For the most part we have done what was promised to us: slipped into a teaching routine with some spantaneous evenings that mostly involved quiet time at home with our host families. The other night (Tuesday maybe?) Dr. Hal, Prof. Bock, AJ, our host families, and I made it into Trang town for a very little bit of shopping and dinner at the market. After eating some sticky rice and chicken in the back of Chalong's pickup, we went for real dinner at a restaurant, the name of which I never learned. (I'm under the impression that restaurants don't need names here. As long as you've got tables, chairs, and something that looks like food within view of the street, you'll get customers.) Later, a few of us went with Prof. Bock to the silk shop she visited last week. It's a nicer place where you have to take your shoes off to go inside, but I'm pretty sure it's because it was the owner's house as well.
Wednesday was uneventful. I went to bed early after dinner at home.
Last night, however, was a celebration for Chalong, who had just returned from Bangkok in time for a his birthday party! (Chalong is Dr. Hal and Prof. Bock's homestay, along with Yuwaddee and their boys, First, Fresh, and Future. They're a great bunch of people.) We ate at a place called Sudaporn, which was like an upscale, sophistocated version of Rainforest Cafe. It even had its own little ticket booth kind of thing. The atmosphere was awesome, the company was wildly entertaining, and the food was amazing. What more could you expect in Thailand?
Left: Kampai! Salut! Cheers!Right: AJ and Chalong.
The gang. Can you guess who is who by now? I feel bad for covering up Sam, but I didn't realize how short she was. You can see I stooped quite a bit!
This morning before school, Prof. Bock and Dr. Hal went to the market for some fun stuff to have for a Friday lunch. They gave me some pictures to post so you can see what the market looks like. Obviously this isn't the only one, but they all kind of look similar once you've seen a few.
The lovely lady in the blue is Tanawan. Dr. Hal, of course, is the farang in the purple shirt.
When I got to school, I found out from Prof. Bock that there was to be a wedding reception at Had Samran after school was over. OK, I thought, maybe it's just a matter of having room for it here instead of someone's yard. It made sense at the time. The funeral dinner appeared to be outside someone's home, and the uneven terrain made the whole thing rather difficult. The assembly yard of the high school seemed like an appropriate place, so when they started setting up tables and a stage everything just kind of looked correct.
That afternoon, we heard that there was an eclipse, so we ran down to the teachers' office to get a view. The Internet tells me that this is slated to be the longest annular solar eclipse of the millenium, only visible from this half of the world. Wow, how lucky are we! It would have been cooler to see from Central Africa or the Maldives, since they got to see the annulus, but a partial eclipse is pretty frickin' sweet, too.
After school, Gao told us that people were waiting for us, so I was afraid we would have to introduce ourselves again. Luckily he just meant Tanawan and the others, so we sat down for a bit. Then I was told that Thamonwan was waiting for me. Before I took off, Tanawan called after me. As I turned, I saw a chopstick with what looked like a sausage stuck on one end coming at me. Tanawan popped it in my mouth and asked if I was hungry. The hilarity of all, and the fact that it tasted pretty darn good, forced me to nod my head and mumble "arroi-ka" (it's delicious) through the hunk of food in my mouth. I hurried off to find Thamonwan as I chewed the rest.
You see, Sam and I had worked out that tonight would be a good night for shopping, not knowing about any wedding party. So it ended up just being the two of us accompanied by Thamonwan. But it's OK, because it was a great night!
A 秘密の写真 (secret photo) I took of a woman's order at KFC. The shopping mall in Trang has a huge KFC display in the front and a disappointingly small restaurant inside. We checked it out, but ended up leaving with nothing but some tasty strawberry limeade drinks.
Instead, we went to a cute little restaurant called Richy's. It has both European and Thai food, as well as a coconut cake that is famous in Trang. Sam and Thamonwan both had fried rice with shrimp (Thamonwan's was nice and spicy), while I decided all of Sam's talk about getting spaghetti from her host parents made me hungry for Italian. I got what was called something like macaroni in tomato sauce with shrimp, but it was really penne in tomato sauce with shrimp. False advertising does not mean it is not as delicious as it sounds. By far one of the best dinners (food-wise) I've had yet. Sam and I both decided that since the place was famous for its desserts, we should get something. Unfortunately, the coconut cake was sold out, so we settled for a scoop of strawberry sorbet.
After we talked about the differences between American and Thai diets, it was time to take Sam home. She dutifully took us deep into the woods of a rubber tree plantation to find her homestay, where I saw what appeared to be the healthiest dogs in Thailand. We bid farewell to Sam and navigated our way back onto the main road. Here we are at home, relaxing after a long, yet short week.
Tomorrow we are going...somewhere. Our options were to go to a waterfall, a cave, or visit a hill tribe...and somehow it was decided that we are going rafting. Perhaps one must raft from the waterfall to get to the cave? In any case, when I know more, so shall you. And sorry, you'll have to wait about 24 hours for the info. It'll be like a little surprise to get you up nice and early in the morning!
OK, well I'm all sorts of ready for bed now. Thanks for being patient with me; I promise I'll do better to keep you informed. (And speaking of which, we already have the schedule mostly worked out for next weekend! Tuesday morning for you, I will try to have posted detailed information about our trip to Chiang Mai and when we will be headed back to the States.) Until next time.
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