Farewell CWF

It's officially over. Everyone spent the last week of school in a whirlwind of class, meeting people outside of class, seeing a few touristy things, getting some souvenirs, and checking things off of the house check list. The last day of class consisted of continuous parties and a full day of activities. Six of my students took me out to bumper cars after we had lunch as a class. It was of course, hilarious. Then I was scrambling to get the few drinks that I promised my nighttime classes. Everything was what you would expect in terms of farewells. The students who didn't really like the class left without much fanfare, while some would say goodbye with sad eyes, and one even said goodbye and ran back to give me a hug.

Then came the last party, with my favorite group of students. I liked all my classes, but my last class of the day was the easiest to teach and the best at keeping their own conversations going. Not many of them showed up, but those who did brought a feast. I had already eaten pizza the class before so I was on my way to getting full, but I felt obligated to eat everything they brought and put on my plate. One of my students even brought me an avocado smoothy type thing, and a batch of fresh noodles. Of course there was way too much food, but I sampled what I could. There was everything from noodles, to beef, bread, noodle salad, and what is possible the strangest of Khmer foods that I have eaten so far. As a recap, the strange things I have consumed as of yet are crickets, spider, frog (of multiple varieties), and snake among other things. One of my students was talking for months now about how he loved to eat pong tea khon, or what is translated in English to "baby duck egg." This is essentially a half fertilized duck egg, so the inside is a combination of duck body and yoke... I kept telling my students I would try it, but it seemed too much of a mental hurdle to try it, so I never did. But Tra was insistent and said he would bring some in and I told him that yes, I would try it. Luckily he was nice and gave me a fried baby duck egg, so it wasn't so runny. Everything was going fine until the last bite. I was beyond full so it was hard enough to shove more food down my throat. But as I was taking the last bite, the fried bread-y type bit came off and as I looked down to put the bite back together, I saw a duck face looking me in the face. All I could think was the cliche "when in Rome," and down went the egg, much to the chagrin of my stomach.

Then came the weekend. The worst, most terrible, most sad, most fun weekend. After classes were over, we all had to sit and digest the massive amount of food we consumed through the day. Then we decided to slowly make our way to the beer garden that is down the street. Being full, and lazy I decided to take my moto for the entire 15 second trip. Mostly because Molly had been looking for a ride on my moto and it had not happened yet. We spent most of the night there, until once again they forced us out because they were closing. Unsure what to do, I decided to put my moto back in the house, and meet up with everyone when they decided to do. They all said they were going to the petrol station on the other side of our block, so I started walking there. We all claimed that the petrol station would be our place to go for cheap beer and comedy since most people would park their motos have a couple beers, fill up their tank with gas and be on their way. Somehow we only managed to make it there a handful of times. I realized that people were only buying beer to bring back to the house, and so our second to last night ended with an "early" night in. Well most of us at least. The usual suspects were out until the sunrise once again.

The next day we only had the staff party to attend. I spent the morning doing a few odds and ends to get ready for the road trip. Then I was around the house to hang out with staff and help set up for the party. Mostly it was Phea and Pheareak asking me to come help with something, then they would beat me up. It made me feel a little bit like a little kid again, but I seem to have escaped unscathed. The party started at four, with the musical stylings of the one and only Brent, who seemed less flirtatious than normal. About half way through the party, Sambo, Erin and the Director of CRDT gave a speech thanking us, and showing us how much money we helped to contributed to the CRDT program (about $30,000 for the year of 2011). Then we got our certificates thanking us and recognizing our contribution to the program, as well as a letter of reference for future work. The most amazing part of the night? When Rich, Vicky and Liam performed a song written by a number of people and set to the tune of Save Tonight by Eagle-Eye Cherry. I can't even begin to describe how hilarious it was. The chorus is still ringing in my ears, especially riding down the road today. I could post the lyrics, but it would be a ton of inside jokes, so for those reading, not very funny. For those who know me, the two jokes about me were "crossword king" because I did a crossword in the newspaper everyday. The second being that I am unable to fix my moto without the help of Soso. There was a third joke, but it only makes sense if you traveled to Sihanoukville.

The party continued until 8 with a massive feast of Khmer food, and grilled veggies and meat and so so so much more. We all decided that we needed to go out, and someone made the suggestion that we go to KYC, and everyone else agreed. KYC is the karaoke bar that is right next to the petrol station at the end of our street, and will play karaoke as long as there are people who want to sing, so it usually goes past one in the morning every day of the week. We had to see what it was all about. Much to our surprise, some of the staff decided to come out with us. We got there and sat at a huge table, and had a pretty normal experience. I ate a massive amount of bean sprouts (more on that later), and everyone had a bit of beer until some went to TB (Top Banana), and some of us stayed for one more beer at the karaoke bar. What seemed very sudden, Kate was wondering if she could just go up on stage and dance with the group of hostesses that accompanied a karaoke singer. To egg her on, I said I'd give her ten dollars to go do it. And she did. Kate if you read this, I'll give you the money when I see you in Chicago. Before I knew it, Soso and Vilde were betting me that I wouldn't go up and join her. For only three dollars bet, I was running up to the stage, and dancing with Kate, about 10 hostesses and the singer. We're still unclear as to what it looked like having us up there, but it was funny.

Then we headed to the area of Phnom Penh where the dance clubs are, and especially Carnival bar. That was the place we stumbled upon on New years when the dance club wanted to charge us 6 dollars to enter, and I thought that was too much and found the bar next door. It's some sports bar, but at the time it reminded me of a carnival game because there was a bar to sit around the whole space that had seating on the interior. Needless to say, I dubbed it carnival bar, and has cheap beer and its in a decent location so we ended up there pretty often. We stayed there until about 1 in the morning, while some people went to the clubs afterwards, and some went to another bar. The next morning, we intended on leaving Phnom Penh in the direction of Mondulkiri around 10 in the morning, so we needed to get to sleep.

The bean sprouts from KYC... I woke up with the worst pain in my stomach and was afraid to stray too far from the bathroom, and I made the almost immediate decision that I couldn't leave that day. I was unable to do much more for the whole day than lie on the floor of the TV room and fall asleep, and barely made it outside to get to a shop to fix some of the welding on my moto. The day was full of mixed but mostly sad emotions. Jake left in the morning sometime, even though he missed his first bus. Abbie was the next to go around 11. David left at some point. And Vicky left around 4. She tried to avoid giving hugs so she could speed away in the tuk tuk without anyone seeing her cry, but we couldn't allow it. Then we all went back inside and binge ate our way through the sadness. Somehow an order of french fries stayed in my stomach, and I knew I'd be ok for the next days journey. After a meal, and a little time at the house, Vincent left the house to go to his second home of Top Banana, and once again the tears started to flow. We all went to bed and prepared to get up early in the morning for the final departure.

Today we all woke up between 6:30 and 7 to part ways, after hanging on to the very last second of being able to live in the house. The girls were the first to leave on their way to Siem Reap and Angkor. And much to no ones surprise, the tears started to roll again. They all left quickly so as not to prolong the pain, aside from the fact that they were running a little late for the bus. The staff started to show up and we knew that was our cue to hit to road. Rich was the next one to go, who is on his bike. His final destination... Australia. On a bike. God speed Richard. Then it was me and Vilde, originally the second two to leave the house, we were now second to last. Liam was the last to go, who is now somewhere in Singapore, or on his way to Melbourne. Vilde and I were ok leaving Erin, Soso and the staff since we knew we would see then in about a month anyway. We stopped and filled up on a full egg, toast, bacon and bean breakfast.

We made the long journey up Monivong boulevard and made our right turn over the Japanese friendship bridge. Erin advised me to not do what all the other motos were doing. They drive on the foot path because it is faster and no one in Cambodia walks anywhere. I made a split second decision and went on the foot path. Since I knew I was going against his advice, I pictured a disaster, no such thing happened. The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. We would drive for about an hour, then our butts would be numb, so we'd pull over for a drink. We decided to only go to Kompong Cham because we didn't want to push ourselves too much on the first day. After only about four hours on the road, we are safe and sound in Kampong cham. As for the road here, I think it needs some description. For those reading from Nantucket, picture the road in the boulevard after Victor just did a half-assed pot hold patch job. Then add on two lanes of dirt on the side for ox carts and bikes. Today you added a hearty wind that would throw you around every so often. And the final icing on the road cake, the cars that would pop up out of nowhere, speed by and and not care if they had completely cleared past you before turning back to their side of the road. For those reading this that do not know the road I'm talking about, I'm sure you might have a little bit of an idea. Even with all the stress, we made it here without incident, aside from a few unavoidable potholes.

With an afternoons rest, it's off to the few sites of Kampong Cham. Tomorrow, its up early again and on the road with the long journey to Mondulkiri, the land of waterfalls, cold nights, and elephant rides. If the day goes as smoothly as it did today, I will be a happy person.