Sunday, July 08, 2007
Rain rain go away
I came to this internet cafe almost two hours ago, and the second I walked in it started to pour and has not let up. Chances are I'm swimming home. I'm supposed to go to a wedding tonight outside the city, but at this rate, I'm not 100% that's going to happen.
I'm reduced to blogging for lack of other things to do. Here's an interesting article on the state of the Kingdom of Cambodia for you Grandma and anyone else:
http://www.sundayherald.com/international/shinternational/display.var.1528397.0.0.php
This time next week I'm going to be in Siem Reap, and hopefully visiting the temple complexes at Angkor Wat. I will be in Siem Reap from Saturday to early Tuesday morning. Then I will go to Singapore until late Thursday night when I will fly into Bangkok until early Sunday morning. It should be a super fun time, and after that I will pretty much have a single room, as Jessie will either be away or staying with her visiting boyfriend at a guesthouse. Said guesthouse has A/C, hot water, and wireless, and I have promised many a visit.
After I get back from vacation I only have five more weeks, which is so crazy to me. I can't believe I've been here a month and a half, and I'm almost halfway through my time here. I'm not quite sure how I feel about it all. There's part of me that's absolutely miserably homesick, and secretly hopes I get a mild case of dengue so that I can go home. But that's a pretty small part usually. I love the Cambodian people, they are so kind, always smiling and always cracking jokes. I understand less and less everyday how Pol Pot and genocide could have occured here, only 25-30 years ago. I don't think Cambodians understand either. School is what keeps me going, my students are awesome. I get along really well with Jessie and Alice, and to a lesser extent Helena, Michelle and Lee; but two women in the house drive me absolutely mad. Jessie and I spend most of our time in our room, and it's a bit boring and suffocating. I have the entire middle of my day open, and I usually don't know how to spend it. I give myself one "job" a day to do, on Monday it's to buy more postcards, and Tuesday to do laundry and Wednesday to send aforementioned postcards.
It's remarkable how accustomed I've become to absolute abject poverty. I saw a half-naked woman who was laying on the sidewalk passed out from hunger and/or thirs, and her child crawling up to her breastfeeding. It looked like they could've been dogs instead of people on the sidewalk. I couldn't decide what was more disturbing; that I witnessed this or that I wasn't the least bit alarmed, nor was anyone else.
I'm starting to get excited about plans for next year after I graduate, thinking about where I might want to live and what I might want to do. I think after being here the future can't really scare me. While I might not be certain of my plans, I can always waitress and volunteer at an NGO somewhere. I'll never live in a shack and I'll never go hungry. So really, what's there to be nervous about?
I think the rain stopped, I'm going to bolt before it begins anew.
I'm reduced to blogging for lack of other things to do. Here's an interesting article on the state of the Kingdom of Cambodia for you Grandma and anyone else:
http://www.sundayherald.com/international/shinternational/display.var.1528397.0.0.php
This time next week I'm going to be in Siem Reap, and hopefully visiting the temple complexes at Angkor Wat. I will be in Siem Reap from Saturday to early Tuesday morning. Then I will go to Singapore until late Thursday night when I will fly into Bangkok until early Sunday morning. It should be a super fun time, and after that I will pretty much have a single room, as Jessie will either be away or staying with her visiting boyfriend at a guesthouse. Said guesthouse has A/C, hot water, and wireless, and I have promised many a visit.
After I get back from vacation I only have five more weeks, which is so crazy to me. I can't believe I've been here a month and a half, and I'm almost halfway through my time here. I'm not quite sure how I feel about it all. There's part of me that's absolutely miserably homesick, and secretly hopes I get a mild case of dengue so that I can go home. But that's a pretty small part usually. I love the Cambodian people, they are so kind, always smiling and always cracking jokes. I understand less and less everyday how Pol Pot and genocide could have occured here, only 25-30 years ago. I don't think Cambodians understand either. School is what keeps me going, my students are awesome. I get along really well with Jessie and Alice, and to a lesser extent Helena, Michelle and Lee; but two women in the house drive me absolutely mad. Jessie and I spend most of our time in our room, and it's a bit boring and suffocating. I have the entire middle of my day open, and I usually don't know how to spend it. I give myself one "job" a day to do, on Monday it's to buy more postcards, and Tuesday to do laundry and Wednesday to send aforementioned postcards.
It's remarkable how accustomed I've become to absolute abject poverty. I saw a half-naked woman who was laying on the sidewalk passed out from hunger and/or thirs, and her child crawling up to her breastfeeding. It looked like they could've been dogs instead of people on the sidewalk. I couldn't decide what was more disturbing; that I witnessed this or that I wasn't the least bit alarmed, nor was anyone else.
I'm starting to get excited about plans for next year after I graduate, thinking about where I might want to live and what I might want to do. I think after being here the future can't really scare me. While I might not be certain of my plans, I can always waitress and volunteer at an NGO somewhere. I'll never live in a shack and I'll never go hungry. So really, what's there to be nervous about?
I think the rain stopped, I'm going to bolt before it begins anew.
# posted by Bethany @ 1:58 AM 
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