Yesterday mostly consisted of laziness, the highlights of the day included breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It's the simplicity and importance of such meals in Thai culture that is the most accessible to a foreign observer like myself. Time is defined by eating. The most common greeting, gin kow reu yeung, means literally Have you eaten yet? Thailand is the world's largest rice exporter and there's no way you would ever think otherwise. Rice pervades every meal, every snack. Breakfast may consist of fried rice, fruit, or sticky-rice engulfed fruit. Also Thais will often times fry eggs (sunny-side up style) and serve them as a side to dishes. If you are feeling nostalgic for some Americana you could ask for sai kai neung tii, which is a side of a fried egg, probably accompanied by rice. However, people will look at you inquisitively and doubtless ask why. I typically find a happy medium between traditional Thai breakfast and American style by eating some fruit in the morning. This could be banana, coconut, rambutan, lychee, mango, pineapple, watermelon, papaya. But don't worry if you like coffee, Thais drink it plenty, just in the iced form.

In the afternoon after going to the UNC office at the university Neung called and asked if I would like to eat some lunch. We went to get crispy pork at a special place further away from my apartment (had to take the equivalent of a bus). This was tasty I ate Pak See Ew moo krawp. Neung ordered a considerably spicier (phet mak mak) dish, which I tried. I like spicy food, but I do have the tendency to tear up pretty easily, which has happened on numerous occasions.

The big plan for the day, though, was to go to a Thai Buffet for dinner. Neung, Ricker, Christina, and I partook in this adventure. This was the first buffet I have seen in Thailand. All-you-can-eat captures the theme and you could tell this restaurant was more than it's name. This was no meal, it was an activity, especially since you could tell families spent hours at this place just eating. The all-you-can-eat part has no catch, but the difference between American and Thai style buffets is that you become the chef. The buffet contains all sorts of meats, seafood, shrimp, crayfish, crabs, vegetables, and fruit. Each table houses a cooking contraption--a charcoal grill with a hot plate on top encircled by a moat-like area to boil anything. We pour water surrounding the hot plate that comes to a boil and then drop in shrimp, vegetables, tofu, spices, crabs, and anything really. The outer ring creates a soup like dish and then chicken, beef, and pork were grilled in the center on a metal plate. We spent 2-3 hours cooking/eating/talking. In contrast to America though, we weren't just stuffing ourselves as fast as possible, each item came slowly and there were many breaks. I probably didn't eat too much more than a normal dinner, we just spread it out over a long period of time. Many restaurants in Thailand, including this one, lie under roofs without walls. It gets so hot during the day, that it makes sense to just have fans going, and it rains often. Well, this restaurant was no different. Because of the rainy season, last night in the middle of dinner the rain came with thunder and lightning and quite a storm lasted for about 15 minutes. The preparedness for any type of precipitation is remarkable, you almost feel like you are traveling on a sailboat and someone is yelling bar down the hatches. And ten people pop out from around the room and start unreeling mats that serve as walls during the rain. It's a spectacle.

Unfortunately all the coconut ice cream melted, so no dessert.

Today I may venture into central Bangkok and meet up with my friend Sadie before she catches a flight back to NC tonight. Tomorrow I may meet my friend Raley's friend Ning who goes to Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. We shall see what transpires.