I can't believe I forgot about English Camp!

English Camp

ZOMG I just realised I never wrote about English Camp with my school! Blogger fail...

English Camp at my school took place from February 8-9 in Rayong Province.  In the days leading up to English Camp, we (the foreign teachers) were given very little information about what would happen and what we would need to do. So as usual, we went in having no idea what was going on. 

 I arrived at school on Friday the 9^th at around 8am – all the students were gathering in the hall/auditorium area. English Camp was open to students from P6 to M3 (grades 6-9), and I think there are about 200 or so students attending. All the Thai English teachers were going, as well as a few other teachers to help manage the students and run activities. I think around 9 or so we all boarded our non-air-conditioned buses... lovely. Needless to say the ride was very hot, and involved much napping. Needless to say, when we got off, we were all sweaty, sticky and disgusting.

Our first stop was at the Pattaya Floating Market for lunch. It was quite an elaborate set up of boardwalks, bridges and shops. Very maze-like too. We somehow managed to find a restaurant, and wil the help of the Thai teachers, were able to order lunch. We aren’t incompetent I swear. We didn’t do any shopping as we were only there a short while, and everything was super expensive. Our next stop was at the Silver Lake Vineyard. Like the vineyard we stopped at for teacher retreat, it was very picturesque and beautiful. We walked around and took pictures. It was also SO hot, so we didn’t do much running around. Lovely spot though.

We arrived at the hotel around 3:30/4 I think. It was actually quite a nice hotel, and I’m pretty sure the school had rented out the entire place. It was right on the beach, and our room faced the water. Very nice. In the evening, we had activities for the students, involving singing and chanting and whatnot. There was a water balloon passing activity, which was quite fun. It also degenerated into a water balloon fight, naturally. Then we all went in the water. After a little bit of swimming, we realised that the boys and girls were swimming in different sections, separated by a line of Thai teachers. Midly amusing. We had also been told before that “swimwear” meant shorts and a t-shirt. But we still had a blast, including splashing and sand-fights with the students and teachers. Also buried our friend Bank in the sand. Teehehehe. 

In the evening, we had dinner and more activities. The students were divided into groups, and each given a theme. We weren't told to do anything in particular, so we wandered around aimlessly for a little whille. Then, Laura and I decided to join a group of p6es who were doing a fashion show. We helped make a fisherman, bikinis and a ghost out of balloons, construction paper, newspaper, garbage bags, and tape. It was a lot of fun! Other groups presented stories, songs, sports, ASEAN, and more. Each group then presented their scene. Then the English teachers gave a special... presentation. This was a dance to a song called “I’m the best”, made popular by a group of Thai lady-boys on “Thailand’s Got Talent” (If you are curious, refer to the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFGTMSSLKNQ) . So their presentation involved lots of outrageous costumes, hilarious make-up, and Deaw and Bank dressing up like women. I nearly fell off my chair I was laughing so hard. 

After all the presentations were over, the students headed to bed. We all decided to hangout in our room for a while. We may have jumped on the bed. Laura, Anna and I also went to sit on the beach, which was completely deserted. We were staying near Ban Phe, which is the port you leave from to go to Ko Samet. You could see the island from our beach, which was kind of cool. It was lovely to be able to see the stars...

Sunday we got up early to have breakfast. Afterwards were more activities: the students rotated through various stations about homonyms, acronyms, synonyms, and other grammatical... things. We ended the morning by all singing and dancing to “Sha-lalalala” on the stage. 

We then had lunch, and left the hotel. On the way, we stopped at one of these giant shopping market stores, so the students and teachers could buy snacks and gifts for their families. I had been passed out on the bus, so was incoherent for much of this stop. We eventually made it home around 6:30pm, only 3 hours behind schedule! Hahaha! But it was a fun weekend for sure! And hopefully the students learned something...

Ko Samet Yet Again

Ko Samet Take 4

On the weekend of February 23-24, the foreign teachers and I decided to go to Ko Samet for our last hurrah as a group. It was also a holiday weekend: Monday was a Buddhist holiday, so no school! I thought it was very fitting that we go to Ko Samet, as this was the first place Anna and I travelled to together after arriving at our school. I have also now been to Ko Samet 4 times, and 3 of those times were since January. Haha...

Friday:

Anna, Laura and I decided to leave Friday night – as it was a long weekend, we were a bit worried about finding a room. We left our apartment at around 3:20pm, and caught a taxi to Ekemai bus station. The taxi took FOREVER – the traffic was ridiculous (I guess because it was the long weekend) and our driver took a slightly weird route. We ended up doubling back and going on another road with hardly any traffic. Grrrr... We eventually got out of the taxi about a block away from the station, and speed walked the rest of the way – we thought we would be able to catch the 5:00 bus (yes the taxi ride took about an hour and a half). However, when we arrived at the bus station, we discovered the next bus didn’t leave until 6:30pm (all the other buses leave on the hour). Lame. We then went for dinner at McDonalds.

We boarded the bus at 6:30 and were on our way. We managed to make friends with the little Thai boy sitting in front of us by making faces and explosion noises. He was very cute! I slept for much of the ride – I had had a really long week and was exhausted. The bus ride also took a long time – 4 hours. We finally arrived in Ban Phe around 10:30pm, and caught a speedboat to the island. Once we arrived, we spent a looooong time walking around looking for a room. Many hotels’ reception desks were closed, and the rooms we did find were like super-VIP rooms, and very expensive. Eventually, we found a room a bit on the pricey side, but it was all there was. We dropped off our stuff and got ready to go out. At this point I also had a massive headache, and it was about 1:30am. I walked on the beach for a bit with the girls, but decided I was feeling to lousy to stay out. So I went back to the room, and went to sleep.

Saturday:

I woke up at 8am on Saturday – the plan was to scout for another room early on. When I woke up, there was no sign of Anna or Laura. There had been talk about sleeping on the beach the previous night, so I wasn’t worried. I got ready and decided to start searching for a room while I waited for them to call me back. I was just walking up to Naga Guesthouse (where we have stayed before), when I ran into the two of them. They had decided to sleep on the beach on a couple of chairs. So we started our search together. Naga was full, and so was another hotel. The third place we checked, Jep’s, had ONE free room, and it just happened to be a fan room for 700B (for 3 people – pretty decent). So we snatched that up, and then went to ask around for Erin and Thomas. While we were having lunch, Thomas called and said he was feeling sick, so wouldn’t be able to come. But Erin was still planning on coming – yay girl’s weekend!

We spent most of the day sitting on the beach, eating snacks and drinking beer. The weather was cloudy, which I didn’t mind as I wouldn’t burn as easily. Erin arrived around 5pm and joined our beach party. Shortly after, we went for dinner at the Silver Sand Resort restaurant, which I have frequented several times now. While we were there, we made friends with an Italian guy and a British guy travelling together. After dinner, we went to the bar at Naga Guesthouse, where we found body paint and some other OEG participants. We painted ourselves up and danced like loons. The bar also had a muay-thai/boxing ring – we climbed in and practiced our “Body Combat” moves. Classy... Fun times were had.

Sunday: 

We all woke up pretty hung over, but dragged ourselves out of our bungalow for breakfast. We spent the rest of the day sitting/napping on the beach. It was very nice and relaxing. In the evening, we decided a slightly more relaxed night was in order. So we took our drinks and sat on the beach for a while. We found the most adorable puppy – sooooo cute! I always seem to run into the cutest baby animals on Ko Samet. We also ran into our Italian/British friends from the night before. Later on, the bar near us closed, so we moved to the bar at Naga again. We contented ourselves by ordering more drinks, then playing “Never Have I Ever” on the beach.  So nice...

Monday: 

We got up, checked out of our hotel, and headed for the beach. The sun had finally decided to come out: it was glorious. Our original plan had been to leave relatively early... This was scrapped by the beautiful weather. So we sat at Jep’s beachside restaurant, had lunch, then drank beers on the beach and in the shallows. It was lovely – just what a beach vacation should be like. I’ll just post some pictures now:

Eventually, we went to the ferry and back to Bangkok. We were all exhausted and sunburnt, so we pretty much passed out on the bus. Awesome weekend!

 It was a really great final weekend with the foreign teachers. As I’m writing this, they have all goen their separate ways to travel: Laura and Thomas are in Myanmar, Erin is in Laos and Anna is in Cambodia. I already miss having them around! We became quite close during the semester, and I hope that we will be able to remain in touch, and catch each other when we can. Talk of road trips across North America are already in the making. As for myself, I’m definitely glad I decided to stay another semester. I can’t imagine leaving now... I’ll be leaving in a couple weeks myself to go travelling, and I’m quite excited. But until then, I’ll be hanging around school. But I’m ready for my next adventure!