preparations

Some of the things I'm doing to prepare:

1) Eating tons of American junk food. I've been basically rotating through CVS's weekly candy and junk food sale items. Dark chocolate Reese's Peanut Butter Cups? Yes please. Oversize bag of Sour Patch Kids? Check. Kettle cooked potato chips? I think a bag of those can fit in my desk too. What would a Cambodian person think of the sheer variety we have available of differently labeled and colored high fructose corn syrup?

2) Watching Hulu like it's my job. Maybe it could be my job. Wait, that isn't part of my job? I mean really, reality television is good preparation because it lowers my expectations of society. But can we talk about how they're shipping us out on the day of the Tahiti episode of The Bachelorette? Yes, I've seen the spoilers and know what's coming, but that confrontation with Frank, the sensitive goofy playwright from Illinois, is going to be priceless. I mean what? What just happened, someone must have hijacked my blog.

3) Lying around in air conditioned places. It's 99 degrees in Washington at the moment (high of 101). The high today in Phnom Penh was 98. If you have lived with me or are my sister, you know that I have a moderate distaste for air conditioning. Given that I'm going to be hot for the next two years, though, I think a little air con won't hurt.

4) Oh yeah, and studying Khmer on my lunch break. I figured I should at least try to look like I was doing something responsible to prepare. For the record, Khmer is nuts! It's kinda cool, too, like how in counting it's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, then 5+1, 5+2, 5+3, etc. Also, there are a few small things I've noticed that are taken from Hindi. Yes! I told you my random language skills would come in handy someday! Also, Khmer has no verb conjugation, no gendered nouns, and no plurals. On the other hand, the alphabet has about 100 different symbols that look each look like small drawings. Imagine, in a few months, I'll be spouting off Khmer like nobody's business.