Sunday, March 13, 2011

Special Fam-i-r-y

(I let Sunny name this entry)


What happens when your parents leave to go drink with their friends and you're stuck in the hotel with your little brother chillin' for the good part of the evening.


Let's see:


1.)Throwing your left over food with good intentions (to feed stray dogs) only to have the egg fall on top of the green awning below your balcony making a loud -SPLAT- sound and shaking the awning... then hearing the people working on their cars (loud clanging) come to stop.


2.) Hurrying back to the hotel room with plate in hand like nothing happen then tell Sunny about it. Laugh for 15 minutes because it's actually pretty funny. Only to go back outside to show him the pathetic egg and then throw whatever was left on my plate which was a large sausage... that landed between two chickens. They cocked their heads and we laughed for another 10 minutes.


3.) Sunny singing and talking to himself then turning to me and saying.


"Is it wierd if i role play......"


-about to answer...(I was going to say no, because I'm pretty nerdy myself)


"in my room by myself... with my gun"


-awkward face-


4.) We're so bored and can't seem to steal the internet so we find ourselves outside on the balcony staring at a bunch of fire ants. Sunny's talking about how he wants to find a creative way of killing them. I suggest a small tsunami or a windstorm. He tells me I'm not original. Then I start talking about karma, he decides not to kill them because he doesn't feel like it. So, we just blow on them for fun. Later, one of them bit the shit out of me on my upper leg. It burned.


yup. We're special & clearly related. I'd say we can go walk around and explore but with our lack of confidence, & non-functional Khmer language (too pathetic to even be called broken) and having no idea where we are at. It's impossible and I'm sure one of us would end up dead somewhere in a ditch.



Don't Go Falling Down Waterfalls. (Literally)

Location: Phnom Kiev Waterfall (Blue Mountain)


No. I did not try to rip off TLC and no. I'm not trying to sound poetic either. I really did fall down a waterfall today and it wasn't pleasant but the waterfall was beautiful! (I'll explain later with a photo!)

After my grandma's celebration we all hopped on several motorcycles and headed 15 minutes out to the blue mountain behind the village. We stopped to grab some snacks and water, (apparently snacks on the waterfall are pricy). We drove through some farmland to the mountain side then proceeded on a windy road wrapping around the mountain. The farmlands slowly turned into a tropical rain forest. It's nothing like the zoos either, you know it's some real shit when you think you hear people chopping down wood, when in actuality it's a slew of bugs making all that noise.

After walking up steep hills so the cyclist would have some weight off the motors. We finally made it to the tip top and I could hear the sound of the water trickling down the rocks. It was the real thing, none of that cd of the nature bullshit. I can be this cheesy because this is my first time seeing an actual waterfall in nature. I'd rather it be in Asia on top of a green (or blue, not really) mountain in a rainforest. Take that Niagara Falls!


We walked down some stairs made of the tree roots and past small little huts made for people to hang out in, down into the streams where there were various sizes of waterfalls. Large ones that you would definitely die if you went down in and tiny ones that were almost like little mini-slides. My little cousin had the time of her life going down those.


When I tried to join in on the fun and wanted one really good photo of me standing in the middle of one of the water falls. The clumsy in me came bursting out, I slipped on the black mossy rock and planted a good lump on my head. Where it met the rock something fierce (not concrete, not wood, but hard ass rock). My mom freaks out thinking I have a concussion. While all this is happening Sunny is cracking up and snapping photos of my down fall. (as seen below)



My sweet cousin Lin is called over to help me find dry rock to stand on but while she is pulling me to safety, I slip into a small whirl pool and soak the rest of my already-soaked clothes. And yet again Sunny is laughing his ass off a long with everyone else. Har har. But that's okay. The rest of our family got down and dirty (and wet) soaking themselves in the pure water ( I think they were doing it so i wouldn't feel bad about getting all wet). We definitely made the rest of our time enjoyable waiting by the small pools of water.


AND I danced in the middle of a billion butterflies. True story.




(here is another excellent photo of some of the mini-waterfalls)


Have a good one!



The Park & Celebration of my Grandma


Waking up around 5-6am makes me feel productive and responsible here. (despite the time differences in USA, shut up just give me the benefit of the doubt!) Last night I went with my dad, brother, and two little cousins to check out to the nearest memorial park. It was pretty sweet to see all the kids and tweens running about playing a birdie like game (with rackets) and make shift soccer to the best of their abilities (using a small balled up cloth or whatever they can find that functions like a soccer ball).
Surronding the park is a lot of small food vendors. We had this cool concoction of fresh pure sugar cane drink, it consisted of a straw in a bag with ice and the cane juice. It tasted like super sugary pineapple. Delicious.

I tried to ask Sunny for his opinion and this was his response
"I don't have very good taste buds, I've been masking it with MSG" -Sunny

The following morning we went to go see my grandma and even had a lot more family in town to come celebrate her life. It was like her birthday. All the grandchildren were there to be with her. It was very enlightening and I was glad to be a part of it. The family had spent all morning cooking and preparing a feast for my grandma and the monks that were conducting the ceremony. I don't completely grasp the meditating and bowing but I participated out of respect ( I shall research this later.) I think what it really boiled down too was the appreciation and gratitude to my grandma as a person.


Here's a photo of the ceremony. Sunny video taped the whole thing. Lots of chanting and bowing and prayer.

Much love.

My Dad's shennanigans and the She-male nieghbor

"She is wieeeeerd... but she's cool..."
"and has an awesome personality"
-Sunny (his justification and masking on how unfamiliar and uncomfortable he is around gay/gender-specific people.)

My mom, the blunt person that she is, pointed out a beautiful lady next door (to my grandmas) and her deeper then usual voice, (I honest to god didn't even notice,) speaking to me in english "is that a man?". I shrugged my shoulders, the lady then fires back in Khmer "I'm a boy if your wondering!" and giggles. Then she proceeds to talk about her sex change, her partner (who looks like an older Yo Yo mama with a bad ass scar on his stomach from a previous stabbing) and the cute little boy she was lugging around on her shoulders, she adopted after being abandoned. I took a liking to her. She was hilarious and was cracking jokes on everyone and was a fun person.

Now that I got that explanation out of the way. My dad (might I add a very sober and conservative person.) Decides to go out drinking for the day (as said in previous post). Drinks too much... finds out he's allergic to alcohol and has a swollen leg out of nowhere. He's a man, so he deals with it. After he passes out at the hotel for a few hours we head back to my grandma's house. The first thing he notices is the woman neighbor that I mentioned earlier and what does he blurt out... "Is that women gay?" I politely tell him that she was once a man, and is now living as a women.

Well.. the lady notices our exchanges (I'm sorry I never got her name) and starts teasing and flirting with my dad.

My dad starts flirting back. (My mom's not the jealous type, don't worry.)

They are both giggling and now everyone is asking my dad to start acting like a flamboyant man. Does he get offended... no. He actually does his theatrical nonsense... then ask if he'd make a good women.

yeah my family is really cool.