Health Info for Cambodia and Teaching Info for Romania

Lots of information to update you on!

Cambodia:
First, I finally got my plane ticket. It was $1,695 to fly out of Dallas (in comparison to about $200 less out of Phoenix)! Why is DFW so expensive to fly out of? Phoenix has such great prices, which is something I certainly will miss when I leave. As I told my mom, no more $325 round-flight tickets to Hawaii for research trips. But, back to Cambodia. I took a long time ordering the tickets, so I am really glad they hadn't gone up in price since I first looked in March. Still, they seem very expenisve this year. A year or two ago, they were around $1,300. I am just going at the wrong time, I guess. I am so thankful that the Harpswell Foundation is able to pay for half of that cost and that my grandmother has been able to cover the other half otherwise I would not be able to afford to make this trip. I hope that I will be able to offer much to the young women in the dorm, but I am sure I will be changed just as much if more so.

Second, I mentioned earlier that I sent in my health forms for the Fulbright to Romania, but I also had all of my doctors appointments for Cambodia. I have my typhoid pill vaccine, which my friend who is a doctor says doesn't work! She took the vaccine when she studied abroad in Kenya and still got typhoid. Exciting information to find out, to say the least. I also have my malaria vaccine pills. They aren't really necessary in the capital, but you definitely have to take them anywhere outside, including Angkor Wat, which hopefully I'll be able to make it to for a couple of days. Regardless, mosquitoes LOVE me, so I have decided to be safe rather than sorry. I also need to go by REI to stock up on crazy bug repellant. None of this stuff that smells nice - I want the real thing!

Not really related, but some other things I need to remember to bring: hydrocorisone cream or some kind of anti-itch stuff for the inevitable bites, neosporin, clearsil (sigh), a few allergy pills, pill version of peptobismal, and some flu and cold medicine. I also want to bring collapsable measuring cups to Cambodia and Romania. All of my recipes use that measuring system, and I might want to make something that I know :)

Of course, as this video shows, I think I have more things to worry about than mosquitoes...like the crazy drivers! Watch this video to see what I mean:



Romania:
I finally have gotten in touch with the people in Cluj, and it sounds wonderful. The professor and coordinator there have been very helpful, and all of the current Fulbrighters have been wonderful in sharing information and in contacting me. I look forward to being there! And, here is the really exciting news. It looks like I will be teaching one class in American women's history and one in oral history. I am so excited to do both! It looks like students there don't buy textbooks, so I will need to figure out all of my reading beforehand. I hope their library has access to jstor otherwise I am not sure what I will do for the oral history course. I guess I will need to stick with the general copyright rule - I can photocopy and pass out or past 1 chapter of a monograph or I think up to 3 chapters of an anthology. I definitely need to spend some time on both of the syllabi this summer.

Also, I am going to try to finish up my dissertation and defend before I leave for Romania. I wouldn't defend until September, so I still will need to take 1 credit in the fall and wouldn't graduate until December, but I would be finished!!! I am finishing up one chapter this week, and once it is turned in, I officially will have completed and submitted half of my dissertation. Yay!