I just had a peanut butter banana sandwich. Jealous? You should be.
So, I have an apartment now. It's three bedrooms, a dining room, a kitchen, 4 baths (although one has a washing machine in it), and a huge living room which has been divided into two bedrooms. Guess where I sleep? In the living room, in a king size bed, on the other side of the curtain from Ranie. She's French, as are Sophie and Mathilde. Christian has the third bedroom, and he's Haitian and speaks the best English of the four. They're studying here through a French university, and they each have an internship/job working with a local business. They also all speak some Khmer, which is nice. I'll be speaking French and Khmer in no time. Okay, probably not French. Even if I study French for the six months that I live here, their English will still be better. But with a little luck, I'll pick up something, because isn't it great to have an extra language bouncing around in your head?
So, as my roommates have been at school and work, I've been (slowly) searching for a job myself. I'm getting more serious. I own a necktie now. I promise I'll take some pics and put them up soon, because I wouldn't believe it either if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. I even remember how to tie it. I should have something concrete on that front in the next week. Hopefully not so soon.
This may beg the question of how long I'll be here in Phnom Penh. Good question. I've promised the roommates six months, barring an inexplicable inability to land a teaching job. Even then, I could probably find something with an NGO. That puts me here through July. After then, I have no idea. I may stay through the end of the year, and I may head west. How far west, you may ask? Man, you ask a lot of difficult questions. No further west than the Gambia, where I plan to spend some time with Casey around next January. So what's in between here and the Gam? Turkey, Morocco, southeastern Europe (Romania maybe?), and India, to name a few. And Egypt, if no one in Iran is hiring. (insert rim shot here.) In other words, don't worry about getting me a birthday present, because I can't tell you what country I'll be in, but it won't be the States. Plans after the trip to the Gambia? I was lectured at length this morning about how "plan" is a four-letter word.
Now that we know each other a little better, I should mention that I miss you. I really do. I'm not avoiding you because I don't like you. There are things that I am avoiding (e.g. everything involved in the popularity of Sarah Palin), but you're not one of them. But that's not my real motivation. And it's not about pure travel and passport stamps and photos of famous places. It's not about the fact that they pay crazy money here for English teachers (by local standards of course). I've been sitting here for half an hour trying to put my finger on it, and I can't. I just know that I have to spend some time abroad now. So we should skype!
Okay, it's dinner time. The food here is great, but I question the cleanliness sometimes. Mostly because I keep eating street food. I still haven't tried any insects, but like chicken feet, it's only a matter of time. And when I do, I'm sure I'll come bragging. With a little luck, I'll get to the point where it's something that I'm not even disgusted by anymore. Like congealed blood: I never order it, but when it came in the soup yesterday I enjoyed it. Times change, I guess.