Lam Yaiy in Chiang Mai!

We have had a nice, lazy weekend and tomorrow starts school! I bought two uniform shirts yesterday at the market when we went to visit Khun Paw (my host father) at his clothing store in the market. All of the clothes are made by hand! In Thailand all female students wear white button down shirts and black skirts, so I got some spiffy looking button-downs.

Dahlroudee making the Lam Yaiy muffins!

This morning I spent about an hour reading to Yod from Sleeping Beauty so he can get better at his English. Because I don’t understand enough Thai to help cook or do much else, it felt good to really be able to be a part of the “exchange” aspect of being hosted by a Thai family. Khun Me and Khun Paw are very focused on Yod’s schooling: he has Chinese and Thai every weekend, and occasionally English apparently! While we were doing that, Khun Me and Dohlrudee were busy in the kitchen making me “Welcome to Chiang Mai Muffins” I learned when they were ready. 

Khun Me waiting for the muffins to bake <3

I also learned that I am supposed to eat the majority of the 32-muffin batch. I’m glad they are absolutely delicious (or “a-loy” in Thai)! I have already had 6 today so I’m off to a good start :). They told us in orientation that Thai people are especially attentive to our small behaviors. If we take a bit more of something than something else, they immediately assume that it is our favorite food and bring it out every meal. Trying to be overly thankful and praising of everything they feed me, this hasn’t worked out for me too well, and I can’t remember how to say “I’m full” so I have eaten A LOT, not know how to say no. For example, we had papaya last night (delicious), and tonight a heaping plateful was placed directly in front of me for dessert. Already having stuffed my face with dinner I only ate a few pieces and I think they were disappointed. Another example: I slept around 12 hours both last night and the night before, so they shooed me up to bed tonight at 8:00 PM because I need to get up around 6:30 AM tomorrow for school. It is nice to be taken care of, but I wish I could communicate more!

Lam Yaiy muffins!

This is what the fruit Lam Yaiy looks like

I want to blog a bit more about the amazing food I have eaten, and I hope to have more pictures soon! The muffins were incredible, “Muffin Lam Yaiy”. Lam Yaiy is this peculiar little fruit I was introduced to yesterday. It is a round piece of fruit flesh encased in a hard covering that you crack open with your teeth. You then pop the white fruit into your mouth and remove the center seed. It has the texture and taste of very ripe cantaloupe. There were chunks of it throughout my muffins! They were really delicious. We do have rice with almost every meal, and I really enjoy it. For breakfast we have “Chao Tom” a soupy rice with carrots, cilantro, and bits of meat or shrimp, usually left over from dinner. We also had that again for lunch. For dinner tonight we had Pad King (I felt so happy when I recognized this as sounding like something in a Thai restaurant), which was like vegetables and meat in a ginger-y sauce, a vegetable tofu soup that I can’t remember the name of, and a fish/vegetable dish as well. It is all really amazing!

Chaow Tom (breakfast, and occasionally lunch)

Siblings... for a while :)

Yod and I both go to school tomorrow. I can’t understand much of what he and his parents say to one another, but I can tell he rules the house! He is quite a character. We went swimming again today, and played chopsticks on the piano, and had a lot of fun reading sleeping beauty! Thanks, Jordan, he really is like the little brother I never had :) More soon!

Pomegranates... ?!?

OOkulele

The garden

Just swingin'

Our not-real-at-all elephant

Khun Paw!