Long time, no blog...

It's been a while since I posted anything, sorry guys!

We arrived in Phnom Penh late last night. Actually, it was only nine or so, but it felt late. That was one of the longest six hour bus rides over. I couldn't sleep at all. The roads were full of pot holes, and our driver was insane. I watched the newest episode of the doctor last night, and played some BS with my khmer friends, Ratonak, Apple, Vesna, and Hong. :) I'm sad that they aren't staying with us in the hotel anymore... But they have homes here, so that doesnt' make much sense. And we will see them in class, and hopefully out and about. Today is kind of a free day, thus I have time to post. I should be doing some reading, or working on practicing my khmer... but that's okay. I need a break. I've been trying pretty hard to stay caught up. :) We have a TON of reading though.

I had lunch with Mr. Ware and three kids from Rock Bridge yesterday. That was pretty wonderful. Sophoon and John came with us as well. I'm going to miss her here in Phnom Penh... she's so sweet! I hope she does well, since John is going back to the states for Grad School.

I feel really lucky to have the freedom and mobility I do to come here. I feel SOOOO blessed. As the monk who did the water blessing over our group the other day said, maybe I was really good in my past life... But I don't know how I feel about that. That would imply that I believed that people who had hard lives did something to deserve it. I don't know that I think the world is that clean cut. I think plenty of bad things happen to good people who don't deserve it, and plenty of bad people have good lives with no earthly consequences.... So I still have my questions and doubts, even with Buddhism...

I'm thinking about going to get my hair cut with Elle some time this week. There is too much of it to deal with in this hot weather. But if I get it as short as I want to, I wont be able to pull it up anymore... and it will be in my face more than normal.

Hmm...

Anyway, I love Cambodia. I can't really communicate how wonderful it is here. So I'm going to make a list of words that come to mind when I think of Cambodia, that I don't really associate with the US as much. Or at least I associate more with Cambodia. Some might seem negative, but the whole package is what makes it so great!


Giant Mosquitos (mo), Skinny cows, lots of eggs, ducks, chickens, "fuck you" geckos, lizard room buddies, fans, aircon, trash, motos, kind people, smiles, "hey lady, hey lady, you buy?", "boom boom," Linga vs Lingum (what is the plural!??!! It's Latin! No, it's Sanskrit!) Otteh, Awkun (no tuk tuk driver, I do NOT want to go anywhere... How do you say GTFO in khmer?); BS=Bullshit= pile of shit!!... Making fun of how people laugh, hiding from the heat and the torrential rain. Talking Japanese to random japanese tourists. Hong trying to speak japanese. Apple = Pretty lady, Rotonak = Also pretty lady. Rice paddies, mud, giant hats, so many mosquito bites, no books in Khmer, people correcting how to say words you were SURE you were saying right (everyone says everything differently!!), no blankets, one pillow. large puddles, learning to cross the street all over again, strange sounds in the middle of the night (aka dogs howling, babies crying, machines running), loudspeakers everywhere, blasting khmer music. Watching people sing along to khmer pop music, and having no clue whats going on, Hong hogging the kareoke machine, talking about how awesome Queen is (universal truth), cheap DVDs, worrying about whether or not I will be able to import said cheap DVDs... (If they want to take my Star Trek Voyager and Justice League cartoon away... fuck them... :( I can't even get those legally in the states very easily. ) Lots of walking, riding on the back of a moto, crazy bus driver, so much bad American pop music... Getting really excited about non-instant coffee, delicious ice cream,

I'll continue later. :)

Gotta go tour this new city!