Random notes.

1. I like that I spent time making my hair a certain way only to be asked, "Why is your hair so messy?"

2. Now that Chinese New Year has passed, I'm supposed to say I'm 22. (K'nom mien atyoot muypeibi ch'nam. Direct translation: I have old 22 years.) Ah, 22! I thought I had 6 months before I had to think about being 22. Guess not, here in Cambodia.

3. At weddings, even if you don't know the bride or groom, being a foreigner means you get instant VIP treatment. Sometimes, you may even end up taking family portraits with the whole party.

4. I'm making this post even though I should have been reviewing for Khmer (which is pronounced khmai) because I have class in about 5 minutes. I am not a fan of their phonetics system so I always end up just making my own. A lot of times, if a word reminds me of another word in another language, I make a note of that. I also found out, "first" actually sounds like "penis" so I was definitely a source of amusement for everybody.

5. I had severe IBS for an entire week. It's better now and I'm back to eating more. Being sick had been really disheartening, as you can imagine. I didn't have an appetite, which bothered my homestay. I was always cold even though I was warm and sweaty all the time. My host-mom ended up going to the pharmacy to get me medicine and my host-dad even busted out his English to talk to me about how to take the pills. (1, He almost never talks to me at all. 2, He rarely uses his English even though it is really good.)

6. The past few weeks I've been going through some different cravings. First it was belgian waffles and now it's raisin bran.

7. Today I thought about how I might just be a small town girl with a big city heart. I live pretty much within a quarter-mile radius. The school and house are right across from each other on the highway (which is just a two-lane road). There is also only one highway here. Everything seems to be either next to, across or around the corner. The restaurants we frequent, the fruitshake stand, the volunteer house and guest house where the barangs live. (The guest house is also a partial brothel so it's really weird for me to see men (usually government people) going in and out.)

I've been really content with small town life. There are still tons of places I haven't eaten yet. And everywhere else is a nice bike ride away. Though, some of my favorite times is when I get to go on a bike ride down some random unpaved road that leads into rice fields, down along a river and into a remote village (poom) I have never been to before.