Kickboxing

The other day Tessa decided that she wanted to learn how to punch. So, I told her that I would help her because 1) I like punching things 2) It gives us something to do at night besides play with the children or get our hair washed. We went outside and I asked her to punch my palm. I have to be honest, that punch was terrible. Her thumb was sticking out and she hit me with her palm, not her knuckles. After a few hours of instruction and channeling her inner chi, she was able to punch relatively hard. It is still a ways away from making me see stars, but it has enough power behind it to make my arm tingle for a few seconds. Now to master kicking! Watch out world, Tessa is going to be one mean, lean fighting machine by the end of the summer. Who knows, maybe she will make the Olympic team? Maybe not, but one can hope. J

Although, I think we have to start kickboxing when it is very late outside. There has been an outburst of violence among the children because they see Tessa punching my palm. The only problem with practicing late at night is that the children do not have bed times. There is a 3 year old named Cup Cup who is up later than I am and is awake before I am. Who is this child? Go to sleep! I’ll post a picture of her later once I figure out where my camera cord is.

-M

Rabbit Island

All right, blog post catch up time! It has been a few weeks since I last blogged and a lot of things have happened. Recently, my colleagues and I were able to visit Rabbit Island located near Kampot.

In order to get to Rabbit Island, you have to take a 4-hour bus ride from Phnom Penh. Unlike the US, a relatively nice A/C bus costs around $12.00 and you get a free meal. Also, random tangent...if you go to a country considered “developing”, be prepared for the driver to use his horn almost every minute. Do not be that lady who yells at the bus driver because he is using his horn. Also, if you are a man who has chest hair shoulder pads, please do not wear a t-shirt that shows those shoulder pads to the rest of the world. Europeans...

Back to Rabbit Island! After arriving in Kampot, we took a 30-minute ride on this rickety boat to the island. Although there were instances where the boat almost capsized, it was well worth it once we arrived. This island is one of the very few spots that have been relatively untouched by tourists. Bungalows that are located on the shore cost about $5.00 dollars a night, fresh juice $1.50, and watching the sunset on a hammock – FREE! Although I only stayed two days, it truly was a piece of paradise. Anyone want to come back with me?

I should warn you though, there are a lot of stray animals on the island. The one you specifically have to look out for is the rabid kitty. It does whatever it wants and does not understand the meaning of "get away or the little boy is going to throw you on the roof." Weird, right? 

Posted below are some pictures of Rabbit Island.

-M

10-Second Rule

 Growing up there is one rule that always seemed odd to me the 10 Second Rule. For those of you who are not familiar with this rule, it essentially says that any edible object dropped on the floor can be eaten without any risk of negative repercussions as long as it is picked up within 10 seconds. I have always believed that once an edible object is dropped on the floor, then that item should be discarded immediately. However, my roommate Tessa thinks that the 10-second rule is a legitimate rule.

 

What brought up this discussion? The other day when Tessa, Rachel, and I were watching Titanic, Tessa dropped her popcorn on the theater floor. After a few seconds, Tessa brushed the popcorn on the floor into her hands and proceeded to eat the kernels. My face was in complete shock, all I could think about is urine crystals from the floor embedding themselves in the popcorn kernels! Okay, I really did not think of that but my friend Julie would have yelled that.

So what do you think? Does the 10 second rule really exist or is it simply just a myth?

My Heart Will Go On

Yesterday after work, Rachel, Tessa, and I went to see Titanic in 3D. We went for several reasons the 1) Rachel has never seen Titanic 2) Tessa loves Celine Dion 3) the movie started at a decent hour. As we walked up to Legend Cinema, I could not help but imagine the theater packed with other Titanic fanatics who also wanted to see the classic film again. When we entered the theater, I was honestly shocked to see that we were the only ones there to see the timeless tale of Jack and Rose.

As I sat in my chair, I was amazed to see how 3D revolutionized the cinematic experience. It felt as if though I was holding on to the Titanic as it sank into the Atlantic, which took about 3 and half hours. If only it had lasted another 6 hours and the priceless diamond sold for billions of dollars. Oh well, at least I will have the song “My Heart Will Go On” in my head for the next few weeks. Who would not want that?

Thank you Rachel for letting Tessa and me watch Titanic with you. Now you know why one can only watch that movie once every 10 years. Seriously, a lot of those scenes could have been cut out for the sake of time...

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Poker Face

The other day Rachel, Tessa, and I went to get our hair washed at the salon next door. This salon is a family business and run by a mother, Neth, and her 18-year-old daughter, Pau. As stated in previous posts, having one’s hair washed is a great way to end a stressful day.

This day was particularly different because the mother decided to style our hair. Tessa received a cute French braid and I received a decent hairstyle as well. Rachel on the other hand was not as lucky, which leads me to the title of this blogpost. When Rachel was getting her hair styled, she was facing the opposite direction of Tessa and me. Once she was finished, the mother turned Rachel’s chair to reveal Rachel’s stylish hairstyle. I tried my hardest to not laugh or make a face, but after .01 seconds I burst out laughing. I could not contain my laughter, which resulted in Tessa and Rachel bursting out laughing. I felt really bad, but honestly this hairdo was just too good to be true. It looked as if Rachel's hair was a helmet form the movie Leatherheads. Apparently my inability to control my laughter means I have no poker face. 

 

Sorry, I cannot figure out how to rotate pictures in Blogger.

Zoo and Monkey Attacks

The Zoo

Today the Cambodia internship group and Jessie (a lovely member from the ward) took a trip to the zoo, which is located outside the city of Phnom Penh. Initially I was a little skeptical about this trip because I have had the worst luck at zoos. Without fail, I see 3-4 animals at the zoo. The rest are both sleeping and hidden behind shrubbery or they are not in their exhibit. However, I was optimistic that this would be different because zoos abroad tend to have more animals.

So, at 10 am the entire group me at the church and piled into a van. After an hour of talking, driving through dirt roads, and getting stuck in traffic we arrived at the dirt road that led up to the zoo. As we drove up this dirt path, you could see at least 20 individuals standing on the side of the road. In only took me a few seconds to realize that these individuals were elderly and begging for money. Unfortunately, there was no possibility of us stopping to give them money. After all, if you give one beggar money, then it is expected of you to give the others money as well. As we drove by these elderly beggars, you could tell that it had been a couple days since he or she has had a substantial meal. One of these days I am going to pack some nutritious treats to hand out to beggars.

After another 20 minutes, we arrived at the ticket booth and entered the establishment. Unlike Western zoos, this zoo did not have a nice parking lot and a paved walkway that would lead you to animal exhibits. In this zoo, there were 4 different sections that you could walk, drive, or ride a tuk tuk to. The first section was the monkey and deer exhibit, which literally is an open area with a bunch of wild monkeys and deer. People will follow you around and try to sell you potatoes and bananas to feed the animals. Of course I bought some because what are the chances you will get to feed monkeys and deer in the US? Slim. At first the monkeys and deer were very cute, they would walk up to me and gently grab the food out of my hands. 

Well, after about 10 minutes the monkeys and deer got overly excited and hungry. They started snatching the potatoes and bananas when we were not looking. It was not long before the vicious monkeys and deer found out about the food we were handing out. One of the vicious monkeys had a cleft lip and a reputation for biting. It is safe to say that we dropped a lot of our food and made a quick escape out of the exhibit.

The rest of the zoo was not that exciting. The most noteworthy experiences happened to Beau, the facilitator from BYU, who was attacked twice by two different monkeys. One of the attacks happened while he was standing by a monkey cage, the other happened while he was trying to hand a monkey a potato. I tried to convince him to touch another monkey...after all, the third try is the successful one, right?