Halloween!

This kid was cracking me up all day

Friday was the Halloween celebration at my school. The three levels of kindergarten got together and had a fashion show to show off the costumes, a scary face contest, play pin the nose on the witch game, and hit piñatas. There were many spider mans, princesses, and some other creative costumes. One kid dressed up to what I thought looked similar to a doctor without his tools but was a Thai spirit hunter of some sort. We had our class practicing trick-or-treating by going to other classrooms around school. In the afternoon, I did a lesson on Halloween and what the holiday really is. I had my class do a worksheet with a connect the dots to make a jack-o-lantern and a haunted house maze on the back. The school tries to have a special activity every Friday and it was a fun transition into the weekend.

Scary Face Contest

Friday night, Jess and I went on a search determined to find pad thai. We went to the night market because there are dozen and dozens of different food stands, so one had to have it. We scoped out what people were eating and found a stand, asked for pad thai (luckly one of the girls there spoke English) and BINGO! We found it! It ties for the best meal I’ve had in Thailand with the pad thai I got in Bangkok. They didn’t have chicken so we basically ordered whatever pad thai the girl said they had, which was pad thai with egg. It was very heavy on the peanuts but still very tasty. I took a picture of the menu and the sign of the vendor so we can have someone translate the menu and also so we can find the stand again next time we go. We walked around a bit and missed the last songtell home since they stop running around 8pm. Luckly, our school coordinator Teacher Joke drove by as we were waiting for a songtell and she easily spotted us and gave us a ride home. Faragns are easy to spot here!

Yesterday, Jess and I explored our surrounding more. We walked down the main street past our school since we’ve never been over there. While we were walking, I spotted a little girl, Dream, whom I recognized from school. She yelled “Teecha Chelsea!” and ran right over. Her mom was full of smiles and I was very surprised that Dream remembered my name. She is in the KG2 class and spotted me doing playground duty one day and marched right up and asked me who I was. I have only seen her once or twice and she’s as cute as could be. Some kids are very shy around new foreign teachers, but Dream is just the opposite. She gave me a big hug and Jess and I were on our way. Some foreign teachers have described almost having a celebrity status here in Khon Kaen. Because there are so few foreigners in my town, people recognize you around town and teachers run into their students and parents all the time. There are not too many places to go other than the markets and mall, so I expect to have the occasional run-ins also.

Jess and I found a small market down the street from our school with lots of fresh fruit. I was able to buy some bananas! I have been on a search for them but have often only found the small bananas. This basically made my day. We’ve also found a restaurant with delicious cashew chicken about a ten minute walk from our house, which we have determined is our “go-to place” AKA “if we are too tired to search for something else, we go here”.

I’m beginning to get settled into a routine and almost know all of the kids names in my class. I’m still getting the hang of the whole teaching thing but hopefully I’ll get it down in a month or so. Even though I’m still homesick, I’m doing okay. :)

A songtell

A tuk-tuk