Here in Chiang Mai

A four day weekend saw us finally visit the northern city of Chiang Mai. This is the most northern part of Thailand we have visited and it was considerably cooler than our home of Nakhon Sawan.

It's seems that everyone had the same idea for the holiday and the buses were so packed that we ended up travelling as stowaways in with the luggage but it was surprisingly comfortable and I had a pretty good sleep as well as a free meal!

Chiang Mai is a tourist destination and we enjoyed the associated the perks which included plenty of markets, a variety of different cuisines and …… wait for it……. wine. In a proper, long stemmed wine glass. And that's not all……….. gin. That's right, I shared a litre of delicious red wine over some delicious buttery cheese filled pasta and then followed it with a gin and tonic. That's what I call a holiday!

Running in Thailand

Is sweaty. Actually, standing still is sweaty - running is something new. 

But the park here in Nakhon Sawan is lovely. It is the heart and soul of the town and I love running round it and seeing familiar faces.

In the UK, I exercised the keep/get fit. Here I exercise to socialise - I enjoy bumping into people and practicing the little Thai I have.

Here in Khorat

Thanks to the start of Buddhist Lent and the offical start of the rainy season here in Thailand, we enjoyed a nice long weekend in July. We were considering treating ourselves to some gin and tonics in Chang Mai but then one of our Thai friends invited us to go with them to Khorat where there is an annual candle festival. Keen not to pass up an opportunity to experience a bit of Thai culture and our first Thai festival, we took her up on this kind offer.

We did not regret this decision and our 'family' of 6 plus chauffeur went on a 2 day road trip in a rather plush minivan including an unnecessary trip to the Cambodian border and a magic double banana.

Here at school ....

We've been working for six weeks now so I thought I'd write a little post about how we're getting on at school.

I (Ruth) am teaching Kindergarten 1 and 2 so am doing a lot of singing and colouring in and communicating mainly in hand gestures and flashcards! One girl in K1 has cried every day since the start of term - she must be exhausted! They are great kids though and very cute. Altogether I teach 530 children but there are two main classes of 25 that I see every day and so have got to know well (the other classes I only see once every two weeks.) I have a different topic each week such has five senses or fruit. 

Matt teaches more of a mixture but his main class is Grade 2 who he teaches for English five times a week and Science twice a week. He also teaches Maths to Grade 1 and Art to Grades 3 & 4. This means he gets to know a lot of kids which is cool although Grade 2 are definitely his bezzie mates!

Here in our little home

A little tour of our flat - it's not much but it's our new Thai home! Complete with a sofa bed for visitors :)

http://youtu.be/V4cLT7hMfTU

Wai Kru

On Thursday it was 'Wai Kru Day' at our school. Wai Kru means Respect for Teachers and the focus is a ceremony where the students 'wai' their teachers and present them with flowers. *(Wai is the traditional Thai greeting; a slight bow with palms pressed together as if praying. The position of the hands in relation to the face and the extent of the bow depends on the status of the person/amount of respect they are showing)

There is no hall in our school big enough to cram all the students in so we had 3 round of ceremonies and as K1 and K2 teacher, I ended up taking part in two of them! Class by class all the students file on to the stage where their teachers are sat. They kneel in front of them, wai to them and then present their flowers. Each year has 7/8 classes of 40-50 so altogether it took about 5 hours! At times it was complete chaos trying to organise so many children in a hot assembly hall but it the whole day was a great experience!

Here in Nakhon Sawan #2 (and unfortunately not in London)

Today I turned 25 and spent my first birthday in Thailand. We are having a relaxing food filled day and enjoyed the views of our town from a local temple. It seems like a long time since I turned 24 and I'm looking forward to what the next year has in store!

In other news, two of our best friends got married yesterday back in London and we were obviously gutted not to be there. We weren't sure what to get them but then there was a military coup in Thailand and we got a day off work. So naturally we put the time to good use and made them a music video!

Take a look here: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yCtAbdUHPE