Happy Thanksgiving!

Given the love that Malaysians have for holidays you would think that they would celebrate one of my favorite holidays of all- Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, life goes on as usual in KL today, except for in the American community.

Last Friday I had an early Thanksgiving dinner organized by Nick Papp, the Cultural Affairs Officer for the Embassy. The dinner was for all of the Fulbrighters in Malaysia and for the people that worked at the Click Camp a couple of weeks ago. All the Americans appreciated the turkey, mashed potatos, and cranberry sauce. Because there were so many Malaysians there, they made sure to have plenty of noodles and fried rice (Mom never serves noodles on Thanksgiving.). I tried to check with all of the Malaysians to make sure that they had a taste of some traditional American Thanksgiving food. The one universal truth that I have learned here is that we all like to celebrate by getting together with family and friends and eating to excess.

If I was back home, I would be in Austin having Thanksgiving with my folks. Right now I would be watching the Lions play footbal as the warm up for the Cowboy game that always follows. However because of the time difference between Texas and Malaysia, I can listen to the Cowboy's game tomorrow morning at 5:15 AM my time.

This evening I am going to a Thanksgiving dinner hosted by Ambassador Jones and his family at the US Embassy. It should be a great celebration.

Back from Cambodia

I arrived back from Cambodia yesterday. I had a wonderful trip and I have a lot of photos to post, even though my camera stopped working about halfway through. I will get to that as soon as possible.

I don't know if you have all read about the tragedy in Phnom Phen, Cambodia where over 400 people died in a stampede at the River Festival. My hotel was right across the street from where they were celebrating the River Festival in Siem Reap; I saw the massive crowd that showed up in a relatively small town, so I can imagine the mass of humanity in the main city. The Cambodians that I met were so nice and friendly, so my heart goes out to all of the family and friends of those who perished.

After seeing a bit of life in rural Cambodia, and learning more about their tragic history, I realized how much we in the US, and most people in Malaysia, have to be thankful for. Happy Thanksgiving- I hope everyone appreciates all of their blessings.