a big group hug

sports day (which is actually a week and a half of sports playing and about two months of preparation) is officially over. if i know high school kids, at least half of'em are out finding beer/wine coolers/cheap thai whiskey to imbibe this evening. well deserved, kids.

at the end of the two days of solid competition, there was a huge awards ceremony to give out trophies to all the winners--the football champs (boys/girls, m1-3/m4-5), the volleyball champs, the netball champs, the basketball champs, the overall sports champs, and the dance champs. an unusual silence fell over the crowd when they announced the winners for that one.

right as they announced the dance champs, the monsoon season came in with full force. pouring rain, all over all the kids who were sitting all over a dirty, soon-to-be-extremely-muddy field. at first everyone ducked for cover. but then a couple boys came out into the rain on the field. they were joined by a few other boys, who all motioned for everyone to come out on the field. soon enough, everyone was back on the field, in the pouring rain.

they started singing and holding hands, grinch-style. and magically, the rain stopped. the song went on for a few minutes, all these kids from all these different teams, holding hands and belting out the words. as soon as the song ended, the rain came back. FREAKY MAGICAL SPORTS DAY COINCIDENCE? i think not.

the whole thing gave me chills. that they could have all these weeks of being on separate teams, competing against each other, losing to each other only minutes before, and now they were all singing and dancing in the rain together. no bitterness, no grudges, no complaining about how unfair the judging was.

these kids are amazing.

SPORTS DAY.

before i launch into my gushing over the gloriousness of sports day, i wanted to tell you i just had my first day tutoring The Man. it was great. he's studying to get a degree of some sort in vocational education even though he already has his phd in industrial engineering (i think...maybe it's his masters) and has already studying methods of industrial education in a bunch of other countries. in order to get this degree, he has to pass an english test. this is where maddy and i come in (she sees him tuesdays, me on thursday). his english isn't very good, but i think his biggest problem is his fear of saying things wrong. us grown ups have such a problem being wrong. this is why kids pwn at learning languages (plus some other stuff, but i think this ability to be wrong and ask questions is one of the biggest things kids have going for them).

ok ok sports day time. this day is phenomenal. it's like homecoming plus lip sync plus dancing plus speed. the kids have been working on this pretty much since the beginning of school. during 9th period--from 3:10 to 4, when nobody has class but nobody can leave school--they've been grouping according to their colors, either yellow, red, pink, green, blue, or pink. i'm pretty sure the school assigned these colors. they've been banging on drums, clapping their hands and chanting for no discernible reason.

today, we found out why. (go watch the video at the end. i know i'm demanding and i should really embed the video right here in the middle, but i didn't so you can just scroll and check it out a little ways down.)

each team has its own chant and a set of girls dance in the middle of the field in front of the whole school to their team's chant. their make up was INSANE. these girls are 16 years old--18 at best! most of these made up girls are my students and i spent half the morning trying to figure out who was whom. my favorite lady boy was dressed in his lady get up today. he was gorgeous, of course.

one of the biggest downsides to only seeing my kids once a week for an hour is that i never get to know them. it was awesome seeing'em outside the classroom today, absolutely rockin' it. a bunch of my boys who can't speak english for crap are excellent atheletes. go figure, eh?

seriously, watch the video. sorry for the butt shots.

on working in thailand

i don't do much of it.

this morning the former prime minister (not that one...this other one who's from suphan and friggin loves this place) came to school to give some kids some scholarships and speak and stuff. we were supposed to teach periods 4, 5, and 6 afterward, but after the prime minister guy left the school director was just like, "heyyyy you guys, don't worry about class today!" WOOOOO.

tomorrow and friday are sports day, which in terms of importance to high school students is like homecoming. of course we don't have class.

this means that I'M DONE FOR THE WEEK, BABY!

tattoo virginity

my body's still a clean canvas right now, but for a long time now i've been thinking about getting a tattoo. i wanna get one for every place i've lived: san ramon, isla vista, paris, thailand (to be continued). thailand's up first just because i'm here now, and i dunno when i'll be back so i better get it while the gettin's good.

i had no idea what to get when i first came here. something buddhism related might be pretty, but i'm not buddhist whatsoever so that's not really significant to me. the thai language isn't really that important to me (i know, i know, judge as you will), so getting something in thai script would be silly. also, i'm not a big fan of word tattoos on my body.

but when i saw how incredibly talented my students are at drawing, it dawned on me--why not have a student design the tattoo?

today i asked some kids in my favorite class if they could draw flowers. they said no but called up The Artist of the class. and this is what i got:

perfect

i slept for about a zillion hours today

woke up late, laid in bed for a long time, walked about 30 feet, laid down again and took a nap. then i woke up and laid around some more.

it's been a really big day, you guys.