Ringing in the year 2555!

By Matt

The new year here in Thailand is 2555, which is pronounced: sawng, haa, haa, haa (which is pretty funny).

Our week between Christmas and New Year's was packed with activities, but not much of that time involved being in the classroom.  We had 2 days of teaching on the 26th and 27th followed by 3 "Sports Days" on campus.  In a nut shell, the sports days give all the kids at the high school a chance to participate in competitions ranging from table tennis to dancing to soccer to singing.  (As you check out the costumes and props, remember that these kids made or built everything).

We were recruited to join the teacher's soccer team in the first soccer match of Sports Day #1 against the seniors.  We were warned that the seniors have pulled out a victory as long as anyone can remember (maybe we were supposed to let them win, but no one told us).  The game started off with a soccer ball about 10 times larger than a regulation size ball, because that's apparently how the game has to start.  The normal size ball came in about 5 minutes later when we finally got used to using the first one.  Regardless of ball size, we spent the next 30 minutes destroying the heavily favored seniors.  Highlights included Shelly being dubbed "The Wondah Woman"" by the game commentator over the speakers whenever she touched the ball and me drilling the last penalty kick of the day into the back of the net, even though I was told later that the penalty kicks were just that....for kicks. 

Sports Days, December 28-30th:

Opening Ceremony!  Light the flame!

No, really.  We had a lighting ceremony!  Thai Mohammed Ali with the Phanom Adun Olympic Torch

Before the games begin, each team has a skit.  Not a one of us could figure out what this one was about.

if you look closely, you can tell the soccer ball to shelly size ratio is a bit off

Celebrating one of the orange team's many goals.

Matt back on defense.  alone.  again.

Shelly sike'in out one of the few oversized seniors in my oversized shorts, but with the normal size ball

New Years Party at Phanom Adun High School

After two long, hard days of playing sports and reading books in our office, it was time for the school's exclusive, teacher-only New Years Eve Eve Eve party.  Our school coordinator informed Shelly and I earlier in the week "you will prepare a song to perform together in front of everyone".  This is the method used to get us to agree to things, and it's quite effective really.  We originally settled on a duet of Aladdin's "A Whole New World", but a couple hours before showtime I realized I didn't know any of the lyrics so a last minute switch was made to DJ Sammy's dance version of "Heaven", a Bryan Adams re-make that I am intimately familiar with from my days at Notre Dame.  I'd like to think that most of the administration was impressed by my choreographed dance moves and Shelly's singing capacity.  My roommate, Clay, also sang a pretty schweet rendition of 'Stand by Me'.....both he and I followed up the singing with some traditional Thai dancing.  Pics below:

The evening's festivities included a catered dinner from the local Chinese restaurant I was unaware existed, a raffle where Shelly won a large bag of 3-in-1 ready to drink instant coffee that she can't drink, and I won a crate of 30 brown eggs and a baby blanket.  My roommate won a DVD player and Shelly's roommate won 500 baht (about $16, which will buy you dinner for 16 consecutive nights at our favorite street stall), but I still like to think our prizes were better because of the sheer randomness.

Two of the other foreign teachers, Eunice and Sarah, with our super cool coordinator, Sompit.

Shelly, being, well, Shelly!

 

The fellas finishing off our bottle of Hong Thong (thai whisky)

Hopefully the additional protein will help me re-gain the 10-12 pounds I've lost here...

New Years Eve in Bangkok

Shelly and I were excited to hear that a couple of my ND college buddies Maura and Adam, who happen to be married to each other, would be visiting Thailand for the entire month of January.  They landed in Bangkok on the 31st, which gave them just enough time to drop their bags, and come meet us at a Volkswagen Van Bar set up on a side street in Bangkok.  We only managed to get one photo that night (to my knowledge):

Total cost of drinks for the night for 4 people?  $33.  Gotta like this place (Apologies for the pic quality of this one).

Hope all of you had a Happy New Years!