Tuesday, June 30, 2009

T Minus 20 Days and Counting

Well, July is officially here in eight minutes, which means I only have 20 days left in this country. I'm really excited!!!!

I've got all my bills paid off and my insurance and phone service set to cancel on the appropriate days, I've got most everything I need to take with me (with a few exceptions) and my mother hasn't even cried once yet! ...I do have to say that the other day she gave me a hug and told me exactly how many more "good night" hugs I'd get before I leave. I asked if she was putting me on a hug budget...I didn't get an answer.

As far as the doings of leaving go, I only have three more days left at work, which I am enjoying the heck out of. I was hoping to get a leave of absence so I'd have a job to come back to, but as it turns out, my company does not consider the Peace Corps as an acceptable reason to grant a leave of absence--if I were going overseas in a war to kill people and blow stuff up, they'd hold my job indefinitely, but as an ambassador of peace and good will...well, I'm left, at best, to hope for something upon my return. As you can imagine, this did not sit well with me. Ballsy as I am, I skipped all the middlemen and went straight to the CEO of my company and told him how ridiculous this is. He promised me he'd take a look at the policy and see what can be done to change it; while it's too late for me, hopefully there will be changes made at the corporate level that make it easier for people like me to do good things in the future and still come back to a job.
So yeah...I've been thinking about what kind of technology I'm going to take with me. Nearly all the other current Peace Corps Volunteers that are in Cambodia right now have said that having a computer is REALLY nice. When there's nothing to do you can watch movies, play games, and pre-write blogs and letters....I happen to like this idea. Unfortunately, my computer is not agreeing with me. Since I graduated it has gone on this ridiculous decline of functionality and it is little better than a door stop at this point. So...to buy a new one, or not to buy? That is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the field to suffer the paper cuts and torture of pen and paper, or to give way to the rise of technology...

I'm going to be taking my iPod, which I've also heard is almost utterly indispensable, and I'll also be taking the SWEET new Kindle my parents gave me. Oh! And my camera. I've been told that I will be beaten within an inch of my life if I don't take a ridiculous amount of pictures and send them on a semi-regular basis. Other than that, I just need to pick up a couple head lamps to use while riding my bike at night and for reading in bed (so I don't burn down the house, see). Oh...and underwear. :( I have to go buy underwear, and anyone who knows me knows that this is not my favorite thing in the world. In fact, I hate underwear and I hate underwear shopping (any shopping, really) with a burning, flaming passion. It's a good thing I'm getting a headlamp to avoid the whole burning and flaming thing, because I'm pretty sure if you combined my hatred for underwear with an open flame, people in China would feel the rumble from the explosion. Sadly, if they did, I couldn't help them...I'm going to Cambodia, you know...

I'll do it for the cause though....oh, the sacrifices we make...

Pretty soon here I'm going to start my epic whirlwind adventure of picture taking and family member visiting, just so I can make sure I don't get stoned with stones and burned with fire upon my return....and so I can show my new Cambodian family (whomever they may be) what their American family counterparts look like.

Heh...turns out I'm pretty much like Brad and Angelina (only without the whole 'are they going to divorce or not' bit, and much more pizaz). See--they have a habit of adopting kids from every flippin continent....I happen to adopt my own families in every country I've lived in. Every state too. I have Chinese sisters and a Chinese mother, and pretty soon here I'll have a whole Cambodian family! This is EPIC! Somebody call PEOPLE magazine, Brangelina has NOTHIN' on this!!!


Thursday, June 11, 2009

"That cheeky Brit wants me to say WHAT?"

In one of my earlier posts I mentioned going to the library to check out some things to get me prepared for Cambodia. One of those items is a CD to help me learn some of the Khmer language before I get there and have to learn it all in three months.

So...I just have not had time to listen to the CD until now, and let me tell you--I'm lost! There are sounds in that language that I cannot figure out how to make. Not only that, but the guy that put the CD together obviously has never heard of the idea of learning how to say simple things first, then moving on to the harder things.

The first thing it tries to teach is "What nationality are you?" Which would be easy enough if they had at least started with teaching the words for "What" "nationality" and "you", but nooooooo, just the whole flippin sentence with nothing to go on but what it sounds like coming out of my car stereo. And then...ooooh, and then this impertinent British man that is hosting the CD asks you to craft a response--IN KHMER! It's the first lesson! I have no idea how to say ANYTHING let alone craft a response to adequately communicate that I am American.

Lol...I feel I should write this Brit a strongly worded letter.

In other news, I have now 39 days until I depart and I'm getting wickedly excited. I managed to get rid of a bunch of stuff I haven't used in years, and tomorrow I'm going to attempt to clean out my closet (the difficult part being that most of it is filled with other people's things). My goal is to get down to only the things that I really need and desperately want so that I'm not overwhelmed by STUFF when I get back.

That, and you know...holding on to a bunch of crap that I dont' use or need really isn't doing anyone any good.

I think pretty soon here I'm going to start crafting my photo journal to give to my Cambodian family as a present. I want to include lots of pictures of my family, since our families will be forever linked, and also what daily life in America is like for me. I also want to get them some other gifts, but I have no idea what...

I mean...what do you give someone as a way to say, "thanks for being my family for the next two years...."?

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Like a Mobius Strip made of Time

This last month has absolutely flown by, but at the same time it also feels like it hasn't edged forward at all. Just a few weeks ago I was driving across the country, freshly graduated, making my way back the the left coast, and now here I am, waiting out my last 30 days as an active employee at my present job.

Time flies, but also drags...oh how lovely the waiting is.

When I decided to go to China it was like...everything happened in a few short weeks. I got my passport, my visa, and my plane tickets and left. This has been such a long process and now I am literally 46 days away from getting on a plane...I think it's harder because I know when it's all going down.

Right now I'm trying to figure out my packing situation and I'm desperately trying to get together some things I'll need while I'm there. And all this while I STILL haven't unpacked anything from moving home.

I've been having lots of dreams lately. Dreams about conversations with monks, naps in hammocks, and making mosquito traps out of 2 liter bottles (it's true! only requires a 2 liter bottle, water, sugar, and yeast).

And you know the funny thing? Turns out God is helping me prepare for the heat--my normally mild and damp Pacific Northwest has suddenly turned into a scorching inferno intent on breaking all kinds of heat records and making people generally very miserable.

C'est la vie, non?