I'm Back

I finally made it back! Sorry, I've not posted in so long. I finally just got internet back at my site. I had to make the long journey into town on my bike to download the software so that my internet phone could connect to my new computer I got in America. Thus, once again, from my small village I am connected to the world per internet. I must say, though, I did kind of enjoy those few weeks of ignorance and not feeling like I'm missing out on something back home because there was no way for me to know what I was missing!

The flight home went very smooth. However, at the Cedar Rapids airport I was not allowed to take on peanut butter (a gift for the new volunteers in my province), lotion (gift for people in my village) and toothpaste. Apparently, these are all dangerous liquids (yes, peanut butter is classified as a liquid) that should not be allowed on planes. However, I did get one tube of toothpaste through the security check, but I bet if they would have checked my bags for a third time they would have found it! At first it wasn't so great to be back, but that was when I arrived in Vietnam. However, once I crossed into Cambodia into my province it actually started to feel good to be back. I could then understand the language and the rice is so green right now making travel through my province absolutely beautiful!

Since I've been back everything has essentially fallen back into place. The comforts of home seem like a dream quickly forgot. It's amazing how easily you adapt. However, things like ants in my bed (and everywhere for that matter), constantly sweating, and doing my laundry by hand are still as annoying as ever.

School has started and I've established a routine similar to my routine last year. However, I wanted to go to the health center more this year so I asked the school director to schedule some of my classes in the afternoon. However, per usual, this didn't really work out like I had originally envisioned. I'm teaching 17 hours and my morning schedule makes it impossible for me to go the health center. So, I've decided to wait a bit and then rearrange my schedule so that it suits me better!

I've also started training for the Angkor Wat Half Marathon in December. Last time I ran a half I swore I would train for it. However, the last few weeks it has rained every day and pretty much all day leaving the roads a muddy mess and making it enough of an annoyance I haven't run. So, now I'm a couple weeks behind on my training, but I still think I'm going to try to run it. I ran this weekend and I was fine. So, I'll keep you updated about how that goes. I'm sure there will be some entertaining stories that will follow because no one runs in my village (actually, there is a teacher that I've heard runs, but I've never seen him doing it) There are 4 of us in my province running the 1/2 and some pretty funny stories have emerged. One of my friends was running- in his own little world listening to music and thinking- when a little kid with a plastic gun jumped out of no where and scared the living daylights out of him! He said everyone was laughing because he was so startled, but he was so angry that he started lecturing the kid as to why "foreigners don't like guns being pointed at them".....I thought it too funny because I could imagine how it all went down so clearly.

Well..I need to get going, but I'll post again soon. I have some really funny stories to post that I was too busy/lazy to post from before I left for America! Also, I do promise to post more per many peoples' request....new year resolution in September!

OH, I will leave you with a VERY funny Cambodia proverb I heard this weekend: "If you are shy with your teacher you will never learn anything, if you are shy with your wife you will never have any kids".....something to think about.....