making brownies

Today I'm going to make brownies for my host family.   We're going to leave in a few minutes to go to the grocery store.  There are many open food markets in Thailand where I usually shop.  But to get 'farang' food (farang means westerner, or if you're white that counts, too) I go to the grocery store 'Tesco Lotus'.  I'm pretty sure it's from England because I don't recognize it as American.  I'm gonig to get a brownie mix because I forgot all the ingredients at home and it's a lot to buy all at once.  Plus, while I was gonig to make it from scratch, lets be honest, they're never as good as the box mixes.   I don't know why, either.   Home made cake is way better, home made everything except brownies is way better.   No home meade brownies can beat some from a mix brownies.   What does pilsbury and betty crocker know that we don't?   It's a mystery of life.   And I'm making them in the microwave because THailand doesn't believe in owning ovens...I've only seen one or two ovens while being here.  Thailand cooks, not bakes.  It's interesting the small things that make such a big difference and how you don't even recognize something as your own culture until you visit another's culture.  Before coming here I never thought ovens were a western culture, I just figured everyone had an oven.  But it's not true, it's a culture thing.  It makes you think again about what is normal in life and what you take for granted as commonplace.  Everything is different here, not in big ways, but the little things seem significant, too.  Like how we shower, for instance.  My host sister, Stem, came to the hotel with me where I was going to a meeting for Peace Corps.  She had never seen a shower or a bathtub and thought it was the strangest thing.  ANd as funny as that seems, I did the same thing when I came here; I thought the bathrooms were so weird.