Favorite Things Contd.

-The smell after you slice a lime open picked straight from the tree in the backyard

-Drinking from a coconut that has been aged perfectly. Sometimes they have the slightest hint of fizz or carbonation and it’s absolutely amazing

-Fresh papayas that our host mom’s brother brings from his farm near Angkor Wat

-Grapefruit when they’re in season

-Smoothies in the market

-Being up early enough in the morning to sit on the patio and enjoy breakfast with no rush while looking at the yard & flowers in the nice weather (even on a school day)

-The kids who come every night to our house to study English with their private teacher. After they’re done studying – Will and I hang out with them a bit, just to talk or play games. They’ve got such great laughs and smiles, it’s irresistible to not find yourself having a good time by just being with them

-The toddler kids who are soooooo excited to say “HELLO” to the foreigner as we ride our bikes to school. They can see us from 400m away, and they run to the side of the gravel road just to shout “Hello Barang!” Hello!!! How are you!! (Barang is the French word for foreigner, they use it for any white person they see)

-Getting the passersby who are looking at you like you’re the strangest thing on earth – to smile, when you give them a smile.

-The cool dry season.

-Fried pork with vegetables and pineapple and rice. Yumm.

-Fried pork or beef with ginger and rice. Yumm. Yumm.

-Flattened roasted chicken. Delicious

-“Tuk-Marrit” – it’s a dipping sauce made from Kampot Pepper, Salt, MSG (if you want it in there) and Freshly squeezed lime juice. I’m pretty sure you could dip anything in it and it’d taste good. But primarily it’s used for dipping fish or meats into. Yumm yum. I don’t even really like fish, but I like it dipped in this stuff.

-A Salad that they make called “Nyoom”. Delicious.

-Fried bananas. At the school you can get one for 100r = 2.5 cents

-The many different kinds of curry soup.

-Bung Aim – a desert, almost soup or porridge made with a tapioca type of thing, with sugar and potatoes… served warm. Quite tasty.

-Going to the only shop in town which sells real ice cream bars, and having the toddlers there run out to say hello, as the most regular customer comes to eat ice cream again (yes, me).

-The look on people’s faces when they realize I can speak Khmer. They say, “oooh…jet khmai” (meaning oooh- she know’s Khmer) ---prices drop instantly in the market.

-The fact that you can get your toenails painted for 50 cents in the market if you want.

-And you can get a brand new very nicely tailored button down shirt sewn for $6 – fabric and all.

-Riding in a tuk-tuk around Siem Reap

-Sunset over the rice paddy

-The fact that the vegetables and meat we use to cook were purchased the morning of and are fresh every day.

-The last shower of the day right before bed.

-An average of 9 – 9.5 hours of sleep EVERY night!

-The smell of freshly washed clothes, that have been hung to dry on the line in the sun

-The feeling when you are finished washing laundry (by hand – it’s usually an hour to maybe 2 hr affair)

-Getting the students to laugh in class, when realizing you have all their undivided attention

-Getting students to correctly pronounce the soft and hard “TH” sound

-Using our bicycles as our main mode of transport.