A Night Out with the Roomate

Last week my roommate Fon (short for Namfon) asked me if I'd like to have dinner with her. This was very exciting for me since we hardly talk, other than exchanging hellos, goodbyes, goodnights, and an occasional "have fun!" from her end. We decided on Monday, and at precisely 6pm we met in our room and then headed out for the night. In the lobby of our dorm we met up with two of her friends, Ben and Concetta (both female) and took a songthaew to the entrance of the Malin Night Market. Here we went to a restaurant and in attempt to avoid looking like a wimp, I lied and said that I liked spicy food. (This isn't a complete lie, I truly like it, it's just that my tolerance for spicy food is very low) Between the four of us we shared seven dishes family style, costing a whopping total of $9. The meal was delicious, however, I was very thankful that I had ordered a bowl of sticky rice to help cool off my burning mouth.

After dinner we joined hundreds of Thai college students at the night market for some shopping. I wasn't expecting such a long night of food and clothes shopping, but had a wonderful time with the girls looking at clothes and attempting to figure out what they were talking about. For the first 30 minutes or so of our night we spoke in English, but once we ran out of things we were able to say to each other in our non-native languages, they spoke in Thai and I just followed along with a big grin on my face. Fon seemed worried that I wasn't having fun, but I absolutely enjoyed every minute of being with the girls and feeling like a true Thai college student.

After lots of shopping we stopped at a dessert restaurant for a sweet treat. I had no idea what I was ordering off of the Thai menu, but I knew that the flavors "coffee and chocolate" were involved so I knew it couldn't be a bad choice. What the waitress brought out was not what I expected, but more delicious than I could have imagined. This may sound odd, but it was surprisingly good: toasted Texas-style white toast, topped with chocolate and coffee flavored sauces. Though I thought mine was delicious, the girls knew much better than me and to my gratitude shared their dishes with me. Their plates were filled with toast along with ice cream, strawberries, nuts, bananas, whipped cream, and lots more and then topped with indescribable sauces. They laughed as I drooled over how great the desserts were. Lots of pictures were taken that night. Thais love to take photos to document their outings and are very timely in posting photos online.

a very spicy dinner

Fon, me, Ben and Concetta enjoying dessert

check out that toast!