Life

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost

This sums up our journey here. We wish that we could have taken both paths, but God has sent us down the one less traveled by, and that HAS made all the difference.

Long Weeks and Coffee

We have this week off of work. We are finding it an interesting phenomenon. We have not had time off of work for a long time. I am not sure what to do with myself. We have a lot to do I suppose, getting ready for leaving, and packing up classrooms and whatnot. We have been sitting at the local coffee shop a lot lately, doing just random things. Trying not to work to hard. I have been actually pro actively trying to not do any work. I have my grades done, and I do not have a classroom to pack up. I was going to upload a random video on here, but it actually turn out to be quite large; something like 100MB. Normally that would be fine, but here that would take me like 2 days to upload or something. It's not that cool of a video for me to spend two days trying to upload it. If you are really interested send me an email and I will send it to you in a couple weeks, when we are back to fast internet.

The countdown is almost over - we leave Cambodia for good in about 18 days. We are heading out to an orphanage tomorrow, just to hang out with some of the kids and whatnot. We are sitting at this coffee shop where we literally have like 3 people who work here standing right by us, kind of annoying. I think they think that it would be rude if they did not stand right next to us - just in case we need something. Whats funny about that is the fact that when I go to Fry's I just like to wander the aisles, by myself...no people following me around. And on top of that when I do decide that I want to get something, or I need some help, I unable to find anyone! I much prefer being left alone, then pestered.

Nothing really profound to say, we are just working hard and trying to get things all in order for out long journey back home.

Your homework: Listen to Caedmon's Calls' album called Overdressed. It's unbelievable.

My Daily Muse

Well, my promise to write more frequently has been forgotten, and here I am updating our blog almost 1 month after the last post. It makes me sick, but we have literally been too busy to even think about blogging. Here are some highlights of our last 3 weeks: Karie turned 28, and had 4 full days of birthday celebrations; we have encountered more rainy afternoon storms, some bringing rain as deep as our mid-calf; we have officially changed our countdown to days rather than weeks (which we are currently at 22 days); Brian has become more and more sick of being here, and has resulted in wanting to go out every night with friends to get his mind off the fact that YES, we are STILL here; we have subliminally changed our diet to try to get rid of all Asian food, and supplement it with as much "western food" that we can find (sandwiches, egg breakfasts, chips, etc.); we have begun cleaning, organizing, selling, and getting rid of things at school and at home; we have begun packing; we are experiencing many favorites in this city, and realizing they will be the last time we do them; we are spending as much time with our friends here as possible; and last but not least, we are continuously thinking and praying about our return home. WE ARE SO EXCITED TO SEE YOU ALL.

Here in Cambodia, as you can imagine, life has become very normal. After all, we've been here almost a year now. Things that you might think are surprising and silly might still affect us that way, but we have learned to ignore them and move on. These things still capture Karie's eye, and she loves to try to catch these things on camera. She has begun going all over the city video taping all sorts of things. Below are some images that we enjoy on a continual basis, but that still amuse our hearts and eyes. We hope you enjoy these things, our daily musings here in Cambodia.

Monks are a colorful part of the scenery around here; always dressed in orange, and usually are spotted asking for offerings or praying a blessing over people.

No explanation really needed here: just a part of daily life. This does NOT factor in the high humidity factor, however.

Horribly translated and ridiculously hilarious signs add brightness to daily life. This is posted in a new frozen yogurt shop, large and bold and on the wall. My fav is #6. CLASSIC.