To the South!

A popular school event here in Thailand is the Sport's Day. And from what I understand, it's much like an American school's Field Day or whatever. However, it's on a much larger scale here. Everyone gets all trained and hyped up over one day of sports. Not to say that American students aren't motivated...it's just here they're REALLY excited about it here.

So how does this get my all the way to the South of Thailand?

Well my school is apparently one of four different schools around Thailand. So each year the large group Sport's Day is hosted at one of the school's. This year, it happened to be at the school in the very South of Thailand. Initially, I wasn't going to go because I am (and probably never will be) good at sports. However, our school's director wanted Jill and I to go along so the three other schools could see the exchange students and such. What made the trip even more tempting was that we were going with the teachers who went around traveling the few days before the actual Sport's Day. So I packed up all my things for a good four days of traveling!

On the first day, we pretty much lived on the big tour bus the school had rented for all of us to travel with. It was actually quite a comfortable place...for a bus. There were chairs and couches as well as a television that could also be used for karaoke. Although it was kind of a pain to sleep while the bus bounced on the "perfect" Thai roads.

In the day we stopped at a few temples and other cool sights, but in the evening we went to the school for a dinner show performed by the students. I must say, for students, Thais are really talented. The bands were awesome, comic plays funny, and dances over the top. With all this going on, eating my food was the furthest thing from my mind. Though I did end up eating till I was full eventually.

We went back to the hotel and slept until the early morning. We then traveled even further to the South to the tip of Thailand that borders Malaysia. And then...we actually went to Malaysia! I was a little scared at first because my VISA only allowed me to stay in Thailand. Though when I found out we wouldn't be staying for long, I was a bit more relieved.

There was a shopping center in Malaysia that happened to take baht (Thai currency), so we all stopped there for a few hours to shop until we dropped. I wanted to buy some clothes, but just ended up buying a bunch of Malaysian souvenirs for my friends and such. Look out America. I'm coming back with a lot. LOL

By the time we got back to the hotel, it was dark again so we slept until the Sport's Day the next morning. The event started with all the schools' directors giving a speech and then a parade created by all four of the school's.

Then there was a soccer game played by the coaches, which was quite funny more than serious. I don't know, I guess it was a little odd watching the old guys play sports like teenagers, heh. Oh, but the teenagers got their chance to play next. It was my school v. another one so needless to say I was quite passionate about the game. Okay, not as passionate as my coordinator who was screaming in Jill's and my ears every time the players moved, hehe.

Different people from our school would dance to our school song or cheer in big groups. And towards the end of the game, Jill and I decided to join them. However, our cheers must not have been that strong because the other team won: 2-0. It doesn't matter though, I'm proud to be with my school!

The Sport's Day closed with the directors giving another small speech and then we all gathered on the grass of the soccer field to hold hands in union. After all, we were all the same school just coming together for fun.

It was back to the bus for us then. And we spent another night trying to sleep with the bumpy roads. Oi, I was glad to have a bed after this, heh.