First Dispatch from PP

So, I'm here in this crazy city that I'm going to be calling home for the next year or so, and I have a lot to say about it and most of it good, but first let me just touch on the rest of July and training in Thailand. There's not a whole lot to tell, because if training was boring for me to sit through one can only imagine how it would be for you all to hear about it, but it was memorable in a few ways. First and foremost, I made some friends. A good handful,actually, one of whom is a dyed-in-the-wool rural conservative Christian Texan (who as you might guess has provided me with more of a cross cultural learning experience than any of the Asians I've met) and all of whom are going to be posted to cool places around SE Asia that I can go visit this year. Burma 2k9, get the party started.

Anyway so that's really all I wanted to point out about training. Friends. Oh and I bathed a baby elephant, and for some reason the guides referred to that activity as "mutual play." Mm, alright then.



And now I'm in Cambodia and it's been wild. I traveled here from Chiang Mai with my post-mate Jude, my Texan friend Charlsea (like Chelsea but Texified), and my program director Daniel on an overnight train conveniently lit by fluorescent all night long. (Actually just a quick digression for those of you who are still kind of wondering what I'm doing in Cambodia: I'm here with an organization called VIA which is kind of like a mini peace corps that places volunteers all over Asia teaching english or working with local NGOs. I'll be doing the latter at a place called Development and Partnership in Action Cambodia, but don't ask me what they actually do because all I can really gather is that it's developing something in partnership with someone in a pretty active kind of way).

So anyway I don't have reliable internet here so I will make this quick, but basically I'm really enjoying it here and settling in well, even though we spent our first two nights in a love hotel (by accident) where the staff thought our Cambodian in country representative was a prostitute (woops, so sorry Miss Watana). I got a bicycle--well actually VIA got me a bicycle-- a maroon city cruiser with a basket in front. it's very pretty and I wear a little lemon-yellow helmet and ding my bell at every corner to warn the zippy motorbikers of my happy presence. So far I have not been maimed, but every day is a new adventure on these roads (just kidding mom it's just like Dipsea road don't worry about it).

OH I almost forgot: in Khmer (as in the language they speak here) the word for lemon is cat-orange. That's right, kroyach-chmaa. And lemonaide is Cat Orange Water so you can guess what my favorite refreshing drink has become...I think I'll go have one now.