Sawatdee pee mai ka….New Year, Good Start!

Today we found out we officially will only be teaching next Monday afternoon!  Even though it may be a challenge since I have to teach 100 students for 3 hours, it’s totally worth having days off around my birthday…..CHIANG MAI here I come! We’ve been told all week that we wouldn’t have to teach much next week due to Boy and Girl Scout Camp Monday thru Wednesday. Every teacher I asked had a different story on which days we would have off….. Nothing like leaving it to the last minute; finally, after 6^th period today, they announced school would be closed Thursday and Friday! This reassured Katie and I’s trip to Chiang Mai was a sure thing! I cannot wait!!

Now let’s rewind a week back to New Year’s Eve in Bangkok with mom and Beau. We did our best dressing to the “nines” for ringing in the New Year on a River Boat Cruise. It was weird to think we would be doing so 12 or 13 hours ahead of friends and family back home. As we waited for The Grand Pearl, our dinner cruise boat, we watched others board different boats.  All of a sudden we hear an amazing saxophonist and see that the music is coming from the front of a boat heading towards the dock. It was The Grand Pearl. It didn’t stop with the music. As the boat docked, a group of Thai girls step on to the dock and perform a lovely Thai classical dance. It was quite the entrance. We boarded the boat and were sat at our table with a fruit cocktail waiting for us along with a New Year’s party package and hats. We enjoyed a delicious buffet dinner that included many Traditional Thai dishes and sushi that was amazing. I indulged… Throughout the evening there was singing, a rather “dark” magic show, clowns, and dancing. It was fun dancing on the top deck of the boat as we cruised Bangkok’s Chao Praya River.

Seeing the temples, Grand Palace, and other buildings lit up at night was gorgeous.  2011 fast approached us and we celebrated the New Year watching the most amazing fire work show I have ever seen in my life. There were fireworks being shot off from at least 5 different barges all within a few hundred feet from each other. Each fire work that was shot off seemed as if it was the “grand finale” in Door County. The entire show lasted probably at least a half hour. It was truly incredible! And to think, I was in 2011 before everyone back home, whom at the time probably were still trying to figure out their New Year’s plans or at least that’s the way it usually goes…haha. In Thailand, they not only celebrate the 2011 New Year, but they celebrated the New Year 2554, referring to the Buddhist era. It’s been quite a while since I spent a New Year with family.  It was really nice being able to spend the New Year with mom and Beau!

Waking up New Year ’s Day was rough as always. But today wouldn’t be a day of rest and relaxation after a long night of partying like usual. We signed up for a Thai cooking class that had us leaving our hotel at 8 a.m.  We met our cooking teacher near a food market along with two couples and a Taiwanese woman.  Our cooking instructor was quite the character. His English was rather impressive for being self-taught. He said every class he teaches he tries to learn something new about the English language. I learned a new English idiom that was pretty funny! Instead of saying, cut razor thin, like most American’s may say or people that I know, he said, “Cut like a contact lens”.  The cooking class included a trip to the market to pick out all our needed ingredients to cook 5 Thai dishes; washing, cutting, and smashing ingredients;  using a hot pan to cook ingredients; and lastly, eating and enjoying each dish!

We made Tom Yum Koong, which is a soup like dish with shrimp and a lot of delicious flavor; Pad Thai; Chicken Salad; Green Curry; and bananas and coconut milk for dessert. It's really hard to say which dish was my favorite. I would probably go with the Green Curry first and the Tom Yum Koong second. But honestly, each dish was aroi! Learning how to cook Thai food and about the different ingredients they use was a lot of fun. I cannot wait to cook some Thai food back home in the States! After cooking class, we were so full and tired we decided to spend the rest of the day by the pool at our hotel. We ventured out later to Patpong Night Market to do some shopping. Sunday, which was mom and Beau’s last day in Thailand was spent visiting the Grand Palace and the Leaning Buddha followed by a ride on a water taxi to visit the extravagant Mandarin Oriental Hotel.  Before dinner, Beau and mom couldn’t miss out on receiving a 99 Baht Thai Massage! So we were treated to the amazing treatment for about an hour long. It felt so good and to think it was only $3.33! Mom and Beau’s "last supper" was spent at a restaurant in the Sukhumvit area called, Curries and More. It had a great atmosphere, one of a home patio feel. The food was to die for. We each had an appetizer. I had somtom (papaya) salad; Beau had a curry dish with a variety of fish; and mom had pumpkin spring rolls. We each had a different type of curry for dinner. Aroi mak mak! Over dinner we reminisced about the great time we had over the past 10 days, but couldn’t get over how fast those days went.  It was magnificent having mom and Beau here in Thailand with me to experience such wonderful adventures together as a family. I was really sad when they left me bright and early Monday morning at 4 a.m. It was weird not going back home with them. I kinda forgot I was teaching in Thailand for a second. Once I got back on the van to Bangplama I remembered. It was actually nice to come back to my “home away from home”.