Temptation Island

Emma mai sabai [I am not well].
I woke up this morning with excrutiating pain in my right calf.
Just my right calf.
Why? I have no idea. I'm going to assume it is a mixture of Thai dance, badminton, tennis, yoga and all the bik riding I have been doing. I must have pulled something. So instead of going out today like I planned, I stayed home. I can barely walk anywhere let alone use my bike, so I only left the house twice; once to buy white out and pens at the store across the street, and the other to go to a farewell party for two of the English teachers at my school.

I am currently in J period. This is a special time of the year when Chinese Buddhists give up meat and anything made from an animal for nine days. I had always wanted to try being vegan, it looked like a piece of cake; and I'm sure it would be had I still been in Canada. Here, it is much more difficult; practically everything has eggs, milk or meat in it. The things I can eat are: fruits and vegetables, sticky/steamed rice, selected types of noodles, nuts and beans. On day number one I thought it was going to be a piece of cake. Then, as I was mid eating a peanut butter sandwich, Suzanne reminded me that bread has eggs in it. Damn. Later that day I went to play badminton with some friends and afterwards they wanted to go out and eat. They wanted to get Ba Mee [egg noodles]. I told them I would come but I couldn't eat it, because it is made with eggs. Instead they took me to a little shop where I could buy ahan J [vegan food] and then we went to eat cake. Actually, they ate cake and I watched in jealousy.

Today wasn't as bad. This morning I woke up and went downstairs to eat breakfast [at 1pm]. I was in my pyjamas which consisted of a spaghetti strap tanktop and short pyjama shorts that were flowy, and I was going commando. It wouldn't have been a problem if my host dad hadn't decided to come home early from work, and bring a friend. So I stood in the kitchen peeling a mangoe and cutting up bananas while my host father's friend awkwardly tried to make conversation. I escaped quickly to my computer haven. I spent the rest of the day working on Nathan's christmas present while I read two previous exchange student's blogs. At around 5 my host mom came home and told me we had a party to go to at 6. I played my guitar for a little bit and then I got ready.

The restaurant served the most DELICIOUS food. Salad with nuts and eggs, fish suki, deep fried chicken and calamari. Of course, I couldn't eat any of it because of J so they had a salad made especially for me, without eggs or dressing, but lots of peanuts. One of the teachers gave me salad dressing she made, it was really good. I ate an entire platter of salad... to myself. The breaker point was the moong satay. Quite possibly my favourite food here. It is so simple, pork with peanut sauce. But the peanut sauce is to DIE for. In the end, to somewhat fix my temptation I ate the peanut sauce on more salad, and cucumbers. Then when I ran out of cucumbers, I ate spoonfuls of the sauce. It was wonderful, not perfect... but it was still really AWESOME.

Of course at every Thai get together, there has to be karaoke. Since I am the exchange student who they like to show off, and I can speak English with a proper English accent, everytime there is karaoke I am forced to sing, whether I want to or not. I usually do want to. Today I sang:

Dancing Queen
Take a chance on me
Tears in heaven
Let it be
Heart of gold
Stand by me
Wind beneath my wings

And a few other songs where I was pulled in to sing them though I had never heard it before. It's funny how Thai people seem to know more of the older English songs than the falangs do! After singing way too much karaoke [with a man who was super drunk and kept dancing around and singing out of key] and saying good byes I came home. Laden down with left over moong satay. Apparently it will still be good in a week when I am finished J if I keep it in the fridge. The only problem now is me NOT eating it everytime I open the fridge. The fridge is constantly tempting me... scrambled eggs? Can't have them. Bread? Stay away. Moong satay? Nope.

Self discipline Emma, self discipline.

Today also marks the 2 month anniversary of my departure from Canada. It seems like the time has flown by, but at the same time it makes me sad that 1/6th of my trip is already over.

"Did you ever know that you're my hero, you're everything I wish I could be"