Khun bpen khon chaad arai, ka?

Water - CHECK. Successful shower - CHECK. One of the fastest showers I've taken in a while.  I didn't want to get caught with shampoo in my hair if the water went out.  Today was day 2 for teaching.  I had a fellow student as an observer, along with one of my Thai instructors.  The class went well, today we explored jobs and contractions. Excitement for me included birds passing in and out of the windows next to me.  During the break, Tan, one of my students brought fried taro root. The taro was sliced to the width of matchsticks, seasoned with toasted sesame seeds.  They were good.  If you have every tried vegetable chips, there is a similar taste.  Taro (a root-vegetable) is white-ish in color, with purple flecks. See picture, above.

My guest room in yellow, L side, 2nd floor

We didn't have a sit-down Thai language class today.  We were to venture out in the neighborhood and survey 5 people with 5 questions in Thai.  While I don't know Thai characters, I was able to listen to the words and tones used.  I then phonetically wrote their answers out. Curious how this went?  I started with a young high school girl, Malee.  She was talking with 3 boys (who were all sitting on their motorbikes, curbside).  She would giggle when I said some of the words in my questions, but then said them for me so that I could repeat them correctly.  She was sweet.  I asked the boys if they wanted to too.  Mali said, "they are too shy."  They just smiled and turned their heads when I looked their way.  For my other four interviews, I walked a little further down the road and saw a food vending cart. I talked with a couple young girl customers, the vendor (~40 year old woman), and the vendor's oldest son (~25 years old).  They all seemed to enjoy it and were quite friendly.  The son laughed when I would say certain words that involved deep ngggah-like sounds.  The vendor asked me to wait before I asked her the questions.  She wanted me to sit next to her.  As I sat next to her she prepared some Thai dishes, perfect! This was so neat.

She had an electric burner that sat a few feet above the ground, with a wok sitting on it.  She put a few tablespoons of oil in the walk, then two tablespoons of fresh chili pepper sauce. She let it simmer briefly, then added fresh cut chicken from her cooler.  She stirred the mix vigorously.  She then added sliced peppers, onions, and some thinly sliced, coined carrots. She then added three different sauces.  If I were to guess I would say fish sauce, fish paste, and soy sauce.  They were all dark brown/black in color.  She let this simmer for about 3 minutes.  She took about 1.5 cups of rice out of her heat cooler, placed it in a Styrofoam bowl and topped it with the small portion of spicy-chicken stir-fry mix.  It looked amazing, it's likely that I will be going there try a dish.

After I had finished with the questions, she and her son asked me their own question.  "Where you from?," where you live?" The woman said, "you beautiful" and giggled, "you very beautiful, you smile."  She also commented on my "beautiful skin.  She asked me if I cook Thai food, I said "I want to learn."  She smiled and said, "oh, very good, very good."  I told them I like spicy food and they both kinda laughed and said "ahh spicy....SPICY."  Overall, good assignment and great experience - ready to do some more of this.


Now, I have outside homework from the states.  My handsome half has asked that I find myself an exotic beverage today or tomorrow.  He clarified that it could be my today or his today or my tomorrow or his tomorrow.

I will say that I did make a trip to find a market.  As I headed down the street I hit the corner.  At the corner I noticed a Johnny Bravo-looking white man on a motorbike with two Thai gals on the back.  If that wasn't enough to stop me in my sandals his predator gaze would've without question. Within seconds he fires.. "Shah-Kst-shuTUV-ak-Muh-KOSH-gRSH  ((giant gust of vocal air))  -trush-Gz-ICH - ((spit)) - feeffen-PISH....." I follow that vulgar-filled, vowel-less display of ?words with thoughts of: "So if I wanted to not think twice about those words I would say he wanted to.. end my life,..with a little more thought I figure he just wanted directions to the nearest hair parlor.  It was odd and made me wish I knew a tiny bit of Russian.*

Onward, I make it to the "Friendship Market,"with its temple-looking architecture.  I have a tendency to spend a long time in grocery stores checking out new items and such.  It only gets worse when I see foreign items. I am seeing certain trends, globalization at its best and not-so-best. Common items include Oreos (many flavors), Kit-Kat, Pringles, pro-biotic yogurts, energy drinks, coca-cola light (only diet soda I have seen), Fanta (assorted flavors).  Interesting items include paprika or lobster flavored chips/processed snack foods, wasabe and seaweed flavored cashews, most cereals are European or American (up to $10 box, 300 baht) brands. And to my Wisconsin friends, quite a variety of cheeses.

I purchased some interesting beverages, on the right is a beverage called, Prove. "It is a natural source of phytonutrients, high in vitamin A,C,E...and best of all 13.52 mg of Lycopene - soon to have one healthy prostate.  The beverage contains: gac fruit (orange spikey fruit), grapes, pineapple, passion fruit, and berries. The two small containers are some sort of yogurt drink, the brand is Betagen. I see them all over in Asia.  There were several flavors, I couldn't choose so I decided on the ones that had pretty colors on them.

In the upstairs of the market I bought a tub to wash my laundry.  Manual agitation required Cindy.

Thoughts concluding the day
- Where is the Thai-underground passage to Russia?
- Do all Russian males fear bathing?

- I wonder if I could find a Russian yoga bar*
- Spanish Soap opera...in Russian*
* Dear twin, I am happy knowing that you follow me.
Stay tuned to see what kind of love finds me tomorrow.  Love you all.