Cambo-a-go-go!

Hello again, everybody! Forgive me for being AWOL this past month...what with indulging myself in Vietnamese cuisine, finishing a comparative politics course, and rewriting the lyrics to 12 Days of Christmas PacRim style for a holiday party (12 tons of mutton, 8 billion temples, yada yada yada), I've been a little distracted. But that is no excuse for not blogging! So I will try to update you on the past few weeks.

1. My vacation locale, allegedly "the most beautiful beach in the world," looked remarkably like Huntington Beach. i.e., there was a boardwalk, lots of sunburnt Americans, and you couldn't swim in the water because it was filthy. Buh dum bump. (Oh, and it rained the whole time. So that was more like Tacoma.) haha.. so those of you who thought I was relaxing on a sunny beachside resort, well, you can go ahead and keep that image in your head. It sounds nice.

2. Hey Dad, remember when you were an aging rock star for Halloween? Well, I met a real one! His name is Leroy. We walked past our hostel's bar and a cover band was playing, and we sat down just as they were taking their break. Suddenly, the lead singer walks over and says "Hey, is this seat taken?" and of course we are like nope! This guy had crazy blonde hair and a cowboy hat, with aviator sunglasses. But what really did it was the see-through mesh muscle shirt and leather pants. Apparently, he owns a Thai restaurant on Sunset Blvd. called ''Toi," which is in Thai but lots of French think it means "Us" and so his restaurant is popular with the French. And he has been married five times and kissed Mick Jagger. So he says. It was really great because we saw his band at a different venue the very next night, and when he saw us he ran over to our table and let us all yell GLORRRRIIA into the mic (the band was playing "Gloria¨). FUN!

3. I bought a hammock for $3. It seemed like a fantastic deal until I realized I had no place to hang it and you can´t really sleep wherever you want in third world countries, unless your money is in your sock, but you don´t wear socks because it´s so hot. Why didn´t I come to this conclusion earlier! I would use it as a mosquito net but the mosquitoes here are dangerously small and crafty.

4. I was recently informed that the two main side effects of my malaria pills are:
1. Extremely vivid dreams, and
2. Heightened anxiety.
At least now I have an excuse for being neurotic! Most of us are enjoying the vivid dreams part, though...several of us have already had Obama dreams in which he is saving the world (or interviewing students for a barista job, in one girl´s case). Overall we are quite an imaginative group.

So Cambodia!! Well, we are basically here to see the temples of ancient Angkor, a region in which the Khmer civilization flourished in the 9th-11th centuries (I think?). Looks like it´s straight out of jungle book...as you can see from the pictures. There are also a lot of little kids running around trying to sell you trinkets all the time... i already have bracelets coming out the wazoo so I have taken to giving them granola bars instead of buying their goods. It´s pretty hard sometimes...seeing all the poverty. But there are lots of good programs in place to help kids like these get an education, so that makes me feel a bit better. Still tough though, whew!!

Yesterday this one girl kept following poor Jeff* around and really would not let him get out of buying a postcard.

(*Note: Jeff Pearson is the other Jeff. He has a slouchy swagger, a smoking habit, and a fondness for TinTin.)

This was the exchange:
Girl: Buy postcards!
Jeff: No thanks.
Girl: Why!
Jeff: I have no money.
Girl: Why!
Jeff: Because I don´t!
Girl: Why!
Jeff: Look, I just don´t have any, I´m sorry.
Girl: (suddenly) My name is Obama!
Jeff: Sorry, I still have no money.
Girl: No money, no money! You know why you have no girlfriend? Because you have no money!
Lisa: (interrupts) Who says he doesn´t have a girlfriend? This is his girlfriend. (pointing to me. This is a lie.)
Jeff: If I give my girlfriend a postcard, she´ll break up with me.
Me: Yeah. I hate postcards.
Girl: (huffy) NO MONEY NO GIRLFRIEND! CHEAP!

So yeah, I didn´t feel like giving her a granola bar. Although the Obama bit was a nice touch...

I know it sounds terrible but if you were pestered ALL THE TIME by these kids you would get a bit skeptical, too. Anyway, I´m sure she was making bank because she was working at the bottleneck entrance to Angkor Wat, which gets tons of tourists. Plus she was clean and had jewelry on. So, no granola bar. I save them for the tinier kids, anyway.


Augh! I was supposed to be researching for my essay and all I have done is blog. No harm! I guess I will put pictures up and call it a night...I promise to be better about updating. So, here are some temple pics! The boy in the hole, which we found on a hike, is Zen* (*Note: Zen talks like a cowboy, eats like a hyena, and giggles when he gets in trouble, which is often.)

Hm, pictures are having trouble. I will fix that tomorrow. Sorry for the delay! More soon!