The Cartoon City

I am in a Dr. Seuss city! Everything here is very colorful and some of the older buildings are full of designs. There are buildings that are standing and look like they are defying the laws of gravity, and I have been eating dragon fruit and other colorful and storybook-like food since arriving.  Yesterday a K5 (PCV who is in the Kampuchea 5 group and has served a year so far) took me and a few others in my group on a tour around the city to exchange money and see the markets - it was like the Grand Bazaar all over again with stalls and vendors every which way. One of the supermarkets sold some American food such as Oreos and Ritz crackers. I made a mental note in case I am ever food homesick and need a good Oreo to take my mind off of hamburgers and ice cream. When we got here and distributed American candy to all of the PCVs they were like kids in a candy store, so excited! I expect I will be longing for a Butterfinger far before the year is up, but the excitement of a whole new cuisine to dive into has me distracted from American daydreams thus far.
  This Dr. Seuss city goes along with the Super Mario Kart streets here in Phnom Penh, and I've heard, here in Cambodia in general. The only rule of the road is that there are no rules of the road. Most Khmer ride motorbikes (called "motos" in English) or a tuktuk which is kind of like a rickshaw but with a motorbike instead of a bicycle.  So far my group an I have gone as far as fitting 7 on one tuktuk, but I've heard the record is 15 people. The streets are utterly INSANE! And I say that being a driver of both Chicago and New Orleans. If I find out there is a word in Khmer for "traffic light" I will be astonished yet still. They have no lights, no signals, no lanes, no stops, no nothing (no anything?). The name of the game is to get where you're going as fast as possible and pedestrians fear for their lives when crossing the street - that last comment was only half joke. :)
  The water here is not safe to drink...at least not yet. So I have been brushing my teeth using bottled water and eating only cooked foods.  We have been warned against not using bug spray and getting Dengue Fever, Japanese encephalitis, and other mosquito driven diseases as well as rabies which is prevalent here.   And at this point I'll cut it out with the doomsday prophecies - Cambodia is a great country and has a lot of dangers just like any American city...they are just different than the ones I'm used to!
  Below I've posted a photograph of a tuktuk from behind (I was in a different one while taking this) as well as a photo of national museum which I will find a way to get to eventually, and JD, another K6, and myself.  We were celebrating some other K6 birthdays last night on a boat ride on the Mekong River when I saw his shirt and said to him, "OMG I need a picture of that...I'm a brain scientist!!!" as if that would explain everything. And you get to see K6! This was a photo posted on our facebook page of the night we arrived.

 As you can see we are exhausted, a little overwhelmed, but overall ecstatic to be here. There were about 100 different cameras flashing at us. I believe there were 100 cameras, if I were to guesstimate.
  I leave today for the village of Takeo, about 2 hours south of Phnom Penh for PST (pre-service training) where I have been told internet is a maybe/maybe not kind of thing, so I might not be posting for a bit - know that I am alive and well! and just in the heart of a third world country.

life is good!
xo-Amanda