it's more than a feeling

Hello, readers! 

Here's a quick update about what's been going on in the far east (or, depending on where you are, near west):

We made shape monsters and had so much fun. It was a pretty fun week. We also made 3D shapes with marshmallows and toothpicks. Yay Math!

School got cancelled one day and we jumped for joy : ) Pretty sure that was the most excited any of us had been in a long time. It's the equivalent of a bad weather day back home. 

When it rains, it floods. When it floods, I can't see the potholes when I'm biking. When I can't see the potholes, my bike sometimes takes an unexpected dip into a pothole. I then find myself here, getting my tire fixed.

And now for some vacation pictures! We had a week off of school so we headed to Sihanoukville, a beach town about 4 hours away. As we were locking up our house, we see all this happening in the street. To you, it looks like a truck with a bunch of chairs in it. To us, it says a wedding is about to be set up right next to your house. The timing of our trip couldn't have been more perfect. This guy was happy to smile for my picture, and we were happy to be getting out of town.

Happy wedding, neighbors! Bye.

This cow strolled up and down the street on a regular basis. This was a breakfast our first day.

And now for the story of how we were robbed sort of.

It was our first full day there, so we decided to explore the local shops and then walk down to the beach. Well, my purchase was a new swimsuit. It will be important to remember this.

We were walking down a hilly road to get to the nice beach, and I had my bag looped around my wrist. I was also holding onto the bag. My subconscious didn't want to be robbed, either. Anyway, a moto came up from and I was their target. They went for the bag, I jerked my arm back, they kept going. I've told y'all for years that I have excellent reflexes*.

Kim was walking in front of me, and she turned and saw what happened. She then poised herself to execute an attack on the moto. The moto was all wibbly wobbly (timey wimey) and was kind of going straight towards her. She pushed them away and was pulled down to the road somehow. The moto thieves regained balance and sped off.

This all happened in about 3 seconds.

We washed off Kim's battle wounds and headed back to the hotel on the first tuk tuk that came by. We had to laugh, because if the guy had gotten away with my bag, he would have discovered it contained a black bikini.

I kind of wish he had gotten away with it.

*Spidey Sense

Of course we took a picture right after it happened. I document everything awesome. Upon returning to our hotel, we noticed this sign on the door. 

The trip was totally redeemed later that week when we spend a glorious day on Independence Beach. We had it all to ourselves for most of the day, and it was just perfect.

I loved the Little Mermaidish water.

Every adjective that describes perfection.

"I like my ice manually crushed." -Kim

Kim and Becca had a great time snorkeling. I was busy trying not to die from nausea. Remind me of this next time I think getting on a small boat is a good idea.

All good things come to an end, and before we knew it, we were back at school. That week was crazy because the roads around our school were flooded for the whole week. It was nice taking a tuk tuk every day, though. Not gonna complain about that. Some photos from our journey:

He didn't seem to mind the floods. Happy guy.

Roadside food carts were still open for business.

I took this from the second floor of school. Yikes.

Welp, that's all for now.

Looking forward to seeing all of your faces soon,

M

oceans apart day after day

I've been back for about 5 weeks now, and things are grand. The first four weeks of school went by in about 3 seconds. Is this what it's like growing up? Time just goes by faster and faster? I'm going to be 80 before I know it, so I should just eat all the cupcakes I want.

Hard at work. So thankful for manipulatives!

Life here is so good. Teaching is way easier the second year! As is living in Cambobo. It's such a relief not to be wondering about everything all the time. It's been great seeing friends from last year and making new ones. This weekend, I went to two restaurants I frequented last year, and both places remembered my order! I'm probably the only person who orders a cheese pizza with no basil (pesto at the other place)...but still. It's nice to be remembered and welcomed back.

It's also nice not to feel like I'm going to melt into a puddle at any second. I have definitely acclimated to the heat and it feels so nice. After a very cold summer in Louisiana, my body is happy to be back in the land of no AC. We have it at school, though, thank goodness!

As thankful as I am for technology, I oftentimes find myself wishing for the time before computers, iPads, and all the other gadgets that are life-consumers. When people still knew how to speak eloquently and pour their hearts into beautifully written letters that took a really long time to arrive. When time was spent reading books, knitting, and building sleighs (just finished reading a Little House book).

I've been watching a lot of Dr. Who lately (almost done with David Tennant's episodes...I don't want to talk about it), and I keep waiting for the TARDIS to show up and whisk me away. Just like in the Don't Blink episode where she wakes up in 1907 or whenever. I shouldn't talk about that episode because it gave me nightmares.

Moving on.

My housemate Kim just posted a blog about the Khmer language, so I'm now inspired to share some of what I've learned, as well. Prepare to be impressed. These are all things I can say from memory:

"Som nom donut muy?"  [Can I have one donut?]

"Som kichi pradupcup?" [Can I borrow the stapler?]

"Knyom kle-in" [I'm hungry]

"Jake" [banana]

"Ah-ha" [food]

"At dey ah koon" [No thank you]

"Knyom ak me-in" [I don't have]

I'm practically fluent. Reading Khmer is a whole nother story. Sinuon and the kids will occasionally try to teach me some things, but I know I'll never catch on. Appreciate the alphabet, people.

A few weeks ago, I had plans to meet Sarah for dinner, and we wanted to try a new pizza place near Russian market. We met at 6 and I asked my tuk tuk driver to come back at 7:30. Welp, we ordered our pizza (cheese for me, BBQ chicken for her) and we waited. About an hour later, the manager person came out and said, "Um, we're out of BBQ sauce so would you like something else?" We just laughed because, of course, an hour after you order food here is when you find out you need to change it. Anywho, we got our pizzas at about 7:25. Touen was already there to pick us up, and I didn't want to make him wait because he doesn't like being out late. It was amusing because in our dinner conversation, we had talked about how tuk tuks need tables or something so you can work or eat whilst riding. It was time to go, so we got our pizzas take-away and hopped in for our first-ever tuk tuk dining experience.

This week was also Meet the Teacher Night at school. It feels like 5 years ago, and it hasn't even been a week! I don't know what I'd do with out my wonderful TA, Sinuon. I just love her!

I keep thinking about a Khmer song that translates to "God is good all the time." I can kind of sing it, but I'm not going to attempt to spell out the words because I know they'll be way off!

Anyway, God is good. All the time.

Peace and blessings,

M

only shooting stars break the mold

Goodbyes.

The majority are perfectly fine. Hugs, smiles, pictures, love yous, have a safe trips...but then there are the goodbyes where you know you will feel incomplete until you are with this person again. For a little while, the thought of leaving sounds completely insane. Why am I doing this, again? Why am I about to get on a plane and leave this person...again? Everyone I know is engaged or pregnant and I'm going to miss another year of celebrations...again? It's different for each person I've watched walk away, but man oh man. Then you find yourself sitting at Strawns and you suddenly burst into tears. That's the only time I've cried all summer, which is about a 3456% improvement from last summer. Yay progress!

Hopefully my cry face wasn't this terrible.

Even still, I am constantly reminded that this is all a part of a greater plan. This has been the fastest summer of my life, but it never really felt like summer. Probably because I haven't sweated the ENTIRE TIME I've been here. That's right, folks. Move to Cambodia and then Louisiana will be a breeze! I've been cold every day and I used to never get cold. Ask Kaiti Rees. I'm actually looking forward to the Southeast Asian heat.

Speaking of Southeast Asia, this summer made me realize I did a horrible job of telling people where I actually am in the world. It's ok if you thought I was in Colombia...a lot of people did. Alas, I am not to be found in South America, but rather, on the whole other side of the planet!

Here's your World Geography lesson for today: Cambodia borders Thailand and Vietnam. It's not incredibly far from Australia. It's about a 5 hour flight to South Korea.

Colombia, however, is in South America, NOT Asia.

So, there you go. The time difference is 12 hours because I'm on the other side of the planet. If you have any more questions, please holla.

I need to stop procrastinating and finish packing and checking things off my list, so I'll end here. I'll write more about summer once I get back to my beloved Cambobo and get back into a routine.

Thank you all for a wonderful summer! I am loved and blessed far more than I deserve.

M

heads carolina

This is the story of three gals who hopped in the TARDIS and journeyed east to the mythical land of North Carolina. We took this trip for several reasons. I wanted to see Maria, the three of us had never been to NC, and we couldn't afford to go to Europe. Technically, we will never be able to afford Europe, so I'll just say we couldn't trick ourselves into thinking we could afford Europe this year.

Sugar Daddies: we are now accepting applications.

We began our 15-hour drive early Monday morning and quickly realized that's a reeeeealllly long time to be in a car. After lots of pit stops and a really intense Disney princess car concert, we arrived a little after midnight.

On Tuesday, we explored Greensboro. One of our stops was Anthropologie. Maria is sitting on a $900 chair, and I'm sitting on a nasty leather couch with a $4,000 price tag. I felt like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. They weren't mean, but they certainly knew I didn't belong in there!

On Wednesday morning, we headed to Asheville. We toured the gorgeous Biltmore house and I was even able to trick my mind into thinking it was a European castle. Note for future visitors: use the bathroom before you drive up the curvy, bumpy roads to park and then have to walk even further to get to the house. I may have shoved a senior citizen or two out of my way in order to reach the bathrooms which were hidden and only accessible by a bridge. A bridge.

We spent the rest of the day exploring shops and making friends with all the dogs. Battery Park Book Exchange is a used book store where you can hang out with your dog! They also have ballin' furniture and free ice cream if you buy a book.

We then went to Ten Thousand Villages, a non-profit store that sells goods from all over the world. It's like the Do Good store here. We found some stuff from Cambodia! We also found this adorable puppy.

That night, the stars aligned and I was reunited with my darling friend, Megan. I hadn't seen her since last summer and getting to spend time with her was so good for my soul.

Thursday morning rocked our worlds. Thank to Megan's suggestion and TripAdvisor, we found ourselves in Tupelo Honey Cafe. This turned out to be the greatest decision we ever made. Probably ever will make. From now on, every great decision will be deciding to go there again and again. The menu doesn't have a ton of options, but that's just fine because everything is so dang good.

I got breakfast pie and potatoes. And those biscuits. And homemade blackberry jam. 

I had never tasted food until I partook in this meal. 

"I feel like the term 'food baby' has never applied more than it does now. I even pregnant lady waddled to the bathroom and back. I'm in so much pain but it hurts so good."

Allison's "snack" from the day before. Food shaming.

I love you Mariar!

It turned out to be a crazy fun adventure I'm so glad I got to take. Lorinda- you're next! I'm gonna make it to South Africa one day, I promise. 

Beautiful sunset over the Mississippi. 

And now for some enjoyable moments that are blog-appropriate:

"Church vans and creeper vans are the same. It's unfortunate."

"That ain't no po po! He's got a burger in one hand and a cell phone in the other."

"I don't think it smells like cookies. It smells like fried ketchup."

"Is Mississippi where mother nature uses the bathroom?"

"I fee like I've been in the car my whole life."

"I'm poor and don't know what to do with my life--feels like 25."

Much to their enjoyment, I spent a lot of time wondering. I'm blaming car fever.

"Why are road signs green?"
"Why do lightning bugs light up?"
"What if armpit hair was like hair on your head?"
"What if I were my own source of power?"

M

these small moments

[Before you read this, know both my dad and Molly are ok.]

My day began when I woke up to a phone call from my dad. He had been in a car wreck and was in an ambulance on the way to a hospital in Shreveport. All his tests came back clear, and he was released to go home a few hours later. Now he is at home recovering and we are just praying it's only whiplash.

Dad was headed to play golf when a car coming the opposite direction swerved into his lane. I'm not sure how he avoided a head-on collision, but in that moment, he jerked the wheel and saved his life. I spent all day yesterday thinking about what would have happened if he had been checking his phone, getting a drink of Coke, adjusting the volume on the radio...but you just can't think about how bad something could have been. We can only rejoice that God protected him in that second and he got his car out of the way.

While we were in the hospital, he was telling everyone who came in our room about the miracle that had taken place. He told each person to go tell their friends and family how God had protected him that morning. It was pretty incredible because my dad has had a lot of close calls, and God must have pretty big plans for his life because He has brought him through each and every time.

As my mom and I were on the way to the hospital, I had to explain to her that, if I had been in Cambodia, I would have wanted to know she was in the car on the way to the hospital to see dad. That I didn't want to be notified two hours later after all the tests were done. That's the kind of thing you have to think about when you live on the other side of the planet and you feel completely helpless during times like these.

Once we got him home and situated with the newspaper and ESPN, our dog had an accident. Molly (who is old and not in the best of health) fell and hit her head pretty hard on the floor. I really thought she was going to pass away on our kitchen floor, but I put her and my mom in the car and headed to her vet, who is located about an hour away from our house. We couldn't just leave my dad home alone so my incredible friend, Kenny, came to our house to keep him company.

We got to the vet and Molly had started to respond to us again. The vet said he wanted to keep her for a few days and he would keep us updated. As of last night, Molly is on the mend, but it might take a while to get back to her state of normal. On the way home, I kept wondering what the third bad thing would be.

Was it when I dumped my tea all over the floorboard of my mom's car?

Kenny and I decided to go see a movie, and for some reason I thought Monster's University was a good choice. It was a great movie, but I think what I really needed was a few hours of distraction in the form of a movie. What we got were all kinds of distractions from everyone in the theatre. The guy to the right of me's reaction of everything was, "That's weird!" I wanted to tell his girlfriend she should go for somebody with a bigger vocabulary. The guy in front of us was making a lot of noise, and the people sitting next to Kenny were eating snacks with loud wrappers and saying things out loud like, "I'm gonna have to open this with my teeth!"

There was also a baby who screamed bloody murder for approximately 23 minutes.

All we could do was shake our heads and smile. You know, after the desire to yell at everyone went away.

After the movie, we went to Kenny's house and hung out with his family. After we told the story of our day, I joked about something bad happening at their house because I was there. I shouldn't have done that because a bottle of wine ended of broken and all over their kitchen floor.

Peaches.

Lord, thank you for getting us through yesterday and for providing moments of laughter and love to ease the moments of fear. We are blessed.

M

you can get what you want or you can just get old

Packing time must mean blogging time.

My roommates and I are packing up our whole house. I am moving to another house in Phnom Penh, Maria is moving back to North Carolina, and Lorinda is moving back to South Africa.

[Meredith: 1 Mosquito: 0]

Even my classroom moved. I am now located on the second floor. There's just been a lot of packing happening. I am choosing not to deal with the fact that I have to leave my beautiful blue bedroom, and I am instead hoping my new landlords will be on board with me painting.

I am also choosing not to deal with the fact that my two incredible roommates won't be returning with me in July. I'll probably have a good cry on my long flight, and people can just think I'm really into whatever movie I'm watching. I feel like next year I'll be starting all over, but I'm excited. I'm excited for our new staff and my three new roommates. I'm just not ready to let go of life as I know it.

Can I just give a shout out to Billy Joel? His greatest hits album has gotten me through so much.

Saturday night, we depart for South Korea, where we'll be staying for a few days with Maria's friend who teaches there. I think I'll arrive in the states on Wednesday.

I don't mean to sound all Debbie Downer. I really am excited about this summer. I'm just too exhausted to express said excitement.

Soooo you should probably watch this now.

Debbie Downer & Lindsay Lohan Infamous SNL Blooper Sketch - watch more funny videos

<3Mere

happy birthday to the ground

In my younger days (freshman year of college), I probably thought turning 25 would mean I would be about to have my second baby. 

Now, I'm like

I definitely want to get married, have kids, the whole shebang. Last night I had a nightmare about my wedding dress not fitting and I had to wear a blue one. The blue dress was totally awesome, but the point is that I'm technically dreaming about my future wedding. And dreaming about all that is great. For now, I've got this little guy:

                                   

I had always been fascinated with travel, and I always said I wanted to go all over the world, but I can't remember exactly when it clicked that I could actually do all these things I had dreamt of. Maybe it was after a break up when I decided to throw caution to the wind and get on a plane bound for Egypt. Or when, on the way home, Timmy and I had a five-hour layover in Paris. We got in a cab and hopped out at the Eiffel Tower and took pictures on my disposable camera. It was so exhilarating. A new passion was discovered, and that trip sent my life in a completely different direction. I still remember Papaw Buggy telling me, "Heaven's closer than Egypt!" Mamaw Frances bought me that dress. 

The next summer, I was touring the Eiffel Tower and saw Britney Spears. No one else did. Then Timmy told everyone on our trip that he saw Britney Spears. Typical. Also, Timmy, you're welcome because that is an excellent photo of you <3

I just remembered this post is supposed to be about my birthday.

I woke up to a lovely surprise in the kitchen. My incredibly creative and crafty family had sent this banner. The bottom row is pictures of everyone with signs spelling out "happy birthday." It was a happy way to start the day, indeed. I also had my usual peanut butter and honey toast- this time with candles on top! Throughout the day, I got to open notes from friends and family every half-hour. That was awesome, and I wish that could happen every day. My kids enjoyed reminding me to open the notes.

That afternoon, my kids and Sinuon had another surprise planned for me. One of their gifts was two cans of Coke wrapped up. They know Ms. Gore so well. We also had cake! It was a great time. And then I tried to segue from the party to the Math lesson. Yeah...

Nighttime came, and it was Italian time! Several friends got to come enjoy delicious fine dining, and it was a fun night together. Afterwards, I went home and went to bed because I'm a teacher and can't stay up past 9:30. 

It was a great day. Well, two days, because as I was going to sleep, all you westerners were just waking up and realizing what a great day it was! Pretty awesome. 

I'll leave you with this. 'merica:

Countdown to USA: 39 days

M

and the moon is the only light we'll see

There's just something about a rainy day.

A rainy day in a tuk tuk, with a bicycle shoved in it, trying to fight its way through the crazy streets of the country I've come to love. I just had a rather wonderful experience, and thus ends my blog writer's block. A few people (fans) have asked when the next post was coming, and I just didn't know. There are just days like today when all the wheels turn in the same direction and out come the words.

So things have been great, and relatively normal. Here are some blips of the last two months:

Lorinda walks in and asks us, "Did your president just die?" The answer was no, of course. It was some crazy internet rumor or something. It definitely freaked us out, though, and reminded me I needed to register with the US Embassy here (still haven't...oops).

I got really sunburned one day and my kids turned me into a Science experiment where they observed my very red skin and its journey back to pasty white.

My kids had Drama during February, and they put on a really cool play about the plague. They are wonderful performers, and I had fun putting on their stage makeup.

We get Scholastic book orders, which is awesome, and one kid ordered a magic kit. It came with a whoopee cushion. The entire third and fourth grades experienced it together, and Maria and I laughed so hard we cried. It was worse because of how hard we were trying not to laugh. You know, because we're mature or whatever.

And now for an update from Gavin:

My eating habits have drastically changed. It helps that there's not any fast food and exercise is a part of my day whether I want it to be or not. Maria and Lorinda are good influences. They encourage me to try new vegetables, I encourage them to eat more oreos. It's a good balance. Maria gets a kick out of me not knowing anything about fruits and vegetables outside of apples and corn. She made fun of me so hard when I picked up these green things and asked, "is this the zucchini?"

It wasn't. I now know that that is something called "winter melon." In my defense, the zucchini wasn't labeled! I'm learning. Please notice how big my hands look in that picture.

Lots more has happened, but my computer is being dumb and I can't deal. Hopefully it won't be another two months before you hear about how awesome my birthday was.

"My rule of thumb is, if you feel like something's crawling on you, it probably is." -Maria

Truer words have never been spoken.

M

restless hearts sleep alone tonight

The first thing I want to say is how much I can't wait to enjoy a delicious strawberry Icee. 

Moving on.

We just finished a unit on life cycles of different insects, and I was really proud of the posters the kiddos made. We are still working on the whole "group work" thing, but they were delegating tasks and solving their own problems with little interference from me, so yay! 

 My kids are currently obsessed with learning cursive. It's not in our curriculum, and we definitely don't have extra time to spare, so I've taught them a little during their "Fun Friday" time. In return, I asked Rosanara to show me how to write my name in Khmer. I wanted to show them how they see cursive like I see Khmer (except they can still read cursive for the most part). My attempt is on the top. I think it says "Necru (female teacher) Gore," but I'm not entirely sure...

And now for an update from Gavin:

 This post is coming to you because of the events of yesterday. It was just another boring day out and about in the streets of Phnom Penh...

Our first stop was Boston Books, which is sadly being dwindled to nothing so the whole building can become Steve's Steakhouse. I'm mad at you, Steve. Now where will we get affordable books for our classroom? Maria was hoping to find a book called Bunnicula, and what do you know, it was right there on top of the pile! Our first win for the day. I got a few for my class as well aaaaaand a couple for me because I have a problem. There aren't enough books in my bedroom and I think it's affecting my sleep. 

Next, we headed to Daughter's for lunch and pedicures. For lunch, I bet you can guess what I ordered. That's right, the same thing I get every single time because I am still a picky child. My caesar salad was delicious. I love my pickiness because I am rarely disappointed. It works. Maria may want to adopt my method of ordering after her meal yesterday. She decided to try one of the specials of "grilled vegetables with feta cheese," and this was what she got:

That is, in fact, grilled vegetables with feta, but it took her about five seconds to eat it and you had to use binoculars to find the cheese. The moral of this story is: it pays to be picky. From there, we decided to walk to the riverfront so Maria could get a wrap at a Lebanese restaurant. On the way, we passed the memorial built for the King's father, whose funeral ceremonies were last week.

Another something we saw on our walk was a group of tourists. Like, they put the tour in tourists. Matching sun hats, vests, t-shirts, everything. I was walking straight towards them and didn't have the heart to whip out my camera, but don't worry, we saw them again later that day. Maria got her wrap and we headed to Brown so I could get some coffee. While we were there, I realized I say, "Do it to it, Lars" at least twice a week. I also realized Maria has never once understood that reference. Oh, peaches. Just in case any of you didn't get that, locate a copy of Heavyweights IMMEDIATELY.

For now, just watch this:

From Brown, we wanted to go to Sorya Mall so we could get some DVDs and go to Lucky (a grocery store). Of course, when we don't want a tuk tuk we get asked about a million times, but when we do want one, it's like they don't exist. We walked for a ways and finally got a ride. Our Sorya experience was great! We got all the seasons of Downton Abbey and I got seasons 1 and 2 of Sherlock. Happy happy happy.

And then.

They came, I saw, I photographed.

Leaving Sorya meant entering a sea of tuk tuk drivers bidding for our business. I usually let Maria handle the negotiating because she's better at it, but today I guess I felt brave. Here's how it works, a driver will approach you and usher you to his tuk tuk without setting a price. They don't know that we live here, so we are regularly asked to pay 3x what we will end up paying. So, one of the drivers began doing the ushering business, but I stood my ground. I told him to come back to we could haggle. I said, "Toul Kork. Two dollar half." All the drivers around me began to groan on behalf of this one driver, then they all tried to chip in with their thoughts. They were asking six dollars, like we were in Times Square and I wanted to drive three feet.

My favorite quote from that conversation: "It's Chinese New Year, so it costs more." I called shenanigans on that one and said that doesn't change anything. The thing is, Maria and I have become quite stubborn when it comes to these drivers. We will walk because we refuse to pay more than we should. Finally, one driver agreed to $2.50, and off we went. On the way, we saw the same tourist group again. Lolz.

And then.

The Toul Kork roundabout is about one mile from our house, and this is where our driver decided to pull over. He said, "2.50 gets you to here, any further will cost $4.00."

Lord. Have. Mercy.

I asked God to take control of my vocabulary and my actions in that moment, because my first reaction wouldn't have been becoming of a Christian lady. From the two of us, he probably was the recipient of the two most terrifying teacher looks in all of Cambodia. We said that's fine, we'll walk. We paid, got out, and strutted across that busy roundabout because we weren't going to let that man rip us off. We are carrying our bags and thinking a mile isn't that bad when we happen across some men sitting outside a restaurant. We get beckoned, whistled, kissed at...it was disgusting. I don't know what came over me. Maybe it's the fact that this has happened to me about seven thousand times too many in my almost 25 years, and my quota was full. I'm not even sure what I yelled at them, but they stopped. I am woman hear me roar!

Then we saw three unleavened rats.

What would Jesus have done in that situation, I wondered. "I don't think Jesus was ever whistled at on the streets of Bethlehem."- Maria

We decided we needed a picture of how this day made us feel. You can choose one, because we obviously were confused about our emotions.

<3 M