Happy Birthday to the New Year

Sawadii Bii Mai (happy new year)!
The last week has been pretty crazy celebrating New Years and taking a trip to the city of Chang Khan with my Thai Family for their annual family reunion. On Thursday at Wang Yang we had a school wide gift exchange. Every student and teacher (88 total) brought a small gift which I later found out means bring a 30-40 baht= $1 kanom (candy)- single bottles of soda showed up also to exhange. After all the gifts were numbered each person had their turn to pick a number and receive the corresponding gift. This took about 3 hours...all to exchange little candies.

After school I had about an hour to gather my backpack before Pi Med came to pick me up to begin a 7 hour journey to Chang Khan. However in typical thai fashion we didn't leave the city (nakhon phanom) till around 7 pm meaning we didn't arrive at Pi Med's sisters house in Chang Khan till 2:30 am! The ride was long and the car was FREEZING. For some reason Thai people like their cars really really cold. Everybody was bundled up in jackets and the whole time I was just wondering why don't they turn down the AC. After shivering for a few hours I politely asked to turn down the AC or turn on the heater. This was pretty stupid since I was quickly informed Thai cars don't have heaters! Once we arrived at the house Pi Med's daughters, Sohm 25 yrs and Ying 21 yrs , and I all jumped into one bed for the night. Waking up only a few hours later to the sound of roosters I began my introductions to the extended family. We had a traditional Thai breakfast which usually consists of sticky rice, fish soup, Laab (meat salad), and Somdtam (papaya salad). The whole trip I didn't sit at a table once. Everything is eaten on the ground with bamboo matts. Also there was no stove or oven. All the food prepared at the house was done over a fire!

In the Pictures below I got to learn how to make a traditional rice noodles. In the pot is the sticky rice mixture with the finished noodles in the tray next to it. To make them you squeeze the noddle mixture into a hot pot of water then use a net to scoop them out.

Their house was situated on the Mekong River, boarding Laos. In the mornings I would walk in the Mekong River, since the water is really low right now, and watch the fog uncover the Lao Mountains. Beautiful!

On one of the mornings I saw an old lady turning over rocks looking for frogs in the river to become her lunch. I decided that this looked fun and joined in the frog hunting (reminds me of golf ball hunts :) ). Eating frogs here is a delicacy.

This is her carrying her bag of frogs.

I also got to be a part of trying to cook the meals. Here is a roasting pot of Buffalo Skin. This is the cricket that I ate...not too bad actually.

The "downtown" had a very old-fashioned feel to it with most of the buildings made of wood and is where a festival was held on New Years Eve. We spent the night walking the streets, watching the fireworks, and doing a countdown. New Years is a very family event and there was no alcohol or partying for me this NYE.

Of course spending a whole trip with only Thai People we had a share of miscommunicates. Here are some of the clarifications we had to make:

*Los Angelos is NOT a state, but a city in California.

*If someone is trying to give you something and you say , "It's Okay". That means NO not yes.

*Thai Cars don't have heaters.

* "I make picture for you" means Let me see your camera and I will take a picture for you.

*Sitting cross-leg on bamboo mats for hours takes practice

Overall it was a very very Thai New Years and a great experince of the family culture. I loved seeing the interactions between family members and especially the older grandmother and fathers. They are treated with such respect and kindness. I hope everyone had a wonderful New Years and I wish you the best in 2011!!

My Thai Family: Mother-Pi Med Father- Pornchia Daughter: Sohm and Ying

Side Note

**At my school yesterday I made gucamole for my teachers after spotting Avocado at Tesco. My teachers had never tried avocado and my students kept calling it an olive so I thought it might be a good cultural food to share. In summary they thought gucamole was discusting and said I needed to add lots of fish sauce, sugar, and chunks of chili peppers to it! Since I couldn't find any tortilla chips I opted for my next best option, sticky rice!