the school hall. during opening ceremony.
28th nov to 7th dec
teaching M2/3. they are a bunch of kids who are 13-14 year olds. their english standard is pretty bad. coz majority of the time, they don't really understand us, and we don't understand them either. yup. language barrier. a major problem. we started drawing and using sign languages. besides not paying attention in class and being a little cheeky, they are pretty good students. oh yes, we were supposed to teach english, maths, science and IT. it ended up besides english and IT, the rest of the syllabus we brought over cannot be really used. xue ling and i (we were teachin the same class) just decided what syllabus we should teach, estimating their standards. we started out supposedly to do simultaneous equations, but ended doing 9 times table and fractions. science, it was mainly experiments. egg with vinegar. yup. IT they learnt how to use the movie maker. at least that wasn't too bad. LOL. >.< pew was my tutee. she's from M3/1. she's a sweet girl. didn't manage to get her picture with me. but i will always remember her. she sent me off when we were leaving. and hugged me when it was the last night i tutored her. i nearly cried that night.
that's nam and clash. the common mode of transportation is motorbikes. they learn to ride it usually from age 12-13 years old. oh yah, they were on their way to cut bamboo.
1st dec to 2nd dec
we had a science camp at the national park in thailand. i took group 10. sib. yes. and i taught them this super singaporean cheer that came straight to my mind. with tributes to zhi jue. hahah.
we've got a fever
we're hot
we can't be stopped (x2)
we've got the
yan dao
chio bu
yan dao
chio bu
can't be stopped (x2)
woooahhhh group 10!
imagine thai people shouting this cheer. then they taught me and jen yun (my partner for camp) another.
L (clap x3)
O (clap x3)
V (clap x3)
E (clap x3)
love you...love you..... (with hand signs)
omg. it was so funny. i think i was crazy during the camp lah. and they are super innovative during the activities. and we taught the borriquto dance. shouted my lungs out when giving instructions for dance. pretty wild. LOL. but the camp turned out pretty successful with all the science demonstrations and experiments and cheers. i believe that the students enjoyed themselves. then after the science camp, we went trekking.
CAN YOU BELIEVE IT. TREKKING.
the slope was so steep that it was nearly vertical. and the thai students just walked with ease (in slippers, for your information). once you fall, you'll definitely die lah. me being a klutz, nearly fall to death many times. believe me, i guess the thai students with us must seriously be laughing at me. VERY HARD. coz after the uphill and downhill, we had to walk along the river. this is when i keep falling into the water. i think i fell like over 10 times? and i gave up trying to keep myself dry. oh yes, and we saw the wonderful waterfall! it was very very nice! not very big, yet the water was very very cooling. coz i went in. LOL. i was dirty all over. obviously, me a klutz? i think i'll hate trekking for the rest of my life. i am so glad that i'm not in odac. it's really not my type of thing.
5th dec (king's birthday)
it was a holiday. no school. so we went sight seeing. the only deeper impression thing was to light candles at night to pray for the king.
8th dec
it was sobmoei wittayakhom school's sports day. yes, on saturday. i was in seedam (red). the students were a little dead during the track event. but when it came to the volleyball match. WOAH. damn cool. their volleyball match was superb. professionals. LOL. i was cheering so hard until i was losing my voice. now my voice is hoarse. started playing volleyball with some of the students after the match. i think i was pretty horrid. then seedam came in first for football. and the singapore versus thai students football match......you can easily guessed it.
9th dec
homestay! yay! it's so cool. they live in wooden houses on stilts. living with me in the same village were seelek, angeline, daryl, james and jen yun, who lived in the same house as me. our host was mint, from M5/1. me being a klutz again went into their house and knocked my head onto the ceiling. the ceiling was low. i think they seriously have this deep impression of me banging my head. omg. coz the next time i enter the room, the grandfather reminded me not to knock my head, using hand signs.
they also had 2 friendly dogs who fought for their food. lol. we went fishing. and to reach there, we went on motorbikes. yes, and it was 3 to 1 bike, with no helmets. going uphill and downhill. it was thrilling! all of us loved it. it was so cool. mint ferried jen yun and me. didn't really fish anyway. became sight seeing. then we went on trekking again. coz they brought us to see the waterfall. got my only clean pair of jeans wet. i took off my shoes and walked. gave up walking in shoes. i realise i fall more times in shoes than barefooted. then they went to cut bamboo to make bamboo rice. i was holding on to my full bladder. weren't i glad to finally get back and relieve myself. and at night we watched SEA games, discussing....and had some sort of campfire (to cook the bamboo rice) where james and the thai people just played the guitar and sing. we saw beautiful stars. very very nice. the other time i saw the stars was when i was sitting on the pick up truck. cool. it was overall a fun homestay.