Training Host Family

We've been in Cambodia for almost a month now, and we've had so many cool experiences already. We have the most amazing host family here. We are really luck to have them. We live with a grandma and two grandchildren. Both boys. And often one of her granddaughters is over, she is very nice and speaks very good English.

We had a special ceremony when we met our host families and we were blessed by a monk in a wat(buddist temple) The wat in my training village is very beautiful, and it was such a cool experience.

We are so lucky to have our host family! We live in the most amazing house. From the outside you wouldn't guess that this house is in a semi small village in Cambodia.

I know, right? We have it pretty much as cushy as you can get without running water or Air conditioner.

Our yay (grandmother) is so sweet! She takes such good care of us, and she's an amazing cook. At first I did not really like Khmer food, it's really bland and often fishy. She makes really good food though. She even made us french fries! Hello! All of the other volunteers were jealous of our french fries, even if they were cold.

Our host little brothers are great. They are so much fun to play with. The other day they put on Justin Bieber. I had never heard all of a Justin Beiber in the US, and now I have heard Baby an unbelievable amount of times. I was just so excited I kept saying singer his name is Justin Beiber. Apparently he is huge even here. Him and Taylor Swift. My host sister told me my face looked like Taylor Swift. haha!

It's going to be hard to leave them an go to our permanent site!

Piglets

Sorry, I don't have any pictures uploaded from our Cambodian adventures yet. It's hard to find wifi, and I didn't bring a cord for my camera. But I have a funny story to share with you.

Our very first language lesson in Cambodia was at our teacher's house. We were sitting in this super hot attic frying our brains out while trying to learn some Khmer(pronounced kuh my) All of the sudden I see them bring in a pig downstairs. I was all excited because I love animals. Like 5 minutes after the pig was brought in we heard this uncontrollable squealing for a minute and then all of the sudden is stopped. I was freaking out. I kept saying if they are killing that pig I am going to cry. Our teacher just acted like it was nothing and just wanted us to keep going.

The next lesson we heard more squealing. We went to the side of the house to look at a banana flower since we were learning that word, and I saw the owner of the house with these big knifes, rubbing them back and forth. Seriously, I booked it out of there.

We decided to ask our teacher if he was a butcher because we had heard the squealing a few times the day. He said no, he is a welder. We asked him why he has pigs. He said he raises pigs, and asked us if we saw that male pig that was brought over the other day.

Oh the differences in culture. We hear squealing and thing it's being harmed. He hears squealing and recognizes it as pigs mating. Oh yes, it was pigs procreating, not dying.

It's crazy how much we still have to learn about life here in Cambodia. We have technical training for half the day and then 4 straight hours of language training each day. life is pretty hectic here. I never thought I would get used to going to bed at 9pm and waking up at 6 each day, but I'm fairly used to it. When the entire village is pretty much dark after dinner, everyone goes to bed early. The markets are fairly empty by 10 in the morning. Life just operates at a different pace here. I feel I'm adjusting pretty well since I knew I was going to have to adjust, I think coming home to that pace of life is going to be much harder.

First Taste of Cambodia

Hey guys, we've been here for a bit now so I thought I would share some scenes from our first few days in Cambodia.

It's funny the Peace Corps seems to slowly down grade the style of living that you're having. We started out at a nice hotel in San Fran for orientation, and then we flew like mad, and actually ended up skipping an entire day. We had a layover in Tokyo, so pretty much I've been to Japan... Then we had a little longer layover in Bangkok (We had one night in Bangkok!) We stayed at a super nice hotel right off of the airport. Even though we only had 2 1/2 hours of sleep there, it was still really nice and the breakfast in the morning was fantastic. The next morning we all cheered as we landed in Phnom Penh.

Phnom Penh was really overwhelming at first. It was not the Cambodia we expected to see. It was crowded, dirty, smelly, and everything you expect from the capital of a third world Asian country. We quickly learned how to ride in a tuk tuk, which are little carts on motorcycles "motos" By the morning of the third day we were ready to get out of there. Both of us were really glad to get to our last hotel in the area where we're doing training. This is the Cambodia we came to be in. I think we'll really like it here!

How to stop mosquito bites from itching

A few weeks ago Hal and I went on a walk and took a relaxing sit down part way through. Bad idea. We had been living with his parents for one day and had forgotten how bad the mosquitoes are. In the 20 minutes we were relaxing I got 20 mosquito bites. All on my ankles, and 12 just on one ankle. Lets just say that they itched like crazy, like that's all I could think about itching. I bought some cortizone cream, but then my ankle got real swollen, so I knew that I needed another solution. Luckily my mother in law is amazing with natural remedies, so here is my guide on how to get mosquito bites to not itch, and to go away quickly.

First off, this is the only post where you will see part of my foot, because lets face it, feet are gross.

This is my cankle, less than 24 hours after I got bit so many times.

Sick, right? So sick. SO sick.

So back to my mother in law. She has this amazing healing clay that is good for everything, but you know what else works? Those$1 mud facial masks that you can buy at the grocery store.

Open them and apply a generous amount to each bite.

Then wrap the area in saran wrap so that it can work overnight. The clay draws out the toxins overnight.

Then you want to put socks on over this so that it holds the saran wrap in place.

Then check this out. Look how much better my bites look. Just after 1 day.

Seriously, try this out when you get any bites. I've used it on spider bites as well and it works really well to draw out the toxins. I've used her special clay and the mud masks and they both work great.

Wedding Wednesday - Most Recent Picture

This is our last week of Wedding Wednesday. It's pretty crazy to think that it's already been 17 weeks. It definitely doesn't seem like it's been that long.

1. how it all began: how you met, first date, first kiss, how long did you date? first picture together.....etc.
2. when you knew he was the one: self explanatory.. but how and when did you know?
3. proposal: how it happened, how long were you engaged for? was it a total surprise?  pictures of that... etc.
4. the ring:  tell us about it! did you pick it out? did he? pictures! tell us about his ring too!
5. engagement/bridal pictures: let's see em!
6. the colors: show some of the flower and colors you used
7. the dress: was it what you always imagined? did you have it made for you? white or ivory?
8. the little accessories: you know, veil? shoes? jewelry? what did your bridesmaids wear?
9. the reception: where was it at? show us some pictures! what day did you get married?
10. the cake/food: i love food. so tell me about what you had at your wedding!
11. your song and/or the first song you danced to at your wedding: share a music video or lyrics if you can!
12. favorite part of the day and least favorite part of the day: can be anything.
13. honeymoon: where did you go? was it good?  ;) haha...jk.
14. thoughts on marriage: what is the easiest/hardest part? if you could change anything, what would it be?
15. first place that you lived together: pics if you have them!
16. kids: do you have any yet? if not, when do you plan on it? how many do you want? any tips on good/bad birth control?
17. most recent picture of you and your significant other and what you love most about them :) and any other thoughts.


This week is the most recent picture of us. Actually this picture was taken about an hour ago in the Bangkok airport. It was a beautiful huge piece of art, so I thought it would be a good photo to post of our adventures.

What I love about Hal? I love that he's so good to me. He's really thoughtful and aware of my needs. He has been the best traveling companion on this trip. So far we've spent days straight together and I've been loving it. That's something that we don't get a lot of at home since we're both so busy.

I'm really glad that we decided to do the Peace Corps together. I can't imagine doing this alone. It's really special that I have the person I wnat to share this experience with by my side the entire time. I have no idea what the next two years will bring, but I'm really glad that we have chosen to dedicate ourselves to service for the next two years, since this is the foundation we want to start our family life on. I can't imagine doing this without Hal by my side, and I'm really blessed to have him in my life.

Loose Ends

Hal and I had an intense last night in Utah. We were up until about 2 AM, and were up again at 5 AM to catch our flight. We had a lot to do that last day, and the last thing we did before we left was to cut some loose ends(pun intended).

In Cambodia men don't have beards. Hal loves him some beard, so the night before we left he had to get rid of his that he had been growing out for a few months.

After many steps of goatees and mustaches, he ended up like this.

Doesn't he look so much younger without a beard?

Now the big shocker is what I did...

My hair was a little big long. Actually it was really long and I loved it. But there was no way I could do that in the Cambodian heat. So I decided to donate my hair and sport a shorter look for the Cambodian heat that I would be heading into.

One thing that we forgot to take into account is that my hair is curly...so we pulled it straight to measure the donation, and then forgot to add that the top half would be curly. So I ended up donating about 12 inches, and my hair was a little shorter than I was thinking, but I really like it. It has a  lot of body to it since it's short. It took me a little getting used to, but I really like it now. Many thanks to my sister who spent hours cutting my awfully thick hair. Thank you!!

I just took this picture from the balcony of the guesthouse where we are staying for the next few days in Cambodia so pardon my sweat, but it lets you see my hair.

Wedding Wednesday - Kids

Only one more week of Wedding Wednesdays! This week I'm talking about kids.

1. how it all began: how you met, first date, first kiss, how long did you date? first picture together.....etc.
2. when you knew he was the one: self explanatory.. but how and when did you know?
3. proposal: how it happened, how long were you engaged for? was it a total surprise?  pictures of that... etc.
4. the ring:  tell us about it! did you pick it out? did he? pictures! tell us about his ring too!
5. engagement/bridal pictures: let's see em!
6. the colors: show some of the flower and colors you used
7. the dress: was it what you always imagined? did you have it made for you? white or ivory?
8. the little accessories: you know, veil? shoes? jewelry? what did your bridesmaids wear?
9. the reception: where was it at? show us some pictures! what day did you get married?
10. the cake/food: i love food. so tell me about what you had at your wedding!
11. your song and/or the first song you danced to at your wedding: share a music video or lyrics if you can!
12. favorite part of the day and least favorite part of the day: can be anything.
13. honeymoon: where did you go? was it good?  ;) haha...jk.
14. thoughts on marriage: what is the easiest/hardest part? if you could change anything, what would it be?
15. first place that you lived together: pics if you have them!
16. kids: do you have any yet? if not, when do you plan on it? how many do you want? any tips on good/bad birth control?
17. most recent picture of you and your significant other and what you love most about them :) and any other thoughts.

So to make this short and sweet, no we don't have any kids. We are definitely planning on having kids...one day. We aren't planning on having kids any time soon, seeing as we are in Cambodia right now. So we won't have kids at least for another two years. Both of us really like kids, but we get plenty of time with these guys to fulfill any kind of kid-wanting need that we have.

Advice on birth control? I've been on birth control from a young age to help with my hormones, so I've been on quite a few varieties of the pill. My favorite that I've been on? Loestrin 24 FE. You only have your period 4 days, so it's usually light and awesome. My least favorite that I've been on is Yazmin. Don't do any varieties of Yaz or Yazmin, they suck.