Field Trip!

Had our first field trip of the year today. Grades 1-3 in the English Program (about 175 kids) came to school in our PE uniforms, loaded up in small vans and headed out on the town. We were originally supposed to head to a pottery making camp out in the forest, but because of dengue (still no, but I got bit three times today, so I'm 97% positive I've contracted it), being in the forest, and this being the rainy season, we changed plans and instead headed on a tour of some of Chiang Mai's more famous wat's. (temples). Walked to three of them throughout the morning, then loaded back up in the vans and headed to the Chiang Mai National History Museum, for both lunch and a tour of the museum. About to head out for burgers, some thoughts on the day:

Have been looking forward to this field trip for weeks, since they announced it. Day out of the classroom, no teaching, it was on Thursday, my busiest day of the week. Pretty much a win-win...win. Plus we are going on a field trip! But on about Monday I realized, wait a second, I am not going on this as a student, or even as an observer. No, I'm the teacher, and I'm going to be leading 32 six year-olds around town, crossing streets, and then into some of the most holy and reverent places in Northern Thailand. This wasn't going to be a rest day, if anything it would probably be way more stress and work than on a normal day. In truth, it was somewhere in the middle. No, I couldn't take my time after lunch or peruse ESPN.com on my free periods, but it was nice to get out of the classroom, and nice to be able to chat with some of the grade 2 and 3 teachers who I don't get to see that often. The kids were mostly very well behaved, and they had fried chicken legs and sticky rice for lunch...and I had 4 of them.

I guess I should know this because it the same for me and I'm 24, but is amazing how much young children's moods are affected by being hungry. We were walking through our first wat at 9:30 and they were already moaning about being hungry! At each wat we would go into the main part of the temple, the students would wai and bow and sit down and we would listen to a monk who lived at that particular temple talk about the temple and its history or Buddhism or whatever he was talking about. This is all in Thai of course, so I'm sitting in the back with Mai and she is roughly translating whats going on for me if it was interesting. So at the first temple, its maybe 9:45, this monk is talking forever. And he is telling this long beautiful story about this goat that outwitted a tiger, some metaphor for something or other. And he is going on and on and the kids are kinda losing interest. So finally he stops, and he asks if there are any questions. And this little girl Lily stands up and goes, 'When do we eat?' Haha, brought the house down.

The temples are beautiful, but when we come in and sit down, its on a hard floor. And its very impolite in Thai culture to point your feet at someone. So when you sit, you have the option of sitting cross-legged, kneeling, or in this sort of, on the side of your legs with your feet to the side and pointing back behind you, position. All of them...terribly uncomfortable. I could not be Thai, if only for my lack of floor sitting aplomb.

The museum was cool, but most of my time was spent herding children and trying to keep them from running ahead or falling to far behind. I joked to the other 3 1st grade teachers that I felt like a sheep dog trying to heard sheep and keep them in a pack. And by the end of it, I could tell my kids were pretty tired and worn out from the day. We trudge back to the hot van and all 16 boys in my class climb in. Scarcely had we sat down when the whining began. 'Teacher Mike, Chan is annoying me.' 'Teacher Mike, Poon move AirCon.' 'Teacher Mike, Teacher Mike, Teac...' 'ENOUGH! EVERYONE IS GOING TO BE QUIET FOR TWO MINTUES! SONG NATEE! SHUSH!' (Silence) And after channeling my inner father, I literally climbed in the back of the van to reallocate all of our air vents. And what do you know, by the time we got back to school, half the van was asleep.

TPWWLT - Anamanaguchi - 'Jetpack Blues Sunset Hues'