New Month, New Yays

If I were living in a Western country, I would be running around like an idiot wishing people a happy first of October! Why? Because I would be totally happy that it's autumn, that the leaves are turning yellow and red, that I can wear stockings and boots (finally!) and drink cinnamon spiced tea all day long. Sounds pretty incredible to me.

However, let me just remind you that I live in a third world country, where the coldest temperature I've ever experienced was 22 degrees Celsius (and that was freezing), there's a constant humidity of about 90, and the trees are either green or dead. I only drink tea when I'm sick, and fuzzy boots and leggings are pretty much out of the question.

Ha, so much for autumn. 

So, as a TCK living, well, here, I get to look forward to different things in the month of October.

Cambodians offering food to their ancestors

The first thing would be the "Pchum Ben" (pronounced Pa-choom Ben) holidays that are going on right now. It's basically the holiday when all the Cambodians go to the temple and give offerings to their dead ancestors. We don't have school for an entire week, which is pretty awesome. I get to go on Blogger and Pinterest all day long. ...and maybe do some homework. If I have time.

And, on October 15th, we have another one-day holiday for "King's Commemoration Day" (I think it was the day the king's dad died). And it's my sister's birthday! Yay! Which means that we get to do something super fun while the rest of the city is crying about their king's dead father. Which reminds me, I have to get my sister a present sometime soon...

Also, on October 18th, my whole school get's their mid-term report cards. Woopee. I'm so excited.

On October 29th, there's another one-day holiday for "Coronation Day" (whatever that means), and then on the 2nd of November (which I still consider to be a slight part of October), our school volleyball team has a tournament! Yay! 

Now that I look at it, October is pretty uneventful. There's a lot of lazy-day stuff to look forward to, I guess, but otherwise, ew. October, you're gross.

So, just so you know, all you people out there who live in a country where the word "autumn" can be used and people actually know what it is, consider yourself lucky in this month of October. You guys out there have cinnamon spiced tea, Ugg boots and  pretty leaves. All I get to look forward to here in Cambodia is a dead guy's memorial day, for goodness' sake. You guys are privileged, no matter how sucky or uneventful you think your lives are. I would love to experience autumn sometime in my life, because in all the Octobers and Novembers of my life, I've never once worn Ugg boots. And the truth is, I really, really want to.