home sweet home

I have a home! I spent the weekend settling into my new place. My lovely new roomate, Aimee, and I geared up for several trips to the markets this weekend. She served as my translator and price negotiator extraordinaire. :-) I will blog more later about the markets, but at this point--the experience is far too overwhelming to even try and describe. For now, I will just post a few pictures of my new home. Let me start with a view from our balcony:

Now, welcome to the kitchen. Aimee has been here for over a year and a half, so it is well-stocked and quite cozy. 

At the markets, you literally pick out your fabric and ask the seamstresses to sew a lampshade or pillow case, and for a few dollars and the span of a lunch break later, they're ready. So I have indulged in my favorite colors (red and turquoise), as you can see by my bedroom. Luckily, all of the furniture I needed was already here, so this was a relatively headache-free, creative process. 

Here is another angle. Let me point out a few elements in the photo below that are critical to my life in Cambodia. Aside from the new curtains I picked out and the "fat" mirror that belongs in a state fair fun house....  

Note the motorcycle helmet, a daily staple. Also--my miracle balls, which I brought from home and are my portable chiropractor (anyone with back pains: I highly recommend these, plus they're turquoise). Lastly--see the tennis racket? This is no ordinary piece of sports equipment. In fact, it's actually a battery-operated MOSQUITO SHOCKER! One press of the button, and ZAP! (literally a sharp popping sound akin to a firecracker)--anything with wings is instantly fried. Where has this thing been all of my life! It's amazing. (And probably illegal in the U.S. due to child safety regulations). 

My bedroom is roughly the size of the bedroom I grew up in, but also has a bathroom built into the corner. Imagine locker room meets half bath. There is a drain on the floor and the floor tilts that direction just a bit to avoid flooding. The sink and toilet get splattered every time you shower. But like I've mentioned, everything here gets wet. It's actually quite an ingenious use of space. 

So that's the short tour. Home sweet (turquoise) home. I'm so grateful to be settled!