Team Asia" sang Amazing Grace in Thai, Japanese, and Chinese. "Team USA" sang The Twelve Days of Thai Class. The American Girls did a Thai Dance. 
2 different groups of teachers did different dances, and some other students did magic shows or sang and played songs traditional of their country. It was soo fun! I think everyone had a great time, and got a chance to just let our hair down and celebrate the evening. All in all, a great success! For all the pictures from the evening click here.
We all sat on the ground-Thai style and ate everything from Salsa to Phad-thai. While we ate were entertained or entertained each other with various performances, karaoke, and gift drawings. "Team Asia" sang Amazing Grace in Thai, Japanese, and Chinese. "Team USA" sang The Twelve Days of Thai Class. The American Girls did a Thai Dance. 
2 different groups of teachers did different dances, and some other students did magic shows or sang and played songs traditional of their country. It was soo fun! I think everyone had a great time, and got a chance to just let our hair down and celebrate the evening. All in all, a great success! For all the pictures from the evening click here.Ok, so that brings me to today. It didn't seem like there was anything major going on, but it turned out to be quite interesting and adventurous today (at least it felt that way). Sarah and I went to the post office so she could mail a package and so I could buy a box to mail a package. The internet and the front door said that the office was opened until 1pm so when we got there at 12:10 we were surprised that there were only like 8 employees there who were in a real hurry to close the shop. Some guy whisked Sarah's package away while someone else was running around locking doors and turning the lights out. Before that I went to the counter to buy a box and the lady said something I didn't understand in Thai until she turned a sign around saying that they closed at noon. (that is the second time I've struck out trying to buy a box already, grrr is how I started feeling). When Sarah finished, we discovered that we couldn't leave because the doors were locked, instead we had to walk around the counter, through the doors that said employees only and then out through the loading docks and down the right alley that didn't already have the gates closed. We hailed a cab from there and the driver kept laughing at himself or talking under his breath which was a little awkward. I assumed that some of it was just making fun of us for trying to give directions to him in Thai like we do all the time. We discovered on the ride there that Bangkok decided to day was just going to be a traffic jam in the middle of the day=weird. When we got near church we told the driver to "Liaw sai tea soi sip-gow", which means turn left at street nine-teen, but instead he nearly drove past it then scolded us saying we shouldn't speak Thai and just speak English because we were saying 99 or 95 or something. I know he was wrong of course because sip-gow is not the same as gow-sip-gow or gow-sip-ha. Oh well, so then when I said in English 3 times to stop at the church and he didn't, Sarah finally said "jot" and he got that. By that time I was feeling a little bit irritated for no good reason. We waited outside with the tent guys for 20 minutes while we waited for someone with a key to arrive and then the afternoon turned to normal. We wrapped and packaged presents for all the children that are coming to the church tomorrow for our Chrismas party, and then we decorated all over the place, inside and out. One good thing about Thailand is that the weather is pretty predictable. This time of year they know that they can put up decorations outside the night before because it won't rain. So, this year I had my first experience wrapping garland around a coconut tree! 
It was also nice that we had so much time to spend with the church members outside of the more formal church morning. We interacted so much and I felt like we all had a chance to just relax and enjoy our time with each other. No one was dressed up and everyone was helping each other. Pastor Taweep and Wan even played tug-of-war with each other,
and we got to explain to them what this banner that said "Jesus Loves Ewe" meant because apparently it had never made any sense to them. I also got to speak Thai in a more normal setting, and saw everyone from a different perspective. It was like an adopted family in a way since we were all going through the motions of preparing for Christmas and even had snacks and listened to Christmas music. I will forever have the Thai version of We Wish You a Merry Christmas stuck in my head! Cau hai me kwam suk wan Chris-mat, Cau hai me kwam suk wan Chris-mat, le sawat-dii phii-may!!
It was also nice that we had so much time to spend with the church members outside of the more formal church morning. We interacted so much and I felt like we all had a chance to just relax and enjoy our time with each other. No one was dressed up and everyone was helping each other. Pastor Taweep and Wan even played tug-of-war with each other,
and we got to explain to them what this banner that said "Jesus Loves Ewe" meant because apparently it had never made any sense to them. I also got to speak Thai in a more normal setting, and saw everyone from a different perspective. It was like an adopted family in a way since we were all going through the motions of preparing for Christmas and even had snacks and listened to Christmas music. I will forever have the Thai version of We Wish You a Merry Christmas stuck in my head! Cau hai me kwam suk wan Chris-mat, Cau hai me kwam suk wan Chris-mat, le sawat-dii phii-may!!
1 comments:
Hey Betsy! You say it so well, hope you are having a great time up north. See you soon.
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