Geen Kaow Tuk Wan!

Attention!
I would just like to take a moment of your precious time and talk about rice. Rice (or kaow in pasaa Thai) is simply the best and nai brataed Thai, chan geen kaow tuk wan (in Thailand I eat rice everyday). And I am SO HAPPY about this because rice is the ultimate comfort food in every way.

I have also been eating many different things that are not comfort food but are delicious none the less. Here is a list of my favorites:

Pad Seeyu made by some lovely ISDSI students.

• Som Tdam- Spicy, salty, sour, green papaya salad. Spicy but delicious.
• Pad Seeyu- Like Pad Thai but better. So much better.
• Goi Tiao Rua- Translates to boat noodles. Delicious noodles, pork, assorted greens, crispy pork rinds, and fish cakes swimming in the most heart-warming and tasty broth you can imagine. Potentially my favorite dish so far. Really any kind of noodles. NOODLES.
• Kaow Neeaow Mah Muang- Mango Sticky Rice. Sticky rice and mango with condensed milk poured on top. Why does this not exist in America???
• Kaow Tohm- Rice porridge usually with egg, mushroom, and ginger, eaten at breakfast
• Cha Yin- Thai Iced Tea. Best drink ever. Cuts the spicy oh so well.
• Kung Ten- Dancing Shrimp. Not my favorite dish but still delicious and definitely the most interesting thing I've eaten thus far. Shrimp with lime and chiles, but the shrimp are still kind of... alive.
• Pom lah mai- Fruit. All day, every day. SO. MUCH. FRUIT. My favorites include: man kut (mangosteen), saparoh (pineapple), ngo (rambutan), persimmon (not sure what it's called in Thai), nam farang (guava juice-not really a fruit...), and of course, MANGOS

Goi Tiao Rua with Nam Farang in the background.
So perfect. I have no words. 

Som Tdam made by yours truly, Eli, Rita, Liz and Ajaan Budsakorn as part of Thai class last week.

Hopefully the pics help you to imagine all this delici-ality. Have fun waiting for your next meal!

Dancing shrimp. I got this pic just before they all decided to jump out of the dish and onto the table...

Other things that have happened recently:

Visit to Wat Suan Dok which houses a university for monks, one of whom talked to us about Thai Buddhism. Super interesting and, dare I say, enlightening. We also got to practice meditating for a while which I have decided is one of those things that I will never ever be good at. 

We journeyed to Mok Fa Waterfall in Doi Suthep National park for a student and staff retreat. The waterfall was so beautiful and swimming at its base was a wonderfully cathartic experience. The whole weekend was spent bonding, team building, leadership training, talking about health and safety, and just hanging out with some really cool people in a beautiful place.

Learning to drum at a Lanna (Northern Thai) Village that we visited this past week. The man in blue is the village headman and he was showing us how to drum properly. It was very different from Taiko but super fun all the same.
Yay for experiential education!

I got a haircut! It's was sudden and unexpected but Mae Toi was getting her haircut and I went along for the ride.  I asked for a trim and got this. A somewhat frightening experience.

Field trip to Crazy Horse Buttress last Friday- Taken from 40 meters up while hanging from a zipline. So much fun climbing and rapelling!

View from the bottom of the cave! Sanook, Sabai, Suay!

All in all it's been a wonderful week. Can't wait to see what comes next!