First day a.k.a. really cute kids a.k.a. extremely hot a.k.a. holy spiders

So I arrived in Cambodia safely (obviously) and I miss all of you!!!! I hope everyone's doing well :)

I have to say it's a miracle I made it to Cambodia. Not because I have any weird phobias of flying or anything, but because the places I stopped along the way are so beautiful I didn't want to leave. We stopped in Anchorage at 4:15 am local time, which is 7:15 am EST. I was half asleep and exhausted from the first leg of the flight (6 hours) and it took me a minute to even register what I saw. I always heard Alaska was beautiful, but the glaciers are amazing. I can't even describe it. The moon was setting and the sun was rising, and the glaciers reflected everything. Anchorage was buried in the middle of them, so tiny I couldn't see it till we were about to land.

We spent an hour in Anchorage and then we took off for Taipei. At this point, the sun had almost risen and we basically followed the sunrise across the Pacific to Taipei. Honestly I didn't know much about Taipei before this trip and I still don't. But they have the coolest mountains I have ever seen. We crested in just above the clouds, basically level with the side of the mountains. I would seriously give anything to go back and be able to hike there. We landed at 6:30 local time, which I think is 3:30 EST. I was in Taipei for a half hour- long enough to meet two Southern gentlemen named Chris and Matt who decided to quit life in the States for awhile and travel Southeast Asia. They said they would come visit Palm Tree if they make it to Phnom Penh- God help us if they actually do.

Then we took off for Phnom Penh and landed at about 9:50 local time. I gave myself the whole silent lecture about not making a spectacle of myself and trying to blend in as I went through customs. A few minutes later, I chased my suitcase the entire way around the baggage belt and almost knocked a few people over in the process. So much for blending in.

I met Mike and Alisa and Phearin and T, and we all went back to Palm Tree. Mike and Alisa are two of the other volunteers, Phearin is our volunteer supervisor, and T is the best driver ever- and I mean ever. The streets here are insane, there are no lines or stop signs- I don't know how he does it.

When we arrived, I got to meet the kids- both my arrival and my meeting the kids happened in one motion. I don't think there's anything I can say about the kids that won't sound cliche. That being said, prepare yourself because Í'm about to be cliche.

The kids at Palm Tree are so sweet it almost breaks my heart. They hugged me and asked me what my name was, and none of them can say it- it's adorable. In the past few days, Í've heard every variation on my name from Mona to Banana (the boy who calls me Banana is also the one who keeps running off with my iPod- he's going to be a rockstar, I'm calling it now).

I started teaching on the third day- so yesterday. The kids all stand up when a teacher comes in and say “Good morning teacher” and they won’t sit down till you tell them to. Instead of raising their hands, they stand to answer questions. It’s really cute and would totally never fly in the States. In the States, kids don’t seem to appreciate school nearly as much as the rest of the world. Although these kids appreciate everything. Pon (one of my favorites but shhh because I'm not supposed to have favorites) walked around today with a cardboard box.

The kids here also don’t have the same discretion that we have about what not to touch. They’ll go around dragging dead spiders everywhere and they killed a rat the other day, and it’s sometimes a little disturbing for us. I’m sure they’re much more hygienic than other children in Cambodia who do not have the same opportunities, but still, we were brought up totally different. One kid was literally sitting on a table playing with matches today. No joke.

Also the issue at Palm Tree is not water but electric. Apparently if you have the AC on and the shower on at the same time, it blows a fuse. Who knew? So now we can shower without getting halfway through and having it turn off, which believe me is a major plus. But Palm Tree turns off the power for half the day, and it’s never the same half, so the trick is figuring out when the power is going to go off so that you don’t end up in the shower in the dark. Unfortunately, the four days that I’ve been here, it seems like the best time to turn off the power is in the middle of the day when it’s hottest, and then we have no A/C. The kids here don’t notice how hot it is because they grew up with it and are used to it, but the rest of us pretty much melt. I went through at least four bottles of water a day just for sweat purposes. I know, I’m so classy and attractive here :P

Anyway I'm typing in an Internet cafe so I need to cut this short. I hope you're all doing well and I'll write more later!!

Love from Cambodia,

Monica