the festival of ganesh featuring... justin beiber?

So... the festival of Ganesh wasn't quite what I was expecting, but it was fun to get out and see all of the different shrines set up around town to honor him. It was pouring down rain, so we did most of the sightseeing from inside of the car. People brought peas (Ganesh's favorite food, random) to the statues and there were lots of treats set up at each shrine for the public. Though I thought the shrines were repetitive, it was great to see how spirited the folks around here get, blasting music and playing games all night and day to celebrate Ganesh.

 

The Hindi temple next door, which is so close we can hear all of the prayers and songs being played from on our campus, played a tune on the day of Ganesh that I was shocked to hear. I haven't heard an American song (besides ones from my iPod) in three months, and to my surprise, instead of the normal Sanskrit prayers over the loud speaker, I heard none other then "Baby" by the Beiber himself. I guess Ganesh has joined Beiber Fever as well? I, on the other hand, certainly have not.

The best part of this day, however, was my daily walk with Sister Hilda. We've started this little tradition every evening, going for a walk for a half hour to an hour depending on the day. It's interesting to get out and see the other villages around us that I had no idea even existed. On this particular walk, the feast of Ganesh, we were passing through the wealthy area, which I've mentioned before, and were invited to the house of the "mayor" of the area (no idea if he's actually a mayor but his job seemed to be the equivalent). We sat with him outside and spoke with his children who are learning English and were eager to practice with me. They brought us snack after snack, tea, water and pretty much anything you could imagine (definitely proving that the Indian people are some of the most hospitable). Towards the end, Sister Hilda mentioned that I had been looking for a small figurine of Ganesh (he's the remover of obstacles and I figure having my very own Ganesh wouldn't hurt) and the family quickly brought out a wooden Ganesh, carved literally right out of a hunk of wood and gifted it to me (I'm telling you, the hospitality is unreal). So now, sitting next to my laughing Buddha, my small bronze "Ketut" buddha and amidst my prayer beads, I have added Ganesh. We'll see what obstacles he's able to remove from my life.

 

spiders and monkeys and frogs, oh my!

So besides being scared of the palm-sized spiders in my room and the frogs that stick to the wall, curl up to look like bats (WAH) and sleep in the crevices of my bathroom, I have a new fear: monkeys. Since I've been here, I've only seen one. Granted they may look precious, but from my research (clearly a necessary Google) I learned that they can be quite vicious and carry an array of diseases I'm not interested in contracting

Yesterday, I was sitting outside (sweating profusely) trying to get a semi-decent internet connection when I saw three monkey friends jump the fence and head straight towards the door to the building that my room is in. One came closer to me so that we were just merely a couple feet away from each other and just sat there. We stared into each others' eyes for probably 20 seconds until I winced (totally creeped out), so the monkey jumped and I ran away shrieking. I stepped a few more feet away from the building and noticed there wasn't just three monkeys but an entire family of monkeys. It was really and truly like a scene from a movie or something. They went in the building, were swinging from the upstairs windows and throwing things around (from what I could tell from my safe position in the field). Finally, they got bored with the building and all ran away (and at this point I noticed a little baby monkey, who could have made a fabulous pet).

Though it was a funny sight to see, I now have another thing to be afraid of when making the seemingly long and treacherous walk from my room to the main building for dinner at night. The walk may be comparable to the freshmen year Maher-Valley walk (for all my USD folk). Pitch darkness, hiding behind your tall roommate (thanks for the protection, Kelly) with only the light from your cell phone to guide the way, all the while hoping and praying that you don't stumble upon a raccoon. That's kind of how I feel here these days... except I'm hoping to not run into this monkey family (or a palm sized spider or a bat-looking frog). Oh the risks I take, living on an Indian farm/forest (har-dee-har-har).

Side Note: Tomorrow there's a festival in town honoring the god Ganesh (remover of obstacles if I'm not mistaken?) and I really hope I get to go and experience it! Apparently the whole town and especially the temples are decorated nicely and there's all sorts of things going on. I will let you know if I make it!

Other Side Note: My fifth graders' test results were fabulous! Last test, I had maybe two grades to cheer about and this time, I have SEVEN! Of course I was hoping for an overwhelming 100% from each nugget in the class but hey, any improvement is worth getting excited over.

playing catch up

1. First and foremost, I am so proud of my students! Up until last week, I really didn't feel like I was making much progress, but it seems that I have proved myself wrong. Every month they have exams. Last month, their test results were a little disappointing. But this month, to prepare, we've been giving them quizzes so that they know what to expect on the test (English test is tomorrow). Last month, only one or two kids per class were getting a SEMI DECENT grade on these "pre-test quizzes." But this month, already, I've had 12 to 15 in EACH CLASS getting an almost perfect score!! So there has definitely been an improvement and I could not be more pleased. To reward them, I've been handing out candy and making 'diplomas,' they seemed to dig it.

 

Needless to say I have high hopes for this round of exams. If their quizzes are any indication, I think their test scores will be much better!

2. I also received a flower this week from my brightest 4th grader, Nirmala, another great sign that I'm not completely failing as a teacher.

3. I learned how to write my name in Hindi, Tamil and Telagu.

 

4. It was the anniversary (or something...)/feast day for the sisters here, so the entire day was filled with special guests (the bishop) and lots of delicious food (PASTA AND COCA COLA). I got up realllly early and spent two hours solely chopping onions (yes my hands STILL smell like onion) and then I went to mass, my first one since being here. Thankfully it was in English, and of course, as the Catholic masses are, it was exactly the same as the one in the U.S. Some of the little girls dressed as angels/butterflies and did a little dance in the middle of the service. It was pretty much the cutest thing ever.

 

5. I went for a nice long walk with Sister Hilda (one of my faves) and she showed me some new sites of this beautiful town... namely, the lake, which kind of dried up.

We walked passed the 'wealthy' area of town and one of the houses had this pretty drawing on their drive way.

  

6. There was a spider the size of my palm on the ceiling of my room. After squealing for a couple of minutes alone in my room, I attacked it with my Raid bug killer (thanks Mom), and put him in the trash. A couple hours later when I returned to my room, he was back in action (I checked the trash and everything, I swear he rose from the dead). So I resorted to more violent means and murdered him (I think I'll add 'proficient in bug killing' to my resume).

 

7. I've averaged reading a book a night for the past few days, rereading some of my favorites during high school (Sloppy Firsts, anyone?) and also some new ones (The Perks of Being a Wall Flower) and currently reading Everything Is Illuminated (I loved the film and the author's middle name is Safran...weirdddddd). Any recommendations? Let me know, I'm kinda on a roll!

8. This is the current nugget of the week! He comes running across the field whenever he sees me "miss miss!" just to say hello or give me a hug (and he refuses to call me Allie). Super precious nonetheless.

 

9. With the help of Jillian Michaels (she may be a weirdo but she knows her stuff), I have created my very own 'at home' gym

 

(On the left, the "weights" are laundry soap bars tied together.)
'Tis all for now, I'll post again after the test results are in!

a quickie

Well, my computer charger bit the dust and my Internet is officially a goner... but I have a random wifi signal and decided to update from my phone with one quick story from the week. As you all know, I was away from the orphanage for longer than expected (thanks to my visa). When I returned, I was chatting with the head master and she told me a boy's mother had come in to her office to talk to her. Apparently, her son came home from school one day, crying because he thought I had left permanently. Something so small, but so cute. That, if nothing else, will keep me going for a while. Lots of love from India!!

food for thought: bangkok

First things first, I apologize for the insane amount of tense and other grammatical errors in that last post… I was obviously writing in a heat of emotion…oops! 

Thai food has definitely always been a favorite of mine, though as a creature of habit I usually only order vegetable fried rice and spring rolls and maybe, when I'm feeling really adventurous, pad thai. Senior year of college, my friends and I probably ordered Thai take-out on a weekly    basis (and then on a bi-weekly basis when we discovered one of our favorite places delivered... Ra-Ka-De-Ka in Pacific Beach... you gotta try it). I didn't think that Thai food could get much better than this, until, of course, I reached Thailand. My first "real" Thai food experience was from our hotel's room service menu: chicken satay and, shockingly, vegetable fried rice. It was good, but it wasn't until our dinner and a show experience at our hotel's Thai restaurant, Maya, where we were served 13 courses (and even for the bottomless pit that is my stomach, it was a lot of food) and the cooking class my mother and I took at the Silom Thai Cooking School, that I really understood and appreciated all that Thai food had to offer.

At Maya, we were served 13 courses (and even for the bottomless pit that is my stomach, it was a lot of food). To be fair, they were in tapas portions, but all of those tapas added up and my parents and I were bursting through our pants by the end of this meal. A few of my favorite courses during this feast included the following:

 

The first course, a shrimp surrounded by crispy, fried noodles (despite my adversity to shrimp, this one was good).

 

The tenth course, braised pork belly (my former vegetarian self wanted to gag, but it was just too good) in the most amazing sauce that was both sweet and savory at the same time and perhaps containing hints of cinnamon.

  

Finally, the eleventh course, a classic green curry with chicken.

For 1000 bahts per person ($33), we enjoyed all of these courses in a laid back and relaxing atmosphere, while Thai performers danced around us, showing off different dances and music from all the different cities in Thailand. Besides being way too full, it was an unforgettable evening.

The most impressive Thai meal, however, is surprisingly one I cooked myself (with instruction from the Silom Thai Cooking School). Our morning started with a tour of a typical Thai market, where our instructor explained the ingredients we would be using to create our four course meal. My mom was a little grossed out by the market, but after being in India for the past two months, to me, the market seemed more than sanitary, you know, minus the puppy hanging out amidst the different curry powders. After the market tour, we headed back to the school and were split into two groups. Lucky Mom was in the group enlisted to devein the shrimp, while I was on vegetable washing and chopping duty. After this, we all sat down and made coconut milk, using coconut meat and warm water to extract the milk. Finally, we were shown to our stoves and began our first dish: tom kha yum. I wasn't thrilled to be making a soup, first off because of the brutal heat outside and second because the soup's base was the coconut milk. I had seen this dish on almost every Thai menu and always passed it up, the milk part just didn't sound good to me. But after melding all the spices together and adding the vegetables and chicken, I realized I had been missing out for quite some time. This soup instantly became my new favorite food. It was the perfect amount of spicy, which was complemented by the coconut milk and turned out pretty excellent, if I do say so myself.

 

Tom Kha Yum

The rest of the dishes were equally amazing and included:

 

 Pad Thai

 

Chicken Salad

 

Green Curry with Chicken

 

Fabulous day with Mom!

The last notable meal we had was not Thai, but was way too good to not discuss. After diligently searching Trip Advisor for a good Italian restaurant in Bangkok, I settled on Opus Italian Wine Bar and Restaurant, first because "wine bar" was in the name and second because of the reviews.

  

Our first attempt to get to Opus was unfortunately not successful. We set out by cab (which is the most inefficient way to get anywhere in Bangkok) and were stuck in traffic so bad that we opted to walk and ultimately gave up when we unable to find the restaurant after an hour of searching. Determined to get my Italian food fix, we attempted again the next day, only this time MapQuesting detailed directions from our hotel to the restaurant...which was a success. Upon arrival, we were greeted by a friendly Thai hostess and sat at a quiet table in the back. The restaurant wasn't too busy yet, so the chef, Christian, came over to chat with us and offered us some complimentary champagne (which of course we graciously accepted). He went over some of his favorites on the menu (in his precious Italian accent) and since they weren't busy, offered to make us an appetizer platter, with samples of all of the best starters. As soon as I heard the word "burrata" as one of the items, I quickly answered for all of us and said an appetizer platter would be just lovely. It arrived and we were not disappointed. The burrata in the middle was just as good as the burrata at my favorite restaurant in San Diego (maybe in the world), the steak skewers (my first steak in three years) were tender and cut like butter and the bruschetta was garlicy and delicious, just as it should be.

 

We complimented his amazing skills and asked him how he ended up in Bangkok. He told us his story about how he had been a chef in Paris, but a woman broke his heart and a friend wanted to open up a restaurant in Bangkok, so he decided to give it a try and is now the executive chef at Opus. He said that his dream, though, is to own a restaurant in New York City... I told him I had a similar dream (although probably on the west coast) and he said we could do it together (“blush”).

After being just slightly distracted by his good looks and perfect accent, we finally ordered our main courses: tenderloin, four cheese gnocchi and truffle oil risotto.

 

The tenderloin was cooked in a merlot reduction sauce that seemed to seep into the entire piece of meat. Let’s just say my first steak in three years did not let me down.

 

The four cheese gnocchi (still not as good as Enoteca Adriano) was really good and the sauce was cheesy and creamy, but not too heavy.

 

The truffle oil risotto, holy cow. Incredibly rich but nonetheless, perfect.

All in all, this was a meal I will remember for a long time. The service at the restaurant was unbeatable, Christian even ended the evening with complimentary glasses of lemoncello, which he made himself, and the food…oh the food…could not have been better.