Weekends

So my weeks here are not super exciting, or worth writing much about. I work from 7:30-Noon, go home for lunch, then work again from 2-5:30. Every weekday. Luckily, the organization I'm working for has air conditioning, so I'm pretty happy whenever I'm there. The organization I'm here working for is the Reproductive and Child Health Alliance. They have more projects than I'm even aware of, but most of them have to do with maternal and child health/nutrition, as well as infectious disease control in Cambodia.
That's about everything there is to say about work. It's work, it's air conditioned, and it's every day. The weekends are full of "field trips" and weekend getaways, so they're a little more exciting. Last weekend (May 19th), we went on a tour of the Royal Palace complex and the National Museum. The Royal Palace(s) are some of the most beautiful buildings I've ever seen. Also, it didn't rain that day, so we got some good pictures. Unfortunately (for us), that also meant it was scorchingly hot (and of course, way humid). I'm going to be honest and say that I'm not really sure how to do this whole blog thing, so I'll try to post pictures, but it may fail.

There were a lot of really cool things inside of the palace too, but you aren't allowed to take pictures inside. So oh well. But in the Silver Pagoda, the entire floor is made of pure silver. Each square tile is an entire kilogram of silver. There are also a lot of really cool Buddhas. The most famous/valuable of which is the Emerald Buddha, which was fairly large. We also learned about the different positions of Buddha, hand positions of Buddha, and origins of the Buddhas in the Royal Palace. The Buddhas are gifts from different countries to the King of Cambodia.

The gardens were also really beautiful, and there were a lot of smaller structures out around the gardens as well. The complex is pretty big, but the buildings aren't very large, so the gardens and statues fill up a lot of the space. It's amazing how much ornamentation there is everywhere, both on the buildings and in the gardens. There are a ton of statues around as well, and they all have unique and individual meanings. I'm not sure how our guide kept them all straight. Or maybe he made them all up, who knows.

After we went to the Royal Palace, we went to the National Museum, which is right next to the Palace. It was pretty small, and a bit underwhelming, but the stuff that they did have was pretty neat. They had some interesting statues and ruins in the museum, but most of the labels were only in Khmer, so I really have no idea what they were. The building of the National Museum, and the gardens in the center of the building were probably the most impressive part. There were 4 large ponds in the courtyard area that were full of beautiful fish, and the ponds were surrounded by so many huge plants. In the center of the courtyard, there was a large sitting Buddha statue as well.

We had one of my favorite meals so far after visiting the National Museum. It was at a restaurant called "Friends" (I know, I know... Friends is already my favorite), but the restaurant has a really cool story. They employ only Cambodian teens who had been living on the streets, and they train them in the restaurant business. It was a really cute restaurant, with free unlimited ICE water, really good food, and a good story behind it. We also visited the central market after, and I'm sure we'll go back there. It's a HUGE market, which was a bit overwhelming, but we'll go back sometime to get some stuff. We then visited a big mall close to the market. Malls here are amazing. Simply because they have air conditioning. They also always have stores that sell DVDs. Cheap, COUGHillegallymadeCOUGH, movies and seasons of TV shows. This has been one of my weaknesses here. So far I have purchased Seasons 1-6 of How I Met Your Mother (8$), all 10 Seasons of FRIENDS (8$), and Seasons 1-5 of Scrubs ($4). Next up? Filling up my collection of Grey's Anatomy.

I can't even express how much I love canceled flights...

So... That was long. I flew from Salt Lake to LAX, and from LAX to Tokyo Japan with no problems. Then our flight from Tokyo to Bangkok was delayed 4 times. They put us on the plane, closed the door, taxied us out, taxied us back in, and told us that our flight was canceled. Apparently the plane had been struck by lightning before we boarded. So I spent the night at a hotel, went back to the airport in the morning, and got in a line to check in. They had moved us to a Thai Airways flight, but the Thai airways counter only had 3 people, and there were probably 300 of us in line. I got to the airport 3 hours early, but I probably wouldn't have made it to check in on time, if it hadn't been for the nicest man alive. He had been on my flight before, and he came and found me in the line. Apparently he was a gold card holder for Thai Airways. He had already checked in at the 1st class desk, and had asked if they would allow him to bring one friend through their line. They agreed, and I even got to choose my seat (which they weren't letting people do). They offered to let me upgrade to 1st class, but I'm not made of money. Anyway, this guy was great.
Then, I flew to Bangkok, and by this time, I had already missed my flight to Phnom Penh, so my dad was great and contacted Bangkok Air to reschedule me for a later flight to Phnom Penh. He sent all of that information to my email, and then there wasn't really WiFi at the Bangkok Airport. I had to go through customs, pick up my bag, re-check in and made it to my flight in time. Of course on my flight from Bangkok to Phnom Penh, there were 11 people, which meant I got my own row. So out of all of my flights, I got my own row on the shortest flight (50 minutes)... Oh well.
Beau and Rosemary and Ang (the stake president here) came to pick me up from the airport and take me to my host family. I'll upload pictures once I get around to it, but the "apartment" here is certainly 3rd worldly. I live on a little side street next to a market, and up a tiny, steep, metal spiral staircase. The "shower" is basically a hose I can hang on a hook. I've already seen a few large (and I mean large) roach like things. I can't wait for the other girls to get here... it's a bit weird living in there alone for now.
Observations:
1. A 13 hour flight gives you some pretty epic cankles.
2. People in Asia really love surgical masks. It's probably smart.
3. Airplane food is way better on Thai Airways.
4. I am not meant to live somewhere hot and humid.
5. It is impossible to sleep here without dousing your clothes in water and pointing a fan at yourself.
6. Air conditioning is the best thing that has ever graced the planet.
7. My dad would DIE here. Not just because of the heat, but because of the CRAZY people on their motorcycles, the lack of traffic rules, and people carrying their entire families on one motorcycle that was probably made in the 60s.
8. I appreciate stop lights, stop signs, and lane lines.
9. I rely on having WiFi.
10. The amount of money that has been spent on Jackson's food/bed/toys etc... is more than many of these people will see in a lifetime.
*** Disclaimer: Jackson is my dog, and he is spoiled rotten.***