August 31, 2006

It's Thursday evening. An odd time for a blog entry if you ask me...haha. I think I've been struck with a little homesickness this week. It's so odd and unexpected. Hmm..but not really. My mom has been recovering from thyroid cancer...I guess that probably has a lot to do with it. Dave and I went to Pin Klao mall last night..the closest we can get to feeling back home. There's a starbucks, a Mrs. Fields, Esprit, Levi's etc. Oh, and Body Shop. We wandered in to pretend like we were in anywhere, U.S.A. and it worked! We found pumpkin scented oil for our oil burner and spiced apple too! Oh yeah. So it really feels like the fall now..and that makes me happy. Fall is by far my favorite time of year and I can't wait to be back in California this October. Only a month or so away. I love hayrides, pumpkin carving, apple picking, the scary halloween events. Especially in L.A...Knotts Berry Farm was so fun. Although, the haunted hayride in Rochester was seriously good too. I definitely love the smell of the fall, and the leaves changing colors. See?? I'm totally nostalgic for home right now.

Year two in Thailand is way different than year one. I kind of knew what to expect for year one, although it was way different (better) than my year in Mexico. I think Dave had a lot to do with that. But year two is cool. I just wasn't expecting the homesickness part. Year one was scary but exciting and new. Year two is not scary, getting comfortable...but I start forgetting what it's like to live back home. The conveniences, having a car, the food, cooking..guess I'm not really forgetting..just missing. Anyway, it's all good though. We scored at J.J market last weekend. That rocked.

It smells sooo good in here with the pumpkin. Dave is making chocolate chip pancakes for dinner. I know, I know. Pretty bad but we worked out today. haha. No really, nothing sounded good at all to me. Not even a dinner in the city. Lame. So pancakes it is. hhehhee. I usually make them but Dave is trying at it tonight. He's pretty much a rockstar in the kitchen. :-)

Umm....hi? We found ketchup flavored chips here. No joke. My sisters and I fell in love with ketchup chips when we lived in Canada. A seriously good flavor that has been so tragically negelcted from U.S. markets. Maybe I should start a campaign. Oh, they are soo good...when I was living in L.A. I actually ordered a box of 12 bags from Canada. It took me forever to finish and I ended up giving a lot away but waaaay worth it. Needless to say, it was an excellent find.

Alright...maybe I'll write more this weekend...later

August 25, 2006

It's Friday afternoon and it's downpouring rain. Wow! A really big storm and we just lost electricity!!!! Dang! I'm not sure if we've ever seen a storm this intense before. Dave and I were about to go basket shopping too. There's so many local basket shops that have incredible shapes and weaves that we always see and have never explored. So we were going to go on a basket hunt. Guess it'll have to wait until tomorrow.

This week was good. I had a horn seminar most of the week in Bangkok. It was cool for my students to meet other horn players. They performed (horn choir) and I gave a clinic. It was all good except for the commute. It was in downtown Bangkok and took nearly 3 hours one day!!!! The other trips were 1 hour 15 minutes! Oh man..that was brutal. I guess there was a mini bus protest so all the mini buses parked in the streets and at one of the bridges ( in the direction we were heading) they found a small bomb. There were so many students there though. A few hundred at least...and all horn players! Pretty amazing. I had a funny moment though. Some of the clinics were in Thai and at one of them I just had NO clue what they were talking about. So I asked my Japanese friend if he understood and he said "no." He then turned to his Japanese friend and asked (in Japanese) if he understood what the horn clinic (in Thai) was about. His friend rattled back something to him and then translated that into English for me! How funny.

Dave's jazz band concert is next week and I'm the soloist. Pretty hilare. There's a new Japanese restaurant in town that has super good noodle soups. I'm getting really used to the whole noodle thing...sometimes I even have noodle soup cravings!! So weird since it's just chicken broth, cabbage, veggies and noodles. Now I kind of want some...hmmm....the rain needs to stop first.

August 19, 2006

What a week! Things are going great but super busy. My recital was on Tuesday and that went fine. I've been teaching more and more trombone lessons. My students like to joke about that. I think a few of them have taken lessons and then they tell the others. Like a wave. It's pretty funny. I wish I knew how to play! Maybe I can learn...hmmm...yeah never mind.

I feel like my blog entries are most often about food. Ironic but not really. I mean, food has been an issue since we first moved to Thailand. Not having a kitchen and then getting a kitchen but the closest grocery store is 30 minutes away and our fridge is small. Anyway, it's been a hassle to say the least. So I guess whenever something good happens with food, I get excited. Like the other day...Dave and I really wanted to make DQ style blizzards. But we've never really had ice cream in Salaya so it was a search to find some. First we went to 7-11 but no such luck. We looked at a few more convienent stores and finally turned a corner down a lively student apartment dead end. Across the street, glaring at me on a glass door are the glorious words "Baskin Robbins." ummmm....hi, did you say Baskin Robbins? We go in and indeed this little shop sells the famous 31 flavors..well really only about 6 but who cares. We ended up making snickers blizzards, but what a find!!

Today,we went out to get Thai massages. Oh yeah. 2 hours for $8! Such a deal. We haven't had one since my traumatic massage on the honeymoon. But I'm over that. Sooooo good. After massages we headed over to the monk bowl village. We've been there several times now and the old woman wants to marry Dave. We learned enough Thai that she knows about our wedding so they were excited to see us today. No good finds though. So we ended up going grocery shopping since we were in that neck of the woods.

Everything else is cool. The weather has cooled down dramatically..to the point where I can wear sweaters again! YAY. That really means the 80's but it when it's wet out, a sweater is soo nice. I miss sweaters, and long hair. Take care.

August 13, 2006

It's Sunday evening. We're just chillin' this evening. I had a rehearsal earlier today for my recital (on tuesday) and there was no a/c at school. It must have been 100 degrees. Anyway, came back to the condo and ate a huge dinner. We made Mexican Pizzas. Inspired from taco bell. haha. I've always wanted to try and make them. It was waaay good. Speaking of way good food. Last night, Dave and I were watching Ganhdi and about 45 minutes in we got inspired and went into Bangkok for Indian food. Oh, the best vegetable samosas ever!!

Our week was excellent and busy. I caught Dave's sickness. It peaked on Tuesday, subsequently that was the day of my horn choir concert. That was rough but it went great. I'm so excited for my recital this Tuesday. Should be a really good time.

My mom has been in the hospital this week. She had her thyroid glands taken out for thyroid cancer. She's back at home and doing okay but the next month or so sound like they'll be hard. I wish I could be there but I know she'll be fine. I guess thyroid cancer is totally treatable and the best kind of cancer to get. But still NOT fun.

Well, we have another holiday tomorrow. Believe it or not. We don't have plans. Can't wait. Have a nice Sunday.

August 6, 2006

I know I wrote yesterday..obviously, but I have to tell you about a couple things that have happened since yesterday. It started with last night. We decided to be adventurous and try out a new restaurant! Our hot date was so fun. So we are walking at night down this alley with construction workers having dinner on the sidewalks, cockroaches wandering and stinky trash out in the street while cars are zooming by honking an one another. We totally thought we were in the wrong part of town and were lost, but then our new find Kuppa appeared. Oh my gosh. It felt like we were home. Such an amazing feeling after eating noodles and rice. We had some pretty decent Australian wine..so killer crab cakes, an amazing crispy duck salad with tangerine dressing, and oh my gosh..the best pizza since Veneto's in Rochester. Yeah..I went there. Veneto's has the besst pizza EVER..but this place is a close second. We had a pumpkin, feta, and olive compote pizza. Ahhhhh..it was so good. And then dessert...ahhhhh. Soooo good. We went over to the Sheraton on Sukhimvit after and saw the regualr group that plays there. At this point we're pretty good friends with one of the managers at the Sheraton. It's funny..she manages the super good Thai restaurant there and we're such regulars that she knows us now...as well as Dave's parents. Anyway, it was a really good night.

Today is another story. Dave isn't feeling that great and he wanted some spicy clear soup from the Chinese restaurant in town. So we bike over there for some soup and dim sum. We parked our bikes and then had to walk a bit to cross the street. As we're walking, there are some motorcyle taxi's loading up some fresh produce onto the backs of their bikes. One takes off and oops..a piece of corn falls off (unchucked). It was just sitting there in the street looking all fresh and ready to eat so I asked Dave to grab it, which he did. Guess it's corn off the street for dinner! YUM.

Ok..guess that's all for now...see ya

August 5, 2006

I'm getting bored with my blog. But I'll write anyway..it's a nice routine. Our week was busy. I taught a bunch of trombone lessons this week. That was funny, but not so different than I thought it would be. My horn choir concert is next week so we had 3 extra rehearsals this week at night...yuck. But we're doing some great rep so it's worth the work.

Our friend got his lap top stolen out of this car a few months ago. Well, they just found the guy. He'd been stealing out of cars for months in our area. So our friend went down to the police station and just talked to the guy. How weird is that?!? He just started asking him where it was or if he remembered where he sold it! haha. So weird. And even weirder, the guy told him! They just had a normal conversation about it..and the guy is being put in prison for 15 years! So different than our system.

We're going into BKK for a hot date tonight...I think. Dave isn't feeling that great today. But I hope we go b/c I'm craving some Western food sooo bad. I feel noodled/riced out! If we do, we'll go to our fav restaurant and then to listen to some jazz. So fun! We haven't had a BKK date in forever. Oh..Brad Mehldau is coming here in Septmeber..can't wait for that!!

The weather has been sweet here. I've been wearing jeans almost everyday!!! It's been overcast almost all week and probably 10 degrees cooler than usual. So it's probably in the 80's but it feels soo cool. I love the cool weather here.

I think that's all I got for now. Have a really nice weekend.