i don't want to be here!
i think my spirit and mind are still on a beach in cambodia. in just one week, thai and khmer will be celebrating their new year. for me, it truly feels like a new beginning has finally begun. i'm happy and relaxed. and i've been bitten by the travel bug. up next... BRAZIL! i was originally thinking peru and costa rica, but then i found out my friend J is going to Brazil for a month in the summer, so it would be cool to check that out. plus, it would be good to learn more portuguese than the cuss words i learned in school as a kid from my portuguese friends.
i really wish i wasn't in the states yet. 2 weeks is just too short. anyway... lessons learned...
1. race and ethnicity is definitely malleable. in thailand i was japanese. in cambodia, everyone knew i was chinese. but after several minutes of conversation, inevitably i'd be asked "no, really you're chinese? but where are you really from?" then in conversation with a group of khmer youth at angkor, by a pond, they told me that my skin color was white and that there were really only 2 groups of people in the world - local khmer and tourists, and that tourists were white, even the indian tourists during the winter. by the end of my cambodia trip, when i was in phnom penh, people thought i was khmer. and upon returning to bangkok, people thought i was thai. i did get one person in phnom penh thinking i was korean. apparently it's korean tourist season there.
2. voting is uber-important. i left one day right before local elections in cambodia. friends i made told me they were glad i was leaving befor elections because they expected violence and military intimidation during elections. when i was bussing from sihanoukville back to phnom penh, there were people streaming out of the city in anticipation of violence. 20 people in the mini vans and another 30 or so on top of the vans. one after the other. CRAZY! a few days after the elections i looked up news. despite violence and intimidation, people went en mass to the polling booths risking their lives to just VOTE! for many moments in cambodia i was ashamed to be american.
ok... i broke my promise of getting pictures up long ago... so, here are
... in the middle you'll find the crazy Frenchies
i really wish i wasn't in the states yet. 2 weeks is just too short. anyway... lessons learned...
1. race and ethnicity is definitely malleable. in thailand i was japanese. in cambodia, everyone knew i was chinese. but after several minutes of conversation, inevitably i'd be asked "no, really you're chinese? but where are you really from?" then in conversation with a group of khmer youth at angkor, by a pond, they told me that my skin color was white and that there were really only 2 groups of people in the world - local khmer and tourists, and that tourists were white, even the indian tourists during the winter. by the end of my cambodia trip, when i was in phnom penh, people thought i was khmer. and upon returning to bangkok, people thought i was thai. i did get one person in phnom penh thinking i was korean. apparently it's korean tourist season there.
2. voting is uber-important. i left one day right before local elections in cambodia. friends i made told me they were glad i was leaving befor elections because they expected violence and military intimidation during elections. when i was bussing from sihanoukville back to phnom penh, there were people streaming out of the city in anticipation of violence. 20 people in the mini vans and another 30 or so on top of the vans. one after the other. CRAZY! a few days after the elections i looked up news. despite violence and intimidation, people went en mass to the polling booths risking their lives to just VOTE! for many moments in cambodia i was ashamed to be american.
ok... i broke my promise of getting pictures up long ago... so, here are
... in the middle you'll find the crazy Frenchies