Scavenger Hunt!!

Tiffony and I had both previously mentioned to Danielle that we would love to go and explore the market. So Danielle came up with the idea of a scavenger hunt in the market. Today she sent Tiffony and I off into the market with a list of things we had to find. We would meet her at a near by coffee shop when we were done. The catch was that she didn't tell us where it was, only that it was within walking distance of the market. Thankfully we spotted it from the tuk tuk on the way there.

Our list.

Surprisingly, we were able to find everything rather quickly, even if we did spend 30 minutes looking at jewelry. Tiffony and I both wanted watches and ended up with ones that have the same face and charm, but different bands. Danielle called them our friendship watches.

Our watches!

We ended up walking around the market about three times, but it was good because now we are pretty confident of finding our way through the maze of stalls. It does seem that there are hidden booths that you only seem to be able to find once. It is one of my favorite places that I've been to so far. You can find just about anything there. It even has a food court!

It's sideways, but this is nail polish remover written in Khmer.

Once we were finished, we met Danielle at a coffee shop called Jars of Clay for lunch. The food was good, but best of all, it was air conditioned! You don't appreciate what you have until you don't have it anymore. Until last night, I haven't minded not having AC in my room because I have a fan. Yesterday, for some reason my room was boiling. I woke up covered in sweat. Gross, I know, but this is Cambodia.

Tiffony's mochaccino and my lemon shake.

A double decker chicken sandwich and a caesar and bacon salad.

I did not realize that Tiffony was taking a picture.

Recent Stuff

 On Tuesday night we had a birthday party for several of the Bykota boys who had recently had birthdays. It was a pizza party so the entire day I kept thinking, "Pizza, pizza, pizza!" I felt a little like Sutton Foster during her Violet closing speech (no one is going to get that reference, but I thought I'd throw it out there just in case). There was a dance competition and they even played The Voice. Did you know that there is The Voice Cambodia? I was pretty surprised. The kids absolutely love it. Whenever they have free time, they are watching videos of it on youtube.
   
Today was a day of extremes. The morning started out absolutely horribly with myself waking up with a splitting headache. The morning went downhill from there with one of my two kindergarteners shutting down during school and not wanting to do anything. But once we got to recess, he perked up and the day got a bit better. Tiffony and I had attempted to make bread from scratch, but we killed the yeast so the bread didn't rise. Instead, we let kids make the dough into shapes, sprinkled cinnamon and sugar over their creations, and cooked them. Surprisingly, the cookies actually turned out pretty good.

We attempted to get them to make letters,but it quickly deteriorated into flowers and a ginormous dough blob.

Pita bread!

After lunch Tiffony and I make the rest of the dough into pita bread, which took all afternoon. Before that Christopher and I had an impromptu nerf gun battle.That was probably the best part of my day.

Our little helper!

Sunday, a Birthday, and an Adventure

Today I went to church with Kelsi and Micah, which I enjoyed. The service was conducted in English and was something I needed. Everyone was welcoming and even though it is a large congregation, it felt personal.  After the service we had coffee (tea for me, I can't stand coffee) on the roof as the sun set over the city. I wish I had remembered my camera. Micah is the worship leader and he asked if I would like to sing next week. I think I may have startled him with how quickly I said yes.

There was a birthday in the Benz family today, so the kids got to go on a special outing. The littles were disappointed that I couldn't come with then because I was going to church. Maddie clung to my waist and begged. I was flattered because she and I haven't quite meshed yet. Today was a lot better in terms of that though. The other kids and I have gotten on quite well. I feel like I've been here for longer than three weeks. 

Tiffany (the other intern) and I have quickly become friends. It is nice to have someone to relate to. She came about a week after I did. Today we were hanging out before church and decided that we needed to get out, so we took two of the older BYKOTA girls and went to Lucky which is one of the import markets. It was the first time we had been out by ourselves without either Danielle or Hannah to guide us. It felt brave and daring, even though we were just going straight there and back in a tuk tuk. 

A Conversation with Sarah- Part 2

I am tucking Sarah into bed and she notices my necklace. She asks me what it is.

"It's a coin to let me get on the subway in New York City" I told her.

"Oh" she said. "Where did you get it?"

"I made it" I replied.

"With your magic?" She asked.

I laughed.

                                  My necklace 

  

A Conversation With Sarah

I was talking with Rhonda at dinner and told her that Sarah and SJ seem to think that I am a pillow. Sarah piped up, "You are a pillow!" 

I replied, "I'm a pillow! The fluffy thing that wears a pillowcase and sleeps on your bed?" 

"Yep!" 

"If I'm a pillow, then how can I walk and talk and eat?" 

She thought about it for a moment then said, "You're a silly pillow!" 

The Little Things

Dad left yesterday which was hard for me. This past week kinda felt like a vacation, but seeing him pack was difficult because I realized that I am actually staying as far away from home as you can get by myself. Of course, I am not completely alone with God but the Benz's are a family with their own traditions and stories. I am here to do a job which I don't feel qualified for so far away from everything I know. I am trying to take things day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute. It's the little things which have gotten me through the day, the way Leah smile when I make a face at her, how we all started talking in British accents today (we miss you, Hannah!), and the feeling of teasing Seth about stealing property during Monopoly. Those feelings of happiness, of belonging are the same wherever you go. I think I'm going to be ok.

First Day of Teaching!

Today wasn't supposed to be my first day of teaching, but then Rhonda had to take Leah to the clinic (she's doing fine, just a reaction to some medicine) so I had to teach by myself today. It went better than I thought. Kindergarten isn't very hard to teach. The hardest part is to get Sarah and SJ to sit still! SJ decided this morning to try and see how far he could push me, which led to a very interesting morning. Since he is Autistic, I am still figuring out how to discipline him without having a major meltdown on my hands. His mom is just in the next room so I can call her if I need help (don't worry, Mom!). I did have a moment in the middle of the mess this morning where all I wanted was to hop on a plane and go home. Today was the first day I was homesick and this morning struggling with SJ pushed me over the edge a bit. But we went up to the roof to blow bubbles for recess, and after that things went much smoother aside from the normal wiggling. Sarah is a complete sweetheart. She is a bit shy outside of school, but is more than ready to blurt out the answer when I ask SJ a question.

Earlier I posted an emergency post about Goldfish (I am still in emergency mode in that department) but there is another more pressing emergency- the Benz family does not watch musicals. I never realized how many musical references I made in a day until I came here where no one understands them. I am attempting to educate them, but I did not bring much of my collection over with me so I am left with whatever I can get at the market. However, Melody and Leah are being educated early. Whenever they fuss, the only song out of my entire repertoire that will calm them down is "Poor Monty" from A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder. Personally, I find their song choice hilarious. Please find it on the soundtrack on YouTube if you have never heard it. This is probably the third post in which I have shamelessly advertized this show. I promise you that I am not being paid to say these things, it's just that good of a show.

Hopefully school on Monday goes well. I am excited about learning to be a better teacher!

Emergency!

I am in crisis mode over here! The very last bag of goldfish I brought with me is almost gone and I cannot find any over here! They only flavors they sell are pizza and soup cracker, which are not the right kind. This is a shameless post of me begging for anyone who is reading this to send me the proper kind of goldfish. Thank you.

I'm a Wimp

Our last days at Siem Reap were pretty good. The zip line was awesome! I did spend a lot of time hugging trees because I didn't like how close the edge of the platform was. Before you call me a wimp, please keep in mind that I was 100+ feet in the air.

Tree hugging. And those are shadows, not streaks of dirt on my face.

Then when we were walking up to the highest point of the course a snake fell out of the tree and onto the floor in front of me. I screamed and it fell off the platform into the forest below.

Ready to go! 

Do you see how high up I am??

 

 

 

The highest point was a tree house that was up above the tree line. Spectacular view!

All in all, the zip line was an amazing experience, even if I was a wimp for some of it. Tomorrow will be my first day of teaching kindergarten, so please keep me in your prayers!

Siem Reap Days 1 and 2

Dad and I are taking a couple days to visit the town of Siem Reap. Most of the pictures of temples that you see when you Google Cambodia are around here. Yesterday we took a car up to our hotel and then spent the afternoon wandering the city. Rhonda had recommended that we try a restaurant called The Blue Pumpkin, which serves ice cream and pastries. They had a room on the third floor called the Cool Lounge, which was air conditioned and had the longest couch I have ever seen.

Hanging out on the couch in the Cool Lounge!

After that we headed for the market. I love being able to haggle for things! The trick I'm learning is not to show too much interest in what you are about to buy. I am starting to treat the market as an acting exercise.

The next day, (which was yesterday because I gave up in the middle of writing this post and went to sleep) we hired a tuk tuk to take us around to some of the temples. My favorite was Ta Prom, which was almost completely in ruin. Trees were growing over it, and many of the walls had fallen down. Dad said that it looked like the temple had sneezed and the walls came down.

Tree growing over the temple

The giant sneeze

Dad keeps photobombing.

Took some time out from seeing the temples to have lunch. Beef with Bell Peppers and Pork with Holy Basil.

I took a lot more pictures at the temples, which you can find on my Facebook profile under Temple Pics.

After the temples I was exhausted because we had walked several miles. We went back to the hoel to rest and eat Oreos, them went back to the market. They have some pretty cool stuff and I got to work on my haggling.I am definitely a girl who loves her shopping!

One of the stalls at the market.

That's about it for right now. Tomorrow Dad and I are going to try the zip line! (Which we actually have already done, because I'm lazy and didn't upload this when I meant to. It was awesome! But that is for my next post.)