Well, they're not all here yet. I just don't have enough time at these internet cafes. But I put a few more albums up on my Google page, so if you click the "photo albums" link on the right, you'll be able to see them. More to come later.

At long last, the focus of my assignment is shifting from studying Khmer to teaching English. We’ll administer placement tests at the university on October 17th and 18th, and our classes are scheduled to officially start the 23rd. I am certainly looking forward to teaching, and I hope having a “real” job will help me feel more useful than I have so far.

Before that new phase of my Cambodian life begins, though, I want to give you all a taste of the language study I’ve been doing these past eight weeks. Ah, there are so many things I think are fascinating about this language that I could tell you, but I’ll keep it short and sweet.

One of the reasons I think the Khmer language is so much fun is that it uses combinations of one- or two-syllable words to communicate more complex things. For example, a “cabinet table thing sell person” is a furniture salesperson. Here are a few of my favorites so far. See if you can figure out what they mean.

1. Dead body party
2. Frozen water cabinet
3. Cow breast water
4. Pig blood color
5. Smoke medicine
6. Body wipe cloth
7. Turn paper make picture
8. To beat pants shirts
9. Table run person
10. Fire cart
11. Straight day rice
12. Foot skin
13. Hand black
14. To have not circle feeling
15. Brave duck

OK, Ready for your answers?

1. Funeral
2. Refrigerator
3. Milk
4. Maroon
5. Tobacco
6. Towel
7. Origami
8. To do laundry
9. Waiter/waitress
10. Train
11. Lunch
12. Shoe
13. Pencil
14. To be unfocused
15. Soldier

Fun, isn’t it? And then you can put a bunch of those together and get things like “frozen water cow breast water coffee”—iced coffee with milk. I love it. (The language and the coffee.) And now I’m learning to read and write—I forgot how exciting it is to learn to read. Carrying around a first grade reading book and seeing little kids in the street laughing at me is good entertainment too. Sometime I’ll show you a sample of my little-kid handwriting.