Food

Here it is finally! I think I've finally got an expansive enough set of pictures of some of the food I eat here. Before coming to Thailand I had never had Thai food and had no idea there could be so many ways to make rice. It's like potatoes for us. The first thing you learn when eating Thai food is how to eat it. Almost all the dishes are eaten with a fork and spoon. the fork is used to push the food onto a spoon. Even a lot of noodle dishes are eaten that way. Occasionally they will use chopsticks to eat soup or noodle dishes. It just depends. When I first got here I bought a lot of my food at the grocery store, but now nearly all of it comes from the local market or street vendors I pass on the way home or on the way to school. The fruit here is just wonderful. I eat fresh pineapple nearly everyday! Also eating at the garage kitchens around here is really inexpensive so nearly every day that's where I eat my lunch with Sarah 3 of my teachers as well as several other students.

This first dish is called Kai Jee-oww Muu saap which is a Thai-style omelette with minced porked meat cooked in it (or plain or with vegetables) served on a bed of rice and with thai chili sauce over it! It's a must try if you ever eat Thai food. When Dang teaches me how to make it, I will even cook it for you!

The next is called satay and it's often found at street vendors. Basically meat on a stick served with sticky rice that you eat with your hands. Following that we have types of food that are called kap-khaw which means "with rice". So they are plates of food that are supposed to be eaten over rice and range from fried minnows to stir-fried veggies.These are a couple examples of kap-khaw: egg and squash and bitter-root with eggAnd ginger chicken with black fungus.

The next one some people are familiar with. It's Phad Thai. Since it's often served with shrimp I don't always order it but it is still pretty good, and what most foreigners are familiar with. This brings me to the next plate which is one of my all-time-Asian-food-favorites; fried rice. This isn't the kind I usually get. This is a pineapple fried rice that I got at a hotel.

The next on our plate is my latest favorite called Phat-see-eww. It is rice noodles that are stir-fried with egg, veggies or meat and then covered in soy sauce! Mmm...so good!

Next on our plate are desserts. If you ever see bundles of banana leaves, you are almost sure to find some sort of desert sticky rice, that either has banana, taro or some other sort of sweet mixture on top of it. Don't pass it up though and even enjoy it with a cup of coffee or thai tea.Another desert, are these little things; fried banana! They are coated in -I don't know what- but they are really good. All the visitors we've shown around here we've had them eat these.

Thai food can be very spicy, especially dishes like Phat-phak boong, and Som-tom. More than once I've cleared my sinuses and burned my lips eating hot food, but not all of it is like that, and you can always ask for it to not be spicy. This is only a very small portion of all the different food I've had here. Some foods like this: I avoid. I'm not a fan of having my food watch me eat it, and I stay away from things like frogs, crickets, snails, and organs too!

I think that's about all for now on the food. We'll see what the next topic will be. For now though there are a lot of things coming up very quickly in the next two weeks, so I'll try hard to keep up with them! Cheers!

Bangkok Art Center

Two more days til Christmas break!!!!! I'm so excited! Today was also exciting at school. My class went on a field trip to the Bangkok Art Center. It just opened recently so there wasn't alot there but it was still exciting. My class this term consists of 5 other students and my teacher named Phimjai. She is really sweet and friendly. She is also part of the group of us that goes to lunch everyday after school. Anyway, I am the only girl in my class. The rest of the students are from America, The Philippines, Indonesia, Myanmar, and Singapore. At the center we saw two exhibits. One was Bangkok and what it looked like before the introduction of wester influence and the other was Bangkok after the introduction of western influence. It was pretty neat, and I was glad for a break from reading Thai. We still had some time to kill so we went downstairs to their art library and a few of us took advantage of the free internet. I even got to talk to Sarah Steiner on IM!! Here's a few pictures of the trip.

Santa visits Bang Na

Today was the annual Christmas celebration at the Bang Na daycare. I had never been there before, so I didn't know exactly what to expect. All the LCMS staff carpooled with Dang and we drove and drove and drove. When we finally got there I was totally surprised because we turned off the freeway into an alley. I knew right away when we got to the right place because Lek was waiting at the gate with a bunch of other children, parents and daycare staff wearing santa claus hats. The way they received us made me feel like we were stepping out onto the red carpet at a movie premier. They were so happy to see us, it seemed like some of them were tripping over each other to greet us. The rest of the morning was just a blur of activity.

Mostly, just try to think of 70 children brimming and overflowing with excitement that they can't contain. They know today is special because there are so many people; guests, parents, former students, volunteers and neighbors there. They know that by the end of it at least one of the gifts donated to the center and sitting on that huge pile by the Christmas tree will be all theirs. It may be the only gift they get this Christmas. While they await the arrival of Santa, it's all fun and games. They laugh and giggle, at the adults as they run around trying to be the first team to pass a balloon over their head and run to the front of the line before the other team does. They do the same as they struggle to pass a rubberband to each other only using a straw held in their lips. Even though they can't understand some of the English speaking visitors introduce the music, they all join in on the familiar song of Jingle Bells. Waiting in the wings are all the angels dressed up for their nativity play they are getting ready to perform. They've already made it through hair and makeup and now have beautiful braids and glitter in their hair. One girl is particularly enjoying the fact that whenever she twirls around she looks like a ballerina. I'm not sure exactly but I am guessing that all the clothes they are dressed up in belong to the center as most of the children wouldn't be able to afford them. They are all so proud of themselves, performance after performance. There is everything from a traditional Thai Monkey dance, to a dramatization of the nativity.

At the center of all of this activity and excitement of course, is the message that Jesus is the reason we celebrate Christmas! It's so amazing the kind of effect that children have on adults. They brought so much joy to me as they just radiated happiness. When they were getting their presents from Santa (one of the regular volunteers, a student from Germany) I almost felt like crying. They had so little, yet they were so happy. For the first time I was able to see firsthand what a blessing the children's ministry at Bang Na is. It's really exciting also to know that our church in Phong Phet is determined to start a church there now, and I look forward to visiting there regularly when school is finished!! Enjoy the pictures!

SHE'S HERE!!!!

Well, finally after much anticipation, waiting and praying, my niece Ariana Grace Williams has finally arrived!!!!! God be praised!

She was born on December 5th and weighed 6lbs, 8oz. My brother Jasen called me Friday night to tell me they were on the way to the hospital, so having to wait a whole day to hear the news and see pictures made the day so much longer! My sister and Ariana are doing just fine. Big brother Marshall got to camp out with Grandpa Karkan the whole night in the waiting room. This is what they were doing at 3:00am :D They apparently had a whole stock-load of video games to keep them occupied when they weren't sleeping. Grandpa also had to take him on laps of the hospital after Ariana was born, because he couldn't sit still to contain his excitement at meeting his sister. Grandma of course was very proud of the fact that she was up the entire time, but admits falling asleep before she hit the pillow when they got home that night. Grandpa of course is very proud and will have a lot to learn now that he has a grandaughter to spoil as well as Marshall.

It makes me so sad to think that I can't run right over to the hospital and hold her and touch her baby skin and hold her tiny hands and feet in the palm of my hand. She'll change so much every day, and by the time I see her she'll practically double in size. As sad as this makes me feel, the joy I feel from this new blessing God has given our family entirely outweighs the sadness. I know my parents will make sure that she is never deprived of hugs and kisses, and that I will have a full photo library to keep me updated on how she's doing.

In addition to prayers of Thanksgiving for Ariana's safe arrival, please remember Aaron's mom. She wasn't able to be there for Ariana's birth because she was hit by a car that was fleeing another accident scene going 80mph. She is in the hospital in serious condition with several broken bones and a concussion. The guy driving the car on a suspended license however got to go home. We'll keep praying for him too.

The Shed-yule!

Today was just such a great day! Aside from the fact that the government in Thailand is in a bit of shambles, there are a lot of good things to report. For one, it's December already and I can hardly believe it. The weather has cooled down quite a lot for us with chilly 68 degree mornings and comfortably warm 83 degree afternoons and evenings. For the Thai's this is practically freezing and everyone walks around with sweaters and jackets on-no joke! Last night I was fiddling around with my computer and managed to completely mess it up to the point where I didn't have internet and then did long enough to call CougarNet and have them help me.


There are so many things planned this month that I can't wait for. At school we have a Christmas dinner planned along with a show that consists of performances by students and our teachers. We were all divided into regional teams, so we are on team America doing a Thai-school rendition of the 12 Days of Christmas. Then, my teacher is teaching all the girls on our team traditional Thai dance. It's so fun! We practice during our breaks and of course our teacher makes it look so easy and graceful. A lot of the hand gestures require you to bend your wrists and fingers into nearly impossible positions, but it's still fun to learn. We don't get the cool outfits though.


Also at school, one of our teachers is getting married to one of the other students in January and a lot of us students are invited to their wedding in Hua Hin so we are starting to make plans to carpool there together. They are so excited, and we are excited for them as well. They are an older couple and neither have ever been married before. She is Thai and he is Swiss.


This Friday the 5th, we have off of school because it is the King's birthday, which is a major holiday here filled with parades and all sorts of celebrations. It will be like a sea of yellow this Friday. Next Tuesday we have another day off because it is Constitution Day that day. Hmm...I wonder if this day will be celebrated in the future.

On the 13th of December we get to go to the Bang Na daycare for the first time to meet all the children there and help out with their Christmas program.


In other news, I was able to get in touch with someone I knew from my first year at Concordia and find out that she and the people she is travelling with are fine, despite being stranded in Thailand for 2 weeks longer than they planned. I had been worried that they were stranded at the airport this whole time and found out that the Thai tourism board is taking care of them and housing them in a hotel in town. So that's good news!


On the 21st we are having a Christmas celebration at Concordia Lutheran Church Phongphet, and we have a whole agenda planned, including dressing Pastor Bob up as Rudolf and having all the other "missionary group" people sing Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer. That's our addition of American humour!


The next day on the 22nd the LCMS and CWEFT people are going to the north near Burma I think, to a refugee camp to share Christmas with the people there. That will be very exciting I'm sure! I think we wither come back Christmas Eve or Day.

I feel like I am missing something else, but I'm sure I will bring it up eventually. Now it's time for homework!