So welcome to Pachume ben 2.0 new version of last year’s version. So this is a big Cambodian Holliday where you must worship your dead ancestors with food. My friend liz from pp came in to chill and go to the wat with my family this made them supper happy. This year my host mom tried to teach me and liz though she deff gave up on me way sooner then liz on how to make something called onsom jarook and onsom jake one is pork the other banana rolled up and steamed in a banana leaf. However you have to tie them just right and you tie it with dried leafs and me cooking anything is a disaster but my host mom never believed me before. In the past she asked me what I could cook and I joked around and said mie which is khmer version or roman noodles and she laughed at that for a few days she was like but all you have to do is boil water I was like that’s pretty much all I can do. Anyways she gave me 15 mins and when I was joking around with her bc the way I tied them up was really messy I kept telling her how it was the most beautiful more beautiful then hers and she was laughing and then would un tie mine and re due them all. She had a pretty strict standard with them bc we had to bring them to the wat to give to the monks. The thing about khmer holidays that sucks is that all men do is sit around and get drunk and women must slave to make sure they are having a good time while preparing time consuming things to give to dead people really! For the record the food doest get wasted they give it to the orphans at the wat. Anyways after being silently banned from making onsom me and liz went for a walk played some Frisbee and just had a good time. That night however my host sister jentu wanted us to sleep over o yea I should mention the day be4 we were at her selling stall helping her aka being eye soars and her giving us free clothes good times it was then we promised a sleepover the next night. We did not do to much that night she made me french-fries yumm and me and liz just watched a movie bc the next morning we had to go to the wat for the worshiping. The next morning we get dressed in what I feel r okay wat clothes but by jentus standards not so. So we go get food coffee go to jentu’s stall and just talk with her. When all of a sudden this guy comes up and starts to compare me and liz who is prettier then the other (this always happens when there are two white people in the same place). Most of the time I just ignore it however jentu is way crazier then even the rest of my family and have to say is very protective over me my host mom always tells me how much bong loves me anyways she turns to this dude and tells him off that if we wanted his option we would ask then she turns to both of us and says we are both pretty don’t listen to him and then goes off on him some more in Khmer I don’t understand he runs away embarrassed lost mad face. Then she looks at us again and she gets that look in her eye the same one she got before I had my wedding pictures taken and is telling us how r shirts where not pretty and to come back to her house now I knew this could lead to no good. She whips out a bunch of white Khmer wedding shirts of course im first up in this dress up gone wrong. I have this crazy beaded shirt with the added benefit of a bib next liz is up the shirt is way to big for her so my host sister pins it. I go up to look in a mirror and decided I can let her go this far I make her change my shirt to one with out a bib not that its all that better but some how it was. An hour ago jentee told us she was on her way with the tuk tuk mean while that hour took her to get her hair and makeup done I swear Cambodians… they finally make it and we head to the wat where we blow through in like 10 mins giving of all the money this year I was on it with small bills my host mom wanted me to take lots of pictures so I did. Only on special occasion is this one part of the pagoda grounds open where it had this really huge Buddha and awesome pictures it was really cool. The monk spoke to me telling me he didt know eng I think my host mom was nervous the whole time either me and liz would do something stupid I think we did a pretty good job of keeping up. Before we left to go to the 2nd wat where my grandmamma was I had to go inside and pay for a monk to spit on me for 2 reason one it is the year of the rabbit Chinese zodiac so I was supposed to get it done a while ago and the 2nd bc my family thinks I don’t have good luck that’s bc I have really weird luck I don’t like to say bad just not good. So while in America its pretty rude to spit on someone however in Cambodia I pay for this privilege and hoping I will have some good luck though its questionable. So we leave and go to another wat down the rd not as nice but that’s where my grandmamma and churey were ther was a big lake with a cool statue more food and orphan kids at this one. But soon we hop back on said tuk tuk to head to the mt where the monkeys are except unbeknown to me we were going far into the mt where their was another watt. However this time it was so my grandmamma could go find the monk that went to the hospital im still not sure we found said monk but we did stumble onto another Cambodian awkward moment. So there is this food offering ceremony for the monks with a small group of people nothing like I have done before but the person running in a Buddhist monk was soo excited. First she goes up to liz I was still not down the stairs yet and ask in eng this 70 year old nun did speak eng so odd about where was liz from and she told her and then made her get up and sit in the front to help with what in catholic religion would be like alter boy stuff with out the training. I wanted to avoid joining that situation like the plague no such luck so I tried to lie saying I was Khmer some how it just was not believable so I to became some sort of Buddhist alter boy. My host mom now looked like an anxiety attack was going to ensue with watching us about to screw up this all up having no idea whats going on anything we messed up not my fault I was forced. So there was us having to put hands on this plate to hand off to the monk lift up a table where the monks where sitting. Next was poring water into this thing of rice with a cigarette in it don’t understand the spirituality behind a cigarette then they came around with I guess holy oil that I had to rub on my head into my hair. Keep in mind all of this stuff is said in sand script on top of it nothing is in Khmer I guess u can say its like if church was still preached in Latin. After this we had to eat with everyone and the nun came over to talk with me. She wanted me to come to her house today to eat rice with her I had to tell her I was busy this lead her to ask for my phone number. I know your thinking what I did what’s the worse that can happen if I give some old nun my phone number ill have you know she has called or texted me everyday since. Well more fairly her grandson so im trying to figure out if this is a set up for me to marry her grandson or what jentee think is the nuns of like an office sort of a deal and she wants money from me assuming im rich. I don’t think I can keep her at bay to much longer so at some point ill find out her motive. I doubt some 70 year old nun wants to be my friend man even nuns have alter or motives. Until next time peace out from the other side of the world.
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