You know when you are like o I am on a diet but a friend then invites u to some fast food restraunt and in ur state of denial you like o I can go and not eat their but u know that you most deff are. Why I bring this analogy up is bc I was soooooo soo excited to see my host parents and I thought I could just go and not be sad that I don’t live their anymore but that was denial just like the fat kid denying them selves fast food. So I went to Phnom Penh first and then left bc I cant go straight from my site their and met up with my friend liz and her older host brother you can tell I have been in Cambodia to long I have to mention that he is her older host brother or in Cambodia bong haha. Due to the fact he was with us I didn’t have to do so much work to get the taxi etc however it took 5 hours for the taxi to fill up so I didn’t get into prey chore until 7 Friday night and there was still the extra excitement if my host parents really understood I was coming bc me and them have a really good charades system but that system is pretty useless over the phone lucky they actually understood and were waiting up for me my host mom was so excited it was cute she ran up and hugged me I mention this bc Cambodians r not really huggers at least I was no excepting it just planning a normal bow. First things they told me were I have more black spots now I am no longer fat and I speak more Khmer just a normal way to start off seeing someone again right haha its like all the things u want to tell someone when u have not seen them in a while they just blurt out in the first 5 mins. My host mom is not like most Khmer woman and what I mean by this she is totally cool with me teaching her in appropriate things or having crazy convos with me, which I would never have at site however sometimes I do wonder how I mange to explain these things to her but lets just saying when she wants to ask further about some of the topics we talk about she will do some charades and its to funny use your imagination to explain the way Americans are and how someone might act it out. It was nice to have real conversations all weekend long to all the people that live around us also sit around and just have random convos with me and even though I know it must be hard to sit and have me understand Khmer they still do and that’s one thing that makes me sort of really upset about not having that at my site now with my family. I guess its really hard for me to explain what a human being has to offer or the little things u can just pick up on when your around them so while I may never be able to have you understand in words if you spend a few mins with both my families you would see the difference. I also noticed that when I got to site that my blogs became a lot less its not so much me getting used to Cambodia but having less random conversations to report on but I deiced I am going to put forth more effort to find some crazy khmer people to chat it up with at site it may not be my family but there are a lot of people around site that are always talking to me so a lot of opportunity to reach out. Anyways back to my trip I got to see all the market people I was friends with they were happy to see me one of my freinds eggo is prego 3 months so she was pretty excited to tell me about that they were all telling me I should try to transfer back to prey chore if only in peace corps let you choose haha I was like yea its not really up to me but Cambodians love when u are just happy like they always assume that being American I would be home sick and not like Cambodia but when I tell them how much I love Cambodia this makes them so happy. On a down word note the café lady I wrote about somewhere in the blog archives stop selling coffee when I told my host mom I was like I will cry jkjk but I think my host mom thought I was really that sad I have to learn how to say just kidding. Its crazy to go back to a place to see everything is pretty much the same I went back to the school a lot of the kids still remember me I played some soccer I guess according to the volunteer who lives in prey chore the kids ask about me and I get random text messages from them although I have no idea who they are. My house in prey chore is a place that a lot of kids came to bc we had the photo booth so I met a lot of people this way I really miss that aspect of where I lived but I guess its always a give and take bc I also lived in the middle of metal work shop 101 now I live in a more peaceful environment but you know me I am a crazy New Yorker I will take the loud and the crazy over the peaceful and calm quite any day of the week. My host dad really likes to play dos sigh aka American hacky sack but when I lived with them I did not know what it was however now that I play it everyday I had the dos sigh with me and got him to play it was pretty chill my host dad in prey chore is the opposite of that of my dad at site he is just way more loud and crazy willing to talk to me I don’t make him nervous where my host dad at site is scared of me doest really like to say more then 2 words to me I used to sort of be like humm maybe I can have him get used to me but now I think its his personality bc he doest really talk to my sibling either. That morning before I left my mom spent the whole time showing me pictures of all these weddings and things and she even had some pictures from when her and my host dad were really young it was pretty cool to see at one point I asked if she had wedding pictures and she just turned and said total straight face pol pot like not even I don’t have but just that and I was like dam but she had pictures from that time period she has picture of her self pregnant and what not she was really beautiful when she was younger I am sure who ever comes to see me will get a trip to prey chore and can see it for your self. Sunday I had to head back my plan was just to do what I always do stand on some high way waving down a taxi but my host mom thought this was to funny and was like no u can sit in the drive way we can get you a taxi well in the end after an hour or so of waiting I had to go to my original plan and get a rd side taxi. I felt it was a more roomy taxi ride compared to how I deal most times. I had to take two separate taxis once I got into phnom penh I didn’t go find a taxi ride just walked around a bit got some food and then I went into lucky supper market. I really wanted to pick some stuff to take back to site however I could not afford anything in that place Cambodians always tell me how expensive supper markets are but I had no idea I wanted to buy some peanut butter to tide me over till I get some of my xmas gifts and a tiny tiny jar cost 8 dollars and cereal was 6 granted I understand this stuff has to be shipped but one would think there has to be some Asian brands of this stuff so I can pay a normal price bc Cambodian can’t afford the stuff they were selling it really must just be for the tourist bc I just don’t understand how they could keep said place open if it was ment for Cambodians. Well after my adventure to prey chore it was a nice way to look back and see what I have done since coming to Cambodia and keep my self focus of what I want to get done but also to remind me that even with limited skills in many things I was able to really connect with people their and I want to make sure to do the same at site.
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