The Holiday Season Is Upon Us

As this year starts to draw to a close, so does the full academic schedule at Assumption. For the past few weeks, the school calendar has been rearranged with shorter lessons (some even cancelled completely) and inundated with activity after activity. To begin with, the school celebrated yet another national holiday, Loy Krathong. This holiday falls on the night of the full moon of the 12th month of the Thai lunar calendar. The name 'Loy Krathong' translates as 'to float a basket'.
If any of you have been avid readers of my blog for that past year (thank you by the way!), you'll know that I wrote a blog post about this holiday last year. But, seeing as this year was slightly different, I'll tell you all about it again.

Loy Krathong celebrations at the school.

Just like last year, my Loy Krathong celebrations were split into two parts. Firstly, the school celebrated the holiday by having a half-day's worth of classes and then a giant all-school event in the afternoon. The event began with a procession through the school of the students and Thai teachers all dressed in beautiful, traditional Thai attire. However, the beautiful clothes are also accompanied by a ridiculous amount of makeup; it is literally painted on them. My 6 year old girls looked in their mid teens...it was very creepy. It was like they'd become porcelain dolls; they showed no emotion and hardly spoke all day...

The main event was the floating of the "Krathongs" or boats/baskets into the water. Traditionally, these boats are made out of banana leaves and decorated with different flowers. As we didn't have any body of water to float the krathongs, we had to make do with a large 'paddling pool'. It was cool to see all these boats and just how colourful they were. That celebration was then followed by a beauty pageant, both for Primary and Secondary students. I watched the Primary one of course and saw one of my Primary 2 students win first prize. I still have to double look to see if it was actually her!

A few of my students entering the pageant. Number 2 was crowned the winner!

After school had ended, once again I headed to Bungta Lua where the main celebrations in Korat were being held. A group of us headed over, purchased our own Krathong and floated them into the lake. This time around, the krathongs were also decorated with insence and candles so they could be seen glistening across the entire lake. It was in the evening also that the true meaning of Loy Krathong was really recognised and displayed. Before we floated our Krathongs in the lake, we were asked to thank the Goddess of water, known as Phra Mae Khongkha, for her blessings as well as making a wish for the upcoming year. As we placed our boats into the water, it was told that it symbolises our sadness and misfortunes from the past year being floated away and marking the beginning of a new chapter; I found that to be a lovely sentiment and a rather fitting one after the past month or so that I've had with trying to move on from some personal issues.

Not even 48 hours after that holiday, the school held another big event: Sports Day. For the past 3 weeks or so, the students had been preparing in the form of chanting cheers for an hour every day...which equated to an extremely boring and wasted hour for us teachers. As with last year, Sports Day at Assumption isn't just some kids running around a track -- as with all the events at my school, they like to put on quite a show. The opening ceremony of the day was a giant spectacle with the 5 teams (Orange, Blue, Pink, Violet and Green) parading into the 'arena' with their cheerleaders and 'models' in their traditional Thai dresses. As much as the aesthetics of the day are dramatic, it was also amusing the see the student athletes after they finish their respected race fall to the ground collapsing and to be carried off on their stretchers, like they had just ran a marathon in the desert or something...
Once again, the cheerleading portion of the day was an amazing spectacle. The winning team had an oriental theme to their dance and spent almost a minute of their routine setting off firecrackers! I've got the say, as much as the lack of motivation in their education that some of these students have, they sure make up for it in creativity and being artistic.

Gold, Silver and Bronze medal winners!

The final race of the day was the Teacher's Race. If you remember last year, my team won silver in that event but this year I was going for the gold! And, by the skin of our teeth, we achieved that feat! Granted, I got a little over-excited and competitive and was screaming (yep, literally screaming) at my teammates to run faster. It paid off though...right? What a great way to end my last sport's day at the school.

And continuing in the spirit of the holidays, there are only 3 weeks left before we break up for Christmas and New Year! And once again, I will be performing at the staff Xmas party! Cant wait for that! Better start getting in the spirit! **plays Slade**

Two Princesses, One weekend.

What a week it has been. For the majority of it, my school has been preparing for the arrival of Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn for the inauguaration of the Regina Coeli Building, which is home to the classes of Secondary 4-6. Princess Sirindhorn is the third child of the King of Thailand. Apparently, many Thai people refer to her as "Phra Thep" which means "Princess angel". In relation to the British monarchy, she would be comparable to the Princess Royal. Everyone was so excited for her arrival. Just from the vibes I was getting from my Thai colleagues, I would say that she is on par with Diana in how much the Thai people love her.

Preparing for the royal visit.

This last week only had two days of actual teaching. The next two were given for the teachers to make the necessary preparations for the royal visit. As per usual, the foreign teachers has nothing to do with it so we were just sat in our offices twiddling our thumbs. The building was beautifully decked out in Thai flags and purple fabric. When Friday finally came around, you could feel the anticipation. However, after being seated and waiting over 2 hours for her to arrive, the anticipation quickly turned to impatience. But, at around 2:30pm she finally arrived and her entrance was far less climatic than I had envisioned. In the UK, I'd expect flag waving and cheering but there was none of that. The Princess arrived in her private vehicle and the place fell silent. Regardless, it was an amazing spectacle.

The Princess makes her arrival. (C) ACN

Dressed in a tradition Thai-style light blue dress, the Princess presented herself very simple; not wearing extravagant jewellry or perfectly painted makeup, she gave off the aura of someone very down to earth and connected with the Thai people, despite her title. When she arrived, she presented around 100 people with royal pins (which each person paid in excess of ฿30,000/£550 just to get one!) and then paraded around the courtyard where she was greeted with various stalls and presentations from the students. She then went upstairs to complete the official inauguration before saying hello to the crowd and leaving for her next visit in Korat. Whilst she was greeting the crowd, I was lucky enough to be at the front where she stopped, looked at me and even said hello! My reaction was to nervously smile and bow to the floor (I've never been in front of royalty okay?!). Some of the Thai teachers around me, however, were in shock that she said 'hello' to me, with some even shedding a tear in pure awe of being in her presence. Never in a million years would I have thought I would come two feet from royalty, especially in Thailand!

Her Royal Highness enjoying the presentations given by the students. (C) ACN

After she left the school, I had to make a pretty hasty exit as that night, I was flying to Singapore to see (in my eyes) another Princess, Taylor Swift. I had booked tickets to see her back in June as she was only playing two nights in Singapore before heading to Australia to finish her world tour off. Yes, it was going to be an expensive weekend but I knew it would be worth it. The first thing I had to do though was get out of the city, and when you have a Princess visiting, the whole city tends to shut down. So, a ten minute journey out of the city actually took over ninety minutes...for a moment there was a definite panic that I would not be able to make the airport in time. However, the panic was unnecessary as I made my 00:50 flight in good time and got into Singapore (my FIFTH trip this year by the way) by around 4:30am. After a lie in, I decided to drop by Ezzy's workplace, give him his ticket and meet him later at the arena. I spent the rest of that day window shopping in the Singapore malls and immersing myself to what life might be like if I end up here. After all, I won't always be hanging out with friends. It was a nice opportunity to see if I could navigate my way around the city alone without feeling overwhelmed. And honestly, it was as easy as I thought it would be. The evening soon came around and it wasn't long before I took my seat at the arena and waited for Taylor to hit the stage.

Opening her concert to "Welcome to New York", the crowd went wild. As far away as I was in terms of seating, it was still amazing to be her presence as I've been a massive fan of her for years. I was pleasantly surprised at her vocals as I had heard several people warn me that she isn't that great live, but she did not disappoint. Hit after hit played, lyric after lyric was screamed out of my lungs and it just felt euphoric. The best part for me was when she played some of her really old hits, such as "You Belong with me" and "Love Story", using just a guitar and keyboard. It just went to show how amazing talented this woman really is. It was a very simple set, not extremely gimmicky and no opening act taking up precious Taylor Swift time haha. As many people know, Swift's songs are usually written after a breakup, so it was incredibly ironic that I was attending this concert with an ex, as many of her lyrics became so relatable haha. The concert lasted for about two hours and was worth every penny of the S$132 ticket I purchased. The only disappointment (which I felt was reflected by many people in the crowd also) was that she did not have a special guest act. This is something Swift is notoriously known for at her concerts and I heard many people say they thought it was going to be local Singaporean band, The Sam Willows. But alas, she went solo this time around.

Easily the best concert I have attended.

After the concert finished, Ezzy and I went our separate ways and I decided to head out for a drink with a new friend I made the last time I was there. Armed in my Taylor Swift concert bracelet and custom made T-Shirt with Taylor Swift lyrics on them, I tried my best to blend in and not be frowned upon for being such an open Swiftie (a Taylor Swift fan for those of you who were wondering...) but in fact it was the opposite. I bumped into a guy and his group of friends who had also attended the concert and had also made a custom t-shirt with Taylor Swift lyrics on them! It was an awesome moment and he was by far the coolest person I met that night. I had only initially agreed to go out for one drink, but in typical style that turned into staying out until 6am drinking Long Island pitchers! It was a great night full of laughter, dancing, and lots of eye candy. (Yep, I swear Singaporean guys just live in the gym...) Anyways, the 36 hour trip went far too quick but it was such an amazing weekend. I still can't believe that both in Thailand and Singapore, I was able to experience encounters that I had never imagined to witness in my entire life. So I definitely left Singapore and ended that weekend one very happy chappy. See you at New Year, Singapore!

I really did see 'incredible things' this weekend.