Dig the New Digs by Peter

This post is offered by Peter who blogs at "Peter In Peter Out"

So tonight will be the first night in my new apartment- The Wonderland Apartments with "Luxury Furniture" and "Approximately Lucky Super Market Restaurant" with "Terrace Over Look Independence Night Piece". I can't complain and in spite of its slightly tawdry broken bits and shopworn corners, I am in love with it because of....... My BALCONY! I sit on it now, typing this and listening to Sunday night far below, enjoying the fine cross breeze. I can't wait to fill it up with orchids and other plants. The rest of the apartment is just a regular box. but the large sliding doors out onto MY BALCONY let in oodles of light and a pretty good breeze as well. There is so so so so SOOO much to tell that the temptation is just to do a running travelogue of the plot rather than the planned and edited pieces I prefer. There are my co workers and the site and the administration and the city and the food and the TRAFFIC and, as of today- THE KIDS! I will post some photos of them on brightuprising.com if I can manage to stay awake. Today was arrival, so we dipped by and I ended up singing Where is Thumbkin with a group and then they sang me the Cambodian National Anthem (very long- all of us at attention) and then I belted out the Star Spangled Banner (we all put our hands over our hearts). Kind of better than being in London for me, I think.

So I am in a busy area with lots of NGO workers and tourists, but my street is kind of on the fringe of that. Of course it is changing so intensely rapidly that I will surely be swallowed up by boutique hotels and spas within the year. Bustling hardly covers it. It is more like a Hurricane Katrina of development and change. I agonized over whether to live out of the city on the river, but many Khmer co-workers cautioned against it and I thought it would be interesting and different to do a "city year" since I have not lived in one since New York/New Jersey in 1989. I hope to have my Khmer down to a degree and know the local area well by next fall and then make my decision of whether to stay or go bucolic then.

Above all of my other impressions is how lovely and genuine are the Cambodian people I have met.

Here are a few more from the posh palace I am inhabiting.

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Peter ... I consider Peter a kindred spirit in some ways. We met just prior to the New Years celebrations of 2011. We chatted on a long bus ride between Khon Kaen and Chiang Mai. I have followed his blog "Peter In Peter Out" since then and have very much enjoyed the manner in which he chooses and arranges his words. He also augments his posts with wonderful pictures.

Actually, I was on the fence about starting a blog. His encouraging perspective contributed strongly to my decision.

Peter is a career teacher. He was teaching in Rockport, Maine for many years. We crossed paths while he was doing a one year outreach program in Nakhon Phanom, Thailand, which is up this the northeast Issan area. He was back in the states for a while, but is incontinent again. Peter is now involved with an globally ameliorating project very important to Cambodia. He is presently living in Phnom Penh.

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