A Jack of All Thai Trades

Well, my summer is officially over! How sad. I spent the week at school, attending meetings and planning the year. I also completed a three day Culture Training course, along with the other foreign teachers. It's a mandatory course, implemented by the government, for all foreigners who wish to teach in Thailand. Some of it was boring, and some of it was quite interesting.

 

We had a lot of staff get-togethers throughout the week- which included going for supper at my favourite restaurant on the river. Our school has expanded even more this year, and we have quite a few new teachers (including another Saskatchewanian!) They all seem like an awesome bunch.

As part of our Culture Training, we went to a tourist/cultural centre just outside Bangkok. It ended up being a ton of fun.
We learned all sorts of things, like how silk is extracted from cocoons.

200 to 300 metres of silk can be reeled from a single cocoon- crazy!

We took turns painting an umbrella, the traditional Thai way.

The umbrella I painted.
(Not actually)

We learned some Thai dance.

 

We made fish out of palm leaves. Lots of steps!

All us ladies and our fish.

We did some pottery.

My heart pot!

We learned how to grate coconut and make banana wraps.

We made some flower decorations with fresh orchids.

We learned about rice.

We saw some Thai games/dances.

We learned how to make a Thai herbal compress with all of these ingredients.

I did some teaching and scolding.

Hey, who put this snake on my head?!