My Day

I had a rough day today, and I'm kind of nervous about blogging about it because it's only 1 o'clock in the afternoon. But today was a doozy that will go down in the history books.

It started off okay (except that one of the girls wet the bed, and we were a little bit late to school). I walk the girls to school every morning, and when I get home I am drenched in sweat. So, I decided to do some last minute cleaning (Ryan's parents come tonight). When I finished with that I put Megann down for a nap, took a quick/cold shower, and told our helper that I was going to the grocery store.

When I got to the store I tried to get money from the ATM with Ryan's card (mine doesn't work because the new card which arrives tonight with Ryan's parents is already activated). Unfortunately, I tried getting out cash with my pin, which obviously didn't work with his card. After a few unsuccessful attempts it locked me out of the account. The only other card in my wallet was Ryan's credit card, which I knew I couldn't use in the store because they always check the signatures (I've tried before). So, I called Ryan (on the verge of tears) to see if there was anything he could do to help. He had some time before his next class (about 45 minutes), so he hopped on the moto, stopped by the house to get his ATM card for our local account (which had about $25 dollars in it), then stopped at the ATM to get me some cash for paying my tuk-tuk driver and the water delivery guys that come to the house with drinking water every Friday. During this time I was busily trying to pick out the groceries I needed for the weekend.

The shopping experience was quite frustrating because several of the items I wanted weren't in stock (this happens a lot). A few minutes later my phone rang - it was Ryan. When I answered the phone I could tell that something was wrong. There were the normal traffic sounds, but there were also voices in the background. Ryan said, "Umm. I have a flat tire." Honestly, I was relieved that he hadn't been in an accident, but my nerves were on edge and I could feel my heart starting to race. After trying to figure out what to do next, Ryan called my tuk-tuk driver and had him come meet him at the repair shop. I stayed in the store trying to hold back the tears. As Ryan and Mop were sorting out the moto, I ran into some friends in the store... and then the tears started rolling. As I tried to spill the story of my day (the past hour of it, actually) they listened with empathy. They knew how rough days like mine felt. They had been there before, and they understood. Ryan called again to say that he was on his way, and that the water guys were at the house waiting for me (of course, why wouldn't they be?!). We visited for a while as I pulled myself together, and had a good laugh when Ryan walked in the door. I had forgotten that he was dressed like a rapper for Spirit Week at school! He paid for the groceries and then hurried back to teach his class. I crawled into the tuk-tuk, asked my driver to take me home, and then cried the entire way back. I was so thankful for Ryan and for friends, so homesick for a "normal" life (because you never have bad days, right?), and so grateful that all of this happened today and not on Tuesday (because Ryan had gone to school that day dressed like a nerd!).

Our House

Here are some pictures of the inside of our house. We live on the 3rd and 4th level of a 5 story traditional row house. These types of houses are usually found in the city, and they are connected together. Thus, our 5 story house kind of stands out here in the country! Our front door is actually on the back of the house and it is up about 30 steep steps. A few weeks ago we found a baby gate in a local baby store - it has been a life saver (literally).

This is a view of our kitchen from around the front door. Our dining area is just to the right of this. You can also barely see a door way behind the rattan cabinet - that is where our washing machine is.

This is the hallway just beyond our kitchen/dining area. Our bedroom is on the right, Megann's bedroom is on the left, and one of our SIX bathrooms is straight ahead. If you turn left at the bathroom you will pass the stairs to the girls' rooms and then you'll end up in the living room.

This is the living room. The door you see leads to a small balcony that is on the front of our house (see below). We have a matching sofa, but we can't get it around the curves in the hallway, so it's upstairs. This room is large and has several windows, so if there is any breeze outside it comes through this room nicely (good for air flow, but bad for dust).

A front-ish view of our house. You can't see the bottom level, so our flat starts at the 2nd bank of windows. You can also see the balcony off our living room (the living room is 2 stories tall). We also have a beautiful covered roof. Our laundry dries up there, and we would eventually like to put some kind of table and chairs to put there for those nights when it's too hot to eat inside.

Random

Here a few random pictures that I thought you would enjoy...

This is what happens when you're out on the moto (motorcycle) and it starts to rain!

Bath-time with hairstyling and a concert - a nightly tradition for Addie and Meg.

Sweet Megann

Our Anniversary

A few weeks ago we celebrated our 13th anniversary! It has become our tradition on Sunday mornings to go out for coffee, just the two of us. We ventured downtown to a great little place for an iced coffee (it's just too hot for the warm stuff), and enjoyed just being together.

We were given some money for our anniversary, so we decided to spend it on a little rooftop garden. One thing that I really missed in Ooty was gardening, but we were blessed with beautiful gardens both at our house/school and next door at the Botanical Gardens. Here are some pictures of the place where we bought the pots, and another place down the road where we bought the plants.

The pot shop - they're imported from Vietnam. I think I paid $3-10 per pot! The tallest pot won't have a plant in it because it holds the umbrellas by the front door.

Nursery

The finished product!

Catchin' Up

Well, we've been in Cambodia for 2 months! In some ways it seems like 2 days and in other ways it seems like 2 years! Sometimes when I'm getting overwhelmed it's good to remember that we're still new around here. Couples who have 2 month old babies aren't parenting experts and professionals with only 2 months of experience aren't usually regarded as experts in their field, so I'm trying to be a little easier on myself when it comes to adjusting to this new life.

I'm really behind on blogging, so I have a lot of pictures and updates to post. I'll get going on it right now, since Megann is sleeping and I probably won't have the mental energy to get on the blog in the near future (did I mention that I started my Masters?).

Here's one picture for now. This is the packaging for the local rehydration powder (kind of like Gatorade). Ryan bought a big box of it because he needed to break $20 and thought it would be good to have at the house. I think the writing is hilarious - I just wish they would have included a picture at the top of some heavy sweating people!

This is the way we go to school...

This is how the girls come and go to school each day. It's called a tuk-tuk (sounds like took) and it's pulled by a moto (motorcycle) driven by our friend Wibol (pronounced Vee-bol). Clear?!

Our House

I don't have any pictures of the inside of our house, except for a couple of shots taken just after our crate from India exploded in our kitchen, that I really want to (okay, so the crate didn't actually explode, but from the mess you would've thought it had). But I do have some pictures of the view from our house. I'll work on getting more shots - until then, just enjoy these!

Looking west from our rooftop - the road you can see is 1966, heading towards Hanoi

Looking west from our front door (which is actually on the back of the house). The white balcony on the right is the kitchen balcony.

The view straight out of the kitchen door (looking south). The field behind our house is flooded from the monsoon rains, but our property is surrounded by a high concrete wall that keeps the water from flooding us (or at least our landlords - our house is on the 2nd and 3rd story, so we don't worry too much about floods).