This last Friday was the 113th anniversary of my school's founding. Since 1900, Patumkongka has been preeminent in a lot of ways amongst the high schools here. There is no school called 'Bangkok High', but if there were, it might be my school.
As you saw in a recent post, we are big on ceremonies here. I skipped recording the morning, more formal, ceremony marking the school's birthday, instead I decided to share the evening's festivities where the students weren't invited. Instead, this party was for the staff and alumni, mostly alumni. They came back in droves. Old and respected men and women, young thugs drinking and smoking on the street outside the school, a dozen or so ladyboys coming back to their high school dressed as women where they were once boys, alumni who are parents of boys attending the school they once did. If you included the crowds out on the street in front of the school, there must have been 2000 people attending this event.
Me, I enjoyed the free food.
In the USA, we have a school tradition called 'homecoming', usually marked by a football game, maybe a parade. That said, very few take it seriously. Who goes back to or shows pride in their high school in America? Very few. It's a lot more common in Bangkok, particularly at a school with the heritage of Patumkongka.
Here's the video:
I left the official gathering with my Chinese friend. We went and had a nice conversation about society and politics. On my home, I passes by the street my school is on. A large contingent of police had replaced the previous singing revelers from before...
As you saw in a recent post, we are big on ceremonies here. I skipped recording the morning, more formal, ceremony marking the school's birthday, instead I decided to share the evening's festivities where the students weren't invited. Instead, this party was for the staff and alumni, mostly alumni. They came back in droves. Old and respected men and women, young thugs drinking and smoking on the street outside the school, a dozen or so ladyboys coming back to their high school dressed as women where they were once boys, alumni who are parents of boys attending the school they once did. If you included the crowds out on the street in front of the school, there must have been 2000 people attending this event.
Me, I enjoyed the free food.
In the USA, we have a school tradition called 'homecoming', usually marked by a football game, maybe a parade. That said, very few take it seriously. Who goes back to or shows pride in their high school in America? Very few. It's a lot more common in Bangkok, particularly at a school with the heritage of Patumkongka.
Here's the video:
I left the official gathering with my Chinese friend. We went and had a nice conversation about society and politics. On my home, I passes by the street my school is on. A large contingent of police had replaced the previous singing revelers from before...
wow~! Looks like a good party!
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