In which there are Snippets from my brain in Cambodia

In this post, I've kept a notebook of random snippets of my life in Cambodia, which also accurately represent my train of thoughts.  

1. I'm sitting at a table in Cambodia with a flock of teenage chickens that think my pen is food. 

2. Today I rode in a van full of monks and Khmer students to Angkor Wat, got a guided tour of the temples from the monks in speedy Khmer, took a boat out to the Tonle Sap through floating villages and groves of trees where you could only see the very tips, jumped off said boat with the other monks, all saying '1, 2, 3' while jumping from the top of the boat, about a 15 foot jump, climbed a mountain I. Sopping clothing, played a Khmer version of 'duck, duck, goose,' and got my first sunburn in Cambodia. 

3. Khmer people don't understand freckles. 

4. I thought explaining my Classics degree was difficult in America. Now I live in Cambodia. 

5. Cheese is totally worth that diarrhea you get from only having dairy products once per month. 

6. DEET bug spray is basically paint remover. Whenever I sit on furniture after putting it on, my bed or a chair, I get nice brown zebra stripes on the backs of my legs.  And there'll be no keeping of nail polish on your nails if you're gonna wear bug spray. 

7. I have 7 different notebooks currently in use. I'm turning into my Dad. Help. 

This was when I was lesson planning, one by one opening more of my notebooks for reference, until I took a breather only to realize that there were an insane amount of notebooks surrounding me. 

8. Apparently monks never wear shoes. I have a book about Buddhism with 2 monks on the cover, and they're wearing shoes, and every Khmer person who has seen this book has pointed out that never in their life have they seen a monk wearing shoes. I'm tempted to write to the authors and ask them why the monks are wearing shoes. Also, I think I'm going to pay more attention to their feet when I'm hanging around with monks. I climbed a mountain with a whole group of them and cannot for the life of me remember whether they were wearing shoes or not. 

9. Thanks to the game 'plants vs. zombies,' I'm learning lots of useful Khmer vocab, like zombies, mummies, and pirates.

10. Also, thanks to 'plants vs. zombies,' I came home one day to find my brother walking across the porch like a zombie, whilst my sister proceeded to throw flowers at him. 

11. My school director is very efficient. Whenever teachers are absent, (which happens pretty regularly, or on a daily basis) instead of having the students sit around for an hour, he puts them to work, usually gardening or other grounds work, or cleaning. Today, they cut a large bush into the figure of a rooster. 

We have about 6 teenage chickens that all look very similar, so I named them all Henry.