Preperations in Groningen and Hengelo

Dear Friends and Family,

As promised the first entry would be published before leaving for Cambodia. And yes the day is almost here; tomorrow I will leave for the biggest adventure of my life (so far). And as you know I have decided to create an online journal. Of course you all know my lack of self-discipline so it probably will not be on a too regular basis. However, I will try to send something at least every 2 weeks. As I am such an internet freak, I doubt I can let 2 week go by without checking. That might however change over the weeks following, so no promises.

So what are the plans? First of all I will go to Simon and Oie in Kampong Cham, to give myself a bit of time to get acquainted with the country, culture and climate of Cambodia. And besides wouldn't it be weird flying all the way to the country and not see Simon and Oie first thing? After relaxing for a few days, I will travel down to Phnom Penh to meet up with the people who have been so wonderful in helping me find a place to do my research, and helping me with the applications for the National Ethical Committee (NEC). It is here that I hope to find my first internet cafe and send the first update with or without pictures. After a few days in Phnom Penh, I will travel down to Sihanoukville or Kampong Saom as one of the Khmer names given to it. However I have not found consequent spelling of most towns, so I might call it different in each entry :)

But back to Groningen, this is the place where I am for now, my room is too small for all the excitement I am feeling. However it is not only excitement, there might be a small factor of fear. Here I am, the biggest chicken in the world, and I am making plans to travel to the other side of the world, and to do that I even have to get vaccinations (I have a very strong distaste for needles) and fly (I really do not like flying either). Luckily all the vaccines have been given, 7 needles in total.

Another form of preparation was clothes, so my mother and I went shopping in Leiden, but before we did that we went to the national Museum of Ethnology, a really wonderful museum, and definitely worth a visit if you get the chance. Even though clothes are much cheaper in Asia I am still leaving with lots of new clothes. However anyone knowing me will know the clothes were bought on sale, so for Dutch standards they were not that expensive. Lets hope I with my new clothes will look good on the pictures. Thank you mum for my wonderful birthday present, I enjoyed it immensely.

So now I am sitting here, in Hengelo, too nervous and excited to sleep really, my head is turned backwards, constantly stressed I forgot something. How wonderful and peaceful it is to now look outside and see a very thin layer of ice and snow outside; the perfect goodbye present from the Netherlands. Well it is time for me to post this message, and finally put all the things into my bag and relax and enjoy the excitement.

Lots of Love from the excited chicken

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