I Did Not Make Any Sandwiches Today

So glad I saw this at nine in the morning.

   Met Drexler's son, daughter-in-law, and two grand kids. The daughter-in-law is French and spoke an interesting mix of English and French. Plus the three and a half year old also spoke French. I'm the morning I thought of them like I think of most younger children (RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!) but by the afternoon we bonded over the cats at the kitchen. And if you're a really little child who is not yanking on the cats tail you're a good kid. 

    Today we learned how to cook some Thai dishes. Started off by going to a market to pick up some ingredients and to show us what to buy. Then all twelve of us piled into the songthaew (squished together) and headed to the farm. The cooking school is on an organic farm so all the ingredients are as fresh as can be. We wandered around looking at and tasting all the different ingredients we were going to be cooking with today. Some people discovered pineapples don't grow on trees.

    Then we got down to business. We started off making jasmine rice and sticky rice then we each made a different type of curry paste, mine was yellow. This is not making the actual curry, just the paste. Then we made coconut soup which had tomatoes, onions, lemon grass, and a mix of edible and inedible stuff mixed in. With chicken. It was really good. 

Not everyone made the same things. I'm going through my menu but some people, instead of coconut milk soup, made tom yum soup. Or later, instead of chicken cashew made chicken with basil. We choose our own menus and the teacher taught us all the dishes we wanted to learn. She was awesome too. 

    Then we finished our curry. Mine had potato and pumpkin in it. Strange combination. We let the curry sit for a bit and then they told me to stir fry stuff and watch out for the flames. For those who don't know, me and cooking have a bad past. Today I like to think we resolved our issues and worked together. Deanna was the one who lit something on fire, not me. Success!! We sat down and ate our food. The green curry was a bit pale but I was told still good. Drexler played Plants vs Zombies all morning with his grand kids. He hates it now. Some of us passed out after lunch from eating so much food. And we weren't close to done yet. Lilith was overtaken by the heat and spent most of the day 'passed out' on the bench. She had enough energy to complain that the cooking school people made her the wrong dish though. 

    I was woken from my nap by the youngest grandchild crying (he is master of the 'if I cry I get attention' technique. But he's cute so it's okay) and made mango with sticky rice. Found a new favorite: palm sugar. It tastes like maple sugar, but not from maple trees. After we ate that (or attempted to. SO MUCH FOOD) Alessa, Barbara, and I attempted to make spring rolls. Barbara was a pro while mine are deformed clones of the teachers example. Sat around and talked with the adults while waiting for everyone else to finish then we headed home. Where Donna and I slipped into food comas. Which is why I'm up at three in the morning writing this. 

I have watched this multiple times today and decided to share it with you.

Lizard Count: 19                   We had one come out of the bathroom and crawl into the ceiling and another baby on the ceiling which Donna thankfully removed. It suicide jumped out of her hand at first but she got it out.

Partying in Small Doses

    So our spoken Thai finals and the after finals partying is done. Maybe I should not try to update every day but every other day and maybe I'll get some posts up on time. Interesting note: The doctor gave me three different pills. One is an anti-biotic, one is a pain reliever, and the last one is anti-flatulence. That's what it says on my baggie they're in. They look like little sandwiches and taste like cinnamon.

• Thursday
• We arrived at school for lunch but since I had already eaten I decided to get some sugary Pepto Bismal instead. When I went to the doctor he told me not to have any dairy products for a week. The pink drink turned out to be strawberry milk so I grabbed some green tea instead. It was milk as well. 
• In class we found out we had one night to: write and memorize a two minute script, prepare and memorize answers to an impromptu question, and write/memorize a five minute script. Our teacher thought we could write one script for everyone (Oh my good golly gosh no way in heaven or hell) but Drexler broke Niko, Karen, and I into a group. We wrote about Niko's and my visit to the doctor but the doctor giving us the wrong diagnosis. 
• Went back and chilled for a bit. Barbara decided not to go to Tai Chi so I hung out around the, went out for food at one point. When everyone got back I convinced them to go eat roti with me. I needed to eat again for my medicine and roti sounded good. After the roti came I noticed there was something white in the chocolate and to my horror realized there was condensed milk in my roti. I ate it anyways. Regretted it later but it was worth it at the time.
• Friday
• The big day. Oh man. We gave our speeches then picked a topic. The last sentence in my speech was "I do not like to visit brothels" and I also said "I have ten fingers and ten foot fingers."
• There were three topics and seven pieces of paper. Three said 'food and shopping', three said 'traveling in Thailand' and one was 'social issues in America.' Guess which one no one wanted.
• I had been sick the day we learned about traveling and social issues. Luckily I picked food and shopping then rambled on until the teacher started asking me questions. Then it sort of went downhill.
• Our skit was hilarious. We started doing 'head shoulders knees and toes' in the middle. The other skit was... awkward. Lilith was randomly sitting on the ground talking about absinthe and Deanna happily stormed out at the end.
• We convinced Papa Duck to take us out afterwards to an ice cream parlor  They had garlic bread and french fries. Which I had. I missed french fries. 
• Went out to dance later with the Winos. Wandered literally all over half the town to find someplace that was open. We ended up at a place close to the guesthouse where there was a live DJ. Then we got scared off by a guy making creepy faces at us. So we went to a reggae bar and jived for a little bit. Donna hated both places. 
• Saturday
• Slept in till 10. It was glorious. Then hung around the guest house for the rest of the morning. We had a book meeting scheduled for the afternoon which never happened. 
• Instead the Winos went to a movie because they show movies in English with Thai subtitles here. Watched Jack the Giant Slayer. Forgot I was in Thailand even with the subtitles. They had us stand before the movie for the King's anthem. It was entertainment and a cultural experience.
• The grocery store did not carry marshmallows. I am very sad and disappointed with them. 
• Went back to the bar area with Deanna and Karen. Listened to some live music, ordered a Casanova which I will probably not do again, and enjoyed our only weekend off. 
• Before we left I was grabbing a shirt out of my bag when Donna told me I had a jing jock on me. Thankfully it was a baby one. Naturally I started freaking out and needed Karen to get it off me. When we got back there was another one in the bathroom waiting for me. I feel war has begun between me and the jing jocks. 

Lizard Count: 17