I'm ready to go home.

I think I have experienced some sort of culture confusion these last few days. Two weeks is no time at all, but in the very-short-term mindset, it's plenty of time to start learning your surroundings, directions, obvious culture patterns, etc. After this trip, I will return not to my own culture but another different one (Greece, doy). I was learning that one, now I've been in this one - can't remember parts of that one at the moment. And Voula is going to kill me; I haven't studied Greek once.

I have told a couple people that if I had come to Bangkok nine months earlier, it's quite possible that I could have ended up in Thailand instead of Greece. The culture is so much different (something about a SE Asian culture vs. a European culture seems so foreign to me), and the weather is insane (permanent sweating, ick), but the ministry is already thriving and there is already community in Bangkok. I'd definitely like to come back. I have a feeling my involvement with NightLight is not finished. (Don't freak out - I'm confident Greece is where I'm supposed to be for now.) :)

It's been so interesting to me to compare the sex industry in Athens vs. Bangkok. I know, it's weird that I think about these things! But really, in Athens it's still kind of a back alley, seedy side street thing. Sure, they may have trafficked in close to 60,000 more women in 2004 for the Olympics to meet the need of the huge tourist influx (shocking but true). But you don't go to Athens for sex. You go for the Acropolis, Greek food, and all the other amazing things to do in Greece. Sure, it's easy to find, for those who want it. But in Bangkok, the sex industry IS the tourist attraction. It is the reason the "tourists" come. It's just a totally different mindset. The popular streets, the famous areas, are the ones with the bars and the girls. It's the so-called "sex capital of the world." Lovely reputation.

Anyway, I'm in Phnom Penh now. Not my favorite. I'm really eager to go home tomorrow. It's been a long two weeks. Really good, but long.