Day 115! Overall, today was a pretty chilled out day. But it ended with an amazing birthday party for a rambunctious young 2 year old! At this party I met a lot of really cool Thai locals and enjoyed a night of laughter in good company!

After a very early morning the day before, Nico and his wife kept their child upstairs and all of us slept in till a few hours later than 5am!

I woke up before they all came downstairs and enjoyed diving into The Hobbit. I’m super excited to have this as my next read.

Eventually they all came downstairs. Nico’s wife headed out to class and left the three guys to hang out for the day!

We were feeling pretty lazy today. So the morning consisted of entertaining Nico’s son, playing ukulele, and reading more of The Hobbit.

Nico then made me a breakfast I hadn’t had in a while, eggs and baguette.

I’ve been helping clean up where I can and one of the things I’ve strangely missed is cleaning dishes! It’s been forever since I’ve had to and it’s oddly satisfying for me.

We waited for what felt like ages for Nico’s wife to come back from class so we could get lunch. But I think just sitting around all morning made the day go by much slower.

Nico and I walked to a nearby restaurant where we got Pad See Ew and Pad Gaprao to share. They also cooked up some purple rice too to enjoy with the meal.

After eating, it was all hands on deck! Today was a very special day. We were celebrating Nico’s son’s second birthday. It was getting close to time for people to start coming, so we got to work cleaning and organizing the house.

I of course helped out as much as I could and helped mop the floor and clean up Nico’s son’s toys… a couple of times.

We were waiting around for Nico’s friends to arrive and eventually they finally started to show up.

Nico’s son started opening his presents right away and it was very cute to watch. The friends that showed up also brought a snack I had yet to have.

It was lotus flower seeds! They were really interesting. I wasn’t sure if I liked them or not, but they were fun to eat (you have to peal open the shell, then take out the flower bud from the inside). I had never seen anyone eat this before and thought it was a fun thing to try!

More of Nico’s friends started to show up as the night progressed and it turned into a big gaggle of Thai locals that Nico had met throughout his many times in Thailand.

Crazily enough, a lot of these Thai locals knew Spanish! I had never thought about this before, but I guess Chile and Thailand send exchange students to each other. So most of them had spent some time in Chile, which is how they all knew each other!

I thought this was super cool and unique. I was in a cultural melting pot hearing Spanish and Thai (and some English) fly about. It was super fun to listen to.

Everyone kept apologizing for speaking languages I couldn’t understand. But I was seriously okay with it because it was very entertaining to listen to. I did have some great conversations with some of them and they were all very welcoming and happy to have me around.

Even though it was Nico’s son’s birthday party, he went to bed before everyone left… how rude! Just kidding. I’ll forgive him since he’s only just turned 2. But even though the birthday boy went to bed, the party still continued!

Lots of people brought different snacks over but we also made homemade pizza! Nico’s wife was making them for a while but didn’t want to anymore. So some of the Thai friends brought me in as the resident American expert. Just like washing dishes, it’s been awhile since I’ve been able to cook! And homemade pizzas is something we used to make a lot back home!

I did some demonstrating of rolling the dough and putting the sauce/toppings on, but let them do most of the work. Overall, it was such a lovely time!

Everyone stayed till around 12am. But before they all left, we sat in a circle and chatted (mainly in Thai) and played a fun little game called black magic that entailed one person having to guess an object that everyone else selected by using “magic.” It was one of those games where when you know the secret you know the game… but otherwise you’re left there confused. I was definitely left there confused but in the end they explained the secret.

It was a pretty chill day but ended with a very fun night! I got to meet many different locals who were all just amazing to be around. It definitely is a testament to Nico’s character for bringing so many good people around him and his family.

I also really enjoyed getting to see Thai hospitality in full swing. When everyone got up to leave, they all helped clean up, they all said goodbye to each other, and they all did a polite little bow to everyone as they left.

I miscounted my days and thought my cousins got here tomorrow, but in fact they leave tomorrow and get here Sunday night. So… as much as I’ve enjoyed spending time at Nico’s place, I think I’ll head back to where I was previously to get a full nights sleep before the adventure with my cousins!

See you tomorrow!

– Elie