Hi All,

Sorry it's been a while since I've updated, but I've been so busy every day. There are of course so many things I have to do just to take care of myself on a daily basis, and most everything here is a little more difficult. Just doing my laundry for example, takes an hour or two since I have to do it all by hand in the sink and hang it out to dry. I don't mind these little inconveniences, but sometimes the course of a day goes by so quickly I hardly believe an entire day is gone.

I bought a used computer and have wireless internet access now in my apartment, which is a little more convenient for me. I say 'a little' because, just to open a single email sometimes takes about 2-5 minutes. No joke. The internet cafes are faster, but always walking to them or using them on a daily basis was getting old. But when I use my computer, I often have to open about 3 or 4 things I am interested in, then walk away and come back about five minutes later. It is also unreliable and cuts off from time to time in the middle of something, but this is Cambodia.

But even though my access is slower than molasses in January, I so enjoy having it again. One of the main reasons that I don't think I've addressed is that every evening at about 7:00 pm the gallery downstairs closes. Here in Cambodia, every business uses large metal gates to close the front of their business, to protect it from theft. So, in order to go anywhere or do anything in the evenings I have to open about 4 padlocks while trying to be quiet and not disturb the owners. So, late in the evening when I would most like to get online it was always made more difficult by this. I am happy to get news here now, and don't feel so cut off from the world anymore. For so long I have not known what is going on. There are newspapers, but you have to go way out of your way to find one and they are much more expensive here. The Phnom Penh Post is $1.50 and it is little more than about maybe 12-15 pages, almost all focused on Cambodia of course, so it is hardly worth buying.

I have to travel to Viet Nam or Thailand soon in order to make what they call a "visa run." Upon entering the country I should have paid an extra $5 for a business visa, but I unwisely chose not to. Now to get the matter cleared up I am forced to leave the country, even for 5 minutes in order to re-enter and get the correct visa which can be renewed over and over. There is no way around this, and I have about 1 week to clear up this problem. Oh well. I feel a long, hot, sweaty bus trip coming on... :)

I've been teaching English to the monks for a little over 2 weeks now, and it is a lot of fun. They have invited me to various things, one of which is a trip to the country to another province about 2 hours away. I forgot which province, but wherever we end up going I'm sure will be a fun time. They all seem so interested in the USA and often ask me strange questions. I wish I could remember some of them, but a couple that stand out in my mind right now were: Why did the US lose the Viet Nam war? and Which is my favorite state? Oh, I was also assured in one of our last meetings that there are 53 states and I had to stand firm and say over and over that there are not, there are only 50. It was kind of funny. They are really great guys and always smiling and jovial. Sometimes my class is only a couple of people and other days it's about 10. It varies because almost all of them also attend the local Universities and have many classes that they take. Oh, did you know that monks smoke cigarettes and use cell phones? I find it kind of funny when I see this. I think most of them try to hide the smoking bit, but they use their cell phones openly. For thousands of years monks have dressed like Buddha in saffron robes and shaved heads, and to see them answer a cell phone after hearing a silly digital song like "Happy birthday to you" just doesn't seem right somehow, but in a funny and slightly peculiar way.