entertainment

things take place in a third world country that i had never even thought about. among the many things that take place, one of the funnier things that i saw was a man on a motorbike driving through the middle of town with a live pig strapped upside down to the back. first of all, it was strange to see a pig because pigs don't exist much in malaysia. second of all, this pig was strapped down so tight that its legs weren't even moving! all i know is that in a matter of 10 seconds, i heard the most amazing squealing of my life, saw an immobile pig strapped to a motorbike, and witnessed something that nobody else on the street even gave a second thought.

you know how children possess the power to make you smile? it doesn't matter if you have had the worst day ever, but, if you see a young child smile, laugh, bonk his head and look confused, or burp, you can't help but smile. it is just a fact of life. let me tell you something...there isn't a child in america or happy baby youtube clip that has made me smile as much as the children in cambodia. i was just walking around angkor thom when out of nowhere a little boy was running straight at me wide-eyed while smiling so big his mouth was open and his tongue was hanging out. i just wanted to grab him and do a few airplanes, but his brothers and sisters were sitting on a wagon 20 ft away. his powers were being used, and we were smiling like crazy. because we didn't know what else to do, we walked on towards some remote ruins. we made it only about 50 ft before he ran at us again, this time not stopping until he got to us. mr. cutie was barely old enough to speak cambodian and definitely didn't know english, but he knew the universal sign for piggy back ride. i pointed to my back and lowered myself. he climbed on, and we were off, both of us smiling all the way!

as a tourist in cambodia, i was approached by easily 100 women and children trying to sell me souvenirs or food. some of them were successful and many weren't, but the items they were selling never ceased to intrigue me. it didn't matter if i had seen the same bamboo flute 50 times, i wanted to buy another. the thing, though, that caught my eye almost more than anything was a printing on a shirt that was at every tshirt stand. the printing had the words "same same" on the front and "but different" on the back. everytime i saw that shirt i would look at sam and ask, "what could that mean?" finally, while walking through a market on wednesday, i asked a young gal what it meant. she just looked at me like i was crazy until she realized i was serious. at that point she began to laugh with her friend. i asked again, "we see that shirt everywhere, but what does it mean?" she knew plenty of english to carry on a conversation, but all she could do was laugh. thinking at this point that it can't mean something politically, which we had considered as a possible meaning, she just said, "joke. it's a joke." could we have possibly been that dumb? sure enough, we had overthought a joke, a joke that i still don't get.

mike, sam, and i decided to get a massage on wednesday night. we nearly felt obligated because the most expensive hour-long massage is a mere 7USD. the conversation during the hour was quite amazing, and, along the way, the girls started calling mike "michael jackson." then, trying to simplify english, mike, meaning to say that he enjoyed talking with the children selling things at the temples, said "i like little children."

have a great day!