Most, if not all, would agree with me when I tell you I cannot cook. I really do try, I just am not all that domestic. I seriously have a 6 ingredient maximum for any recipe, which includes salt and pepper (and count as 2/6 of the recipe). I found a recipe on another blogger’s website and thought I’d give it a whirl…just throw some chicken and a few ingredients in a crockpot and let it go! Oh. I let it go alright…like 2 hours longer than I was supposed to (accidentally napped for far too long), so the chicken was a little dry, and it just didn’t look or taste I thought it would! WHO screws up a flippin’ crockpot recipe??? I can’t even manage to make the packaged dough cookies look pretty when they come out…all turned into one big cookie (the pan was to blame, but you’d think I would have noticed the funky bend in the middle, of course not).
I would love to be able to cook more than macaroni and cheese and Knorr side dishes (you just add milk and water…haven’t managed to screw them up yet), but I’m really a lost cause! The only other thing I can do well is sauerkraut and polish suasage (4 ingredients), so I really hope my future hubby doesn’t mind it every other day, or he’ll have to take up the cooking.
Oh, and there is my sausage dip. It’s 3 ingredients, and everyone loves it (non vegetarians, that is). If you’ve noticed, I either bring that or buy something if I have to bring something. Last time I tried to be different, it just didn’t work out. I tried making salsa rolls…slather cream cheese on tortillas and put salsa, and roll up. I got that part down. Then, cut. This is where it went downhill. It looked AWFUL, and was embarrassing, but I didn’t have anything else to take. I told everyone it tastes better than it looks, but I’m sure people thought otherwise. I can make Thai fried rice, but it’s not consistent…some days it’sbetter than others. There’s a pork dish I’ve made. I saw it on Food Network, and the fact that kids were helping Giada cook it was the only thing that gave me hope…and it turned out good, but it’s rare if I make
it. There’s a slight glimmer of hope for me in the kitchen, I guess, but I feel like I should be so much better. My mother and her mother are fabulous cooks. Guess I got my dad’s genes in that area 😦 My little brother even cooks better than I do!
Any tips you can offer me? If you think your kids could do it, then that’s my kind of recipe!
I’ve written about my experiences in Egypt, now, on to Thailand, the Land of Smiles! While we were still in Egypt, my parents went over on a look-see to find out where we’d be living and even if we really wanted to move there. My mom brought me back Bubble Yum bubble gum, and that was all I needed to know I’d love it over there! My dad’s company also sent them to Sao Paulo, Brazil, after this trip, and after being told of the crimes (usually aimed at ex-pats) and living behind bars on windows and doors, my parents quickly made up their minds!
In August of 1997, we arrived at the Bangkok International Airport, it was around midnight, and we were exhausted after 20 hours of travel! When you get off the plane, one of the first things you see is a banner that displays “Welcome to the Land of Smiles” and you see all the cute little Thais. We still had a two hour drive still ahead of us, just to get to the hotel where we’d be staying, what a LONG day that was!
We drove to Pattaya, which is south of Bangkok, the nearest city to where we’d be living. The hotel we stayed at was called the Royal Garden, and it had a MALL attached to it! I had never seen such a thing, and thought it was SO cool! As a 14 year-old girl, I was in heaven! The hotel was GORGEOUS, and the next day, I went to check out the mall, with no money of course, I forgot to ask for some Baht (Thai currency). I found this one store that, apparently, is big over in the UK, Boots, an odd name for a drugstore type of store, but they had a lot of American and British beauty products (although you’d pay the price for ’em), which was great! The mall also had a Benihana’s, so it was a MAJOR improvement from Cairo.
When we went to see our new home, we were in disbelief that it was as beautiful as it was. We lived ON a golf course, so my parents and brother were ecstatic, HOWEVER, I tried taking golf lessons in Egypt, and decided I could care less. The 2nd mode of transportation was a golf cart, everyone had at least one.
I can’t tell you how SPOILED ROTTEN we were over there, it’s so cheap to live there, we are fortunate enough to afford a maid and a driver!!! Our maid and driver were married, and the lived with us, in the outside quarters. They really became part of our family, they had a beautiful little girl whose nickname was Ploy, which means pearl in Thai, isn’t that sweet? To give you an idea of how cheap it is, we paid the maid the equivalent to $200, and she was one of the highest paid maids in the area! She felt so blessed we were able to give her a job, she gave up beef in return, completely on her own, and stuck to it!!! The Thais are willing to bend over backwards to please, and they really LOVE to smile, which makes me miss Thailand.
Because the primary religion is Buddhism, they have a different new year, their version is known as Songkran, which is celebrated April 13th – 15th, and it’s just a big HUMONGOUS water fight! They do have a white powder they mix with water, and that is supposed to ward off evil, and they will nail you with that, as well, and can sting your eyes. If you think you can go out, and still stay dry, FORGET IT!!!!! Watch the clip below and see it’s all in good fun:
School was different, we had uniforms, and I was not happy with that in the beginning. I’d never been to a school with uniforms, and the thought of wearing the same thing day in and day out was appalling! The school, the International School of the Eastern Seaboard (ISE) was SO small, even compared to my old school, CAC, there were less than 20 kids in the WHOLE 9th grade! We all had the same classes together, and there weren’t choices in what you could take, except you had the option of learning French of Spanish. I couldn’t even learn Thai in school, because there supposedly wasn’t enough interest to have a class, the majority of the students were Thai. Unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to learn it, besides the basic 1-10 and hello, good-bye, thank you, etc… In the 10th grade, we went on a Biology trip, we called the “Barge Trip” where we were on a boat, and went around to different sights, and had a good time. I remember feeling tired throughout that trip, just the fresh air and the heat got to me, and maybe just gross from the fact we literally had timed showers, you had 3 minutes once you got in the bathroom area, to jump in and out, and get dressed again…that was rough! I do remember everyone taking turns in groups cooking, and that was fun! That was my first experience with okra, turned out I kinda liked it.
Here’s a picture of the high school, that was newly built when I was there. If you can see the stairs have a covering, it’s because there’s no roof over the center of the building. One teeny tiny tidbit they may have overlooked, during the design process, was that there’s monsoon season!
the inside of the high school
The good thing I learned is, when it’s a small school, you get a chance to get to know everyone there, and I appreciated that, we had people from all corners of the world, and I can’t tell you how NEAT it is to interact with people from such different backgrounds! I feel so blessed to have met EVERYONE there, the good, the bad and the ugly. It’s interesting how you look back, and you realize the ways people shaped your life.
My good friend, Guillermo & I
In Thailand, drinking was legal, so long as you paid, and the same went with prostitution. The typical stereotype if you saw a foreigner with a Thai girl, usually much younger, is she was getting paid for her company, and that was something you saw EVERYDAY! Even the next door neighbor would have parties with a few Thai women when his wife left. Everyone knew everyone else’s business, MUCH more so than should’ve. I guess that’s what happens when wives (of ex-pats) can’t work (weren’t allowed work permits), and have nothing better to do. Anytime one of the their kids screwed up, and we ALL did, EVERYONE knew about it, and that was really annoying. My bad experience was with our golf cart. One day, I was screwing around on the golf cart paths, going up and down the hills for cheap thrills, and missed a turn, I tried to compensate by turning sharply, which resulted in me falling out, and the cart kept going…right into the pond!!!!!! I was so upset, one of the neighbors happened to be driving by, and they gave me a lift back home. All I remember was I was grounded after that, and told I could NEVER drive it again! I was able to drive it again, they trusted me, and that was the last time I went up and down hills for excitement! I think it was about $100 or so just to dry it out. My mom jokingly told me to tell people I went looking for my dad’s old golf balls, sadly, that excuse didn’t fly!
My golf cart fared a little better than this one, but not by much
Thailand has some Amazing beaches, in Pattaya, Phuket, and the small islands. Our family traveled to Phuket a few times, and stayed at Le Meridian Resort, which was recked in the tsunami, but has since been restored. We LOVED that place, there was always something to do, and everyday, they had this fantastic mongolian barbecue (I’m such a foodie), definitely one of the things I looked forward to. The only thing i hated was the pain from my “pasty-white-girl-tan”, otherwise known as a sunburn, from being in the sun all day. Another place we visited was Chiang Mai, and on that trip, this Aussie boyband, Human Nature, performed in the lobby lounge of the hotel, and I remember thinking they were some FINE lookin’ men LOL, but my tastes have changed since then, but a couple of them are still cute LOL. They ended up having some songs on the Asian and Aussie music charts, but nothing too big. What can I say, I was a sucker for any cute boy!!!!
Earlier, I mentioned how I’m kind of a foodie, and I love Thai food. I’m not one for a lot of spice, like most of their dishes, but it’s worth the sacrifice, and if you think you’re eating Thai food, but your nose isn’t running, and eyes aren’t watering, then it may not be authentic. I did learn how to make Thai fried rice, from our maid, sesame beef. I do have a recipe for chicken cashew, just have never made it myself, but it’s awesome! Chicken satay and pad thai are my favorites!
Pad Thai
Durians are a fruit that is native to southeast Asia, and you would KNOW if you were ever within a half a mile of one, the smell is unforgettable, to say the least! Remember how I said the high school was all open-aired??? Well, one day, someone brought 2 durians to school, and left them at the bottom of the stairs, and the smell was just AWFUL!!! One writer describes it as “overripe cheese. Rotting fish. Unwashed socks. A city dump on a hot summer’s day”, and I couldn’t agree more!! Apparently, the public buses, which are all open-aired as well, wouldn’t allow anyone with one of these supposedly tasty fruits on board due to the pungent odor. I never tried it, the smell was enough to turn me off. Pomelo was another fruit that is native to SE Asia, and it is SO good! It tastes like a sweet, mild grapefruit.
Pomelo
Durian
See this picture…
Gorgeous, huh??? Well, these are what the Thais refer to as Katoys, which means “ladyboys”, and they have Mr. Miss beauty pageants!! So, if you go there, you may not always get what you see, As you can see, many of them are more beautiful than real women! My parents took us to a cabaret show when we were on vacation, and later, we met some of the stars of the show, and my mother broke it to us that they were men, I just couldn’t believe it, they were SO beautiful, but then I noticed the adam’s apple!
While I was in Thailand, I had the opportunity to travel Vietnam, Bali and Australia. I think we loved Phuket so much, we didn’t do as much traveling to other places, but I really don’t have any places on my must see list, that I haven’t already seen. I really loved the people, the culture, and the land, I would move back there in a heartbeat, if given the opportunity! There is a woman’s blog I’ve been reading, who just moved there, and it brings back memories to read about her daily life, although, she lives in a different part of the country. I’m sure I missed things, but this gives you an insight into my life, as well as the things the average tourist might not experience.
Some of you may, or may not, know that I used to live in Egypt. I may not have appreciated it as much as I should have, but I do now, it was a WONDERFUL learning experience! Before I moved there, I really, truly, was under the impression that we would be living in pyramids and riding camels everywhere…never hit me that my dad worked for a CAR COMPANY!!!! I think I told everyone I knew I’d be living in a pyramid and I’m pretty sure I practiced walking like an Egyptian in the mirror!!!
Well, after 13 hours of flying, we landed in Cairo. The smells are what hit you first. A combination of sweat, body odor, and must, with a hint of the worst cologne you ever could smell! It’s kind of crazy it’s been 14 years and I still remember, but it was so different, how could I not? I really felt like I took a step back in time, it just seemed like the men were dressed in 80’s attire, and everything just looked so old. When you step foot outside of the airport, most of the cars were old and clunky, cabs included. I’d never been around people who had to cover their heads or faces, so it was all very new to me, and at that time, I wasn’t very familiar with the Muslim religion, but it was clearly evident we weren’t in Grand Blanc, Michigan anymore!
It was around midnight local time when we arrived, but our first stop was to take a look at where we’d be living, which was NOT a pyramid! We had a lovely apartment, just different from what I was used to, I’d never lived in an apartment building, and again, there was a funky stench in the building. Also, living on the 5th floor is not a great floor to live on, should the electricity go out, and it went out often. We later learned one of the bathrooms stunk, permanently, of whatever it was our landlord, right above us, was cooking (and they loved their garlic)! What was even stranger was we had 2.5 bathrooms, and they were all next to each other, the stinky bathroom was maroon, and my parents’ bathroom was a hideous pickle green! Luckily, the half bath guests would use was attractive, which was all my mother worried about. I thought it was the coolest thing that I had a balcony off of my room, it was small, but it had a view of the school. We then went to the hotel, and stayed there for a few days while we got situated.
My first mini-expedition was right after I moved in, my mother asked me to go get some milk from the market, Kimo Market (which you’ll see briefly in the video clip @ the end), and all I had to do was go straight, but somehow, I ended up over on one of the busiest streets in the area, referred to as Road 9, and I started on 210, and a nun, or that’s what I remember she was, was nice enough to help me get home. I didn’t know a phone number, or even where home was, all I knew was I lived near CAC, but hours later, I got home in one piece. And my mother swears my sense of direction hasn’t improved much since!!!!
The following week, I started school at Cairo American College, it was Kindergarten through grade 12. It was much smaller than what i was used to, only about 100 students per grade. It was early November, so I remember feeling so overwhelmed on the first day, and later realized it was MUCH more difficult than I expected. The school was great though, there were people from all over the world, places I’d never even heard of, and I was able to learn so much about the world, namely geography and cultures. In the US, they focus on government, civics and usually the history of your state, I did however, learn so much about Egypt, their culture and the Muslim Religion, and when you understand why people are different, and do the things they do, you’re a whole lot more accepting. The Middle East gets such a bad rap, the only time you hear about it on the new is when something horrible happens, or because of the war, and it’s not all bad, the WHOLE region is not comprised of terrorists, if it was, they would’ve all killed each other by now! Only one terrorist attack occurred while we were there, and it wasn’t even aimed at Americans. Sadly, it was a BAD case of mistaken identity. I really take offense when people make those generalizations, they’re people too, just from a different background! Sorry, I tend to stray. The school I went to was a private American school, very advanced, and pretty up with the rest of the world, technologically speaking. I took Arabic classes the 2nd and 3rd years I was there, and learned how to read and write it. I tested it out a lot on our Boab (doorman) and our driver, both named Ahmed. When living there, it seemed as if there were only a handful of men’s names to choose from, It was as if every man were named either Ahmed, Mohammed, Abdul, Mahmoud, and Sharif. Seemed like there were even fewer female names, so we often would get people’s names mixed up, or we’d get lucky when picking one of the few we could think of LOL. My dad learned a few words in Arabic and he took a fondness to “habib” and “habibi”, which means love, or my love, and he called EVERYONE it, very amusing, if not embarrassing! We’re really lucky we never had any need for medical care while we were there, the hospital was called salaam something or another, and “ma’asalaam” means good-bye, so we deemed it the ma’asalaam hospital and joked if you went in, you wouldn’t be coming back out! For all we knew, it could’ve been just fine, but then again, Egypt was still a developing nation (developing nations don’t like the term “3rd world”). This was back in 1994-1997 that I was there, so I’m sure a lot has changed since then.
The really cool thing from CAC was that we started a rehabilitation program for Egyptian Tortoises, which are endangered. We took responsibility for feeding and caring for them, and that was a lot of fun. I believe they’re still doing the project to this day, and we weren’t even sure it’d continue after the first year. Another interesting thing we did was went and spent 4 nights in the desert, living with Bedouins. It was our 8th grade trip (we went on an overnight trip every year), but this one was my least favorite. Living in the desert means no plumbing…of any kind! We dug holes, did our business (behind a giant rock), and burned the toilet paper. Not my idea of a vacation! We snorkled, and on my first day, I managed to lose all my gear except a fin, due to waves. Snorkling was the only thing that got me through 4 days without showering, but salt water isn’t the greatest either! And I must say, snorkeling in the Red Sea is nothing but spectacular! It’s so beautiful! There was supposed to be something educational about the trip, however, I was probably too annoyed with the fact that one of the teachers (a gym teacher at that, so it was weird she came) washed her hair EVERYDAY, and I couldn’t even get a shower, that I just don’t remember!!! Oh well, I survived. I do remember having several bloody noses on that trip, due to the dry air, that was not fun (although one was caused by another girl over something stupid, but I still remember LOL, wonder where Kristin Schaffer is today). I also remember wishing I’d brought a warmer sleeping bag, it was COLD at night! It wasn’t a good trip for me, I won’t lie, but it’s one to remember! The 6th grade trip for students was to Luxor, which is where the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens are, where King Tut’s tomb is, and a whole lot of history. In the 7th grade, we were supposed to go to Amman, Jordon, but due to current events at the time, we ended up going to Al Arish, and it was an alright trip…first time I ever played Truth or Dare LOL, and that’s about all I remember! I did take a class, Egypt in Greek and Roman Times, and that was a really interesting class, more notably, I got to travel to Rome during my spring break in 7th grade! I LOVED Rome, it was gorgeous, and we did a ton of sight seeing, and the food was to die for! I digressed again!
The pyramids and sphinx were only about a 30 minute drive from where we lived, and we went there a few times, my mom even did a Christmas card of us in front of the pyramids. There was also the City of the Dead, which was miles of tombs, but a lot of poor people lived there as well, which is kind of creepy when you think about it. Another sight is the Citadel, i went there, but couldn’t tell you anything about it.
The Citadel
Driving in Egypt is something to be experienced…they try to make 5 lanes out of 3. Other things I found interesting in Egypt were that Arby’s delivered, McDonald’s had just opened it’s first restaurant in Cairo right before we moved there, and it was ALWAYS busy, even during Ramadan (when Muslims fast for a month), I think all ex-patriots had the same idea, to go there LOL. We had a Domino’s move into the bottom of the apartment building across the street, and that was convenient. Egyptian food, in my opinion, is bland, and the only think I liked was hummus and bread.
Here’s a video that kinda shows what Ma’adi, the ex-pat community we lived in, looks like, including CAC. It’s kinda long, but the last 2 minutes are the most interesting.
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Durian
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