A Thai-dal Wave of Craziness

My final weekend of this semester was spent at English camp. It was something I had been excited about for quite some time due to my experience working at camps before. Honestly I didn't know what to expect and as per usual, turned out to be completely NOT what I expected haha.

We left for camp at 4am from assumption and made the first stop to Siam Park City, a theme/water park just on the outskirts of Bangkok. Initially, I thought that we would be doing some sort of activity there but it just turned out that we could spend half the day there for free! It was a really sweet deal! Weirdly the park was pretty quiet so we managed to do all the big rides and didn't have to wait longer than 20 minutes in a queue. It was a pretty cool feeling that I was able to bond with the teachers more and get to know more of the students. Naturally, I bonded more with the gay students and it is so admirable that they are so comfortable in their sexuality and identity. We went of quite a few rides together with other teachers and overall it was a great way to spend my Saturday.

Theme Park Selfie!

We took another hour-long bus ride (although it seemed much longer) to the place where we would be staying; Assumptions big sister school, St Gabriel's. Now, this is where the craziness starts to kick in. First of all, we were shown our rooms. In traditional camp style, I was half expecting to share a room with the students, but with it being a school trip I thought they must have stuck all the teachers together in one room. Well, it kind of worked out half and half really...I ended up having to share a room with about 5 other teachers and about 50 teenage boys. (Like staying at Village on steroids haha). I was dreading having to stay in one room...the smell...

That evening finally saw camp get into full swing. Not even 5 minutes in, I was bombarded by about 10 students with various make up items who decided to decorate my face. That's when the craziness began...songs, dancing, WAAAAY too much pelvic thrusting and a whole lot of laughs. It felt a lot like I was back at Sealth and I just lapped it all up. It was a crazy experience. That night, like I mentioned, most of the teachers had to sleep in with the students in perhaps the COLDEST room I had encountered since being in Thailand...I mean, 9 fans in one room! I know it took away the smell of 'teenage boy' from the room but I had to wear three layers of clothes just to keep myself reasonably warm haha. When morning came, we concluded camp with the only thing remotely associated with an ENGLISH camp...English games. My station consisted of using a beachball with 25 questions on in which the students would pass to each other, read the question aloud, and then answer it in a full english sentence; an activity that got mixed responses. Its fascinating to see just how differing the levels of English are not just between years. but individual students in each class.

Dolly and I attacked with make-up

Well, what a great weekend that was. Now just focusing on the Christmas party on Tuesday and then gallivanting across South East Asia come Wednesday!!

Countdown to Christmas

After my trip to Malaysia two weekends ago, I have been pretty busy preparing exams for all my students ready for examination week (literally the most boring week of my life). This week has seen me spent the majority of my time sitting on my backside doing nothing...and it sucks. However, next week we break up for Christmas holidays so that is a sure certainty my motivation for getting me through this week.

When I got back from Malaysia, the staff were lucky enough to have another day off midweek due to a national holiday, so Grace and I decided to venture to the Zoo! Of course, it was nothing we hadn't seen before but it was a good way to consume half a day of activity. The one thing I didn't like about it though was how the animals were so reliant on the spectators giving them food; I mean this in the sense that kids were just throwing bananas at the animals (and pretty mug any animal you could think of...I didn't even know Hippos liked bananas?!) and you didn't see a zookeeper in sight.

Later that week, we headed to the National Park (known as Khao Yai) to go Go-Karting. All of us decided to go and we were all pretty stoked for spending a good hour or so speeding around on go-karts...nope, it was only 10 minutes...and perhaps the quickest 10 minutes of my life. We managed about 6 laps of the course and then had to go. Apart from the short amount of time, it was nice to drive out of Korat into the countryside more; especially as I was unable to camp at Khao Yai with the rest of the group the weekend before. It was actually a surreal experience because it very much didn't feel like I was actually in Thailand...you'd look at the rolling hills and scenery and think you'd be in Wales...but only 20 degrees hotter. haha. In addition to the go karting, they had a tiny farm with bunnies, goats and tiny horses so we spent a little time petting those. (Again...never thought I'd ever be feeding a goat in Thailand...)

In the evening saw the reunion of Ruby and Desmond! They had been with us during our orientation in Bangkok but both went to different schools to teach. However, as circumstances changed they have now transferred to Assumption and the original group of 7 are all back together and its a great feeling! We met to go to the BBQ fest which Korat was hosting. It was essentially a country-western themed festival with clothes stalls for the wannabe Thai Cowboys and cowgirls out there...and well as lots of food stalls which were (surprise surprise) mostly Thai food and not a lot of BBQ (that I saw anyways)...like where were the BBQ ribs at? Also, they had a giant stage with acts that played country music, but in Thai...that was quite something...and with the whole place being decked out like we were in the old west, it provided a great opportunity to take pictures.

Cutest convict in Thailand?

It was so nice to see Ruby and Des again, not just to see them again to catch up, but in the sense of seeing a fresh face we can speak English to and not always be conscious of if we are speaking too fast or if my new 'broken english' sounds too patronising or not (seriously, it's like I don't even speak fluent english anymore - "How do you spell that word?" goes to "How you spell?" and "I do not understand" to "No understand" - I just speak in set words, instead of my brain putting them together to form a sentence). It really has just become the default now as, like I've mentioned before, many people in Korat do not speak a word of English.

As the first half of the semester is drawing to a close, and Christmas fast approaching, the school has really got into the holiday spirit. Cliff Richard's "Mistletoe and Wine" greets us in the walking as we walk on to campus, Decorations are all over the school ranging from tinsel around all the rails, to mini Christmas trees in the classroom and finally a giant tree, navitity and Thai flag made of fairy lights in front of our office. It seems such a contradiction seeing all these Christmas-y things and being in warm weather but it somewhat gives us foreign teachers a little taste of home and being in the Xmas spirit.

Christmas Tree!!

Next week will play host to a massive staff Christmas party put in by the brothers on Christmas Eve. I have been asked to choreograph and perform a routine with the other foreign teachers and I'm really excited for it - we are doing a medley of tracks (you'll have to wait to see what they are) and it's been so nice to fill the dancing void I've been having really since I left uni; especially from seeing those dancers at Yamo too (remember I told you about those?). So at the moment, my free time has been devoted to perfecting the routine ready for all the teachers to see...yikes.

In true fashion of Christmas, some of the foreign teachers decided to do a Secret Santa, which culminated in a wonderful meal last night by a lake (I forget the name of the restaurant) but they bring your food over on little boats! The food was delicious and although mostly fish based, it was welcome change from the crappy school meals I had all week (sorry Assumption...). Being there with everyone just confirms to me how much fun I'm having here and what such a family unit I have become part of. I'm really considering staying here a little longer...

Assumption Family!

As I'm writing this, I'm heading to bangkok for an English camp hosted by the school. I'm so excited because the moment I was asked to do it, I was constantly reminiscing on my times at Sealth and was so eager to put my "camp counsellor" hat back on and ssibg songs and play games etc.

The really cool thing about this camp is that we are doing at a WATER PARK. Ahh I'm so pumped for this. Will post updates when I get back.

My first weekend in BKK.

For this past weekend, many of my colleagues were working at one point during it so I decided it was finally time to go and explore Bangkok. The purpose for going to down to Bangkok was to explore the gay scene; a scene quite infamous in Asia let alone Thailand. It had been quite a while since I had 'let my hair down' so to speak so my friend and I decided to go down and just have some fun. Getting there was reasonably easy actually, with a 4 hour bus dropping me right into central Bangkok for less than £4. What struck me was the heat difference; Bangkok's humidity is much heavier than Korat and expectedly, everything is way more hectic with WAY more westerners! I'm surprised to see another young westerner around Korat, but they were everywhere! As I didn't get into Bangkok until mid afternoon on the Saturday, the places I could explore were limited, so we just explored some of the swanky malls and grabbed dim sum in Chinatown. Bangkok's Chinatown is the second biggest in the world and although I only saw a very small percentage of it, it genuinely felt like I was in China, not like the other Chinatowns I have previously visited where it is still very apparent that you are in a small area of a larger western city.

Chinatown Bangkok.

Later that night, my friend and I checked out some of the gay bars. We first went to a bar called Tawan which hosted a show full of muscled asians. Clearly being the youngest (and thinnest) white guy in the establishment, I felt a little uncomfortable but the show was totally worth the 350 baht I paid to see it...haha! After that, we went to perhaps the most popular gay club in the area called DJ Station. It cost around £6 to get in with 2 free drinks and typical for a Saturday night, it was rammed. The music and scene was good but with it being so crowded, it was easy to get lost. My friend became busy with some other guy, so before long I was roaming around the club alone. But, after a while I got talking to a guy called Harry from New York who was travelling around Asia alone and we really hit it off. So much in fact that we exchanged numbers and decided to hang out the next day and explore the sights. This turned out to be a really sweet deal as my friend who I came with wasn't too keen on the touristy parts of Bangkok. 

The one touristy thing I did for my entire trip in Bangkok.

After grabbing lunch at a restaurant called Cabbages and Condoms (yes...that's its name and I was very pleasantly surprised! Every meal you ordered you got a free condom...great marketing strategy I guess?) we decided to check out the house of Jim Thompson. Thompson was a famous American entrepreneur and architect who moved to Thailand in the 1940s and built this house and filled it full on Thai artwork, decoration and pieces. He also became well known for generating international interest in Thai silk and for contributing to the commercial growth in the silk industry during the mid 20th century. Following his disappearance in northern Malaysia in the 1960s, the house has now become a museum to honour his work and life in Thailand. We had a walking tour with a really sweet Thai lady and although small, the house was exquisite and the pieces scattered around the rooms and gardens were beautiful. Unfortunately due to time constraints, that was really all we managed to do touristy-wise apart from just roaming around Bangkok but I had a blast. As my friend wasn't keen on the touristy things, it was so nice to be able to explore and share the experience with someone as I don't think it would have been as fun going around alone. I will most definitely be keeping in touch with you, mate!

Trying to take a Bro pic...just look grumpy haha.

Sunday evening arrived and it was time to go back to Korat. Shame I didn't get to explore Bangkok a bit more but being here until April gives me the perfect opportunity to come back multiple times. And heck, for 200 baht I'm not exactly breaking the bank either.