Angkor Wat

* Our Tour Guide's winning funnies:

1. Guess where I'm from? (guesses ensue, all incorrect)
My mother!

2. Guess what happened when the donkey approached the water buffalo?
It said my, what a big body you have for such a small penis!


Penises star at Angkor Wat, where we saw a special water hole for sacred "penis water" (it was never clear what this meant, though it was determined this is not pee or semen). Solicitors at the exit sold sling shots with penis shaped handles. They are apparently not so popular among Western tourists, who lament the Asian sizing.

* Restauranting: Cambodia

The service here believes it is more exciting to feed one person at a time. And that any dish is better with an egg.

* Starving Children

To buy milk for the begging children or not to buy milk for the begging children? Yeah, ok, so chances are they return it and do something sinister... but maybe they really do just need the milk.

*Biblical Stories and Romantic Histories

This is how the 20 LanguageCorps students kept entertained on the ride back. Then we all metaphorically braided each other's hair and beat each other with imaginary pillows.

Should I have gotten that Rabies Vaccination?

Sometime around 3 am, one dog led what seemed a thousand others into a frenetic symphony of howling.

I was able to submerge again into sleep to awaking myself at 5:30 with a reprimand for a character in my dream. "You ungrateful little doink" was, I believe, the text. I had been rescuing each of a group of rock climbers and, upon safety, this one guy was already irked by the day's chores before him.

This morning: perfect weather and prepared for first day of teacher training. Not without its frustrations, however... for example, the sudden inability to import photos. There are good ones waiting.

Cambodia!

Things to Report:

Made it to Cambodia. with both bags. yes.

Asiana Airlines. great food. modelly stewardesses.

Four couples in matching outfits. (Seoul airport.)

No seat belts: Cambodia. Kids between the feet of moped riders.

Akun: thank you. Shameless tourist behavior. Shameless tourist fascination with newly learned and hopelessly mispronounced words. "Sus die?"

Great fellow teachers in training: Holly from Texas. Andrea from Oklahoma. Nora from Boston. Shanta from Singapore.

Great fellow teachers in training: Holly from Texas. Andrea from Oklahoma. Nora from Boston. Shanta from Singapore.

Pre-departure Good Times

Hello friends, foes,

I thank you for your patience and open-mindedness in my beginning a blog of grand adventures in the humble town of McLean, Va, where I've just welcomed the new year and my coming trip with a teenage dream of drink and a hung-over, giggle-infested hike with these two goat-wranglers.

Pal for life, JoJo the Bardwell.

and my new friend, Sam.