Partying with the Thais

Thais are normally such chill, laidback people that when Jon and I headed to our end-of-term staff party last Friday we had NO idea what we were in for.

To be fair, at the time we were focused on preparing our musical performance.  Thursday, the day before the party, we were approached by the head of the foreign language department.  "The director wants you to play music at the party," he told us.  Well...we weren't really comfortable with that, so we said we might play at the next party.  "Well, the director wants that you play this party," he replied. And that was that.  See, Thais kind of do this thing where in this super polite way they don't accept you disagreeing with them, and all the sudden you are agreeing with them and doing exactly what they wanted you to do. It's weird.

An "Only in Thailand" experience: learning how to play Sweet Caroline in 24 hours

When we arrived at the party, however, two things quickly distracted us from our upcoming performance.  Karaoke had already started, so one of our fellow English teachers was sitting casually in her seat at the dinner table - she just also happened to be singing.  And, in addition to the karaoke, a full bottle of whiskey could be seen on every table.

Luckily, the performances went very well.  The two pieces we'd worked very hard on - a Bach piece with Jon on keyboard and Katie playing violin, and a Neil Diamond song with Jon singing and Carolyn playing keyboard were both performed perfectly, but Carolyn's simple performance of The Entertainer was the biggest hit.  Apparently Thais don't really listen to classical music, and they also had never heard Sweet Caroline before.

The food was served "Chinese style" which basically means a huge variety of family style dishes served with plain rice (not sticky rice, or this would be Thai style), and was delicious.  The courses included egg rolls, a full leg of pork, multiple shrimp dishes, a whole fish, and a delicious soup with chicken, mushrooms, and bamboo.  The meal was finished with a fresh fruit plate of pineapple, watermelon and dragonfruit.

Our table after we'd all finished devouring the delicious food!

After the meal, it was time to welcome the new teachers and say goodbye to those departing.   Several teachers, including Katie, the Fulbright teacher who has guided us through our first few months in Thailand, gave goodbye speeches.  A teacher who was retiring from the school gave another speech, and concluded by giving us all a token of good luck.

The foreign language department presenting a present to the retiring teacher

New teachers being welcomed to Chiang Saen Wittayakhom!

Retiring teacher giving his farewell speech 

Of course, throughout this whole event, the bottles of whiskey on everyone's table were being drank, and slowly but surely people were getting more and more "mao" (drunk).  As the karaoke started back up, this fact became even more clear... the singers were definitely not sitting anymore! Instead they were up, dancing (including a Gangnam-style impression), and letting loose in a way that we had not seen before tonight.

Thai karaoke is an amazing experience!

Overall, we had a great time at the party and we enjoyed the opportunity to get to know some of our colleagues in a more laidback setting...and we definitely learned that Thais know how to party!