Clowning around

When I was told the school would be having a sports day I turned up to school expecting a sports day. On arrival I found hunndreds of students in elaborate costumes all wandering the school. Students dressed as pirates, mummies, princesses a couple of wedding dresses and some clowns all gathered on the basketball court to begin a parade through the streets of Chacoengsao. The parade lasted well over an hour and was followed by an opening ceremony complete with a marching band and even a torch runner who lit the couldran. The opening ceremony lasted another hour then the sports began with a running race. I was waiting for the rest of the sports to start but running is the only event of the day. The students from the parade stood in their team colours and started cheerleading which did not stop all day. In 35 degree hot sunshine the students in full costumes danced all day while some running races took place.
Hours after starting the day the races stop and the cheerleaders of the six different teams compete against each other to decide who has the best routine. The ten minute routines were all perfectly timed and the rest of the students in the stands cheer on their cheerleaders. Following the cheerleading competition there was a teacher versus teacher race which I volunteered to run in which the students all thought was hillarious being so tall against the short Thai teachers.
The Thais were quick off the mark and I was unable to catch them in the 80 metres. The race was run twice due to a false start and then they asked me to run again as part of a relay. I only signed on for the one race but was worn out after the three races.
Day one of the sports was for the high school students the following day was for the primary school students. At the very end of the high school activities the rest of the foreign teachers and I were invited to be a part of the parde only if we were at school at 6am the following morning.
The next day we got to school at 6am not knowing what we were in for. The red team had pulled out some clown costumes and informed us it was what we would be wearing in the parade. Ok, why not all for a bit of fun. I paraded the streets dressed as a clown along with many of the other foreign teachers. Where we live is right behind the school therefore all the people whose restaurants we eat at were lining the streets watching the parade pass by. I must have been in at least a thousand photos. Every student and every teacher wanted a photo with the teacher dressed as a clown. One more, one more is what we heard all morning.
Luckily the majority of the teachers don't have to do anything on sports day so I wandered around not doing anything for the day. The primary school event was the same as the high school with a few running races in between the hours and hours of cheerleading.
At the end of the day they again had a teacher versus teacher race only this time it was foreigner versus foreigner. Luckily there were no false starts because I won and was very sore at the end I am not sure I could have ran again. For the win I got to stand on the podium and got presented a medal in front of the whole school. Its now a very cool momento I hang in my room.