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Published: March 25th 2009
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Thanks to the magic of an iPod, I can have whatever soundtrack I desire while traveling. When I’m out walking or riding my bike, I just like listening to the sounds around me - and I need to be able to hear traffic - but when I’m in our room or out on the balcony, I lean toward the Beatles, Van Morrison, The Starline Rhythm Boys, Tito Puente, and Allison Kraus. While painting at Tchey school, I enjoyed some South African music, Michael Franti and Spearhead, and a little Aretha Franklin. While painting at the guesthouse one afternoon, I listened to Lori’s iPod on shuffle, which is always an interesting way to get to know someone better. (She has a great variety, although the only artist I can remember now is Lucinda Williams, who used to live near Lori in Austin.) The restaurants play a lot of Jack Johnson, which is fine with me, and some odd covers of American pop, and at The Island Bar at the Night Market (Jaz’s favorite night spot) they play everything from hiphop to old Western theme songs.
Thanks to Jaz’s level-headedness and good judgment and the safety of Siem Reap, I can let
Jaz go out and about on her own, riding her bike to the Island Bar in the evening, where she drinks lemonade, watches the bartenders juggle bottles and glasses, and chats with Annie (the waitress/first grade teacher) and various travelers. Thanks to having brought a small photo album of our home and family, Annie has selected herself a potential husband. (Dylan, are you reading this? Annie thinks you would be an excellent prospect.)
Thanks to the magic of Google Reader and the internet in general, I can read an infinite number of publications, including Slate.com, the Burlington Free Press and Seven Days, though I didn’t start doing that until just the last few days. I keep up with Jericho news via the Front Porch Forum and another local listserv and I can follow my select few Facebook friends, though they’re mostly a quiet bunch.
Thanks to US copyright laws, I
cannot watch any online TV or Netflix streaming movies (they know where I am, and they won’t allow it!) and some YouTube videos. Thankfully, I can play some YouTube, including “Peanut Butter Jelly Time”, which the kids find endlessly amusing. “Dancing Banana!” they request. Sometimes, when I can’t
bear to hear it again, I tell them the banana is sleeping.
Thanks to email, I have heard from coworkers, friends, family members (including a second cousin in Florida that I don’t remember ever meeting in my adult life), and random people who stumble upon the blog and comment or send messages.
(Have I mentioned how much I like hearing from people???) I can sign on to my computer at work from here and read email or run reports, if I want, which I don’t. (I do actually check email there about once a week, but the connection is very slow. I can only imagine how much it would horrify our IT guy if he knew I could even do such a thing! And by the way, co-workers, it’s almost the end of the month, so time to run those reports soon!)
Thanks to our $32 bikes, we can get anywhere in town we want to go in a few minutes, and thanks to King Suryavarman II, we can bike 30 minutes to his beautiful temple of Angkor Wat and admire 1000-year-old craftsmanship of the Khmer Empire.
Thanks to Skype, I can talk to Steve daily. Sometimes
we have enough bandwidth to use video and see each other via webcam, sometimes we can only hear each other, and when the connection is really slow, we just type back and forth. The kids here like to say hello to Steve on video, as do I. And thanks to a cheap SIM card, I can call home for 25 cents a minute, so sometimes I just do that.
Thanks to the magic of TravelBlog and PicasaWeb, I can post journal entries like this and an almost infinite number of photos. (Managing photos in TravelBlog is slow and time-consuming, which is why you’re seeing more links to PicasaWeb in these posts.) Thanks to the magic of the ATM and the excellent services of New England Federal Credit Union, I can withdraw cash as easily as I can at home with no service fees.
Thanks to the curse of globalization, I can eat KFC if I choose. I can drink Diet Coke and eat Oreos. I could read
People and
The New Yorker, if I wanted to, but I would have to pay $9-14 per issue, so I don’t! Instead, I can buy
Lonely Planet and other travel guides for a fraction of the cost at home. (Anyone need one?)
Thanks to Lori and Ponheary and the PLF, I can stay in a guesthouse where we have access to cute kids, the inside scoop on all things Cambodian, and delightful company in general, not to mention an opportunity to pretend to be English teachers.
Thanks to Steve, I can be here at all. Thanks to my coworkers (who pick up the slack for me) and my boss (who was willing to let me break the rules about how long I could be away) I can be here for so long.
Thanks to each and every one, as well as to all those I forgot to mention.
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Miriam
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Grateful to you
Because those of us who read this blog are able to connect to other parts of the world. I wonder where you will take us next.