adjustments

Im in town again- my school is on holiday for three days this week because of 'bon om duk' which means water festival in Khmer. So far over my three day vacation in the provincial town I have repeatedly stuffed myself full of western food, hung out with other PCVs, celebrated Halloween by watching scary movies on tv and eating snake from a road side stand (our plan was to eat spiders, but they were out), and gotten a manicure. When I was getting the manicure I asked the girl who was doing it to choose my color for me because I was curious what the outcome would be... Now I have what I have deemed 'Barbie Nails'. My finger nails are painted a bright pink covered in silver sparkles. Im pretty sure the glint can be seen from miles away.

I have gotten pretty good at getting reliable transportation to and from my site- Basically I stand at a crossroads in my town until a sturdy looking pickup truck rolls along. I ask if its going to my provincial town, hop in the back, and hope for the best. The ride in/back only costs the equivalent of a dollar, but at one point on one of my journies I was sandwiched in between a fruit seller's daily quota of pinapples, three Khmer women going to town, and four sacks of rice for about an hour of the journey. Cheap? Yes. Dangerous? Not really- unless the pinapples go air-borne. Beautiful? Of course: I get full 360 degree views of the jungle and rice fields surrounding my village. Dusty and hot? Very. However, it allows me ample opportunity to get to know people in my community on the two hour ride to or from my site. When I get to the taxi stand in my provincial town which no foriegners ever go to, all the men driving the taxis know exactly who I am and start shouting the name of my town and pointing to the pickup trucks headed back to my site. All of this, after only five weeks of living in my village.

Back in the village I have finally settled down into a good routine, which has made my adjustment to life there infinitely easier. My daily schedule generally looks something like this:

6am: Get up, boil water, drink coffee in bed
7am: grab some stall-food from my vendor lady friends for breakfast and bike to school
7-11am: teach class/ sit in the teacher's lounge and talk with the teachers
11am: eat lunch with my host grandma and grandpa
11:30-1/2pm: rest because its hot as hell outside, generally this is when I lesson plan for the next day's classes or read books
2 pm-5pm: more teaching/talking with teachers
5pm-6pm: teach English to some of my teachers who want to learn basic conversational English
6pm: dinner with the fam
6:30 pm: "shower"(bucket shower with rain water)
6:45 pm: under the mosquito net in bed to read books and/or listen to music till I fall asleep around 8 or 9.

Its pretty shockingly different from the schedule I was following before I left the United States, but so far Im pretty content with it. This schedule changes on the weekends and on Tuesdays when I work at the health center, but for the most part this is about it. Its feels really good to finally be teaching, and to be busy.

I am running out of ideas to write about, so if yall have any questions feel free to email me or post them in comments and Ill address them the next time I have internet access. Please let me know, and ill try my best to tell you!

As always, I hope everyone is doing well out there. Much love.
-k