Oma, and my new apartment

It's hard to figure out how to start this post about my last week. I could talk about my new apartment, my job so far, and what I've been doing when not at work, but really this week was shaped by my Oma (my grandmother) passing away last Saturday. She was sick, and her passing wasn't entirely unexpected, but it was hard on me after having been here less than two weeks when it happened. I don't have a close group of friends here yet and while the people I have met have all been really nice and as supportive as they could be, it's just not the same as being with my family and close friends. I was very sad to miss the funeral partly because I always feel like I learn something about a person who died at their funeral, and also just because I wanted to be there for my family. I did get to participate in a small way, though. I wrote a little something about my Oma and how important and influential she was for me. My sister Becca read it for me. My mom also got copies of all the eulogies and sent them to me. My Oma was very special and reading all those talks reinforced for me how lucky I am to have had a grandmother like her.

On Monday, the day after I found out that Oma died, I was feeling very very sad and didn't really know what to do. I didn't want to go to work, because I felt too distracted and I wanted do something to remember Oma. But I also didn't want to just sit at home and be mopey and sad. Monday also happened to be Yom Kippur. So, I decided that the most appropriate thing to do would be to go to Yom Kippur services. I had heard that there was a small Jewish community holding services, but I hadn't planned on going. I decided at the last minute and hunted down the location. Services were at a hotel, and the community brought a rabbinical student from Los Angeles all the way to Phnom Penh to lead services. The group was small, and we even had trouble keeping a minyan some of the time, but it was comforting and it felt like the most appropriate thing I could do given the circumstances. I broke the fast with Thai food and for the first time really missed the food from home. It felt wrong not to have kugel at break-fast.

Since my last post, I've moved into a new apartment. I am living with a Thai woman who is an excellent roommate: she cooks Thai food all the time! There's nothing more I could ask of a roommate (although she's great in lots of other ways too). We live on the fourth floor of a big house. The Khmer landlord and his family live downstairs, and the mother works at the US embassy. So I feel very safe. The apartment is on a relatively quiet residential street a few blocks south of the (not at all quiet) Psar o Russei, a big market that sells everything. You could furnish a house from the market, buy ipods, cell phones, kitchen appliances, books, clothes, fruits and vegetables, canned food, and about 100 different varieties of rice. Across the street from my apartment is a little shop that sells drinks, snacks, etc. They have a case of fried foods, and a few days ago I walked by and stopped to ask them what all the foods were. (I'm working on building my Khmer food vocabulary.) I pointed at one item, and they told me "fried banana". Another, potato. Then a third: "gongkaib". I knew I had learned that word, but it took me a minute to realize the meaning: frog! So, if I have a craving for a deep fried whole frog, I know where to get it.