On our way home

It's with great sadness that the students had to say goodbye to the Land of Smiles a few minutes ago.  They boarded the vans at 3:15 a.m. for their ride to the airport.  Their journey will take them through Hong Kong and Dallas and they should be home around 34 hours from now.  Ajarn Mark is accompanying the students as far as Dallas, whereas I'm staying back to work on research with Ajarn Akekawat for a week and will be on the same flights home next Sunday.

Thai - Mizzou Student Day

This is the second year that we've been able to meet up with Thai undergraduates.   27 Thai education majors met with our students to engage each other culturally and strike up friendships.  The Thai students wanted to have our students experience some interesting cultural aspects of Thai life.  Bringing our study abroad experience to a conclusion with such a rich cultural interchange with Thai students was the perfect way to send our students back to the U.S.

We arrived a Chutuchak Park at 9:00 a.m. to meet the Thai students.  After a few minutes, they arrived and took us to a more remote part of the park.

The Thai students had made lots of plans for fun things for us to do with them.

At first, the Thai and Mizzou students were a little unsure how things would go.  Here the Thai students are on the left, our MU students on the right.

The ice was quickly broken when the Thai's presented our students with hand-made name tags.

Each of our students developed an email dialog with certain Thai students before we left the U.S.  So now they were able to meet each other face-to-face.

The Thais brought a traditional garment for our students to wear.  They had to help fold it properly so it would stay in place.  

The garments were color coded because the students would be divided into five groups based on the email friendships.

Today is a national holiday in Thailand.  Thai culture fosters a deep respect for educators and the Wai Kru ceremony starts the academic year. The ceremony is formal and a vital part of the traditional Thai educational system with the students honoring their teachers with respect and a hand-made flower arrangement.

So the groups each worked to prepare their flowers for formal presentation to the teachers (ajarns).

Showing respect to the teachers includes being physically lower than the seated teachers.

Students come forward and present the flowers to the teachers.

Some of the Thai students having fun before the next activity.

 

Fan boxing!  One member of each group was blindfolded and had a paper fan that they used to try to hit the others.

Dana.

Becca.

Kyler.

After that activity, there was a competitive "fashion show."  Here, each group chose a male and female member to represent one of the five regions of Thailand.  The other group members helped to design appropriate garments for the region.

After the planned activities were over the students stayed and mingled; later most went shopping together at Chutuchak Market (JJ Market).  Some also went out to dinner together in the evening.

What a great way to finish the program in Thailand!