Final Countdown!

The final countdown has begun before I leave Cambodia to travel into China.  It is really weird thinking back to four weeks ago when I had just arrived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia scared to death of dying on a Tuk Tuk, not knowing how to react to the local people staring at me and giving me their babies, numerous power outages (sitting through one right now as I type this into Word), how to use Cambodian money and trying to figure out why they wouldn't take my coins (coins are useless here) and lastly trying to discover some new friends.  Nothing that I just listed above was easy, it took some time, but honestly I will miss this place for some very simple reasons:

1) LanguageCorps has helped me find friends in places I never thought I would have friends (Cambodia, Russia, Thailand, Australia and Vietnam).  It's true I have never been to most of the places, but through the program I got to meet these people who hopefully in the future I will visit in their respective countries.  You build long-lasting friendships through this program as I have learned with my wonderful Russian friend who is coming (from Thailand) to visit me in Cambodia before I leave Saturday morning (meaning have a drink together and tell stories over our margaritas).  I will definitely visit her in Thailand when I get the opportunity (I want to take a picture with a tiger!!!).  I also learned so much about teaching from this program, yes classes were long and sometimes boring, but overall the experience has made me a more confident teacher, especially when teaching children.  Mandarin lessons are very helpful to me because I have begun to realize my mouth and tongue can shape better to their words (I even spoke some stuff to a Chinese girl and she understood, although I used our training book lol).  I chose this program because I had a gut feeling it would be right for me (as I did when picking which college I should go to) and it was the best for me.

2) My room has begun to feel like home and all the people here have begun to feel like my family, even though sometimes they drive me crazy or confuse me, I will still miss everyone (even the Tuk Tuk drivers).

3) The KFC girl.  She is super nice and she was originally going to be the girl I did the one-on-one lesson with but she goes to the University in the morning and works at night so she was too busy.  She wanted me to come back before I leave, so I will be visiting her today and giving her a drawing of a hummingbird.

4) Sean Eich Mouy.  She helped me pass this certificate course by agreeing to do a one-on-one lesson with her.  She is very nice and calls me older sister.  She also gave me free dessert every time I stopped by the restaurant to teach her.  She would give me different shaped rice every day and she also remembered by order.  She learned book-keeping, mathematical tables, and how to say that she is the waitress and cashier of the restaurant.  I gave her a picture of a turtle that I drew, she seemed very pleased.  I will miss her very much.

5) The puppies.  These puppies were born two days before we all arrived in Cambodia and I remember meeting them on my first day.  They were so tiny back then, but now they are fat and chubby, and their eyes are open.  They grew up with us in a sense.  I will miss their cute faces.

6) My kids.  I will probably miss my kids that I have taught for only two weeks the most as they have helped me more than they will ever know.  I was their first western teacher so that in itself makes me feel very blessed to have received that opportunity to work with them.  Honestly, I was afraid of teaching kids, so in order to challenge myself I put in a request to teach kids in Cambodia, and I got what I requested.  Sure they get a little rowdy and I have one who literally climbs the walls and my legs, but all in all I care for them.  

 I will for sure miss "Good morning, Teacher!" and "Teacher Kat! Meow!" and "Goodbye Teacher!" because when 3-7 year olds say that it just melts your heart. The manager always tells me how much the kids like me and its very humbling to know that.  The TA's are super awesome and help me a lot, especially when kids have to go to the bathroom or have a runny nose.  Hopefully they like my gifts to them (I drew them butterflies gave them my email address and the manager I gave a thank you card).  I also gave them all my worksheets and flash cards so they could use them in the future if they wanted.

It has been a lot of fun Cambodia, but now it is my time to travel to China! 

First Week Teaching in Cambodia

My first week of teaching kids ages 3-7 is finally over.  I'm not going to lie, it has been very challenging for me as I have never taught small children, especially this young.  Yet despite all the hard work and early mornings I had a blast.  When I put in my cover letter that I wanted to teach ages 6-10 I was making sure I would be uncomfortable and in doing so get some very needed experience with small children for when I go to China.  In China I was told I would be teaching ages 4-18 which is a rather large age range, but I think I will enjoy the differences in all the classes.

Hardest part when teaching Pre-K?  The hardest part wasn't making a lesson plan for every day, it was actually getting up early, which means no breakfast and sometimes no caffeine, which is bad when trying to teach energetic kids at 8am.  

Another hard part about teaching in a foreign country is whenever you arrive at the school the staff believes you are ready to start class right away and, sadly, so do the children.  So if you arrive early you don't have anytime to arrange your materials, wipe the board, turn on all the fans and aircon (if you don't you will melt 5 minutes in), or rearrange the tables for the best learning experience.  Technically, my class is supposed to begin at 8am and end at 9am (8:55am cuz of their break bell), but I get there early so it begins at 7:45am and ends at 9am.  So my 60 minute lesson morphs into an 75 minute lesson, not very easy to do on the fly.

The great parts of teaching children in a foreign country?  If it's a nicely funded school you get one or two assistants to help you get writing/coloring materials and keep the kids from killing each other when one draws on the others paper.  Also the teaching assistants take the kids to bathroom (thank god!).  In a foreign country you, as a teacher, are respected from the beginning.  In the United States you usually have to earn respect from your students if they are even willing to give it (not in all places though).  If you are a westerner you are even more of a prize to the school than anything else.  Why is that?  Even if a Cambodian teacher has studied English for all his/her life a westerner has had firsthand experience with the culture and the language, so parents are willing to pay more for their kids to go to a school if there is a western teacher teaching their kids than a Cambodian teacher teaching English.  It's just how these cultures operate (and it really works).

As a western teacher I have already been propositioned for a job at the school I am volunteering at, which I sadly had to decline (willing to give me $1,200 a month which is a great starting salary!).  I love my kids at the school (some names: Peng Pong - a boy who literally does everything he wants because he comes from a family with money (funniest name!), Chea Chu Tey - she is one of my few 3 year olds who loves to tug my pants and shirt and help me erase the board, Ban Kethya - a very smart shy 5 year old boy who can copy anything I write for him, but is very quiet when repeating words, and So Siha - my oldest boy (7yrs old) who also has afternoon classes, but his parents heard his brother (Khun Siha) had a western teacher (Me) teaching him English so they signed him up for my classes as well), so it will definitely be hard to say goodbye after the two weeks, but I know my calling is in China and I really need to follow that dream.

On Friday I gave my kids back their tracing sheets and coloring pages, but I also had a little surprise planned.  Since it was Friday and the end of a very long week of learning both for them and me (I can now sing the ABC's backwards and sing the Phonics song), I got their colored masks (they had colored them the day before) and turned them into masks they could wear and show their parents (it is always good to have the kids bring stuff home to their parents to show them some of the things their kids are doing at school). 

This process was a hard one for me because that meant the night before the class I had to cut out 22 masks and use an exacto knife to cut out all the eyes, I also had to buy straws so they could hold the mask to their face and buy coloring pencils to fill in all the blank space the kids left behind on the masks (some of you may be thinking "Why would you fix their masks? Isn't that ruining their creativity?" In the U.S., yes it would be or we would like to believe so, but honestly here in the  Asian countries if the parents see their kids mask and it isn't as good as the other kids the parents become shamed and then blame the school and then blame you, you actually lose business because of this and could possibly get fired.  The kids also don't remember what they did draw and didn't draw so it doesn't matter). Anyway, it was a very long process to endure, but it was also fun seeing their faces light up the next day and seeing the manager of the school smile at all the kids with masks on.

This week has been long and I finally got to sleep in, which for me is 9:30am (I haven't been able to sleep in since arriving in Cambodia).  I have learned that I am really good at teaching children around this age, as we are observed and graded every couple of days by our instructors and peers (although not a lot of my peers observe me because they would have to leave by 7:20am LOL).  I can't wait till next week!

In seven days I leave for Xianyang, China!

First Week Teaching in Cambodia

My first week of teaching kids ages 3-7 is finally over.  I'm not going to lie, it has been very challenging for me as I have never taught small children, especially this young.  Yet despite all the hard work and early mornings I had a blast.  When I put in my cover letter that I wanted to teach ages 6-10 I was making sure I would be uncomfortable and in doing so get some very needed experience with small children for when I go to China.  In China I was told I would teaching ages 4-18 which is a large age range, but I think I will enjoy the differences in all the classes.

The hardest part wasn't making a lesson plan for every day it was actually getting up early, which means no breakfast and sometimes no caffeine, which is bad when trying to teach energetic kids at 8am.  Another hard part about teaching in a foreign country is whenever you arrive at the school the staff believes you are ready to start class right away and sadly so do the children.  So if you arrive early you don't have anytime to arrange your materials, wipe the board, turn on all the fans and aircon (if you don't you will melt 5 minutes in), or rearrange the tables for the best learning experience.  Technically my class is supposed to begin at 8am and end at 9am (8:55am cuz of their break bell), but I get there early so it begins at 7:45am and ends at 9am.  So my 60 minute lesson morphs into an 75 minute lesson, not very easy to do on the fly.

The great parts of teaching children in a foreign country?  If it's a nicely funded school you get one or two assistants to help you get writing/coloring materials and keep the kids from killing each other when one draws on the others paper.  Also the teaching assistants take the kids to bathroom (thank god!).  In a foreign country you, as a teacher, are respected from the beginning.  In the United States you usually have to earn respect from your students if they are even willing to give it (not in all places though).  If you are a westerner you are even more of a prize to the school than anything else.  Why is that?  Even if a Cambodian teacher has studied English for all his/her life a westerner has had first hand experience with the culture and the language, so parents are willing to pay more for their kids to go to a school if there is a western teacher teaching their kids.

For me, I have already been propositioned for a job at the school I am volunteering at, which I sadly had to decline (willing to give me $1,200 a month which is a great starting salary!).  I love my kids at the school (some names: Peng Pong - a boy who literally does everything he wants because he comes from a family with money (funniest name!), Chea Chu Tey - she is one of my few 3 year olds who loves to tug my pants and shirt and help me erase the board, Ban Kethya - a very smart shy 5 year old boy who can copy anything I write for him, but is very quiet when repeating words, and So Siha - my oldest boy (7yrs old) who also has afternoon classes, but his parents heard his brother (Khun Siha) had a western teacher (Me) teaching him English so they signed him up for my classes as well), so it will definitely be hard to say goodbye after the two weeks, but I know my calling is in China and I really need to follow that dream.

On Friday I gave my kids back their tracing sheets and coloring pages, but I also had a little surprise.  Since it was Friday and the end of a very long week of learning both for them and me (I can now sing the ABC's backwards and sing the Phonics song), I got their colored masks (they had colored them the day before) and turned them into masks they could wear and show their parents (it is always good to have the kids bring stuff home to their parents to show them some of the things the kids are doing at school).  This process was a hard one for me because that meant the night before the class I had to cut out 22 masks and use an exacto knife to cut out all the eyes, I also had to buy straw so they could hold the mask to their face and buy coloring pencils to fill in all the blank space the kids left behind on the masks (some of you may be thinking "Why would you fix their masks? Isn't that ruining their creativity?" In the U.S. yes it would be or we would like to believe so, but honestly here in the South Asian countries if the parents see their kids mask and it isn't as good as the other kids the parents become shamed and then blame the school and then blame you, you actually lose business.  The kids also don't remember what they did draw and didn't draw so it doesn't matter).  Anyway it was a very long process to endure, but it was also fun seeing their faces the next day and seeing the manager of the school smile at all the kids with masks on.

The week has been long and I finally got to sleep in which for me is 9:30am (I haven't been able to sleep in since I arrived in Cambodia).  I have learned that I am really good at teaching children around this age, as we are observed and graded every couple of days by our instructors and peers (although not a lot of my peers observe me because they would have to leave by 7:20am LOL).  I can't wait till next week!

In seven days I leave for Xianyang, China!

First Day Teaching Pre-K

Uniforms were similar to this (but blue)

On Monday me and another teacher from the LanguageCorps went to visit this new school called Phnom Penh International.  As it turns out no Westerners have ever taught there so we were going to be their first.  We visited them on Graduation day, most of the students are 4-6 but some are 3.  Graduation day was one big party where I ended up making balloon animals for the kids and drawing angry bird/pig faces on balloons as well.  The kids are so cute, one of the reasons why they are cute is because they all wear uniforms which is white shirts with blue plaid bows and bow ties and their shorts are blue plaid as well.  One of the balloons popped on me and a little boy this balloon was filled with flower so my pants were now spotted with white.

Second day which was technically my first day teaching was a whirlwind.  I had to stop and make 20 copies (they told us we would have 18 kids per class) of my handouts, then when arriving at the school the kids were on recess so they said hello while we ran upstairs to the classroom.  My class was pretty messy so I picked up some toys and rearranged some of the desks to face the front.  My classroom has a nice big whiteboard, a big ceiling fan and an aircon (I still sweated!).  I ended up having about 16 kids most were 6 or 5 but I got a hand full of 4 year olds and a little girl who was three (she basically ran around stealing pencils and helping me erase stuff).  

I began the class by saying Hello and Good Morning, most of them responded back by saying Hello Teacher.  Then we sung the ABC's, which all the kids loved.  After that we began learning AaBbCcDdEe which I showed examples of the letters and wrote them on the board.  Then I handed out a worksheet for tracing AaBbCc (the school supplies the children with pencils and crayons) which most of them were pretty good at so I handed them another sheet so they could retrace again for practice while the others worked on their letters (I got the Teaching Assistants to put some of their names on the papers but not all of them).  After that I called some of them to the board to write some of the letters, most could do it but some had a little trouble with motor functions when writing with a thick marker and on the actual board instead of paper. 

Next I began to teach them some animal names: Ant, Bear, Cat, Dog, and Elephant.  Each corresponded with the letters they learned previously (I had pictures of each animal).  I also tried to mimic what that animal would say; No Ant noise, Rawr, Meow, Ruff, and Insert Elephant noise!  They really seemed to like doing the animal sounds. They really liked my bear picture (I used most of my own pictures that I have taken). I think I sped through the lessons quicker than I should have, so I had some extra time and we sung the ABC's while I pointed to all the letters surrounding the whiteboard.  Then I wrote the animal's names on the board and quizzed them with either the pictures or the words (some ended up saying the animals sound instead of the name but I'll take it for the first day).

I was so nervous the entire time about messing up and not being a good teacher, it was very difficult.  I believe I did a good job for the first time teaching kids in another country.  I got to chat with owner for a bit, the other class was taking a bit longer, and he said after the two weeks we could have a permanent job there.  I said thank you for the offer, but I had to explain that after two weeks both of us have to go to China where we already have a job.  I also told him that by two weeks their would be new teachers ready to replace us in the program.  The owner is very nice and seemed to like us a lot.

We will see how day 2 goes....

"Sihanoukville" The Beach City & Where We Said Goodbye!

As classes came to end it was time for the whole group to travel to our last travel excursion; Sihanoukville.  Sihanoukville is about 4 hours away from Phnom Penh by bus and the roads are paved so its a nice ride.  Traveling this way you get to see all the fields of rice and a huge man-made Pom Tree Forest. The mountains are also quite spectacular even on a cloudy day.  As we rode down on the bus we could feel the overwhelming sense that the group was going to be split up near the end of the weekend, as Vietnam and Thailand were to go to their respective countries to begin their teacher training on site, while the Cambodia and China people were to remain in Phnom Penh for the entire 4 weeks.  Everyone wanted to stay together as goodbye's are always hard, but that is what life is a bunch of Hello's and Goodbye's.

The hotel was beautiful it had a rainforest feel to it and a very chill feel to it that I loved.  Food was good as long as they remembered to put it in the order pile.  The owners were nice most of them guys from Britain who traveled her and married Khmer woman.  The best food on the menu was of course seafood, because it's literally caught that morning.

All beaches are great in my opinion, but this is probably the best beach I have ever been to.  We were about a 5 minute walk from Victory Beach, which was the quite beach (especially since we came during the low season of tourism).  Victory beach is very quite and a great place to spend your time lounging around sipping on a banana shake (like me).  It is also good for Island Hopping as they have tours go out every day (only $15 for a 7 hour tour of 4 islands, snorkeling gear and breakfast.lunch already provided). I did end up getting sun burnt, but not too bad for being in the sun for 3 hours, diving for sand crabs and other things.

Also near the hotel  about a half a mile down is a Snake and Crocodile House, which is totally awesome (they only charge $3 and you get a beer/water with it).  I was actually worried that the condition of the animals would be horrible, but instead it reminded me of the US if not in better conditions due to the cool rainforest feel everywhere.  Some of the birds were in very good condition and even knew how to say hello or ask for a cookie.  

The coolest thing there was the open aquarium where the sea turtles live.  If you lean really close you get some great pictures, but beware of the other fish who usually are fed when someone leans over their tank like that, they are very energetic and eager for food.

Around 7pm we headed to Serendipity Beach, which is the exact opposite of Victory Beach.  This is the party beach.  The pier is lined with bar after bar after bar, most of them looking to hire Westerner's to work without a wage just a promise of free beer, free wifi, tips and a promise of a good time every night (some people actually do stay).  When it's raining it keeps the local kids inside so you're not bothered but man when it's not they attack like vultures.  One of our group members always seems to get beaten up by them, but a part of me believes he deserves it.  Some other local girls about 6-8 years old (cutest things ever!) started to braid another members hair and it became this whole production.  They seemed to like me taking pictures of them too.  The worst thing is is that these kids are on the party beach every night so they are excellent salesmen and also very good at mimicking drunk people without really understanding the meaning behind some obscene gestures.  Most of the times the kids do it to see our reactions.  When you go to a beach during the wet season expect it to rain, but beware of the wind as I did not and I paid that price.  I was just sitting minding my own business when a huge umbrella landed on me which entailed it stabbing me on the back of my shoulder where my sunburn was.  The local kids all had to see my wound and seemed genuinely worried, luckily I wasn't bleeding, but I do have a huge bump and a promise of a wicked bruise for later.

Saying goodbye to my first friend I made in the LanguageCorps was very hard, my Russian friend was off to Thailand so I got her a cute lanyard shrimp with the Cambodian colors on it and she got me a bracelet.  I miss her very much, but I know she will do great in Thailand and it gives me an excuse to visit Thailand in the future.

Tomorrow I get to visit the school I will be teaching at hopefully its awesome and I get the kids somewhere between the ages of 5 and 10.  (As a warning their are hardly any clothes in Cambodia that fit me, including shoes... It's an event explaining to store clerks that you have big feet and a wide waist... You literally just make fun of yourself the entire time but they enjoy it... Found two pairs of pants each cost $25, but no luck on shoes LOL).

Classes Finished Classes Begin

So my training classes finished today and tomorrow we head to the beach! Sunday the Thailand/Vietnam people will travel to their countries while we head back to the hotel. Monday we all begin teaching; some of us will be teaching the staff at the hotel and the Tuk Tuk drivers, while others will be teaching at local orphanages, well except me and another girl.  

Apparently we got selected to teach at a new school of which LanguageCorps has never had anyone work there... I believe the name of the school is International School of Phnom Penh (we were told we wouldn't be teaching Monday more like assessing the school with our instructors and assessing the students).  International schools have nicer classrooms, AC and pay more because tuition is higher (too bad this is just volunteer lol).  It should be interesting and I'm excited to see what age and language level I will be teaching for one whole hour a day or if I will be teaching a specific subject!  

The interesting thing is that we also have to do a "one on one" session with someone in the community to teach them English and improve their English after two sessions.  Not so easy when you don't speak that language and how the hell do you go about asking someone that?  My first thought was ask my teacher aid in the class I will be teaching, but what if I'm by myself? Second idea was to ask one of the girls who served me food at a Chinese restaurant to improve their English in their job at least.  Third idea was to ask one of the people who worked at the coffee shop if they wanted a lesson... It's fairly difficult when you don't have a cellphone with minutes on it LOL... But I will figure it out.

Also my Chinese language classes begin on Monday and we do that for two hours every day.

Now to packing!

Angkor What?

The LanguageCorps program provides specific weekend trips in order to adventure away from the hotel and see the country we are in.  This is also one of the reasons the program charges a lot of money; hotels everywhere you go, tuk tuk rides, buses and classes are all provided during your stay, everything except food.  Not too bad of a deal now that I think of it.  Anyway, this weekend we travelled to Siem Reap to see the Angkor Wat temples.  Our group is a very large group we have 19 people when usually the program has only a group of 12, so the bus ride was a little cramped.  The other thing that made the bus ride 8 hours (usually 5 hours) was that everyone drank (not me though too much sugar and I don't like beer), so that meant there were a lot of potty breaks.  One of the bathrooms you literally had to squat near a tiny hole in the ground then use a bucket of water to wash away your mess (no bueno), but something that is common here and in most rural areas of China.

Best part of the bus ride was stopping at Spider City.  This small stop is definitely the highlight of the trip because this is the stop where you get to taste fried spiders, fried cockroaches, baby chickens, fried bananas, fried crickets, toasted locus flower seeds and fried frogs.  I bought a spider ($1), a cup of crickets ($1) and a bag of fried bananas ($1).  Crickets tasted super bad, spider was alright and the bananas were amazing.  I also tried the lotus seeds and it tasted similar to meat.  Most of the ladies loved me because I'm not tiny so they kept touching me to see if my boobs, butt and tummy were real (this is common in this culture its not meant to be rude, but how they communicate).  The annoying thing is the children. Now don't get the wrong idea I love children, but these children are taught to annoy the shit out of foreigners or tug at their heart strings in order to get our money for whatever they are selling, most get the money and give it to their parents anyway not for school or their sick sibling.  No matter, we all pick a kid and buy something from them like fruit or a bracelet, but right after you buy 50 more kids come over and say "How come you no buy from me?" "You should buy another." And literally they can cry on command. Don't look them in the eyes or speak to them most of the time they will go away and find someone else.

Once we arrived at the hotel, which was on the most random dark ally street ever, we realized how beautiful it really was, especially in the daytime.  Most of the walls and furniture were intricately carved wood that was polished.  The way to my room with my Russian friend who was my roommate for two days (she is a lot of fun) was pretty much like a maze down three halls up really steep steps and down another hall.  The room was nice with two beds and a TV, with a ceiling fan and a nice big window but no refrigerator so my insulin wasn't cold.  The hotel also has a nice rooftop pool, which is amazing after a long day of climbing temples in the humidity.  We all went to Happy Pizza (aka place where you can order marijuana pizza).  I did not order the Happy, but some of the girls did and they didn't taste it but in about two hours they felt it.  Apparently the pizza was similar to New York pizza.

The temples themselves would take about a week to explore all of them and that's if your fast.  We had one day so we got to see 4, one which was Angkor Wat and another was the Jungle Temple (Tomb Raider movie was filmed here).  Each temple was built in a different time period by different people and was ignored for so many years until the French rediscovered it.  This place is also one of the reasons most tourists come to Cambodia, without tourists Cambodia wouldn't thrive as well as it is (60% of Khmer people rely on tourists for money).  Since so many Khmer people rely on tourists, they learn English and French and even Russian in order to talk to tourists, especially for buying things. They use children here as well; I bought a bracelet for $1, but my friend bought 3 for $1 so they know how to get you.  

My chinese friend an older women from China taught me how to bargain, so when I went to the Night Market and used these skills.  A shirt that would have been $25 in the US, was $8 here but I would look at it ask how much and say something like this "Oh the other store had it cheaper, I guess I should go back there." or "The material is too heavy for me" or even when you just shrug and walk away they will always say "Wait, I have discount for you!" The shirt winded up being $6 and some pants was $7 (I bought the pants first to break the ice on buying other things works great) and this dress for my Russian friend was originally $14 and I got it down to $11 (This dress would have been worth $30 in the US).  You can also plan bargaining strategies with your friend as I taught an australian girl we met at the hotel how to bargain and you kind of tag team where one friend will say "We saw that in the other store for cheaper" then you just walk away while the friend looks torn between leaving and staying they will definitely give you a discount then.  After the Night Market we drank a bit at a club, I literally had one really sweet drink and went home at 11pm with other early birds.  It was fun though my first real bar and club.

The next day we left the hotel on our way back home, but we were stopping at one last temple.  This temple was the practice round for Angkor Wat which as never completed finished.  This temple was the most fun and the one in which I wish we could have had more time to explore.  I sweated so much it was ridiculous but literally we were climbing over things like boulders and mud, hardly any real stairs.  Right next to the temple is an orphanage.

During the bus ride my Russian friend --------->
was blowing up balloon animals while I formed them into little dogs, these we planned to give to the children instead of money or candy.  The children loved it but there were too many kids and not enough balloons.

I had one in my hands in the beginning and a women motioned me over.  Naturally I walked with her, into a dark alley and began to think "hmmm probably not such a good idea" but then she pointed to a hammock and there lay her sleeping baby girl, literally the cutest little girl I have seen while here.       <----  She is the one in the picture.

Tomorrow we will be renting a boat for 2 hours, only $40 but since our group is big we each have to pay like $2, this boat will travel around the river.  We can play music on it, BYOB, and it's a double decker boat so the top is a lounging area with couches and the bottom the dancing section.  Thursday is the last day of official classes so we will go drinking near the river (I will get a $1 Margarita).

Training Classes, Swollen Legs, Dragon Fruit and White People are Good Luck

Monday began my training classes to getting a TESOL certificate.  Every morning we leave the hotel at 8:20 and take a Tuk Tuk to Pannasastra University of Cambodia.  The school is very small, but not many people take classes or can afford classes there.  One of the surprising things to see is all the monks taking classes.  Apparently some monks are people who had committed minor enough crimes in order to choose "monkhood" over jail time.  And monks get free education.  My class has 20 people, which is a rather large groups (usually they are only 12 people or so).  

Each class we have to present a new type of lesson such as a "Warmer" for the class (something to get them focused on the topic at hand, an "Activity" and a couple different "Choraling" exercises (where the students repeat new words or sentences over and over again).  It's a bit nerve racking as I have never taught a full class before, but I managed.  The first day I got one B and the rest C's (which are Satisfactory).  The second day I got mostly B's and a couple C's (no one has gotten any A's yet, and I have seen people get D's).  Tomorrow we have to present a Transition into a type of Reading exercise with a made up story (mine has to do with being robbed) for Intermediate Level High School boys/girls.  Sounds easier than it is because most of the time there is no textbooks to tell you what subjects you need to teach next, which words they don't know yet, what type of sentences they need to learn and which sentence types do they need to learn.

Grammar.... I hate you.  That is all.

I have never drank so much water in my life than here in Cambodia.  My legs get really swollen after sitting in a hard wooden seat for 7 hours or so.  When I wake up they are fine but after a long day it sucks.  We get an hour and half for lunch so we get to try a lot of local restaurants.  I have tried a Japanese hot pot all you can eat place (very good), a Vietnamese place (also very good) and an Italian pizzeria (good but I would probably only eat there once because pizza has a lot of carbs, but the pizza was similar to New York thin crust pizza I was told).  One place called Happy Burger sells Happy Pizza... Yes, marijuana pizza, so we try to stay away from there.  It's pretty windy here so the humidity isn't too bad, but it hasn't rained real good for awhile, so the air is very bad and my throat is beginning to hurt.

One of the strangest things is the local touching my hair when I pass our trying to get me to touch their babies.  I was told that white people are seen as good luck, so when a local sees a foreigner walking buy they want to get our attention... Easiest way is to use their children.  The children are super cute and most of the time partially naked or riding on a motto.  Sometimes the kids wave back other times they are scared and cry, the parents try to force them to stare at us even when they don't want to.

I ate some dragon fruit and it was pretty good.  Mine was little too ripe so it wasn't as tart as I would have liked but the texture reminded me of a soft potato and the taste is like a kiwi but less sour.  I love how vibrant the outside is and when you peel it its very pink, but once you get to the meat of the fruit its perfectly white with tiny black seeds everywhere.

On Friday we have a test on Grammar and Phonetics but everything is open book so hopefully I do well, but I don't think anyone will Fail unless they don't try or miss classes.  I also go to Angkor Wat on Friday after the test about a 8-10 hour drive (thank god I did long bus rides with the Blue Devils or I would hate my life lol).  On the way there we stop at a place to go to the bathroom and they sell fried tarantula's, snake, and scorpions.  I am going to try them.  My roommate will be my Russian friend.

Tuk Tuk's, Durian Fruit and KFC

So I am finally in Phnom Penh, Cambodia! It's actually very hard to believe I made as during my last flight there was so much turbulence I thought we were gonna crash and burn, but all in all I made it in one piece.
My 10 hour and 25 minute flight to Tokyo, Japan was very long and yet it was my favorite flight due to me being served twice really good food (steak w/ potatoes and chicken w/ rice and with ice cream).  Japan is expensive and they charge you a lot especially if you don't know how to bargain like me: my chopsticks and fan cost $46 USD, which was a rip off but I didn't understand.  Live and Learn.  My flight to Singapore was mostly spent sleeping or glaring at a little Japanese girl who screamed her lungs off every time she didn't get was she wanted.

When I got to Changi Singapore airport the tram service had just been closed to start repairs (literally 2 minutes) so I had to walk from Terminal B to Terminal F and my god was it the best thing ever.  Sure my legs were swollen but my eyes got to see the most beautiful airport ever! I want to call the airport the orchid airport due to that fact wherever you look there is an orchid garden (they also had a cactus garden and a butterfly garden but sadly they weren't open at 3am lol).  Not only can you touch the flowers but you can walk through them to see the koi fish ponds.  It was literally breathtaking.  But wait there's more! Singapore has beautifully glass lobbies and fully furnished entertainment centers (most were watching the olympics) with huge televisions.  If you wanted to go on the internet there were many places where you could and if your legs were hurting like mine you could sit down and get a massage from one of the feet massagers for FREE!  If you're flying anywhere internationally I would suggest getting a connecting flight through Singapore.

When arriving in Cambodia I got my Tourist Visa pretty quickly (only $20) then went outside.  It's super hot but not too humid and there is a nice breeze so my shawl didn't overheat me.  The first thing I noticed was the staring, but I had read that that was common.  Then I noticed my driver with a LanguageCorps sign.  His name was Smith and he was very kind to me.  As we walked, me dragging one suitcase and laptop carrier (with penguin pillow and purse attached) and him dragging the other suitcase with my backpack securely on his back, I thought he had parked inside, but no.

As we exited the airport and he stopped me before we reached the busy street (thank god) he told me to wait while he got his car so I waited as he maneuvered his way nearly dying with my backpack.  I saw him hop on a tiny motorcycle with a carriage type thing strapped behind it and all I could think was oh my god I'm going to die.  As we got all my stuff in we started along and the fear disappeared as I realized he was very good at not getting hit and everyone was also really good at not crashing, just honking when mad.  All the motorists who passed me stared at me some waved and others smiled. Every once in a while Smith would ask me how I was and I would answer good with a smile on my face.  Before we had left the airport he gave me a laminated card with places he could take me today if I wanted, he said a lot of people went to The Killing Site (my face was probably like what?) and I said no because I'm probably going to sleep, but thank you.  Apparently the Killing site is very popular with tourist because of all the people who died there, but more about that later.

My hotel for LanguageCorps Asia is very nice and clean (big orange building in the picture).  Internet isn't very reliable at least for my computer and kindle so thats kind of a bummer, but if I sit in one spot I can get a really good internet signal. What is the weirdest thing is that to get power to come on you have to insert your key card into the wall and you get about an hour of electricity before you have to wait 10 minutes to insert again.  The bathroom, as I thought, has a shower that funny looking but works all the same and a western toilet that you can't flush toilet paper down (also a hard thing to remember).  There is a fridge that works really well and the beds are alright except they are little to stiff.  You also can't drink the water here and I realized that once you don't have water to drink you get very thirsty.  If you get really thirsty there is a bar and tiny restaurant.

For a long time I was alone and I would wander around outside my room trying to see if I could see anyone but most weren't there yet.  One member messaged me and I asked if she wanted to get dinner, but my internet cut out before I could see her reply.  I slept until 5:30pm and when I woke up I was really hungry as I had only eaten shrimp chips for lunch.  I got dressed and went to open my door and I noticed a note from the girl who messaged me telling me her computer battery died but to come over if I wanted.  I went down to her room and we became friends. I was so happy to find someone who was nice and that I knew.  She is from Russia so she has a cool accent and she gave me a Russian chocolate bar as a gift.

We decided to go to dinner together, she had already been to lunch so she knew which direction to take to get some KFC.  We started off both of us being stared at but especially me with my blonde hair and blue eyes.  I took lots of pictures of local food stands a lot of them giggling or smiling when I asked to take pictures (I'm very good at making hand gestures for what I want).  The hardest part of the night was crossing a busy street alone.  Tuk tuk drivers kept asking us if we wanted a ride and we told them no that we were trying to get across the street without dying, they all watched us cross the street with smiles on their face.  We made it in once piece.  Cambodia's KFC was very different from America's KFC, they have rice, vegetables, fish, french fries and chili dogs.  I got a 2 piece chicken with rice and vegetables and side order of popcorn chicken and a drink. It's interesting how most of the places here in Cambodia take USD instead of their own money (probably because USD is worth a lot more).  My meal was $6.25 USD which wasn't a bad price for all I got.

After we ate we went to the mall, by this time it was dark but oddly enough I felt safer in the night.  The mall is huge and each level has it's own theme... So many shoes!  I needed an alarm clock so I found a little corner shop in the mall where they had alarm clocks, I grabbed the one that looked like a pig and checked to see if it had batteries and it didn't.  I pointed to the lady who was standing very close to me and pointed to the missing battery and she began to take other devices apart to find a working battery.  It came out to $4.00 USD.

When we got back to the hotel a couple of people in the program were sitting around the bar smoking (I might just be the only one who doesn't smoke).  We chatted a bit, two were almost finished with their program and one was in our group.  He knows a lot of languages and is my age.  He seemed to like being the center of attention so I was fine with that (American).  He will also be teaching in China and knows how to speak it so he showed off for awhile.  I ended up getting two cans of soda for $2 USD for later that night. I told my Russian friend goodnight and that I would see her tomorrow at 12:30pm when we get our tour of the city.

For now that is all I got! The last picture is of some fruit sold on the street.