Thursday, September 23, 2010

Cambodia

I am back! And I have LOTS of pictures, so I am going to break them up a bit over the next several posts, which I will schedule since Internet access is so rare for me...

I am taking advantage of the free Internet here at a hotel where we are conducting interviews for tech positions, and what better way to use my time while I wait for the next candidate to come and ask them to sit and wait their turn, right?!? I still have tomorrow, too...so plenty of time. I had my phone forwarded to an unused cell phone and I am using a spare laptop with VPN so I can still get email and work, but I brought my personal laptop for the in-between times, so it will be nice to catch up on my blog - and those of YOU that have a blog :) I am definitely looking forward to it :)

Here are some random pictures to get you started...


I love looking out the window at the scene below...


And this looked like snow instead of clouds....such a distinct line. I thought it was cool.

Stephen and I left our hotel bright and early for my 8:30 AM flight out of Detroit. I was already a little concerned about making my connecting flight in Dallas because I only had an hour and 20 minutes, so when my flight in Detroit was delayed due to no food or water on the airplane, I knew it would be stressful once I landed. I had less than an hour to pick up my luggage (it wasn’t checked all the way to Cambodia for some reason), catch a bus to the correct terminal, find where to check in, check in, check my luggage, go through security, find my gate, and get on the plane. Thankfully there was absolutely no one in security ahead of me, and my gate was the closest one after that…but I still got there as they were boarding my section. A little closer than I would have liked. I was so out of breath and exhausted that I could barely lift my carry-on luggage into the overhead compartment. For the 13 hour flight I sat next to a Vietnamese lady and her American boyfriend…who was dressed in rattlesnake cowboy boots, red & black pants, black shirt, red and black vest, and red and black suit coat. It looked like he was going on stage for something. But they were my age, and nice, so it was OK; I watched movies most of the trip anyway. I was VERY impressed with Korean Air. I would fly with them again any time.


I had to take this picture for all my coworkers - you know, since we are a phone company and run lines like this for service - well, not exactly like this - which is the point. These wires were like this all over the whole town of Phnom Penh. It looked like whenever there was a problem with the service, they just ran a new line. What a mess :) :)


Sunset almost the whole way from Phnom Penh to Seoul (5 hours) on the way back home. It was beautiful.


The kids were excited to have me home...and loved the little gifts I found for them in the market. This is a puzzle snake.


And I couldn't resist this little outfit for Damaris...and of course she loves it, too :)

It wasn't fun, however, to come back to the craziness of American life. And what better way to come back than to find out the transmission went out on my car while I was gone, right?!? It is only 6 years old, and Jettas are known for having good transmissions...it stinks. And, since they would have to get a new transmission from Germany, it would cost us over $4000 to fix!! So we are obviously looking at other options - selling the car for what we can and buying a junk car to get me to and from work, finding a used transmission, or getting our transmission rebuilt (all of these are really bad options, because when you don't have money, well, you don't have money). So for now, my sister in Cambodia is letting us use her car - which is a HUGE help. I feel like we have had so much drama in the last year...I am more than ready for life to settle down at least a little bit.

More pictures and stories to come soon!

3 comments:

Meghan said...

cools pics. Sorry about your transmission, praying for a solution.

Anonymous said...

Good pictures. Hope the car problems are gone soon. Aunt Linda Mowat

Michelle M. said...

Wow- your trip looks great! Now I need to read the rest of your posts :)

Sorry about the transition!