Monkeying Around

James' Arrival
On Monday and Tuesday this week I had work and did some chores around the house. Then on Wednesday I woke up at 5am for an early morning run. It was a nice time to go out – less traffic and less heat, although I did get overheated. People were staring at me as I ran over to the Independence Monument and around a park there, where there were many Khmer people walking, running, and playing badminton. After my workday I went for dinner at Veo Tonle, the restaurant that supports orphans, for the welcoming party for James, a friend of my friend Dan. James arrived for a 3-week holiday in Cambodia.

Queen's Birthday
Thursday was Queen Norodom’s birthday, a national holiday, so I had the day off. Went with some friends to receive a prayer bracelet from Buddhist monks, but after waiting an hour it seemed that the monks weren’t going to be around – they must have been out celebrating. We started walking through the city and saw two kids, a boy and girl, who sold books to us near the river. They are so sweet. Unfortunately, they are also poor and would not be able to go to school if my friend Dan did not pay $100 for each child’s yearly education. When we ran into the kids, they had no shoes on and I asked them why not. They explained that they don’t have enough money to buy any. So James and I, being the suckers we are, bought shoes for them. The kids were so delighted. Then we walked over to Wat Phnom, the “mountain” in the middle of the city. It’s really just a small hill, but by Cambodian standards is considered a mountain. Phnom actually means mountain in Khmer. When we got to Wat Phnom, we saw the resident elephant eating some leaves off of a tree and watched him for a while. When he wandered off down the street, we decided to explore the temple at the middle of the park. It was nice to see. As we walked around it, Zhenia bought some water lilies to decorate our apartment, and then we came across some monkeys. The monkeys were so cute at first, just wandering around. But when Zhenia leaned forward to look closer, the monkeys moved towards her, and suddenly the biggest one grabbed hold of a couple of Zhenia’s waterlilies! Even though she tried to save them, the monkey had a tighter grip and managed to pull a couple of flowers off. Two of the monkeys the proceeded to eat them. When they started to leave, I had a curious urge to see what a monkey’s tail felt like, so I leaned down to one. But before I could touch it, the monkey sensed my presence and spun around, bared its fangs, and charged at me!!! I screamed and ran as fast as I could away from it. My friends were laughing but I was pretty frightened of getting bitten, so thank goodness that didn’t happen. Curiousity almost killed the Kat! I’ve learned my lesson and will not touch any more wild animals here in the future. After this, we walked back into the Riverside region and saw the two street selling kids, with no shoes on again! I asked them where their shoes were and they sheepishly explained that their mom had them. Their mom, the lady who sits around all day while her children walk around selling books. James and I were suspicious that the kids’ mom was going to try to sell the shoes for some extra cash, so we went over to her and asked her to let the children wear their shoes. The kids put their shoes back on and seemed happy again. When we sat down for drinks I was playing with the little girl and had a sneaky idea. I asked her if I could sign her shoes, and she eagerly agreed. I drew some pictures on them, on the side, and then passed the pen over to her. I figure that if the shoes look well worn, her mom will have more difficulty selling them for a worthwhile amount. Hope it works! Later James, Zhenia and I went back to our place and made some noodles with veggies and fried potatoes on the side. Really delicious. Then watched a movie that I don’t remember, I was falling asleep during it, I was so exhausted!

Hanging Out
On Friday there was a power outage at work so I got to go home early. Then I went and met up with my friends Max, Dan and James, and hopped around to a few different places: first a nice bar for drinks and a game of pool, then an Indonesian place for dinner, then a Lebanese shisha bar, and finally over to a bar called Equinox for more drinks and fun with more of our friends. I also took the opportunity to wish my boyfriend Ryan a happy birthday – missing him lots and can’t wait until he comes to visit!

Party Time
On Saturday I rode my bike to the bank (very scary, so much traffic!), then set up for our “Ice Age” Housewarming Party. Zhenia and I decided on a “cold” theme since we’re both from northern countries, Russia and Canada. We prepared a PowerPoint trivia game with Canadian and Russian trivia questions, decorated the place with “ice” (paper icicles from the ceilings, snowflakes, and polar animals including a polar bear drinking and Anchor beer), and put of photos of our countries. I made a fruit punch, we provided vodka, we chopped up some fruit, and also cooked up French fries and put out other nibblies. The party went really well – people were very into the trivia game and after that Zhenia put on karaoke (including songs “girls just wanna have fun” and some from the Lion King). About 30 people (Khmers and expats) came and everyone seemed to have a great time!

Kickboxing
On Sunday I slept in until 11am, then Zhenia and I had some tea/coffee and ice cream on our rooftop terrace. We went for lunch at a cute café called The Shop with our friends Jess (Canary Islands), Jui (USA), Tamara and Kaitlin (Canada). I had a passion fruit and pineapple smoothie – mmmm!!! After that a bunch of us went to watch kickboxing at a local tv station, Cambodia Television. We were expecting to have to pay but we walked in and found ourselves being let up onto the VIP section, where only rich-looking Khmers were sitting. It was neat to see the kickboxing, the fighters are so strong and I loved the tribal drum music played in the background. It had a grand finale when one of the kickboxers couldn’t stand up after being hit. The winner did a victory dance and push ups and the crowd roared with applause. Then we got a photo with the winner! I'm planning to take some kickboxing lessons at the Olympic Stadium here - it looks like a great workout and lots of fun!