My Foreign Exchange Experience

Suesday (Hello), people!!

My new Cambo maid has arrived, and life at home is even more hectic than it was without one.

Not that she's nasty or anything, she's actually super sweet and very obliging, and has mastered one Anglais word: "Yes."

In fact, that is her response to everything. *smacks forehead*

She doesn't know what a kettle is, heck, she's never even seen peanuts before, and writes in Sanskrit.

It's like I have an Italian toddler in my house and I'm trying to teach her gymnastics.

Yesterday we took her to the doctor's, and she was like, bewildered so I tentatively mumbled,

"Koat chiuh kroo pet."
(He is the doctor)

Apparently my pronunciation was terrible, cos she looked at me with furrowed eyebrows until I got to the words "kroo pet", which I will assume to mean "doctor", cos she brightened up, and exclaimed, "OHH!!! KROO PET!"

-.-'' what did she think, that we were going to harvest her liver?

Anyhoo, she's got us all trained to speak three-word or less English sentences, comprising only of subject and action. Oh. And we get to play charades all day long.

(I, for one, got to charade "Take a bath.")

She calls me "Sister" (oh great, an omen to my future of chastity. CHOY.) which really isn't that weird once you consider everyone in Cambodia calls each other brother, sister, Aunt, Uncle, accordingly.

Which makes me wonder if I should be calling her Bong Srieh (big sister). -.-''

I told her to write a letter back to her Mom, in hopelessly broken Khmer (which is pronounced K'mai btw),

"Sawsaieh samboht... Mae... Sam Nam... Kampuchea?"
(Writing letter... Mother... [her name]... Cambodia?)

And she's sat there for an hour sprawled over the kitchen table, and finally said,

*pushes letter aside, sighs, shakes head*
"I write letter... to my mother... mother cry!!"

0.0

When she serves me tea, I tell her,
"Thank you."

She replies,
"Chew bubblegum."
(You are welcome)

It's gonna be a loooong three months*.

*(time period taken for most Cambo maids to learn simple instructions, as estimated by the agency)

But I guess, if we were to consider as to how would *I* fare in, shall we say, Russia, doing labwork or something, I'd say she's faring pretty well.

Plus it must be hard to be a million miles away from home with nobody to talk to.

I guess I can relate. Oh well. Until next time.

Chum reup lee-uh.
(Goodbye)