Back in the City Again

So I am once again in Phnom Penh. Life at Wat Opot has been pretty standard. Like always, I continue to teach and spend time with the kids. Volunteers have come and gone throughout my stay, which has been really nice. There have been groups from Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, the US, and Germany, just to name a few. The past week an Australian man named Steve stopped by for a few days. He has been visiting Wat Opot for several years now, currently lives in Vietnam with his girlfriend. Steve is very friendly and gets along with everyone. Steve, Wayne, and myself enjoyed staying up late, sipping on Johnny Walker, and listening to music. If I plan on travelling to Vietnam before I leave, it is nice to know that I have a friend to visit.

By now, almost everyone has gotten used to me. It is fun to joke around with people, because you know that all the while they are talking about you without you understanding what they are saying. It situations like these, I simply nod my head and smile. Ignorance truly is bliss. The older kids enjoy watching WWF Smackdown on tv. They know that I wrestled in high school, so they always try messing around with me. They have big mouths, but when it comes time to "smackdown", they scream like little girls.

The weather has been pretty gross over the past couple of days. On Tuesday, it honestly rained for 8 hours straight. An interesting phenomenon takes place during heavy rainfalls. There are about 8 small ponds throughout the community, holding enormous walking catfish. During heavy rains, the fish liteally walk, using their extraodinarily strong fins, towards ponds with deeeper water levels. It is very bizarre to see these huge fish flopping around on land, knowing that they will eventually reach water. I will try to get some pictures next time it rains.

So yesterday I once again took a van to Phnom Penh. Everything was the same as the first trip, except this time the chickens in the back seat were death and defeathered. Susan and I had originally planned on going to Siem Reap this weekend, but she got tied up at work. I will now take this oppurtunity to celebrate my birthday in Phnom Penh, and we will go to Siem Reap within the next few weeks. As opposed to staying in an air conditioned hotel, this time around I decided to stay at a backingpacking guest house. This place is awesome. For 6 dollars a night, I get a room with a fan. There is also a full restraunt and bar here too. The people staying here are great. Almost everyone is a Westerner, and everyone wants to hang out. There is an enormous congregation area on the top level of the hostel where everyone hangs out. There are a few Americans staying here too, which is nice because I havent seen many of my native people since I have ben here.

Susan organized a nice dinner for my birthday tomorrow night (September 4th, for those of you who were wondering), then I will probably go out with a bunch of people in the hostel. I'm pretty stoked about everything. I plan on going back to the village on Sunday, but until then im just going to relax. It is nice to see that the Braves are still hanging around the playoff picture, and thank god college football starts this weekend. UGA plays Oklahoma state, which should be intersting. It looks like Georgia is going to start the season with a loosing record. Anyway, thats all for now, but I will try to get another post up before the weekend is over.