it's a pretty good crowd for a saturday

Taking a break from the yearbook, cover letter, lesson plans, etc. Enter Billy Joel's greatest hits and a new blog post. Y'all, it's May, and just like that, my two years are up. All of my things are sold to new teachers coming for next year, I've started purging unnecessary odds and ends from my bedroom and classroom, and at the end of this month I'll get on a plane. Last year, I was the only teacher one staying. This year, I'm the only one leaving.

I'm not entirely sure what I think about anything at this point. I'm incredibly excited to go home, though. I do know that much. I don't think I'm letting myself think about the wonderful people I'll be leaving behind. Not yet. I've got to make it though four more weeks of school without getting weepy. Becca came up to my room this morning and caught me packing. I claimed I was de-cluttering, but it's essentially the first stages of packing.

Please pray for me as I attempt to navigate the choppy waters known as repatriation. I will no longer be considered a foreigner, but I'm definitely going to feel like one in America for a while. I am looking forward to so many things, and being four weeks out, it's now just a waiting game. My dad used to tell me not to wish my life away. I would usually hear that after I yelled something dramatic like, "I can't wait till I'm 16 and I can go anywhere I want!" I don't want to wish this last month away, but at the same time, I'm so ready to go.

But anyway, here are some happenings of late:

I had a wonderful birthday, and my class managed to surprise me again this year. Then, my gal pals and I went for Italian and ice cream. It was lovely.

One day for snack, octopus happened. 

 A new cafe called Joma opened up nearby. It's kind of like McAlister's, but no sweet tea. This area of the city is booming, and I can't wait to see how it continues to grow. 

 The rain is starting to come regularly, so hopefully that means an end to a blistering hot season. When the generator is on at school, we can only use the fans. The kids don't complain, but they are pretty entertaining. 

We went out for Korean food the other night, and I continue to be amazed with the variety of choices in one meal.

 Last night was a real treat! I went to see A Midsummer Night's Dream which was put on by the Phnom Penh Players at a restaurant/outdoor theatre. Mangos kept falling from the trees and I feared for my head. It rained on and off, but in true Cambodia fashion, ponchos were quickly distributed all around. The play ended at 10, which is lightyears beyond my bedtime, but it was still a lovely little adventure. 

We just got home from taking traditional Khmer photos, but that'll have to wait until next time.

Countdown to America: 28 days

<3M

to the place i belong

I guess I'm on a roll. When we got back from our vacation, we noticed our neighbors had set up their fish-drying table outside our house. Yummy. Personal space here is not a thing. 

Our first day back at school after the vacation, we walked out to this little fella. 

Let's call him Ratatouille. 

That night, my room became the favorite hangout of every bee within a five-mile radius. It was bizzare. Thankfully, I had a full can of Raid handy and I went to battle. Here's some of the carnage: 

Last week we had a little fun with graphing. Did I mention how much I love third grade?

The first rain of the year happened Friday morning, marking the start of Rainy Season. Hooray for less dust in the air! When it rains here, it pours. Every single time. 

Thank you to everyone who has donated school supplies for our school! Crayola markers and Elmer's glue sticks make our teacher hearts SO happy! 

Peace and blessings, y'all.

M

ten thousand words swarm round my head

Still on hiatus from the yearbook, so here we go! I'm a vegetarian. By association. Sort of. Unless there is bacon or a delicious caesar chicken salad, I am living a veggie life here in the Kingdom. There are several reasons for this. I live with a vegetarian and she has slowly inceptioned my brain into never wanting to buy meat. It's ok, though, because the things that I've seen out and about the streets of this bustling city make me not want to buy meat, anyway. So this vegetarian diet has actually been pretty great for me because I have to, you know, eat vegetables every day. 

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, the veggie quesadilla:

All it takes is some delicious fresh-baked tortillas, a little oil, and all the veggies and cheese your little heart desires. The special ingredient: Taco Bell seasoning. Man oh man, it's good. 

Speaking of healthy eating, one of my students brought me some candy from "Chinese!"

Things have been a little dusty lately in the Penh, and this is partly due to the construction happening near our school. It's almost done, thank goodness! Here's Kim and I trying to preserve the cleanliness of our lungs on the way home:

This is an extremely busy road that was completely blocked off for ten days. No big. 

In my last post, I talked about the gloriousness of Brown Coffee opening on our side of town, well guess what y'all! A Gloria Jeans opened up just down the street! It's like the Australian Starbucks. I think. Anyway, Toul Kork is really coming along. We hardly have to fight crazy traffic and go into town anymore, and it's wonderful.

For spelling practice, we made a trilingual visual dictionary! The kids love it, I love it, and it works. Hooray! The second is Korean, and the third is Khmer. Also, how cute are those pictures? I love third grade. 

Lately, our journey home has included walking through a business/people's yards because it was too difficult for our tuk tuk to get to our school. We also buy our water from the school, so Kim was a beast one day and carried it all the way to the street. 

Never a dull moment, y'all. On Thursday afternoons Becca and I have the same planning hour, so we spend it in her peaceful, quiet, cold classroom. We had just sat down to get started when I noticed water dripping down her wall. I should also take a moment to explain that, due to the construction, the water at school had been turned off all day. We were making do with the water reserves on the roof. Ok back to the present. Water then began to drip down all of her walls and even out of the ceiling. She ran to get Mr. Pov, and as soon as she left it started pouring out of everywhere! We were all scrambling trying to get as much stuff as we could out of her room, but most of it got soaked. We couldn't believe what just happened, but we just had to laugh. It's Cambo, and things rarely go as planned.

Vacation time! We went to Kep (pronounced Kipe) for four days of rest and relaxation. I spent a lot of time lying around, reading, and breathing in clean air. It was wonderful. We stayed in a bungalow right on the water. I watched the sunrise and sunset every day, and that was awesome in itself because I never see that in Phnom Penh.

On the last night, we had dinner at this wonderful little place I can't remember the name of. It was in an old French colonial-style house and had a beautiful view. The food was absolutely delicious, and there was even a ping pong table!

It was a great trip, although we felt more tired than we did before! Oh well. I suppose the rest of this school year is going to be crazy.

10 weeks and counting,

M

the night is darkest before the dawn

Welp, it's been a minute since I've written, but that's not anything new. You know I can't blog unless I'm supposed to be doing something else. Today, it's the yearbook. I'm in charge of making it this year and I can't work on it for another minute. Fortunately for you, my faithful readers, that means an update from Cambo. I will continue to annoy you with my declarations and shock of how fast the time is going by. March is almost over! Tomorrow is 10 weeks until I set foot on my beloved American soil, and I feel like it's going to be here in a blink of an eye. This is both good and not-so-good, you see. I am extremely excited to get myself back to Louisiana and begin a whole new adventure there, but I know I will leave a huge piece of my heart here in Cambobo. I've still got many days to go, so I'll save the sappy farewell post for later on. Trying to focus on the present and not get too ahead of myself. And now for some fun from earlier this year:

Symmetry lesson that turned out to be really fun!

Groundbreaking ceremony for the new AHIS campus! This is an exciting time for our little school and I can't wait to see the progress.

A very western and very clean shopping center opened up very (very sorry) close to our house, and that means we got a Brown Coffee just for us! It was an exciting day. 

For Chinese New Year, we went to a casino called Naga World and had British high tea. 

Definitely my favorite "things on motos" picture!

All of the AHIS staff at the groundbreaking

We spent a fun night out celebrating Becca's birthday, and it began with a little cardio at Olympic stadium. We were hoping to do an outdoor aerobics class there, but there was a soccer game happening. Still got some cool views of the city, though. 

Aaaaand I spotted a tennis match happening! This was exciting and sad at the same time. 

Wasn't sad for long, because we ended up going to the riverfront for aerobics and look! A little mini-tennis situation was happening. There were a couple of coaches out here teaching kids how to play, and after I stood awkwardly on the side for a minute, one of the coaches offered to hit with me. Thank you, sir, you just made my life complete. There were several spectators amused watching me play, and it was so great. I hadn't played tennis in months and I felt like my soul rejoiced. I can't wait to get back home and play all the time : )

Next, we ate dinner at a restaurant with grass on the table. 

The grass made me order hummus and veggies. 

Becca comes into my class every day and leads a group during Guided Reading, and all of my students love her and wanted to surprise her. This is also the most adorable picture I have of them!

Happiness all around!

M

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