Maria was flying home from Thailand on Monday (lucky), so Lorinda and I experienced the beginning of what would be the oddest week ever. On Monday morning, the power went off at school. I think it was off from 10:30 until after we had all gone home. I've tried to communicate the heat, but just try to think about the heat with no air con or fans. It's really not that bad, except when you're trying to keep 17 students focused on multiplication. It was rough.
Tuesday, we all arrived home from school only to discover the power at our house was out. Neat. A few guys came over to try to figure out the problem. We unplugged everything and it was finally determined that there was a short and that we would have to wait until Wednesday afternoon for an electrician to come fix it. So, we loaded up our electronics and headed for The Shop, which is a cafe/restaurant not far from our home. We plugged in all of our gadgets, ate pizza, and took in all the air con we could before they closed and we had to leave. Maria and I made it through the night ok, but Lorinda didn't sleep because of the heat.
Wednesday afternoon, we arrived home to discover that the problem wasn't a short. It was us not paying our bill. It's hard to pay your bill when it doesn't come. It's also hard to read the shut-off notice when it is taped to a pole across the street. At this point, we wouldn't have power until Thursday. Back to The Shop we went! I wonder if they cared how much electricity we used. We bought more pizza, so I guess they couldn't complain. Lorinda headed to a friends house to stay the night, and Maria and I held down the fort for night #2 in the hot house. A gift straight from Heaven came via Maria's brother sending her all of the goodies to make s'mores. Gas stove = s'more time! We sat on my bed around the campfire coming from our phone's flashlights and enjoyed the taste from home. The power was on Thursday when we got home from school. Praise the Lord! Last night, we were all good for nothing and went to bed early like little old ladies.
Then, we arrive at tonight. Oh, tonight. On the way to the movie theatre, we got caught in some gridlock traffic that was just cray cray, and since traffic rules don't really exist/apply here, you can only imagine how people were trying to get through.
"Merry Elfin' Christmas"
The three-mile journey took us 45 minutes. We got to the movie theatre only to discover Skyfall was sold out. Oh. A tear may have come to my eye. After the week it had been, I was looking forward to going to the movies so much, but my heart will have to wait to experience the awesomeness that is Bond. James Bond (and Craig. Daniel Craig.). Anyway, there hasn't been a decent movie playing in about a month, so all the yanks must have turned out and taken our seats before we got there. Disheartened, we decided to get some dinner instead. Maria was craving some potato wedges, so we headed down to the KFC. Side note, KFC and Dairy Queen are the only American fast food chains here. Cambobo doesn't meet the health standards for McDonald's to come, or so I read.
En route to KFC, the power goes out. Like, the power of the entire City Mall went out. We were about to surrender to the powers at be and just go home, but the power came back on. We went into KFC and then realized their computers were messed up from the power outage, so everything was chaotic. Sweet. After having to establish our dominance in line so no one else would cut in front of us (I was just denied James Bond. Don't mess with me!!), we ordered. We sat down and were brought our fries and potato wedges after a few minutes. That's cool, but where was our Kentucky Fried Chicken? Eventually, after some confusion with the worker, Maria and I got our nuggets. Well, "nuggets." Have you ever eaten a chicken nugget that tasted like water? We have. We saw a worker coming with Lorinda's popcorn chicken, only to watch the popcorn chicken take a lethal plunge to the floor.
Oh, peaches.
We gave up on chicken and decided to go get some ice cream. As we were walking out of KFC, the worker runs up and hands Lorinda her new popcorn chicken. Yay, right?
"This isn't chicken."
No big deal, we thought. We then went to Lucky supermarket to pick up a few things (all of this is still talking place within City Mall). While Maria and Lorinda were selecting some mangos, I witnessed a kid throwing up a massive amount of what looked like some just-eaten Lucky Burger. Oh, and I almost stepped in it. Thinking it was over, I went back over to the girls, told them what happened, and pointed. Guess what? The kid was still puking. So they also had the pleasure of witnessing it. Y'all are welcome.
How much better can this night get? Still counting on ice cream to make everything better, we head over to the stand. I'm trying to decide between vanilla and cheesecake (I'm an animal), and then a very loud American man starts voicing his opinions on the state of US politics to his friend. Lord have mercy. Just when I thought I had managed to escape all of that nonsense, there it was. Being shouted in my direction by a man with very strong opinions. Sir, I was just denied James Bond so I'm gonna need you to check yourself before you wreck yourself.
I chose cheesecake, and it was delicious. Now I'm sitting in my room with Maria, and we are cracking up about all of this. Because we live in Cambodia. And you just have to laugh.
<3M
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