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Snow to Sun

  Soundly as I sleep, I hear a wretched sound piercing through my dreams.  My body slowly wakens itself to see it's still dark out ... probably about 4am.  In my sleepy state, I reach for my alarm clock to shut it off, only to realize that it's not on my night stand.  My foggy brain wakes up a little more and reality awkwardly sets in.  My alarm clock is in my still-packed suitcase, and although roosters can maybe be an alarm of sorts to some, the dreadful animal that had awoken me from my sweet slumber was not meant to be such a thing.

  I continue to lie in bed, drifting in and out of sleep, but eventually it evades me completely.  Might as well get up.

  Day 2 in Cambodia.

  I might as well fill you in on how I got here.  It was an abnormally long journey, starting with a delayed flight from Kelowna to Vancouver, a foreshadowing of the mess of delays that were to follow.  In all, it took 37 hours of travel to finally get out of the Phnom Penh airport.  It was supposed to take oooh about 21.  After a certain point I just lost track of time ... still I'm a little out of it!  I was so grateful to be able to spend time with two good friends in Vancouver, Evelyn and Chrispy.  It made the 9 hour lay-over a little less of a drag.

 Yesterday was a day of looking around the base, mostly just trying to get rid of jet lag.  I'm not sure how to describe my emotions having now arrived ... I'm absolutely ecstatic to be here, but of course I have some things I'm nervous about and am already feeling a little lonely.  I've never been to a place where I can't understand at least a little bit of the language.  There's only a couple people I can talk with here and that saddens me a little.  Needless to say, I'm looking forward to the arrival of the other teacher and going to the International church where I'm sure to find some new friends!

  The two comforts I have found that assure my world isn't too far away are the delicious coffee Marie and I share in the mornings and the stars at night.  For some reason, I've found when I'm traveling that the night sky gives me comfort.  It shows me how far from home I am.  In the South Pacific, I didn't recognize the sky and it scared me a little.  Here, at least I can find a couple constellations I know and that gives me comfort.  I'm not all that far.  Even though when I left home is was -15 and here it hovers around 30 degrees.

  Anyway, my brain's still a little foggy and that's about all I can figure out now.

  One last thing, Marie just walked into my room wrapped in a sweater and a blanket, expressing how cold it is outside!  "Only 19 degrees!" she said.  "That's so cold for here!"  I looked at her, smiled and laughing said, "I'm quite comfortable."

  Haha, oh it's going to be good.

  Love you all!

-chelsea. xo

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