RiCe is LiFe!

So true! Rice is life...especially here in Thailand. Actually when you say that you are eating/going to eat/have eaten you say gin kao (gin = eat and kao = rice) or, in other words, you are saying "eat rice." For lunch everyday, I eat with some of the other English teachers. We all bring rice for ourselves and then also a bowl of food (soup, vegetables, meat, etc.) to share. When I run out of rice (because I've eaten it all), the teachers tell me to gin len (gin = eat and len = play) so basically it means you are "play eating" since you no longer have rice to eat with the food. Sometimes Harmony, another American English teacher, will bring a sandwich for lunch and all the teachers ask "is that all you will eat for lunch? where is your rice?" In Thailand, a sandwich - even if it is huge and full of lots of stuff - is considered a kanom or a snack. Harmony always tries to tell them that the sandwich will do her just fine for a meal. But the teachers beg to differ...

This week is finals week so I don't have any classes. I am taking time to catch up on internet things - like making facebook albums and completing final grant reports and researching possible travel destinations. It is nice to have a low key week to organize and pack as well as to fit in some final badminton games.

I just made a facebook album of my trip to the Northern parts of Thailand. Here is the link to the album. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2032472&id=31600737&l=f901f

Enjoy!
--เคท