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.