Roses are Red, Ajaans are Keychains

This past weekend started with an 'unveiling' (or more actually, a totally unannounced overnight construction) of an 7 x 11 ft. banner outside our school, featuring yours truly and the other 3 ajaan farang, along with the directors and a group of my students who placed at a national English competition. I remember clearly the morning the photo was taken a few months ago; the showers hadn't worked in our apartment for about 48 hours prior, and a moment after we trudged into work feeling more disgusting than usual, a student informed us we were needed downstairs for a photo-op. I've had a lot of photo-ops during my time in Thailand - all unprepared for, and most after a long day of sweating... But this is the first to wind up on an enormous billboard that faces a main intersection in town. Already I've had random acquaintances tell me, "I saw you! Very big!" The thing looks like it's there to stay for a while, so I guess I best be getting used to seeing a 7-foot tall unflattering image of myself on my way to work everyday....

 

Living larger than life in Nan

The rest of our weekend was a bit more... low-key. After being away for weeks traveling and vacationing, our Thai friend Lak and her American husband Matt were finally back in Nan this week. Lak and Matt live permanently here, and were among our first and most welcoming friends when we arrived. In Lak-style, she rang in her return weekend by taking us to a delicious dinner, coming out with us for drinks Friday night, and on Sunday, showing us around the jewelry 'factory' she and Matt run. Regrettably, it had taken us almost 9 months of living in Nan to visit the factory, even though it's a gorgeous property on the lake, and only about a 10-minute bike ride across the river from us. 

What it looked like, before moms got tucked in bed.

Sunday also happened to be the annual Nan Fishing Festival (that's a non-official, CP-coined term) at the lake: a day when apparently once a year people come from all over the city to fish, drink whisky, and then eat or sell the fish they catch on the banks of the lake. There are no rules or regulations as to what you can catch or keep on this day: whatever ends up on your line, is yours. The fishing action was winding down when we arrived Sunday afternoon, as was the drinking action... There were just a handful of old men wading into the brown water with fishing rods, and a few women squatting with grills piled with fish. Around 5 p.m., Lak's 50-something year old father swung by the factory to report that Lak's mother had already gotten sick and been put to bed. (Lak's translation: "When he drunk my mother takes care of him, so he says he do the same for her!" Secret to a lasting marriage? I think so). 

Can I move in?

Lak and Matt are building a house on the fishing lake, and the site - already a year or so into construction - is absolutely stunning. It overlooks the water on the front side, and towards the back, endless green fields of rice and tobacco crops. Lak said it stays green like that all year long, and she's planted a huge and gorgeously messy garden with mango, coconut, rambutan, and durian trees in it. The whole house is being built around a swimming pool in the center, which overlooks the garden. Soooo basically, I'm gonna try my best to spend all possible free time here when I return to Nan in hot, hot June.

Monday back at school felt like the culmination of all our hard work in the office this past month, with a school-wide Student Exhibition Day. Parents and school supervisors came to campus to view portfolios of student work - everything from science experiments to painted rocks to Thai exams. A huge stage was set up on the field, and one by one, each English Program class put on a performance - either a song and dance, or in the case of 6th grade, a production of Beauty & the Beast. The 6th grade kids practiced unbelievably hard, and the end product turned out amazing. The best part was seeing some of the "wallflowers" in 6/1 (I use that term relatively, since 6/1 is a full cast of characters) step it up for the show. Tay, a tubby kid who typically isn't the most 'talented' English student, went all out to memorize and play the part of handsome and self-centered Gaston, while James, a gumpy shy class-monitor type, won the part of Belle's crazy inventor father, and my vote for Best Actor. I firmly believe all Thai kids have a serious future career  in the theater.

Funny Valentines

Since Monday's Exhibition coincided with Valentine's Day, it was also filled with showers of heart candies, paper roses, real roses, sticks of chocolate, and other various goodies kids could buy at the school store and deemed an appropriate ajaan gift (I got my very first Valentine's soy milk!). Bam, possibly the sweetest kid in first grade and now nicknamed The Giver, ran up to us after school to give Aj. Emily a rose. She realized she didn't have one for me, and so for a consolation gift hugged me, slowly placed a single baht coin in my bike basket, and cooed, "Aj. Caitleen beaoooootiful!" I'll take it, Bam.

Ajaan keychains: get 'em while they're hot!

One of our Thai co-teachers came up with a brilliant Valentine's Day sales idea for the 5th grade English booth: she printed and laminated miniature photos of the four foreigner teachers, had the kids attach them to key rings, and sold them to parents and students at a table alongside porkballs on a stick. Some photos of us were headshots; others were blurry candids taken from Facebook or random school events. There was even a deluxe 4-Ajaans-in-One photo keychain, and my favorite, the Anna "shuuushing" action shot keychain. We'd heard rumors of Aj. Wandee's plan last week, and started to wonder about whose face would sell fastest, and whose likeness would be relegated to the surplus pile. At 5 baht a pop, though, they sold like hot cakes and were all gone by 10 a.m. 

Aj. Tu - an older Thai teacher who is my morning duty bestie, and my future mother-in-law if she had it her way - found me after school on Monday (drinking Spy wine coolers with the other teachers... typical) to give me a personalized plastic red rose. The handwritten tag reads:

'Happy' all

with you

everyday

'To Caitlin'

From Tu

old teacher

Teacher in Thailand

Quite possibly the best Valentine's Day sentiment I've received to date.

X's and O's to all!