Games Day

There is a national children's day here in Thailand, and to celebrate, we had a games day a few Fridays ago. We took the second half of the afternoon and just had fun! (well... most of us. some of the 6th graders are too cool for games.) It started out with an incredible work out to LETS GET READY TO RUMBLE,led by Mrs. Andrea and I. Needless to say, it was AWESOME! We threw in some sprinkler action and some crazy kicks, and of course jumping jacks. After we had them all riled up (except for the 6th graders) we introduced the need for cheers. We had one of our own made up as an example. Being math teachers and all, it went something like this:
x2 x1 lets go and have some fun
x6 x8 make sure that you’re not late
x3 x4 we are gonna beat your score
x5 x10 we’re the team that’s here to win!
I got the awesome rhyming/cheer creating skills from my mom, you should hear some of her stuff!
So then the groups (blue team, green team, and orange team) got together and had to come up with a cheer. I was on the orange team, yes, the 5th and 6th graders who didn't really want to participate. SO I figured I would make up a cheer for them that was semi-odd and have them do it. It went a little like this,
Orange, Orange, lets go orange. We're gonna will, and you'll be sorange... like sorry! (NOTHING rhymes with orange, really!).
Then we split up and went to different stations. We had the relay station, the pick up marbles with chop-sticks station, the find the gummy bears hidden in flour with one finger station, and the follow the leader (Mr. Ben) station. It was rather exciting, and lots of disciplining on my part, but fun nonetheless. When you're with a group of kids that are too cool, the best thing you can do is act like a crazy fool, which of course I did. It was fun.
After all of the stations, we had a water game. The kids had to pass cups of water down the line and pour it into a bucket that was situated on top of my head. One the water reached a certain line, they dump it on your head. First team to dump it wins. I think we got that one. We ended with a crazy intense water fight that lasted the rest of the day.
All in all I would say it was a success. There is still talk amongst the students about how crazy and energetic Miss Liz is.
Here are some pictures, thanks to Satta, of the day:

Koh Phi Phi, Island Paradise

I was lucky enough to get to spend 4 days in an island paradise over Christmas break. I have been blessed this year with the most amazing roommates. Unfortunately all 3 of them are leaving next year :( But I got to go with 2 of the 3 on this adventure.
It started out Sunday night at 6:00pm when we left for the bus station. We pulled out at 7:30 and arrived in Krabi at 6am the next morning. Believe it or not, overnight buses aren't that bad.


Through Laurelle's amazing connections, we were able to get a ride from the bus station to the pier and even got free ferry tickets! We slept for most of the hour and a half ferry to the island. We arrived at 11 and were astounded! This is quite possibly the most beautiful place I have EVER seen!! There were giant limestone cliffs rising out of the crystal clear green/blue water. We were staying in an amazing hotel and headed straight for the pool to relax.






We set up a tour for the next day and just explored the island.




The next day we went out on an all day tour of the area. We got on a long boat and headed first to Monkey Bay. This bay just happened to have only 1 monkey on it, sad day, but it was beautiful!



Then we headed over to Maya Bay, where the movie The Beach was filmed. It was gorgeous, but unfortunately we weren't allowed to go on the beach because the beach police were there?? yeah, don't really understand that one, but we got some great snorkeling in.



We had lunch on a great little beach in a small cove and did some swimming, then went on to see the Viking Cave. We snorkeled some more and then just anchored next to a beach. While we were swimming, our anchor somehow stopped anchoring the boat. We look over and see our little Thai captain holding onto a rope. Instead of pulling the boat back to shore, the boat was pulling him out to see. At first he was in at his ankles, and before he knew it, he was up over his head. It was kind of comical because He tried to pretend that nothing was amiss, but it was obviously not going well. He made it back onto the boat, which was out of gas. As he filled it up, we all had to swim out to sea to get back on :)





We arrived back to our beach at sunset. The plan was to go out and get dinner, but we ended up getting sucked into a movie on tv. Keep in mind we haven't had tv since we left America, so we indulged in a movie while in our amazingly comfy beds. We eventually did make it out to dinner, then turned in early like the cool teachers that we are :)


The next day we were just lazy around the pool, enjoying the sun that occasionally peaked out from the rain. We pampered ourselves with masks and cucumbers that night, and went out and did some dancing.


We woke up at about 4:45am to hike up to a lookout the day that we left. It was a crazy amount of stairs, especially in the dark, but the view was SO worth it!








All in all it was incredible. I had a great time with Laurelle and Lisa and wish they weren't leaving me next year :( I will have some awesome memories from this trip.



Here are a few other pictures you might enjoy: