ten days of joy

it has been a frenetic and exciting ten days.

let's discuss.

it all began with some of this:

after a bunch of this:

oh dairy queen, how you enliven my soul and sustain me through the darkest of hours. 

like, nightime in cambodia.

i love thee, sweet swirly vanilla ice cream!

**

and then, i was lucky enough to be drawn in a pcv raffle to see madame secretary of state clinton on her asian world tour as she stopped by cambodia for a few days.

i hung out with these fantastic people:

and snapped a shot with this kid:

while waiting for this awe-inspiring woman to show up:

which she did. and it was ten minutes of pure awesomeness. 

this was the second time i was lucky enough to hear ms. clinton speak and be within five feet of her.  the last time, as an intern at emily's list, she was senator clinton.

and of course, she rocked it.

**

and lastly, we welcomed the newest batch of peace corps trainees to our little corner of the globe, which meant an excuse to see some of my absolute favorite girls in the 'bode.

and as tradition dictates, we screamed and terrified the new group as they arrived off the plane and did our best to show our enthusiasm for their arrival and the beginning of their own 27 month journey.

i stole this picture from facebook. specifically, tony. thanks tony!

topher and i, along with several other volunteers in our province, spent the last week helping out with their initial training (which is happening in our province again! what up.)

and today, those fantastic fifty eight trainees made their way to their villages to begin the next seven weeks of language and technical training, which really, we can just call:

learn how to live in the excruciating heat without the amenities you're used to while cramming your brain with as many new phrases and words as you can and using them whenever you can to build your language abilities, as well as diving into figuring out how to do the job you've been assigned, alongside making bunches of new friends and finding lifemates that will endure alongside you for the next two years.
while living with a host family.


yep.

fantastic.

so i say unto you americans, get thee to a dairy queen! enjoy that delicious swirly goodness! like a cone! or a dilly bar! or even a blizzard! 

how was your week?