This was my opening line to my mom on the phone when I told her that I just had the first weekend that felt like I was back in the US doing stuff on the weekend in my free time. You will see what I mean.
First, separate shoutout to Caroline and Beth for coming to visit me. Although I saw them for only a short period of time, I hope they had a great time in Cambodia, saw the sights, and learned about why I love it here so much! I am super grateful they took time off of their work schedules to come all the way over here.
The Singletons are here!
After parting ways with the Singletons in Phnom Penh, I came back to my site for some much needed rest after being gone for basically 3 weeks (I also deep cleaned my room, which will not be described in detail, but this is just a PSA to wash your mosquito net more than once a year). A huge festival that is coming up is “Bon Om Tuk”, which is the water festival in Cambodia (although literally translates to celebration of rowing boats). Each province has separate boat races in the provincial town, to then send the best team from the province down to Phnom Penh to race on the official days (this year I think it is November 14, 15, and 16). Those three days are a national holiday with the races in Phnom Penh, but the individual races for the provinces happen before then. Conveniently, I came back to Cambodia just in time to see my province’s boat races. Which was on Saturday and Sunday.
Usually, my weekends consist of going to my Khmer lessons and hanging out at home, but I don’t really go to do something (unless it is something super random or also going to the weekend house). I kind of have to make my own plans (and I am still working on finding a friend in my town my age instead of only going everywhere with bestie aka my 11 year old host brother). I wanted to go to the boat races on Saturday and so I texted the new volunteer in the town if he wanted to go. He said yes, which then resulted in me deciding to bike to the provincial town to see it (it was a lot of biking that day, but worth it). I don’t bike to the provincial town a lot because 1) I am kind of lazy when it comes to the bike and 2) I have a lot of stuff in my town so I try to not have to leave to go somewhere else to get stuff. When we got to the festival, we ran into some French volunteers we know, and from there we kept seeing people we knew! That was why it was a nice way to kick off the weekend. First the new volunteer and I got coffee and then we went to the boat races and then saw people we knew! I only truly watched one or two boat races before turning it into social hour to talk to everyone we knew. I just felt so nice, words can’t even describe it. I then had to HUSTLE home (on my bike) because my host sister told me that we were going out to dinner that night. This is a HUGE deal because my host family never goes out to eat, we always eat dinner at home. So I had to be home on time because this was really special. I got home with a minute to spare and showered quick before then biking to dinner. We had bok lehong and meat skewers before then having hot pot (which I used to love going to get with Judy while I was in college, so again, this is something that just brought back good memories). We ate and hung out and then we went home and I slept so easy, because 1) I ate a lot and 2) I biked over 32 kilometers that day.
The boats going to the starting line (turns out one of the students at my house was in one of these boats)
HOT POT!
The next day, after sleeping so well from the long bike rides, I woke up thinking that I was not going to the boat races again. My coffee lady actually invited me to go with her and her family, but I did not know if that plan would follow through, but I was happy that I already got to go one day! I did some work in the morning, did some laundry, and then also cleaned my room. Rin Da, my coffee lady, texted me and asked if I still wanted to go to the boat races and what time I would want to go. I was actually SO excited that she invited me to go because me going to their coffee stand everyday has turned into a nice friendship. We made plans to go, and then all of a sudden, one of the uncles in the family showed up with his car also in order to take the family to the boat races! I couldn’t believe it that I had two options to go to the water festival today either with my family or my friend. I still went with Rin Da and it was so fun because it was just her and her family. We walked around, watched the boat races, and I saw the new volunteer again. Before heading home we stopped to get dinner, before it got dark, and then I was home! They brought me home and I was so happy of my day. But then it didn’t stop there! My host sister asked if I wanted to go get dinner in the town (which isn’t a far distance) and so the family went back into town. The noodle place was closed, but instead we got sandwiches and also shaved ice dessert. We all sat there and chatted and then my host sister and my niece had a race to see who could finish the fastest, and this made me laugh so hard. We went home again, and I knew I would sleep well because of the long, but incredible day I had.
On Monday, I didn’t have to teach, but I got to see my students, which always makes me so happy (and on Wednesday, I put up a little station with all of the books and flashcards the students like to use, but I also had to put a little sign that says “Ask Teacher Alex before using”…. We will see how long that lasts. While I was at school on Monday, my host sister called me and told me that we had a plan to go to Siem Reap for the day on Tuesday (because it was a holiday). Separately, I went to go see Rin Da on Monday to get coffee. My host sister came to see me there (which she never does) and I got her a tea and then she randomely invited me to get kutiev (Chinese noodle soup) back in town (which means I biked home, just to go back into town in my teacher clothes). We went to my usual spot where I get coconut coffee (and they usually sell food there, I just only get coffee) and we ate kutiev. The family who owns the shop is so nice and when my host sister tried to pay and I tried to pay at the same time, the shop owner wouldn't let us pay because I am a regular and because I am a volunteer. I frequent there a lot, so I know I will be back to buy more, but it just felt like a heartwarming day because everyone was so nice, plus I was coming off of the excitement from the weekend.
Tuesday/Family road trip! Per usual, the family was awake at 4 to cook (I got up at 5). They cooked so much food for the family and I did not realize until we were leaving that everyone in the family was going. This is actually a huge deal because my whole family never goes anywhere all together (let alone usually we do not go places) and so this day was something that was really really special (it is
really hard to put into words but it was incredibly special). We started our drive and then stopped at a coffee shop called 361. This coffee shop is SUPER nice but also in the middle of nowhere, and it looks out onto the rice fields. I had been wanting to go for awhile, and so it was nice and convenient that my car (I was with the younger uncle and aunt) wanted to stop. We kept driving and stopped a at place to buy chicken and we had a family picnic for
breakfast before heading on to the temples. Once there, we parked and walked around and it felt weird at first going to the temple complex not no a tour but just in the family car. The kids and I walked around one of the temples before then getting lost and having to call my host sister to find them once again (don’t worry we found them). We also got our photos taken from one of the picture men there and so now I have a nice family photo to remember the trip by. Once we finished walking around the temple, we drove a lot around the park complex, also buying traditional Khmer cakes from Siem Reap called nom akao and also getting some trinkets. We then drove back towards the temples and parked on the side of the road and had another picnic for lunch. If you go to Siem Reap, you will see this is very common among Khmer family to park on the road and but down their bamboo mat to have a family picnic. We split into two cars after that and my car went back towards Angkor Wat to get our makeup done and dress up in the Khmer traditional costume. They call this also “pre-wedding” outfits because people take photos in them, but families do this as well. These outfits are what Khmer royalty used to wear and so it is very popular for Khmer families to rent the costumes (like we did) to go take photos at the temples. Because we were pressed for time to get home, we went to take photos fast, but it was a nice experience to take photos with my family in the costume. We hurried back, changed into our clothes and then headed home before night hit!
The Khmer Traditional Costume.... I chose pink!
Family Photo
Family in their Khmer Traditional Cosutmes
Our DIY Pictures
(Lyny was trying to be dramatic in the last one)
That has been the past couple of days! I can successfully say that I am a little tired but this tiredness is from doing some really fun things before the school year gets into full swing of things. I am honestly so grateful to all of the people who made the past week special because the family and friends that I have is something that I could not have imagined I would have had when I came to Cambodia.
All is coming back into place for the school year to start: the students at my house who went home for the month of October have come back, the waffle lady across the street from school has come back, I have set up the little coloring and play station at my desk, everything is balanced.
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