Culture Shock

Hello everyone!  I finally have some time to send out an update.  I want to tell you what it has been like so far for me.  As you know, my team and I left on Saturday afternoon and headed toward Shanghai.  The flight was about 13 hours.  It actually wasn't as terrible as I anticipated.  My seat was next to two girl from Malaysia who were my age.  They spoke English very well and were returning home from their first time in the states.  They were so kind and kept giving me food:)  I slept most of the time.  We arrived in Shanghai and our flight was delayed into Phnom Penh.  It was about 9:00 when we boarded and arrived into Phnom Penh around 1:30 AM.  I was very confused with the time changes.  We got our Visas at the airport and met Aaron, he works for the school.  We had to divide up for our houses so since Deanna and I roomed together in CA, we decided to stay together.  I was not prepared for the next few hours.  The apartment we are living in is nice and belongs to the Librarian who teaches during the year.  Deanna and I finally put our stuff down and was ready to take a shower when we found 4 GIANT cockroaches in our bathroom and 1 in our bedroom.  I have never seen any this size!  We were scared to death and neither of us could get the courage to get close enough to kill it.  We were up until 5:00 AM tackling one by one.  We didn't take a shower because we were so creeped out and I thought to myself anything but this God.  We only got a couple hours of sleep and had to get ready to go see the school.  We were picked up by the rest of the team and it was hard to hear how wonderful their places were, bug free with their own room and bath and comfortable beds.  We toured the school and I got to my classroom.  I was told that I couldn't use anything that was covered up, which was everything.  I got very overwhelmed and was having such a hard time adjusting.  I cried, which for me, doesn't happen often.  Then I started feeling sick.  I felt very nauseous and overheated.  My roommate wasn't feeling well either.  Her and I ended up going back to our room while the others went to the grocery store.  We laid in bed and I kept thinking what did I get myself into?  I just want to go home.  We slept on and off from about 4:00 that evening to 4:00 the next morning.  I still felt very sick and hadn't eaten much.  It was the first day of school so I had to force myself to get it together.  We took a tuk tuk (a moto attached to a cart for 4) to school with our housemate Sybil.  I met my class and then everything seemed to feel so much better.  Once I saw their cute little faces, I was reminded why I was here.  God just gave me the strength and I felt so much better.  My class is wonderful and they are very bright!  Most have really good English and can read books.  The first day we worked on colors and read "Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See."  It was a good day!  Well. its 5 AM

here (my sleep schedule is still off) and I'm going to get ready.  I look forward to sharing more.  

Blessings,

Brittney