The big flood???

When I want to get updates on what is going on, I talk to my favorite teacher, Klu Kheng! This time when she is giving me the down low...she tells me that in October we are going to have a flood! She said that every 4 years in Thailand it floods and this is the year! The last time there was a flood, the water in my house was up to my waist and in her house was over her head! Obviously I was a bit concerned! She said that you have to boat everywhere...even in and out of your house! I could only imagine the gross water that the flood would bring and who knows WHAT kind of creatures with it! Klu Kheng told me that there are sometimes crocodiles in the water also. I'm still not sure if she was just pulling my leg! She said that she really wanted me to experience a flood because it is quite something! I agreed that it would be neat to experience but also quite intense! Unfortunately (maybe!), after about 3 or 4 weeks, Klu Kheng came to me and said that she didn't think it was going to flood because the rains had slowed. I didn't know if I was disappointed or thankful!
It's humorous to me when I try very hard to use the little bit of Thai whenever I can...and then when I greet someone in Thai and ask how they are doing, they reply to me in English! They always get a big smile on their face when I speak Thai! Sometimes I feel like a celebrity here with how the Thai people treat me. They are always coming up and want to know about me or invite me over to their house or to teach them and their children English.  As I was walking to lunch one day I had two girls on a bike pass me and they turned around and wanted to take a picture with me!
This picture is from an assembly I had to sit through for 2 hours (not understanding a word of course!) on street safety!

Here are a few of my students.

The last 2 months I have really tried hard to drill key, important words in my classes so that the students can recognize these words and understand what to do. Instead of me just explaining what to do, I have the students read the directions and pick out these key words to try to figure out what they need to do. I have been very impressed with how well they are understanding. 
Here is a little fun activity I did with the kids where they had to stare at a picture for so long and then look at another picture and it would play a trick on your eyes! They loved it!

Sometimes it is still difficult dealing with the lack of interaction or being able to communicate with people. During the day I am able to speak to my Thai translators and the heads of my program but in the evening I really only have one person to speak English to! Thus lately I have been going to Lopburi, a nearby town, that has a lot of foreign teachers or a lot of foreigners passing through, just to get a small fix of interaction! 

Every day at lunch and after school, the kids sweep, mop, take out the trash and clean the windows. I guess they maybe do this to instill a good work ethic at a young age!  Whenever the students or people put their hands together when they are saying a chant to Buddha, I would always do it too because I thought I was supposed to do it out of respect, but I had a teacher tell me that I should NOT do it!

 While riding home one day and then also on the bicycle ride to school one morning, I encountered a big water monitor, which is like a giant lizard! Both of these I saw were roughly 5-6 feet long! I'm not exactly sure if they would actually hurt me, but just to be safe I took a different route! 

Here are a few pictures of some other creatures that were either in my house or outside it!

I got to attend a teacher retirement party at school. It was quite something! This party was for teachers that have been teaching for 30 plus years. I feel like in America they don't make this big of deal for teachers retiring...especially the school you are at doesn't go through all this trouble and spend all this money on a party for the teachers retiring! 

To show your thanks to the teachers you would go through a line and pour water over their hands. Even the farang got to be included and participate!

I also took a picture with some of the "entertainment" that was later that evening! It's obvious to see that I am quite a bit taller than all of these Thai ladies, but what is funny is that I am wearing flip flops and they are all wearing high heels!

I could NOT get over how many gifts were given! There was at least one HUGE table overloaded with gifts for each teacher and they spent an hour just taking pictures of people giving gifts to these teachers who were retiring!  The best part (and why I went!) was the food! There were about 8 different courses that were brought to our table. For those who know me and my picky eating, will be proud to hear that I tried everything! (Well, ALMOST everything! I did not eat the black eggs!). It was quite interesting how they eat. They don't have a big plate for you to load up, you get very small bowl that you fill up. I like this because it causes you to eat very slowly and to not gorge yourself!

Here are some pictures of the courses of food that we got to partake it!

I have noticed many times since I have been living in Thailand and it was prevalent yet again at this party, how much culture and how rich the culture is in Thailand. Sometimes I feel like in America we have no culture because we all come from many different backgrounds and don't really participate in or do a lot of things that are relevant to our culture.