Good Morning Baltimore!

Today was our first real day off, and it was much needed. I still woke up early though, so I went out for my morning run. This time I went off campus a bit, but I didn't encounter anything too interesting. When I got back, I caught up on some emailing on Melanie's computer since mine was still out of service. When everyone else started to get up and moving, Melanie, Whitney, and I decided to walk to Carrefour to see about getting my computer charger fixed. We stopped for coffee on the way at Wawee to wake up a bit. At Carrefour, they told me that they didn't sell any computer chargers and sent me to a kind of sketchy electronics store in the parking garage that might be able to repair it. When I found the store, I made an attempt to talk to the staff there, but I found out that they spoke even less English than the people at Carrefour did. I proceeded to attempt some kind of communication by acting out the events that led to my damaged computer charger with the aid of my personal sound effects and props. I know they thought I was out of my mind, but eventually, I think we made it to the same page or at least the same book. They told me to come back at ye-sib-saam. I am so glad I paid attention during the equipping time where we learned our numbers. After that, I found Melanie and Whitney wandering around Carrefour, and we walked back to the zone. At about 11:45, Robert came to pick us all up for lunch. He had invited us to join him and his kids at a local Mexican food restaurant called Miguel's. I was kind of skeptical because my Cambodian Mexican food experience was definitely not something I wanted to repeat. However, when the English-speaking staff greeted us as we entered, I knew that was a good sign. I ordered a burrito, and it met my acceptable rating for Thailand Mexican food. It may also be that my standards have dropped in the three weeks that I have been gone. At lunch, we all started talking about our love of High School Musical with Erica, so Robert invited all five of us to have a sleep-over with her that night to watch it. We excitedly accepted. After lunch, they dropped us back off at the zone again to chill out for the rest of the afternoon. I got a ride to Carrefour with Ohng and Bon (my first motorcycle ride!) to pick up my computer charger. It turned out that they couldn't fix it, and they didn't carry a replacement in their store. They told me I had to buy a new one at a store called CMComputer, which was across town. I was a little perturbed by this news since I had no way of getting there. When I got back to the zone, I decided to try and forget my computer woes in an afternoon nap, and it definitely did the trick. When I woke up, I quickly packed and waited with the other girls for Robert, Erica, and Branson to pick us up. When they got there, we all hopped in the back of the truck and headed to Carrefour to rent the movies and grab some quick dinner. We all ate at McDonalds and then got Dairy Queen Blizzards for dessert. The Thai-take on American fast-food isn't completely accurate to the tastes in the states, but it will definitely suffice for me. At the Reagan's house, we got all of our beds set up and then hunkered down to watch Hairspray and High School Musical. It was so nice to laugh and be goofy for a while. I truly had an all-American day, and it was fantastic!