Happy Thanksgiving! This may be late, but at least I made it in the same month! (almost)
Flashback to last Thanksgiving…
Home in Boulder, CO we squeeze 15 (ish) people into our dining room around a meal of traditional turkey, potatoes, sweet rolls, cranberries and more pumpkin pie that we can possibly handle. My father always has an admiral supply of delicious microbrews that smooths the awkward conversation beginings. There is usually an odd assortment of cousins and cousin's room mates from the nearby universites that join in with family for the festivites. It is usually always cold outside and I am pretty sure I had already been skiing several times already. I spent the week procrastinating from homework and counting down the days of school left until Christmas break.
Fast forward to about a week ago…
We arrived at the beach of Cambodia, already sweating from the 2 minute walk it took us to get from the tuktuk to the sand. Recliner chairs packed side by side down the length of the beach, crowded around tables with umbrellas for shade. We haggled with a store owner a bit in broken English to post up on the surrounding chairs for free.
As we sat, vendors continued to heckle us to buy their fruit, give us massages, and sell an assortment of sunglasses, crabs, or prawns while we sat. One lady even grabbed a hold of my leg to show me how she could remove the hair with a thread… she did not approve of my hairy legs OR the fact that my toe nail polish was coming off… if she only knew… Another girl told me that I did not have a boyfriend because I would not buy him a bracelet from her…ouch.
One team had prepared a dinner of grilled chicken, mashed potatoes, baguettes and sauted veggies that we served into 'to-go' containers and passed around to the 20 + people who came to join the festivities. We had a couple from Sweden and Switzerland, a man from New York, and several Cambodians as well as two world race teams. Guess how much the meal cost to feed everyone… about $65. I am pretty sure Jesus multiplied the food because we had WAY too many leftovers and we are still eating mashed potatoes.
After lunch we took a swim and wandered up and down the beach taking in the heat and relax in the sand.
See the difference? Yup… not your norm.. or I guess not MY norm. BUT really what do you define as normal these days?
Normal is the fact that it is December 1st and I feel as if it is JULY. We packed up onto a bus and drove across the boader into Viet Nam today where all of a sudden everything became more modern, the number of motos increased and instead of US dollars, we are adjusting to a new currency: 1 USD = 20,000 Dong.
Yes, I am a millionaire and I get to enjoy the feeling for a WHOLE month!
25 days till Christmas 🙂
