Half a world away from the world I know

Chronicles in Cambodia: Dispatch 1

After almost a full day of travel that included a 13 and a half hour flight from Los Angeles to Taipei, a three-hour stopover in Taipei, and a three and a half hour flight from Taipei to Phnom Penh, I have finally arrived in the hotel room that will be my home for the next eight weeks while I intern with the Open Society Justice Initiative.

To say that it’s a bit of a shock and a bit surreal to be here after the past three weeks would be an understatement. During the week before and the two weeks during finals, there were family issues that needed attention. Then there were the finals themselves, including one hellish property final. After finals, when you’d think one could finally breath a sign of relief, there were more issues that came up. And before I could remind myself to keep breathing, I ended up flying here.

I’m exhausted, and, as a result, a wee bit overwhelmed, but that does not mean that I’m not excited about this new adventure. I even got the adventure pants (read “hiking pants” in non-Julie speak) to prove it. I met some really nice people so far, including a man who is taking his daughters to visit his country for the first time, a graduate student from northern California who will be in Phnom Penh for 10 weeks with some of his classmates working on an economics project, and a young lady from the Bay Area who will be traveling Cambodia and other Asian countries with her friend.

And I took some pictures! Have a look (click on photo to get taken to Flickr photoset)!

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