This past weekend we went into Nakhon Phanom again, but this time for a scavenger hunt. Michelle, Amanda, and Zach were on my team and we were the Lemon team. So of course, our first order of business was to get lemons at the Fresh Market. They actually don’t have lemons here, so we had to get the yellowest oranges we could find (which are actually green…hmmm). For the scavenger hunt, we had to get pictures of about 20 items/places, and we wanted our lemons to be in each and every picture to help represent the team. We also wanted to practice speaking with as many people as possible, so we wanted people to be in our pictures holding lemons too. This caused quite a few hilarious moments throughout the day…especially with the Tuk Tuk drivers and the police-man.
The most memorable part of the day was when we went to the SP Hotel (the “official” hotel of WorldTeach visits to the city). While we were there we figured it would be a good place to ask for directions to Jes’ office, which we knew was farther away and hard to get to. The hotel owner couldn’t quite describe it to us, so he decided to drive us instead. For those of who are worried at this point, ahem Mom, don’t be. He was the owner, and asked us a bunch of questions about last year’s volunteers, so it was pretty legit. When we got to the office, we were so close to the finish line that we decided to end our hunt there, even though there were still 3 things left to find. We’d also heard (incorrectly) from another team that we were in the last places. Turns out we were actually the 2nd team to arrive to Jes’ apartment and would have had time to finish before the last team arrived. The scavenger hunt was a really great way to learn the city and figure out where all the necessities are. In our last visit, we just followed other people around like ducklings and had no idea how to get from one place to the next.
It was good we cut our hunt short though, because Nakhom Phanom was hopping! Because of the Fire Boat Festival (Rua Fi) this weekend, there were vendors from all over Thailand setting up shop, and one of the roads was closed for a huge market/carnival. We’ll be heading back to the city this weekend (this time overnight) for the festival. I’m really excited about it because Nakhon Phanom is known for this festival, so I know it will be a great time. The PA of Pla Pak also arranged for us to go early Saturday morning to That Phanom (the largest city/temple that my placement is closest to) for a huge dance show where 300 groups will be performing.
Back home at Pla Pak, orientation is officially over. Yesterday we finished our last Thai and TEFL classes. Today we had our first of six days of Practicum. Local students have volunteered to come to our classes during their vacation to learn a little more English and meet all the new farang. There are five practicum groups, 2 for high school and 2 for elementary. Amanda and I are working together in our classroom of 45 high school students. High school here is 7-12 grade, so we have the younger group for 2 hours each day.
Because its their vacation, we didn’t want to do anything too academic, so we’re focused on building vocabulary while teaching them about American culture. Today we went over rules and had a scavenger hunt to try to get to know each other better. After Amanda’s part of the lesson and seeing the extreme shyness of my students I was worried about how the scavenger hunt would go. They seemed to just give us blank stares a lot. After modeling a bunch of times, and in smaller groups they finally got it, and the game took off! I was so impressed and excited that I got them talking to each other and me in English (I sneaked a question that only applied to me and Amanda on their hunt). It was a lot of fun, and I’m excited to get back in the classroom tomorrow!
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