May 28^th 07

ARg,

A long long overdue update! Things are going well! I’m really liking living here, my house is cool, I’ve too much to do in the time I have free, and the monsoon has started – it’s awesome! I’m really tried at the moment though. Need to start getting some better sleeps, and maybe some iron tablets or something. It’s been kind of hectic the last month.

It’s almost 3 months since I got to Cambodia! That feels pretty weird – it sounds like a long time on paper, but it doesn’t feel like a long time of actually living here. A lot has happened though.

Working backwards, I’ve just come back from Svay Rieng this weekend, where I spent two days hanging out with Fiona at her place. It was cool to catch up with her, and have someone to swap stories with. I really like it down there, and it feels good to get out of the city. The way it works is I get up and jump on a bus early on Saturday morning, and get to Fiona’s place about 10am on Saturday – then hang out there for a night and ‘hitch’ a ride back to Phnom Penh on Sunday afternoon (paying my driver about US$4 for the seat in the car).

The week before that was spent working. Another VSA girl, Rachael stayed with me, and it was nice to have a housemate for a while! In the next post I’ll stick up a thing from the Geography News letter about work here in Cambodia.

The week before that was spent cycling with Rachael and Kate (another VSAer, who also works in Phnom Penh with me). We went from Sunday-Sunday in Vietnam. We hit Vietnam close by Ben Cau (via Svay Rieng), skirted down the left hand side of Saigon/Ho chi minh (didn’t go in, thank god – the traffic was bad enough on the outskirts), to the delta region, and then cycled up river to a place called Chau Doc. It was an awesome week – and got some good photos. Great to be back on the bicycle again (I’ve just brought one here in PP, a new paddock basher to replace the old paddock basher I left at home!).

Just before that, two Kiw guys; Warren and Garth, turned up at my door. My first Kiwi visitors! It was great to have them there, a little taste of home!

And before that it’s been more work. They were the main events of the past 4 weeks. Lots of little happenings in between times. Like the monsoon beginning, so some weeks we get rain every afternoon. The mosquito numbers are going up ever so slightly. There are less mangos around now. I’ve been doing some dress making (yay), with fabric being so cheap I’m happy to buy a few meters and get into it (rather than at home buying a few meters and then being too scared to start because I don’t want to destroy the fabric!!!). I’ve almost made a dress, just need to locate somewhere to buy a zip! I’ve worked out where the guitar shops are, and someone is helping me choose one to buy next week.

Anyway – that is a very quick update.

Love you all lots, hope everyone’s travels are going well, and good luck for exams eh!

Xxox

Anna