All I Need In Thailand ... A Cell Phone and Food!

Wednesday, 1 September 2004

It's hard to believe that I've been here for nearly a month, probably have gained about 10 pounds since, and I'm working 12 hour days at school. I have a bank account, my own bedroom in a three bedroom house on campus, a fridge full of food, and a work contract. Last night, I finally got a cell phone, so I am connected to the mobile industry again! No one has land lines here in Thailand (they have skipped that part), so the only way to stay in touch, even during the school day, because that's how we are alerted if there is a special assembly, parents call us directly on our cell phones, etc. So, in case you want to give me a jingle (of course, I think I only have 100 minutes on my SIM card right now) or you are traveling through this part of the world, my phone number is #01-1753725.

Many of you have said it seems like each time I write about food. If you know me well, of course you know I love to eat! But, we are always given more and more food everywhere we go. Each morning, one of our parents either gives us a bag of grapes, a bag of som oh (big giant orange/grapefruits the size of watermelons), a box of pastries, a whole cake, or something like that. Our two break times always have yummy Thai snacks, and our lunch always includes four or five different dishes, and I don't think I've seen a dish repeated yet! Plus, they are always piling more food on my plate, especially since the children don't eat all of the food that's on the table, and Thai people don't keep leftovers since everything is fresh, so they'll just throw it all away. You know me, I can't waste food!

Tonight, Ku Ai, Yope, and P' Lek brought us to Big C to get cell phones, go grocery shopping, and of course eat! I had two plates of food tonight! I had kuaytiaw naam tok moo (pork noodle soup), and we discovered that the broth is dark brown because it is made out of pig blood. It was definitely delicious, but I think I better stop asking what things are made out of. I then had kuaytiaw haeng (noodles without soup), with of course, barbeque pork. Later, we went to the chedi street vendors to pick up dessert for Ku Ai's girlfriend. But, in the process, we ended up sitting down for ice cream, eating some of Ku Ai's dessert, which were these sweet meat (probably pork) dumplings, and then we shopped around for DVD's. I ended up buying "Cold Mountain" for $5.

Tomorrow morning, P' Thoy (our worker/chef/janitor) will probably make me hot Ovaltine and a pastry for breakfast. Geez, I hope I'm sweating off all these extra pounds in the heat!