Who Runs the World? Female Farang Teachers

As my fourth month in Surat comes to an end, I thought it would be nice to share with you some of the things I do here on a normal day-to-day basis...other than party.  As an ESL teacher I'm faced with early mornings (although not as early as some teachers) and long days.  While most days blend into one another with lesson plans and kicking kids out of the classroom, there are often some fun days that we as teachers have!  Two weeks ago we had Sports Day.  At home we referred to this as Field Day - at my school the kids were split into blue or red teams and competed in activities such as three-legged races, wheel barrow races, basketball, relay races, etc...  So I expected to spend the day lining my kids up and cheering them on on the sidelines!  I was mistaken.  Days before, we were told to bring green shirts, black shorts and sneakers to work for Sports Day.  Okk?  Teachers uniform?  Dress down day? What?  Well, it seems that Sports Day at our school was actually the Teachers v. Parents - not the children!  Thankfully my sister was around to capture some great moments (her visit will be discussed in another post)!  But for now, please enjoy the hilarity, the mayhem, and the ass-kicking farang teachers...well, at least the female staff...the males did less than stellar.  (Sorry guys!)

These are my P3 (third graders).  Adorable and can actually speak pretty good English!

Not only was it sports day at school, but it was Mother's Day in Thailand aka the Queen's birthday!  The MD ceremony took place early in the morning before I had to be at work, but apparently the children wash their mother's feet and everyone cries.  I mean everyone!  Sixth graders were balling their eyes out, honoring their mothers, while their mothers cried as their feet were washed.  

Afterwards, everyone enjoyed some lunch and treats as we waited for sports day to commence!  

(Phil, the lonely Western-looking parent on the playground).

We were treated to a free lunch this day which was amazing!  Actually, I just devoured a lot of fruit and home made banana cakes because...well...I'm addicted to banana cakes.  And these were home made!  How could I say no to that?!

Plenty of rambutans and mangosteens to go around!  Delicious Thai fruits that are almost peach like.  

Some more of my P3 girls - equally as adorable, but not as equally gifted as the former...

Freshly made donuts!?  Now, had you told me four months ago that Thailand would be sharing freshly cooked pastries with me, I would've jumped on a plane months ahead of schedule.  These bad boys were served with a green (?) coconut custard that is fantastic!

I wasn't the only one snatching up treats that morning, Marie got her fair share of popsicles!  

Now, I don't know if you caught the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, but it was a mix of England's history...and if you were like me (waiting tables at 11pm, watching the ceremony on mute) you had no idea what was going on.  That was kind of how I felt at the "opening ceremony" of Sports Day.  A lot of impressions and costumes thrown together into, what I'm sure, was some general theme, but in the end went right over my head.  Teachers were dressed as dolls, babies and clouds?  Even the male teachers were dressed as women - tights, makeup, dresses...you name it!

(My favorite student - Prair!)

Games for this day consisted mostly of football (soccer, to my American friends), tug o' war, and chairball - which I can describe best as basketball with no dribbling, and the "hoop" is your friend standing on a chair with a basket in their hand.  The girls took the court first to battle our student's mothers...on Mother's Day.  So naturally, we assumed we were going to be told that we had to throw the game in order to let the mothers celebrate their day.  In fact, the opposite was told to us.  Our 5-foot-nothing principal came up to us and demanded that we win!  (I actually feared the future of my job with the company if we lost.)  Clearly, our team of Farang and Thai teachers kicked ass!  

The boys, however, couldn't keep up with our Champion status that day and in the end lost a long game of football.  Thankfully, D. Cliffe brought his "A"-game that day and they didn't lose too terribly.  

In the first few minutes of the game, the boys were down 4-0 and let's just say Dan was less than supportive. (He's the one walking away from the pitch, above). While he muttered under his breathe, we took pleasure in his pain and laughed while he became more and more frustrated with his team.

But, in his natural rock star fashion, Cliffe took to the pitch and brought the Teacher's team up to speed with goal after goal!  (I know, Phil, I've missed your son's shining moments on the blog as well).  

With one last effort for the girls to show the boys that we do actually run the world (thank you, Beyonce) we dominated in tug o' war!  Mari stepped in among the girls to rep the Farang teachers and brought home a win!

Gentlemen, maybe if you had spent a little less time on your matching outfits, and a little more time with your eyes on the prize, you too could have had this trophy at the end of the day.  Alright, fine.  We didn't technically get a trophy...but we still beat the boys!