Ever Been on a Milk Run?

Well, had I been looking for something exciting in the way of celebrating Chinese New Year here at school, I would have been disappointed. The Chinese teachers were off for 2 days, of course, but I was surprised to see how many "Chinese" students we have at the school. In one of my classes on Thursday I only had 4 students. Granted, quite a few of our students are either Chinese or descendents of Chinese, so I did expect to have some students out, just not 2/3 of the whole school. Well, so we played some Present Continuous Charades in English class that day. The school walkway was gayly decorated with Chinese laterns and paper decorations that the students made in Chinese class so I've added a couple of pix of that. But there weren't any parties, or special foods, or even fireworks. What a bummer.

So I decided to make my weekend more memorable. Sunday morning I took the train from Bangkok to Ayuttaya, the early capital of Thailand and home to ancient ruins that are just mind-boggling. Also mind-boggling is the fact that the train takes 2 hours to travel the 42 mile trip. I think it was what they used to call a milk run - stopping at every little station along the way. And then there were the wooden bench seats - for 2 hours - which I decided was better than standing which is is what I had to do on the return trip. At least the return trip only stopped at half the little stations along the way and lasted one and a half hours. Treated my feet to a massage at the train station. Got back to school after dark and sat in the quad to watch the stars for a while but it's a bit cloudy tonight. Still, nice to be back in my temporary home, put my feet up, and look over lesson plans for tomorrow.