Happy Teacher Day!

Yesterday was “Teacher Day”, a day to recognize all the wonderful teachers in Thailand. We were told there was going to be a party for the teachers of U-Thong. I didn’t really know what to expect because, as always, I never know what is going on.

Turns out it was a huge banquet type dinner for all the teachers in U-Thong and surrounding areas. The banquet started off with a lot of speeches by people high up in the education system. Apparently the prime minister of education for central Thailand was present. This was followed by an eight course meal, music, dancing, a raffle and of course fireworks.

Dinner was a variety of dishes including fish, fried rice, chicken, tom yum with seafood etc. I even tried pig stomach (at least I think that was what they said it was….).  I will definitely never go hungry in Thailand. They are always trying to feed us as if we are starving. They just kept bringing out plates and plates of food.

The dancing was…umm… interesting. Kind of “Vegas show girl”. The costumes were very sparkly and flashy and they even wore those gigantic feather headdresses. One of the singers of the band wore a very promiscuous outfit, including a very short mini-skirt and a shirt that showed off her mid-driff. We were shocked that this was acceptable in a culture that is considerably conservative in the way that they dress. When we tried to ask the teachers about why this was ok and they explained that the woman was actually a man. Umm… could have fooled me.

Now I don’t know if any of you know anything about the “lady boy” culture in Thailand, but it is kind of fascinating. There are a lot of men who dress like women and act like women. Honestly, I have a hard time distinguishing them sometimes because they look so much like women. I was very surprised when I came to Thailand that the “lady boy” is so culturally accepted. I found out it has a lot to do with the Buddhist culture.  The Thai’s believe that a “lady boy” is someone who was a woman in a past life but was reincarnated as a man. They still have the “female spirit” however it represents itself in male form. Quite interesting.

(sorry for the random tangent) 

The dancing was followed by a raffle with prizes including rice cookers, toasters, irons, fans and other small home appliances.   Overall, a pretty interesting night.

 Happy Teacher day to all my follow teachers in Thailand!