So, just like I said before, Wednesday - Friday was sports week!

Wednesday morning, unbeknown to me, I was getting picked up by another teacher from my school. His name is Paul (or something like that!) and he speaks ok English... PLUS he played English music in the car, so I was up for that. He was loving a bit of John Lennon and Jason Mraz, so that went down pretty well.

As soon as I got to school, Khai (one of the English teachers) came to get me, to take photos with some of the students, who were dressed up in their full Thai dancing gear. Very snazzy! They all arrived early to get ready for the opening ceremony; serious business!

Anyway, we got going with the opening ceremony, with students carrying flags and signs of their team's colour. Some boys dressed as girls as well - preparing them early to be Ladyboys - apparently this is normal..! Students were carrying signs and banners, and wearing masks (of Barack Obama and other politicians) and all sorts of different things. They get a lot more into it than we do at home for Sports Day!

As the week went by, I watched quite a lot of Volleyball (they love it here!), which helped me learn the Thai numbers, and also joined the cheerleaders for some of it (they get judged on the cheering as well!). On the last day, there are big football matches between the older year groups, interspersed with some tug of war and sack races. All the time, there are teachers on the microphone, commentating (I assume), cheering and speaking to the students. Every now and again, I hear my name, or 'farang' (foreigner) or 'Angrit' (England), and know they're talking about me, but as usual, have no idea what's going on!

The prizes on the last day were given out, with a proper podium. They were given massive tins of biscuits and crisps wrapped in ribbons! Not bad prizes! I am on the red team, so was with them most of the time. Have to say though, the blue team got very into it! When the prizes were given out, every time they won anything, the drummer went for it, and a load of the students (and teachers!) would get up and dance along!

At the end, the flags were lowered, and there was a closing ceremony. After, there was a 'staff party' - they say this is very important for relations at work, that everyone gets on, which I think is a good shout! We had food and drinks, and then they got me to do karaoke... Nobody else seemed to be doing it, except a couple of men who'd already had a couple drinks, but I was expected to do it. There weren't a lot of English songs either so didn't have a lot of options! Before I went home, they made me do another song as well, and one of the teachers gave me 100 baht!! Apparently this is the norm over here...!

Friday night, we headed to Surin, ready for the elephant festival. We waited for the bus at the police station, but 2 buses just went straight past us, so some local people from the place we normally eat offered to take us on their mopeds. Me and Sylvia on the back with the girl, Alex and Sam with the boy, and they took us to the bus station. As we got there, the bus was pulling out, but we managed to get on :) Had to stand for a bit, then spotted a seat at the back. A Thai guy was asking me about the elephant show, and we got chatting - he's a journalist in Bangkok, and he had the best conversational English I have heard since being in Thailand! Always so nice to have someone you can just speak to normally! :)

That night, had a chilled one, with some good live music in the reggae bar. Then spent a lot of Saturday figuring out how we get tickets for the elephant show...! We went to City Hall, as we'd been told to, and we were told (or so we thought) that there were no tickets and we had to go directly to the stadium. Started walking, and a lady stopped us to say that the off-duty policeman, who had a pick up, would give us a lift there! It's so nice the way random people just want to help us! Anyway, in the end, it turned out that we couldn't get tickets until the day...

We spent the rest of the afternoon looking around the markets, with elephants casually strolling round everywhere we went! There were lots of cool stands, and incredible ice cream, that they make for you there and then on a cold plate (I had oreo and banana!). We got stopped a few times by some school students from Surin, who'd been sent out to interview foreigners, and practise their English, too.

The following day, we had an early start to go to the Elephant show. Some of the other people who live here hadn't enjoyed it because of the animal welfare issues etc, but I really enjoyed it, and I thought the elephants seemed well looked-after, and well trained! They were spinning hula hoops on their trunks, playing football (it went to penalties!), playing basketball, and all sorts of things! Very funny/cute to watch. They also did a parade, along with lots of local people, as a mock-up battle from history. There was lots of thai dancing too. A good show, I thought!

This week, back to teaching... I tried a few things, but the level of English even for the 17-18 year olds is really not very high, so I am having to go back to basics! The lower levels, I've been doing 'telling the time', which is going ok... The students are scared to get things wrong though, so don't do much talking, even when I ask them to work in pairs! We're getting there though, and they mostly come out of my lessons smiling, and with slightly better pronunciation, so that's the main thing!

Tonight we are due to be going to a birthday party, of a local person who lives in Prakonchai, so I'll let you know how that goes!

Want to know everyone's updates from home, and your thoughts on my blogs (if no comments, I don't think anyone is reading!)...

Hope to speak with you all soon.

And any Christmas activity ideas are much appreciated too - so far, we are singing songs, and making paperchains/snowflakes! :D

Lots of love xxx