Christmas in Cambodia

This Christmas was the first one I have spent away from my family. I was nervous and a sad, but it did not really disappoint.

Christams Eve Eve started off with a bang. I was cleaning our room before heading to school and found this little gem, wishing us an early Merry Christmas.

I promptly called Hal, and made him come home to take care of it. Luckily the permethrin had already gotten to him and he was already dying. My host mom came in for a look and was poking him and touching him with her hands! Then she realized I was cleaning and swept out our room for us.

-Then my great start to a morning continued when I met two Japanese bikers who came to my school. They had ridden all the way here on their bikes from Portugal. Crazy!
-Then I met a student from my school who got a scholarship to study in Signapore. She's been there for 4 months and her English was amazing. It gave me great hope for my work here.
- The cherry on top of my Christmas Eve Eve? The post office called, our packages came! Hal went into town to get them. Ants were all over the big one, but he had to ride home with it on his lap. Best part? I can actually say he had ants in his pants!

The next day we had a Christmas party at my co-teacher's private school. It was like a kid's birthday party on crack.

 I'm pretty sure almost every child in the village was there. When I tried to take a picture with my host niece, and my favorite market girl we were just swarmed with children. It was insane. P.S. the bigger one is my host niece, isn't she the most beautiful little girl?

My co-teacher even got a Christmas tree! I was like a kid in a candy store when she put this up. I was worse than the kids who had never seen a Christmas tre before. I was practically pushing them out of the way to look at everything. It's my first Christmas away....that's my excuse.

The next day was finally Christmas YAY! My family was SO amazing and 2 of the 3 packages they sent came on time. They wrapped so many presents that it really felt like Christmas when Hal dumped them all in my lap. Sorry I don't have any pictures of opening them, we were too busy skyping with family.

Our families were SO generous in thinking of us this Christmas season. Look at what my family sent us? It was more than we could have ever hoped for, and Hal's parents bought us a toaster oven because they know how much I love me some baked goods. We were seriously blown away by love and generosity this Christmas season.

After presents we headed over to the party put on by the VSOs in our town. It was so nice of them to invite us.

We finished the night, by realizing that our family did want to celebrate the holiday, the only way they know how to celebrate... KARAOKE!

We finished our Christmas in Cambodia, with lots of khmer dancing around the living room pole and lots of tone deaf singing, which really is no different than an actual pop star singing it, so all in all it was fabulous.

Merry Christmas from Cambodia

My students and I worked really hard on this all month long. They were such great sports and got really excited for Christmas along with me, so they let me record this and said I could share it with my family and friends. Merry Christmas all!

Christmas in Cambodia: Fill in the blank Friday

1.   The best way to spread Christmas cheer is     to be Christmas cheer. When you're excited about it other people pick up on that. Also, Christmas music does it real fast for me.   .

2.   The thing I love most about Christmas is    being around family and celebrating this important time of the year with those that I love most. I love how magical it feels.     

3.  The holiday season is a time for   being with those your love. Celebrating the different meanings of each holiday. Celebrating the birth of Christ    .

4. My favorite thing to eat at the holidays is    Usually turkey with mashed potatoes and gravy, and then making an sandwich out of it for days after the big event. Oh man, I'm craving turkey so bad. It's so hard to find in this country!   

5.  I will be spending Christmas    In my little studio room with Hal. My family sent us an amazingly big package that I can't wait to open. We're making sugar cookies in the toaster oven that Hal's parents paid for, for Christmas, and going to a Christmas party at a VSO's house who lives in our town  .

6.  Tis better to (give or receive?)   Receiving gifts is fun, but I really love to find the perfect gift for each person. It's a special thrill I get, thinking of, and finding each gift. Kind of bummed I couldn't do that this year, but I did leave Christmas presents for all of our family before we left in July  .

7.  I'm dreaming of a    family filled     Christmas. (thanks to skype)

Combating Homesickness

Lately I've been so homesick. Maybe it's the fact that we've been living here for about 5 months now. Maybe it's because I've never been away from my family for Christmas, but it feels more than that.

I think the biggest thing that has been making me homesick is the fact that I keep dreaming about my family. I keep dreaming about my sisters, but what's weird is I keep dreaming about my mother. I hardly ever dream about my mom. This month marks 5 years since she passed away.

Remember when I posted about this necklace I had made?

It says: I hold your heart in mine. I had it made in remembrance of my mother. Just because she wasn't there in person for big events such as my graduation or my wedding doesn't mean that she wasn't there. I guess the one thing I've used to combat homesickness is what this necklace represents, that she's with me, always. Even though I can text my sister when I want to talk to my family, it's different to feel like someone's spirit and heart is there with you, supporting you, and proud of you. I feel really lucky to have that sort of support behind me everyday. So although dreaming about my sisters makes me even more homesick, dreaming about my mom is comforting.

This just felt like something I needed to sit down and write, and get off my chest, but on a lighter note...Please tell me what you do to combat homesickness?

Rain Storms

November and December marks the end of the rainy season, and the beginning of the dry, "cold" season. While to the Khmer people it's freezing and they're bundled up in hoodies, long pants and socks with their flip flops, we're just to the point of not needing a fan to sleep at night, and maybe a cardigan early in the morning.

We had a cold snap for a few days and I was actually cold! We'd spent 4 months trying to adjust to the heat, so that 68 degrees felt freezing. It was actually feeling a little Christmasy since the temperature dropped, but sadly it's now back up to the normal "cold season" temperatures, a balmy 85 degrees. I told my co-teacher how cold it is in my home right now, and he told me maybe if it was that cold here that everyone would die.

A little bit ago we had the most crazy intense random rain storm. While we thought it was fabulous, it left the Khmer people wondering why it was raining in the dry season. It rained so hard I got soaked just standing in the doorway taking these pictures. The rain photographed like snow...so let's pretend, Cambodia sent some snow for Christmas..snow that you can bathe in.

Oh and yes, Hal is taking a shower outside. And yes, that is a common occurrence in Cambodia every day. We have the treat of watching our neighbors shower while we make dinner every day, thanks to the window that faces their yard. Not sure which came first, the window, or that shower spot. Maybe it's a chicken and egg debate ending only in being thankful for kromas...the large scarf like thing men wear around, and wear when they shower outside.

Angkor Wat

Did you know...that if you go to Angkor Wat at 5 to see the sunset they'll let you in for free? And they might let you in early if it's just you on your bike and you speak to them in Khmer. But if you go in a group of 5 tuk tuks they might not let you in early, but 5:20 is still enough time to see the sunset.

There was a moment when we were staring up at the heart of Angkor Wat, the towers from the first picture, the ones you see all over post cards, the ones on the flag. We were wondering if we could go inside them, since the ancient stairs were blocked off, when one of my friends comes running around the corner, there were stairs we could go up. So we all take off running, through Angkor Wat, at sunset, just us. I stopped and though dang, this is like National Treasure, is this actually happening? Sadly when we made it over there the guards were helping the last people out and then continued to escort us the rest of the way out. I still got some cool shots, much to their chagrin.

If you make it to Cambodia, so see Angkor Wat. It's amazing. I had no idea there were so many complexes of temples. They say to actually see it, it takes 3 days. I can't wait to go back and spend more time there.

Siem Reap

This weekend we went to Siem Reap (The town where Angkor Wat is) for the annual half marathon. There were a lot of PCVs either running the half, the 10k, or biking 30k. While I was too lazy to go and run, I was not too lazy to go into town to eat tons of western food, support the racers.

Siem Reap is like going to Disneyland. It's a town purely built around tourism. Sorry if it's a newsflash for those planning trips to Angkor Wat, but going there is not seeing the real Cambodia. It's like a dream being there. I'm not saying I look down on it or anything, because let's be real, after being at site with ramen noodles being the closest thing to western food that you eat for two months, I worship Siem Reap. The best western food I've had in all of Cambodia? Hands down in Siem Reap. It was rough calculating how much we spent just on food this weekend. All the money we've been saving by eating cheap Khmer food is suddenly gone, and has most likely appeared on my waistline.

Now his leads us to the thing that all PCVs spend most of their time talking about: FOOD. I'm creating a guide to Cambodia, where I'll list cities, places to stay, and where to eat, but until then let me list some of the best places I ate this weekend.

-Il Forno - Best Italian food I've ever had in my life, everyone at the table agreed.
-F For Felafel - Yummy, and giant portions for only $5. We shared and were both full
-Ivy - $1 Tapas? Pumpkin Creme Brulee...need I say more?

I hope that gives you a view of how much we stuffed our faces this weekend, and I hope that if you ever get the chance to go to Siem Reap, that you will enjoy the city too. Oh, and look forward to my post about going to Angkor Wat!

Country Love Garden

While my provincial town may not be very western, or have too many attractions, it does have one really cool attraction. It has the Country Love Garden. I didn't really know what to expect when another PCV told me it was like mini golf, without the golf. The garden just blew away my expectations, it was fabulous. Seeing all of the strange statues, just plopped down in the middle of a garden, the dinosaurs, the minotaurs, and the kitty cats, all very reminiscent of their natural habitats.

And it came complete with an awesome playground area.

Now do you understand the description, of mini golf, without the golf? This is where people in the area go to get their engagement pictures taken, and after going, I can't imagine why they wouldn't want their picture taken next to a giant gorilla,a dinosaur, or even a very anatomically correct family of tigers.

I will warn you, this garden comes with an odd amount of phallic symbols...take another look at the gorilla.