We had been preparing this for over a month now! We divided our English Club, which meets every Tuesday afternoon, into 12 groups (it was up to them to choose their groups), and each chose their parts to sing - first come, first serve. So, group 1 sang the first day of Christmas, and always the "partridge in a pear tree" line... and so on and so on. We practiced every Tuesday afternoon, beginning with the classroom, and then moving to stage rehearsals. They all met us in the office about 15 minutes before morning assembly. We did a quick practice round in the hallway, and then we walked over to the morning assembly, fully in line in their groups. Thai students are excellent at organizing themselves and keeping in line. When it was performance time, we marched to the stage in formation, and draped the line across and over the small stage. I managed 1-4, Jacqueline 5-8, and Rachel 9-12. We each had microphones, which we ran (or lunged, in Jacqueline's case) back and forth from group to group. I had my high green heels on, but somehow manged to make it quickly up and down the stage stairs to go from three French hens in time to two Turtle Doves. WE ARE SOOOOOO PROUD OF OUR ENGLISH CLUB!!! They did an amazing job; it was a stellar performance... they rocked it! Honestly, they did so much better than we ever could have imagined (and we imagined a lot from them when brainstorming potential Christmas performances). Many of them had even made paper Santa hats, of their own accord... and one boy - Sam (who definitely deserves a mention here) made a little cardboard cow. He was the sole performer of "eight maids a-milking".
English Club all lined up in their groups waiting to perform
Me MC'ing the Christmas Trivia Game... students who knew the answer (to questions like "Where does Santa Claus live? and "Where are the Christmas presents placed?") ran up and spoke the answer into the microphone. If they were right, they won a prize.
The only picture we have of the performance. (Sam is in the yellow shirt directly behind Jacqueline, who's doing an amazing lunge act to get the microphone back and forth in time)
The Christmas Day/ English Day stage for afternoon concert
We did actually have classes in the morning, though up until a few days ago, we thought the whole day was cancelled. After lunch, the show began. The rest of the afternoon, our students put on a Christmas show/ English day concert, for which we made sure to get front-row seats.
And the first act appears:
They sang a mix of Christmas song verses acapella - very seriously/ concentrated.
Another M6 class singing acapella:
Student MC's. How typically Thai... just as with everyone - you can't have a proper show without your male and female host who have to comment on EVERYTHING!!
Another dancing/ singing act. This is Tae (he's in our English Club), he's katoey (lady-boy), proud of it, and completely fearless when it comes to performing. His skirt fell off, but he kept on going, as if nothing happened. And at the end, as exiting the stage, he pulled up his skirt in embarrassment, as if not realizing that he had been dancing in his golden leggings the whole time. Classic.
In addition to songs, dances, J-Pop dances, K-Pop dances, breakdances, musical talents, skits, and story-telling, there was also a Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus competition. Now, posted below are two photos of some of the contestants - the first a front runner, the second - who we thought should've won. What does Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus mean to you? Certainly not what the Thais would think. They are all about showy presentations.
This is whom I would've chosen for the Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus winners, but they only came out with teddy bear participant prizes. What a load of b.s. -- their pajama outfits are clearly the most creative!
Haru is a katoey - ladyboy. Can you believe that? He's/ She's 16 years old!!
Merry Christmas from Sri Racha, Thailand!
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