minty fingernails and things to do so that you don't notice that you're sweating.

When Paige came to visit, she brought along the most fantabulous mint green nail polish.  It has gotten quite a few rave reviews here in Cambodia and therefore I like to pretend that it would garner the same attention in America.  

Most especially I love how my minty green nails contrast against the glossy black finish of a Canon Rebel DSLR.  Oh, how my minty green fingernails possess the fantastic power to press that shutter button so firmly!  Oh, how these minty green fingernails...

Nevermind. It was getting kind of creepy there.

I spent two days stealing around with a friend's camera. And I loved it.

I LOVE it.

I always knew I was meant to do this.

To use these minty green fingernails to take pictures with a camera like this.

This week, Chris made one of our favorite meals here in the 'bode- a delicious chicken, vegetable and rice soup.  He makes a giant batch of it and it lasts us for days.  With some chewy baguettes and water mixed with our new lime drink mix, it's a perfect meal.

This week, the training of new Volunteers comes to a close with their Swearing In.  Our hometown and province will return to us, and it's a bit sad to say goodbye to the hustle and bustle of a busy season and the flurry of new people swirling around.  It's been kind of amazing to be a part of the new group's training and I think I am going to miss being so busy.  I have that procrastinator disease where I'm generally more productive the busier I am - the less I can put off, the better.

I've also spent this week focusing on a new activity that I'm hoping will keep me busy and provide some long term positive effects to boot. I'll share more about that next week.

And it isn't just watching Father of the Bride, Part I and II. Though I did that, and it was fantastic too.

I'm off to peruse Amazon and dream about my future life where I own a beauty just like this, and use it to take fantasmic photos.

Photo Challenge: Cambodian Sunsets Un-Altered

I really enjoyed this next set of photographs, even when attempting (and succeeding!) at long exposures and silhouettes.  All photos of sunsets in my new home are completely un-edited by me.

day twelve and fifteen

sunsets and silhouettes

photo credit here goes to my darling husband, who suggested that i go capture the sunset by the water near our house, but volunteered to go when i was too lazy.  at the last minute, i asked him to capture his bike as well, but with the flash off so as to capture the silhouette.  i love this image because in the three short months we've been here, some of my favorite moments have happened while riding our bikes home from class or studying and being completely stunned into silence at the beauty of the sunset surrounding us.

day thirteen

me and thirteen things

 attempt one. me with thirteen grains of rice.  rice is our life here, and even though we now cook for ourselves, we've chosen to still cook khmer food (much to the chagrin of our fellow volunteers, me thinks.)  rice not visible, so i moved on to the next attempt.

 they were incredibly and surprisingly heavy.

life in cambodia. me with thirteen coconuts. chris loves to drink these, but they are too sweet (pa'aim) for me. look closely and you can see my arms straining!

day fourteen

eyes

my favorite eyes in the world. so freaking blue. can our children PLEASE get these eyes?

day sixteen

long exposure

each provincial town i've been to (all three of them) have many traffic circles around a monument.  this is our monument, all lit up at night.  the light streaks are of motos, a constant in my life.

one last shot of our sunset.

fotos, days 7-11, cambodian sweat featured

we continue the parade of not so great fotos, featuring my mac's photobooth this time!  for some reason, i'm thinking using the photobooth app isn't what the original creators had in mind when they created this lovely little challenge- but in cambodia, you do what you do to get it done. you know?

day seven

fruit

pineapple, how i love thee, i could just count the ways! this week, topher made my favorite combo here in cambodia- stir fried pineapple and beef.  it's so delicious with some garlic and onion.  in khmer, pineapple is "plia minoah." go ahead and call it that!

day eight

a bad habit

i contemplated taking a picture of my battered cuticles, but photos never do them justice. so here is a photo of me that probably strikes you as quite normal.  and therein lies the issue. i have a terrible, no good, very bad habit of making ridiculous faces in photos.  i just can't smile nicely. there is some terrible urge that gurgles up in my belly to my face that shrieks "don't make just any face- don't you dare smile! smirk, or open that huge mouth, or look awkward. just dammit, don't smile!" thusly, i end up with 900 photos of me doing this face. you're welcome, future children.

day nine

someone i love

now just look at that handsome fella!  i have so many photos of this crazy kid, but his passport photos just seemed more appropriate, us living in cambodia and all.  take a gander at that sweet kid on the left- that's my darling husband at the ripe age of seventeen.  the right passport is our official peace corps passport, with a photo taken just in april of this year.  i just love the look of terror/kind of terrifying look on topher's face in his first passport.  just lights my fire, ya know?

day ten

childhood memory

ok. serious moment here.  from age ten to nineteen, i had the stirrings of obsessive-compulsive disorder.  for example, i had to only use white or tan or yellow towels.  getting out of the shower, i had to lightly kick the side of the tub ten times with each foot before getting out.  i had to turn the light on one-two-three times (because odd numbers are lucky, and evens just cancel any of the luck out.) i had to make my bed the same way before school or else i'd have a bad day.

which brings us to the hair ties.  this is the last remnant of my OCD.  to this day, i still have some weird belief in odd numbers being "better" or "luckier" (but the caveat is two or ten. ten is my number from sports/life, and two just seems so happy like a pair of mates in love, eh?!), so i still have to maintain three, five, or seven hair ties on my wrist at all times.  five is preferred, seven is next best, and three is just ok.  in this photo i have four on- because the fifth is in my hair.  this is completely fine, as long as the the hair tie safely returns to my wrist post-ponytail.

now, as you might imagine, this has led to many an interesting moments in recent adult years.  many friends (mainly women) have come to notice that i wear hair ties at all times, and thus will sometimes ask me to borrow (use/keep) a hair tie.  i love being of use and helpful, and i truly gladly hand over a spare hair tie. however, i then, covertly, remove another hair tie to ensure i have that odd number.  i also sometimes have a spare in my purse just for these moments, because i really do love sharing the hair ties! i just have to honor this last strange OCD tendency.

also, you get a picture of my weirdness because, really, what childhood memory do i have access to in cambodia to photograph?! exactly.

day eleven

something blue

and this here is the blue spoon i just used to eat some nutella.  i got it from a gas station mart here in my town, and i loved it for it's wonderful usefulness spooning chocolatey-hazelnut deliciousness out of the jar for me. thank you, blue spoon. thank you.

The Canon Almost DSLR SX40- Here at Amazon. 

and on a final note, here is a photo of the almost-dslr i wished i had saved up to purchase prior to the move to cambodia.  did you know my birthday is in eighteen days? and did you know you can in no way afford a camera like this, nor get it safely shipped to you while serving as a volunteer in this here country? le sigh.  i enjoy from afar and dream of the day two years from now when i can really ask husband for this lovely little item.  it's just the perfect little gateway camera to a real dslr, don't you think?!

that gets me thinking i should do a 'when i turn twenty eight out of the peace corps birthday wishlist' post. i've never done one of those little wish list posts before, but this could the perfect time to start...

thoughts, comments or reactions?

Joining the October Photography Challenge...from 11,000 Miles Away!

I had a good internet source and an hour to spare today and I got the chance to catch up on many of my favorite blogs!  In perusing these said blogs, I found the October 2011 Photography Challenge from my fellow bee alum at Our Wired Lives and I said "I may live in Southeast Asia with my crappy point and shoot, but dammit, I'm in!"

You know, a week late.

But still. I'm in!  And here are my first six photos, in which I cheat a little bit because they're mainly from the last month or so, but from photo seven on, they will all be from the correct day!

Day One: A Self Portrait

Two: What you wore today

Granted, this is from a few weeks ago.  However, it in essence captures how I spend the professional part of my day- in a Khmer skirt, called a sampot, and a shirt I had made for me here in Cambodia.

Three: Clouds

A view of clouds from the back window of our training home.

Four: Something Green

And pink!

Five: From a High Angle

New friends from the inside of an elevator in Phnom Penh

Six: Low Angle

My first "frozen" drink ever in this country. A Pina Colada!

I'm excited to see what else friends in the challenge have taken!