Rockin' and Rollin'

On Friday evening, the teachers had their New Year party. Don't ask me why the party was 25 days after the New Year... some things in Thailand simply can't be explained. Perhaps the planning committee was shooting for the mid-point between the official New Year and the Chinese New Year (by the way, the Thai New Year is in April). All of the teachers ate family-style in the assembly hall while prizes were raffled off and folks sang karaoke. Yes, I did sing 'I Will Survive.' I pretty much brought the house down (just kidding, but I definitely caught some teachers off guard). Some of the teachers got pretty tipsy, which was hilarious. One of the PE teachers took off his shirt at one point! I won a towel, which will come in handy when my tiny apartment turns into a super deluxe hotel room for my parents' visit. No frayed towels for the parents at this luxurious 5-star establishment. I'll be giving the Oriental (one of the world's best hotels in Bangkok) a run for its money. Riiiight...

On Saturday I gave a presentation on the US education system to a class of PhD students at Silpakorn University. I had to speak very slowly, which is quite a challenge for me at times. I went from having a rocky start to feeling like a rock star by the end of the presentation. At the end of my presentation I received a really nice piece of painted china and a pretty shawl. After lunch, I walked around the beautiful campus and worked on my interim reports for the US Fulbright office and the Thai Fulbright office.

Sunday's big even was a train ride from Nakhon Pathom to Nam Tok on the infamous Death Railway with Ajahn Penny (who helps me read Thai), and Bella and Liza (the Philippina English teachers). Though I had seen some of the sights in Kanchanaburi before, it was fun visiting them again and seeing them from the train. We went to the bridge over the River Kwai, the cemetery for WWII POWs who worked on the Thai-Burmese railroad, and the Sai Yok Waterfall. I took about a trillion pictures as we rolled along the tracks. By the end of the day trip, dirt had flown in the open windows and completely covered me. I'm still picking grit out of my eyes, ears, and nose!