Chomsurang Upatham School
English Program
Ayutthaya
Just when I think the trip can’t get any better, we visit another school and get to spend time with the students. We first visited an 8th grade class that is in the English Program. The teacher is from Austraila. On Fridays, the kids practice public speaking and today they had brought their favorite things from home to talk about. One girl and brought her martial arts belts, another a farmer’s manual that was her mother’s when she was young and the majority of kids brought their stuffed animals. One of the teachers in our group is an elementary PE teacher who travels with the his school’s stuffed bear mascot named Bondi so it was very nice that Bondi got his picture taken home with all of the student’s stuffed animals. These girls were all 8th graders and their English was very good. This is one of the absolute best schools in Bangkok and the students have to take very difficult exams to be accepted. Public school is free for all children in Thailand but many parents will send their kids to private schools such as this one because the quality of the education is often much better.
Next, there was a reception with in which we I tried a new fruit that was just delicious. It was called a mangosteen. I am not a huge fan of Asian desserts that have a jelly base but I did not want to not be polite by not eating them. The jelly with the blue on top was very tasty. Two different groups of students presented their Gold Star Award Science Projects.
One of my favorite parts of the visit came next when our Asst. Superintendent and myself were able play basketball with a group of girls who were having some fun during their lunch time. There were a lot of kids on the other side of the basketball courts who were practicing their sword skills. After playing, I was able to share the pictures of Hopkinton Middle School and of my own sweet kids, Grace and Colton. They were very intrigued by the pictures of my daughter Grace and I dogsledding. Thailand never gets snow.
Next we visited the school library, in which we had a nice time to speak casually with different clusters of students in the English Program. It was fun hearing about their lives and what they like to do for fun, such as reading comic books and Harry Potter. The girls like Taylor Swift a lot as well. There was an English newspaper in the library and the headline concerned farmers wanting to block the roads to the airport in protest for the government not honoring their rice contract payments.
As we made our way from the parking lot to the temple ruins, we meandered through a market that has some interesting looking foods. One of my favorite snacks I saw being made. It tasted like peanut brittle. Pamellos have been a delicious new food for me to try in Thailand. It seemed as though fried fish skin was a common snack here because there were many vendors selling it. The smell was strong and fishy for sure.
Visit to the Temple Amidst the Ruins
There was a very large statue of Buddha in the Temple and a few groups of students on a field trip were visiting. All Thai students wear school uniforms and when they go on field trips they all wear a special field trip shirt so that they are easy to spot by their chaperones. I was intrigued by the students shaking a long cylinder while praying in front of the Buddha statue. At first I thought it was part of some ritual but later discovered that they were shaking the cylinder until one of the long sticks came out. Then they would read a fortune for what was noted on the stick.
Wat Lokayasutha, Ayutthaya
I have been looking forward to visiting the “Reclining’ Buddha statue because it shows that he has reached Nirvana (Heaven) and he has a smile on his face.
Wat Chaiwatthanaram Ayutthaya
Our last temple visit for the trip was very interesting because the heads and arms of all of the statues were missing because they were destroyed when the Burmese were at war with the Kingdom in this area back in the 1700’s .
It reminded me very much of what the “Red Guard” did to many of the Buddha statues in China during the Cultural Revolution. They had a mission to destroy anything “old” so many ancient relics were destroyed. This temple is also much more in the Hindu style of temples. The king had built it for his daughter.