1. Jenna in Cambodia – On Saturday night at 10:30 pm Jenna Gottlieb arrived in Cambodia. After sleeping for about four hours she woke up, got in a taxi, and traveled for eight more hours on crappy Cambodian roads. She then took a forty-five minute moto ride into the middle of the countryside and arrived at her first Cambodian wedding. While at the wedding she ate her first Cambodian meal, danced her first Cambodian dance, and got hit by several drunk Cambodian men. And when the wedding was over she then traveled for another hour in the back of a pick-up truck…
I honestly don’t think it would be possible for someone to have a crazier first day in a new country.
2. Visitors - While I know Cambodia is far and that not everyone can find the time to come, I want you all to know that I consider the people who have found the time to be the people who love me the most.
That’s right. I said it Dad and Court..
3. Pictures - Just two sweaty Americans enjoying the Cambodian hot season…
4. The “Party” – I’ve been asked not to talk about or post pictures from the “party” I went to yesterday. In two months when I’m no longer a Peace Corps volunteer I’ll try to remember to explain why, but until then I’m sworn to blog secrecy.
5. Temple Hopping - You would think that after five or so trips to Siem Reap, one would get sick of wandering through the same temples over and over again, but that’s not the case. I actually think that I enjoy the Cambodian temples more and more with every trip. They really are amazing.
6. DEAD! - It feels a little strange to celebrate someones death, but man does it feel good to know that Osama Bin Laden is finally dead. When I watched Obama’s speech this morning I honestly had goosebumps.
7. Good for Obama - More than anything though I’m just happy that Obama can take credit for this. After all the crappy luck the guy has had recently, it’s nice to see him finally catch a break.
I also love that the speech came right in the middle of Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice.
8. What I’m Reading This Week - Life by Keith Richards
I haven’t started it yet, but I love this quote from The NY Review of Books…
Life is, despite itself, a raffish and unlikely heir to two great memoirs of thrift and common sense, Walden and Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography…Thoreau tells us how we can hew timbers six inches square, or sound the depths of the pond, or tight-shingle a homemade dwelling, or dig a cellar hole. But what he is really telling us is that we should know how to do such things, or at least know that knowing how to do them, or things like them, is an important use of mind. Substitute Richards’s canon of skills (if you need to master your tapes for nine sleepless days straight, try Merck cocaine) for Thoreau’s, and you get Life, the title of which even starts to sound like a suppressed chapter title from Walden. Of course “life” carries another sense: it is the opposite of “death,” though in Richards’s case the two sit side by side almost interchangeably, like salt and pepper.
9. Porn - Who looks at porn in an internet cafe? Apparently a lot of Cambodian men?
I honestly don’t think I’ve ever been on a computer in this country that didn’t have porn sites pop up while I was typing in my website address. Someone really needs to teach the people here how to delete their browsing histories.
10. Classic - PCV Emily Garland breaking it down…
(Sorry – I had to break my #4 promise for this video)
“Justice has been done,” Mr. Obama said. “The United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda and a terrorist who is responsible for the murder of thousands of men, women and children,”
How is it possible after a day like that for anyone to look so pretty! YAY JENNA! Thanks for introducing some honest to goodness GLAMOUR to the blog. Who needs ANGELINA?
xo
ps/Please wear a helmet the next time you are on a moto. I’m sure Cooper has an extra one.
ps2/You will be dreaming of those temples for the rest of your life. Aren’t they amazing?
ps3/fish pedicure
You had to guilt trip me from Camboida? Low blow. You know that us Knowlton kids realllllly don’t do well with guilt….
“Bin Laden’s death is an extraordinary moment for Americans and all who have lost loved ones in horrifying, pointless acts of terrorism. As fresh as those wounds still are, though, we are struck by how irrelevant Bin Laden has become in the streets of Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Bahrain, and Syria where people are struggling for freedom.
Mr. Obama should use this moment to clearly state American support for all in the Muslim world who are yearning for peaceful, democratic change. Their victory will be the true defeat of Bin Laden.” (from the New York Times)
Cops Tase Marathon Runner
by Sam Biddle for Gizmodo
I’ve never run a marathon, but I’d imagine it’s trying enough without thousands of volts of electricity coursing through your convulsing, naked frame. Yes, naked–as was the case for Ohioan Brett Henderson. He didn’t win the marathon.
Henderson was tased into a heap and charged with public indecency and obstructing official business after refusing to stop running naked in the “Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon”–I’d insert some sort of lazy bacon joke here, but really the image of a naked running man struck with a taser should be enough for us all.”