Happy New Years!

I’ve been in Cambodia for well over a month now! It feels weird that Seattle is still battling cold weather while I’m sweating in a tank top and skirt. The time difference of fifteen hours isn’t much good for talking back home, I tend to wake up my parents in the wee hours of the morning just to have a chat. Luckily everything else is wonderful and I’m settling into life here quite well.



2010 was a crazy year. I lived in Portland, Kyrgyzstan, traveled across Canada, moved back to Seattle, and now Phnom Penh. I learned a new language and promptly forgot it, I lived without running water, I helped build a house, I had my first year without school since I started pre school, and I bounced back from a long stretch of unemployment. Hopefully 2011 will be a little less eventful (civil strife I’m looking at you) but just as full of amazing opportunities.




For New Years my newest flat mate, my co-worker, and her Dad headed to Siem Reap. Siem Reap is so different than Phnom Penh, designed (at least the sections we were in) for the tourist, with more aggressive panhandling and tuk tuk drivers. However, it quickly becomes clear what draws people to this town, Angkor Wat is a stunning set of ruins. No ropes, no fences, just amazing and intricately carved temples in various states of restoration that you can climb all over.



I spent New Years eve itself sick with food poisoning, what a way to start 2011. We also had ‘Dr. Fish’ massages, where you stick your feet in a tub of water with little feeder fish and they eat away the dead skin. Quite the odd sensation, and hard for someone with as ticklish feet as myself, but fun until they found my bug bite. Then a little painful. But everything else was incredible, and it was nice to get out of Phnom Penh for a bit.



So much so that I'm heading out of town this weekend as well. Happy New Year!

How are you? How are you.

I had my first Khmer lesson Monday. There is something about learning a new language that never fails to make me feel like an infant. You’re completely helpless and don’t understand anything, and at the same time everything is totally new and beautiful and the world is filled with more possibilities than you can comprehend. There is also nothing like being able to appreciate the beauty in a new language, listening to it aesthetically devoid of meaning. Learning the literal translations that sound like poetry. To say tea you say water of the leaves, and for juice it’s the same; water of the pineapple. Something about that tickles my soul.



On the technical side of things pronunciation is difficult, but sentence structure is easy. There is no need for past or future tense, and no conjugations for different genders and people. Of course I could be getting this all wrong, I've only just started. The thing about languages is when I learn a new one my head tries to fill in the gaps with the same experience, other languages I’ve learned. So it goes down to Kyrgyz and then if no Kyrgyz maybe I know it in Russian, if not Russian than Spanish, and finally English. I’ve lost so much (everything except for scattered phrases) of all these languages but I always retain a few things.



How should I describe my experience: Should I tell you of seeing an elephant in the street? Going to the royal palace and seeing these fantastically beautiful buildings with golden roofs against a blue sky? Did I tell you of tasting a mango spleen, the white pearly center almost too sweet against my lips? Of seeing my first Cambodian rain fall gently into a pool while I sat reading on a pavilion without any walls?



This is a nation that rises at dawn, or far before that. With my jetlag I’ve been rising with them, staying in my room listening to the sounds of the city awaken. At night it’s a different story, by nine the streets are emptying, some tuk tuk drivers are asleep in their vehicles. But in the morning before the sky has lit up and warmth has seeped into every thing already things have begun to bustle.



The pictures; the Royal Palace, the Royal Palace, some marionettes in the Russian market, me with fresh passionfruit juice (so delicious), and the view from my bedroom window.

On my way to...Cambodia!

That’s right, I’ve accepted a job in Cambodia and am moving to Phnom Penh.
I’m a little saddened that the sight of books in my carry-on (admittedly a lot of books), were so unfamiliar on the scanner that I had to get my bag searched. Despite that little mishap I’ve made it through airport security unscathed and am waiting for my flight to Cambodia! I have just one layover, in Seoul, and I’m worried that with only 55 minutes I’m cutting it too close, but hopefully things will work out. Excitedly, I also got a window seat!

I still don’t understand airlines policy of just one checked bag. Me and everyone around me has a tiny suitcase for the overhead bin, which means of course, that the overhead bin will be too full and we’ll just check our bags for free at the gate. And now for the 18 hours of flight time ahead of me I’m mostly looking forward to getting a nap. Although there appears to be a baby on this flight as well.

Goodbye cold weather, snow, and hello to heat in December.

Ice Cream

Whats a girl to do when her CSA box is full of stone fruits? Make sorbet of course.

Though, if we're being honest, considering I've made six flavors in the last five days I was just looking for another excuse to use my ice cream maker. Which I love. So far: blackberry (picked them myself), spicy chocolate, stone fruit sorbet (vegan friendly!), peanut butter (paired with a brownie is possibly the best thing ever), canteloupe, and chocolate with amaretto. How did I not already own this delightful machine?






The only problem? Giving it away before I stuff myself with frozen dairy goodness.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

I am of the persuasion that sometimes you have to work to enjoy a book. It may not be the most captivating thing, but even if I’m not engrossed after the first fifty pages I will solider on (unless I hate it so much and have no optimism, see “Eat, Pray, Love”). And based on reviews of Larrson’s “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” (though I prefer the Swedish title of “Men Who Hate Women”) I thought I had a big payoff coming after the first couple of hundred pages. And this book is long, my copy was a standard paperback clocking in at almost 700 pages. Even though the middle was enjoyable, I don’t think it was worth it.

Larrson has three main issues that he tries to work into this thriller. The first, violence against women, he does fairly well with. The female protagonist is believable, and though the scenes of graphic rape and the way she consequently deals with it are graphic and disturbing, you’re still rooting for Lisbeth Salander. There are a lot of men who hate women in this book, and the male protagonist is painted as a passive man taking whatever women wants him (and for a middle aged man and convict there seem to be a lot) into bed, and letting them totally dictate the relationship. Violence against women is a major theme, one dealt with realistically and well worked into the central plot.

The second issue is financial corruption among major corporations. Readers might read with glee after all of America’s wall street messes recently, but I did not find this particularly enjoyable. It reads like an average Joe on a soapbox (at one point the fictional book the fictional character wrote is extensively quoted on the problems with lax financial investigative journalism) with a juvenile revenge fantasy. The antagonist in this subplot (dealt with the first and last hundred pages, a murder mystery takes the middle) is never fleshed into an actual character and instead seems to be corruption incarnate.

The third issue is Nazism. In this the Nazi characters are simply categorized as insane, and that’s left as that. There is no exploration of the Swedish collective ideology on the manner, or what lead to their beliefs. Instead, it is an idea that is never quite fleshed out.

The writing in the middle, what I believe the book should have been edited out to, is a standard mystery. I hesitate to use the word thriller as times when the protagonists are in any danger is very brief. Was that part a good read? Yes. Was it the epic family saga or great literary gemstone all the buzz is about? I don’t think so. For me this book was poorly edited, mediocre writing, and never lived out as the great book I think it could have been. If you’re to read this, I’d cut out a fourth on either end. The middle is quite enjoyable. How much of this can be blamed on the translation I don't know.

Ann Arbor

My friends were awesome and hosted us in Ann Arbor for a night, took us around to see the city (they knit sweaters for trees here), a mural of Poe, and the university.

Toronto

Friendly Manitoba lives up to its slogan

Manitoba was amazing. We left this morning after being there for a wonderful 6 days. No WWOOF farm could host us, so we ended up staying with a friend of our first hosts who are building a sustainable house out of straw and clay. They already had the walls with the straw part up, but Nick and I sifted clay and then making plaster, and then applying the plaster to the walls. It was really interesting to see in progress and work with rather than just read about it in Dwell.


This family was so kind, they weren’t even signed up to deal with crazy WWOOFers and still took us in. The couple’s children who all mostly live in Winnipeg volunteered to show us around the city. Winnipeg is relatively tiny, but pretty charming. We walked around the historic area, took in some green juice at a vegan café, wandered around the riverfront, and made dinner. Heading back to the country we wandered down to our trailer by the moonlight, and woke up to heavy fog. The house itself was in an undeveloped meadow covered with wildflowers , our hosts hope to take up beekeeping.



We stayed in a trailer on the riverfront part of the property, and ate tasty all from scratch food including sprouted wheat germ bread. Also, I got to see some buffalo!

Land of the Living Skies

A turn for the better! After our disastrous round in Alberta, we quickly sped to Saskatchewan. Land of the living skies. Or, (the motto I prefer), Saskatchewan, naturally. Our current stop isn't WWOOF at all, but a friend of my dog's breeder. We’re boarding at one of the premier Newfoundland kennels worldwide, which means that there are puppies!

11 to be precise. Ranging from 5 weeks to 8 week s and all totally adorable. We’re doing a lot of window washing (which we’re bad at), and weeding (which we’re good at all. Not only that but we’ve lined up our next spot to stay in Manitoba where we will be plastering! Not getting plastered, keep in mind.

We’re sitting in a coffee shop in Regina, which is pronounced quite awkwardly. My day gets made when I hear someone say ‘eh’, and I’m learning tricks like a little Listerine makes a dogs coat look real good. Also got to smash up an old dog door with a hammer this morning, which was tons of fun. Regina seems like a nice city, an oasis of trees in this prairie. Just getting to our hosts require about 10 miles on gravel roads. Nick and I tried to take a walk only to find that the landscape didn’t change a bit, which was nice and odd.

Why I hate Alberta

Or, perhaps more accurately, why does Alberta hate me?

The morning started off great in BC, a farewell pancake breakfast and some recommendations from our wonderful host. We began driving, through beautiful BC, over mountains, and stopping at the world’s largest truck for lunch. Or rather, the grocery store next to the world’s largest truck.

Then we crossed the border. A call to our hosts at our designated meeting spot simply got a response of other WWOOFers who had no clue how to get to the place. We wandered around lost on the gravel roads for two hours in the sun, before finally finding the place. As we stopped to open the gate the car behind us stopped, and out stepped a fake tanned woman in a small pink halter. Not the German proprietress I had expected, but our host nonetheless. I introduced myself, showed her the e-mails we had send confirming, but she was not happy to see us.

As I had not e-mailed her yesterday to confirm a third time she claimed she had assumed we were no shows and had a couple from German coming in tomorrow (I know I plan my adventures across oceans in one day and leave the next) and was too full for us. All she had was a tent. I asked if we could at least have the tent for the night, and would head out in the morning. She responded that there were bears in the area, and we wouldn’t be able to shower. I explained that I had gone three months without a shower just fine. She said no.

So, although the stereotype is WWOOFers not showing up apparently it works the other way as well. We kept driving, not knowing what to do, and headed up towards Calgary. Our first town was full, a rodeo was happening, so we continued on, finally stopping at this strip mall of a place. Naturally my debit card didn’t work, and when I called the bank to authorize it they had no one on staff. Luckily Nick was able to get his to work at a different location and we’ve got a place for the night. But nowhere to go tomorrow.

We’ve gone for home cooked meals of chili, Thai peanut noodles, chocolate caked from scratch, to my dinner of poptarts and fries. The fast food joint was all out of salad. Here’s hoping that we can get out of this province and into something better before too long. But of course, this is just a bit of a plot twist in our journey and with any luck we will be on to a wonderful host soon enough.