"License Please, Miss?"

Today Erin and I had the opportunity to go to another Thai school and conduct an 'English camp.' We had no idea what to expect. The head teacher (a women I had never met before) picked us up early in the morning and drove us to her school. Driving there, we passed through a very rural area of town. Farming and cows on either side of the road, it only made me wonder more; "where are we going?" When we finally arrived at the school, students stopped what they were doing and did the 'wai' to our passing car. (The Wai is a hand gesture, resembling praying with a bowing motion.) I felt so respected, as if I were some kind of royalty passing through, it was very strange. But it didn't stop there; people had told us, over and over, that Thais love foreigners. They did not exaggerate. These kids loved us; over and over telling us that we're beautiful and always asking us questions (their favorite, "are you married" lol.) At one point in the day, the head teacher spilt the students into two groups; one with me and the other with Erin. We each sat in the center of the students and each student was allowed one question for us. Of course the first being, "are you married?" lol. We each had about 30 students surrounding us, so there were a ton of questions to be answered. One girl asks me, "license please, miss?" I did not understand what she meant by 'license' but she rephrased it and handed me a pen and paper and said, 'name'. I figured out she wanted me to write out my name for her. So I did, T-E-A-C-H-E-R L-E-A-H. Little did I know that I had about 29 students ready with a pen and paper, readily wanting for me to do the same for them. After I finally finished, Erin students begin doing the same and quickly followed over to me, to receive my 'license.'

It was really strange to me why they would want my name, but I didn't question it. There's a lot of things I don't understand here, but it seems to be the way things are done. I am happy this opportunity wasn't only a one time thing, we get to go back this Wednesday and the following. I'm looking forward to seeing my students again!