The best thing for a cold is rest, but the worse thing for jet lag is to sleep in (if you've just come from somewhere thats 4 hours behind).

Soeun is finally here, but with a cold, and its getting worse. I think he had a fever last night. We were planning that he would try to get up each day at the normal time, and get over jet lag as he has stacks to do. But since he got here he's been sick  so neither of us have had much sleep at night.

Last week at uni was our last week of weekly FOCUS summer sessions, and next week will be the first week of class and the first week of our semester weekly meetings. So this week is when we get to meet lots of new students! Yesterday was exciting as we got to meet people from all over the world. I spend some time talking to a few students from various South East Asian countries, including one from Cambodia!!! And of course heaps from China, and Chinese from other places.

Recent photos from Phnom Penh here.

Mostly over the last 4 weeks I've been eating meals by myself , or with a huge room full of strangers (120-300 people). It gets exhausting.
We have the choice to eat breakfast in our rooms, something we didn't have last time I was here. We always wished we could eat breakfast at home, but ironically, now that I have the choice I've been eating in the dining room. I've been enjoying eating with a small group (sometimes 6) and also in some ways I feel more comfortable there. We have a communal kitchen and living space in the house I live in, but I haven't really "moved in" to it yet.

Another ending and beginning

Well, this week I've been feeling less anxious and starting to get used to life how it is. But it is almost the end of this period, next week 2 big changes.

A bit better (no questions mark this time)

I was just walking along a grey cement path and in front of me I saw heaps of  tiny brown/black lizards darting out of my way. I guess I disturbed them from their noon time sunning.

It reminded me of the way small fish dart away from you when you walk along a slightly flooded path. (In Cambodia in October often the path leading to our house is covered in water and small fish. )

I've lived here about 3.5 weeks and I'm only just noticing the lizards now. I'm definitely feeling a little better each day. Although sometimes there's a blip and I feel like things are getting harder, but I think the general pattern is upwards.

Some good things that happened yesterday:

*Yesterday a team mate (she's also  a friend who I've known for more than 3 weeks, a rare thing in my life these days) sat down with me and we worked out dates for my leave. I was really relieved at the end of the session when we came up with some dates, I had been trying to do it myself but with no luck.

 I had been feeling anxious about when I would get to see my family (who live in another town far far away and I had been going to see before I started work but it was a bit wet), and visit the town I grew up in (esp my sis and the church there who are really supportive).

*After dinner I went for a walk with another girl who lives here on campus. She's also a friend who I've known for more that 3 weeks, she was the only person I knew on campus before I moved here. She asked me lots of questions and did lots of listening and I felt heaps better after that. And we did some laughing as well which is always good!

And today i finally got around to changing the clock on my laptop (was an hour behind) and the time stamp on my blog (was on Khmer time)- so that should help with my confused feeling.

A bit better?

Yesterday I came back to college from work feeling tired but happy. I think it was the first day I hadn't felt anxious all day, I was feeling much more normal. So I was really glad about that. Its been hard feeling weird and anxious all the time, but having to make small talk with lots of strangers everyday.

But then when I got back to college there were a few things that I found hard, so now I'm back to feeling anxious again, and finding it hard to sleep. Its so noisy and there are so many people on campus these days, its going to be hard to get used to. I ate dinner with about 120 people last night, its getting exhausting!

Also its hard at the moment as Soeun as some unexpected stressful things happening and big family changes. Its weird to not be together while this is happening.

Different point of view -chicken feet

"Australians don't seem to like eating pig feet and chicken feet," the two Chinese girls I was talking to exclaimed. They seemed surprised that people here wouldn't want to eat such yummy food. They have only been in Australia for a few weeks.

It was so interesting for me to hear this I almost laughed. I had flash backs to when I was first in China and chicken feet appeared on the dinner table. It totally doesn't look like food to me! Its funny to me that they are surprised that we wouldn't want to eat it.

Later I was sharing this conversation with my 2 FOCUS team mates (an Indonesian and an Aussie who has lived in China). They looked at me in surprise "What? Why don't you like chicken feet?" They then began to discuss their favourite way to eat chicken feet.

Just updated our prayer points here.

Missing

Last few weeks I’ve been missing the familiar, and also missing bits of information. So I’ve become anxious and forgetful, and it’s hard to sleep.

Missing Soeun, missing all other familiar people that I would normally see in a week.

Missing familiar routines and habits, like how I travel, where I shop eat and cook. Things I do to relax and have fun. And lots of my books and clothes I don’t have anymore. Everything is new!

At home I could just get up and have breakfast and jump on my bike and go out. But here I’m still working out where and what I’m eating, and which days its good to catch the bus or train. I don’t have a routine at work yet, so every day is different. So it takes a lot of energy just to get the normal things done, and a lot of brain space to work out every little bit of the day.

I’ve also been missing bit of information in the two main communities I’ve just joined. At work, I spend a lot of time trying to work out what people are talking about and what I’m meant to be doing. At college, where I live I also miss info as I’m not studying here, so I didn’t go to all the O stuff the students did (and neither did the student I’m attached to as he is not here yet.)

Sometimes I realize I’m missing something so I ask about it, but sometimes it turns out not to be so important. But other times I didn’t realize I was missing something and it turned out to be very important.

I don't have enough context to work out what is important. I'm just being fed all this new info and I don' t know what to do with it.

So then I think I get confused about what things I should be taking notice of… so I’m trying to take notice of everything so I don’t miss anything important. So then I start getting anxious about everything. I was on the bus the other day and I suddenly started panicking that I was on he wrong one….until I realized I was on the right one. I’m just generally anxious all the time, so its hard to sleep and remember things.

I’m really looking forward to when Soeun finally gets here. In the last few weeks we have mostly had to talk about stressful/disappointing things- due to some thing that are happening in our family and church etc in Cambodia. It ‘s kind of weird to not be there, but just have to hear about it.

But I am enjoying getting to know the staff team I’m part of, and also enjoying going for walks.

suddenly teleported to a sci fi movie?

Three weeks ago I was sitting in an internet cafe in Phnom Penh with a Khmer friend showing her how to use her yahoo email account. I was finding it hard to explain to her what to do, as its all so obvious to me. "just open the email".. she had no idea how to do that. We had a few sessions where I helped her open and reply to emails, and we uploaded her resume and made a folder for it.

She was amazed that I knew how to do all that stuff. "Do you know how to use facebook?" she asked me. When she found out I do she said "wow! so clever!"

Fast forward two weeks.....

Last week one of my team mates was showing us new staff how to use the office. He explained how to use the photocopier... including how to scan something to email to people. He seemed to assume that that was a basic thing that we all knew how to do, but I was totally weirded out. And apparently i can send things to print from from my laptop without even plugging anything in....

My previous relationship with photocopies is this: I need to copy something so i go to the photocopy shop. I try to explain in Khmer to the lady what I want done, and if the copier works, and the power is on, and its not raining, and she understood my Khmer, then I get my copying done. If not, i wait a day, or go to another part of town where the power is on.

I'd read about people coming back from overseas and finding the tech stuff had changed a lot, but I didn't really think I would find it weird, as we hear about lots of things via the net and cable TV, but I guess I haven't worked in an office before.

Another thing i found surprising was that it was assumed that i would have a laptop. It was "do you have access to a computer" but "bring your laptop". I do have one, but only cos Soeun can't use his old mac for what he needs to do, so I ended up using it.

Other random new things:

In Cambodia i always have my flash drive in my pocket, but i haven't even used it once here.
Since I started work a week and a half ago, people keep asking me (avrg 1 time per day) "Do you know what a google.doc is?"

Getting used to new home

Last night we had a get together of married-people-living-on campus. I think it is hard for all of us to adjust living here as we all live very closely together. You can get an idea of what it's like from some of the suggestions and guidelines we were given.

• If you need to have a "conversation" (implied: argument)  with your spouse, don't do it at home, go for a walk.
• Be careful while walking from your front door through the area where our buildings are- close together and lots of windows so  avoid looking into others'  rooms. We basically have to just look down at the path until we are out of the residential area on campus.
• And of course lots to do with noise, need to think about when and how you open doors , flush toilets,  use washing machines etc etc

First week of work

Friends in Nth Queensland are blogging about the cyclone here.

I've joined a team who minister to international students at a university, last night was my first FOCUS event. We celebrated Chinese New Year by eating nian gou (spelling??) and dressing people up as rabbits.

Today I'm trying to get my head around my new role, the last few days I've been away on a staff retreat, getting to know the staff team and learning about what I'll be doing.

Its great to finally meet people and start learning all this stuff, but I must say I'm feeling very overloaded with new things. It will take me awhile to get my head around everything and work out what I'm doing.

It was very exhausting spending a few days being "on" all the time, making sure I catch everything that is said and work out if I'm meant to be understanding it and doing something about it. Also being "on" as I was with new people 24/7.

(Although they are very entertaining people- most of them also have an Australian accents, which I find amusing (at the moment).  And some of them are Asian/have lived in Asia which makes it fun- and means they understand my re entry stories, such as the road crossing thing.)

The hard thing about living on a Bible college campus is it's hard to just duck home  and into my bedroom for a break from people. To get to my room I need to walk past lots of friendly Christian people who live here too! It will be great to get to know them in the long run, but all these new things at once are quite challenging.  And it doesn't help that my sleeping pattern isn't really a pattern yet, due to change and noise I'm  walking around sleeping all the time. (It's not that I'm still on Khmer time which is 4 hours behind, I'm actually getting up early, around 5.30 like I would in Cambodia, but I'm going to bed later and there is no chance on arvo nap.)

I'm really missing having familiar people, places and routines. I'm looking forward to Soeun finally arriving, and getting into a routine with work. (And catching up on sleep!)

Crossing the road in Cambodia..oh, I mean Australia

It wasn't until I was in the middle of the road that I realised I was crossing an Aussie road in the way I would cross a busy Cambodian road.

In Cambodia I would walk across a busy road slowly. The streams of motos, cars and other things would just weave their way around me, sometimes honking.

It is scary the first time you do it , coming from Australia, but I guess its my default now. It seems I went into autopilot and only realised when I was standing in the middle of Liverpool road with the morning peak hour rush rushing around me.

No one honked, no one slowed down to go around me. They just kept going. I was so terrified.

When I finally made it to the other side I felt really embarrassed. I hped no one I know saw me.

 Its not the first time I wished I had an L plate on me. People assume I know what I'm doing but I don't. I also felt frustrated, I wish I could instantly feel normal here.

I'd already been in Australia a week, and no traffic problems this time around (like when i got back from China), so I guess I thought I was fine. Also traffic is such an obvious thing that is different so I would have thought I wouldn't make a mistake.

But I'm on high alert now!