Happy Very Much in New Year

On Thursday we did not have classes due to the school having a New Years party. (I only taught 1.5 days this week!) I was excited but I had no idea what the New Years party entailed. All I knew was that there was some sort of marathon and that each class would have its own classroom party. I had also heard that there would be dancing. I had no idea what a big deal it was going to be.

On Thursday I woke up and went out to join the rest of our school to run a “marathon”. The whole school, including teachers, lined up behind a big start gate. The race was to the temple and back. Olivia and I walked the race with a few of the other teachers. It was actually a lot of fun. After the race there was a big award ceremony where they gave out trophies to the winners (they had several different age categories).  This was followed by a gigantic raffle of gifts. All of the students had put their names into a drawing. They had so many prizes! Fans, rice cookers, DVD players, TV’s, and one lucky student won a motorbike! (It still freaks me out that 15 year olds (and even younger!) can drive those motorbikes….) It was a lot of fun and the students really enjoyed getting presents!

After the school wide raffle, the students all went to their “homeroom” for their own New Years Party.  I went to have lunch with our teacher friends in the commercial department. After a really delicious meal, there was another raffle for the commercial students where even more prizes were given out. I got to help draw names and hand out the gifts. It was really fun!

After all of the gifts were gone, we were told it was time for “dancing”. I was thinking “dancing” meant some sort of Thai traditional dancing with the students in costumes etc. Boy was I wrong. Turns out the school hired a pretty famous Thai pop/rock band to come give a concert at the school. Just imagine over 3,000 students, a sea of yellow and red uniforms, going crazy to their favorite pop songs. I am sad to say that I actually recognized a few of the songs and enjoyed dancing with my students. It was great to see the kids in a totally different context, dancing and having fun. What a crazy day!

After the concert was over I wished the Thai teachers a Happy New Year and headed off to Koh Chang for my own New Years celebration.