Had a kind of crazy day…

Had a kind of crazy day yesterday -- Samanthi and I threw a fairly impromptu Sri Lankan New Year's party. Belated happy new year, everyone!

She made goat curry (so good!), potato curry, green beans, chickpeas, luna miris sambol (onion), and kiri bath (traditional coconut milk with red rice). I made chicken curry, salmon curry, mushrooms, carrot curry, uppuma, and hoppers -- well, sort of hoppers. I couldn't find my hopper pans, which are buried in the basement boxes, so I made flat pancakes with hopper mix. Still tasty, and honestly, a lot easier / faster than actual hoppers. But not as much fun. I got halfway through an eggplant sambol too, and then stopped because a) there was too much food, and b) I just had no energy left. S'okay -- we stuck it in the freezer, and we'll see whether it survives for the next party.

Although I didn't manage to get sparklers (firecrackers are traditional for Sri Lankan New Year's), plenty of fun was had -- I kind of collapsed by the end of it (and the kids had howling meltdowns from exhaustion and excitement -- getting them to sleep was challenging, to say the least). But Daniel and Anne came with their kids, and Liz and Ron with theirs, and Samanthi brought about six Sri Lankan women (a few born here, most fairly recent immigrants, here for work or grad school), and we ate and ate and ate and the kids ran around like maniacs, indoors and out. Anne made an amazing pavlova with cream and fresh fruit that they didn't even get to eat because their kids were melting down, but it was mighty delicious and got completely polished off. As did most of the Sri Lankan food, but I managed to save a bit for lunch and dinner today, yum.

Been boning up on Malaysian history this morning, because I'm teaching Preeta Samarasan's Evening is the Whole Day, which centers on Tamil Indians in Malaysia. I'm curious to see what the students think of it -- it's a brand-new novel, just out this past year, and so there aren't a lot of reviews, study guides, etc. available for it yet. I loved the use of Tamil in this book, but that's in part because I could understand most of it. :-) Not sure how the students will handle it. Still, we should have a good discussion about immigration / nationhood / native ethnic rights / language supremacy / wealth and privilege -- and might even get into some of the sexuality aspects of the text, although to be honest, those interest me a lot less than the rest. LOVE the gay uncle, though -- he's probably my favorite character.

Off to teach!

2 thoughts on “Had a kind of crazy day…”

  1. Mary Anne Mohanraj

    So glad you guys could come! 🙂 And do think about the Ellie idea and let us know. It’d be starting on 6/19, I think, the day our rental here ends. If we did this, we’d be staying with Daniel and Anne, at Forest and Superior, and also traveling a lot over the summer. (Family reunion at end of June, wedding at end of July.) End date can be a bit open — I’m guessing we won’t actually move into our house until mid-November (sob), but I don’t know that we’re going to just stay with them that whole time — if we can find a three-month furnished rental that will allow a dog, we might well start that in mid-August, when the semester starts. And we can definitely cover her food costs, as well as paying you a little something?

    We’re crazy until the end of the semester (4/30), but maybe we’ll see y’all in May? (I’ll be stopping by the house regularly, of course, so you may see me sooner. Especially if our permits come in! 🙂

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