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