cute baby!

Alexa and I creepily watched this baby play for about an hour from 

the cafe across the street. Too cute!

Riel

Although it may seem like I am rich the exchange rate is actually

4,000 riel to 1 US dollar so this is about $1.28.

fruit shakes

my favorite drink here... mango fruit shakes.... the secret 

ingredient is sweetened condensed milk which i hear is very good for you.

why buy a mini-van...

when entire families can easily be transported on motorbikes??

 makes car seats seem a little over protective...

fire hazard?

There hasn't been a black out yet and this is what electrical wires look like here!

phnom penh

My job this summer is to work as a student trip leader but my trips have not begun yet so for the last week I have been working "set-up" in the capitol of Cambodia, Phnom Penh.  This has consisted of running random errands and putting together some reading material for the program I will be running.  And getting those materials printed into a nice little bound booklet... slightly reminiscent of the assignments of my paralegal days actually, expect this print shop was a lot hotter than the copy room at Kirkland & Ellis LLP and everyone was speaking Khmer.

My co-worker Alexa has been working set-up and hanging out with me this week.  We have explored the Central Market, the Russian Market, the night market, the US Embassy, massage parlors and many of the restaurants Phnom Penh has to offer.  What has made exploring even more interesting is that the tuk tuk (taxi) drivers never seem to know where they are going.  So we now have our own map and have learned how to say left, right and straight in Khmer... and it's up to us to get where we want to go.

Alexa sporting one of her new purchases... why Old Navy didn't

pick up this design for their Fourth of July line I'll never know.

Not exactly sure where this next week will bring me but most likely to the province of Kampong Cham to help out at an orphanage and see the house that my students and I will be staying in when we do our village home-stay and service project.

lunch

 

Yes, that is a tarantula. No, I am not as happy as I look to have a live tarantula on my hand.  

But not quite as unhappy as I was while eating his friend!

 

There is a video that proves that I ate this guy but my internet is not fast enough at the moment to load it.  You'll just have to trust me for now.  And for those who may be wondering... tarantulas don't taste like chicken, more like a french fry... but not a french fry I would choose to have supersized.

MONKEY!!!

he peed for my picture

tuk tuk

How we get around town...it's amazing what can be pulled by a motorbike here!

floating village

Not a lot of time to write but here are some pictures from my day trip down a river past amazing floating villages.  Houses are built on/as rafts so when the rainy season comes and the water rises they just rise as well!  Rustic Pathways has their own boat this year and will be running trips every week stopping in one of the villages to do community service.  I am not working on that trip so I am glad I got a day on the boat before the students arrive!

rambutan

a delicious but weird looking fruit!

cambodian street art!

the side of a graffiti artist's workspace

bamboo railroad

In Battambang there is some railway track that was built decades ago but no longer has trains running on it... that doesn't stop Cambodians from using it though!  Some people who live near the track have made these bamboo trains that use a motor to cart you down the track and back.  People used to be able to travel across Cambodia using the bamboo railroad but China is now reworking the track to use for freight so this tourist attraction will only be around for a few more years!  Glad I got to experience it.

There is only one track so when you encounter another cart coming in the other direction, whoever has the lighter load has to get off and take their cart apart for the other to pass.

Alexa and I

more info: BBC News: Bamboo Railroad

cambodia!!

I have arrived in my new home (for the next 3 months)!  Phnom Penh is an overwhelming but interesting city.  The crazy traffic, ever changing smells and crowded markets are total sensory overload.  Traffic example:

tuk tuk ride from the airport to the hotel

I think I am really going to enjoy my time here a lot and partly because I am working with an awesome group of people:

Team Cambodia!



Tomorrow morning we are heading off for a few days to explore more of Cambodia and see some of the villages we will be working in this summer and part of the journey will be by boat from Battambang to Siem Riep so I will have plenty of pictures to share in a few days.  Until then here are a few more!

Me and Ashleigh on the tuk tuk

My first fish served the right way since leaving Pohnpei 1 year ago... yum!

Me with Yi, a fellow staffer (he's helping me learn Khmer!)

Ashleigh and Alexa playing with Sambo, a 51 year old elephant on display daily in Phnom Penh... he seemed sad, kind of like the Central Park horses in NYC

wait... what am i doing?

I just realized I never really said what I am doing here in Southeast Asia for the summer.  I have a job with Rustic Pathways, which is a company that runs teen service and adventure trips around the world.  I have been in staff training for the last week in Udohn Thani, Thailand and tomorrow I am heading off to Cambodia to begin setting up for the programs I will be working on.  I will be working on 2 different programs called From the Ground Up and the Cambodia Orphanage Project.  Check out Rustic Pathways Cambodia to read about them.  I am excited to get to Cambodia and explore the country, hopefully learn some Khmer and get ready for my first group to arrive at the end of June.  Will share some pictures as I take them!

busy day for pictures!

Buddhist Temple, Udohn Thani

For Marsha Zuniga

Market in Udohn Thani

beans covered in sugar and decorated... yummy!

Nightclub in Udohn Thani

Monday June 6th, 2011

egg toss!

Rustic Pathways Ricefields Base, Udohn Thani

Staff training games!  Bonding and learning to do with our kids when we have free time.

Sunday June 5th, 2011

first orphanage trip

Udohn Thani Home for Girls, Thailand

Saturday June 4th, 2011

night one

My team in night market in Udohn Thani, Thailand

On my first night at training Rustic Pathways sent us on a scavenger hunt through a night market to learn how to write our own receipts and identify dangers our teens could find in the markets.  One of the tasks was to get a picture with a tattoo artist... we cheated and figured they would believe this guy was a tattoo artist because he had so many.

Friday June 3rd