{"id":636,"date":"2016-07-13T10:54:53","date_gmt":"2016-07-13T10:54:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/?p=636"},"modified":"2022-04-13T15:42:54","modified_gmt":"2022-04-13T15:42:54","slug":"our-welcome-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/our-welcome-party\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Welcome Party"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday we were told to prepare a speech for the welcoming ceremony today. So last night after dinner, playing with their dogs (Charlie, Sarah and Milo \u2013 who is chunky but funky)<\/p>\n

\"Snapchat-233354724491695322\"<\/figure>\n

and booking our flights to Chang Mai next weekend (we\u2019re going to hug elephants!), we went and practised the speech that Kate had written between her lessons. We only saying\u00a0one or two sentences each but it was long enough considering we were saying it to the entire school. At breakfast (which was fried rice and egg) Aum told us he would be translating the speech. When we read it out to him he said it was too long, so we had to cut some of it \u2013 such a shame.<\/p>\n

Today was ridiculously hot, the heat and being covered in chalk during lessons was not a great mix! But the two classes I had this morning (G.12 and G.10) went well and the students are enjoying the activities. Apart from when I use characters they don\u2019t know (Katniss Evergreen being one of them!). Before lunch me and Hannah went round the school and took photos. We took two outside the school by the sign, of the buildings and the fields beside us.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_2513\"<\/figure>\n
\"DSC_2510\"<\/figure>\n
\"DSC_2533\"<\/figure>\n

The ceremony took place at 1pm, wait no, 2pm. So I still had to do all my lessons but I didn\u2019t mind since I had planned them the previous day. We went to the cafeteria and were sat at the front, out of reach of the fans. Thankfully, Ben got a student to move a fan closer to us. It was bliss. We were then given water as well, I couldn\u2019t have been happier; even if I was still sticking to my chair a little. After we gave our speech we were given lovely yellow flower chains. They smelt really nice to me, but Hannah sneezed as soon as she was wearing it.<\/p>\n

\"13614916_1232813303418573_2967515207374966054_n\"<\/figure>\n

We then sat back down and watched some amazing performances. There were dancers in traditional Thai dress. Their dances performed parts of Issan (north-eastern Thailand) culture.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_2574\"<\/figure>\n

We were also treated to a live band and singers. They were really good and the costumes were amazing.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_2589\"<\/figure>\n

I even recognised some of the students from my classes.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_2629\"<\/figure>\n

After the performances and speeches finished we were given the rest of the afternoon off. This was a godsend seeing as we were all in desperate need of a shower and possibly a nap after sitting in the heat.<\/p>\n

In the evening we went to a party at the principles house with Aum, the other foreign teachers and the rest of the teachers. It was really nice to relax and get to know some of the other teachers better. We drank beer Chang with our meal, it\u2019s not as heavy or bitter as normal beer as it\u2019s made from rice and not barley. Chang might\u00a0be my drink of choice in the future. The food was great: I had breaded chicken (a bit like KFC),fish and there was some vegetables too.\u00a0<\/span>At one scary moment we had a soup with chicken feet in it. Needless to say I was glad when it was removed\u00a0from\u00a0our table soon after. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"Snapchat-1770496126240633315\"<\/figure>\n

But the dessert was bizarre. It was a poached egg with colourful sweet potato balls in coconut milk. I did try all of it, however if it was put in front of me again I would probably just drink the milk.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Snapchat-1826785156186347525\"<\/figure>\n

After dinner the music teacher, Jimmy, set up some karaoke screens and began to serenade us in a mix of Thai, English and Chinese songs. As much as it was a little weird he has a good voice. Then Ben and the principle asked if one of us would go up to sing a song. Eilidh and Kate were quite adamant not to. But since they kept asking I volunteered knowing that it wouldn\u2019t be terrible. When I found out they had \u2018Let it Go\u2019 on the computer, I couldn\u2019t stop myself from singing it. It was great, afterwards I felt like the queen of Arendelle. Teacher Dong, one of the Chinese volunteers sang a Chinese song and Kate and Eilidh were eventually persuaded to sing a song. They sang Justin Bieber\u2019s\u00a0 \u2018Baby\u2019 and were word-perfect \u2013 especially on the rap.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_2659\"<\/figure>\n

When we headed off to our rooms it was only 10pm so I stayed up watching Netflix and catching up with people from home. I still haven\u2019t got over the 6 hour time difference yet, but hopefully it\u2019ll get easier soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yesterday we were told to prepare a speech for the welcoming ceremony today. So last night after dinner, playing with their dogs (Charlie, Sarah and Milo \u2013 who is chunky […]","protected":false},"author":1058,"featured_media":648,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[270],"tags":[93,51,124,99,280,125,127,97,126,120],"class_list":["post-636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-summer-programmes","tag-asia","tag-culture","tag-dancing","tag-food","tag-internship","tag-party","tag-singing","tag-thailand","tag-welcome","tag-work"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4QQbz-ag","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":921,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/primary-school\/","url_meta":{"origin":636,"position":0},"title":"Primary School","author":"Samantha Edgson","date":"August 1, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Today marks the official half way through point of the teaching programme. Doesn\u2019t mean we are more adapted to teaching or to the environment. Unfortunately after a weekend of little sleep, we were all a bit under the weather this morning, definitely some more than others. It meant that Kate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "International Summer Programmes"","block_context":{"text":"International Summer Programmes","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/category\/summer-programmes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":846,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/party-on-a-school-night\/","url_meta":{"origin":636,"position":1},"title":"Party on a School Night","author":"Samantha Edgson","date":"July 22, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Some of the lessons were quite hard today. It may have been because I had planned them a week ago or that being away on holiday made it hard to settle in again. In my G.10 class today they were learning new vocabulary about the city and the countryside. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "International Summer Programmes"","block_context":{"text":"International Summer Programmes","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/category\/summer-programmes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2334,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/lingomap-my-career-prospects\/","url_meta":{"origin":636,"position":2},"title":"LingoMap: My career prospects","author":"Emily Seaborne","date":"June 30, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Quelle horreur! I can\u2019t believe that my Year Abroad is over! It has flown by so fast and I have learnt so much in the 7 months I have spent living in the South of France. Not only have I vastly improved my language skills but also my knowledge and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "European Placements"","block_context":{"text":"European Placements","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/category\/europe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2017\/06\/IMG_1121-450x338.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1034,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/a-tough-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":636,"position":3},"title":"A Tough Day","author":"Samantha Edgson","date":"August 15, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"So today was a difficult day, looking back I think it was mostly my doing though. I had three lessons today and I was still a bit tired from the weekend. This had affected my lesson planning as well, and because the lesson plans weren\u2019t as well thought out, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "International Summer Programmes"","block_context":{"text":"International Summer Programmes","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/category\/summer-programmes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2016\/08\/13938218_10157161903850408_1365629299696974163_o.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2016\/08\/13938218_10157161903850408_1365629299696974163_o.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2016\/08\/13938218_10157161903850408_1365629299696974163_o.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2016\/08\/13938218_10157161903850408_1365629299696974163_o.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2016\/08\/13938218_10157161903850408_1365629299696974163_o.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1420,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/language-lessons\/","url_meta":{"origin":636,"position":4},"title":"Language Lessons","author":"Maisy Provan","date":"November 16, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday evening we had a Sinhalese language lesson, where we learnt some basics including greetings, how to say our age, where we live and basic body parts. The\u00a0Sinhalese language has a whole other alphabet so our teacher broke down how to say the words in syllables. Sri Lanka only gained\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "International Summer Programmes"","block_context":{"text":"International Summer Programmes","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/category\/summer-programmes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"img_4076","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2016\/11\/IMG_4076-338x450.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1222,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/dinner-parties-eyebrows-and-sagunto\/","url_meta":{"origin":636,"position":5},"title":"Dinner Parties, Eyebrows and Sagunto","author":"Chloe Walker","date":"October 10, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"This week has been quite a busy one, involving various excursions and other lovely days with friends. So on Tuesday, we held our first dinner party at the flat. I use the term 'we' very loosely, considering it was really Orla and Sarah who did the cooking. Sarah is staying\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "European Placements"","block_context":{"text":"European Placements","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/category\/europe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"IMG_0466","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2016\/10\/IMG_0466-450x450.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"meta_box":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2016\/07\/13606814_10208709238144993_1222868421032410779_n.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1058"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=636"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2496,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636\/revisions\/2496"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}