Laura's Year in Asia = Fun Stories

Here is the English Camp post with the pictures (hopefully) working this time!


On June 5th at 11am Miranda and I were told we were going to Nan that day to talk to the director of the school district about their english camp. At 2pm the same day we found out that us (and the two other GAP volunteers in Nan) would be running a 4 day English Camp for M.5 students (grade 10) starting tommorow. That's the way things are done around here!

We went back to Wiang Sa to pack up our stuff and the next morning headed to our hotel in Nan, and then to the Non-Formal education centre that we would call home for the next 4 days. As you can see, even the banner introducing the camp was misspelt - so we had a lot of work on our hands.... It was actually really fun though. The kids had a higher level of english than I was used to, so we could play games, sing songs, and do activities that had some meat to them. The section I was teaching was called "reading and writing" so we got about 80 old magazines, mostly National Geographics from the 1980s, and the students chose an article they were interested in, had to read it and then write a summary. Some of them were incredible, but when it came time to read their summaries to the class it was evident where their english needed help. Their pronounciation was awful, But it was actually helpful to identify where the attention was needed and at the next english camp we're going to focus a lot on speaking. One of my students chose an old edition of the economist to write his summary on. He ended up writing about an article on gay marriages in California...yikes! So cute when he would come up to me and ask me definitions of "Govenor of California" and "jurisdiction".

The camp was more fun than work for the students though - during meals and at free time we would chat with them about everything, and they got to meet tons of other students from the province. We played games that involved covering everyone with baby powder (teaching students ON, IN, LEFT, RIGHT words....put the baby powder in your left hand and then on your partners head) Us teachers defenitly were the first to get covered, Jeeze.....as if I couldn't get any whiter!!!

The last night of English Camp was a talent show, and in Thailand that means its time for the Lady Boys to shine. There were about 5/6 at our camp, and went crazy. We had a Miss. Thailand show where they dressed up in drag and did a beauty pagent, there was a lot of Thai dancing and singing, and our Thailand Idol competition provided more than a few future RuPauls!!!

After 4 HARD and exhausting 16 hour days, and with our completion certificates, pocket money, and gifts from the teachers in hand, we decided we not only needed a night on the town but some good ol' western food. So we met up with another 2 English teachers who are teaching in Nan and basically ran the English camp for a couple days (also they're Canadian!) - and had superb Pizza/Pasta dinner (again Julia's eating Thai food in Greece and i'm eating Italian food in Thailand.....)then went out. It was so fun - first time i've been out out since Bangkok! We went to this Thai coppertank style bar that was all bamboo, with a live band that was basically the Thai-Bon Jovi. Bought our Sangsom whiskey bottles from the stores accross the street for 1/2 the price and brought them over to enjoy. Then took motorcycles over to ChannelX nightclub - pronounced in thaienglish "cshanex" - fun place to dance, but it made the PIT Pub look like Crush Champagne Lounge.... and had a great time dancing to thai music and basically getting stared at all night. But nothing i'm not already used to

Stayed out pretty late that night, which didn't bode well for our 9am bus to Chaing Mai the next morning, but we made it to the bus station where I had a nice nap on the plastic chairs. Luckly we shelled out the extra 50 Baht to get an 1st class aircon bus, I don't think I would have made it.