Thai style Thanksgiving on Sports Day!

Time in Thailand seems to be flying by! After October break I have had quite a few days off from teaching. I think I was wrong about August having a lot of holidays... What I mean is that I now realize the whole Thai school year has a lot of holidays or activities instead of school.


My first Thai Thanksgiving was at Monique's school. I think the best part about our Thai Thanksgiving was that her school was having "sports week" and so we all took the day off from our regular schools to play sports and have a Thanksgiving lunch. What I mean by we played sports, was that we really just all got different color polo shirts and watched the students play everything from football  (soccer) to table tennis. A main difference between Thailand and the US is that when it gets hotter in America people wear less clothing, but in Thailand people put on more clothing! Typical Thai "sports" outfits are long polyester sports pants and a polyester polo (the whole school wears the same ones - everyone is matching). First of all polyester in general is hot and does not breath well. Second they play outside in these outfits in the sun and heat. I find myself finding it hard to just sit in front of a fan in this outfit let alone run around in one.

Monique's school knew this is a big holiday in America so they wanted to make it special for us. In preparation they asked what we normally ate for Thanksgiving, we told them; turkey, salad, and potatoes. Monique's school found a Turkey for us (it was actually from the US) and had it cooked at the local restaurant bbq / rotisserie style. I think it might have been the best turkey I have ever had! Along with Turkey, the restaurant catered the rest of the lunch with some delicious traditional Thai food. We also had "Thai salad" meaning about 3 pieces of lettuce, shredded carrots and cabbage, beans, apples and a very very think mayonaiseish dressing. They managed to get potatoes too, but in the form of french fries...

We had another Thanksgiving with more traditional food on Saturday. Drew made garlic mashed potatoes and no-bake cookies, Monique made baked chicken, I made green bean casserole, apple crisp and Kraft macaroni and cheese. It was fun to cook all day and have some comfort food too!

It was also absolutely wonderful to phone in with my family on Thanksgiving! It made me really miss home and everyone back in the states, but then I realized I only have 3 more months in Thailand.




In terms of missing school for activities or Thai holidays, I  have outlined what the month of December and January look like for me.....

December (and the end of November):
- I had no school on November 29th and 30th - I actually have no idea why we didn't have school, but it was nice having a 4 day weekend.
- December 5th was the King's birthday - A national holiday and no school
- December 10th was "Constitution Law" day - Again I am not sure what this means
- December 13th we interviewed students for an exchange program (no teaching)

I think my favorite part about the interviews was when we asked one student who the current president of the United States was she answered "Justin Beiber".

- December 17th-21st Nong Wang (my second school) has sports competitions at another school (no teaching)
- December 20th-31st I am taking a vacation with Dad, Beth, Julia and Sam!

January
- December 31st-January 2nd is the New Years holiday
- January 9-10th Huatale School English Camp
- January 17-19th Pettpitayasan School English Camp
- January 24-28th were planning on taking a mini vacation to re-visit the famous full moon party

Then its already February