Stir fried ants and a slice of humidity pie

My first day in Phnom Penh has been very adventurous and fun. I am still a little jet leg, is that what they call it or is it jet lag, hmmm, I am not too sure, but I only got about 3 hours of sleep, waking up every hour and finally decided to wake up at 6:30ish am. It was nice to see the sunlight in my room and I was a little confused where I was, but I am going to just say I was jet leg/lag. My cousin Jin Long came and took Rothany and I out to eat kha thiev/pho/noodle soup. It was located in shopping type mall that resembled the Silk Market in Beijing, but a lot less chaotic as well as cleaner and I did not see any bargaining whatsoever. The kha thiev/pho/noodle soup was a little strange, it tasted like water soup with a ton of vegetables and meat. Not the best that I have had. So I need to find an awesome noodle shop soon. After we had lunch, my cousin took us to the arcade level on the top floor and we played the basketball and shot hoops together. I kind of felt like a kid and we had a lot of fun. I have never hung out with a cousin that was my age so it made the experience ( not that all my experiences haven't been wonderful), but this experience was meaningful to me. I am trying my best to pull out the best Khmer that I know to communicate with him. It has not been so bad. He even complemented on how clear my Khmer is and how he is able to understand. That was a major compliment that helped boost my comfort level with using Khmer. He even told that my Khmer is a lot better than my brother, Day. That made us both laugh.I got a picture with him. Super exciting. Top of this blog somewhere.

After the shopping, it began to rain. The monsoon season is beginning to start. The rain is super nice except that the hotness and humidity do not disappear. What a shame! We passed the palace where the royal family lives, but unfortunately it was not opened and it opens later in the afternoon. We ended heading back to the guesthouse and dropped Rothany off, while I went into get a camera. He took me to a musuem that had a lot of statues, artifacts, weapons and ect that dated back to the Angkar time. We paid a dollar to get in for the both of because we were Cambodian. The lady got confused and asked my cousin if I was Cambodian and I responded to her right away and said yes. It was a building that housed a lot of artifacts with a center courtard. It was super nice and very pretty. We fed all of the goldfishes and koi fishes in the pond. They were savages and devoured all the food within seconds. We left the museum and I went back to the guest house and had a meeting with my AJA summer jam project.

The meeting was very entertaining and I finally got to meet everyone.I am very excited to start our summer project. The meeting went by relatively quit and soon after it was crash time back in the room. I decided not to be rest and walked around the vicinities of the Golden Tour Eiffel.

We had a dinner later in the meeting with the whole crew. It was wonderful when I had stir fried beef with tree ants. It was too bad at all. The ants were burnt and tasted like black pepper. I just had to get over the idea. I had a little freak out when someone ordered fried tarantula and this little adorable boy carried and brought it to every person around the table. Let's just say I was freaking out a bit. It was wonderful, but I was super tired and people could tell I was ready to passed. Another picture of the stir fried ants with beef.

That is where I am now. Sitting on my bed, writing in my blog. But to change, but it's time for bed.

Good Night,

Sokun Bobson