I've been living in Cambodia for two years now, and I love it.
I came because my son and his family invited me to try life out here, and that was motivation enough for me.
I live in Phnom Penh, and what I enjoy most is watching people, far more than monuments or any of that.
It's a small city, and though the traffic is relentless, I mostly get around on foot.
The weather is hot practically year-round. In April and May it becomes excessive, though relief arrives in June, when the rains begin and everything cools down.
The months between November and February are the kindest ones, heat-wise. I've always preferred warmth to cold, so I feel very much at home here.
I have a granddaughter who fills my life with joy and love. She also knows far more about technology than I do, so she'll no doubt be my greatest ally in that department. My son, who always makes sure I have interesting things to keep me busy, was the one who set everything up on my laptop and recovered the old blog that my husband and I started back in 2006. He was the one who built it, posted everything, wrote too, and we had a wonderful time with it. He motivates me, him and his wife together.
Here in Cambodia, people are incredibly kind and always ready to help if something trips you up along the way, whether you live here or are just passing through.
This country has, sadly, been treated very harshly by history, battered by wars and most of all by the Khmer Rouge, through whom a dictator rose to power and carried out a genocide against this beautiful country.
It wasn't until the nineteen-eighties that Cambodia recovered its independence and sovereignty, albeit with France's involvement to curb further abuses.
Agreements were signed with Thailand that perhaps should not have been signed the way they were, because France was the one who decided where to draw the borders, leaving behind a problem that lingers to this day.
Every so often there are tensions with that beautiful neighboring country, the one that swept us off our feet the very first time we arrived in Asia.
There is a border conflict unfolding right now, and I'm no longer entirely sure whether it's rooted in that same old historical wound or in the broader global upheavals playing out in so many corners of the planet at once.
It seems to be the new world order that everyone has been talking about for so long, and which I, for my part, hope will bring about a better balance and a more just distribution of wealth.
Of course it will take years before we can see more clearly which powers (and I hope it turns out to be several, not just one) manage to reach some agreement, or simply flex enough muscle to shift the United States out of its central position.
That was just a small corner of my thinking, and I'll be sharing much more, about what I feel and what I observe happening around me.
I'll share the everyday life of living here in Phnom Penh.
Sanuk (the Thai and Cambodian art of finding joy in the everyday, of not taking things too seriously).