I cursed at the corn muffins

I'm making corn muffins for dinner. Jiffy corn muffins, to be exact. You don't want to know what I paid for a box of Jiffy, but that's okay because I know I am getting the real deal. I'm making the muffins to go with the Chef's salads we are having, which I selected because Hot.Season.Is.Here. My weather app says it "feels like 101*F". I don't believe them. It's more like 105. But anyway, it's that time of year where the AC takes forever to cool the house down (and can't really keep up even then) even with a fan going. 

The house was hot because I had gone grocery shopping- a task complicated by the taxis and the fact that you can't make a right turn so you have to make a couple lefts and sit in traffic and take the long route to the mall. Because everyone knows the best place for a grocery store is in the mall. But I digress, the house was already warm, and I needed to make my Jiffy corn muffins. And that means I needed the toaster oven, which makes the AC virtually undetectable in the kitchen area. 

So I was already a little bit warm when I had to check the muffins. The toaster only fits one 6 unit muffin tray at a time, and it was having a hard time getting a grip on the tray without gouging out a muffin. Getting things out of my toaster oven is tricky because the heating elements are so close to the food. One small slip and the bit of my hand that is sticking out of the oven mitt is sizzling against the hot rod at the top of the oven. The tray wasn't coming out, so in my infinite wisdom I thought I'd just take the rack out, with the tray in it. It was a good plan until the tray slid off the rack, upside down, in there back of the toaster. This is roughly when I said some unkind words to the corn muffins. And the toaster oven. 

There the muffins lay, under the tray, and directly on top of there lower heating element. Smoke immediately starts pouring out as my precious over priced Jiffy muffins burn and I start feebly attempting to retrieve the whole lot from the hot back of the toaster. It's also at this moment that I start counting, or maybe recounting, the price of life abroad. 50*F and a real oven were sounding quite appealing. I would be remiss, however, if I did not mention that part of the reason I am tired and was out grocery shopping and craving vegetables in the first place was that I just got back from a three night stay at my favorite tropical beach with some friends. 

Many times, I feel pretty spoiled that we get to do things like that, and in some ways, we are incredibly spoiled and blessed. But the beach also helps put the toaster oven in perspective. It helps balance the higher daily levels of stress from the systems we fail to understand (or use properly), the people we miss and foods (like cheese or cereal) that we have to ration. It counteracts the weddings and births and funerals we can't make it to. It balances out the time we spend physically paying all our bills in person and in cash, or the time spent on the logistics of simple tasks like trips to the pharmacy. It doesn't make the overseas life better or worse, it just makes it different, perhaps with better pros and tougher cons. It means that while the jade water and limestone cliffs are stunning, the corn muffins are also burned, and in both cases, life moves on. 

Singapore with Mike and Sara

Mike and Sara finished their trip with two days in Singapore. Within hours of arrival they had tried the signature dish of Singapore: chili crab, and also given durian a chance (none if us really liked it). The next day we visited the wet market in Chinatown then ate at a few vendors and did some shopping. We also walked around and ate in Little India before finishing off the day at a Lim family favorite Indian restaurant. On their second day we had pork rib soup for breakfast before visiting a few coffee shops to sample espressos and then went to the Malay neighborhood, an area that was new to me. One last coffee stop and then Cantonese dinner (well, some of them ate dinner- you can ask Sara or I for more details on that!) before they were off to the airport. Quite a whirlwind visit! 

As ready as we will ever be to try durian! 

Foodie discussion at the wet market 

Masala tea and roti :) 

Breakfast!?!?!

Haha, we posed kith this guy outside a "rainforest cafe" in Little India 

Mike and Sara arrive

Mike and Sara arrived smoothly late on Friday night and we had a busy weekend across Bangkok. They started off with a trip to the world's largest outdoor market and a traditional Thai massage. In the evening we enjoyed a great dinner at the Supanniga Eating Room, a great Thai restaurant Mike had researched. It did not disappoint. We got an early start on Sunday with a Thai cooking class. I've been a few times with visitors and it's always lots of fun. This was no exception as Mike took notes and asked lots if questions. Also, since I had done the class before, they let me swap out two of the dishes for something different, which just meant we got to see and try more stuff :) Cooking class is like a five course lunch, so we walked it off afterwards at a few temples. We wanted to stay in that part of town for dinner at a place Mike had researched, but that didn't work out due to massive political rallies being held across the city on Sunday. Instead we popped into another place on Mike's list that was closer to home, though we went more for their signature drinks since we still weren't really hungry! 

A bad lighting slightly blurry photo, but one from their first dinner in Bangkok. Great food and atmosphere at this little place! 

Making coconut milk at cooking class

The preparation for pad grapow gai- a basil chicken dish. 

At Wat Po

Sunset in the city 

King's birthday

Today is the king's birthday, and thus also Father's Day in Thailand. It's a beautiful day when Thais honor their beloved king, and it's also a well timed day off in the midst of a busy season at work. Today I enjoyed a lazy day with a friend. Last night we relaxed with wine and chocolate and a Christmas movie and then today we went for brunch. We shared two delicious dishes that didn't require me to eat again for about 7 hours. 

Our Huevos Racheros 

Cranberry and cream cheese stuffed French toast. And yes, that is vanilla ice cream on the side. 

Singapore Returns (or is it Return to Singapore?)

This past weekend I had the chance to make a quick visit to my Singaporean family. I arrived late Friday night, exhausted, and collapsed into my new attic room. There were lovely flowers by my bed, a birthday card, and a pair of earrings. What a welcome! 

On Saturday I made my long awaited trip to the famous botanical gardens and saw the whole thing by running 4 miles around the park. So while I didn't get to stop and smell the roses, I did get to take it all in on a beautiful morning. Observing the flowers was great, but I also really liked observing the locals. There were tons of people in the park: picnicking, jogging, walking, doing yoga, dance aerobics, tai chi, and various martial arts I didn't recognize. Great people watching. 

After an amazing lunch (topped off with my favorite egg tarts) and a bit of shopping, we went to the 

National Museum of Singapore, which I thoroughly enjoyed. A great mix of history, culture, and art. We had Lebanese food for dinner in a very lively neighborhood and then walked to a dessert bar that was To Die For. I tried to take a picture of my artisanal dessert, but the lighting wouldn't cooperate. 

On Sunday we had a fantastic brunch after church (Singapore blogs are really just food blogs, after all) and then I was pampered with a pedicure and foot massage. Ahhhhhh. A quick tour of some fun Singapore neighborhoods (including a stop at a bakery) wrapped up the afternoon before I caught my evening flight back to Bangkok and work on Monday morning. 

I think everyone needs a place to escape to in their life, a home away from home so to speak, where they can relax and be away from everything without going too far away. And I admit, I'm quite lucky. My escape spot happens to be a tropical island city state with amazing food! Can't wait to be back- every time I go I add more places to eat to the list :) 

Favorite Thai food

Meet khao soy, my favorite Thai food. It's a northern speciality, so I was excited to eat it for lunch today on my first trip to northern Thailand. So far, I love Chiang Rai: beautiful, peaceful, green, and cool.

Picture a day September 17

This is one of my favorite fruits, passion fruit. It has a dark red shell that is quite hard, and is filled with sour slimy yellow stuff and slimy back seeds, as seen in the white mug. Is lice it in half and scoop out the inside. Since it is sour, I mix it with something else such a ripe mango or sugar to sweeten it up. Slimy and delicious. If you ever need something for a prank like "eating eyeballs" or something gross like that, passion fruit is your go to. 

Picture a day September 5

This picture has nothing to do with Thailand, but everything to do with dinner. I love the expensive imported crackers, cheese, fresh market avocado, and freshly ground salt and pepper. Makes up for dinner in Tuesday, which was a complete bust. 

Picture a day September 2

One thing I love about Bangkok is Helping Hands Fresh Food Delivery. They are a ministry initiative that works with people in the city's largest slum community. You place your order online for fresh fruit, veggies, herbs, eggs, or meat.  Helping Hands goes to the market the following morning, makes the purchases, and delivers them to your door. I love it because I can stock up on just about everything else, and thus avoid the grocery store lots of weeks, which is especially nice because there is just no good way/place to grocery shop here. The produce is generally very high quality and the delivery fee is somewhat offset by what I save in taxi fare to the store. Not to mention time. 

Picture a day August 24

Yummy Japanese udon noodles for lunch with friends. You know it's going to be good when most of the shopping center is dead, but this place had a line out the door the entire time. 

Picture of the day August 15

My small neighborhood is blessed to be the home of three minimarts- there are entire weeks that I subsist off of what I can get at these places. Each has items that overlap and items that are unique. One of the stores has this small fruit section where I can get a package of pomelo, a grapefruit like citrus. It's sweeter than grapefruit, and easier to eat if you buy it peeled like I do. They often have mango as well, and as you can see, that even had dragon fruit today (the white fruit with black seeds in the back). 

Dissecting Dinner

It started when the doctor told me that I am a bit anemic and need to eat more iron.  He suggested leafy greens.  I thought about a juicy steak. Except that beef in Thailand leaves a lot to be desired.

A typical Thai cow... doesn't really moooove you to want to eat beef.

 Green leafy things are a nice thought, but hard to get around here since I order my veggies online and have them delivered, and the site doesn't carry much green and leafy. At least, no spinach.  So I did a little search on foods high in iron and I found two that looked interesting: shrimp and dark chocolate.  Deciding that eating dark chocolate for dinner might not be the best choice, I added shrimp to my weekly order from the market.  And broccoli. 

Except I forgot. I forgot that I live in Thailand.  So I guess I wasn't all that surprised that my shrimp came with heads and tails and legs.  I could live with that. But they also came with veins.  In the US, I remember reading "deveined" on all the shrimp packages, but I didn't think much of it.  Now I do. 

I don't like blood or anatomy. I don't really even like thinking about my meat as living muscle tissue.  So I came home from the gym, figured I'd marinate the shrimp and then take a shower before cooking them.  There I stood, a pile of shrimp in front of me and not one, but two little veins needing to be painstakingly ripped out of every individual bite of my dinner.  Have you ever done it? It's gross. By the time I finished the sweat was dry, my fingers were prunes, the house smelled like shrimp, I had a crick in my neck, and little bits of vein were embedded under my finger nails.  VEIN! 

Needless to say, I think I'll aim to eat more shrimp when I'm eating out, and stick with chicken and pork at home. They tasted good in the end, but I don't know if they were worth it. 

My dinner- beheaded, detailed, deshelled, and deveined.

Stepping Outside My Culture Zone

One of the things I am learning a lot about by living in Thailand is what it feels like to be a minority.  There are several ways I can wind up in the minority here- linguistically, religiously, racially, or culturally.  I don't notice it all the time out in public, but I do still feel conspicuous some times, and the language part can have its stressful moments.  It is not often here that I am in the cultural minority since so many of my friends are Americans or other Westerners, so it is easy to live in Thailand and not often experience the joy of observing another culture closely or the stress of being emerged in a set of rules with which I am not familiar.

This weekend in Singapore, I had that opportunity.  As Sunday was the end of Chinese New Year, my aunt and uncle were gathering with their family for dinner and they invited me along.  Nothing paints a culture for you like attending a holiday with them.

We walked across the street to my uncle's parent's house where his other siblings, nieces, and nephews had already arrived.  Much like my family, most people were milling about the living room visiting while a few finished getting the food and tables ready.  I smiled when I saw that there were two tables, one being the designated 'kids table', just like we always had (some things, I guess are universal).

Before dinner a small coffee table covered in newspaper was brought into the middle of the room. On it was a platter with piles of different shredded vegetable and raw salmon.  Sauce and peanuts were poured on top and everyone crowded around with a pair of chopsticks and then worked together to mix the salad.  It was fun, and I soon realized why the platter was surrounded by newspaper.

Then we all sat down for hot pot with heaping piles of pork, beef, and seafood all around.  Everyone happily started dropping meat into the broth as family banter bounced around the table.  Sat between my aunt and uncle, my plate was never empty.  At one point everyone was fighting over a meat that I did not recognize.  My aunt took a piece and put half of it on my plate.  She said she'd only let me know what it was after I tried it...  I did, and it wasn't bad, if a bit gelatinous.  I think it was pig skin or something. I tried several other new things that I can't remember, and even ate part of a black egg (I can't remember what they are soaked in), something I had cleverly avoided so far in Bangkok.  It wasn't nearly as bad as I expected it to be, and in fact, I didn't dislike it.  Not sure I'd go as far as saying I liked it though.

The meal was delicious and fun, and I ate way too much.  My favorites were the pork meatballs and the shrimp.  After hot pot I had a bowl of broth and then some Korean ramen-style noodles to finish things off.  We followed dinner with a chocolate birthday cake for two of the teenagers, which I somehow made space for.  It was a fun evening and my uncle's family was so welcoming.  When I got there he had introduced me to everyone, but it wasn't until dinner was nearly over that his sister realized that I was that Clare, the one from Ann Arbor, the little girl.

The foods may not have been turkey and stuffing, but it still felt a lot like sitting down to a big family Thanksgiving dinner, everyone having their favorite bits of the meal.  It was so much worth the bit of uncomfortableness that comes from trying to pick up on the correct cultural way to do things and knowing the whole time that you're not quite getting it.  But at least my chopsticks skills are slowly coming along. 

Back to Singapore!

Yesterday was a Thai holiday, which meant a 3-day weekend and a trip to Singapore for me.  It was a much needed reprieve from the chaos of Bangkok and day to day life.  I can escape into an organized English-speaking world for a few days, rest at my aunt and uncle's house and enjoy a few days with family.

After flying in on Friday night I spent Saturday shopping (and eating along the way) with my aunt.  We had a family dinner at a seafood restaurant where I got to eat chilli crab, slipper lobster, shrimp, chicken, steak, and probably something else I am forgetting... it was fantastic!

On Sunday, I got to hear my uncle speak at the youth service at their church and then we had a traditional chicken rice Singaporean lunch.  In the afternoon I visited Gardens by the Bay, which in addition to outdoor walking trails and gardens, has two enormous domes.  One dome is a cloud forest ecosystem and the other is full of flowers from mediteranean climates around the world (California, S. Africa, Chile, Australia, etc.)  I loved the cloud forest especially- the cool wet air made you feel healthy just walking around in it.  It was a beautiful and relaxing place to wander and think and enjoy. 

Waterfall at the entrance to the Cloud Forest dome.

Trying to capture the entire 'mountain' in the dome, unsuccessfully.

Flower Dome

Chinese New Year decorations in the garden

Singapore Flyer, from one of the paths at the gardens.

Sunday night I was able to go to a Chinese New Year hotpot dinner with my uncle's family- a very cool experience that merits (and will get) an entire blog post of its own.  I tried lots of new foods, some of them before learning what they were, which was for the best. 

On Monday I went to the aquarium, which is the world's largest oceanarium. It was so peaceful, and almost made me want to get an aquarium at my house, except that we had one growing up and I've seen how much work they are.  But it was amazing- all the different fish, corals, sharks, rays, jelly fish and other ocean creatures.  There were several places you could just sit down and stare and try to take it all in.  Then, after a late lunch (my favorite noodles and egg fried rice in Singapore) and ice cream, it was time to fly back.

This week is one of the busiest of the year at school, but at least I got to start it out rested and rejuvenated! 

I don't make the menu, it makes me: dinner planning in Thailand

Dinner planning takes on a whole new twist in my outlet-less Thai kitchen.  I not only have to work around what I know how to make and what I can get here, but also what my kitchen can cook.  My new food (produce and meat) delivery service has good salmon, so I started out with that menu item.  How to cook it- grill or bake?  I decided on baking- less clean up.

Then I thought of asparagus- but that would require the grill (which shares a plug with the toaster oven, so it's one or the other) or the stove top burner (which blows a fuse if run with the toaster).  What veggie could I make without a heat source?  Salad!  So salad it is. 

Carb dish?  Bread lady is on vacation, so that eliminates bread, which would have been convenient since it doesn't require heat to cook.  How about potatoes? Great!  Usually I broil/roast them (oven is in use for the salmon though, too small for both).  Can't bake them for the same reason. No microwave to nuke them (this is just my thing, not a Thailand thing). So... mashed? Sure. I've never made mashed potatoes before, but how hard can it be, right?  I can boil them before the salmon goes in, so timing wise they work.  

My friend is coming over with butter since I'm out (she's coming for dinner, not just to deliver butter) and then we'll see how the taters turn out.  And the salmon, which I kind of sort of followed a recipe for.  The salad I think I can count on... 

Fast and faster: Learning intentionality

The discipline of fasting is not one that I grew up with, or have ever practiced regularly.  I did a 30 hour fast in high school once, as a fundraiser with my youth group (we raised funds for an organization that fights world hunger), but that's about it.  Last year, my (then) church did a week fast in early January as a way of starting the year in fasting and prayer. We were encouraged to fast in some way during that week.  I chose to do a complete fast for one day and spent my usual meal times in prayer for the year, for the church, for Thailand, etc. 

My current church is just wrapping up a three week fast with a similar purpose- to fast and pray for our church and its ministries, for our family/friends/neighbors, and for Thailand as a whole.  This year I chose to do a Daniel fast, which I started right after my family left (the church started a week before me).  The Daniel Fast is based on the book of Daniel, where Daniel and his friends rejected the rich foods of their Babylonian captors in favor of "vegetables and water".  There's plenty of information out there about what foods are or are not allowed, but the gist of it is no meat, dairy, sweets, baked goods, additives, fried food, or beverages besides water.  I have tweaked those a bit and included Jif peanut butter (as opposed to the "approved" natural peanut butter, I mean, have you seen that stuff separate???) and not been too obsessive about things like chicken broth which may or may not have been used to make the pumpkin soup I ordered the other day. 

Some of the things I have learned from this time of fasting have surprised me.  First, I was quite surprised, and nearly a little horrified, to enjoy it so much.  I really like cooking and eating healthy foods.  The strict diet forced me to be creative in what I ate and to pack a lunch eat day, which is maybe not so fun the night before but is AWESOME everyday when I compare my food to the school cafeteria.  There have been challenging moments for sure- the first days back to school without my morning tea (okay, EVERY day without my morning tea), the Christmas chocolate still in my fridge, the oatmeal every morning, controlling my ginormous sweet tooth, etc.  But mostly, the yoke has been easy and the burden light. 

The second thing that has been huge for me is a lesson in intentionality.  When I've done complete fasts in the past, the main goal was always to just block out food from my mind. Not think about it.  Here, the opposite is true. I have to think about food all the time. I have to shop and prepare food constantly.  Every time I will be away from the house at meal or snack time I need to plan ahead and bring something.  I have to think about getting protein and carbs.  When I grocery shop I read every food label, making sure I'm getting the basic, real, good food- no additives, especially sugar.  and I've learned about the parallel needed in my own life, the intentionality I have been lacking. 

I may be a "planner" in many ways, but I'm not a dreamer or a visionary.  I don't have any idea what my future is going to look like.  And many times, both on the larger scale of life and the smaller scale of day to day living, I let life happen to me instead of being intentional about where I'm going.  I'm quick to say yes, and then soon find myself overbooked and overwhelmed or somewhere I had no intention of being.  Last semester this was especially true.  I took on too many tutoring students, too many commitments, and as the ball got rolling, I quickly found myself much busier than is good for me.  So this semester, when one of my tutoring kids dropped out, I intentionally decided not to fill his spot, even though plenty of kids are begging for it.  I'm laying the pieces of my semester schedule slowly and intentionally, letting these first weeks of school settle first.  I'm planning now for some days with my closest friends in Michigan this summer.  And it feels good. 

The fast has also just given me the chance to spend time drawing near to God, sitting at his feet, both on my own and with friends who are doing the fast with me.  Together we are seeking God's face for our own lives, those of our friends and family, that of our church, and our host nation.  We don't necessarily fast and pray because God promises some great miracle, we fast and pray because we know that when we do, he hears us and acts on behalf of his people.  That, in and of itself, is reward enough. 

A Long Lost Love

This past week has been very unusual because I have been... cooking!  There's a bit of a story behind it, which I can share later, but it's been surprisingly enjoyable to cook again.  I rarely cook in Bangkok for several reasons.  It's so very cheap and yummy and convenient to pick up food at the places around my apartment or even go out to eat, which makes cooking much less necessary.  It's also rather inconvenient to grocery shop when you don't have a car (like in the US) and don't walk past the grocery store on your way home from work (like in Argentina).  In addition, some of the stores aren't that great- either they don't carry many of the items I would want or their produce isn't good or whatever.  Couple that with the minimarts on my street that can supply the basics and I've gotten rather out of practice.  And don't even get me started on cooking with one burner, a toaster oven, and an electric grill to work with (just don't use more than one of the three at once). 

As I was enjoying all that delicious home cooking this past week I was thinking about how I can get this to continue. What was is it, exactly, that would inspire me to cook?  And I think the answer is grocery shopping.  I went yesterday, to a good albeit expensive store, and got inspired all over again and I realized that nothing inspires like having great ingredients to work with.  Now, I don't expect this cooking everyday thing to last, but I do hope I can keep at least a little bit of it going and mix it up more in the future since it really can be quite fun and delicious and healthy! 

More adventures with my mom and brother

Wow!  So much going on that it's hard to even write about it!  Despite the food poisoning changing plans a little bit, we made the most of the time that Mom and Matt were here. We went and saw The Hobbit while we were recovering and got out and about once we felt well enough.  Mom and I went to the Grand Palace, Chatachuk market (one of the largest in the world), Jim Thompson House Museum, Wat Pho (a temple that I liked much more than the one at the Grand Palace), Thai cooking class, and the Museum of Floral Culture.  In between we snuck in iced coffee, rooftop cocktails at sunset, good food, and a 2 hour Thai massage.  Ahhhhh.  While she was in Singapore for a few days Matt and I got some work done, but also found time for naps, massage, Thai cooking class, and rooftop cocktails with some of my friends. 

It was wonderful having them here and showing them a bit of my world across the globe. 

Mom at the Grand Palace

Heading down from the rooftop

This sign was posted on a board that was literally a good 7 feet in the air. I'm sure people that tall are quite adept at being careful of head impacts. 

Colorful veggies at cooking school

Cooking yummy Thai food!

Beautiful afternoon on the river boat.

Quite the spread- ready to learn how to cook!

Everything cooked on high heat- it was hot!

Yes, I really made that Tom Yum Gung and it was delicious!

City view at sunset from the roof of Siam@Siam hotel

Tea and coffee on the veranda at the floral culture museum.

It All Went According to Plan, Until We Ate the Duck

For months, I planned these few weeks with my brother here, and then my mom too, then just my mom.  We booked flights and hotels and cooking classes, plotted itineraries and scheduled our days.  And then in mid December he showed up, and the wheels started rolling, everything falling into place.  I'd spent so long planning it that as the days passed it all felt oddly surreal. 

Then we came home from Koh Chang at 6pm, starving and ready for dinner.  We thought some Korean barbeque might be nice, but chose a nice Chinese restaurant at the last minute for Matt's last dinner in Bangkok before flying home the next night.  We ordered, among other things, their famous roast duck. And that's where the trouble started. The food seemed oddly lukewarm and the duck especially was not hot. 

By the time I woke up at 6am the next day, I was the only one who had slept and my brother had already started puking.  Mom wasn't far behind. For the next 5-6 hours I ran between them as they got worse and then laid down at the foot of my bed when I could, nauseated myself.  By late morning I was really worried and starting contacting friends to help and had a colleague's wife (who is a nurse) stop by.  As the dehydration got worse we got my doctor to come to the house to see them as they couldn't really go anywhere.  She was a lifesaver.  Without that we may have had to make an ER run.  

I called Lufthansa to find out the options for changing Matt's flight and getting a medical certificate, called the airline Mom and I were going to fly to Chiang Mai the next day and cancelled the cooking class we had scheduled for that day. 

By evening my nausea got much worse and I started getting sick.  I had been praying all day that I would just stay healthy enough to take care of them and that I would be able to summon the strength to do so.  I'll be honest. I had never cleaned up after sick people before, other than myself.  Normally, if I had felt how I did, I would not have gotten out of bed.  But somehow, when other people are counting on you, we find that place of super-strength, similar I am sure to the strength hidden inside of moms who take care of sick kids or keep the house going even when they are sick.  Food poisoning taught me a lot about service. 

Luckily by the time I was on the tile floor my mom was well enough to check on Matt from time to time and I was able to pop up in the better moments and help them.  By night I was feeling okay and laid down on the couch to keep watch through the night.  I crawled into bed at about 1:30 once Matt's fever had broken, I'd gotten some fluids in him, and everyone was sleeping as comfortably as possible. 

Needless to say, Matt didn't make it home that night nor did we make it to Chiang Mai the next day.  We didn't make it to Chiang Mai as it was going to be a short trip and by the time we could go it was only one night, plus, in order to change it I would have had to be on the phone with the airline in my worst moments to reschedule.  But we've had some relaxing days here and then were able to head out to the ginormous Chatachuk market on Saturday, the Jim Thompson House, and the yesterday the Grand Palace.

The soonest Lufthansa could get Matt on a flight was the 9th, so he booked another flight home the night of the 4th.  Except shortly after he left for the airport Mom looked at his itinerary and noticed a problem with the date: January 19th.  So I ran off behind him to the airport, though by the time I got there and had him paged he had already exchanged more money and was working on getting himself to my apartment in a taxi (quite a feat- sometimes it's hard for me to get the drivers to go the right place even when I know exactly where to go and speak a bit of the language).  Eventually my mom called me on the spare cell phone to tell me he was back and I returned home.  So he's back to the flight on the 9th.  We're make the best of the fact that he's stuck here with me awhile longer. 

So it has not gone according to plan, these last 5 days, but God has sustained me in the moments of worry.  When I've needed to serve, he's given me strength.  When I've needed to sleep, I've slept.  But I needed to hold my cookies, I've held them.  And in the midst of it all we've had some laughs and been able to poke a bit of fun at ourselves. And we have quite a mind to walk back into that Chinese restaurant and give them the bill for what it cost us to eat at their restaurant! 

A Song and Dance with Dinner

Went to dinner with some friends after church today. You know, just your normal hot pot place that's on every street in Bangkok.  And there we were, in the middle of hot pot and deep conversation, when a song came on and all the hostesses and waitstaff took their positions and started dancing.  In unison.  Real cheesy like.  As if it were the most normal thing in the world.  Funnily enough, our table of foreigners seemed to be the only one that really noticed.  As everyone else carried on with their meal, we stopped and admired and commented, and of course, snapped a picture.