It has been a week of discovery this week! I had my first Thai language class this week, and I am struggling! That is to put it kindly. To put it accurately, I sound like a 2 yr old with severe cognitive impairment when I attempt to conversate in Thai. I'm not sure if that is a very politically correct way of saying it, but it really is the truth. The class is small (two other students beside myself) but I missed one day of class as I signed up late, so they already had the advantage over me. And, they are Japanese, so I have a feeling that the vowel sounds and the idea of tonality might not be as foreign to them as it is to me. All of this is just me trying to make myself feel better about my absolute hopelessness regarding the acquisition of Thai, which it doesn't seem to be accomplishing anyways so I'll stop now. But I know how to count in Thai, which has given me more incentive to shop; I must practice my numbers after all, and what better way is there? It funny though, my homework for the weekend was to compose and answer 10 questions in Thai. We aren't learning the Thai alphabet (which I'm really sad about) so it's written with English letters and accent marks to denote the tonal changes. We learned how to describe things, and the nice part about it is that to compose these sentences you don't have to conjugate any verbs. In fact, to say, "is your shirt new?" you say literally "shirt yours new, no?" and if the answer is yes you say "shirt new", if the answer is no you say "shirt not new". There is no "is", there is no verb at all actually. But the word for new is "mai" and the word for no is "mai" and the only difference is your tonal inflections. Here is where all the trouble comes. So, I have to confess, I was hoping that Thai cooking would come a little easier to me than the Thai language. Having now done both my first language class and my first cooking class, I would venture to say that Thai cooking is the exact antithesis of the Thai language. It is uncomplicated, easy, and you can adjust it to your personal tastes as needed. Ah if only everything were so easy and produced such amazing results! I am about to lapse into a food coma, so I want to get this out before I do. I had the most amazing morning! First we went to the market, and bought our materials. We got little lessons on the herbs and vegetables used in Thai cooking, then we walked back to our kitchen and began a marathon of cooking. We made 5 different dishes, all of them (other than the rice which was made for us in a rice cooker) in one single wok over a single flame. The key is the fresh ingredients, and then everything else is so simple you wouldn't believe you get the results you do with that little equipment and time! You can add or take away spice, sweetness, bitterness and salty as you think necessary, as all four of these flavors are always present in Thai food, in what seems to always be the perfect balance. We made tom yum soup, pad thai, chicken salad with sticky rice, green curry with vegetables and chicken and for desert a turnip diced and tossed in tapioca flour, cooked, and served in sweet coconut milk. And maybe my favorite part was that all the coconut milk for the recipes we made by hand from shaved dry coconut! So yummy! Another really great part is that I made a friend!!! She is from the Philippines, and she is in Bangkok for work for a month, so we made plans to do touristy things together on the weekends. All in all it was a very satisfying day. And it's only halfway over!! After Julia gets off work tonight, we are planning to head out for a little bit of Bangkok night life with Anna, so I must go rest up a little bit... I am planning on doing lots of dancing to work off the 5 course meal I cooked and ate today, and if I'm going to spend an evening in high heels, I better not be tired and cranky!
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