I don’t know if it is because I work at one of the most renowned
government high schools in the country or if other schools find room in
their budget to do this too, but last weekend, the entire school staff,
about 125 of us, got on a couple buses and traveled the 50 miles or so
down the coast to Pattaya, one of Thailand’s premier beach destinations.
The school put us up in a very nice hotel, fed us several times and all we had to do was go with a modest itinerary of team-building activities in payment. The main afternoon activity was ‘learn English with the foreigners’ class, where my three other colleagues and I gave English lessons to the rest of the staff in 4 groups of 30.
My English lesson was simple. Write 3 interesting things about yourself on a piece of paper. Fold that page up into a paper airplane. Park it in the ‘airport’. I then picked up the first paper airplane at random, threw it in the air, and whoever it landed closest to had to open it up, read it and then guess who wrote it. The guesser then threw the next plane.
It went over great. Only one person came to close to losing an eyeball.
In the evening, we ate, listened to our principal speak and sang karaoke. I brought my ukulele with me. It wasn’t my suggestion, but when they asked me to go up on stage and perform, I couldn’t resist.
I sneaked out about an hour before our director 'released' the rest of the staff. I walked around. Got a nice massage, and that was pretty much it.
Until 3:30 AM when my roommate was carried home...
The school put us up in a very nice hotel, fed us several times and all we had to do was go with a modest itinerary of team-building activities in payment. The main afternoon activity was ‘learn English with the foreigners’ class, where my three other colleagues and I gave English lessons to the rest of the staff in 4 groups of 30.
My English lesson was simple. Write 3 interesting things about yourself on a piece of paper. Fold that page up into a paper airplane. Park it in the ‘airport’. I then picked up the first paper airplane at random, threw it in the air, and whoever it landed closest to had to open it up, read it and then guess who wrote it. The guesser then threw the next plane.
It went over great. Only one person came to close to losing an eyeball.
In the evening, we ate, listened to our principal speak and sang karaoke. I brought my ukulele with me. It wasn’t my suggestion, but when they asked me to go up on stage and perform, I couldn’t resist.
I sneaked out about an hour before our director 'released' the rest of the staff. I walked around. Got a nice massage, and that was pretty much it.
Until 3:30 AM when my roommate was carried home...
Darn this ipad. I won't be able to see if there is a video in that big black space until I get out of bed!
ReplyDeletedad and I often find dinosaurs and chickens becomes a common ear worm so we sing a few bars.
Joko, you are indeed a kind and somewhat naive soul--I hope the Thai don't eat you alive.
ReplyDeleteVery cute video--it takes a unique personality to make a cute video about Pattaya. This is a compliment, but look out for yourself.
One more thing--you've lost an obscene amount of weight--I'd love to see a blog post about your daily excerise/diet regimen, because whatever you're doing is working.
ReplyDeleteNice massage hey? ;)
ReplyDeleteI crack up every time when I hear Thai karaoke.
Why does Anonymous say that they hope Thai won't eat you alive? they are not bad people. I don't think you should be worried.
Hi, You do look like you have lost some weight. Keep it up! Loved the video. You had them captured.
ReplyDelete