Stickywrites

The word for Thanksgiving in Thai literally translates to: “Day Thank You God.”  I thought this a very appropriate name since this expresses the true meaning of why we celebrate this day in America. 

We planned a Thanksgiving Outreach dinner at the Henry’s house together with them, and we invited many of our English students here at New Community.  Crystal & Paul Henry invited many of their new friends from the University campus.  We probably had about 20-30 people there for the night, so praise God for bringing all our Thai friends there that we invited and for making our food spread around and feed everyone.  Both Crystal & I were nervous about our dishes being able to feed everyone since in Thailand many foreign ingredients are very sparse and expensive, and ovens are conventional, small toaster size, not big ones like we have in America.  So only one small casserole dish or pie can be cooking at one time.  Anyway, God provided of course!, and we were able to make a ton of food in time for our guests’ arrival: Green Bean Casserole (thanks to Kim for french fried onions loan), Squash Corn Casserole, Cranberry Sauce, Applesauce (a la Jean Bronson), Grits Casserole, Pecan & Pumpkin Pie, Turkey, Gravy & Stuffing, Sweet Potato Casserole, Mashed Potatoes, and – my favorite – Guacamole and Chips!  I know that sounds like a strange combination, but when you haven’t had guacamole in 2 months youll do whatever you have to do to make it happen.

After we ate and i had explained the normal American custom of eating alot and then sitting around, watching football and then napping on Thanksgiving (which all my friends thought was totally bizarre – they also couldn’t believe how many times I went back for more food) we broke in the Henrys’ new kareoke machine and sang until almost midnight!  Kareoke is very common and popular here.  It was a blast and we are so thankful for the night going well and the scrumptious food. 

Thank You God Day was wonderful for us to enjoy the food, the company, and get to know our Thai friends better.  Thanks for your prayers about this.

Two weeks ago we moved into our new townhome – praise God for a smooth move that went well – nothing too big broke.  We were grateful to be have use of a car to help us move, and it only took 3 trips and half the day to get moved.  Thanks to the Henry’s for helping us clean & move and for a visiting family, The Coiners, for helping us on our move-in day.  God really provided for us – with furniture, all our provisions that we needed, 2 families to help us, and encouragement!  Thank you!So while we have been getting acclimated to life in the new house , we are also getting to know our new roommates: geckos, carpenter ants, cotton-eating ants, wolf spiders (ugh!), and — mice.  We are okay with the bugs, but the first morning in our home sweet home, I woke up to Andrew whispering softly, “Don’t be alarmed, okay, but there’s a small mouse hanging out in our bathroom.”   Why would that alarm me you say?  Well, it didn’t at first.  I actually thought he looked rather harmless, innocent and scared looking up at me sweetly from inside the trash can. But then when I (calmly) went downstairs to enjoy a bowl of cornflakes, I saw the havoc he wreaked in our house all through the night and went tearing back upstairs to destroy the intruder.  He had left droppings all through the downstairs living room, bathroom, kitchen, and had climbed an entire flight of stairs, entered our bedroom, entered our bathroom and then decided to play in the trash can and rip up shreds of tissue.  He also chewed up my houseshoes that I wear everyday!  (No one wears shoes inside of any house here in Thailand.)  This incensed me greatly, so his life ended a few short minutes later after a brief battle that involved an empty toilet paper roll, alot of squeaky mousy shrieks (from both parties) and a trash bag tied in a very “airtightish” way. Just thought you’d like to hear about some of my daily adventures in our new place.  p.s – Did you know mice could JUMP super-high? 

Tonight Andrew went to visit a newer nicer food market in our new neighborhood and found a booth with frogs on display (over ice) for, presumably, some tasty dish.  He asked if she had Pad Siew, a very common Thai noodle dish that we eat all the time.  When she replied yes, he asked if she could make Frog Pad Siew.  Apparently this is the funniest thing anyone had ever said because she cracked up and could not stop laughing for minutes.  Andrew is so cute because he always acts really goofy and says silly things and Thai people LOVE him for it.

Many things we say as foreigners are just really funny to Thai people…we make language blunders alot, but sometimes even when we are speaking Thai clearly and correctly people just laugh at us because…well, who knows why!  We are the town clowns.  Sometimes it is very entertaining, but at other times it’s very harrowing to have to deal with it for the umpteenth time in a row, or after a long day, or when you feel like nothing is getting done.  Just one of those things I am still getting used to.

Another funny thing that happened as we walked home tonight to spend our last night at our serviced apartment before we move tomorrow:

I was surprised by something Andrew said, and I gasped really loudly, (which I do alot and Andrew can’t stand). In response,  Andrew grossly exaggerated my gasp and did so very loudly, suddenly, and squeakishly.  Because he exclaimed so loudly, a pack of stray dogs (about 10) came walloping around the corner, barking furiously and threateningly to see what the was fuss about.  Normally I would be very standoffish and scared around stray dogs accosting me on the street (which happens often here in Thailand).  But I was doubled over laughing so hard to see Andrew making fun of me cause such a stir with our neighborhood street dogs that I breezed right past them completely unfazed.  Maybe this doesn’t seem funny to you at all but it was an uplifting part of my day for sure.

This weekend Andrew & I attended a former co-worker, Sunanta’s, wedding here in Bangkok. Sunanta actually married a foreigner, Wes, from Dallas, believe it or not! They met working in London. We missed the formal ceremony part of the wedding that has many old traditional rituals and Buddhist meanings, but were able to attend the reception, with many of Andrew, Chris, and Tang’s old friends from work! A huge buffet was laid out with all kinds of delicacies – including Chinese, Japanese, Thai, and American food. Many of the speeches were done both in English & in Thai, so we could understand most everything. The most curious part of the night was noticing how no one listens to the speeches, or I shouldn’t say no one, just everyone kind of titters and talks while people are making toasts, just going about their own business, talking on cell phones, eating. This was perhaps something very different from American style weddings. Also every single guest gets in a posed picture with the bride & groom.

We also met up with alot of old friends of Andrew’s the next day for lunch at Phii Jid’s (far left, pink)house. Her adorable daughters joined us as well. Everyone came with empty stomachs as well as babies in tow. We had a huge meal once again laid out and celebrated a few birthdays too. It was a great time to reunite with old friends of Andrew’s and (now) new friends of mine.

Som Tam is my favorite Thai salad, one I have previously raved about in other posts.  There are lots of yummy Thai salads: Pomelo (a huge humongous grapefruit-like sweet fruit) Salad, Green Bean Salad, Mango Salad, just to name a few.  They are usually very spicy and have chilies floating around in their sauce, along with mini-dried shrimps.  Here’s a pic.  I also took a pic of my Som Tam lady’s shop that I like.  I call her “my” Som Tam lady because she is set up right by our bus stop we take a couple times a day, many times a week.  She takes forever some days, but it’s worth the wait.

Irene, a 3-month intern here from DC, is soon returning to the States and is just getting around to see some of Bangkok’s tourist sites, one of which we visited together last week on our day off. Tori, another intern from Edmonton, Alberta, also came – along with the other thousands of tourists that came too! Now that we are in full-fledged Dry season (this translates to the Cold season also: hot -85 or so degrees- but less humid) and the holidays are coming up, this is Thailand’s high season of tourism. From our home in Prawet, it took us about 2 hours to get to the Grand Palace, since you take a taxi to the sky train to boat taxi along the river. Here are some pics of our day….the Grand Palace and the Temple inside the Palace walls is a massive compound of several buildings.  Inside you must change into  modest clothing – a long skirt or pants and a sleeved shirt if you are not already wearing these things.  For some resaon the changing room lady did not ask me & Tori to change but asked Irene to – we’re not sure why since we were all wearing basically the same covering of clothing!  So she changed into the Palace’s choice of clothes they ledn to the thousands of tourists – button-down shirt and long sarongey skirts.