Weekend time

Biked 8 km to the cool Mart in the big city of Takeo. Brief break from the usual 4 hrs of language and 4 hrs of technical training from Monday to Saturday.

Triang sounds like training

Speaking with my mom on my Cambodian cellphone reminded me that my life is not so normal, but the day to day stays pretty much stays the same. I realize that my current life could not be much more opposite from my life in Boston. Training has commenced which also means that my life has become pretty simple, minus the immense amount of culture and language inundation. I'll be accessing internet roughly once a week, but my technological abilities here are minimal since I have not yet figured out how to post pictures at the internet cafe. Sorry mom (and others), you all may have to hold tight for several weeks before I figure out this picture posting thing. Until then, imagine my cows, dogs, my room which is most similar to a treehouse, multiple chickens and the chanting monks at the wat next door as the typical start to my everyday.

"switch to bicycle life"

At our hubsite for training in Takeo, I was gifted (temporarily) my set of wheels for the next 8 weeks and I appropriately found a nice shiny red friend with the emblem above. I apologize for the current lack of picture and fotos in general, but they will show up when I next have access to Internet. Speaking of, I'm headed to the ETtT (challenging acronym for English Teacher/Teacher Trainer, say it 3 times fast) training village 8 km away in Triang for the majority of the next 2 months. There I will meet my host family looking like a proper Khmer lady to the best of my ability wearing a sampot and tailor made white shirt. We will be blessed by monks at a wat and then off to spend quality time with our host families. Although Internet access will be more scarce than here, I'll be writing back here in Khmer in no time at all...

Vaccinated, set, GO!

After two days of packed info sessions at the comfortable and luxurious PC Cambodia headquarters, complete with ac and plenty of great food, we are embarking on the next step of training in Takeo tomorrow. My access to Internet will be less often than in the shmancy capital of Phnom Penh, but will update when possible. In the meantime, updated address for my whole service is below if you want to send me anything pretty. If you are planning on doing so, we were advised that the most secure mail is sent in those US postal service "priority mail" boxes.

Corrected mailing address:
Samantha Weiss
PO Box 2453
US Embassy
Cambodia
Asia

Some pics to come later...

Over and out

Officially a volunteer in training...next step being sworn in in a few months. Looking forward to touching the soil of Phnom Penh shortly (after a 23 hr flight, overnight in bangkok and subsequent day of travel). Will update whenever I have Internet next, but util then, enjoy this buffalo from dc!

Skymall: life's newest solutions

My flight back east today not only taught me about the newest American inventions, such as potty training system for cats and "Cat tree tees", but it also included the holy grail of training emails where I received a much anticipated basic schedule and expectations for the duration of the training period. The information is as follows:

Phnom Penh to Takeo: blue to yellow

7.13 - 7.14: Dulles to Bangkok
7.14 - Arrive in Bangkok, overnight at hotel
7.15 - Bangkok to Phnom Penh
7.15 - 7.17: Phnom Penh: Initial orientation and introductions
7.18 - Bus to Takeo Provincial town (FYI: limited internet until swear in, and possibly there after...)
7.21 - 9.7: Takeo Province (specific village TBD) - training, live with a small group of volunteers and a training host family
9.7 - Takeo: Swear In

Mailing address for the time being - it will be brought to my training site:

Attn: PCT Samantha Weiss
Peace Corps/Cambodia
No 7A, Street 256, P.O. Box 2453,
Sangkat Chak Tomouk, Khan Daun Penh,
Phnom Penh

Last day in Berkeley

Nothing says goodbye like a crazy man dancing in front of cheeseboard pizza. It really felt like the perfect Berkeley scene when this man encountered, as he pushed his shopping cart, a stroller and a woman with a walker. I'll miss this place.