I ♥ PP

I think sometimes you fall in love with a city in the same way you'd fall in love with a person. That definitely happened for me with Phnom Penh. You just have this instant chemistry. Everything good about them is amazing, and everything bad is so interesting that you have to know more. I started proclaiming my love for Phnom Penh on the very first day. After about another two, I realized that I had to spend some more time in Cambodia. So, as I ask my students in writing class, How and Why did I develop this crush? Crap, good question. I'm working on the answer.

My #1 favorite thing in Cambodia is definitely my students, which is why I mentioned them below. But before I knew them, I got a small sense of Cambodian (or Khmer) people in general. Men can be skeevy, women can be conniving, and children can be so desperate that they'll rob you blind. But for the most part, Cambodian people are incredibly warm, resilient, and somehow or another always interesting. And while my tourist budget is definitely in demand, you can't just relate my experiences here to the dollars in my bag. My experiences with Khmer people are distinct from my interactions with locals anywhere else, rich and poor.

By far the best ambassadors for any country are its children. They are quick to yell "Hello!" and are not too polite to laugh at you when you do something dumb. Adults may eye you quietly, but not kids. This was taken in Kampot, on the southeast coast of Cambodia. It's not a prize winner in terms of composition, but this kid leaned out in front of the lens just as I took the photo, and I like looking at that moment.

From Cambodia

I sit in on another English class at the dorm, and the teacher was recently explaining the idiom "A picture is worth a thousand words." My gals taught us an old Khmer saying, which roughly translates as this: If you read about something 100 times, it is not equal to seeing it once. If you see something 100 times, it is not equal to doing it once. I can't really make you understand why I love Cambodia. Just trust that I do.