Marry Happy Christmas!

The title of this blogpost is the most common greeting I received during this holiday season.  I grew to love the use of both "merry" (although commonly misspelled) and "happy", because honestly, why should we have to choose between the two?  I always loved how in Harry Potter they say, "Happy Christmas", but I still want to throw the word "merry" in there somewhere.  And now I can.

Spending Christmas in Cambodia has been quite an interesting experience.  Although many Cambodians know about Christmas, they aren't quite clear on all the details.  I thought I would be able to clear this up in a 45 minute English club session, but I quickly realized how difficult that is.

*abridged version of my Christmas lesson*

Students: 'Cher (students always call teachers "cher".  It sounds like the end of teacher, not like the
famous pop singer's name), teach us about Christmas!

Me: Okay!  Well, Christmas is a Christian holiday where we celebrate the birth of Jesus.

Students: *blank stares*

Me: Jesus is kind of like Buddha...kind of.....

Students: What do you do on Christmas?

Me: On Christmas morning, we wake up and open the presents our families give to us.  But when you are younger, your parents tell you that Santa brings you the presents.
*draws a (terrible) picture of Santa on the board.  Students recognize the picture from TV*
They tell their children that Santa comes to their house at night and brings them what they want for Christmas.

Students: Why doesn't Santa come to Cambodia?

Me: Weeeellll, Santa isn't real, he's imaginary.
*tries (unsuccessfully) to find the word "fake" in the dictionary*
The story of santa is based off of a real person, but it's just a story people tell their children.  It is not real.

Students: Santa has never come to Cambodia,

Me: Because he's not real.

Students: Do you have to celebrate Christmas for Santa to come?

Me: Ummmmm....yes?

And then the 45 minutes was up, so I'm pretty sure that at least half my students left class thinking that Santa only comes to America, and is totally real.  I'll work on clearing this up next Christmas.

Anyway, I know it's a day later, but I hope that you all had a Happy Marry Christmas!  I'm missing everyone tons, but life in the 'bode has been pretty great lately!

Jodi, Ryan and I in front of a Christmas tree we found in the capital

Also, there was a Christmas miracle!  On Christmas Eve it was only about 78 degrees!  It almost felt like Christmas at home.  Almost...

Siem Reap: The Disneyland of Cambodia

Well, now I can check "bike around an ancient temple" off my list of things to do in life.  Okay, that was never on my list, but after I did it, I wrote it on my list and then checked it off.

A couple of weeks ago I participated in the Angkor Wat 30k bike race.  A bunch of other Peace Corps volunteers had registered, so I figured it would be a great way to see Cambodia's most famous attraction and spend some time with my friends.

Mine has a face!  

First of all, Siem Reap is awesome.  It's is basically the Disneyland of Cambodia (unfortunately without the rides).   It's clean, it doesn't smell like fish anywhere, AND almost everyone speaks English.  I found myself constantly forgetting that I was still in Cambodia.  Siem Reap is a huge tourist destination, so there were foreigners everywhere.  And what comes with foreigners?  CHEESBURGERS!  So we definitely had our fair share of burgers, pizza and ice cream.





On the morning of the bike race, we woke up at 4am to bike out to Angkor Wat.  Angkor Wat is the oldest temple in Cambodia and is extremely famous.  It is also featured on the Cambodia flag.

If you would like to read up a little on it, it is extremely interesting.  Of course, I trust wikipedia with all my historical knowledge needs, and you should, too!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor_Wat

Basically, it was gorgeous.  Since we were technically supposed to be in a race, we couldn't see every part of the complex, but we definitely stopped a lot to take pictures of what we could.  We may not have won the race, but we got some awesome pictures (I'm sure we would have won if we hadn't stopped so much).

Kat, Jodi and I up early on the big day

Sunrise over Ankgor Wat

Off we go! 

Amazing

After the race with my pink bike.  I rented it for a dollar:-)

I definitely recommend a trip to Angkor Wat.  I know I'm definitely going back at some point.  So if you ever find yourself in Cambodia, let me know!  I promise I won't make you wake up at 4am to go with me.

Happy (late) Thanksgiving From Cambodia!

Everyone who knows me, knows that I love any excuse to stuff my face.  And believe it or not, stuffing your face with rice just isn’t all that satisfying.  So when Peace Corps Volunteers have the opportunity to binge eat American food, we certainly take advantage of that. 

Last Saturday we were fed a lovely Thanksgiving dinner, provided by Peace Corps staff and volunteers.  Believe me, I was skeptical about the quality of what we would be fed.  Most importantly I was concerned about the amount of whipped cream that would be present at this event.  However, as soon as I saw the spread of food, all my fears were wiped away.  I can honestly attest that it was an AMAZING dinner.  We all ate until we were sick, but it was definitely worth it. 

Our lovely Thanksgiving Buffet 

It's painful for me to look at this now.  I want more. 

It was certainly a night to remember how thankful I am for all the blessings in my life.  I am so thankful to have such an amazing and supportive group of friends and family back home.  I am thankful for my Peace Corps family (we're all crazy, but somehow it works).  I am so thankful for this experience that has reminded me how important it is to never give up on your dreams (I know it's cheesy, but hey, it's Thanksgiving).  Basically, I'm one appreciative gal.  

And no, there was no whipped cream, but I was so happily surrounded by cookies, cupcakes, pie and donuts, that I could have cared less.  And oh yeah, I was surrounded by some pretty awesome people, too.  

Awesome people

Desserts!

A Day at the Zoo!

I'll admit, most of my interactions with animals in Cambodia are not exactly pleasant.  From the dogs who could use some flea medicine and a bath, to the mice who have eaten through my shirts, ziploc bags, fruit, q-tips, and shampoo bottles (seriously, mice? Lay off my shampoo), I'm not a huge fan.  So when I was told there was a zoo in my province, I had my doubts.  I imagined monkeys in small cages and the occasional bird.  However, due to some convincing by a volunteer in the next district over, I decided to head on over.
I headed out this afternoon around 11, knowing that it takes about 30 minutes for me to bike there.  When I told a couple people in my village that I was biking to the zoo, they replied, "YOU'RE BIKING THERE?!!?!?!??"  By now, people know that I have biked much longer than 30 minutes.  I biked about 4 hours just a few weekends ago.  So I left thinking, "Geez, I don't see what the big deal is.  Ye of little faith in my biking skills."
Well, I should have had a little less faith in my biking skills.  Sometimes, I convince myself that I'm awesome at biking.  And then I go up a hill.
The road leading up to the zoo is about 1.5 kilometers long (definitely just guessing), made of wet sand, and possesses about a 20 degree incline (I wouldn't trust that, one of my worst grades was in geometry).  Now this might not seem like much, but for someone who only has a fried banana in their stomach, a slightly deflated tire, and hasn't seen a hill in 4 months, it's a big deal.  Also, it was really hot.
Soooooooo, after I almost died on the way to the zoo, I finally made it.  AND IT WAS AWESOME.  I would actually venture to say it was one of the best zoos I've ever been to.  The cages were really nice, and there was a pretty good variety of animals.
So here's a few photos!

Apparently deer are fascinating in Cambodia.  It was just like home.  

Adorable Otters!  

Someone got confused a put a chicken in a cage

This owl stares at me like most children in my town  

The best part was definitely the elephant show.  He was pretty adorable and very talented.  He also tried to take money from me.

Just playing some football

Sneaky Elephant trying to take my money

Elephant taking other people's money

The zoo has a huge program that works to save and rehabilitate trapped bears.  They were pretty awesome.

So yeah, basically I live next to an awesome zoo.  It's also a great workout to get there.

What the Wat???

Let’s face it, holidays are confusing.  If I was new to America and told that during December, we put lights on our houses, drag enormous trees into our living rooms, and wait for a man in a red suit to come through our chimney, even though what we’re really celebrating is our religion, I would be confused, to say the least. 

Things are no different in Cambodia, for me.  It’s no secret that I spend most of my day having no idea what is going on (well, now I probably understand at least 5%...progress), and this problem is amplified during the holidays. 

For the past few weeks we have been in the process of celebrating Pchum Ben, a holiday that exists to honor the ancestors of Cambodian families.  You can read about it more here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pchum_Ben

Now I say that we’ve been celebrating this holiday for a few weeks, because there is no such thing as a one-day holiday in Cambodia.  Every holiday has at least a few buffer days so as to fully enjoy the relaxation a holiday should provide.  I have to admit, I’m a fan.  

My first experience with the holiday was last Wednesday when my school director came up to me and invited me to a ceremony at the wat (Pagoda) the next morning at 7am.  I asked, “Don’t we have school tomorrow?”, but he assured me not to worry about it.  Sure enough, most of the teachers decided to ditch school that day to go to the wat.  I spent most of the morning standing around awkwardly, spooning a bowl of rice into 4 bigger bowls of rice (for the monks?), waving around incense and bowing whenever everyone else did. I also gave someone 500 riel, but I have no idea what it was for.  

A view from inside the wat.  These buildings are always gorgeous.

Leaving out offerings of rice and money

After that, we made a meal for the monks.  Monks usually travel throughout the village asking for donations of money or food, but during Pchum Ben, they do not leave the wat, so the community comes to them.  I helped out as much as I could, but it was made apparent that I am not as skilled at cutting up pineapple as your average Cambodian woman.  However, they humored me and helped me out as much as they could.  

Soon after, we ate with the monks (delicious fried noodles and pineapple soup!) and headed home around noon.  It was quite the event. 

Food laid out for the monks

Today, I got the opportunity to go to the wat again, this time on the official date of the holiday.  It was pretty much the same deal, but this time, we brought food that was made at home, instead of making it at the wat.  At one point, my friend Soporn turns to me and says, “Kelly, everyone is staring at you.” 

I was aware. 

It’s not every day that a 5’7” white girl walks into a wat.  Apparently I was quite an exciting guest.  Overall, it was a great holiday!  Best part is, I don't have to teach until Thursday.  Gotta love those buffer days.  

Quite the hip-happenin' place

The World's Slowest Roller Coaster (fun, but slow)

I have been trying to write a blog post for the past two weeks, but my thoughts have been so scattered that I haven’t really been able to get down a coherent paragraph.  However, as it is the last day of the month, I am going to knock out some updates today even if it kills me.   So blog readers, bear with me. 

The first three weeks at permanent site have been an insane rollercoaster: a really, really, slow rollercoaster.  Since school doesn’t start until tomorrow (SO EXCITED) I have pretty much just been bummin’ around town for the last 3 weeks.  While this was great for the first couple of days, it got pretty old, pretty fast.  However, as I spent hours reading, biking around and speaking broken Khmer with random people I realized that this slower pace has its perks.  I have slept at least 8 hours every night (something unheard of for me during the school year), I am able to exercise every day and I have time to journal, read, and do the things I love.  I also have time to just sit and talk with people.  Normally, I would never consider just spending 2 hours in a coffee shop talking to random strangers and sipping tea, but here, that’s a pretty great way to spend an afternoon.   It is because of this more relaxed pace of life that I have been able to form some pretty great relationships in my community. 

My first week here, one of my main priorities was to find a good coffee shop.  Iced coffee is pretty much be best thing ever because

aA)    it’s coffee

bB)   it’s cold

As I was biking around, I was having trouble finding a coffee shop that wasn’t brimming with men.  Now, at home, a coffee shop full of men would definitely be a huge bonus, but things are a bit different in CambodiaJ.  It’s not really common to see women just hangin’ with the guys.   Being new here, I’m pretty intense about keeping up a good reputation, so I’m trying very hard to interact with men only in social situations where it would be appropriate (I’m probably even being overly cautious with this), and being the only woman among about 20 men doesn’t seem super kosher. 

After biking around for a good 30 minutes, I couldn’t find any coffee shops with a single woman.  So, I did what any reasonable young woman my age would do and went home and cried.  However, a few hours later, I pulled myself together and reminded myself to just keep trying (this has become a sort of mantra of mine).  I got back on my bike and decided to explore the larger market and see what was up there, even though the size of it was a bit intimidating.  Like manna from heaven, I found a coffee shop owned by a woman.  I got some coffee and started talking to the owner, and before I knew it, we had formed a sort of a friendship.  Her daughters started showing up (which was very helpful because they speak a little English) and now I have a sort of coffee club I go to every day. 

I have enjoyed each of our meetings more and more each day.  They have also started to refuse my money when I try to pay for my coffee.  I keep trying to thrust riel in their hands, only to have them reply, “Sister, you do not pay because you are family.”   I might have teared up a little when they first said thatJ.    Today, I got to visit their home and I had a really nice time.  I taught them some card games and we all sat around with our dictionaries learning new words and trying to make conversation. 

This group of women has truly become a second family to me, and made me feel incredibly welcome in my new home. I cannot wait for the day when my Khmer skills are good enough to tell them how much their friendship has meant to me. 

So in short, yeah, Peace Corps is hard.  I miss my family and friends.  I miss McDonalds.  But the warmth and kindness of the people I have met here has convinced me that this is going to be a pretty great home for the next two years.  

A Place to Call Home

Well, the moment we’ve all been waiting for has arrived.  I am at the site where I will be living for the next two years!  I’m living in Takeo Province and I could not be happier with my site placement.  I’m the first volunteer to work at my site, so that has definitely been interesting, since the people here are not really used to seeing a lot of foreigners.  Being the first definitely comes with it’s own set of challenges, but I’m also definitely excited to blaze my own trail. 

My school is fairly large, with about 2,000 students.  And I know you’re all wondering about the library situation.  So am I.  As far as I know there is a library, but I have yet to actually see it.  Perhaps when school starts I’ll actually get to take a look.  The market in my town is fairly small, but if I just bike about 3k (that’s right, I use the metric system now…although I still don’t really understand it) there is a HUGE market AND a place that sells ice cream.  It really couldn’t be better. 

My host family is also pretty wonderful.  I live with an older couple and an eight-year-old boy.  I’m pretty sure he’s their grandson, but I honestly have no idea because I don’t know how to say that word.   He was pretty skeptical of me at first, but I gave him some bubbles and now we’re pretty tight.  I will be sharing the upper part of the house with another teacher, who is currently residing in Phenom Phen, but she teaches at my school during the school year.  It should be pretty nice to have another teacher with the inside scoop staying with me.  However, the ladder that goes down the bathroom is in her room, so I’m not really sure how that’s going to work when she gets here…

School does not start until October 1^st and I am counting the days until then.  It’s definitely different coming from training where almost every minute of my day was structured, to here, where I literally have nothing to do.  However, I have a little checklist and I try to do at least two things a day.  Today I went to the bank (it’s air conditioned!!!!) and found where the coffee place is.  Ambitious, I know.  I also got locked out of my house for about an hour.  Not exactly on the list, but it was still something I did. 

So sorry this blog post is kind of lame, but I’m hoping to have some more pictures/embarrassing stories soon.  But I wanted to assure you all that so far, so good. It’s definitely difficult adjusting yet again, but with my improved Khmer language skills, things are going much more smoothly this time around.  Basically, I’m pretty pumped to call this place home for the next two years.  

I am basically a stunt woman

Today I fully integrated into Khmer culture.   Well, not really, but I might be one step closer!  So, a few days ago, a couple of trucks came away and took most of our stuff with them, including our bikes, in order to take our things to our permanent sites (I find out where I’ll be spending the next two years on Thursday!)  Most of us have been fortunate enough to have our families lend us bikes, since that’s our primary form of transportation.  However, there are a few of us who do not have bikes, so we improvised. 

This is the story of how this happened:

My friend, Jodi, and I were sitting at her house on a slightly rainy afternoon when we heard that a few of our friends were down the street, hanging out.  FAR down the street.  Now, my family was able to let me borrow an extra bike, but Jodi was, sadly, without.  We didn’t really want to walk all the way down there, seeing as it’s about a half hour walk.  It was then that I proposed something I had always wanted to do (since coming to Cambodia).  Cambodian children are commonly seen riding on the backs of their friend’s bikes.  There’s even a little rack that allows them to sit above the back wheel.  Nifty, huh?  So Jodi and I set out to see if we could be as cool as Cambodian children. 

I grabbed my bike and we started our adventure.  I decided I would try pedaling first….but this did not go well.  My lack of balance was really apparent when trying to ride with someone on the back, so we decided to switch positions.  This was also not working.  Turns out it’s really hard to get started pedaling with an extra person on the bike.  Our little adventure wasn’t exactly off to a good start.  It was then that we decided to try and lower the seat, hitting our heads together during the process (don’t worry, we were wearing our helmets!).  Seriously, we looked like idiots. 

Suddenly, Jodi pauses and says, “Kelly, Cambodian children usually jump on the back while the bike is already moving.  That might help…”   I was not convinced.  If any of you have seen me try to function on a daily basis, it is pretty apparent that jumping on a moving bike probably wouldn’t be my forte.  But I tried it anyway. 

And it worked!  I managed to get on the seat on the first try and off we went!  Well, I guess in the interest of full disclosure, I did let her pass me the first time because I chickened out.  But the first time I actually jumped it worked!  Take that, hand-eye coordination!  I felt like Tom Cruise (not exactly sure why that celebrity comes to mind when it comes to stunts)!  

Turns out children usually ride like that because their legs are short enough to comfortably withstand that mode of travel.  Mine are not.  So after a slightly uncomfortable 5-minute bike ride, we arrived at our destination and I enjoyed a delicious orange soda.  Ahhhh, the sweet taste of victory. 

Oh, and thanks, Jodi, for hauling me around town today.  You were an excellent driver!    

Teaching, Poop, and Language Tests!

I have felt more relief today than I have ever felt in my entire life.  Okay, that’s probably a slight exaggeration, but today was pretty awesome. 

For the past two weeks I have been teaching an optional summer class at a local high school.  My co-teacher, Kat, and I were assigned to teach the 8^th grade.  English instruction begins in 7^th grade, so we were pretty nervous about teaching English to about 50 students who only have one year of English under their belts when we only have about 5 weeks of Khmer under ours. 

Nonetheless, we planned out a lesson and bravely went where no Peace Corps Trainee had gone before (just kidding, 5 groups have gone before us).  Our first class was…. interesting.  After realizing one of our activities was going right over our kids’ heads, we had to improv a new plan on the spot.  Thanks to Kat’s teaching experience and my “fake it ‘till you make it!” life motto, we managed to pull something together, but it was pretty shaky for a while there. 

When we walked into class on the second day, all of our students were covering their noses, with a general look of disgust on their faces.  My first thought was “Come on, I know I sweat a lot, but I do NOT smell that bad.”  I soon realized that the room really did smell like poop...and it probably wasn’t me.  After a few moments of conferring with Kat, we realized that it smelled like poop in our classroom because there was, in fact, poop in our classroom (the origin of this poop is sill a hot topic of debate).  Never fear, someone came in promptly to scoop the poop away with some paper and cover the rest with dirt.  All clean!

(Sorry I don’t have pictures of the poop)

Things went pretty swimmingly after that.  We soon realized that at least half of our students were not actually in the 8^th grade.  That became pretty obvious when a four year old joined our class.  But he was cute and paid attention, so we let him stay.  This definitely made the language gap a lot bigger, but we made a lot of gestures, used what little Khmer we knew, and somehow made it through the day. 

Later on we were able to teach with Cambodian co-teachers, which is what we’ll be doing for the next two years of our service.  We were very lucky to have extremely competent counterparts, but there is just a very different style of teaching here.  For example, if a student gets an answer wrong, they are simply told, “No” and told to sit down.  There’s no sort of attempt to lead them to the correct answer and certainly no encouragement.  It was pretty fun to watch Kat follow every “no” our counterpart said, with a very enthusiastic, “Good try!”.   

Today was the last day, so we did a short activity and then played some games.  I just have to say, Cambodian students freaking love Pictionary.  When we played that game, people could hear our kids yelling about four classrooms over.   Some of them weren’t even yelling out vocabulary words, they were just yelling.  But hey, they got pretty excited and showed us that they actually learned something in these last two weeks.  Coolio. 

Anyway, I could go on and on about our two weeks teaching in Cambodia, but they say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here you go!  

Oh!  And I passed my practice language exam today, so YAY! 

The best photo I have ever taken.  Peace Corps, I want this on a pamphlet.  

Just teaching some vocab...

My class minus about 5 students

Yay!  Everyone gets a certificate!

I made one for myself, too!  I made it!  

A Not So Lazy Sunday

This morning was supposed to be a quiet Sunday spent at home, watching my laundry dry.  However, when I went to the market for breakfast this morning, I was tricked into going for a bike ride.  Now, I say tricked because I was assured that I could be back by 2.  Just enough time to do my laundry. 

As many of you know, I’m not really into biking.  I mean, I suppose it’s a great mode of transportation, especially for Peace Corps volunteers who are not allowed to drive, but I would take a car over a bike any day. 

I, along with four other volunteers, left my house at about 9:15 to start on our adventure.  I had no idea where we were going, but I had water, donuts, and crackers in my bag.  I was ready for anything.   3 HOURS LATER, we had not turned around and I quickly realized we were not going to be home in time for laundry. 

However, we did go to an awesome, seemingly abandoned wat.  And guess what (or more like, "guess WAT?  teehee:-)??  I took some pictures to include in my blog! 

I'm hoping this is some sort of women's rights statue

Just a multi-headed snake railing

After that, I thought we might turn around.  We did not.  We continued on to enjoy some more scenery, eat some delicious watermelon, and watch Logan spit seeds onto his face.

After devouring some watermelon, I was telling my companions that we should bike to Takeo to get some ice cream, and that I rarely bike without ice cream at the end of my destination.   Suddenly, Sam shouts, “Hey guys!  I think I hear an ice cream truck!”  Being me, I thought this was a cruel trick and refused to believe her.  Also, almost every truck that sells food has music playing from it (I learned this the hard way.  Bread trucks should not be allowed to sound like ice cream trucks).  Little did I know, that in the middle of nowhere, we would be graced by the presence of a magical ice cream truck/cart/moto.  It was seriously the best thing ever. 

After a delicious vanilla cone, I was satisfied and ready to head back home.  We took a couple of more breaks, and rolled into town around 5:30pm.  It definitely wasn’t a lazy Sunday spent doing laundry, but it was pretty awesome…even with all the biking.   

Lessons Learned:-)

There are days in Cambodia when the lessons my mother tried to teach me my whole life finally sink in.  Today was one of those days. 

Lesson #74: Never leave all your laundry until the last minute.

            Well, today I left all my laundry until the last minute.   As in, if I did not do laundry today, I would have no clean underwear.  Putting off laundry in America is definitely different that putting off laundry in Cambodia.  In college, I would just stay up late and throw all my stuff in one load, most likely forget about it, and then pick it up in the morning/afternoon when I finally remembered that my clothes are in the dryer. 

            Today sung a very different tune.  I was advised that doing laundry in the morning is most effective since you have to hang out all of your clothes to dry in the sun.  I’ll have you all know that it WAS sunny this morning.  So I got up at about 5:45, took all my dirty clothes and washed them to the best of my abilities in a tub full of water and powder detergent.  I later realized that I actually suck at doing my laundry because I wasn’t even able to rub out the deodorant marks on my black shirt.  This presents a problem. 

            However, I was still optimistic that at least my clothes wouldn’t smell like sweat anymore.  So I skipped off to language class at 7:30, anxiously waiting for lunch break, when I would have fresh, clean clothes. 

And then it rained.  And rained again. 

Needless to say, my clothes were not dry at lunch.  So I left them on the line for lunch and my nap, hoping to pick them up before I headed off to technical training.  About an hour later, I woke up from my nap to this incredible wind outside my window.  In my groggy state (haha yes, I am always groggy) I thought, “wow, it’s usually only this windy when it rains.”  Sure enough, it was raining.  HARD. 

I went outside after the rain subsided to find all my underwear scattered about the yard, in various muddy puddles.  Awesome. 

So mother, I finally took your valuable lesson to heart.  I will no longer leave all my laundry until the last minute in Cambodia.  Here’s to hoping I have clean underwear tomorrow! 

  

Khynomn Joal Jet Jaaane

Today, I was able to tell my family, “I like bananas.”  While this is one of the more useless Khmer phrases, it is something I actually remembered how to say.  It was a big day for me. 

Phrases and words I should have remembered:

• ·      Where is the bathroom?
• ·      Help me
• ·      Where am I?
• ·      I am not sick.  I just have to go to the bathroom. 

Phrases and words I actually know how to say:

• ·      Water
• ·      Thank you
• ·      Delicious! 
• ·      Hello (I can’t remember how to say goodbye…so I usually just slink away).
• ·      My name is Kelly (commonly pronounced Chelly)
• ·      I am 21 years old
• ·      I like bananas

Annnnnnnd that’s all I got.  Needless to say, things are pretty awkward at times.  My host mom and dad still speak to me in Khmer and I have pretty much no idea what they’re saying.  Granted, I also speak to them in English (and sometimes Spanish...whoops) and they have no idea what I’m saying.  So we spend our days speaking to each other in languages we don’t understand, nodding, and smiling at each other.  It’s a good time. 

But as far as host families go, mine is pretty great.  My host mai (mom in Khmer.  Hey! I know another word!) has been very helpful.  Considering that I literally don’t know how to do ANYTHING here, she has been an extremely patient teacher, and an excellent charades partner.  

My host dad is also really nice.  He tries to teach me Khmer words at every meal, but I don’t really have the heart to tell him (not the language ability) that I don’t remember anything he teaches me. 

Currently, I’m living in a small village with about 30 other Peace Corps Trainees (We don’t officially become volunteers until we complete 8 weeks of training).  It’s nice because we all live with different host families but we can still get together and remember what it’s like to communicate effectively with another person. 

Every morning I get up at about 5am when the rooster starts crowing, and then about every 20 minutes after that when the rooster decides to crow again.  This goes on until about 6:30 when I finally decide to stop being so lazy.  I then get up, get ready (which takes forever since I have to apply sunscreen and bug spray everywhere) and eat a bit of breakfast.  I get some iced coffee across the street (for about 25 cents in American money.  Take that, Starbucks.) and then I go to language class for four hours.  I have honestly never sucked at anything so much. 

After any sense of intelligence I had has been degraded to an all-time low, I eat lunch with my host family, read and take a short nap before going back to school for technical training, where I learn how to teach English effectively in Cambodia.

It has been crazy, but I love it.  Don’t get me wrong, this is the most difficult thing I have ever done, and there are days when I have no idea how I’m going to make it through the next 2 years without being the most incompetent barong (Khmer word for foreigner) ever.  But then there are days when I can successfully tell my host family that I like bananas, and I know it’s all going to be okay.  

Donut Donut!

That's right.  Today I ate a donut that had "donut" written on it in frosting.  Today was the best day ever.
Well folks, I have been in Cambodia for about 2 days now, and let me tell you, it seems like an hour and a year at the same time.  Everything is so different and overwhelming that the days seem like they have to actually be weeks.  However, considering how little I know, I feel like I've been here for five minutes.  The past few days have been an absolute blast.  We have training during the day where we learn how to not die (A volunteer has never died in Cambodia, FYI) and how not to puke our guts out all the time.  At night we usually go out to eat, walk around or do some sort of group activity.  One of my favorite things so far has been the group jazzercise classes they hold outside for free.  Just imagine about 20-30 Cambodians all doing some aerobics on a public sidewalk with some awesome techno/elevator music playing in the background.  It's like a flash mob!
Tonight we actually went on a party BOAT. That's right, you heard me.  A party boat.  This was definitely not what I had in mind when I left for the Peace Corps.  But for the low, low price of $6 we got some delicious pizza and a 2 hour boat ride. Come visit (in six months)!
So far, life has been pretty plush.  But we head out to our training sites tomorrow, so we'll see what that has in store for us!
Sorry for the short post, but believe me, I'll get some embarrassing stories in here soon.  I'm going to be living with a family who does not speak the same language as me....it's gonna get interesting.

Let's GO!

      Anyone who knows me knows that this last week I have been kind of a wreck.  I've been a tad bit moody (sorry, mom) and I've had the tendency to cry when Lady Antebellum songs come on the radio (sorry, Jessi and Janielle).  Seriously though, those songs are sad.  I have also cried while watching What Not to Wear and Say Yes to the Dress (feel free to judge my taste in television, but I freaking love TLC).  But today, I would like the world to know that I am packed, I have finished my learning modules, I have barely learned any Khmer, AND I AM PUMPED.

Cambodia, let's do this.