RS-Cambodia and Thailand with Jacob and Robert

Hello IED crew and awesome non-IED-ers!

It is so good to know that everybody has been so busy this summer that they haven't had time to update on the blog yet!

Despite the sarcasm in that statement, I certainly have to admit that it holds true to me. I got on the blog website, and it is as easy to post as writing an e-mail. I look forward to writing in here more often, with the support of everybody else's blog entries as well.

This past friday I just finished spending my first month with my boyfriend Jacob. We flew in together four weeks ago and our plan was to work for two weeks and to travel for two week. While I have gotten and of course will continue to focus on work for the rest of the summer, this post constitutes a brief summary of all of the fun things we did during our time together in Southeast Asia. A visual description can be viewed here.

We took a boat at Siem Reap and visited the floating villages of Tonle Sap Lake, saw fish and alligator farms, explored Ankor Wat and all of the surrounding Ruins with wonder and amazement for a day. Jake and I stayed at an amazing resort in Kep, one of the nicest places I have stayed in in all of my life, for 35 dollars a night. We explored lime stone caves, saw how pepper and salt is made, visited Royal Palaces in Cambodia and Thailand, saw a fireworks show for the queen's birthday and saw hundreds of people dancing at night to music in the public square, a very interesting cultural sight to behold. We ate and shopped at local markets, ate stinky fruit, learned how to bargain more effectively, started our Christmas shopping, rode through the mountains in the North of Thailand, visited ancient Wats on mountain tops. Took an elepant trek through the jungle, rode on a bamboo raft, fed hundreds of fishes in the river and in caves (where there was some amazing huge blue fishes), Had a cup of great coffee in some european styled coffee shop/house overlooking a valley (feeling as though I was in france). We visited hill tribes, got countless massages, explored the beaches of Phuket and surrounding islands in south Thailand, went snorkeling for the first time in my life, heard colorful, tropical fish feeding off of rocks, made some friends from South Africa who gave us personal tours of the island, including a private beach and an enormous marble plated Buddha on top of a hill. We saw amazing highly detailed temples and buildings in Bangkok, ate street food galore, saw a jade buddha, an enormous reclining budda, took river taxis up and down the main river of Bangkok and the surrounding canals, paddled a boat in a beautiful park overlooking some of the vast skyline, had drinks and appetizers on an open air terrace way up high in a beautiful, skinny skyscraper, visited this really fun, interactive museum of Thai culture and history, and shopped for clothes at enormous malls with sales up to 70% off retail price. Our last night together we witnessed a lighting show in all of its glory.

Jake left this past Friday morning. Since then, I have been trying not to be too sad, (even though I am pretty sad), and have been tending to my e-mails, reflecting on what I just lived though, and of the work ahead of me. It is daunting because much of what we are going to do has yet to come, hasn't been fulling realized yet so I don't fully know what to expect. Also, I am afraid to take the leap and to actually start doing some "development" work in a professional context. My entire work produced at this internship has been on an administrative/organizing scale so far, and I have yet to get my hands dirty by researching things, writing proposals, plans, outlines, creating things from scratch using my brains, wits, and "skills" etc. Everyone else has been doing this for quite some time this summer and throughout the year, and I know I can do it too, but I hesitate and worry that it will take me longer since I am brand new to it compared to everyone else. We shall see how the next two months fare, and right know I feel that I want them to go by very quickly because I want to be with Jake again, but logically, I know that this will be a great experience, I am happy to begin working on a much larger and more involved scale, and am glad to be away from the toils and taxes of academic life for two more months.

Looking forward to hearing about your travels, adventures, and experiences.

Warmly,
-robert.

P.S. I have decided to begin this and future subject titles with my initials for easy referencing.