the freeze-sing and other funny things

Every morning at 8am (then again at 6pm) the thai national anthem plays. It's serious, and it's very on time. The way this works in my life? Most days at exactly 8am, I am heading into school or up the staircase of building 11 towards the office. It's then that the magic happens: everyone, and I mean everyone, freezes in place and stands listening or singing along with the song until it has finished. Nicki and I get downright giddy every time we take part in this. It feels like being on the set of a musical, it's so freakishly well-executed. Freeze singing is a great way to start the school day.

other randomly interesting things popping up in student conversations recently:

• ghosts. students (and I would say thai people in general) really believe in them, and they're ready and willing to discuss them at length anytime. today a group of students told Nicki and I that a construction worker ghost haunts the second floor of our building. this also led to the information I found most disturbing: if a building is being built here, one of the construction workers MUST die in order for it to be completed. (I know, what??)
• tampons aren't used here. I flipped through a teenybopper magazine with my 8th graders and paused on a tampon ad to have a hilarious exchange about that time of the month. they are all utterly horrified that the general population of american women are secure using tampons. 
• dance offs. I turned on some old school hip hop in an after school smart class on monday, and Tangkwa, a feisty 8th grader, challenged me to a dance off. her moves weren't bad, I gotta say. plus she stole my sunglasses and wore them like a pimp the whole time. 

also, there was a festival this weekend called Ting Grat-Ja (orsomethinglikethat) and it was this huge market/carnival/parade/chinese celebration/excuse for extremely loud and dangerous explosives.