New Year's Party: Sri Racha School

I attended the annual Sri Racha School faculty's New Year's Party tonight... four hours of eating, prizes, dancing, prizes, and more prizes!  When I first arrived, I signed my name and was then instructed to pull a star from this tree:

Within each star is a number.  I got #1.  I was then directed to a table full of gifts, and was given the item that corresponded with #1.  What did #1 get me?  A teddy bear key chain. 

I sat down with Pi-Ben, Madam and Pi-Thip.  The dinner was buffet style, and absolutely yummalicious.  I had my choice of salad, french-fries, somtam (papaya salad), Isan style grilled chicken, sticky rice, soup, and even sushi!  This came as a nice surprise, given the disappointing food lately at the past two weddings.  Then, the dancing began - first, a traditional Thai dance performance by Nui and two other teachers.  Then the dance floor opened up to anyone and everyone.  While I was perfectly comfortable as a spectator, Pi-Ow was not having that, and promptly pulled me off my seat over to the dance floor.  We circled around dancing Thai style, which is essentially a walk to a beat while twisting your wrists and thumbs about.  I must've looked absolutely ridiculous, or at least felt so, but when in Rome, do as the Romans do.  We also ballroom danced.  I said, "Pi-Ow, I can't do this!"  She grabbed me by the waist and arm and said, "easy, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2 3..." and so there I was at a Thai school's New Year's Party ballroom dancing with one of my Thai co-teachers.

When the music stopped, we all ran to a number of our choice, as they're painted on the ground in a spiral.  The MC then called out 2-3 numbers, and if your number was called, you won a prize.  This continued for at least an hour or so.  My number was never called, but eventually they just called us all over to the prize table in a congo line and we were given leftover prizes.

Prizes were also given out via a lottery system.  All the names from the sign-in were thrown into a box, and continuously throughout the night, 4-5 names were called at a time to come up and receive a prize, for which you also had to smile and pose with your prize for a photo. 

I believe the lottery was rigged at the end, as Rachanee Boon discovered that I had not won a lottery prize.  Lo and behold, 15 minutes later, my name was called. 

What did I leave the party with?  Well, the teddy bear key chain, a bowl with a chicken painted on the side, a set of 4 glasses and large pink-headed doll.  To give you an idea of how low I was on the prize rank, here is a short list of some of the other prizes given out: printers, microwaves, water boilers, electric fans, and furniture.  The top two lottery prizes were a refrigerator and a gold necklace, handed over by the Director, herself.  Ah well, good times...  Here are some photos from the night: