Cooking School

I realize that I’ve been really bad about updating this blog, but I’ve been working on getting pictures from friends & I’ve been a bit overwhelmed. I’ve gotten so many pictures & done so much since my computer crashed that I really don’t know where to start. So I’m just going to start…but be warned, these will not be in chronological order!

A few months ago, Tara had some friends come & visit from the States. I met up with them in Chaing Mai & we went to a Thai cooking class.

Paula, the lady that runs the cooking school was wonderful. She picked us up at our guesthouse & took us to the market to show us the various vegetables & herbs that we would use in the dishes we were to make. It was a completely different experience than your big supermarket back home.





Once we finished shopping, we went to the school, which is on this really cool farm outside of Chaing Mai.

Then it was out to a little hut on a pond for some tea (which tasted like Fruit Loops).Then cooking time. They had little stations set up for us with all of the utensils we would need & these really cute aprons.

Tara & I getting ready to do some chopping!


The best part is that we got to eat what we cooked!

Then take a nap!

It was a ton of fun & I would definitely recommend this school to anyone interested in taking a Thai cooking class!

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Thanksgiving

As Thanksgiving is an American holiday, we were unable to celebrate it on Thursday. But on Saturday, the Peace Corps staff put on a dinner for us in Bangkok (they were kind enough to do it out of their own pocket too). It was great to have real turkey! I didn't take too many pictures because we were all too busy eating, but here are the ones I do have.

Here are Sarah, Tara, and I before dinner (it was pool-side)

Our table

The guys had a basketball tournament before dinner. Some sore losers threw the trophy into the pool.

The guys

Elephant Fest Pt 2

So to continue with the Elephant Festival, the next day, we went to the show. It took us a while to find our seats & things were pretty crazy around the arena...elephants were everywhere! Here's a baby with pigtails.

Maria did an awesome job in getting us seats...front row! It started with an elephant emerging from the smoke.
Then it was elephants everywhere!

They also had a tug-of-war...people v elephant. The elephant won. A couple of our guys went out to give it a try.
They also had a ton of dancers.


After the elephants put on a performance, they would come over to the stands for tips. And they were quite aggressive and very close!

They also had a mock battle to show you how they used the elephants way-back-when. I felt so sorry for the guys in the costumes...it was at least 95 degrees out there!

The finale was a ceremony to honor the King. There was a baby elephant standing right in front of me & it kept sneezing - which normally wouldn't be a problem, but it was sneezing all over me!!! I was covered in elephant goo by the end. I don't know if you can see it, but here's a pic.

Right after the show, we had to get on a bus to Bangkok so Maria could run in the Bangkok Marathon that night (they start it at 2:00am here so they can finish before rush hour traffic). We went to cheer her & Jeremy on at the finish line. There were some interesting costumes for the fun run!

And some interesting characters running the marathon!

Jeremy had an EXCELLENT time!

Here's Jeremy & Guy. Jeremy barely worked up a sweat!

Maria did great too (her time was actually on another clock).

And the two runners...we're all so proud of them!