Tick-tock, tick-tock

Hmm, May is going to be a pretty busy month for me. Some family friends from the States will be arriving in a few days, and we're planning on taking them around Thailand to some fun, family-friendly tourist spots (this means no stops to horny-German-tourist-infested Pattaya). These particular family friends have been friends with my parents since forever. Because of this, their son Chris and I have shared many eventful childhood moments together. Indeed, every time our families went to dine at Chinese restaurants, Chris and I would hone our culinary skills at the end of dinner by mixing a variety of condiments - soy sauce, sesame seed oil, sugar, vinegar, chili - into wonderful concoctions of chunky gloppity gloop. We carried on with this grand tradition until we were about eight, I believe, upon which I gave up with the whole culinary arts thing altogether because I couldn't beat Chris' Peking duck a la gloppity gloop sauce. Mmmm. He was a regular Martha Stewart, yes he was. Oh wait, I probably just insulted him. What guy wants to be compared to Martha Stewart? Scratch that Martha Stewart bit and change it to Jamie Oliver. Yeah, he can't pummel me now because everyone wants to be a naked chef like Jamie Oliver! Because Jamie Oliver is so ADORABLY COOL, yo. And all that other good stuff. Ahem.


After Chris and his family head back to the US, I'll be off again to Korat this time to attend my cousin P'Nuch's wedding. She and her hubby-to-be met in Texas, where they were delighted to find out that they both hailed from the same Isan province in Thailand. And because P'Nuch is an absolute doll (not to mention awfully purty), he of course couldn't help but fall helplessly in love with her. ;-) As expected, my aunt has been over the moon because of this. Two daughters married off in one year, and one son the year before that - what more could a wannabe grandma want? I know she was slightly worried about P'Nuch's non-married status a few years ago, what with P'Nuch's being in her early thirties and all, but now that wedding bells are in sight there has been nothing but a ginormous smile on her face. Awww. Anyways, thank God I still have about seven to ten years to go before the we-better-marry-her-off-in-the-event-she-ends-up-a-spinster-with-five-pissy-cats radar gets tagged onto me. ;P


~*~

The girls and I met up with Patrick on his last day in Bangkok last week. In between our hearty slurping of bah mee ped (duck noodles) at Siam Square's Hong Kong Noodles, we ended up straying and talking about a plethora of very random topics. I think it was me who started raving about Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ", which then caused us to launch into a full-fledged debate over religion, politics, and the current Middle East situation. We are such nerds, yes we are. There we were in hip Siam Square, surrounded by stylishly-dressed tweens, talking about anti-Semitism, the differences between Catholic and Christian practices, and whether or not it is sinful to think that half-Irish Jim Caviezel is hot (the guy who stars as Jesus in "The Passion"). Anyways, back to Hong Kong noodles. They make good bah mee and gek huay (chrysanthimum tea). Go, I adamantly say, should the occasion ever arise and you find yourself in Siam Square without the faintest idea where to eat.


All this talk about bah mee ped is making me hungry, which isn't such a hot idea since it is nearly 2 AM in the morning. A quick jaunt down to the kitchen for a middle-of-the-night snack is inconceivable, seeing as how I am a member of the female species, and as everyone knows, such indulgences of the aforementioned activity will undoubtedly guarantee that the resultant pounds of middle-of-the-night gorging will fly immediately to my thighs. And hips. And arms. And waist. Gosh freakin dammit, it's so hard being a girl.


Anyways, as if Aparna's tales about her European escapades hadn't made me envious enough, Paddy told us about the time he went gallivanting off to Prague, Austria, France, Switzerland, and just about the entire European continent with his friends from uni. I want to live out of busses, trains, and hostels, get blisters on my toes, shop for tacky, insanely over-priced tourist souvenirs, and take obligatory touristy pics in front of all the major European landmarks, too. But until then, I must sit in silent torture as my mom flies off to Russia, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway next week without me. After the trips she made to Italy, Spain, China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, and Myanmar this past year, she now has so many stamps in her passport, I get dizzy just looking at them. She wanted me to go along with her on her upcoming Russsia/Scandinavia trip, but I can't, what with my thesis presentation coming up in a few weeks.


Speaking of which, I so have to start hauling major ass for my super-duper-mondo-huge-very-badass thesis presentation that's tentatively scheduled for late May/early June. Me is freaking out, not because I haven't finished the report yet (I've finished writing about three-fourths of it, which isn't too shabby, I think), but because I'm scared shitless of presenting it in front of the panel of judgessss! Judges who are Thai professorssss! Thai professors who are from various unis like Mahidol, Thammasat and Phra Mongkut who scare the bejeezus outta me because they like to get really beady-eyed and discerning about every itty-bitty-witty thing that comes out of your mouuuuth! To demonstrate their anal retentiveness, they like to hack off points if your university pin isn't pinned on straight! Yes, no kidding! Dude, I can't even FIND my university pin! The last time I wore the stinkin thing was in Freshman year when it was new and glowing and filled with luster. The last time I saw it, it looked positively rusty, and then it sort of vanished into thin air with a fiery *POOF*. Looks like I need to buy a new pin, just for the thesis presentation. (At least I still have my university belt and silver buttons.) =X


While I'm dreading the thesis presentation, I'm still excited about it because once it's done and over with, it means that I will have officially graduated! Yay, and I will be on my way to med school. In the UK. Me is excited. Very excited. However, January is still ages away, and so in between now and then I have to find a way to keep myself busy before I fall off the cliff of insanity and mutate into a shiftless (albeit chocolate-loving) amoeboid. So here's the plan: I plan to busy myself by finally learning Mandarin, and by picking up where I last left off on my violin lessons, oh, I don't know, about ten years ago.


The sudden inspiration to parlez Mandarin is because I want to broaden my Mandarin horizons, especially since my current Mandarin skills are limited to Jay Chou, F4, and Wang Lee Hom (my new fobby obsession) lyrics. I want to be able to visit the motherland in the future and have more than Jay Chou's lyric of "wo xiang jiu zhe yang qian zhe ni de shou bu fang kai, wo xiang dai ni qi dan che" to say to the vendor at the morning market when I ask him how much his bananas are, lest he think I am some insane loon who is obsessed with holding his hand and riding bicycles with him. I hardly expect to become fluent in Mandarin, what with it being an extremely difficult language and all, but I would like to be able to carry on a decent conversation without having to blush and worry whether I just mutated a seemingly innocent word into an embarrassing one. But in all seriousness, learning how to speak Mandarin Chinese holds a great deal of significance to me; my grandparents were Chinese, and so I want to be able to pass that on to my kids one day, in addition to my Thai heritage.




Okay, between all this talk about weddings and kids, I must say, enough sappiness already. I think someone must have surreptitiously wound my biological clock ahead of time by ten years. Excuse me while I go and wind it back to normal.


Okay, all done now. =)


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