Thai food is great, but...

Sometimes you really want to eat something with no fish sauce or shrimp paste. And so things like this happen.


Phitsanulok cornbread. Brought to you by my kind family, the USPS, and the Thai postal service.

Okay, yes, this may have been cooked in a toaster oven with only one setting ("on"). And yes, it might have been cooked in a pan I made out of tin foil. But I think I have a semi-defensible claim to making the best cornbread this side of the Mekong.

As if the cornbread's journey across the Pacific weren't enough of an obstacle, while at the market on Saturday I forgot to buy eggs. I realized this only as I was dumping the cornbread mix into the tupperware container that, when I am cooking, doubles as my mixing bowl. I refused to let my plans be thwarted. So, at 7:30 pm on my Saturday night, with soup simmering on my portable floor burner, I ran down the alley and tried to buy one single egg from the lady making street omelets. Her surprise at my rapid approach turned to utter confusion as I began to stutter in broken Thai, "Forget egg. Cook; forget egg. I buy one egg. But no cook egg." Two other people on the street came over to help. It took about two minutes of myself and my friend Susie gesturing, pleading with our eyes, and shaking our heads that "no," we really didn't want an omelet, before the miffed vendor finally offered to sell me three uncooked eggs for 10 baht. Finally, four baht poorer and one egg richer, I was able to mix up this fine delicacy.


Not too shabby, right?

And some vegetable soup. I tried to make it like yours, mom...



But, in case you're reading this, my soup was far, far too watery and boring. What did I do wrong? Could you also advise me on your potato leek soup, because I was thinking of making that next. Also, this may or may not be a ploy to convince you to send more cornbread my way. And maybe a used copy of The Namesake, if it will fit in the flat rate box. That would be really awesome. Just if you have the time.

Okay I hope you are all well. Enjoy this last day of January, fair reader. I know I did, sitting poolside in Phitsanulok, reclining under palm trees in the 90 degree heat. Goodbye for now.

Yours,
R

Arrival

Dear readers,

Whew!

I arrived in Bangkok late Friday night, pallid and confused from a near sleepless thirty hours in planes and airports. The forty-five minute drive into Bangkok was a steamy and surreal final leg of the journey, towers of glass and light rising up to meet us as we rumbled towards our new home. The night air was terribly hot and heavy, its effect a bit like a warm and buzzing embrace.

The sun woke me yesterday from a night of dreamless sleep. For the next month I am staying with the nine other Fulbright English Teaching Assistants (ETAs) at the Suskit Nives International House of Chulalongkorn University. The room is nice: a rectangle; two single beds with hard mattresses draped in shiny sky-blue polyester sheets that rustle; institution-white walls; florescent lights and not enough of them; air-conditioning; and a beautiful mint-teal fridge that is really the heart of the room. My roommate Rachel is from Lafayette, Louisiana and graduated from Hendrix. She, along with all of other ETAs, seems interesting and bright. Our neighborhood is centrally located, and characterized by crowded streets, diverse smells and busy shops with faded awnings.

No one seems to have very high expectations for us for the first two days. Our only official task yesterday was a brief meeting with the lovely program coordinator Siriporn. She delivered our first month’s stipend in the form of a large taped envelope stuffed with baht, took us on a walk around the neighborhood, and then left for a massage appointment. I spent what feels like the bulk of the day in one of Bangkok’s largest malls, the MBK shopping center. It is no mid-western mall of the Americas but rather a six-story explosion of activity that is one part mall, two parts market, and packed with people from wall to wall. The fourth floor, dedicated entirely to cell phones, is a labyrinth of narrow and loud stands pushing imposter iphones and “blackberys” (I have a phone now. Do call me!). The MBK also provided hours of gratuitous people watching, ideal for studying the social codes and fashion habits of Thai young and old. I am trying to soak up as much as I can in the vain hope that this will help me avoid some number of gaffes in the future.

In the evening we had our first Thai dinner at a small noodle house in the neighborhood and walked back through a bustling Saturday night street market. Looking for a drink on the way back to our dorm, Anna and I happened an exceptionally bizarre hotel bar. As we entered the dim purple and orange neon-lit lounge of the Siam Siam Hotel, the notes of a not-too-shabby cover of Mustang Sally surrounded us. An audience of mostly older foreigners and a few young Thai dates milled about enjoying overpriced drinks and an unreal ambiance. The wholly endearing cover band consisted of four middle aged men and two adorable women in their late twenties. They played everything from Queen to Cyndi Lauper to Elvis. I like thinking about their rehearsals, you know? How they choose those songs; if one of them is always trying to get more funk on the set list but gets shot down by the front man who thinks they should stick to top 40 songs; if they have any of their own songs; where and when they had their first rehearsal (are there garages in Thailand?). A sign on the wall advertised that the band plays at the Siam Siam every “Satursday Night.”

Now it’s Sunday, our last day of rest before orientation starts. If you’re reading this you can see I am doing swimmingly with my attempt to update my blog once a week. I think I’m also going to do some grocery shopping and stock my precious mint green fridge with yogurt and fruit. I think I may get a massage as well, and explore the large park that’s not too far from here. Tomorrow I begin orientation. Thai classes, culture classes, history classes and lots of forms. I’m sure this is all terribly interesting to you, dear reader. Perhaps (and hopefully for you) more exciting things will happen to me this week such that next week’s installation will be far more entertaining and informative. Perhaps I will share my mastery of the Thai language with you, or regale you with fascinating tid-bits from Thai history. Perhaps I will rant for a page about mundane frustrations with minor details of the public transportation system. Who knows; I’ve only been here a day!

I miss you all very much.

With love,
Rebecca