One of my favorite stories happened to Hal and I while we were eating some Zattarans in our room for lunch. We savored our western food while we lived there so we would save them for special occassions or days that we just really didn't feel like biking to the market.
I was sitting on the edge of our bed, and Hal was sitting at our desk with the bowl of food. The fan was inbetween us because I was preparing to leave, and if you have the fan on you and then step outside you'll start sweating even more profusely, so I put the fan between us and was reaching out to get bites of food.
One thing you should know about me, is that I'm a serial spiller. I spill on myself probably once a day, no joke. I think this moment is when Hal stopped letting me lean over him to eat out of the bowl. Lets accurately set the scene for you here. You're welcome for this, in advance.
As I took a bite I brought it over to my mouth while I was blowing on it to let it cool, I dropped the whole heaping spoonful into the fan. Hal was suddenly splattered with zattarans since the fan was blowing directly on him. He wasn't very happy but I just laughed and laughed and laughed. That was probably my most epic spill ever.
And Lastly, we all have mispronounced a khmer word a time or two. The problem with that is that a lot words sound almost exactly the same, so it's easy to mispronounce them. A good friend of ours chose a few words each week to practice with his Health Center Staff. One time he was trying to say "I ate corn on my new sheets" what his staff heard was "I ate vagina on my big shirt".
And that for you, is a glimpse into the life of a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cambodia.
10 comments:
OH man....the fan story kills me. And the translation one!! I'm terrified to go to another country and attempt to speak their language for that reason exactly...lol!
Haha. What a great story!!! When we lived in Taiwan my dad actually called my mom his mistress instead of his wife because he didn't understand the language. Haha.
You do have to be brave to speak in another language! My Dad is brave like that....though I spoke Bahasa better than he did. One time we were at a restaurant and he tried to order a dish of kacang panjang, which is long beans. What he said was kucing panjing....kucing means cat, panjing isn't a word....so the poor waiter just stood there staring at him while the rest of the table was cracking up!
ha, and yet this is why we travel... for the awesome stories :)
It's as if you planned it...YOU PLANNED IT! Didn't you? : )
You're an amazing artist.
Ok I was thinking the fan story was the funniest thing I'd ever heard (and something that would SO happen to me) until that last little gem. OMG! I'm sitting at work trying not to laugh out loud hahaha sounds like you've got quite the adventurous life over there!
Jessi
haircutandgeneralattitude.blogspot.com
Hahaha, oh my goodness, the last one!! My Grandpa was a missionary in Tanzania, and he's mix up "Jumbo" (hello), and "Jumba" (fart), so sometimes he'd greet crowds of people by saying "fart". I feel like the vagina one's worse though.
And that spill; hilarious, but I feel your pain! I'm a total serial spiller too!
I spill all the time too...but this really is the best spill story ever!! hahah!!
That fan story sounds exactly like something I would do. I dropped a whole spoonful of baked beans on my shirt tonight while I was eating, btw. Sigh.
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