Disclaimer

This website reflects my own personal views and not that of the U.S. Government nor, more specifically, the Peace Corps.

Friday, September 24, 2010

PCV and Kickin' It

I swore in on Thursday, September 23rd, becoming a Peace Corps/Cambodia Volunteer. The ceremony was an hour with two speeches from the volunteers, one from the CD, one from the U.S. Ambassador, and one from the Deputy Prime Minister of Cambodia. There were translators for English to Khmer, but not the other way around, so you can imagine that with two months of language training, I was a little lost and kinda gettin' sleepy. Anyhow, it's over, and now, I have a hat...way cool. I'm enjoying it here, and thankfully, I have nothing to do today except figure out what I'm gonna do today. Oddly enough, I think I've hung out with the K3s more than the K4s this week... I move to permanent site, tomorrow. I'm excited to move to 20hr/wk 5 days/wk schedule.

Hope all is well,
Garrett

p.s. I finally got a hold of the MUSE show. AMAZING. Keep it up, guys.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Iowa at Arizona

This is pretty much the coolest thing:

I'm sittin' along the Mekong River, listening to the Iowa (9) at Arizona (24) game live online. Not only have I had the opportunity to do this, but I got to hear half of "Fight, Wildcats!" and the first 6 chords of the MUSE opener from the 2010 POA Marching Band. I won't lie, I freaked out a little bit. All I know, now is: I get to listen to games on Sunday mornings (keeping my fingers crossed that the internet phone that I bought off a K3 will work at my site). Go Cats!

I was reminded to tell you that I'm not alone in listening to this game. Brenda and I have been listening to the game since the 2nd quarter (when we were finally able to get audio [we'd been following along by GameCast on ESPN for the 1st quarter (in fact, we tried watching the game on ESPN on our TV in the hotel, but of course that network felt it more beneficial to air Formula 1 after numerous times announcing that the Iowa at Arizona game was to be aired next)]).
Talk about hometown/alma mater pride!

End Score:

Arizona 34 Iowa 27

I think Brenda would agree with me that we felt a mixed bag emotions including: excitement, disappointment, suspense and finally, relief.

Go Cats!

Limbo

So, I left my training village today. It was a little emotional, but mostly awkward. In Cambodia, touching isn't usually deemed appropriate, so there wasn't too much hugging going on. A handshake, yes. It was fun though. I took pictures every member of the family (that's a lot) and received some old photos from one my host sibling's wedding, who by the way I didn't realize was actually my sister until last week.

So, this next week will pretty much consist of chilling out, dealing with some formalities and just pretty much having a grand ol' time. The Star-Spangled Banner Quintet met together for the first time today, and it sounds pretty damn good, I have to say. We really didn't have to do much to blend together. I guess we were just meant to sing together. Not a comment you might hear me say, but I'm just excited that it will go well. Apparently, if you sound decent enough, the American Embassy asks you back for a four-day vacation to sing again during July 4th. So, keep your fingers cross.

Anyhow, I'm excited to meet up with my current Volunteer friends along with us soon-to-be Volunteers and do some dancing and hangin' out. I'm excited to buy some needed things:

-weights
-guitar
-harmonica?

those are my only requirements in town.

Hope things are going well on the homefront.

Talk to you soon,
Garrett

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Cambodian Photo Gallery



Fancy meal provided by Peace Corps







The Health Center I will be at in Banteay Meanchey




Saturday, September 11, 2010

Birthday in KC

About 10 of us rode into Kampong Cham today for Sarah's birthday. Yup, I'm gettin' up there on biking distance. I rode 23?k to get here, so we'll see if I can get up to 30k for my permanent site. Not a big post today, because I wouldn't want to be too anti-social, you know me.

So, basic info:

I'm reading Gai-jin and am 260 pages into, and only have just shy of 1000 pages to go.

Anyhow, yup, that's it. Life's good. Language is good. Friends are good.

p.s. I'm singing the National Anthem of the U.S. of A. at swear-in (with others). When asked at one of the seminar days who should sing, about 1/3 of our group wrangled me into it, so here I am. I don't want to sing the boring one melody, so I'm going to attempt to teach the SATB version. We'll see how that goes.

Talk to you soon,
Garrett

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Sourng (pronounced: Soouhn(g))

So, I had the afternoon off, so I thought it'd be a good idea to bike to the next closest ...city? Yeah, it's a city compared to where I've been living. It took me about 22 min to bike here, so let's hope that I rode 30k, 4? 7? I don't know. Anyhow, I found this little internet cafe. And by internet cafe, I mean a little shack with a computer and a fan for .75/hour. Good deal, I think.

Update:

I bought an internet phone off of one of the K3s headed home, so I will be able to get on the internet probably once or twice a week, so if you want to Skype, just let me know.

My tickets are purchased for the US, so I'll be home the afternoon of the 16th - early morning, the 20th. December, that is.

Anyhow, my time is almost up on here.

Talk to you soon... I swear in two weeks from tomorrow. Crazy.

Garrett

Thursday, September 2, 2010

O.M.G.

So, tonight, I had a hot, yes, hot shower... I...can't really explain in words how that feels, but after a month and a half of cold bucket showers, yeah. Give me a moment...

(moment)

Okay, phew. We're good.

p.s. I would just like to note that (with the help of some directions) I managed to get my self all the way across Phnom Penh in a tuk tuk all by myself. Small accomplishment, really, but you gotta take 'em one at a time.

Night,
Garrett
or
G-Money, apparently.