Songs for Life: Karla Adolphe - Beautiful Sound

I heard this song for the first time the other day on a terrifically long uncomfortable bus ride from Phnom Penh back to site. I love hearing and song and it just inspires the listener to want to play it at a certain time. I guess that's the whole basis of these Songs for Life. Except, this one is more of a song for death. After I heard it the first time I told Hal I wanted him to play it at my funeral. Of course he just said "who said you die first?" Then he said "do I have to whistle the last part" and I told him "Of Course"

So, just in case..I'm telling all of you, I want this played at my funeral, because really, it's a celebration of life.

Karla Adolphe - Beautiful Sound

Beautiful Sound

Realizations from site

I realized something last night. Due to so many stinking holidays in May and a Peace Corps training Hal and I were able to be away from site for a week and two days without having take vacation days. This is the longest we've been away from site other than our Scotland vacation. On average we're at site for two weeks in a row and then on the weekend we leave for a day or two into our provincial town or Siem Reap to stock up on food supplies and western goodness. So...we were away for a long time.

This made me finally realize that our village notices when we're gone. When we come back to site we often walk up the road to our house....the downside to hitch hiking is that they won't take you directly to your door. So we see people when we leave site and when we come back. We always get asked "where do you go" and when we come back we get asked "where do you come from" Well, this time was a little different. We didn't see any of the normal people who ask after us on our way out of town, and because it was so hot we took a taxi back to site, and kind of ended up sneaking back into site.

Well the night we came back I rode my bike to my co-teacher's private school to teach my private class (yes, I have it back finally. Yay!) and the question I got asked wasn't the normal "where do you go?" It was, "where do you come from?" I had more than one person ask me where I had come from. It struck me: they noticed I was gone, and now they noticed that I was back.

It's crazy how after living here for over 7 months a place like this really can feel like home. We were gone for just over a week and I was dying to go back to site, be in my own space, and be "home".  Even though sometimes it can be maddening living in Cambodia, it really is, as a friend's blog says something like: it's the best country you'll come to love, but it will break your heart. More like the heat will break your heart.

P.s. I'm pretty sure I played chicken with a lady on a moto for about 10 terrifying seconds today.

Cambodian Weddings

Cambodians Weddings are some of the craziest parties I've ever gone to. They are full of food, beer, and dancing. Up here in my province weddings are done in the afternoon. Most of the country holds weddings at night, but I've been told that since Pol Pot, during the Khmer Rouge had control of this area longer, that there was a curfew in effect longer so they started doing their weddings in the afternoons.

This post will be a general post about weddings...and then I'll go deeper into certain aspects of the weddings.

Weddings usually happen in the 'Wedding Season' which lines up with the dry season in Cambodia. Weddings usually last about 2 days. The first day is the actual ceremony and is a very long day. It begins early in the morning where the couple are blessed by the monk and there is a large parade of people carrying fruit and small gifts. This day and evening are filled with many traditional ceremonies and song, and dance. The second day is the party where everyone comes and eats and celebrates and dances, and basically gets insanely drunk.

Right before we left for Scotland a niece of our host family got married to a teacher. It was a big deal. Her family is really rich, and she had been studying in Phnom Penh before the wedding, so things came from Phnom Penh and no expense was spared. We missed the party part, but we were there in full force for the ceremonies. We stayed all day and came back for more ceremonious monk prayers and dinner, but skipped out on the late night dancing in order to catch some sleep before our early trip to Thailand.

Since it was a family wedding, I got my hair did. I went to the salon right next to my house where all the teenagers go, so I didn't get a traditional up-do, I just told them to make my hair pretty. I ended up with a Khmer pop star hair-do. I had also just gotten a traditional wedding outfit made, probably the most uncomfortable outfit I've worn in Cambodia thus far, it's very structured and hot.

 Then everyone sits down at the tables. Every single wedding I've been do has the same pattern of table cloth and chairs, and tent...Every wedding is marked by one of these tents.

 After lunch the family goes upstairs and sits for pictures while the photographer poses every single person in the picture. Since we were there we were put into the pictures and had to sit uncomfortably for an hour and a half while they took pictures with all of the fruit and food that was brought to the ceremony.

 The happy couple.

 Then the after lunch, a ritual ceremony starts where all of the adult couples pretend to cut the newlyweds hair, sprinkle water on them, and sprinkle cologne on them. Here is x-ray and bookie during their turn.

 And here you can see Hal giving himself a little sprinkle of cologne too.

And lastly, here's a video right after the first ceremony in the morning. Weddings are ridiculously loud. Music is played from giant speakers any time the monk isn't talking through an echoing microphone.
If a wedding is next door, or even on your block, you probably aren't getting much sleep until they turn it off around 10-11, but beware, the next day's festivities start with a 4 a.m. blasting music wake up call.

Overall weddings can be a lot of fun. Families go all out on weddings and try to make them a lot of fun, and a big event. Everyone who comes to the wedding gives $5-10 depending on the area, and more if you know them well. This is your wedding gift, and they use this to help pay for the wedding festivities.

Scotland: Old Man of Storr

After our crazy long drive we finally reached Isle of Skye. Then we had to keep driving to reach our destination point, Old Man of Storr. I had read about the hike online and thought after that much driving we needed to get out and move. The hike wasn't too long, about 3 hours total, but it was killer. It was pretty straight up, and I really wanted to quit when I had already been going up for a while and then saw the mountains looming right ahead of me. I'm so glad that I didn't though, the views from the top were amazing.

When we reached the base of Old Man of Storr there are 2 trails, one is pretty much straight up, and the other curves out to the side a bit, and is probably a bit easier. Hal took the straight up and I took the side one. I'd suggest taking the side one, because it leads you to a different look out point first, and then it's easy to talk over to Old Man of Storr from there, and then you can climb down the straight up path. Best of both worlds.

 This is the point where I wanted to quit, but I was so glad that I didn't.

There was a lot of logging going on at the front of the trail. It was a bit sad to watch them cut down those beautiful trees.

Top Knots

Top knots have become a favorite hairstyle of mine lately in Cambodia. As I've already posted about, it's gotten freaking hot here, and wearing my hair down has sort of become unbearable. Instantly it's wet from the back of my neck sweating. Gross, I know. Really gross. So the solution? Pull it back. Reason #1 why top knots are awesome.

It's hard to pull my hair back in a way that won't get completely messed up while I'm lying down...such as right now. Solution? Top knot. Hair is out of the way and up high enough that it stays up when I'm having my afternoon nap. Thus this is reason #2 why top knots are awesome.

Reason #3 for why top knots are awesome...is when you're riding in a 12 passenger van down a bad dirt road to see the tonle sap, when you hit and bump and you catch serious air, because you're sitting in the back row; your top knot hits the roof of the car, and not your head. Solution = top knot!

The only draw back of a top knot that I didn't really experience in America, stems from the fact that Cambodia's constantly humid....and I have curly hair. At the end of the day I kind of end up looking like a lion, mane and all. It kind of goes something like this.

+ humidity 

+ curly hair

=

Ok, that might be the absolutely most ridiculous photo I've ever posted on here, but I assume you get my point.

After story. Hal just said oh can I read that post before you publish it, because you know I'm never going to read it otherwise. Of course I was so nice and accommodating. He reads it and then starts hysterically laughing saying "It's True!" In the words of Stephanie Tanner from Full House "How Rude!" How Rude Hal, How Rude....

Scotland: Drive through the highlands

In order to get to the Isle of Skye from Colintraive where we were staying, we had to take a 5 hour drive through the highlands. I had heard that Isle of Skye was the most beautiful place in all of Scotland so I was really hoping the drive would be worth it. Let me just say, I think that the drive was the most beautiful drive I've ever been on. We saw stunning mountain views, saw Loch Lochy which is the most crystal clear lake I've ever seen, and we even got a glimpse of Loch Ness before making it to Skye. The drive was long, but it was totally worth it.

Are you ready to be blown away in pictures? Most of these were taken right around Glencoe. We really wanted to stop there, because has was born in Glencoe...Minnesota, so we had to see the namesake for his birthplace. The town isn't much, but the surround area is stunning.

Why we'll never be normal

Guys, it's getting all sorts of real up in this blog, because well, that's the life of a Peace Corps Volunteer in a third world country.

So lets not tell Hal that I posted this for everyone to see. It was just too good not to share.

He was checking his e-mail and was bummed that he had no new e-mails....so he e-mailed himself. No joke.

Hi Hal,

You know, it's been so long since we've corresponded!! I miss you so
much. We are good, good friends. Man, every time I think of the good
times we had together, I just get this silly grin on my face. Like,
dang: we actually did that? Really, we did.

So, lately, I've been chickin my email, and guess what? Nobdoy likes
me neither. So let's stick together, you and me. Just us two, gonna
beat the odds. (make sure your wife doesn't read this, she'll git
jealous about our plans.)

-Lah


I'm pretty sure I need to start a segment called "Why we'll never been normal after Peace Corps" filled with the ridiculous things we do that are normal to us. 


So the Moral of this story is E-mail your PCV, or Missionary, or friend living out of the country...but mostly e-mail your PCV because they have a lot of free time and need something to take their mind of the freaking heat.

Songs for life: Adele - One and Only

You know when you hear a song and instantly it makes you think of a certain time in your life? Or you hear a new song and you wish you had had it at a certain time in your life, or played it at a certain event? I'm going to start chronicling songs I find that that I would love to play at certain events in my life.

This first one came out after my wedding, but if I heard it before my wedding I would have been conflicted between this song and the song I actually played for my first dance. Either way, it would have played. At my wedding. because it's just that awesome, and Adele's just that awesome. Only and Only by Adele

http://youtu.be/g7U96o3f9FI

And please, if you have any songs for your life, share them!

Scotland: Dunoon

Our tiny little Colintraive village is too small for a grocer store, so we had to drive 30 minutes to the closest town, Dunoon. The first time we went to Dunoon it was raining very hard and we didn't get to see too much of the city. We loaded up on our water and bueno and got out of town (which side note, how delicious is Kinder Bueno?)  Well it seems that we're grocery store frequenters, so we made it back to Dunoon again. This time we went to Castle House Museum. It's a tiny little museum and was relatively cheap at 2 pounds. I wouldn't go again, but it was nice to support the community.

Dunoon is full of beautiful old churches, each with their amazingly beautiful cemeteries. The town is definitely worth walking around.

Also, we had the best fish and chips at a place called Anselmo's in Dunoon. I got chicken and chips, and my sister and I both agreed it was some of the best chicken we've ever eaten. A big improvement over the random fish and chips shop we ate at in Glasgow.

Koh Rong

Now that it's officially my birthday month I can talk about our plans for celebrating my birthday. Obviously I'm a big birthday person, so I wanted to go somewhere really cool for my birthday.

How about someplace that was voted the 32 best beach in the world by CNN.com

Or perhaps the place that was voted the 23rd best place you should go in 2012 by the New York Times. 

Don't have you convinced yet? How about some more pictures.

Convinced yet? We leave in less than a week for this beautiful island off the coast of Sihanoukville. Ever since we booked our bungalow I haven't been able to wait! Thank Cambodia for having so many holidays in May!

Scotland: Colintraive

After we spent some time in the bigger cities we decided we wanted to stay in the countryside for the rest of our time in Scotland. We ended up renting a house in a tiny little town called Colintraive, which is about 2 1/2 hours west of Glasgow. It's situated on an inlet from the ocean and the view from our front window was stunning. It looked out across the Isle of Bute. We saw sailboats floating by all day long and even saw a few dolphins!

It rained almost every single day we were in Scotland. And I mean it rained. Our last two days we finally saw some sunshine and soaked it up while the tide was out.

Colintraive is the greatest little picturesque Scottish countryside town. I'd highly recommend it if that's the vacation you're looking for. The Colintraive Hotel is also lovely. I highly recommend eating there, even if you don't stay there. I had the best homemade tomato soup I've ever had before!

Dried Fish

No Really, do you know what home dried nasty fish smells like?

Wait, let me rephrase that. Do you know what 5 kilos (11 pounds) of dried fish smells like?

No? Well let my enlighten you. It smells like death.

This lovely fresh batch of dried fish sat around the house for a food week or two before they decided to do something with it. It sat in the living room on the cases of beer. When I was locked out of our room for 3 hours earlier in the week I couldn't even nap in the living room because of the pungent death smell.

So what are they doing with this fish? Sending it to America. Right. I know. Bookie has a sister who lives in America and apparently has a hankering for some dried dirty river fish.

They spent $105 to send 11 pounds of death to America. $105?! That's like a bajillion dollars over here. That's more than our rent!

A PCV told me a story about how her host mom used a blow drier to dry some fish, and brought a suitcase full of it to her family in Australia. I thought she was crazy pants. Well, not any more. Not any more.