Kam-what? Kampot.

That's just a little Bay Area love in the title. Shout out to Richmond. Watch Coach Carter if you are confused.
Sorry I have failed to update over the past few weeks. I turned off my internet for awhile to save money. Also, I was away from site for Christmas and New Year’s Eve!
For Christmas I went to Phnom Penh. Our three-month long “lockdown” period was over, so we were all allowed to leave our provinces for the first time, outside of Peace Corps training. I cannot tell you the weight I feel lifted off my chest just knowing I’m not trapped in my province, even though it is a pretty good place to be trapped. One of my friends was staying with some other friends who have a flat in Phnom Penh, so a few of us made use of the kitchen for Christmas dinner. It was so nice to have control over what I ate! We made some potatoes and stir fried veggies and bratwurst. Not exactly what I think of when I think of Christmas, but it was delicious none-the-less. I was just happy to be eating after surviving the worst bout of food poisoning I have ever experienced in my life. I cannot, not would you want me to, explain the pain and misery involved in horrible food poisoning, in Cambodia, in the middle of the night. I still get nervous at dinner time because the contaminated food definitely came from my host family’s dinner table. I guess it happens, but I was more than a little irritated when they laughed and told me maybe I shouldn’t eat at the market. Firstly, I had not eaten at the market for two days prior to getting sick, and secondly, food poisoning onsets within hours after eating whatever makes you sick so it was definitely dinner, which I ate at home. I think that was a run-on sentence. I’m done ranting now.
     The weekend was fairly uneventful as everyone was busy running around trying to take care of everything they needed to do in Phnom Penh, which for me basically just meant eating as much western food as possible and buying season one of Glee. I watched the whole thing in a day and a half (working hard or hardly working?) and I am now very bitter my high school did not have a show choir. But also somewhat thankful since high school was hard enough as it was, I definitely didn’t need any slushie facials added to my high school memories.
     For New Year’s Eve I was planning to stay in Siem Reap, but I decided I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to travel down to Kampot. My boyfriend is located there and I decided I really wanted to spend New Year’s Eve with him (make fun of me all you want, haters) and he has been hyping Kampot so much I was dying to check it out. The 11 hour journey by bus turned out to be worth it! Kampot is a nice little sleepy river town, with several great western restaurants tucked away (we all know food is a first priority for me) but without the overwhelming tourist presence and general bustle of Siem Reap. On New Year’s Day (notice how I just glanced over whatever happened New Year’s Eve? I’m a smooth operator.) a bunch of us went on a boat “tour” of the river, or tributary, or whatever it is. We cruised around on the water and saw some of Kampot from the water, and eventually made it out to where the ocean begins. There was a sand bar where the boat docked and we all got to hop off the boat and hang out on a little strip of beach surrounded by the ocean. It was a really cool place to watch the sun go down over Cambodia.
I was definitely sad to say goodbye to Kampot. I think it was one of the first times in, well, six months, that I’ve felt really away from work and just the constant stress of being a foreigner in Cambodia and a Peace Corps Volunteer. I don’t mean to complain, oh boo hoo my life is so hard, but the day to day difficulties do start to get me, and I think all of us, down after a while.
     When I returned to site I had a boost of productivity. I cleaned my room, organized my bookshelf and bought a fold up table to act as a desk since I haven’t been terribly effective or comfortable working in my bed. I also spend almost two hours doing laundry. When you don’t stay on top of it laundry can really add up and become a huge pain in the butt, and being away for a few days always causes trouble. I finally finished it and hung it outside, and feeling pretty good about my accomplishments, retreated to my room to read Where the Wild Things Are, a Christmas gift from my big sister :). Only about 20 minutes later my host father said something about my clothes and a cow. Obviously I had no idea what he was talking about, because I still cannot understand half of what the man says, so I walked outside to see my host mother and sister helping me by rinsing the dirt off all my freshly laundered clothes. Turns out a cow knocked over my laundry. It was so funny and so Cambodia I couldn’t even really be frustrated. How often can you say a cow knocked over your laundry? After a nice relaxing break away, I’m right back in the village, and the village doesn’t give you much time to transition back before it knocks over your laundry or puts a chicken foot in your curry. (That happened also my first night back. Yum.)