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