AHHHH!! I'm so behind on my blogging and there is so much to tell. I will have to tell you in different posts because so much has happened over here and we have been so busy. So here is the crazy tree dancing story. We went to one of the host families engagement party. There son is marrying a wonderful girl. It was really interesting to see. They put all of this food out and had to put this red symbol on everything and had a ceremony that symbolized them giving away their daughter and accepting it. Kind of more like giving permission to allow their son to marry the other couples daughter. It was so much fun though. We had the ceremony and then we ate bascially all day. It was delicious food. My favorite was the fish they had. It was sooooo good and they cook their sea food way better then anyplace I have been to over in the US. They also had chicken feet and other parts of the chicken to eat, some type of salad thing with pork, vegetables, shrimp, and then they had some noodle beef dish as well.O man, I don't think I have eaten that much. Of course they all drank, and asked us many times if we wanted any and spencer politely told them we don't drink alcohol and they were all ok and fine with it. But, they were so nice and loved us being there. They showed us how to dance Cambodian style and we danced probably for 2 hours. Not straight, but going to sit and eat or drink more water or juice they gave us and then they asked us to dance some more. I loved going and seeing that experience, because Cambodian weddings are so expensive and very extravagant. They have to go and stay with the brides family, before the engagment for a period of time. Then they have to have the engagement ceremony, and it all depends on the situation, but it can take up to another year to get married. Those ceremonies, the marriage ones, last ALL DAY LONG. I mean from 7:00 am to 12 pm just partying and having fun.
I though this was really interesting as well. The men all sat outside and ate the food, while the women served them and took care of everything, while the men just drank and eat a lot. They said that since the men work all day and make the money to give to the women, its the women's job to take care of the home and cook the food. It was the men's turn to relax and just party, while the women did everything. I don't know how I feel about that, because it just seems like they women never get a chance to relax like that, but maybe they have a special women party. Spencer isn't sure, and neither and I.
We went to the national museum over here. They had beautiful statues, paintings, and different rock work that was dated back before the Angorian period. I am not sure wh en excatly that was but I know that it was pretty old. IT was fascinating to see the different avatars and vishnus they depicted. Everyone would of loved it if you were here, although it wasn't quite as gorgeous and awesome as the Metropolitan in New York, but still cool.
We then went to Wat Phnom which is an old buddist temple, they are reconstructing it, and we didn't see any buddhist there, but it was where Phnom Penh originally started. It was gorgeous there. I felt like I was in another place than the city with all the trees and flowers that surrounded the temple. There were even monkeys. They were so cute and they would come up right to you and take the food you gave them right out of your hand. We had this little guy come up to us and he took all of what Spencer had. It was like three full things of food that we were going to share together to give to other monkeys, but that little guy was a sneeke bugger and just took it all for himself. IT was soooooooo funny because one minute he was so cute and innocent and then next he just ripped it out of Spencer's hands. We laughed so hard and someone even got it on tape. We will get that later.Then we walked around and went to that museum as well and learned how Phnom Penh came about. I don't know if that was true but it was interesting. They had some village old lady see a huge tree in the river and made the villagers get it out. They then found a buddha and other four statues, can't remember what it was, in there and decided to take it up on a hill, which the hill got bigger and worshipped them and then they all evolved from there. So that was fun to see all that. They even had some small little people, barbie sized to show the different depictions and the time line of how things came about.
We then went to a TKO fight. I never thought I would ever go or see a boxing match in real life, but we went to one. IT was pretty brutal, but most of the time they were just hugging each other. Not much punching going on. It was fun, but I don't think I will ever go and see one again.
We went to a olympic stadium, they use it for soccer tournaments and for some other things I am not really sure of but there was this one Cambodian guy who squeezed through the gate just to get into the soccer game for free. It was crazy because I don't even know how he fit hes fat head through, but He was sure skinny enough to make it through. We were just walking by and saw him half way through already, and we just watched all amazed. In the end, we clapped for him and cheered. It was funny and I had no idea how he did it, but he made it through!
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