Breakfast and Bidets

Barely 4 hours of sleep and I'm back at it again! The best part of this morning was going downstairs and finding out that there was bacon--yes, BACON--and French toast on the breakfast menu in the hotel lobby. Oh, small comforts from home are a true delight! Came back upstairs, took a lukewarm shower (which I was kind of anticipating) and proceeded to just relax and make my connections with everyone at home. I've only met one other colleague from LanguageCorps here, and he's been living in Cambodia for the past four months. It was fun hanging with him, listening to his easy exchange of conversation, jokes and laughter with Mr. Smith and the other hotel staff. Lop-lop was the first Khmer word that I learned; it means "crazy". I'm feeling slightly crazy right now, but I know that I'll adapt soon enough. In two weeks I'm going to be in Thailand anyhow, so no real pressure to master the Khmer language.
For now, I feel like I need time to myself to process all of this. I don't feel a pull to be outside in the hustle and sticky heat, latent with mosquitoes (discovered my first legit, big-ass bite on my back this morning, by the way!). I just want to hang in my room and connect with everybody back home--at least until some of my other colleagues get here in the next couple of days. I am aware of how far away I am from home now--that reality is setting in. The anxiety that led up to this trip is gone, but the comfort of talking to friends and family is saving my ass right now. And I'm ok with admitting that I need that. Boy, am I disoriented...stay tuned, Friends. Love you!