And I Ate.....

Last night I ate snake on a stick.  Thats right, I ate snake on a stick with the bones and all.  Nick and I were going to eat tarantula, but the bug cart didn't have any so I had to settle for snake on a stick.  Once I get a hold of the evidence, I will post the photos on here, so stay tuned.

Singapore!!!!!!!

I just returned from an adventure packed 48 hours in Singapore. What an awesome city. Ten adjectives to describe Singapore: immaculate, fun, green, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, expensive, delicious, convenient, fashionable, fantabulous! I think that about says it all. We flew into Singapore on Thursday afternoon. Talk about culture shock! Even the public transportation there is clean. It doesn't smell like pee or anything. It was raining when we got in so we spent the afternoon wandering around a nearby mall, marveling at all the delicious food :) That evening we headed out to the PiA party. It was so much fun. It was at a swank wine bar and there was free wine and hors d'oeuvre. Sadly the food did not cut for three eaters like us, so after the party we hit up a 24-hrs McDonalds. Sadly, it was as bad as I remember it being in the states.

Friday we woke up early to explore the city. Kyle and I got up at 6:45, as planned, but Mike didn't think we would actually get up, so he slept in for two extra hours! We finally got out of the hostel and had a delicious breakfast of pancakes and sausages...Yummy. We spent most of the day just walking around taking in the sights. We went to Chinatown and a woman who had a calligraphy stand asked me if I could take a her picture for her brochure. One picture turned into many pictures and we had ourselves a regular old photoshoot. As a thank you she painted my name for half-price. I walked around some more and went back to retrieve my name and she had me take even more photos of her. I felt bad for Mike and Kyle they had to wait around, while the woman decided whether she liked her smile in each of the pictures I took..hahaha!

After walking around all day, we changed and went to watch a Singapore Symphony Orchestra concert. We were so close to missing it. They were just closing the doors when we showed up and we had to run to get to our seats. It was a really good concert. Even though I was exhausted I stayed awake for the whole thing. There was a cellist who played an amazing solo. After the concert we sat down by the water and then spent the next two hours hunting for food. We finally just went to a little place on the corner near the hostel and had delicious chicken, curry and rice for super cheap. I knew the restaurant had to be good cause there was a line out the door at 11:30 at night. We wanted to go out, but had to pack and get some sleep cause our plane left at 6:45 this morning. When I got home, I was so tired I took a four hour nap. I could probably have slept all day.

I almost died.... but not really and Jackie Chan

I just had to tell everyone what happened to me last night. I went to plug my fan into the multiplug in my bedroom, being very careful because the plastic around the wires was starting to come off and I had already been electrocuted once, and as I put the plug into the socket there was explosion of sparks and the lights went off. I then had to take my cellphone and feel my way around the apartment to find the circuit box (i think thats what its called). Turns out the whole plug blew off the end of the cord while I was holding on to it. Very traumatic :) On the upside, I had a legit excuse to use my air con....FABULOUS. Gotta buy a new fan tonight :(

Oh yeah, on a totally random note, Jackie Chan is speaking at UC today and I get to go. I am not really sure what he is gonna talk about. Hopefully he will break something or drop someone... that would be so awesome! Yesterday I heard he sang for an audience, but sadly I had neither tickets nor time to go to that performance. I've heard there is free food today, so you know I will be there. Let you know how it goes!

The Water Festival: A Day at the Races

Tuesday I finally was able to drag myself down to the Water Festival. The Water Festival is the biggest yearly celebration in Cambodia. It marks the changing of the flow of the Tonle Sap river. The Tonle Sap, I think, is the only river that changes the direction it flows. Crazy right? So every year Cambodians from all over the country descend upon Phnom Penh for three days of celebration. I was being something of a recluse, because the city was so busy. The mornings aren't so bad, but by the time night rolls around its hard to even walk down the street. So Tuesday I made it down to the river front to watch the last day of the boat races. It was pretty cool. They race in long canoe like boats and there are about 60 guys paddling. They haul balls. So I sat on the water front in the "foreigner area" for a couple hours. It was kind of weird to be set apart from everyone else, but at the same time nice I didn't have to worry about pick-pocketers.

I finally had to leave the Water Festival to go visit Pheng at his temple. On my way there it started to poor. I showed up at the pagoda soaking wet, which was pretty awesome. After getting questioned on my marital status and age by a random old man, Pheng and I had an informal English/Khmer lesson that turned into a lesson on Buddhism. The entire time I was at the temple it was pouring outside and by the time I went to leave my shoes were soaked and it was dark out. The old woman who sleeps in the temple kept insisting that I stay the night. I eventually convinced that 7pm was not too late to be wading through calf deep water, and she let me go on the condition that I take her grandson's poncho (even though it was no longer raining). I put the poncho on and it smelled AWESOME. All in all, it was a pretty good day.