Christmas in Korat

Thailand is a primarily Buddhist country.  This is evident in the fact that there are temples EVERYWHERE. Despite this, I was very surprised to find that the country loves Christmas!  They embrace it with open arms.  Decorations started popping up just after Halloween and Christmas music (in English!) filled the malls shortly thereafter.  They even had Santa and elves set up to take your picture with.

Mall decor

The month leading up to Christmas was very festive and over the top. I do not live in a tourist town, so the decorations and activities were not for visitors, they were for Thais. Even if it was just the commercial aspect, it was really nice to see a culture embrace something new. Just because you don't celebrate something, doesn't mean you can't participate in the holiday. One of my favorite parts of traveling and living in another country is immersing myself into new cultures and having new experiences. Just because I'm not Buddhist, doesn't mean I can't participate in Loy Krathong or Songkran (Thai New Year). Every Thai I encountered wished me a Merry Christmas. I can't even tell you how refreshing it is to not hear "happy holidays", Americas politically correct way of handling the month of December. I get it, America is a melting pot, but we should be embracing that. We should be participating and respecting different cultures holidays, not shunning them. Or being offended by them.

My high school held a Christmas carnival on the 24th. It far exceeded my expectations and I had an absolute blast! There were food vendors, games, gifts, crafts tables, Caroles and songs, a Christmas Boy Pagaent, and of course Santa Claus! There was a stage set up and I was told at the last minute that I was in charge of the "opening ceremony" song, which needed to be sung in English and include some students. I choose "We Wish you a Merry Christmas" due to its short length and scrambled to find some students to join me on stage. Not an easy task, my boys were literally running from me with fear in their eyes when I begged them to join me. Just when I thought I was gonna be stuck doing a solo in front of 4000 students, the EP (english program) boys saved me and sang with me. A few other foreign teachers jumped on stage too so it went ok.

My singing saviors

A singing act

We wish you a Merry Christmas

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It's ok to wear curse words on stage

The Thai teachers were in wonderful moods, dressed to the nines in Christmas garb and taking thousands of pictures.

Some of the other teachers and Santa(aka teacher David)

I got to judge the Christmas boy Pagaent, which was a huge honor. It's basically a talent show, but it is taken extremely serious. When I was grading a student, the school director looked over my shoulder and noticed I had crossed out a number and wrote a new one. He told me I had to initial it so that they know I made the change and it wasn't cheating. Those were the only words the school director has ever spoke to me. Priorities are important.

judge's table

The contestants

In Thai pageants, spectators can buy roses or arrows and give them to their favorite one. It gives them extra points

Talent singing

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And the winner is....

I am extremely lucky because I have a whole week off starting Christmas Day. My school has sports week at King Stadium and the foreign teachers are not required to attend. It just happened to fall on Christmas. Zach is working full time at the private language school, so he still has classes so we decided not to go away. We decided last minute to book a hotel room at the swankiest hotel in Korat, the Sima Thani. I spent Christmas Day laying by the pool followed by a 2 hour massage.

There is a large Japanese and Korean population in Korat because many big businesses have factories and offices here including Samsung, Canon, and Seagate. Because of this, Korat does Japanese food really well. Next to the Sima Thani Hotel is a wonderful Japanese restaurant that's double the quality and half the cost of anything you can find in the US. We enjoyed a nice Christmas dinner full of sushi, sake, beer, and Kobe steak.

Irashamasay!

Deliciously rare buttery goodness

After dinner, we went back to the hotel bar and ran into one of Zach's favorite students. She is an executive at Samsung and does private English classes with him. I have heard a lot of good things about her, and since she is Korean she loves to drink. She came running up to us with beer in hand and says "teacher Zach! Merry Christmas! I am trying not to act a fool!". So this is what Zach is teaching his students, she was fresh off learning the term "act a fool". Gotta give it to her, she nailed the usage. We bought her a beer and she cheersed to "making a fool of myself ". Teaching Thailand relevant English one student at a time.

Really dark, but us acting a fool with Zach's favorite student