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.
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?"
[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.
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.
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.
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
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.
