Storytelling: September 2023
This month we continued to get used to our daily routines at the school. In the first week I accompanied the two Storytelling-Students to their competition at another school. We left early in the morning, got breakfast at 7-Eleven and then drove to the competition. There we waited for it to start for 2 hours. Sadly I couldn't watch our students performing their storytelling in front of the judges. After they were done, we waited for the teachers who helped at the competition themselves to finish. Later we went to a café to celebrate with a piece of cake and a pink milk. The results came out that evening and they won gold and silver. I am very proud of them, they prepared really well.

The next day, I was able to take along to another competition, this time for praying. There were so many students that we took a school bus to the other school. There I sadly also couldn't watch them compete but I was told that they did very well too. The next one and a half weeks nothing much happened. We continued teaching and also preparing for the upcoming exams. On weekends me and the other volunteers went to the city and also the Ton Tann Market to enjoy a variety of food. We are still getting used to the food here, which is a little difficult as a vegetarian. Most food contains meat or seafood, so we eat a lot of eggs (and some late night ramen, cause dinner is at 17 o'clock).

One day, the other volunteers and I were asked to join dancing with some teachers. That was a lot of fun, even though the choreography was a little difficult. It was traditional Thai dancing mixed with fun music. The next day we were given some traditional clothings for the celebration of one teacher's last day at our school. In the evening, everyone gathered at the entrance of the school and while some teachers performed traditional thai dance, we all went to the big hall where the celebration was held. After a ceremony, where everyone tied a string around the teacher's wrist, we got dinner and then performed the dance we practiced the day before. We celebrated till late night and had a lot of fun.

In the last week of September were the exams. They started on Tuesday and only went on for two days. The students had to take 4 exams before and 4 after lunch each day. That is very different from exams in Germany where we write only one exam per day. I really respect the students who sit through this amount of stress, also while preparing. After the exams were done, I helped my teacher correct the English-exams of my classes. On Tuesday and Friday, we had free time because everyone was preparing to go back home during the upcoming holidays. That was a really great coincidence because Friday was my birthday.

The other volunteers surprised me in the morning by singing happy birthday to me and later they and the teachers also prepared a cake, which we ate afterwards. In the evening we went out to eat dinner at a restaurant and afterwards we also went to a karaoke bar. That was a lot of fun and I'm really thankful for this great day.

On the 30th the students left the school and went back home. Only a few students stayed at school. And like this, our second month in Thailand ended.