A day at the Ag Fail.

For those of you confused, join the club.  I was informed on a Wednesday that we would be going to the Ag Fail on Friday as a field trip. Well, hmm...  It sounded like I didn't have much of a choice.  And a fail?  Great!  I have never been to a fail before.  Time out.  L and R.  Fair.  We are going to the fair.

I arrived to school before 7 am Friday morning, ready to go.  The problem was, my students weren't ready.  Although they were told to arrive at 6:30, I only had 2 students.  Time in Thailand is always seen as a suggestion.  When told to arrive at 6:30 am for a 7 am departure, only half of my students were at school by 8.  As the single bus shuttled 180 students between our school and the fair at the university, I waited for my class.  By 9:30 we finally arrived.  And the temperature was already over 100 degrees.

We spent the first part of the day taking a tour of the gardens and animal stalls.  Two of the university students acted as our tour guides.  I was the herder.  I gently guided the students along, so as not to be distracted by the shiny displays and tables of toys for sale.

After only two hours, we were all exhausted.  Lunch wasn't ready, but it was time for a break.  My students crowded around me, begging to buy mice.  Oh.  My.  Goodness.  If I heard it once, I heard it ten thousand times.  "Teachahhhh Meaghan, can I buy mouse?"  "No.  It is, can I buy a mouse.  Say it.  Can I buy a mouse?"  "Teachahh Meaghan, can I buy a mouse?"  Oh shoot.  Now what?  They are saying the sentence correctly.  Now I have to give them an answer.  "We'll see.  Eat your lunch first."  Phew.  That was close.  Hopefully they will forget and become lured by the ringing bell from the nearby ice cream man.

My students did not forget.  Teacher Lawan and I were forced to spend over an hour buying mice.  Gun Gun bought himself a hamster rat.  Now, I honestly have no idea if that is the name of the animal, but it's what he kept calling it, so I'm going to take his word.  For my students that didn't have enough money to buy mice, Teacher Lawan paid for them.  I was shocked.  She spent over 500 baht buying mice!  But little did I know, she had a plan.  She told our students that if they did not sit quietly with the mice, they would die.  What a genius idea.

Our students were calm.  After our escapade at the mouse stall, they all sat quietly, watching their mice.  Teacher Lawan and I had peace.  And it was wonderful.  Anytime a student began to run around with his cardboard box, she told him his mouse would die.  Terrible, I know.  But desperate times call for desperate measures.  At one point Gun Gun asked if his hamster rat was dead yet.  Teacher Lawan simply said, "almost."  I couldn't help but laugh as he very carefully sat back down.

I helped the students to write the names of the mice on their boxes.  We had Ben 10, Marshmallow, Ice Cream, Crown, Gru, and a variety of others.  But my favorite was when Ton-kla came up and asked me to write the name on his box.  I asked him what name he wanted.  He said, "Kevin."  Well, how about that.  My student is naming a mouse after my father.  Not quite.  I quickly found out that Kevin is a character in Ben 10.  Of course he is.

The pictures, from top to bottom, are:
1. Uefa unsure of whether or not she really wants to pet that animal... whatever it may be.
2. The students loving the piglets.
3. The students loving their cell phones.
4. Yuki making the face that T. Paul so kindly taught my entire class.
5. Gun Gun, or Gum Gum as we call him.
6. Ton-kla with Kevin in a box.