cooking class

today was cooking class day. we made four plates: chaio yor (fried spring rolls), amok- the banana cup, nyom trayong jek neung moan (banana blossom salad with tofu), and sticky rice and mango. we did the entire thing all by ourselves entirely from scratch. 

i forgot to take a picture of the real thing, because i may
 have eaten it too quickly to remember to take a pic

we went to the market with our darling, darling teacher and she taught us how to pick things. naturally, i was paying not an ounce of attention to her because i was too busy looking at the market around me. it was so fascinating. i accidentally swung my shoulder onto a piece of raw meat, panic. i survived. there was a lady who was chopping raw meat too then just picked up her phone and started talking on it, did not wash or wipe her hands. public health disaster. the food was pretty good, all khmer. my favorite was the dessert. it was one of the best desserts i have ever had in my life. i thought about it for hours after i devoured it.

the shoulder thing

we tried so hard to take a picture, but people kept bumping zoya

if you need a fancy bra, or any bra or underwear, or jewelry while buying your raw
 meat and veggies, no problem. they have them at the market next to the shrimp

we try to use our khmer at home with ohm, we are disgraceful. we were trying to tell ohm that the food was delicious. after many failed attempts on our part, she told us to say, “akun ohm, so good.” we can’t say we didn’t try.

tonight, the BYU young ambassadors had their show. we attended. all the kids were so talented, really truly. i struggled to accurately assess where i was in the world while the were performing. their costumes were quite interesting. if they weren’t dressed in prince and princess costumes or in basically “its a small world” costumes, they were dressed in what can only be described as playhousedisney slash disneyjr slash 90s elementary school talent show slash the beat portion of the disneyland parade. you can see why i was confused that i was not actually at disneyland.  craziest thing though! i walk into the building and i feel someone coming in my direction. i look over and it is hong stevens, from my old home ward, walking toward me. she apparently has been serving a mission here for the past year. the costumes were accurate because it is a small world. it was so nice to see her.

we were given out fans during the show. we were all very excited about this because we had been meaning to buy some at the market. so at the end clarissa and i made sure we had ours, plus we thought it was a good idea to take a few extra just in case. i honestly dont know how, but we each ended up with 25 fans. they are sitting in my bike basket right now. i am keeping them. you never know. 

i'm getting used to the traffic. people don't stop, they kind of just roll out and inch their way. oncoming traffic just moves around you. people move pretty slowly. 

locals take pictures of white people. i noticed it today, while i was yawning, i turned around and noticed a woman with her camera pointed at us. when she finished she looked at me and we both smiled a little embarrassed. the BYU young ambassadors were like celebrities, everyone would just yell and scream. so funny.