do they know it's christmas time at all?

happy december 8th all!  did you know it's less than three weeks until christmas?  really, it's nearly two weeks!

i certainly can't believe it.  i can't decide if it's because:

a) it's eighty-five degrees with ninety five percent humidity again and the closest i've gotten to seeing snow was when i made topher and myself squint really hard while looking at a rusty roof the other day because if you looked real hard, it almost looked like there was snow in between the rusty parts.

b) a scorpion walked into our house tonight and nearly bit topher.  you just don't usually get scorpions at christmastime, you know?

c) topher and i's christmas tree is really a tree outside of our bathroom, featuring our hanging towels. it's got little gold boblet things on the end, though, like lights.  if you squint real hard...nevermind, i'm giving up on that game.

d) two nights ago we watched the only christmas movie we happen to have here, which was my impulse buy of the santa clause, wherein topher said during our viewing "it's not even really that great of a christmas movie" to which i had to defend our ONE AND ONLY CHRISTMAS MOVIE IN CAMBODIA by then quoting as much of the movie as possible to prove that was awesome in 1995 is just as awesome now.

"it's a gift from the cable company.  we're getting the disney channel. merry christmas!"

let's go with d, yeah?  and let's break down the best christmas movies, because this is what topher and i did biking to school the other day.  

he said "name the two christmas movies you'd choose over all others."

to which i said "do you know me at all? i couldn't pick two anythings, let alone christmas movies.  there are dozens i luuuurrrrvvvveee!"

to which he said "it's obvious that it's "christmas vacation" and "it's a wonderful life." it's not that hard."

and so i say unto you, you KNOW it is that hard, and so i present the top christmas movies i'd have watched already, in my pajamas, on my couch, with hot chocolate and my puppers and hubbers and maybe even YOU if i was in the land of denny's and hockey.

and you don't get pictures because frankly it costs a lot to download pictures from the interwebs of screen shots from these movies, you know? 

so you get our respective favorite quotes from each. BETTA, methinks!

it's a wonderful life

topher: "merry christmas, movie house!"

kate: "teacher says, every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings" (obviously!)

elf

him: "he's an angry elf!"

her: "i just like to smile, smiling's my favorite!"

home alone

chris: "look what you did, you little jerk!"

kate: "buzz, your girlfriend, woof!"

a christmas story

kate: "fra-gee-lay. it must be italian!"

toph: this is not in my top ten, leave me alone kate.

miracle on 34th street

kate: "i believe...i believe... it's silly but i believe!"

the santa clause

topher: "haven't you guys heard of basting?"

kate: "tinsel: not just for decoration!"

charlie brown christmas

kate: "it's too early. i never eat december snowflakes. i always wait until january."

topher: i didn't watch this growing up, kate 

christmas vacation

kate AND chris: "and why is the carpet all wet, todd?" 

"i don't know, margo!"

we tend to say this to each other, all the time.

and perhaps the best proof that it doesn't quite feel like christmas:

e) it took hubs-a-dub and i a full ten minutes to generate even the measly list above.  because, as it turns out, when you don't have tbs and tnt playing the steady stream of christmas favorites, you're apt to forget what you love.

which in the long run, might just serve us better, yeah?

also, turns out, spending half an hour remembering holiday movie quotes with your husband can be a great way to get in the holiday spirit, half a world from pine and tinsel and family.

happy holiday season, all!

so do please share, what is the one christmas movie i should have impulse bought for two years in a foreign country if you could?


of course, you could also share your favorite holiday movie quote?

why jo, anne, heidi, mistress mary and even amy are my fictionary soulmates

so because i plowed through the recently popular books that i'd been holding out on (such as the help and all of the millenium series), i decided to fall back on those free books i'd downloaded with the desperate to need to have a full kindle, a full library abroad.

in fact, i resorted to the books that i'd read once as a young girl and had either a) discarded in favor of the babysitters club or b) decided to enjoy the movie versions more, with the likes of christian bale and maggie smith.  

can you think of it?

yes, i fell desperately, deeply and irrevocably (a la bella) in love with the lovely classics written about women.

like, little women.

and the entire anne of green gables collection.

and the secret garden.

and even heidi.

if you can believe it, jo is far more endearing on paper than when winona ryder played her.  and, even better, i absolutely fell for miss amy, who started out as a silly little girl and turns into this actually really sweet, kind-hearted, woman who has the ability to...

forgive other women with grace, humor and genuine understanding when they maliciously try to take credit for her awesomeness; make laurie realize that he needed to get back on track and grow up; was willing to marry fred vaughn not out of some haughty love of money but really because a girl growing up in the 1860's realizes that some daughter has to find a way to take care of the family.

why, i actually found myself wishing i had the temperament not JUST of miss jo, but of blonde, snub-nosed miss amy even a bit more.

and then there's anne. my god, how i AM anne.  i was am such a strange little creature unto this world, such that when i was little i spent hours entertaining myself wherein my mother would come looking for me, because i was so quiet, imagining games and worlds for myself.  i love everything there is to love about anne.

why, when she was facing marilla and ever so politely trying not to cry as she imagined her return to the orphanage, i was actually crying for her.  me, all misty eyed, because you just know this little ten year old girl deserves the amazing world of green gables.

and then i cried when she got to stay, and i instantly longed for a bosom buddy such as diana and i just know that a girl is meant to have ever so many bosom friends throughout life, as anne does as she travels from avonlea to the island to her dream home on the coast, and i just believe that women should be allowed to shout out "i love you!" to each other, even when they both have husbands, and children, and many other interests.  because love just shouldn't be constrained, even platonic love.

le sigh.

and even though mistress mary quite contrary in the secret garden is such an unloving, unloved little thing, my heart just reached out to her, playing on the moors, and i could feel the cold wind in my hair and the earth build up under my nailbeds as she and dickon resurrected rose bush after rose bush. 

and all i want now is to speak to sparrows and rescue foxes, like my own little dickon-ess.

so, as it turns out, the classics and their heroines are so much more wonderful when read through the eyes of a twenty six year old, rather than a nine year old.

do tell me, who reaches out to you from the yellowed pages of classic novels and speaks directly to your soul, like the deepest of bosom friends?

and tell me, if you could have just one young woman for the lifetime of bosomness, just who would you choose?

i can't choose between anne from her house of dreams, or amy from her time living abroad. i do think all three of us would get along just splendidly.

the typical wanderings of a monday

on sunday night, i stayed up just a bit too late watching episodes of glee that topherlicious got for me, wherein i was so cold because now it is the cold season (?) in cambodia and i had to take a real euro shower wherein i take as little time as possible, turn off the water to soap up, and then do the shimmy as i cleanse myself. and then when i exited the bathroom, i did NOT stand in front of the fan to air dry because i was in fact COLD being that it is now in the low seventies in the evenings and it's INSANE.

which is all meant to say that i went to bed late and therefore the morning came a bit too quickly for my liking, and my dream's liking, as i was totally singing total eclipse of the heart better than lea michelle, and then i had to hasten to dress and bike and show up in my lovely, but dusty classroom to teach my trainees about nothing better than....

handwriting and simple cursive!

in which, after my long lesson teaching not actual cursive but 'simple cursive' so that my trainees could, in turn, teach their future-anon students the virtues of simple cursive, or 'joined up letters' wherein you join 'th' and 'nt' and 'et', a student had the thought to ask:

but why even do our students need to learn cursive?

to which i wanted to say:

'because i had to in second grade and if i had to endure the torture that is a cursive 'z' (what IS that?!), so do you and your students!'

but what i really did say:

'because just like in khmer, english has many forms, some fancier than others, and things like cursive are used in places where our students might need to read and comprehend (like, for example, in signs or notes from a superior or such) just like here in cambodia we use fancy, scripty capital letters for ALL signage and important documents such that hopeless little khmer learners like myself are completely baffled by all important information signage, despite memorizing a whole FIVE consonants and FIVE vowels.'

which is mainly a true account of mostly what i said, except the first/real time it was a bit less bitter?! i think.

and then after class, all i wanted was an ice cold coca cola classic but the tela mart did not have it for the second week running!

and thusly i had to settle for...PEPSI. i know.  

so i drank that, cold because it was, with some little harry potter (the british paperback version) on the side and it was simply wonderful, minus the fact that is was pepsi.

i also ate some chocolate wafers that absolutely lack any real substance of chocolate in them, but they are still somewhat chocolate-ish so i purchase them.  because, honestly, you take what you can get when the world is out of coca cola and the coca-light is another mart away and twice the price of coca classic.

and then topher came to join me, and we were going to work a bit at our new library, but it was closed for reasons unknown, so we decided to seek in search of the best thing we know sometimes, which is...

this pork dish that we don't know the name of that our market sometimes has in a big pot for sale.

needless to say, the market didn't have it today, so we bought other food for cookings, but decided instead of making lunch today, instead we'd go ahead and seek out some diarrhea in the form of cold noodles from who-knows-how-long-made and are-they-washed-i-don't-know vegetables with a mystery meat on top and some wonderful brown juice that is poured on top.

it was quite delicious, and i actually didn't get diarrhea but topher and i did slap fives and say:

'cheers to giving up the pork thing we wanted for diarrhea instead! worth it!'

because we didn't have to cook, you know?

and then after lunch i had to turn all 'super-disappointed-teacher' on my trainees because they were just golly darn rude while their peer did a practice lesson in the afternoon (that we do each afternoon lesson) and so i had to stand on up there, give him feedback and THEN, write on the board (to avoid deep miscommunication across two languages):

'it is rude to talk with your friends, read, text, or do other work while your friend is teaching.'

and then they were rightfully abashed, agreed wholeheartedly and the second hour of practice teaching went far more smoothly, which i'd like to credit to my shaming them as i've shamed many a students back in ye-olde-america.

and then finally, i discovered the lost joys of the word golly and all the phrases that do come with it.

like 'good golly!', or 'golly me!' or 'by golly!'

and today, i used all three quite proudly.

how was your monday?

also, is this not what you wanted when you said a typical day?

and, tell me, what is your favorite, long lost forgotten turn of phrase that could replace an expletive in our modern meanderings?

on things that save marriages

why is it that i do despise washing dishes so dearly?

it is mostly because i dislike cooking more, and here in this little homestead, we do honor such things as that stupid, nearly universal law that dictates:

he who doth perform the cooking magic shall therefore ever be released from the duties of cleansing the used dishes and pans

perhaps it is because i do despise cooking even more than the water warped fingertips and ruined nail polish that is an inevitable happenstance due to said dishwashing.

my mom and i've always maintained that i dislike cooking because it takes so much time and i had anything but time in america.  we say this often when we get together, sitting around the table in their screened-in porch in north carolina, we say to my husband, poor man:

"its not that she isn't a good cook, it's just that she's so impatient. she doesn't have the time to create a delicious meal- the thirty minutes required are just too much for her schedule right now."

except that now, all i have in cambodia is time and carrots and onions and chewy pork and you know what, mom? 

i still don't really like cooking.

i still don't like doing dishes either.

but i'll take it over the chopping and sautee-ing and stirring bit.

you're welcome, topher. 

also, thank you, because you're way better at those -ings than i'll ever be.

and sorry sometimes i do my nails while you're cooking, necessitating you to do the dishes anyway.

also, sorry that i sold you on a lie that someday down the line, i'd enjoy cooking. and maybe be good at it.

but you like it this way better, yes? yes?!

so now it's to you to share those things that create such a harmonious balance in your happy abode below- yes, please?

Khmer Curry: A Recipe

This week I have been feeling bits of crummy under the weather.  To escape such things, Topher and I are jaunting off to a nearby town this weekend that is complete with ribs, pancakes and just the two of us.

However, a few weekends back, we made our usual Saturday trek to our former training village to study Khmer and this time, learn how to make Khmer curry, which is uber amounts of delicious!

Many people were excited about these endeavors.

I believe this recipe can be easily replicated in both Cambodian and American kitchens.  Try it out, will ya and let me know if you think it's delicious?

Oh, and I've converted it to American kitchens in parentheses!

Khmer Curry: A Recipe 

courtesy of Siphen, an amazing woman

serves 5-6 people

100 grams dried, red chilis (about a cup or so)

1 kilo coconut shavings (2 cans of coconut milk)

100 grams lemongrass (about 3/4 of a cup)

5 cloves garlic

2 roots of tumeric (about a 1/3-1/2 cup)

small handful of kaffir lime (about two tablespoons)

1 cup raw peanuts

3-4 Tablespoons palm sugar (similar to brown sugar syrup)

2 heaping Tablespoons salt

2 heaping Tablespoons chicken bouillon

2 kilo of pork ribs/chicken/any kind of meat (about 3-4 pounds)

Step 1: soak the chilis for an hour or so, with the seeds removed.

Step 2: Go pick some lemongrass and tumeric from your garden.

(or just buy some from the market, as it's cheap)

Step 4: Chop, chop, chop those chilis into a paste

Step 5: Pulverize lemongrass, tumeric, garlic and kaffir lime in a mortar and pestal (or food processor) into a fine granulated mixture

Step 5a: admire pork ribs and spices

Step 6: chop your pork ribs or meat

Step 7: Make coconut milk the hard way.  Put shavings into a bowl.

Add a small amount of water, and begin making small balls of shavings, squeezing out all the delicious milky coconut milk.  Repeat once for a think, creamy milk, put aside, and repeat once more for a little bit more, more watery milk.  

Discard coconut shavings, or give to your cows.

Step 7a: Admire your chili paste

Step 7b: Bring 1/2 of thick coconut milk (from first squeezing- or, one can) to a low simmer.

Add chili paste

stir until combined, as below.

add spice mixture as well.  allow to rolling simmer.

Step 8: roast raw peanuts until browned.

then de-shell peanuts and crush into a chunky mixture

Your sauce should simmer until it is thick, as above.  

Step 9: add coconut water from second squeezing

Step 10: Add meat and peanuts, cover and cook.

Rolling boils are good to cook meat.

Step 10: Admire the outdoor kitchen you're cooking in.  Or, thank the heavens for your insulated, climate controlled kitchen. Whichever applies.

Step 11: Once meat is cooked, add remaining coconut milk and serve!

Enjoy with friends.

And also, coca cola.

There a million easier ways to make curry (you know, with pre-made curry powder) but I'll let you know how this pans out when I try to cook it all by lonesome in coming weeks.

Happy Friday!

bumblebee

here in the bode, we have one main mode of transport.

said transport is kind of like our own personal transformer.

it's our be anywhere, do anything scrap of metal.

or you can just take these photos of my proof of trying to make my bike even cooler.  

with yellow duct tape.

our little "brother" tried to help by adding this green smiley sticker too.

all bow down to my personal hero, bumblebee of cambodia.

a belated thanksgiving

happy tuesday, all! though it's a bit belated, rest assured that we did in fact have a very scrumptilicious thanksgiving here in the bode.  

though it was in no way the same as home- what can make up for those people and those traditions?- it was really awesome to be among friends and our new cambodian family, enjoying turkey, potatoes, carrots, green beans, stuffing and even the best pumpkin chocolate chip bread i've ever had. (that might be the cambodia talking, though, but it sure was good!)

i am incredibly thankful to have an amazing husband here, and amazing families back home that we were able to skype with to say happy thanksgiving.  and i'm ever grateful for our new family and friends here and for such a delicious meal that K4s, staff, and the U.S. embassy provided for us!

happy holiday season, everyone! go make a snow angel for those of us that are still sweatin' to the holiday tunes, yeah?

*thanks to jill and stewart for great pictures :)