Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Happy Birthday Nong Pern!

Today, my hosts' daughter turned 15 years old. In Thailand, the birthday girl or boy traditionally makes merit in the morning when the monks come to collect alms, then it's business as usual.  It's a lovely tradition, but it doesn't quite meld with my American sensibilities, and since a third of my work here is about helping the people of Thailand understand American culture better, what nicer way to keep that goal alive than by making a heart-shaped chocolate cake and cream cheese frosting from scratch, and decorating it with M&Ms as a surprise after dinner? Did I mention I also got her some presents? Yeah, it was a pretty wonderful night. Here are some highlights...

The cake complete with 15 candles
A team effort





My beautiful host family
Cutting her first birthday cake
Sharing in the love

2 comments:

  1. What a beautiful and thoughtful way to share our culture with your host family! I bet they all LOVED it!

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  2. Birthdays have become very special in my host family, now. They're so excited about them that they're now counting the day I moved in as some sort of special event and have requested a cake and Mexican food on my one year anniversary...I guess I can handle that!

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