Answers, Answers to Your Questions

A week ago I noticed I had a few new followers, yay! And to make everyone around here feel welcome  I thought I'd share more of myself with you. And since I'm kind of against nakedness on the internet  I thought I'd throw it out there and see if you had any questions you have for me. Here are your questions, and here are your answers!

Torrie, a wonderful blogger who I actually know in real life, asked...  

-I've noticed that you don't seem to eat any red meat (like bacon or hamburger). Why is that? Is that because you don't like it, or is a weight-maintenance thing?

-I don't eat red meat because I don't like how it tastes. I never really thought about the health benefits. About 10 years ago I decided I didn't want to eat it anymore because I didn't like the taste. I tried to be open to food in Cambodia and tried a bite here or there, but I still don't like red meat.

Krysten a great blogger over at Why Girls Are Weird,
What do you miss the most about Cambodia?

- Can I say everything? No, that's not really true, I love air conditioning too much. This is a hard one. I think the thing I miss most about it was the adventure that the whole thing represented. We just went off to serve people and were down for anything that came our way whether it was good or bad. There were just so many opportunities, and wonderful people who were willing to do anything with us. I miss that a lot.

If you could teach someone one thing about being a Mormon, what would it be?

- I have thought a lot about this question. I know there is a lot of weird rumors surrounding the mormon church and people get really confused about what we believe, so I think if I could teach one thing it would be this: We are Christians too. The real name of our church is The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter day Saints. See the Jesus Christ part? We believe in him too.

And just to lighten it up, what's your favorite breakfast food?

-I really like breakfast food. It's all sugary and delicious, just how I like food. Probably my favorite is some good french toast, a little crispy around the edges on nice thick bread with real maple syrup and some fruit. Yum.

Kell who I feel is like my little sister that I never had asked...

What's your favorite zoo?

-I like zoos. My favorite zoo is the Colorado Springs Zoo. It's set on the mountain side and I love it because it's more interactive than most zoos. You can feed the giraffes, the meercat cage is open at the top and you can just lean over and watch them run all around instead of looking through glass. The cages there are just cool and more visitor friendly.

And tell us about your fat cat, please. I love cats

My fat cat, a haiku by me:

Name is Ebony

Asleep under the blankets

She is fat and black

-This is my favorite picture of our cats. Our cat is all black and she's 12 years old this month! I've taken care of her since she was 6 weeks old, and used to try and force her to sleep under the covers with me when she was a kitten. Now she loves to sleep under the covers and if you can't find her, she's probably asleep under the covers on our bed.

What is your favorite memory from Cambodia?

-Do I really have to answer this? There's too many! I can't pick one, so I'll pick two of my favorites, they're not most favorite though. I don't have a most favorite.

Favorite 1: when we first went to see Angkor Wat at sunset last December and we were wandering around trying to see as much as we could before they kicked us out. We were the only people around when a volunteer came running up saying he found the entrance to get into one of the upper temples. We went running through an empty ancient temple courtyard at sunset. I felt like I was in a national treasure movie.

Favorite 2: One of my favorite moments of my time in Cambodia was my very last day at site, it was a Saturday and we had just finished Camp Glow the week before. My girls had borrowed my uncle's private classroom to teach the girls in our village about what they learned at Camp Glow. Like 30 girls showed up.  They taught for 2 hours. They had spent days at my house all week making charts and diagrams and posters for their lessons.  I was so proud of them for being forward and talking about things rarely talked about in Cambodia.

Amber of the WhisperingWriter, have you read her blog? It's hilarious, go read it, asked

I have a cheesy question: what is your favorite dessert?

- I love this question because I also love desserts. I love sugar cookies above all else, I'll eat them at any time of the day. Parson's Bakery in Bountiful has the best sugar cookies ever! I may or may not be saving one in my drawer to eat after lunch.

Jennifer, such a great blogger over at Crazy Shenanegins asked:

Do you eat fast food? I know some mormons don't eat fast food.

-I do eat fast food. I've never heard of mormons not eating fast food...not for religious reasons anyway. I defintiely try not to eat it, as it's not good for me, but I do sometimes.

Lastly, a not so anonymous comment, from my old co-worker Heather, who just got married, congrats!

Where are you currently working?

-I'm currently working for a Behavioral Health division of a large insurance company. I'm a receptionist/admin person and they never have enough for me to do, so I blog.

Have you read any good books lately?

Boy, have I! I've been reading a lot, as my last answer, I don't have enough work to do. I just read the Night Circus by Erin Morganstern. Best book I've read in a while. I just finished The Flight Of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesly which was a simple fast, but very cute read.

If Given the opportunity, would you go on another service mission?

Hands down? YES!

And there you go, now you know me infinitely better. Now tell me something I don't know about you so we can be even.

2012 Year In Review

This is a pretty big year to review, I don't know how I'm going to fit it all into one post! Get ready for lots of pictures, because I'm throwing in a few things I never blogged about.

We started out the year by celebrating in the Gulf of Thailand

My student won second place in our provincial spelling bee, which really relects nothing about my ability as a teacher, but I'm taking credit for it anyway.

This year I was evacuated from Cambodia to Thailand with a case of Dengue Fever. I then came back to practically sleep the month of March away and woke up to it being the hotest month of my life.

I was blocked by my POE from take my students to learn about the Khmer Rouge, so we hitch hiked and went with another volutneer's school.

We rode the Bamboo Train in Battambong, and proceeded to get soaking wet thanks to the rainy season.

We got to expereince really cool facets of Khmer culture. There is not just one way to show how many cool things about Khmer culture we were able to experience, but this was one very cool one when my host uncle/best khmer guy I've known got engaged.

I went on my dream vacation to Scotland. Seriously, a Dream vacation.

Followed later by a vacation to China and Vietnam. China was possibly the best vacation I've been on. I never blogged about Vietnam because I'm lazy and was busy, but we did a motorcycle trip through the mountains. Very cool.

We had Cambodian Wedding pictures taken. Please go look at them and be jealous.

We had the biggest and best project of our time in Peace Corps, CAMP GLOW! I can't say enough about how much I loved and enjoyed Camp GLOW, and watching the girls learn, and then teach other girls in my village what they learned. Best way to go out, ever.

We finally made it to really see Angkor Wat. If you ever get the chance to go see Angkor Wat, please go.

We celebrated my 25th birthday and a bunch of other PCV's birthdays by going to the island Koh Rong.

We said goodbye to our host family our students and our Peace Corps family and headed back to a new life in the US.

And we said hello to our US families for the first time in over a year. Being back in American definitely took some adjusting after living in third world conditions for a year.

We met a new niece for the first time and got to see cool cliff dwellings in Colorado.

We celebrated lots of events such as our 4 year anniversary, and birthdays, namely Hal turning 26.

We got to participate in holiday traditions and celelbrate Thanksgiving.

We finally got to experience cold and snow, and celerate the holidays with our families.

Angkor Wat

If you go to Cambodia, the one thing you HAVE to do is see Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat is actually only one temple within a larger area containing many temples. Angkor Wat itself was built originally as a Hindu temple and was dedicated to Vishnu. When Cambodia became Buddhist they altered the temple. The king who most Cambodians say built Angkor Wat is Jayavarman VII. His image is everywhere in Cambodia, and is oddly similar to Buddha's image. He built most of the temples in the Angkor Wat area.

Siem Reap is very easy to get to. It's easy to get to by bus from Battambong, Phnom Penh, and Poipet (border with Thailand). The temples are also very easy to get to from Siem Reap town. You'll probably be asked by tuk tuk drivers to go to the temples before you even want to go. Most tuk tuks can speak enough English to get  you to the temples and to negotiate a price. I would say a tourist would probably end up paying around $15 to have the tuk tuk for the day. You can also talk to your hotel, they may have a tuk tuk driver they use and can get you a good price.

There was no way that Hal and I could leave Cambodia without going to Angkor Wat. We stayed in Siem Reap after Camp GLOW and took the day to see the temples. We found a tuk tuk outside our hotel that morning and negotiated $10 to see the temples we wanted to see. I recommend going by tuk tuk instead of bike. The temples are kind of far outside the city, and they're kind of far away from each other. I knew some people who biked and they were very tired afterwards.

It costs $20 a day to see the temples, or you can get a discount if you get a 3 day pass. I've heard it takes 3 days if you really want to see all of the temples. We didn't have all day to see the temples so we took the morning and part of the afternoon and only went to the temples we wanted to go to. We went to see Angkor Wat, Bayon, and Ta Prohm, which probably took us about 4-5 hours to see.

First we saw Angkor Wat. THE Angkor Wat.
Note: There is a section where you can go up inside to a sacred part of the temple. You have to be wearing something that covers your shoulders and your knees, so come prepared.

Next up we went to Bayon. This one is actually my favorite that we went to. It was definitely in the worst state of disrepair. But they're working on putting it all back together. I really liked this one because it was less perfect and more real. There are so many passages that you could just wander through,and there were a lot less people than at Angkor Wat.

The last temple that we went to is called Ta Prohm. You may have seen pictures of this temple before. It's the tree temple, and where Tomb Raider was filmed. It was beautiful trees with the most amazing roots which scale many of the temple structures.