So Many Things

091708

So many things… it’s hard to keep up! Everything is going pretty well. Last week was an exhausting week with our co-teacher’s conference, our site visit, our provincial town visit and a weekend in Phnom Penh – it’s hard to take in all that travelling and get back into the groove.
Overall our site visit went well. You saw what our neighbors raise. (Yes, crocodiles)- and yes Beverly, those really are in our neighbors backyard. There are 12ft brick walls but I think I’m going to feel best pretending that those don’t live so near us, and maybe just never go visit them again.

Siem Reap town (our provincial town) is pretty amazing. Well – I guess it’s more or less just catered to the tourist types ~ but that means that we have access to many American amenities at a much closer distance than the rest of our fellow volunteers. In some aspects I don’t feel like I’m getting the true ‘Peace Corps’ experience being that close to everything; but it is somewhat comforting knowing that we can get some really good pizza that’s not too far away should we ever have the craving and want to splurge. PLUS being so close to Siem Reap means that Will and I could do a lot of exploring via-bicycle. We could practically bike to Angkor Wat (one of the wonders of the world) for a weekend trip should we want to. (I’m really looking forward to that).
Today Will and I went on a short bike ride, but had to turn around earlier than anticipated because the rain was coming on and we had a bunch of things out on the line. We made it JUST in time to get everything before the downpour started.

After that we had some extra time and we promised the family that we would make an American meal for them. The menu of choice was fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, onion rings and garlic bread. Everything turned out pretty well AND the family did seem to like most of it. (I was just happy that they were open minded enough to try it all!) A few small things though that make me chuckle inside: When Will was cutting up the chicken, our host mom Sopeap wasn’t going to waste a thing. Will was separating the pieces of the chicken for us to put breading on and sure enough the head and the feet made it into the pile. Ha. Good stuff. BUT when it came down to it- no one ate the head or the feet – and we ended up giving those pieces to the dogs. (We threw it out back and lo and behold one of the chickens started going after it {if it only knew, right?} – but then Ki-ki the dog steadfastly grabbed the chicken pieces away and ate it happily.

This Saturday we have a language proficiency test – so we’ll see how that’s going. I still struggle on the sentence structure. Adjectives usually go after the noun instead of before – and there are a few other things that are flip flopped with how English is. Overall though- I’m pretty happy with the amount that we’ve learned so far.

Today was the coolest day thus far. I actually wore jeans, a long sleeve shirt and socks and pulled away from language class without pitting out. (I mostly wore the long sleeves to help w/ the mosquitoes – but it was nice not to actually sweat.) I guess we are in the heart of the rainy season and there has definitely been more rain. I’ll take it – esp. if it means that we’ll be cooler for a while.

Anyways- that’s about all I’ve got for now. More when it comes!