{"id":3986,"date":"2012-09-23T20:58:47","date_gmt":"2012-09-24T04:58:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ups.edu\/studyingabroad\/?p=3986"},"modified":"2012-09-23T20:58:47","modified_gmt":"2012-09-24T04:58:47","slug":"sports-day-mai-kaew-jai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/2012\/09\/23\/sports-day-mai-kaew-jai\/","title":{"rendered":"Sports Day. Mai kaew jai."},"content":{"rendered":"

Sports Day.\u00a0 It’s finally here.\u00a0 I’ve actually been hearing about this for months.\u00a0 For the last two weeks, I’ve had about ten classes canceled for “cheer practice.”\u00a0 Several classes are now multiple weeks behind others just because of the preparation for this momentous celebration of athleticism.<\/p>\n

\"Khru<\/a>My fellow native English teachers and I pulled up to Chiang Mai’s 700-Year Stadium in our brand-spankin’ new Prince Royal’s College Sports Day polos, ready to watch our students display their endurance, speed, strength, and overall physical prowess.\u00a0 As we stepped into the stadium, we quickly realized that Sports Day may not entirely be about sports.\u00a0 In fact, after observing the whole event, the ratio came out to about 60% pageantry and 40% sports.<\/p>\n

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We found our spots in the stands, and watched one-thousand plus students, all dressed in elaborate, themed costumes, set up for a massive parade. \u00a0The students were divided into seven teams: Blue, Red, Green, Pink, Violet, Orange, and my<\/em> team, Yellow (I was simply a mentor and was not allowed to compete. \u00a0I’m still sore about that. \u00a0I didn’t even get a Yellow Team jersey….let’s move on, I don’t want to talk about it). \u00a0Sports and competition were the last things on my mind as the students lined up to put their costumes on display and stage their prepared skits. \u00a0But hold your horses! Can’t let the parade start without first letting the mayor of Chiang Mai fire a gun into the air and having a student carry an olympic-style torch in to the stadium.\u00a0 Honestly, I missed all of the Olympics this year, but this event is already making\u00a0up for that.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Once those rituals were complete, the parade began. \u00a0Staged sword fights.\u00a0 Fan dancing.\u00a0 Royal regalia.\u00a0 Live-action anti-drinking PSA’s.\u00a0 What\u2026is\u2026.happening?\u00a0 I couldn’t look away, this was too surreal.\u00a0 This parade lasted about two hours.\u00a0 I would just be standing up in the front of my third period classroom by this time.\u00a0 Instead, I was watching my students run around in Robot costumes.\u00a0 I was definitely ok with this turn of events.\u00a0 As fun as it was to watch the seven themed teams play out different stories and perform musical numbers, it was finally time for some sports.\u00a0 It was, after all, Sports Day.<\/p>\n

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Several events went on at a time.\u00a0 There was sprinting, long distance running, long jumping and javelin throwing.\u00a0 But what were my co-teachers and I commenting on?\u00a0 The cheer squads.\u00a0 Our whole day was spent discussing which squad had more style (My personal favorite? \u00a0Red Team. \u00a0They didn’t depend on too many props, like the flashy and pretentious Green Team. \u00a0Red had the right balance of skill, pizazz, and props. \u00a0And another thing!…. Ahem, right….moving on again).\u00a0 After a while I forgot there were races happening on the track just ten feet in front of the cheer teams.<\/p>\n