What a week! And it's not over yet.

Hooray, I got the keys to my new apartment today, and delivered them to the company that will install the air conditioner and hot water for me. They'll drop the keys back to be at school ready for the big move on Saturday!

This week is flying past. It's Wednesday night already, and I'm wondering what happened to the last few days. Here's a quick snapshot

Sunday afternoon I attended the wedding reception of a colleague. Yes, that's right, the reception. For those not familiar with Cambodian weddings, only family and very close friends are usually invited to attend the ceremony (which often starts at 6am in the morning), then a much larger number are invited to the "reception" in the afternoon or evening. This isn't always the case. Christian weddings tend to be a little different, although often with some elements of the traditional Khmer wedding. The reception is often held in a "tent" on the street outside the bride's family home, but on this occasion it was held at a large function centre (along with several other weddings in different floors of the same building). The bride & groom and their attendants welcome the guests at the entrance, but rarely actually get to sit down and enjoy the meal. In this photo the groom is probably wearing his third or fourth outfit for the day, and his bride was wearing a beautifully matching gown in the same royal blue. Most people dress up for weddings, so I did dress up a little. I rarely wear long pants here, and the shirt I'm wearing is a special one not worn for every day. I even left my hair down! After an hour and a half of very very loud music, as well as some interesting food, some colleagues and I headed home. The music was good quality, just 3 times the volume it needed to be (that's normal here).

Monday was a busy day at school, with students writing comments to go on their report cards, as well as the more usual things. After school a colleague and I headed to Central Market, where she needed to pick up some t-shirts for our school concert on Thursday evening, and I needed to buy some. My colleague got most of her needs, and I placed an order for mine, then we both raced the rain home (and didn't beat it). In fact, we were both very glad we had rain coats on, as we had a wonderful tropical thunderstorm, with drenching rain. Fortunately I managed to get home before any of the roads I needed to take were flooded!

Tuesday we got the report cards finished, and had a usual Tuesday of school work, finishing the afternoon with a practice for the school concert. Having done "bush dancing" as part of our music program this year, my class will be performing the Virginia Reel. The practice went well, but in the excitement and busyness of that, as well as after-school Maths program, I forgot to send the report cards home! Ooops!!! I did however manage to get back to the market to pick up my t-shirts, and also some for my colleague that she couldn't get the day before. This time I arrived home with seconds to spare! In fact the rain started about 15 seconds after I drove through the front gate! Later I walked around the corner to a new "supermarket" (think a small independent grocery store in Australia - definitely no Woolworths or Coles), to get some laundry detergent and a few other items. That was necessary so I could wash the "new" smell out of the t-shirts. Having packed most of my clothes for the move, it was easy enough to find coat hangers to hang 24 t-shirts up to dry. That was Tuesday night.

Eek, it's Wednesday already. The day passed much as usual, with no major excitements in the classroom, but at least I remembered to send the report cards home today. Then it was time to dash to the bank so I could pay the first 2 weeks rent, and pick up the keys to the apartment. Done! Drop the keys off to the A/C installer, and then home to prepare music folders for Sunday. Yep, playing piano for church the day after I move (Whose idea was that? Oh, that's right it was mine, so I could go to the wedding last Sunday night.). That job almost done, a friend arrived for dinner, and to sort out her music for the morning service. She helped fold the 24 t-shirts, and then we enjoyed my helper's cooking!

Now it's time for bed! Tomorrow is going to be one very busy day. Concert practice in the morning from 8.00 to 9.30am, then usual Thursday routine, then the concert tomorrow evening. Here's hoping everyone arrives on time, and the concert goes smoothly. Friday night I'll have to finish packing, ready for the big move on Saturday. Next blog I'll hopefully be able to share some highlights of the concert, and maybe some photos of the move! Bye for now. God is good. He cares for me in all the little and big things that are part of my days, even when things don't go smoothly, I know He is with me, guiding me through each day. Thank you Jesus!