Big Orange Backpack

I found heaven on earth, and it is Bamboo island, off the coast of sihanoukville. I'm back in phnom penh and leaving in a few hours. amazing.


Flight 1
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
passenger has reconfirmed
Departure:20:25
Phnom Penh, Cambodia -
Pochentong , terminal I
Arrival:21:30
Bangkok, Thailand -
Suvarnabhumi Intl Airport
Airline:Thai Airways Intl TG699
Duration:1:05
Aircraft:Airbus Industrie A300-600/600C


Bangkok to New York
Flight 1
Thursday, August 30, 2007
passenger has reconfirmed
Departure:00:40
Bangkok, Thailand - Suvarnabhumi Intl Airport
Arrival:
07:10 New York, USA - John F Kennedy , terminal 4
Airline:Thai Airways Intl TG790
Duration:17:30
Aircraft:Airbus Industrie A340-500

Writing very fast, as I'm about to leave to go on a trip out to the islands off of Sihanoukville.. Just writing to say that I'm SO excited that I'm getting on a plane tomorrow night - this has been a great few days with Naomi and Michelle; life is divine.

I'm looking out the window of this internet cafe, and watching the waves roll in. Sihanoukville is divine. Naomi and I arrived here today at 1pm, and have been relaxing for the past 5 hours on the beach. Tomorrow we're doing nothing but the same, Monday we're going to the Ream National Park, and Tuesday to one of the islands to snorkel. Then Wednesday, homeward bound. Unbelievable - and a great way to end this summer - in Cambodian paradise.

http://rutgers.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2187919&l=b97e3&id=8818340

Here are some photo links.

This is a really funny story I had to post, but the prudest of my readers might want to stop reading...


So Lee has this monk in his class that's kind of off. The other day the monk was trying desperately to get Lee's attention and when he looked over he pointed to an obvious erection under his orange monk's robes. The monk then grabbed his friend's hand and put it on his "lap", and his friend kept his hand there for an uncomfortably long amount of time... Lee said it was probably the strangest and most uncomfortable moment of his life.. I'd have to agree.

I've just finished packing, and I feel quite accomplished. I laid down to take a nap today, but G-d was not on my side, and I got up after an hour and took my laundry down from the line and finished packing. I leave a week from today, but I'm going to Sihanoukville Saturday morning until I leave. Everything will fit, but just barely. It was strange putting clothes aside for the beach and the plane, I can't believe I'm leaving so soon. It's been such a wonderful summer, and while I'm ready for it to be over and to get back home, I'm so glad I've come and lived my dream.

This has been my last weekend in this great city. I've been so lucky to spend three months here, I'm so surprised to see that I'm leaving it in 5 days. Friday night Naomi flys in and we're going to Sihanoukville Saturday morning. We come back Wednesday afternoon and I fly out Wednesday night. I won't have internet access while in nouky-ville, so my last time checking email until I return to the US will be Friday afternoon. If there's an emergency you can call Michelle's cell phone, I've listed the number on here about a month or two ago.

Friday night was Jessie's last, she left Saturday morning for Bangkok. She's leaving for America Wednesday morning. First I went out with my students and accidentally got drunk with them again. The problem is this: you order a beer, they put ice in it. The ice melts and your beer tastes like water, so you pour more beer, and then they come around and put more ice in it. But then the ice melts. And so on. It was good fun though, they're my best and favourite class, and we went out for soup. It's like fondue, but instead of cheese, it's a pot of soup and you throw anything you want into the mix. After I came home we had a fashion show, showing off all of the stuff we've had made at the tailor's here. Everyone's stuff looked great, and it was fun to drink and joke. Sambo and Rasmey came over and they were a little shocked by the debauchery.

Yesterday I woke up late and went to the market with Sophea and went to the market. I bought more stuff I don't have the money or space for, and then came back to relax before biking to Elsewhere. They have a pool so Michelle, Alice and I took a dip (we brought our bathers), and had lunch and too many cocktails. We got caught in the rain on the way home, and it was dark and my glasses are not water resistant, so I had to take them off. It was really scary, especially for blinded me, and we saw a few accidents on the way, but we made it. We watched the end of Little Miss Sunshine and then watched a movie I bought in the market ages ago, A Love Song for Bobby Long which was really good. Today is a hang out day, trying to work on the huge book I've been reading as well as get some packing done (I've dented both). I'm not as concerned about my bags anymore, it'll be tight, but I've got enough room in my suitcase and in the backpacking bag that I bought which I'll check.

In ten days I'm getting on a jetplane. I'm so excited to see everyone, especially my little niece or nephew in utero. Lori, I talk about that baby all the time already, and it hasn't even been born yet!

Not much news on the homefront except the countdown, which is today at two weeks. I test packed my carry on bag today and it's going to be really heavy. I'm afraid of two things as far as packing is concerned: being overweight and/or not having enough room. I will be packing Monday and Tuesday, only time will tell.

A week from Friday is the last day of classes (the 24th), and Naomi is coming from Singapore! Saturday morning we're going to go down to Sihanoukville for some R & R before I go back home. We'll be sitting on the beach Saturday afternoon, and Sunday. Sunday Lee and Michelle are coming down also. Monday and Tuesday we're going to do some adventuring on islands or a nearby National Park, and then Wednesday morning we're taking the first bus back to Phnom Penh. We'll go out to lunch and then I'll come back to the house, say goodbye to Alice and then I'm off to the airport. As I write this, that's two weeks from now, unbelievable.

I've been here almost 80 days. Here are some things I've learned:

- How to ride sidesaddle on a motorcycle with a skirt on, but without a helmet.
- How to sweat more than humanly possible.
- How to calculate when it will rain, and plan my laundry doing accordingly.
- How to see an ant in my food and decide "meh, it's unavoidable, and it has extra protein." and keep on eating.
- How to eat rice everyday, AND LOVE IT. (I love rice. Rice, rice, rice. No, seriously. Someone get me a rice cooker - ahem Scott Horowitz who gives them out free at Commerce.)
- How to catch mosquitos in my hand.
- How to use the stand up hole in the ground "toilets".
- How to bargain like my mother.
- How to understand even the most broken English.

Here is what I will gain a new appreciation for when I get back:
Cheerios + 2% milk = heaven.
Rutgers Club food. I will never complain again (not that I did much to begin with). Until we're dumping it at the end of the night, that will SERIOUSLY bother me now.
JEWISH PEOPLE. JEWISH FOOD. ANYTHING JEWISH. PLEASE.
Driving in cars.
Not having to wear a surgical mask outside because of the pollution.
Hot showers. Like whoa.
Mattresses thicker than 2 inches.
Fast internet available where I sleep.

Things I will miss:
Spending less than $5 on any given item anywhere.
Having so much time on my hands, able to read or watch movies at my leisure.
The people. My housemates: Alice, Jess, and Michelle. And also my AMAZING students.
The rain, it washes everything and it cools everything down 10 degrees.
The total lawlessness of Phnom Penh. I can do and get away with almost anything as a brang (foreigner).
Having food made for me 3x a day.
The Russian Market: the clothes I make and buy, the fresh squeezed orange juice, the DVDs for $1.50, the heat inside midday, the way all the shopkeepers make me feel like a celebrity ("Miss! Miss! You want scarves? You need pillows?")
Feeling like I'm living in the Wild West.
Looking down on tourists who spend too much on things that I can get for half of what they do.

This weekend was great, Saturday I relaxed in the afternoon and ran a few errands. In the evening I went with Sophea, my Khmer friend to a party with her boss and co-workers at World Vision to one of their houses. World Vision is a Christian NGO, and her boss is Australian so we had some good old Western food and Christian bonding (we watched Remember the Titans and played Boggle). I helped her some more with the report, we're finishing it on Wednesday, and then I slept over. It was fun to girl chat with her a while, and she had a nice comfortable Western bed. She woke me up at 5AM, and I went back to the house because Sunday Michelle and I went on a hike in Chambok eco-tourism preserve within Kirirom National Park. It was a full day of hiking up and down waterfalls, and it was really great fun. My legs are burning a bit today from being sore, but it was great to get out of PP and into nature. Within a few minutes of being back in Phnom Penh I slipped on the sidewalk, totally wiping out, and have a great big bloodly bruise on my knee now. Only I can spend a day hiking through the jungle, and then get hurt after returning to the city.

Not much else is new, now that my students have finished testing I'm averaging 3 students per class, which is rather annoying. I'm going to play them a song everyday that is either about America or an American state.

I only have to wake up early 8 more days! I leave in 16 days and counting..

It's crazy to me that in less than three weeks, I'm going to be on a plane bound for New York after spending my summer in one of the best and worst places in the world.

This week has gone by so fast, I can't believe it's almost Friday. Tonight we're going to pub quiz again at the Lazy Gecko on Lakeside. I've been helping a Khmer friend for the past few days write a report for World Vision. She has a great and interesting job, and while it's been exhausting helping her for hours write this report, it's been really rewarding, and I will get my name attached "Special thanks to:", which is cool.

Yesterday I found out one of my friends from high school (Beacon) was murdered by her ex-boyfriend. It was a pretty gruesome killing, and it's surprising to me how much it's been bothering me considering I haven't spoken with her since I graduated. It's in the top three most e-mailed stories on CNN, and it throws me for a loop that they're calling Tumi "a woman". It's quite sad and it couldn't have happened to a more gifted and promising girl.

I forgot to post these last week:

http://rutgers.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2187919&l=b97e3&id=8818340
http://rutgers.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2195123&l=c819c&id=8818340

Much better, thank goodness. I ended up laid up for about three days, Wednesday night to Saturday night. It was pretty scary, I had the absolute worst headache I've ever had, to the point I couldn't really focus my eyes or think about anything more than the basics (hunger, thirst, bathroom). But now, save a small reminant of a headache, I'm all better. As for being quarantined, that might not be a bad idea.

I saw the Lao Prime Minister today. It was pretty cool. I accidently drove through his motorcade on my bicycle and thought that there was a high speed chase after me when they put their sirens on.

This week we're testing the students to decide which level they will be in next semester, so classes are only 40 minutes long, and considering they are usually 10 minutes late to begin with, it's going to be an easy breezy week. This weekend Alice and I are going to go to the Museum on Saturday and on Sunday we're going on a nature hike two hours outside Phnom Penh. Then I only have one more weekend to go, not sure what I'll do. The last few days between when school lets out and when I leave will be spent on the beach here in Cambodia, in Sihanoukville. Hopefully Lori's friend Naomi will come and visit and we can lounge together.

Sorry for the lack of posts the past few days, I've been laid up with some sort of exotic Cambodian virus. I thought it was dengue, so I went to SOS yesterday, and $106 later I was told that I've got "some sort of virus" which has left me in bed for the past two days with the most blinding headache I've ever had. The malaria and dengue tests came back negative, however it might be too soon for the dengue to manifest in blood work, if I still feel shit on Monday I have to go back for another test. Oh, Cambodia, how I love thee. (I really do though, I'm just sick of getting sick).