Poutine

So, last night I succesfully made poutine using only a stove/microwave! Although, I must admit, my new host mom helped me out a bit.. She deep fried all of the french fries, while I made the gravy in a pot on the stove, melted the cheese in the microwave, and assembled it all together. It was really nice to just have some cooking/bonding time with her, and it was nice to be able to share a bit of Canadian culture with my host family. I thought the food turned out pretty tasty, and my one host cousin ate a bunch and kept telling me it was "ah-roy" (delicious), but I'm not sure how much everyone else liked it. I mostly just enjoyed the fact though that they were curious enough about my culture to even ask me to cook some Canadian food for them. I lived with my old host family for about 3 1/2 months, and not once did they ever ask me to do something like that. My new family is also really eager to share with me their culture. This morning, my host mom woke me up at 8 30, and asked me to go to the market with her to buy ingredients for cooking lunch. First of all, I didn't even know that this market we went to existed, because nobody from my old family took me there. It's right in the middle of Nongchok, and kind of hard to miss it.. My new family was quite surprised that I hadn't been there before. When we got back from the market, my host mom had me help her cook "tom-yum-goon" (Thai Spicy Soup) and "kai-teeow" (omelette). It was nice to learn how to cook some Thai food, although I think I may have forgotten all the ingredients/steps already.

This afternoon I have to go back to my old host families house with my Advisor, my Coordinator, Rose, and possibly some other AFS people (I'm not really sure who all will be coming) to tell my family that I won't be moving back in with them. The story we're sticking to is that I WANT to stay with them, but AFS (esepcially AFS in Canada) thinks it is unsafe for me to stay there. This is partially a lie, because I'm actually feeling so much more happier with my new host family, and really wouldn't want to be living back with my old one. Things weren't horrible there, but they weren't amazing either, and now I realize just how much I was missing out on by living with them... I was spending waaaayyy too much time just sitting in my room reading or on my computer, when I could have been out doing things. Even just learning how to cook Thai food with my host mom or watching movies with my host sister. That NEVER happened with my old family. Maybe it was my fault for not being more outgoing or willing to offer to cook for them for example, but I think alot of it had to do with them just genuinely not seeming interested in my culture. For example, the time when Rachel and I went to Chinatown for dinner with my old host parents, and my host dad refused to eat coconut shrimp because he said it was European and cheap. He would only eat the shark fin dish because it was Chinese and expensive. I talked to both my advisor and my coordinator on the phone yesterday, and they both told me I should phone to Cherry or P'Kla or whoever I want, and explain to them I wont be living with them beacuse of AFS ect. But I really don't want to, so I haven't. My main reason being that with my lack of Thai, and their lack of English, they wouldn't really understand me if I tried to get this point across to them, esepcially not just over the phone. Also, I don't think they are really concerned with the fact that I haven't moved back in with them yet as nobody from that family has tried phoning me or contacting me in any way (this is assuming that AFS hasn't yet talked to them about me moving out (because, afterall, that is what we are going there today to do), and that they were expecting me to go home last Thursday after the Optional Trip). Anyways, hopefully I will be able to get all of my stuff today, as I really need certain things such as my uniform. I didn't go to school today (first day school is in session after the holidays) because of the fact that I don't have my uniform with me.. so the sooner I can get it, the sooner I can go to school.

The other day I was thinking about how strange (ironic maybe?) it is that I came into this exchange expecting to live with a nice Buddhist family.. and I would learn about Buddhism and everything to do with Thai culture, but now I've ended up being much happier with my new Muslim family than I ever was with my first Buddhist family. I think back to when I had my interview with an AFS volunteer in February, when I first applied to come on exchange. She asked me all these different questions about what I would do if I was placed in a very religious Christian family, or if I was with a Muslim family who made me cover my head etc. I remember telling her that I wasn't really worried about these things, because I was going to Thailand, and almost 100% of the population in Thailand was Buddhist, and Buddhism was a religion I was really excited about learning. I can just imagine her laughing or something at me now that I'm with a Muslim family.. but the thing is, I'm okay with the idea of her laughing at me, because I realize how foolish it was of me to think that I could only be happy on exchange if I was with a Buddhist family.