All my bags are packed....

Am I ready to go??

I just got back from a week in Laos. I leave tomorrow to start my journey home. I feel like I have been traveling for forever....I will be very happy not to be living out of a backpack or duffle bag anymore. It seems unreal to me that this experience is over. I really feel like tomorrow I will wake up and be at the farm again messing with the kids, preparing my lessons, eating rice, riding my bike, etc. I really have come to love Thailand and feel at home here. I will really miss it and more than that, I will really miss my kids. Saying goodbye to them was the hardest thing I have ever done. My last weekend I was with them they kept asking me when I was leaving and when I was coming back. I wish I had an answer for them. They then would proceed to tell me that they are going to shoot the wings off my airplane and then superman fly up and save me and bring me back to Thailand (this was all in sign, btw:). I really had no idea how attached I would become to this people and place. I wish I could tell you how special these kids are. I know I have learned more from them than I ever could have taught them. I have so much more to tell you about these kids and a blogpost will not suffice. So here are a few pictures and I will tell you in person. See you in 2 days!

Nose, Bonn, and I on our way to the bookstore.

O, Nam, Fa and I at my farewell barbeque

Fa and I at the farm

Bonn

Tuanne

20 days

So I am sitting here realizing that I have 20 days until I come home. While I am very excited to see everybody, I honestly don't want to come home. I love Thailand. I love its people, its food, its attitude....its culture. I have been surprised by how fast and how deeply I have come to love this place.

Have I accomplished everything that I set out to do? Have I really taken advantage of my time here? I am pretty sure I have grown up in a lot of ways...and I am pretty sure I won't even realize just how much Thailand has changed my life until I am back in the States trying to reconcile what I have learned and experienced with normal life. One of my students told me today that he thought that after I have been back in America for a month, I will have forgotten all about Thailand. I told him that it was impossible, that Thailand has changed my life. I hope he believed me. I am so grateful that I got to come here. It has definitely been the hardest thing I have ever done....and the most rewarding. Its funny how often those two coincide.

Livin' it up

Here are a few pictures from my bike ride last night:

Happy 4th of July!

This weekend was probably my favorite so far. Oh, I loved it! We started it off with elephant riding (my new favorite animal). We then went hiking through the mountains through different hill tribes. We ended up at a beautiful waterfall where we camped for the night. It was so fun to sit around the campfire singing random American songs that one of our guides knew on the guitar. Our guides were from the Karen hilltribe, where we stayed. They were born and raised in this little village and they were so excited to show us their home. I loved it because I didn't feel like it was the typical touristy zoo thing. They weren't in it just to make money. They honestly loved their job and we loved the experience. The next day we took off again, saw a few more waterfalls, played a soccer game with another hilltribe, and ate lunch out of banana leaves. That is hilltribe backpacking food for you. Forget Chunky soup, stick some fried rice in a banana leaf! We hiked about 10 miles all together and it was some pretty steep terrain. I am definitely sore today. After our hike we rafted down the river on bamboo rafts. We might have stopped to do some cliff jumping and swimming too:) To top it off, we went and got pizza and root beer and some more delicious Swenson's. As we were finishing our sundays, we saw fireworks in the distance...somebody else was celebrating too:) Oh happy day. I have never felt so patriotic than when celebrating my country's birthday somewhere else. I love Thailand. But it has really made me appreciate the freedoms and opportunities that I have as and American. We are truly blessed.

Tut Tut Tut

And so it begins....across the rickety bridge #1

beautiful terraced rice fields

Rambo: one of our guides (check out his awesome machete)

the waterfall where we camped

where we slept

our lunch

Jenessa and I playing in the waterfall

Margo and I LOVING a delicious sunday from Swenson's!

(Dad you would have loved this weekend. I kept thinking of you the whole time, pretty sure I even dreamt about you being there:) We will have to do it again, right?)

Flight of the Gibbons

(Sorry about the late posting...I wrote this last week and didnt get a chance to post it)

What is a gibbon? A gibbon is a monkey that likes to swing through the jungle in Southeast Asia. This last weekend I was a gibbon. We went to a zipline/repelling course and got to spend 1/2 hours swinging through a spectacular jungle. Amazing! I tried to upload a video but the internet is bad so no luck, I will have to show you when I get back. Here a few pictures though.

Angkor What????

Sorry about the delay, but here is the beginning of the Angkor Pictures. This is the main Angkor Wat temple. It is the largest in the complex. We got there late afternoon so we only had a little time in the temple itself before they kicked us out. It was okay though, they had blocked most of it off anyways....something about Japanese tourists hurting themselves (and there were Japanese tourists everywhere!) However, we did stay till dark outside the complex and it was an beautiful vista. We got to see the sunset and it was the most incredible sunset I have ever seen....nay the most incredible sunset MAN has ever seen. You had the glorious ethereal pink clouds backdropping the temple, you had a storm rolling in giving it a foreboding aura with lightning flashing occasionally. To top it off, there was a rainbow? (forgive my meager attempt to describe the indescribable) Really what more can you ask for?

inside

the sunset

The Royal Palace

After Tuol Sleng and the Killing Fields, the Royal Palace was a nice emotional break for us. It is where the king of Cambodia used to live and where he still does formal ceremonies. It was a beautiful place….and it was blistering hot. It was interesting because it felt like a Buddhist wat. The architecture was the same, the buddhas were everywhere. It is interesting how the Buddhist religion permeates all of southeast asia.

some of the monks let me jam with them in the temple....it was awesome!

After the Royal Palace we had some time to burn so we went to the mall in Phnom Penh. No biggy except for two things. 1- I bought my first pair of sunglasses….ever. nice pair of Gucci sunglasses for $5 (you like how i "pretend" like i'm trendy:) 2- and even more importantly, I had Swensons for the first time…and it was love at first sight...i mean bite!! Seriously the best ice cream i….have….EVER…..eaten! granted it might be the fact that I haven’t had legit ice cream in over a month, they actually gave me a decent portion, they had peanut butter!, and it was blistering hot, but I stand by it: BEST ice cream EVER!

can i say peanut butter chocolate chip!!! and what???? moose tracks!!!!

After the swensons discovery we went on a boat ride/barbecue down the Mekong River. It was the perfect end to a physically and emotionally exhausting day. Just to sit on a boat with a cool breeze and the chance to talk with each other about what we have been experiencing. Just throw in a spectacular sunset and you have the perfect end to an amazing day in Cambodia.