prep time

you might be wondering, why fish sauce and cupcakes? you might even be wondering what the hell fish sauce is (sad to be you). ok wait, before we can move on--if you've never tasted fish sauce (vegans you're excused) well you have to steam some rice, fry up some eggs over-easy, sprinkle with some freshly fried garlic and drizzle with this delicious elixir of life also known as fish sauce. that or just become my really good friend and ask me to make it for you.

but i digress. fishsauce and cupcakes...kind random, kinda gross, kinda cute. well, for the purposes of creating a publicly visable part of myself, in this context--fishsauce and cupcakes is a metaphor of the best things of all the different parts of my life. different parts pulled mainly from my work life, some (sparingly) from my personal.

oh and i guess this would be a good time to introduce you to my work life. blog voyeur meet work life aka Banteay Srei. Banteay Srei, you're doing far too much to really care if people are sneaking peaks into your life...

Banteay Srei is essentially this: an organization based in Oakland, CA that works with young Southeast Asian women and girls that are being or are at-high risk for being sexually exploited. If you want more information, you're going to have to wait for our website to go up. That or you can email me and ask me specifically.

On a personal level, Banteay Srei is like the super cute kitty that was left on my doorstop that i've nursed and have now found out that it's not a cat but rather a puma. or a tiger, or leopard or whatever big feline type animal you can think of.

Banteay Srei has meshed with so many aspects of my personal life that it's hard to separate the two from one another but i guess that it's a blessing in disguise because who else loves their work so much that they're willing to be one of the biggest part of their lives.

And something that's come from my work life meshing with my personal life is an adventure i'm going to embark on in a week--a human rights trip to Cambodia and Vietnam where i'll be meeting with various human rights organizations, sex worker rights organizations, safe houses, orphanages, oh and the people who helped my family escape from Cambodia during the oppressive rule of the Khmer Rouge. i think i forgot to say that i'll be traveling with work colleagues, two of my childhood friends and meeting up with my mom and siblings in Phnom Penh.

so it's prep time right now. that and gorging myself on all the cupcakes i can eat. because even though there will be fish sauce in practically everything that comes in contact with my mouth, there's won't be a single cupcake in sight.