Future Family

A hug. Such a simple thing. Something that in America I wouldn't think twice of, but here I think the world of. Thai people don't often hug, so when I went to my Rotary Councilor's house and just minutes after meeting his wife she gave me a hug, you could say I was pleased. I suddenly felt so comfortable, so welcomed, so loved. 

So much of my time here in Thailand so far has been awkward, stunted, silent due to the language barrier and honestly kind of uncomfortable... so much of my time has been spent walking on egg shells. I'm so glad to say though that at my Councilor's house I feel so welcomed, I feel so much more comfortable than I have anywhere else so far. That's why I am so happy to say that my Councilor invited me to live with his family later this year! So, that clears up all the host family confusion also... which I've had a lot of.  Originally, I was supposed to have three families, each of which I would live with for three months. I ended up moving out of my first host family's home after three weeks though due to some problems because of my host parents lack of communication. I now live with the parents of the Rotary Club's outbound (not one of the families I was scheduled to live with). For a while I was confused as to whether I would have to move back to my first host family or live with my current family all year or have a third family or what...I've been told so many different things and I could never get the same answer twice. Now I've got at least the promising fact that I will get to move to my Councilor's home at some point! I'm hoping to spend as much time with his family as possible because I really like them. 

He has three children, ages 25, 20 and 17-- Bank, Beam and Boss -- all of whom went on exchange to California during different years. The family is extremely close and loving with one another and they're always joking. They have an oven (most Thai homes don't) and they said I was welcome to bake or cook whatever I wanted. The mom helped me learn and practice some Thai language already and always tells me that if I eat a lot she will be so happy "Kaohom, gin yuu yuu, kun meh dii jai". [It's hard not to eat a lot because the food she cooks is absolutely delicious!]

Saw this at the grocery store... made me laugh. I'm not sure if you can even buy an "Alaska Mug" in Alaska... I'll have to look into that.

Kao meun gai. Rice, boiled chicken, spicy sauce and chicken broth. I ate this for breakfast for about a week and then didn't eat it for a few weeks and I missed it. Yum, so good :)

Sunsetting while driving through Lop Buri

The view from my favorite classroom at school, the art room.

From the art room.

This man made the best Pad Thai I have ever eaten. Tiny little hole in the wall with no air conditioner or fans and just the one man cooking tons of Pad Thai from sun up to sun down. His restaurant is famous in Lop Buri. So good!

I miss baking!

P'Beam misses Banana Cream Pie (it was her favorite when she was in America and she hasn't had it since then!)... so we made some! We could find all the ingredients, or at least something similar, the only thing that was really hard to find was a pan, so we ended up making four little baby pies. 

My Councilors dog Lilo. She is tiny, fat and you can feed her anything!

Learning to make Thai food with my future host mom! :)

Beam and I

I am now on break from school until October 24th. This coming week on Tuesday I am going with Boss to spend the week living at Beam's university dorm in Bangkok. During the day we will go sight seeing in Bangkok and one evening they promised to take me to eat dinner at the top floor of the tallest building in the city... the lights are supposed to be beautiful. I'm so looking forward to it!

For now, I'm exhausted... 97 degrees today and this isn't the hottest season. I swear this little Alaskan girl is going to melt... but if she doesn't, she will post again soon about Bangkok, the city lights and life here in Thailand.

-Kearn