I have written about the woman at my school who thinks she is a teacher, and I think I have mentioned the woman my host mom chased away with a stick during training (that’s quite a story so you guys will have to let me know if I have not in fact shared that experience). There is a strange man who often shows up at eating establishments I frequent and raves about people trying to kill him and wanting my phone number. Now we have a new character. I was at the market the other day buying fruit and chatting with my fruit lady when this woman walked up. She wore glasses and had a trendy haircut (signs of $$) so I did not realize right away that she was talking nonsense. Of course, the fact that her sentences consisted of Khmer, English, AND French, didn’t help. Anyhow she was showing me random stuff out of her purse and the fruit stand ladies were giving me “we don’t know what she is saying either” kinds of looks. So finally I completed my fruit transaction and walked home. I had been sitting chatting with my jolly yay for a few minutes when this woman appeared in front of my house. She sauntered on over and sat down next to me and proceeded to sing me a song while pointing to various injuries on various parts of her body. I sat there looking puzzled for a bit before my ming (aunt) looked at me and mouthed “GO IN THE HOUSE”. So I did. Later my business yay asked me about it. I told her that I didn’t know the woman and that she had followed me from the market and I didn’t know what to do. Her advice was this; “Cher, do not talk to crazy people.” Duly noted.
This past several weeks also included another golden moment with my Khmer tutor. I asked her the Khmer word for “rub,” as in “rub in ointment,” or something along those lines. The dictionary had several contextual options for “rub,” one of which was “rub one out,” and I naturally laughed. She naturally wanted to know why I laughed. I attempted to explain the slang meaning by having her look up relevant words, as a result I discovered another glaring omission in the Khmer dictionary (well, the one we were using at least).
Every once in a while I am struck by an unexpected memory of my pre Cambodian life that leaves me feeling nostalgic. This week I was contemplating Halloween and my thoughts wandered to Kay. Kay is (or at least was) the organic chemistry lab coordinator at Linfield. I thought of her because she took Halloween seriously. Every year on Halloween Kay came to work in a full body lion suit, complete with tail, and lab coat. Arguably, a full body lion suit is not the best idea in a chem. Lab, but that never stopped her. I was debating dressing up for Halloween this year, but I think I will in honor of Kay.
Foo is still a little monster. I have included photographic evidence in this blog. The other night he stuck his head in my mosquito net and started banging on the keys of my laptop until he noticed the movie that was playing and then asked if Hannah Montana is my friend. Yes, I was watching the Hannah Montana movie.
