Missing/Stolen Kindle Found

At the beginning of December, there was a going away part for a dear friend who was moving back to England (and then on to Milan, where she is now). The day after, when I had gotten back to my site, I could seem to find my Kindle, so I could only assume that it was back at my friends' house in Svay (the provincial town, formally "Serei Sisophon"). One of my friends looked for a long while and found nothing. There had been workers coming in and out of the house to work on the roof, and things going missing had not been unusual (but never anything on that scale). We assumed somebody stole it. I was bummed, but hey, it's a thing. No one got hurt, but still. It was sad, as I was in the middle of a book that I was really enjoying. I tried to forget about and found out later that I might get a replacement when I came back home in August. A m mononth later, in Phnom Penh for New Year's Eve, I had put a bunch of books on my laptop that I could later transfer to my new Kindle 8 months from then. That night, a PCV who went home for the holidays asked me if I had any need to purchase her old Kindle. It so happened that she had received a Kindle Touch for Christmas and was trying to sell her first generation one. I asked how much: $5. Five dollars! That's just crazy. I gave her $10, even though that still didn't feel right. It was such a fantastic thing to do for someone, so I went on reading e-books until just two days ago, my friend texted me to tell me that it had been found! Joy! (That means "fuck" in Khmer, by the way; I meant it in the English definition, though) Who found it? Someone who frequented the house and had actually known that it was there since the very day after I thought it was gone! How was this possible? She simply thought that another volunteer was leaving it there on purpose. Hmmm, wouldn't you think to call said volunteer? I guess not. Either way, I wasn't mad, I was just happy that two things could happen: one, I get my Kindle back; two, I could find someone else to reap the joys of the Kindle. So, in celebration, I bought the most current edition of The Economist and The New Yorker. Okay, so I've read both magazines before, but I never remember them being so damn long! I've been reading it for the past three days, and I'm almost done. Ugh. I'm enjoy it, though.

Also more fun things, this weekend is full of a lot of things going on.

1) A friend's going-away party (they are early terminating [ETing])

2) Another friend's birthday

3) The first meeting of the Diversity Task Force (intense name, I know)

4) Foreign Service Officer Test (FSOT)...you'd think they'd call it an exam. That would just sound a lot more elegant. Anyhow, I'm not taking this test very seriously, so we'll see how I do and where it goes.

5) Hangin' out with a couple of friends that live in the capital.

Anyhow, that's it.

Talk to you soon,

Garrett