Tug of War
I said at one point that I would discuss the story of how I accidentally ended up on the school's tug-of-war (chak-a-yer / ชักเย่อ) team. I may have already shared this photo, but the story probably starts when, on my first day, I got this shirt. This is my PE uniform, with two PE teachers present:
Ok, well actually not that shirt at that time. There is a very similar picture that I appear to have lost of me in the same place, receiving this shirt, the school sport uniform, later that day:
Ok, well actually not that shirt at that time. There is a very similar picture that I appear to have lost of me in the same place, receiving this shirt, the school sport uniform, later that day:
I used this shirt a few times for Muay Thai (as in the picture), and wore it outside of school a few times as well. Then, in my 2nd week or so, my classmate, Mai (or Mild pronounced without either final consonant; I'm not sure which spelling she prefers, or if both are even correct, and I certainly don't want to guess the Thai spelling) told me that I could come to a fitness class with her in the mornings. I went a few times that first week, and altogether I think I went regularly for 3 or 4 weeks, and every day for at least 2 weeks.
I spent mornings my first week or two in the English Program office, so with fitness, I continued missing the before-school announcements, flag raising ceremony, prayer, and song, which I probably would have written a post about if I had known it was going on daily. I may still since it is something of a spectacle.
My first day was a Friday. I know for sure because Friday is my class's PE day and I went to fitness wearing my long pants and shirt that immediately becomes saturated with sweat. We started with sprints, which is the beginning of my loathing for doing any kind of physical activity in my school shoes. At that point I was still tying them tightly (now I keep them loose to easily remove when entering the classroom), but even still, they slipped on my feet, and combined with thin, relatively inflexible soles, threatened blisters and even posed a slight tripping hazard. The others then did pushups, during which I did squats instead because of my bilateral labrum tears with scapular dyskinesis (my shoulders don't work).
I learned two important things from that day: (1) bring running shoes, and (2) bring a towel. In fact, it is normal to take a shower after the fitness class, in one of the grossest shower rooms I have ever been in.
After showering, the clothes had to go dry on a line, and I believe it was in relation to this that I referenced the tug of war earlier. See, my shirt got lost one day. I learned to ask "sya pom ju nai?" (read using Finnish phonetics, could approximated as "suea poem yu nai" for English speakers). It means "where is my shirt?" and it may be the only reason I still remember the word for "shirt." I also figured out how to explain to the coach that I don't know where my shirt is. Eventually, someone found the shirt and gave it back.
Later classes consisted almost entirely of squats and the same set of situps and leg throws daily for core. One day we did a very interesting pushup drill that I think would not be worth describing, during which the teacher hit people with a stick if they were too slow.
If you're still reading at this point, you're probably wondering if you remembered the title correctly. You did. You see, Phanat Pittayakarn (my school) has one of the best tug-of-war teams in Eastern Thailand.
One day, as I was about to meet up with my neighbor, Phet, to go home, the fitness teacher told for me to follow him. Phet speaks no English so I have a lot of trouble communicating about unexpected things, but I'm pretty sure he understood when I told him (in awful broken Thai) that the teacher had told me to follow. We went to a quiet stretch of road between buildings 1 and 5, and the "fitness group," probably almost 50 boys and girls altogether laid down a rope and began to run laps around it. This is the warmup for the tug-of-war practice, in which the coach matches different teams (differentiated by shirt color) in different combinations. I don't have a picture of the competitions, but they are really quite impressive, insofar as two groups of people holding a rope can be. There's a lot to the form, and I think, after going about 4 times after school I almost get it, but I didn't often get to participate and I didn't want to keep Phet waiting, so I didn't go often. I was more interested in the morning fitness part.
The team had a competition a few weekends ago (which they won), but I couldn't go because I was worried I wouldn't make it to school on time to catch their bus (the first day was a Friday) and I had a prior commitment for the Saturday.
Since then I've seen the team running after school a few times, herded by the coach on a motorbike with his stick, but they stopped working out in the mornings.
That is my tug of war story.
I spent mornings my first week or two in the English Program office, so with fitness, I continued missing the before-school announcements, flag raising ceremony, prayer, and song, which I probably would have written a post about if I had known it was going on daily. I may still since it is something of a spectacle.
My first day was a Friday. I know for sure because Friday is my class's PE day and I went to fitness wearing my long pants and shirt that immediately becomes saturated with sweat. We started with sprints, which is the beginning of my loathing for doing any kind of physical activity in my school shoes. At that point I was still tying them tightly (now I keep them loose to easily remove when entering the classroom), but even still, they slipped on my feet, and combined with thin, relatively inflexible soles, threatened blisters and even posed a slight tripping hazard. The others then did pushups, during which I did squats instead because of my bilateral labrum tears with scapular dyskinesis (my shoulders don't work).
I learned two important things from that day: (1) bring running shoes, and (2) bring a towel. In fact, it is normal to take a shower after the fitness class, in one of the grossest shower rooms I have ever been in.
After showering, the clothes had to go dry on a line, and I believe it was in relation to this that I referenced the tug of war earlier. See, my shirt got lost one day. I learned to ask "sya pom ju nai?" (read using Finnish phonetics, could approximated as "suea poem yu nai" for English speakers). It means "where is my shirt?" and it may be the only reason I still remember the word for "shirt." I also figured out how to explain to the coach that I don't know where my shirt is. Eventually, someone found the shirt and gave it back.
Later classes consisted almost entirely of squats and the same set of situps and leg throws daily for core. One day we did a very interesting pushup drill that I think would not be worth describing, during which the teacher hit people with a stick if they were too slow.
If you're still reading at this point, you're probably wondering if you remembered the title correctly. You did. You see, Phanat Pittayakarn (my school) has one of the best tug-of-war teams in Eastern Thailand.
One day, as I was about to meet up with my neighbor, Phet, to go home, the fitness teacher told for me to follow him. Phet speaks no English so I have a lot of trouble communicating about unexpected things, but I'm pretty sure he understood when I told him (in awful broken Thai) that the teacher had told me to follow. We went to a quiet stretch of road between buildings 1 and 5, and the "fitness group," probably almost 50 boys and girls altogether laid down a rope and began to run laps around it. This is the warmup for the tug-of-war practice, in which the coach matches different teams (differentiated by shirt color) in different combinations. I don't have a picture of the competitions, but they are really quite impressive, insofar as two groups of people holding a rope can be. There's a lot to the form, and I think, after going about 4 times after school I almost get it, but I didn't often get to participate and I didn't want to keep Phet waiting, so I didn't go often. I was more interested in the morning fitness part.
The team had a competition a few weekends ago (which they won), but I couldn't go because I was worried I wouldn't make it to school on time to catch their bus (the first day was a Friday) and I had a prior commitment for the Saturday.
Since then I've seen the team running after school a few times, herded by the coach on a motorbike with his stick, but they stopped working out in the mornings.
That is my tug of war story.
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