Mmm...Thai Food

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So, first off...not only did I not anticipate the reaction I got from Shaun re: Blogging which was very good by the way...after he edited my posts, he gave me the thumbs up. Super! Then he surprises me again by casually saying, "maybe I'll put together a blog..." wow, ok so super again! I'm not surprised though at how good his post was (last one on driving, if ya didn't catch it, I'd say it's totally worth the risk that your boss could walk by and catch you "surfing the net" again) He is the writer in this family after all. From song lyrics to short stories to the next Pulitzer Prize winner, you can find him jotting down notes and ideas almost anywhere. He's got that old fashioned style of using long hand to sort his ideas out and doesn't go too far without pen and pad. To see his post compared to mine, is an example of yet again why Men are from Mars and Woman are Venus, or whatever that saying is. He's so concise and able to stay on track. Me, not so much. It's a good thing we're different though, cause gawd, how boring would it be if I had to compete for the spotlight all the time? Up until today, Shaun had been the only driver, which is totally not like me to give up the reigns, cause I love driving in other countries and in general, but right after I rolled the Sporty into the ditch the first day (ok, it's a small little hill/slope at the end of our driveway) I proposed the idea that Shaunee take a stab at it. After a few days he seemed to get the hang of things and I thought ok, I can do this...just get me out of the driveway first. "Night driving", which I had the pleasure of accomplishing and other than these few new concepts of why not put a headlight on a scooter and those little reflectors that go on bike tires are a pretty good idea, I'll just suggest avoiding night driving at all costs. This has made us a bit more efficeint at managing our day and sorting out which booty mart is the best. (booty mart is slang for any convenience store where duh...your conveniences can be bought...beer, started years ago when Shaun lived in Gresham-I know east county is scary enough to explain exactly what "the booty mart" is, anyways...the term has stuck and most people that we say it around that have not heard it, swear they're going to adopt it and frequent the saying too...we encourage this)
Wow...where was I, oh yeah the cooking school. So, I had heard from "around" that the Culinary Institute was top notch here on Samui and thought with my new found love for cooking and old love of eating, this might be the thing for me. I mentioned it to Shaun to see if his ears would perk up...(nope, not interested at all) and figured I would go at it alone. So, Shaun drove me there, looked around a bit and swore he'd come back just in time to eat our homework. Sweet, so I'm a bit early, I take some snaps, look at the ingredients and cook books for sale in the corner and just as I feel a gust of hot air swoop in the door the room fills with high pitched chatter and bantering from....shiot, children, plural. I nervously look around for the calendar or agenda or the sous chef for any indication that clearly, I must have signed up for the wrong day. Didn't they get the memo..."does not do well with children." Oh my gawd and there were several of them ranging in ages from annoying to really annoying, all with "sunset braids" (I mean, who lets their kids get those damn braids that consume the better part of the afternoon to install only to look fuzzy after one dunk in the pool? I want to attach a circa 1990 here but that might be a bit too early for this fad that did not fade quickly enough.) Next observation was they were Aussie's, trying to see the bright side of things I think well "maybe I can teach them some dirty words in exchange for some Oz slang of their own..." Only to have those hopes be shattered by the chaperones rounding up the tail end of this beaded clan. This was going to be a long two hours.
"Chef" as we are instructed to call her, equips us with aprons, a little station of utensils, raw ingredients, and a wet towel to wipe your brow I'm assuming, and thank gawd...no I didn't have to wear the chef cap. Not that there's anything wrong with the chef cap if (a) you are actually a chef, b) not even attempting to have a good hair day and (c) not standing behind a floor to ceiling window on main street while everyone stops to peak in. We barely get started and I make sure I'm as far away from the 2 older pre-teen girls (cause you know they're gonna be the worst...one part super bossy, one part total know it all and one part, ask a friggin' question every two seconds to confirm that what they had just bossed everyone to do was indeed the right way to do it.) I make a split decision to head in the direction of the older teenage boy (only later to realize he too had a braid...his rat tail!) and the male chaperone thinking that maybe we'll be able to be immature and laugh at the girls during class. The only laughing was done by me every time the older teenage boy and male chaperone used the word "beautiful" to describe everything! I mean this is them, raw shrimp..."beautiful!" Cut up onion and ginger..."beautiful!" Slimy fish being dunked in boiling oil..."beautiful!" Me ripping your rat tail out of your skull and throwing all the beads on the floor so you slip and fall..."Beautiful!!!!!"
I'm not sure why, but as soon as conversation became idle around the prep table I started to make up stories and well to be honest, flat out lying. I told them I was on a year-long tour around the world and that I would be here indefiniately looking for rare plant species to bring home and cultivate in my lab to secure my spot in history, for what? I don't know, we didn't get there. This def got the teenage girls to shut up. They all probed for more info and had questions galore, to my surprise answers just flitted out with such ease even I was totally impressed with my world travels. After class, we all head up stairs to the "restaurant" to enjoy our delicacy (which was actually super awesome...fried snapper in sweet chili sauce, pork glass-noodle soup and masaman curry and rice) Where the conversation flowed and I fielded more of their queries one after the other, I said my most interesting visit had been to Nicaragua, the people, the food, the music!? But that I'd much more preferred islands due to the sub-culture (hence my stopping on Samui and today I was to break up my important work with a light hearted cooking class) And then I was slapped back to reality...Shaun and Poupe came up the stairs to join our meal. (How in the hell could I forget they were coming back!!!!?) We scootch around to make room and thank GAWD, I hadn't asked the Aussie's a single question yet, so I start flooding them, one after the other, just to not have a lull in the conversation to where they could potentially comment on how "beautiful your trip has been!" and catch Shaun off guard and blow my cover. I mean I didn't want to crush their little dreams that you really could do whatever you wanted when you get older! Needless to say, I did not exchange emails with them, nor have any chit chat outside the school afterwards, we bee lined it for the sporty and yes, I burned rubber. I did however manage to get in every single picture they took all afternoon. No doubt, I will be rememebered in Oz. It was kinda scary how it all seamlessly worked itself out.

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Photos

Papaya Carving
It took this guy 9 hours to do this, chef said it was meditation, I say it's annoying. Pretty though

Culinary Institute
notice the floor to ceiling windows, I wasn't lying about everything

me and chef
I totally didn't do those carvings, she made me sit down and take a picture, was I supposed to tip her?

Carrot and Turnip Dahlias
No, I'm not going to learn this, making paper dahlias is hard enough

Chaweng Beach
while I was at cooking school, Shaun was at the beach

another Chaweng beach shot
aka man in speedo shot...Shaun!

Chaweng Beach
yummy iced watermelon drinks here