Angkor What?!

Our first weekend in Cambodia was spent in Siem Reap with all of Language Corps! Everyone was slightly nervous for the eight hour bus ride, because if you couldn't tell, Cambodian food doesn't exactly agree with the stomach any of the time some of the time. If you have to get up to leave class 10 times in an hour, nobody questions you, we just nod our head and wish you luck, while praying that when it inevitably hits you, you are in close proximity to the restroom.

Overall the bus ride went surprisingly well, except for the constant fear I faced of the overhead compartment crashing down on my head. By the end of the bus ride I had pieces of plaster all over me. At least no one pulled a Bridesmaids. 

Halfway through our bus ride we stopped at a place called Spider Village. When I heard "Spider Village" I had images of Ron Weasley and Harry Potter running away from Aragog in the Chamber of Secrets.

Here's a visual for all you muggles out there.

Thankfully all of the spiders were cooked. Mmmm lunch! We tried a tarantula...tasted like chicken. 

Surprisingly not bad, but feeling the little hairy legs in my mouth was slightly off putting, as you can tell by my face.

Emily was not impressed.

We don't think we'll be going back for seconds anytime soon.

We also bought the littlest bananas I have ever seen. I don't know why I find this so funny.

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The first day in Siem Reap we had the option to wake up at 4 a.m. to see the sunrise. Apparently it was going to be very rare, because the sun was going to be directly behind the center of Angkor Wat. How could I miss an opportunity like that?!?!

4 a.m. comes rolling around, and there we are stumbling to the bus to see this immaculate sunrise. We are posted outside of Angkor Wat for a good two hours, just waiting patiently for this sensational sunrise that is going to be life changing.

It went from dark:

To mildly dark:

To a light grey:

To the slightest of pinks:

And there it was.

  The sun did peek out of the clouds for about six seconds, and when it did, people went NUTS. I mean all of the selfie sticks in the world went up when this little speck of light appeared (including mine...). 

  

And that was the end of the spectacular sunrise. So much disappointment, so little sleep. Let's just pretend it looked like this:

^so disappointed that I didn't even realize I had a wedgie

Once we got back to the hotel, bragging to everyone who opted to sleep in how *~amazing and surreal and life changing~* the sunrise was, we began our tour of Angkor Wat (post 10 cups of coffee later, and two minutes of sleep for Chels).

^"I hate being a tourist. I just want to sleep"

Bayon temple was first! This place was incredible and by far my favorite.

ELLIEEEEE!!! Cropped out the people who were sitting on the ellie's back, that is MEAN AND HURTFUL.

^bald and sweaty

Buddhafly kissies

^I aslso had a wedgie 90% of the time 

After sweating through my Under Armour pants that are in fact not quick drying (Kevin Plank, the real test is whether or not Under Armour works in Southeast Asia...it doesn't) we headed to the next temple which was Baphuon (?)

^so presh

This was the point of the trip where Chelsea and I got lost wandering through the temples. We aren't very good at directions, especially together. 

"Which way do we go?"

*walks in circles*

After having someone in our group sent out in search to bring us back (sorry Jarrod...), we were off to the next temple. And guess who was there?!?!

She actually asked me to take this photo for her. You're welcome Michelle.

Since Michelle (we are on a first name basis now...I allow her to call me Laura) is sort of famous or something, we had to skip going through one of the coolest temples, Ta Prohm (where they filmed Tomb Raider) because I guess she couldn't be near us peasants. 

Thanks Obama.

To end the day we finally explored inside Angkor Wat! We were only allowed in certain areas because we were stalking Michelle Obama Michelle was like following us or something. I know she wants to be my friend because I am like really cool and everything but a girl needs her personal space.

After walking, sweating, and seeing more temples than I could ever care about (jkjk they were really cool) we rewarded ourselves with a quick swim and a night out on Pub Street where we drank very responsibly and had a glass of water in between ever beer, just like my wise dad says!

the street of a thousand dreams

 The next morning feeling like 100 bucks, we hit up one more temple (I never want to hear the word temple again) 

Thankfully Michelle didn't follow me to this temple, so we were free to explore. So nice of her. Then we had our eight our bus ride to look forward to! YAY FORREST IS SO EXCITED!!!

Lawd Jesus

The next day, slightly hungover jetlagged, we took a tour of Phnom Penh. Obviously on tuk tuks, but by this point we felt like we were natives (okay Laura you've been there for less than 24 hours)

Don't mind my resting bitch face, it's a condition I've suffered with my whole life.

First we went to Wat Phnom, which is the tallest religious structure in the city!

No one looks good when riding in a tuk tuk. Sorry.

All the people in our program! I wonder how Island TEFL is going...

Then we went to the Royal Palace! 

^such a human

After sweating out about three pounds of weight from my body, we got some coconuts to replenish our electrolytes. Chelsea doesn't really like coconuts but she did it for the picture.

^I'm not sure why we all look so mad when there are dollar beers in front of us. DOLLAR BEERS. SMILE PEOPLE. Maybe it's because we have class the next day?!

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Ugh. Class. I forgot how much I hated learning (yet I'm becoming a teacher...?). Being in class reminded me of when I was in Mount de Sales senior year, sitting through religion class. It was the last class of the day, right after lunch, and the room was always so hot and Miss Duffy's voice was always so soothing, I would find myself just shutting my eyes for a slight second, and then being gently awoken with a puddle of drool on my desk. 

The best naps were religion class naps. 

The first week of class was looooong. We learned grammar. Grammar. We had to take a test on grammar. This time I didn't have Lea Desrosiers sitting next to me to cheat off of, but rather a non-English native speaker who had to use her phone to translate the words into Khmer,so it was a struggle to say the least. But I am proud to say I passed all on my own (with the help of all of our notes we were allowed to use)!!! Take that Mrs. Judge!!

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Finding food was sometimes difficult. It's not like you can walk down the "street" and have your pick of what cuisine you would like to eat. Hmmm maybe I'll have sushi today? O0o0o0 I'm feeling like some Mexican!!!

No.

You will be eating rice and/or noodles. 
Maybe some meat.
Maybe.

Some of our meals were delicious!!

^mmmmmm pork and rice SO GOOD. I think this meal was 75 cents? Actually if I remember correctly they charged us a full dollar. Simply because we are Americans.

^honestly I don't remember this. It looks okay?

THIS. This lady should be a saint. Or a Noble Peace Prize winner. She was sent down from up above to grace us with the best sammy that has ever crossed these lips.

I can say with large certainty that I heard gospel music when I took my first bite.

Pork belly and shrimp meatballs with a spicy sauce and a mango slaw on freshly grilled bread. Fiddy cents. If you ever go to Phnom Penh you must go in search of this woman. Find her and bring her to me. Seriously, use force if need be.

We also had some not so gospel music worthy food:

While this looks fine and picturesque, with the sun beaming down on it and the chopsticks slightly askew so as not to look staged even though it definitely was, what they brought us out before this just made me lose my appetite completely. 

^my exact reaction

We found that in Cambodia you don't really get a choice of what you are going to eat, they kind of just bring it out to you. They brought us out a steaming bowl of soup with mystery meat in it (meanwhile it's about 100 degrees and I have sweat dripping down my face. Mmmmm....soup). It looked like liver and intestines to me. Chelsea swears she heard them say "dog" (even though they don't speak English she still swears she heard it). They just kept bringing out bowls of this never-ending dog soup. Finally after making multiple gestures like this:

And saying "no meat no meat", did they understand. And that is how I ended up with that bowl of soup, which by the way tasted like absolutely nothing except steaming hot liquid going down my throat.

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About halfway through the first week, my eyelids started to get HEAVY. I'm not talking about high school religion class heavy, I'm talking about HEAVY as in it physically hurt to keep them open. One could say I was going through a slight caffeine withdrawal. 

That girl is my spirit animal.

It also didn't help that the monks start chanting at 5a.m. every morning, and feel the need to do so into into a LOUD SPEAKER. 

My eyelids were getting so heavy that I convinced myself I had a parasite (thanks WebMD, Chelsea Farrall, and Emily Pfeifer for bringing out the hypochondriac in me that I didn't even know existed). After a few mornings of a cup of coffee at breakfast (when I say a cup, I mean a literal cup. Singular. Small. Ever so small), we went in search of a more substantial amount of caffeine.

Then, like the heavens above were opening up, a beam of light falls upon a little shack. Inside that shack (dramatic pause) was a man. A man whose name I forget, but let's call him John (as I'm typing this I'm saying it inside my head like Morgan Freeman, so you do the same). John was the maker of the most delicious iced coffee I have ever had.

I have never tried crack (mom and dad are so proud), but I would assume the effects of crack would be similar to how I feel about this coffee. Say crack again. Crack.

It may seem small, most likely because I drank almost all of it in the first 30 seconds that I got it, but if I could eat one of those meatball sammies alongside this iced coffee, I would die a happy woman.

This coffee also cost 75 cents, and after the second day in a row of me crawling towards him on my hands and knees with my heavy eyelids, begging him for just one more cup, with sweat dripping down my withered face (honestly I love exaggerating), he started charging me only 50 cents. You could say we became friends.