Today we did a lesson on letters V and W with all our bpratom classes and I'm really sorry that I didn't get any pictures that weren't super blurry, we had so much fun!  V and W are difficult in Thai, and they are often mixed up, so it was great to have time to isolate and practice the sounds.  We used the Have Fun Teaching videos on YouTube with some dances I made up (I've found that the class is more comfortable and practices the phonics more when following a leader than simply dancing crazy). 
For each song there's a movement for the intro, the phonetic sound, and then another action for the vocabulary covered in the song.  For the letter V we did the grapevine to the intro, and it was fun sharing some line dancing/culture with all my students, and they had fun getting their feet tangled a bit, smile.  After practicing the sound a bit more, [v] with teeth and lip, like [f] but voiced, or like the sound a motorbike might make, we got to dancing around.  The letter V song gave us the word 'venom', and I took the action straight out of Monty Python's Search for the Holy Grail; it was the 'nasty, pointed teeth!' movement, and that caused a lot of laughter.  Later, after practicing the sound for [w] (all done with the lips!) the song featured some dancing inspired by Little Richard (he and Bollywood videos are my go-to when I'm stuck for a dance move the kids can do, smile), and the most fun we had with the dancing was when given the word 'wild', which gave us all the opportunity to jump around waving our hands in the air.  So much fun!
It was a great day in class, for both students and teachers!

My favourite soup (currently) is made of Morning Glory leaves and vines, boiled with cloves of garlic, chili peppers, and various other spices.  Nowadays, however, I go through it with a fork before eating, because a while back I found an earthworm in amongst my delicious green tendrils.  Now, the day after I found it I realized that the problem was I could see and identify the worm as a worm; if it had been chopped up and sauced or something and I couldn't see or taste what I was eating, it wouldn't have been a problem...but it took me a day to come to that conclusion.  However, when people noticed I was examining my food before eating and heard I'd found a worm, their first reaction was, "Oh, good!  That means the greens were organic!" or "Oh, that's great!  No chemicals!"
The reason I'm relating this story to you isn't to gross you out or anything, but to highlight the connection people in my community have with the Earth.  People here forage (yes, there are 7-11s relatively nearby, but food is growing on trees around the school--we'll eat that!), go to the market for fresh fruits and vegetables at least twice a week (some go daily), and grow their own food, at least herbs and spices.  I don't know if it's a country/city or Thai/American comparison I should be making, but I feel awfully grateful to be able to experience both ways of life!

Last community day I visited Ban Thon Chok and had a great time.  We did a review of songs we'd learned  before and then, because the last time I was there I know they learned body parts, we did the Genki lesson Doctor, Doctor, which uses body parts and being able to say, for example, "My arm hurts," or "My tooth hurts."  We also made certain to go over that it's one tooth, one foot, and then teeth and feet, smile.

After a great morning, I went back to my school and had fun with the bpratom 1 kids playing "What Time is it, Mr. Fox?".  They all know numbers 1-10 (and we sing Ladybug's Picnic, which recites numbers 1-12), so we had fun counting out steps, chasing one another, and running and squealing.  Smile.  It was a great day!  I wish I'd gotten photos of that, even when they were wishboning me a little, laughing madly.  So much fun!

I had the opportunity to work with Kruu Pick-o again (I worked with him for Kruu Beau's English Camp last month) and help with his English Camp, which was very fun.  Smile, when we first arrived the banner was misspelled, hence the title of this post, but it was fixed with some sticky paper, and all was well.
I met some new people, we sang, danced and played games together, and it was a wonderful time!

We did a 3-day training for school directors, and we had so much fun!  It was a great way to get to know the directors in our area a little better, and nice to see school directors outside of school.  One of my favourite activites was the balloon popping game, where we put questions inside balloons and you sit on them to pop them and answer the questions inside.  I tell you, have a group of adults play a game that involves sitting on balloons--so much laughter!  My other favourite activity was when we had the directors practice writing out their school mottos, visions, and mission statements.  Everyone was so proud of their school, especially the smaller schools, which I didn't expect (I guess it was my American 'bigger is better' mentality).  Every director knows how important their job is, how important their school is for the students, and it was wonderful to be in a room with so many dedicated directors.

Our school hosted a special Career Day event today, where there were brief lessons given by people who hold different jobs in the community.  There were arts and crafts sessions, cooking lessons, a Thai massage session, and other neat events.  Now, for the younger kids who are nowhere near looking into careers, we got to play games and practice some English!  It was super fun, but with bpratom 1-3 there were a lot of kids to wrangle!

I went to one of the schools in my district to play games and sing songs on a community day, and it was super fun!  Aside from the Paper Ball game and Bring Me that you see pictures of here, we played Hang Man with a spider (you draw the spider's legs, so students get 8 failed guesses for letters) so the kids could work on their spelling, and we played Hot Potato with the fruits before the paper ball game.  So much fun!

Last weekend, the 9th to the 12th was a long weekend in celebration of Wan Meh, or Mother's Day!  Loads of people were travelling, and I waa one of the many who took the opportunity to see some of the adventures that Thailand had to offer away from site.

Okay, I'm really sorry that it took a long time for these photos, but not only are there tons of pictures, but it also took me a long time to get all the comments to save properly.  Arrgh!

Getting back from Reconnect we had time to unpack, and then jumped right into English Camps and other activities!  First on the bill was an ASEAN/English camp at Tam Taub Dao school; if you remember, we went to Tam Daub Dao for Kan's birthday, and this camp was held at the nearby school associated with that temple.  Back in the day, Monks were the educators at schools, so there are many, many wats with schools attached, or at least nearby.

Okay, I had to get out my calendar to review and write this post, and though I lack photos from a number of events, I think you can still see how busy it was!  That was from mid-July through the beginning of August, and that first weekend in August I felt so happy I had time to do my laundry and a little bike maintenence!

After a few days of walking around Chiang Mai, we headed down to reconnect.  Getting up early and onto a double decker bus, we arrived at the station in Nakhon Sawan later than we expected, but still within the allotted time.  We took a tuk-tuk to the hotel, which was super fun for me, as it was my first time on a tuk-tuk!  Since then, however, I've taken them to get to the brycanee (post office) as well as Wat Kiri Wang.  They are quite possibly my favorite mode of transportation; even in the rain!

Reconnect was loads of fun, because in addition to seeing our fellow PCVs and getting more ideas for being effective at site (now that we knew our situation better, as opposed to PST when we didn't really have a clue what we were walking into!) we had time to visit with our co-teachers outside of class.  I think I want to make an effort to do something fun with Kan that doesn't involve planning each month, even if it's just going to see a movie, smile.  ...We saw Transformers 4 (?) while at Reconnect; thank goodness the acting was so transparent, because we watched it in Thai!