The latest and greatest

For breakfast this morning I had a fried egg over a big plate of rice, two pieces of toast, a glass of ovaltine, and a chicken/potato dish. I think it's safe to say that I was set for the day.

At 10:30 I went to church with Naan because I didn't have the money/energy to catch a truck all the way into the city for my church. When we walked in, everyone turned to stare, inevitably. A couple of guys were up front playing the drums and electric guitar while three girls sang karaoke-style into microphones. Then there was some praying and some singing and some more praying and singing and then listening to a sermon in Thai (during which I read the Book of Mormon) and then one last song and one last prayer to end the meeting.

When we got home I expected the parentals to be there, but they weren't. I was pretty sure Naan had said that mom and dad had gone to church at 8:00 and that it only lasted for an hour, but apparently something (or everything) got lost in translation. So we chilled at home by ourselves. I started experimenting with designs for sa-paper cards and listening to my blessed Grooveshark playlist.

This is (part of) what I get to do for work! How cool is that?

Naan went out and bought some cookies (I ate the whole bag in like, 5 minutes. Are you surprised?) and yogurt and then this cute old woman walked in the door and sat down to watch me work. She was deaf and mute, but I understood what she was saying probably better than if she would have been speaking. Naan said her name was Gao--apparently she is Nan's grandfather's sister. Who knows though? All I know is she's flippin adorable.

When my parents finally came home, they fed me a salad and this pie-looking thing:

Don't be fooled. Naan tried to tell me it was pumpkin, but I'm pretty sure it was fermented custard in squash, and that is not even a joke. There was no way it wasn't going to make me sick, but I just can't say no to these people, so I ate as much as I could (which wasn't much). Then mom brought out some pineapple and spiky fruit (it has a real name in English, but I don't know it), which I only nibbled on, because that custard-squash had already started to make my stomach ache.
Next thing I know I'm being called in for dinner. I honestly felt like I was going to throw-up, but my mom just said, "Eat nit noi" and so I dragged myself into the kitchen and sat down to a nice big dinner of fried chicken, rice, hard-boiled eggs in soy-sauce, and this weird german-pancake-tortilla-quesadilla thing.

There was no way of politely telling them that I really wasn't hungry, as all hope of translation had gone out the door with Naan, who'll be gone for a week. So I ate, all the while wishing that I could just speak Thai for thirty seconds to tell them my stomach was in danger of imploding.

With Naan gone til Sunday and Noi gone til Thursday, I'm in for an interesting week.

Charades, anyone?

*This post made possible by Pepto-bismol