Songkran blessings

Part of the Songkran festival on Thursday was to bless students with water and wish them well for their studies in the New Year.

Songkran Sandcastles

Pop, Grade 11, on the right and Karla, Grade 4 on the left were dressed in Thai traditional costume for the APIS Thai Cultural Day.

 

Today at APIS we celebrated Thai New Year, or Songkran.  The celebration was two weeks late, as Songkran was 13-15 April, typical APIS, but we had fun and I was able to miss a double period of Year 9 Science - always a good thing.

The play ground was decorated with colored banners and umbrellas, the portable sound system was pumping out some Thai tunes, fun for all.  The photo also shows one of the flame trees in the school grounds which are putting on a spectacular show at the moment.

A part of welcoming the New Year at Song Kran is  to build sandcastles.  This is usually in the grounds of a temple and it is seen as a way of returning sand to the temple that has been taken away by visitors throughout the year.

Im, Grade 6, sorts through the flowers to be used for decorating the sandcastles.  The vibrant orange of the marigolds was beautiful.

 Pon, Jay and Yu, all Grade 12, (my advisory group) begin work on what was to become the best sandcastle of the day.

Field Trip to Chiang Mai University and Ice Cream

 Today I took the Grade 11/12 Chemistry class on a field trip to Chiang Mai University, to visit the Chemistry Department. We toured a laboratory where researchers work with algae.  They have two main areas of research, using algae to predict water quality and using algae to produce biofuel.  The kids thought it "was cool research" and surprisingly got into the algae story.  They liked the research into the quality of the water in the Chiang Mai moat.  Each year the team sample the water to ensure it is safe to throw.  Throw not drink.  Song Kran festival in April is all about throwing water.
The lab roof looked out to Doi Sutep, the sacred mountain overlooking Chiang Mai.
Later we went to IBerry for an ice cream treat.  Yes there is a big pink thing with glasses in the background.
When we got back to school tonight, Lisa, right front, said it was the best field trip ever.

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