Jiminy Cricket

I can't believe it has been a whole week since I have left the U.S. It seems like it has been forever since I was in the DFW airport saying goodbye to my parents. Today we left Siem Reap for Phnom Penh. Terri and I got up early to pack, check email, and grab breakfast before it was time to load up. As Terri and I were walking to breakfast, it was nice to feel a little more comfortable with where we were. It made me a little bummed to leave Siem Reap. At the Blue Pumpkin, we had a few muffins and then went back to the guest house to meet the rest of the group and check out. Our bus to Phnom Penh was pretty nice compared to our previous transportation. It had air conditioning! On the buss Terri and I sat in front of Mace Williamson who is the music coordinator for the trip. I got to talk with him a while and learned he had graduated from ACU with a math degree. It was so much fun to talk to him about our shared experiences. It is so neat to find these unexpected connections with people here. After driving for about an hour, we stopped for lunch. A lot of places pay buses and taxis to make stops whenever they pass through, and I think this was one of those places. It was funny to hear a group of tourists in the bathroom expressing their disgust at the infamous "squatty potties" and remember that I, too, had experienced their same initial repulsion only a few days earlier. Now I am quite the connoisseur of squatty potties. Back on the bus, Kelly had bought a bag of grasshoppers and gave Terri and me a chance to try our first one. No one should ever tell me now that I don't try new things :). It turned out to not be that bad of an experience though. In fact, I might even voluntarily eat one again. The rest of the ride went by pretty unieventfully. When we got to the bus station in Phnom Penh, Terri and I got a chance to talk to John and Julie about this summer. They were the previous set of interns in Chiang Mai, and have given us some pretty helpful advice. Once we got picked up from the bus station, we dropped the boys off at the church because that is where they were staying, and then all the girls went to the Dolans' house. Mr. Dolan is a local missionary that has been in Cambodia for 9 months. He moved here from Tulsa. He has three sons: Jason, Randall, and Reuben. Jason Dolan transferred to ACu last year, which is kind of cool. The other two go to Harding and Pepperdine, and their daughter is starting A&M in the fall, but she is already back in the states. We got to hang out at the Dolans' house for a few hours, which was kind of nice. We watched Secondhand Lions. After that, we went back to the church to have dinner with the rest of the group. I sat by John and found out he is moving to Austin and living with a guy who I knew at ACU. After dinner, Mr. Dolan and some students at the church led a short devo. It was so hard for me to stay focused. I was exhuasted! After the devo, we singed up for our work groups for the week, and went back to the Dolans' house. Terri and I shared a room with Hilary and Roxanne. They both seem really great and are roommates at A&M-the Redmond girls is what they call themselves. The only problem with haveing all these girls is that it takes forever to get in a shower and by the end of a day here, we all desperately need one. After our shower, we went to bed pretty quick. Terri had said today that her throat and ear were hurting. Kelly started her on an antibiotic, so hopfully that will take care of it. I hope she can get well before we start our work in Thailand.