Diana At the Crossroad: My Typical Not So Typical Day

I was invited to a party at a teacher’s house today. As it was really far away, and I planned to spend the day in the Provincial Town, I told him I would come at 4PM on my way home. While I was riding to the party, the skies opened and dropped a monsoon on me. I was wearing a white (now see-through) shirt. I called the friend and told him the truth- I was too embarrassed to come to his party because it I am so wet from the rain. Then as I was passing his house on the way home, I realized that the ground was completely dry. There was not a drop of rain by his house. Great, he’s going to think I’m a liar. I went about another kilo before my guilt got the best of me, and I decided to go back at least to show my face and prove that it DID rain a lot where I was at the time. As I pulled into his house, I realized that the party was 10 really drunk stumbling men dancing around a table in front of at least 8 giant speakers.

Bad decision Diana.

I danced three songs to be polite, dodging advances from the men. (In my co-workers defense, he was also helping to intercept the advances). I tried to hold my shirt away from my body so they couldn’t see through to my bra. I also had one hand constantly ready to pull my pants up in case they would fall because of the weight of the rain water. One man sompaya’ed me (bowed with his hands in prayer position) about 30 times. Another one of the men gave me about 15 mangoes. I left, laughing.

I know the next slang word I teach my other friend and co-teacher will be “shit-show.” He has the perfect frame of reference to understand this term.

It rained again on my way home, just to make sure I had no dry article of clothing. My father watched me nearly get hit by a van on my way into the house. As the drivers were screaming Khmer curses at me through their window, I politely said good afternoon to my father.

I rode my bike through the parched-dry-not-rained-on dirt in my yard, parked my bike, and gave all the mangoes to my sister.

Here are some long overdue, completely unrelated pictures from Thanksgiving and the best meal I ever had in this country.