Laurie's World

It’s 6:08 AM. I went to bed at 9:20pm and Set my alarm for 6 AM. Don’t worry I was awake at 11:30 and 1:45 and between 2:15 and 4:30am. I slept like a rock when I wasn’t awake. 😂😂

After yesterday afternoon and evening, I solidly determined that this is not a dog friendly walking neighborhood (Especially in the rain). It’s safe enough, but just not dog friendly. And definitely not flip-flop friendly. Lots of places I had to pick Nichol up and carry him and I only biffed one time setting him down. I forgot how slippery these sidewalks are. For lack of a better term, they’re not really sidewalks, plus I had the wrong flip flops on, and the angle of the sidewalks makes them precarious at best PLUS I’m dodging parked cars and motorbikes And my commitment to picking up my dog’s poop is going toward a lost cause here, that’s all I have to say about that. You can read between the lines🤦🏻‍♀️. The afternoon walk had me looking for water and sources of food. Water found…..food not so much! For the evening walk I went the other direction and there’s a pack of very angry very large dogs (behind a metal fence thank goodness). But let’s just say they were less than happy that Nichol was walking by their turf. Once again very safe but just not as pleasant as I would’ve hoped. PS Nichol didn’t really care…..

Anyways in some of those chunks of time over the middle of the night when I was awake I did some planning for my classroom. I have lots of ideas that I bring with me from my previous experiences, my greatest wish is that they are welcomed and appropriate for me to implement here. I am mindful that I am starting the school year for someone else in someone else’s classroom. But to be fair she gave me no direction as to her wishes and the administration has said I should implement whatever suits me. So here I go.

I’ve got instant coffee in hand, I just need to get dressed, walk Nichol and order my grab. I had every intention of walking to school as it is about a 20 minute walk. But last night I looked up the cost of a grab and it’s about $1.10. Perhaps that’s a good use of a dollar at this hour in the morning 😉 I’m very excited also quite nervous. Some positive self talk at this point is probably a good idea. I’ll post again when I get home tonight so everyone knows how it went.

There is a restaurant downstairs in the hotel I’m staying at. Apparently it’s a vegan restaurant, I’m not vegan but I’m also not interested in going anywhere so I decide to give it a try. I love amok, it is a traditional Cambodian dish. I see it on the menu 😍pumpkin and mushroom amok. This seems like a no-brainer to me! DONE!  Plus a mango smoothie. All this for little over six USD. I know I could eat cheaper elsewhere but for the convenience and price I am truly happy as I don’t want to leave Nichol for longer than I have to. It was delicious !!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It continued to rain so I stayed under cover but this is such a beautiful little restaurant tucked away off the street!

stay tuned for more adventure!

Wow! What a day (or two days) or however you want to quantify amount of time it took me to get from Seattle to Phnom Penh. For the most part I would say it went about as seamlessly as one can hope. As most people know, the most stressful part of this whole thing was not knowing how Nichol’s journey would end up. I won’t keep you in suspense, he arrived in Phnom Penh the same time I did! Much to both of our pure joy. The second leg of our trip was a little frustrating for me, as the gate agents in Incheon airport were not as forthcoming with information about his  whereabouts and comfort level as the Korean Air agents in Seattle. This was definitely on my radar as a possibility given it being a foreign country with a higher chance of a language barrier. With almost 2 hours still left to departure the gate agent was telling me that he was already on the plane. This of course was concerning to me because it was well over 90° in Seoul! He assured me that the compartment that Nichol was in was air-conditioned, I really had no choice but to trust the process. Part of me thinks he told me that because he may have thought it’s what I wanted to hear. It is actually the opposite of what I wanted to hear, I would’ve preferred to hear that he was inside the air conditioned building. No point in arguing though.

When I got to Phnom Penh, the health screening, visa process, and immigration went very smoothly. This is my fifth (maybe sixth) visit to Cambodia so I have a pretty good understanding of that process. I have an “ordinary visa“ also sometimes called a business visa, this will be extended by the school that I’m going to work for, into an employment visa that is good for a year, I believe. Or maybe just three months which is all I’ve committed to😂😂Not sure about any of that yet! He asked me how long I was going to stay and I said “possibly up to a year”, and he said “OK I’ll give you 30 days!”🤷🏻‍♀️

I was tracking Nichol and my bags on the AirTags The whole trip. I was unable to see anything after Nichol and the bags were loaded on the plane in Seattle. Given that the bags and Nichol were in their own metal cans, no iPhones were around them to transmit information to my iPhone (Plus presumably blocked by the metal). But what I was able to see as soon as it happened was that Nichol was in Phnom Penh with me and that he was unloaded from the plane immediately versus the bags that took another 30 or 45 minutes. That was a tremendous relief and worth every dime! Even though it was 11:30 PM in Phnom Penh it it was still well over 80°  Those magic words “with you“ were all I needed to see!

Now here’s the sad part, spending 22 hours in his kennel really messed up his back legs. He was in a lot of discomfort and unable to walk when I took him out of his kennel. I was not expecting this as an outcome as his kennel is pretty oversized for his height and he definitely would’ve been able to stand up turn around and move if he was wanting to. Plus he had a lot of nice bedding in there. But it just shows how hard this was on him. At the time I was pretty upset I couldn’t take him in the cabin, but in hindsight, knowing how hard it was on his body to be in a large kennel, being in a much smaller kennel under the seat would have been even harder on him. The only difference being that I would’ve been able to take him out on the layover I suppose. I have canine anti-inflammatories with me so he’s had those a couple times today and by 3 PM he was feeling much better and even climbed two flights of stairs at the hotel we just checked into. But now I’m getting ahead of myself because I haven’t told you about my overnight yet!

Landon, Sam and Edward (their two-year-old son) picked me up at the airport last night and we drove out to their house on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. They moved into this house almost a year ago and it’s very comfortable and awesome and was truly a blessing to me for my first night here. But it is almost an hour drive to the school from there, so I am going to be staying at a hotel in the city until I find an apartment in the city that is within walking distance of the school. Landon’s place has a fully fenced yard so Nichol found a few spots to hang out (for brief moments)  it’s way too hot here for him to be out for more than 10 minutes!! Major scorcher today 🥵 Landon and I went for a walk in the neighborhood this morning and I met some of his neighbors and friends, and then we took the car to a local coffee shop for coffee obviously. Two dollars for a iced caramel latte something or other. Amazingly good deal for a delicious coffee!

 

Landon and Sam drove me into the hotel this afternoon, it is called the YK Art house. It’s $21 a night and will certainly meet my needs while I look for an apartment. It’s pet friendly and I know from traveling around America for the last year that once you click “pet friendly“ on the search engine the number of options drops dramatically. But this place comes highly recommended by the pet owner community in Phnom Penh that I have become connected to as I researched what I needed to do to make sure that Nichol would be safe and happy here. I think of all the places that I considered employment and living in Southeast Asia, Phnom Penh is possibly the most pet friendly of all. They still have some work to do in that department but I think it will be OK. As it happens this is a tiny little place down a tiny little alley that is not really accessible by cars, so Landon had to park a few blocks away on a main street and Sam flagged me a Tuktuk (and explained where I needed to go). So for 10,000 reil which is $2.50 USD, we loaded all my stuff in the tuktuk and he brought us down deep into the side streets to our place here. Landon was going to stay here in a room tonight also but without a place to park his car he had to drive back out to his house tonight so I won’t see him again now until work tomorrow. I’ve been up since about 530 am so I won’t have any problem going to bed early tonight and being up early tomorrow. Not sure about how lucky I feel about room 13……on the ‘second floor’ that is actually the third floor 🤔

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nichol and I were going to go out in search of water but it’s 3:30pm and the late afternoon/suppertime monsoon is here. So we’re going nowhere until this clears up. WHOAH!

 

TTFN

My ‘day’ started July 29th, but ends 34 hours later by the clock. Flying time is just over 20hr but I also moved ahead 14hours with the time zone change. The morning was seamless, as other than packing my toothbrush, I was ready to go. Nichol was on high alert and as Troy packed the car, he was frantically trying to get in there too, so as to not be left behind!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh dear Nichol, of course you are not being left behind. Little did he know about how NOT left behind he’d be. 😬First scam of the trip was at the SeaTac airport!  I had two large heavy bags, plus two kennels, a carry on and my laptop bag so decided to grab a couple of carts to get all this inside. SeaTac charges for luggage carts now (SINCE WHEN?) it’s only a quarter but guess what, we had no quarters (why would I take American coins where I’m going?) but you can get a guy to push a cart FOR you for $5 or you can get a guy to push a flatbed cart for $8. It’s ridiculous but Troy needs to go park the car, so I have no choice. We load up the cart and the dude takes me inside to the Korean air check in line. It’s quite long and he says he will have to drop my stuff off at the line and leave. So at this point he’s wheeled my stuff about 100 feet from where the car was. I’m frustrated that I can’t keep the stuff on the cart because Nichol is on leash but getting really stressed and pulling, and I’ve got all this stuff. I say fine and go to pay him but I only have a $20. He refuses to make change. I was soooooo mad but stuck. He already had the 20 and was busting out. The best part is, the line starts to move and I have no way to move all the crap. So I was just standing there in the middle of the walkway with piles of stuff! Didn’t take long for the line to move far enough away that people just skipped me and went to the end of the real line 😂. Whatcha gonna do?? Usually these things happen to me in SE Asia not here! The ‘no change’ thing is a CLASSIC SCAM. I’m rusty and can’t believe I fell for it. Not sure what I could have done differently tbh though.

I got Nichol checked in and it was a hard ‘No’ on getting him in cabin. So he had to go in Cargo. Poor baby boy. The goodbye was hard, but since I was at airport 3 hours in advance we had lots of time. Korean Air had a good look at Nichol’s paperwork. Everything was good there. I had to have him back at the check in counter by 11:10am for our 2pm flight. That gave me about 20 minutes to walk him one last time before he got locked up in his kennel for probably close to 24 hours 😣.

At 11:10 two Korean air agents walked me to a place where they inspect oversize luggage, I had to take him out of the kennel for that, then the same two ladies walked me to the other side of terminal where oversized luggage gets dropped off. A guy came through a door, took him and that was it. I talked to the gate agents to make sure they knew about him (I’m paranoid) and then right before boarding, a gate agent found me in the line and showed me a picture of him. They said he was already on plane. I’m ready to board!!

Then when I got seated on the plane, I asked the flight attendant to double check that they knew about him on board, and to ask pilot if the AC was on. It was high 80s by this time in Seattle. She went away and came back and said everything good. ‘My poodle was onboard’ 🤔 he does not identify as a poodle though so I won’t tell him that part. I have AirTags on his collar and in the kennel so hoping there’s info popping up on that from time to time as I move along!

 

Got SUPER lucky with first flight. It was a 2-4-2 seating configuration and I had a two seat chunk all to myself.

This allowed me to stretch out a little and get a little sleep. Not as much as I hoped, but hopefully enough to sustain me on my 3 hour layover and second flight, that is 5 hours I believe. Masks still mandatory on flight and everywhere here so I’m feeling as safe as possible from the ‘Vid.  Good bye Seattle

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My biggest question on this flight is who will eat the melon?? That is usually Troy’s job 🥺 Tasty pineapple though 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I arrived in Incheon (Seoul) right on time. Looks just like so many airports, but this is my first time flying through here. Beautiful airport inside, and very helpful staff (so kind of different than this morning 😉)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nichol is in one of these boxes apparently…..

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I am currently in the Mantina Lounge in Incheon. It’s super busy bcz it’s the only one (of three possible) lounges that have reopened after the Covid closures. There’s a robot that rolls around and asks for your dirty dishes. It’s brilliant and I think we should get one for George’s 😂😂

 

Not really sure what to call ‘today’. Should I call it the last day? The final 24 hours? T-24? These all sound so ‘end of days’. What today really feels like is the start of something amazing, not an end to anything. I have had an unbelievable 11 months, that was unexpected, but really was the journey of a lifetime and like a gateway experience for what is about to come. Having the chance to visit and experience 48 of the 50 states in the last year is a bucket list item for many people. I am not a fan of the phrase ‘bucket list’ per se as it seems ‘finals days’ to me too, but I guess that is what it could be referred to as. That is a beautiful story for another day, I do regret not blogging the last year, but who knows, if I find myself with extra time, I could try to go back and record at least parts of that experience.

 

I think that this new era of blogging, might be less about the pics and the movement around a country, and way more personally reflective. Who knows really, but I will try to keep it light and funny with lots of pictures, as that is wayyyy more entertaining of course. With that in mind, I also want to make sure I record what this is really like for me. I have wanted this for so long, (a 5 year plan became a 7 year plan). As always this is probably the best way to keep track of roughly where I am, although for the first three months I will primarily be stationed in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, teaching grade 2. Maybe on weekends, I will get out and adventure a bit and the last week of September will be my first break, so might do something more adventurous that week, but Monday-Friday I will be dusting off my skills and going back to shaping young minds 🙂  (My true calling). I have to BE THERE every day by 7am….which is undoubtedly going to be the biggest challenge I will face in the coming days. That and surviving the stress of transiting Nichol to Cambodia. That is a whole ‘nuther story…..for another day…..I will come back and get that in here though as it is a fascinating process. By then I will hopefully have a happy ending to the dawg transit story!! Send your best loving vibes for both of us as we navigate…..

 

I leave tomorrow, July 29th at 1pm PST. I have a 12 hour flight to Seoul, South Korea with a three hour layover and then another five hour flight to Phnom Penh. My friend Landon will be picking me up Saturday July 30th at 11:10pm local time (plus some unknown number of hours of immigration and animal import nonsense). I will be tired and jet lagged but hopefully no longer stressed…I do have ALL SUNDAY (hahahahaha) to settle in and be up bright and early for school Monday morning.

Next time we talk, I will have a whole new outlook on so much.

TTFN

 

Laurie