Big Orange Backpack

I arrived yesterday morning wicked early from Bangkok into Phnom Penh. I slept for a while before going out with some of my students at 2pm. We went to kareoke (a classic Khmer past time) before going Lucky 7 (a fast food restaurant, they wanted to make me happy by eating some 'American' food), then the riverside. We were looking for a boat to take a small trip, but because it was a Buddhist holiday and a Sunday, they were in high demand, and thus asking too high a price. We went into FCC (Foreign Correspondants Club) and had some sangeria (they love sweet stuff here, so it was right up their alley). One of the students, Khim, had to leave early to go to work at a bar, and he called us about 20 minutes after we left and said that the bar was dead, and invited us to come. After this bar I felt a bit drunk, as were we all, so we went to a Khmer restaurant, which is on the street and people sit in a cafeteria like building and they serve the same thing to everyone, but dinner was only $.75. It was great too. I finally came home after that, four hours after I had started to suggest we do so.

Today I went to an orphanage with my tutoring student. It was a nice place, but it was so sad to see that these children live 10 in a room together, and I took their information, and maybe I'll be able to do some fundraising for them when back in the States. It was a fun tuk-tuk ride through bad streets, so we were bouncing all over the place. Twice we had to get out and push it out of a ditch. We then went to pick up our skirts from the tailor, and now I'm having one more made, and probably a few pairs of nice trousers for next year for conferences and then later work. Bleh. Work. Real world.