January was a very, very busy month and an update is well overdue!! After a wonderful holiday, school went back on the 5th January and it has been non-stop action ever since. Due to time constraints (both mine and yours, I`m sure!!) I`ll do my best to let the photos do the talking this time...

The school calendar has been chockers with excursions, camps, sports days and Thai festival days, and when lots of public holidays were thrown into the mix it turned out that I have only had one regular uninterrupted 5-day school week all term! Though its been pretty bloody chaotic, we have all had lots of fun. During the first week of term, all of Grade 5 had a day excursion to Ayutthya, the ancient capital of Thailand. It`s under 3 hours drive from Bangkok, and a really beautiful little city with ancient temples set throughout the town. On a stinking hot day, we climbed up, down, in, and around heaps of temples and it was a great opportunity for us foreign teachers to enjoy  simultatneously experiencing some of ancient Thai culture (the temples) whilst experiencing the modern psyche of hundreds of excited, chattering Thai kids munching on endless packets of dried seaweed. An interesting combination :)

Thursday of the first week back at school was Thai Children`s Day - a national celebration of, well, kids. It was a day full of food, fun and frivolity and the boys were let off the leash and basically given lisence to run amok, whilst all the adults frantically chased their tails to make sure everything went according to plan. It was basically like a big birthday party for every kid in the school - parents brought in food (you name it, we had it - sushi, pizza, rice, kebabs, chicken, pork, laab, somtum, seaweed, chips, chocolate, curries, fruit, squid balls, etc etc), teachers organised games and presents, and the kids` only obligation was to go crazy and create as much chaos as possible :) It was a tiring, but very very fun day. The highlight for EP 5/3 was easily the karaoke songs that we sung at top volume for hours - even Miss Teresa had a go at the lyrics of the soppy Thai love songs, much to my boys` amusement :) My experience with Children`s Day was certainly a memorable one, and makes me think that a day celebrating kids being kids really is a pretty fantastic idea :)

No rest for the wicked - just a few days after we all recovered from Children`s Day and our excursion to Ayutthya, and we were off for a 3-day EP camp with Grades 5 and 6. There was plenty more dried seaweed and chattering on the bus out to St Gabriel Campsite, about 2 hours from Bangkok, which was set up kind of like a mini sport and rec camp that we get in Australia. Unfortunately I had packed  with me some unwanted baggage - a horrible tummy bug that made it impossible for me to eat, drink, or be more than 3 metres away from a toilet. Still, I soldiered on and stuck out the first 2 days at camp - it was lots of fun! The boys were fantastic and really relished the opportunity to play in some wide open spaces, instead of being cooped up in the cement jungle of Bangkok! Miss Anelda and I were in charge of Eagle House and the 50 boys that slept in there - getting 50 ten and eleven year olds to go to sleep is quite an amusing process!! We slept in the same room as them, in a little closet off to the side....and enjoyed a unique wake up call at about 5.30am, when the little darlings began to stir at their regular out-of-bed time :) Very cute, but very early!! The boys` days were full of adventure courses, ropes courses, Thai games, and arts and crafts activities, all run by us teachers. Miss Teresa, however, was too preoccupied with running to the toilet instead of running her adventure course...so on the second night of camp my tummy bug and I were sent back to Bangkok, where I lay on my bed for the next 2 days, awaiting the arrival of my sister on her whirlwind visit!

Sarah was doing a 2 week trip through Cambodia and Thailand and I was lucky enough that she managed to squeeze a long weekend in with me!! After a night together getting familiar with my little neighbourhood in Bangers, we headed out to Kanchanaburi - town of beautiful waterfalls and the famous River Kwai - where I am now practically a local!! ;) But it was Sarah`s first time there and we had lots of fun, exploring the cute little town by bike, walking across the bridge over the River Kwai, and learning about Aussie war history in the area. We also went to Erwan falls, where Sarah was brave enough to have a dip in the pools, taking on both the chilly water and the mammoth suckerfish!! Although brief, it was awesome to have Sarah here to glimpse my life in Thailand....now she has seen where I`ve lived in all three homes away from home... Thailand, Paraguay and USA!! :)

The weekend after Sarah left we were blessed with yet another long weekend - and as an added bonus, this one conveniently fell on Australia Day Monday!! Not letting the chance go by, a whole stack of us teachers organised a weekend away at Prachuap Khiri Khan... a little fishing village/beach town south of Hua Hin. There ended up being 18 of us who piled into 2 minivans and made the trip out of Bangkok. It was an awesome long weekend - Prachuap is a beautiful little town that seems virtually untouched by foreign tourists. We hired bikes and pedalled our way around, holding our breath as we rode past trays of fish and squid drying in the sun, and then again as we rode past some of the most simple, yet breathtaking coastline I`ve seen in Thailand. We also encountered some interesting local fauna... Prachuap has two giant mountains, both with temples at the top, and both overrun with wild monkeys - one mountain is ruled by scary, ugly,  smelly, teeth-baring monkeys, and the other is inhabitated by the cutest little creatures I`ve ever seen!! The people were friendly, the local seafood was delicious, and the scenery was stunning - all of which made for a great weekend :)

The last big event on the school calendar for January was EP Activity Day - basically a big fun sports day for all 600 EP kids in grades 1-6. Despite being incredibly hot, a fun day was had by all the boys as they competed in novelty events like the obstacle course, three legged race, tennis ball throw and tyre relays. The `have a go` concept is much more a Western-based ideology than a Thai one, so it was great to see all the kids participating (as opposed to sitting and cheering in the stands like in the earlier Assumption School Activity Day). We teachers even got to have a go....and even though its been years since I`ve done any serious training for the 3-legged event, I`m proud to say that along with Mr Chad, I am the current champion of the EP Teacher Three Legged Race. A coveted title, I can assure you ;)

January drew to a close and things were relatively calm for a week or so, with only work, netball, basketball, tutoring, gym, mates and that very stubborn tummy bug to keep me busy ;) School is going fantastically at the moment - everything is winding down and the pressure of in-class assessments is off, so the boys can have a bit of fun in the lead up to their final exams. We did `News Reports` today, and the boys presented a news article they had written just like a TV news reporter. They looked so cute and did such a good job...I`m going to try and upload some videos for you to see, I hope they work!

All the hustle and bustle of my life in Bangkok came to a screeching halt just last week, when I got some sad news from home that Garney, my Mum`s mum, had passed away quite suddenly over in Timaru, NZ. A few clicks of a mouse later and I was on a plane over to join my family in a very special weekend to say our last goodbyes to a very special lady. So I`ve had a whirlwind couple of days - flying out last Friday to New Zealand and arriving back in Bangkok in the wee hours of Wednesday morning. I feel very lucky that everything fell into place and I was able to make it over for Garney`s funeral. I was given the honour of reading a beautiful poem at the service, called `The Weaver`, which I have attached at the bottom to share.

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So, quick as a flash, its mid-February, and my time in Thailand is nearly finished. I`ve got just 2 weeks to go til school is done, Fletch is back over and we head on our trip to Laos! Unbelievable! I hope this finds you all happy and healthy, enjoy the photos...

Hasta la proxima,

xoxox :)

The Weaver

My Life is but a weaving
between my Lord and me;
I cannot choose the colors
He worketh steadily.

Oft times He weaveth sorrow
And I, in foolish pride,
Forget He sees the upper,
And I the under side.

Not til the loom is silent
And the shuttles cease to fly,
Shall God unroll the canvas
And explain the reason why.

The dark threads are as needful
In the Weaver`s skillful hand,
As the threads of gold and silver
In the pattern He has planned.

He knows, He loves, He cares,
Nothing this truth can dim.
He gives His very best to those
Who leave the choice with Him.