home is wherever i'm with you

I'll update this one later with more pictures, but unfortunately, I just realized that I didn't really take a lot over the break. So if you have some, please post them somewhere!

Chilk-fil-a has been a driving force of motivation for me to make it to Christmas and summer breaks. They have always been there for me, but you let me down this time, CFA. You let me down. They should've know that, despite the fact that it was indeed a Sunday, I was coming from the land of no CFA and I should be an exception. It was a crushing disappointment upon arriving back in the states, but don't worry. It did not cast a dark cloud on the whole trip. Just the first couple of minutes. 

The stars aligned and Allison, Shay, and I were together for the first time in over two years. Shay is about to move back to Louisiana, so hopefully we can reunion often!

This also happened: red velvet cheesecake in my mouth so delicious. Thanks, Mrs. Christy!

I got my dad this little doozy, and thanks to the help of Rachel, was able to tell him what it means: Joy, Faith, Peace, Love, Jesus Christ. Don't tell him, but I'm probably going to steal it when I go back.

I roadtripped down to Gonzales to see my best friends and their new baby, Clark! So incredible to see them being amazing parents. Still can't believe we're old enough to have kids. Bye.

Got to spend a lot of time with this guy, and this is the only picture I got. Probably the best one we've ever taken.

Stever drops me off at the airport and we get coffee and have a quick chat about life. Then he takes out his phone and says, "time for our selfie!"

It was a wonderful break that went by entirely too fast. I can't believe I'm already back in Cambodia (and that this is the 5th blog post of the night). I am so blessed and loved far more than I deserve, and I look forward to what the future holds.

M

getting ready for christmas in cambo

Some adventures and happening during the weeks leading up to Christmas break!

One morning, Kim decided to conserve her leg energy by holding on to our tuk tuk.

Carol, our principal, and the TAs from our campus who graduated from their second level of teaching training! So proud of them.

View of the river from behind the Cambodiana hotel.

Pretty sure that moto was about to fall over. I am so impressed every day. 

Knyom jo jet nom cookies!!

We happened upon a demonstration near the monument.

"Do you think it's ok if I sit on this moto that's not mine?"- Kim

I just love her.

My favorite meal at Sister's: bacon, grilled cheese, and homemade fries. 

Found this little gem the other day.

For our Asian Hope Christmas party, we made about a million and a half of these.

It's time to get real: this is what my desk looked like on the last day of school.

The kids did such a great job at their Christmas production!

 Becca and I were the greeters at the AH party. It was great fun!

I'll leave you with this: Becca discovered she had squished/murdered a lizard in her door frame. How long had it been there? We will never know. Our sweet house helper laughed and cleaned it off for her.

adventures in bbq and other things

My fabulous roommate, Kim, decided to get some folk from school together on a Friday night and venture to one of the many, many, many Khmer BBQ places near our house (did I mention there are a lot of them?). We see these restaurants packed every night, but have always been a little wary of going there ourselves. We threw caution to the wind and gave it a try. 

                                      

Here's how it works: you sit down at a table, and each table has it's own little grill. The waiters then bring you plates of raw meats:

Next, you make a face like this because you have no clue where this meat came from or the journey it took from animal to your plate. Also, Becca is a vegetarian so that's why her face is better. 

Kim couldn't wait to fire up the grill so she could try squid. I love Kanha's face in the background!

Sak was the master griller and Rachel did her best to inspire me to try everything.  

Throw on some veggies, and we're in business. No rice at these places!

The one we went to is pretty huge. And they're all outside because you can't exactly have 50 grills operating indoors, knowhatimean?

Fun experience with great friends : )

Teaching 3rd is so much fun. They're little enough to love stuff like this, but they're old enough to not cry all the time and use the bathroom independently. It's the perfect age. 

I love this kid so much.

On the way to Rachel's birthday party.

Cuties : )

I never see sunsets over here, so this was a big treat. Gorgeous.

A shot from our Thanksgiving feast! I had choir practice all day, so I didn't really contribute anything to this beautiful table. All the handiwork of my roommates. Thanksgiving is the best, y'all.

the 6 stages of taking a movie theatre selfie

As promised:

1. Becca's not ready

2. Becca doesn't like the way she's smiling

3. Becca stopped smiling in order to say how weird her hand looked

4. We were both struggling here. Blurry camera work and Becca...I don't know what she's doing.

5. Almost there! Except she took off her 3D glasses.

6. As good as it gets. 

days go by

So I've kind of failed at blogging these past few months, but that just means things have been super busy, right? Here's my attempt to catch up and share what's been going on in Cambo. You have jet lag to thank for these updates.

Cambodia has made me braver in so many ways. One way is hopping on the back of a moto to get iced coffees for everyone. At home, the ratio of motos to cars is approximately 1:34235 (don't quote me on that), but here, it's the opposite. Motos usually outnumber the cars and that makes me feel safer. Plus, that's one of my co-workers, Rachel. She's from Australia and we have lots of good laughs trying to understand each other's version of the English language.

Weekends are the absolute best. Can I get an amen? On this particular Saturday, we headed to brunch at a hard to find, but delicious, cafe called Sisters. They have pumpkin spice pancakes and real bacon. The food usually takes a long time and something will probably be wrong with one or more orders, but it's so good that stuff doesn't even matter. Oh, your fries are taking a long time? That's because she had go get more potatoes at the market. Fresh. After brunch turned into lunch, we headed to Russian market (saa Toul Tom Poung) <--are you impressed? There, we bought scarves and earrings and DVDs from my scarf, earring, and DVD ladies. They remember me and that means good price! After we shopped for a bit, Rachel showed us an ice cream counter behind the market that I didn't know existed. Yum.

I love this picture of her because I managed to capture the pure joy they feel when I whip out the Math games. So much engagement. So much learning! Dr. Vessel, if you're reading this, these are the games I made for Math Methods : )

Not as great as the boxers from last year, but it'll do.

Over Christmas break, the most popular question besides "What are you doing next year?" (I'll get to that later) was "So...what do you eat over there?" The shock that I eat vegetables not has mostly worn off, so here you go. A flour tortilla sprinkled with cheese and topped with a plethora of grilled veggies. And you know what? IT'S DELICIOUS.

In an effort to battle the pollution problem, Kim goes for the ninja sunglasses and scarf combination. Fierce. I'm quite certain all of our lungs have turned solid black. 

Ever since we decided every Friday is iced coffee day, life has just gotten so much better. This sweet lady makes us the best iced coffee I've ever had in Cambo and I love her for it. And it costs 50 cents. I love her for that, too.