August So Far

I just wrote a post about the Mother's Day Assembly on the other blog. Go HERE to read it.

I am not great at taking photos. I always forget to bring my camera with me, and the few photos I do take aren't great quality. As much as I would love to be able to capture the wonderful moments that I'm having here in Thailand, it's probably not going to happen. Sorry. Here are a couple of photos that I have taken in recent weeks.

 Kru Mai and Kru Jin- two of the lovely ladies that I eat lunch with each day

 Kru Poh and Kru Mai- Lunch friends

 Kanda and Kob- Two more of the friends I eat lunch with

 I've known Jake for a decade now. We don't see each other often, but each time we do it's lots of fun. 

 Japanese noodles- yum

 More Japanese food

People in Thailand love all things cartoon. This was a bounce house that was set up at the mall when I was there a couple of weeks ago.

Lately

This is going to be a whole bunch of random photos. I haven't been very good at taking photos lately. I'm sorry. Also, my internet connection has basically been useless for the last month. I should be getting faster internet sometime in the next week. I did a blog post on my other blog about Wan Khao Pansa. Go check it out.

 Lunch at Baanya Steak House. The plates were huge- at least 1 foot across.

 A random house. Nearly every house in Thailand is surrounded on all four sides by a gate.

 A street in Korat. They don't bury their wires, so there are wires everywhere!

I played Duck, Duck, Goose with the kids today. They loved it. These videos are so cute.

 Selfie in Kru Yai Pranee's office

 Dinner at Hansa Restaurant with Riam

 Raw salmon on the top, seaweed on the bottom. Served in a lime sauce. It was delicious.

 Dinner at Hansa restaurant with Riam, Beer, Siranat and her 2nd grade niece

 Today was Wan Khao Pansa. I went to the Wat with some teachers at the school while they donated some money. Here the monk is blessing them.

 Riam took me to the night market in Korat. There was hardly anyone. It was so quiet, and I loved it. We had a dessert that has sweet juice, different beans and fruits, and ice. 

Wedding and Pork Belly

 I posted about Wan Wai Khru on my other blog. Go read it. There are some really cute pictures of my students.

There was a wedding at the church this weekend. It was a lot more laid back and chill than the other wedding I went to last week, but it was also very nice. 

 The bride and groom. Sandwiched in there is the flower girl. She was so excited! The lady on the right in the pinkish-purple dress is Sister Bramuan. She has been a member of the church since 1975. She's an amazing woman. So friendly.

 The backdrop was made of all these paper roses. They were beautiful.

 There is a couple from the Philippines in my ward. They invited the missionaries and me over for dinner. Joe (Jared's older sister) made the biggest plate of spaghetti I've ever seen. It was topped with ham and cheese. At first I thought the little yellow chunks were pineapple. Nope. Cheese.

Jared cooked the pork belly. He marinaded it overnight. Then he stuffed it with lemon grass, garlic, bay leaves, onions, and pepper. It was delicious. I'm not a big fan of eating super fatty meat, but this was truly delicious.

 I can't remember who made the macaroni salad, but there was tons of it.

 Sister Johansen, Sister Siri, Sister Mamea, Sister Carillo, Nop

 Matt, Jared, Andrea

 They have a lovely house. I think that they must have borrowed a neighbor's table in order to have enough seating space for all of us.

Stray Cat

There are lots of stray animals all of Thailand. People feed them rice and leftovers and somehow they manage to keep themselves alive. This is one of the cats that lives near me. Sometimes he sleeps in my stairwell. He's friendly enough, as long as you don't get too close to him.

Meathooks Sandwich Breast Level

You can't make this stuff up.

Wedding Reception for Bua and Q

Kru Yai Linee's daughter, Bua, got married this weekend. I was invited to attend, and let me tell you, it was a party of epic proportions. It was quite delightful. 

Here is the reception hall. It was a a police training station or something along those lines. 

 This is a video showing the reception hall.

 Me and Kru Mai

The first real event of the program was the umbrella dance.

 Just a snippet of the umbrella dance. I wish you could have seen the whole thing.

Then the groom sang to the bride. It was quite sweet.

There were introductions and thank yous and the history of the couple. There were lovey dovey moments, etc. Really just a lot of talking. Kru Yai Linee is the lady in the blue dress.

Lighting the candles

Cutting the cupcakes with the BUBBLES

 Bouquet toss

The reception was lovely and entertaining. It was fun to spend some time with people from school in a non-school setting. And the food was amazing! Especially the fish. Thai people make the best fish I've ever eaten in my life.

I hope I have the opportunity to attend more receptions in the future because it was the perfect way to spend an evening. Congratulations Bua and Q.

Marching Band Competition

There was a marching band/drumline competition at the park near the Yamo statue. I went with Riam to support the Suranaree Marching Band. It was awesome. I wish that all of my friends from high school who were in the marching band could have been there. 

 Yamo Statue

 View across the street from the competition

 The marching band competition was complete by 5:30 and the drumline competition didn't start until 7:00, so we found a nice place to sit and eat.

Here is a 360 view of the place where we ate dinner. It was quite lovely.

 Kanom Jeen Nam Ya

 Som Tam

Pad Mee Korat

The drumline competition was so fun. They were spot on rhythmically and their performances were all really creative. I also loved their costumes.