The Search for Origami Yoda!

Based on the title, you're probably all wondering what in the world is an Origami Yoda? Those of you with children of a certain reading level might already know, but for the rest of you, here's some background...

Hard to find, books can be, hmm?

Before we moved, I bought Aidan a copy of this book, mainly because he really wanted it. Did he read it?

No. What did you expect? He hadn't exactly hit his reading stride yet. Besides, he was so saturated with video games that he never really sat down to read anything... except cereal boxes and comic books, but those don't count.

What? Am I dissing video games? Did I just use the word 'dissing' in a sentence? Well, no, I'm not coming down on games - they did strengthen his vocabulary and math skills (I only let him play games that he had to read, for the most part... Plants vs. Zombies being the exception). They also gave him an appetite for a good, continual story.

On the down side, interactive stories are more funner than non-interactive ones, so reading a book was more of a chore for him.

Yes, I said funner. 

Darth paper strikes back. One read and he was hooked.

So the end to this mini-flashback? I kinda... sold... or donated... all of his books before we left. Mom bought him Darth Paper Strikes Back before we left, so he had the sequel, but...

Hey! I'm not a bad father! I just didn't have a whole lot of space. You try shoving your house into 6 duffel bags that have to weigh less than 50 pounds. :)

That leads us to the present. I now wish to make amends for the lack of foresight. You see, once we moved here and we cut off some of his video game supply, his active mind craved stimulation. Other than blog stealing, there's not much for a 7 year old to do during the day when school is over. Thus, he started reading... and wouldn't stop. Now he's read most of his books, all decent chapter books, at least twice.

It was time to go book hunting.

See? Time? Book hunting? Get it...? Oh, stop groaning.

So we went in search of Origami Yoda. The first place we tried was a used book store.

Now, this ain't your normal book store. Well, ok, it almost is... except it's Cambodia. Finding a bookstore to begin with is a challenge (remember, Khmer Rouge, all those poor people who wore glasses... you get the idea). A friend told me this was a good place to find English books, so after some back and forth with Sareun (pronounced Sau-run) our tuctuc driver, off we went.

Quaint, this place is. Focus, you must. What? Why? Really dim lighting. :)

Boston books is the name of the place. It's located near the street called Norodom, which appears to be one of the few divided roads here. You in America are familiar with these - it's those roads that have big concrete islands in the middle you can't drive across. What do people do here? Well, they take a side road to near where they want to go, and then go the wrong way on a one way street.

Have I mentioned how fun it is to live here? :)

 Anyway, this was nice, but I couldn't see why it was supposed to be a great bookstore. It had maybe one shelf for young readers. Later, I came to find out that the place used to be several rooms large and is currently being taken over by a steakhouse of all things.


A word on that - I don't eat cow here. Why? Well, they feed the cows differently in America. Meat back home is nice and red. Here, it's almost black, and looks like the meat back home that gets left in the freezer WAY too long.

I did eat a burger at lucky burger once, but it wasn't very impressive. Awesome nuggets and sweet chili sauce though.

Now I'm hungry.

There's children's books where Aidan is standing. The ones on top were fashion books. No idea why.

We tried IBC (not PBC - we didn't find any books there, remember?) and failed. We found books, but mostly in Khmai or for toddlers. Aidan picked up a toy, but we were still without Yoda.

Then, there's the other book store... Monument Books.

End, all journeys must... hey, my Yoda voice isn't that bad!

This place was a veritable goldmine! It looks like a typical American Barnes and Nobles... without the help desk full of fluent English speakers. Still, I can speak a smattering of Khmai, and having a phone to pull up a copy of the book helped alot.


So there we were... me, Aidan, and a wookie... what? Oh yeah, sorry. No wookies or durian are allowed inside bookstores here. It was just me and Aidan. Aidan helped me search by...

Well, at least he's enjoying himself. :)

Sitting on a beanbag and doing nothing. Well, I take that back - he read books while I searched. The bookstore is small enough so that I could keep my eye on him at all times though, so no worries.

Did we find the book?

...

Well, no. We didn't. What? You were expecting some triumphant grand finale? Hey, he still went home with like 10 new books, a toy, and a scoop of mint ice cream and some KFC in his belly.

I'm hungry again. Thanks for that. ;)

Aidan eating said ice cream. It was green - like Yoda - so it will do, for now.

Join us next time, as we head off in search of some other hard-to-find item or wander through some unusual-looking area. Until then, we will continue to keep our eyes open for Origami Yoda! (add echo effect here)