The Big Sweaty Weekly: October 2012

Sometimes one wonders where all of the movies with terrible trailers that come out and then disappear end up. Now I know. Crates of sloppily packed VHS tapes (possibly even BetaCams) are shipped directly to Cambodia where they are then beamed directly to my eyeballs. I watch them all, despite stewing in self-hatred the whole time.

So far I have seen (some maybe more than once):
Nowhere to Run- This is the worst movie that has ever been made.
Red Riding Hood- Brutal.
Country Strong- I am not ashamed to say I've now seen this one roughly three times and sometimes hum bits of the original score to myself.
Real Steel- When the son starts crying ring-side watching his father shadow box to inspire a robot, I want to jump off my balcony.
Law and Order Criminal Intent- This is on at least 22 hours a day in Cambodia. I black out and watch roughly 2 hours before my survival instincts kick in and I turn it off, so I'm listing it as a movie.
Sudden Death- Jean Claude VanDamme is the David Hasselhoff of Cambodia.

The good news is that this situation is making me watch way less TV, so I am becoming very smart and thin.

Our local market.

The past couple of weeks have been a little bit of a blur. I am going to keep this one short and full of images since pictures are the good part anyways. Plus I am really busy managing our staff. Make sure you click on embedded links!

Bullet points:
-Rudy from DC extended a work trip in the area and came to visit us in Phnom Penh for a day and a half and then she and I took a bus to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) for three days of straight touristing. The only bad thing about her visit was the part where she left. That part was terrible.
-HCMC is now in my top 5 favorite cities. Vietnamese are some bad m-f'ers and no one can beat them at anything.
-Scary car ride to Sihanoukville with the Proutys will result in extreme relaxation, sunburn, and a scarier car ride back to PP 3 days later.
-Daisy had her 7th birthday! I also have learned enough Khmer to know that some old guys recently called her fat...

Here is our past two weeks in pictures:

We're taking Khmer lessons. Its amazing how many times you can say what your name is and that you need rice and still not say it right.

I just love this.

We did as much sightseeing in PP as monsoon rains would allow when Rudy was here. One stop was Toul Sleng prison, where Khmer Rouge tortured men, women and children before they either died there or were taken to the Killing Fields.