Thai days at school

Needless to say that it was very difficult to get used to waking up at 6 am again and going to school. Luckily, on the first day, (26th of October), we only had teacher training day, and on Thursday and Friday this week, we had Thai Days - because of the Loy Kratong (coming up this weekend). We had an active 2 days! :-) 

(On another note, on the teacher's day we had a lot of meetings, plus, two fun games periods, where we played touchball and then volleyball. About the volleyball: well, the others played it, I didn't. I really don't like to play volleyball..... :PPPPP as it's very hurtful.) Okay, so anyway, on the thai days, there were no teaching hours, only the Thai teachers organized different programs! :-) We were assigned to different groups of students and the leaders of the group were from my homeroom. 

On Thursday, we had two stations: first, we learnt how to make traditional Thai desserts: the first one was Chup Luk: 

which is basically beanpaste with some obviously unnatural colouring. We needed to form the paste into different fruits. Here is the end result: 

They really look like lollypop! :-) But believe me, the taste is not quite the same of that!

My Luk Chup

My happy face with my Luk Chup :-) 

Then, the next step was to make Bua Loy Sam See, which is basically a coconut dessert with some flourballs. Here is the process of how to make it: 

As you can guess, after eating so much coloured food, I got a rash now. :-( So I need to get a cream or something from the pharmacy, but also, possibly I'll go and check out a food allergy test on me. What makes me think that it's because of the food, because once, I tried Luk Chup, I suddenly started itching!

(But not for more... :-D - which is normally the case for me.)

While eating and enjoying the coconut dessert, my sneaky students have taken a picture of me - which was also projected next day, at the final ceremony of it (among other pictures, of course). But it was a good feeling, because there were only a couple of teachers portrayed during the video and I was one of them! :-)  It was funny! :-) 

On Friday a Thai company came to organize various events and stations for the same groups: this time there were less stations and more activties, therefore, there was less crowd at each of the stations. Here, the main emphasis was placed on handicrafts: we painted little clay figures, made a bag with printing the pattern, then we tried traditional Thai games (playing with stones), then we moved on to make a lantern from squash (nature is amazing: we put it in cold water -  hot water - cold water - hot water and suddenly it got the texture like leather)! Then we could try out padthai! :-) Finally, at the end of the day we listened to a Thai performance. It was great (and funny too, because in some moments, it looked like a parody). (Like some performers were not even smiling :-( - maybe they had a bad day?). Anyway, it was still nice. At the end, even us, teachers were invited to dance on the stage - I was told I dance like a Latina (I mean come on people, what do you expect from me? :-D) but really some of the steps were really like salsa-steps, and I can't help but I moved my hips along, as well. 

It was great fun, especially because one of the performers (the most enthusiastic one, I must say!) was a transvestite (you know such things are common here). She was so feminine and her movements are so perfect! However, can someone tell me, how can she have a tinier waist than me? I feel offended! :-D 

Some more pictures of the day: 

The colleagues are working hard. :-) 

Lantern phase I.

Lantern phase II - already floating

Are they spicy? - No, not at all - a Thai person would say. 

Note the chili on top. 

A glimpse from the band: around 10 players, 6 dancers and an hour long concert! It was great fun!