today and a few weeks ago

Today I said goodbye (until Monday, for a hot minute) to the trainees that I have taught for the last two years.  The school had a lovely graduation lunch for them, wherein I got to sit with eight men I didn't know, and Topher.  ;)  But it was fun to see them all so excited and celebrating.

Tonight, we gave our family a series of farewell gifts.  We had so many little things that we put them in a basket and had a great thirty minutes watching the kids exclaim over pages of stickers, a chocolate bar just for them, and lots of other little things.  And then our host mother started to cry and it was just too much.  It feels inauthentic to just say we're going to miss them.  They truly welcomed us to this country and gave us a literal and figurative home.

Tomorrow, Chris and I are headed to Siem Reap to visit Angkor Wat for the third and last time.  (Though it may seem like we were just there according to these photos, that's all an illusion. An illusion, I tell you!)

A few weeks back, Chris and I took part in something that's quickly becoming a tradition amongst PCVs here: we took Khmer wedding photos.

This one above is quite the most traditional; it's very rare to see smiles in these kinds of photos. As much as we tried to fight it, you can't keep the smiling American down for too long.

The process from going from everyday to THIS was quite intense.  It took three hours for the two outfit and hair changes, application of makeup and general posing. Three hours!  Luckily, the studio was air conditioned, so it was quite pleasant.

Well, except for those eyebrows. They were drawn so intensely that Chris kept telling me to stop scowling at me.

I wasn't.

Though 'funny' photos aren't typical for Cambodians, the studio we went to had seen enough PCVs that after we took a few normal ones, the photographer asked us if we wanted to pose for some funny ones.  Who are we to say no?

This last one is our host nieces' and nephew's favorite.  We printed a copy just for them.  Never seen a smile so big.

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Huge thank you to my real and online friends who took a moment to respond to yesterday's post!  When I re-read the post, it got very close to a pity party, but it still means a lot that so many of you shared how you've been with me throughout this experience, and more importantly, enjoyed it.  So thank you. A lot.