Hot Showers!!!

I took a hot shower every day this week!  Sometimes two a day.

Teaching at Life University

This week Ben and I have had the privilege of teaching at Life University in Sihanoukville, Cambodia.  We had to take a four hour bus ride to get here, but it was well worth it.  The fresh air of this ocean town rests in stark contrast to the pollution of Phnom Pehn.  Although the beaches here are still trash-laden the water is beautiful and the smallness of this place gives it a much different feel than what we have been used to.  This place is laid out a bit awkwardly as it stretches a long way down the coast.  The school is further in town, but it is on the side of a hill and therefore you get a clear ocean view from the balcony.  The breeze coming off the water cools things down considerably too, which is a welcome change.  

Ben and I taught a Public Speaking course condensed into one week.  The students did a fantastic job.  We spent 7 hours in class on Monday alone, which would have killed me if I didn't have his partnership. Ben is a great teacher.  He does a fantastic job teaching. He speaks slowly and clearly and can come up with a dozen examples off the top of his head, which I can never do. 

We wanted to get something up so that you knew what we were doing.  We will post pictures once we get home and much more of our impression of this town.  There is much more to write as it has a flavor all its own. 

Bacon served crispy…

Our last week and a half has revolved around meals. We broke bread with a Korean delegation from NPIC, a couple who have given birth in Southeast Asia, our French roommate, various ELI staffers, and one very enthusiastic Star Wars fan.

Our first big meal for the week was a welcome dinner for all the new teachers at our university. It was a pleasant enough evening. We ate Korean barbeque (surprise—it’s a Korean university) of which pork is, apparently, the main entrée. However, imagine pork sushi. They really didn’t cook the pork thoroughly (by that I mean at all), which provided a strange sensation on the palate, but the Korean sauces were amazing. Food aside, it was a wonderfully good evening. We had some fun conversation with our Korean liaison Mr. Cho, and were also able to meet some new teachers that had just arrived in Cambodia from Korea.

Our next meal was a twofer. One of the ELI staffers we are working with is a huge Star Wars fan, and really wanted to throw down a Star Wars episode one through six marathon. Obviously, this wasn’t going to happen, and so we compromised. Basically, we decided to go over to his house once a week to eat home cooked food while simultaneously partaking in the splendid universe of George Lucas. I really don’t think Andrea is a big fan of Luke Skywalker and company, but a genuinely home cooked meal is rare thing in Cambodia so she’s willing to put up with it.

Next, we met a really nice couple from a local church we are attending. They invited us over for dinner and conversation. They made us a real American chicken pot-pie. It was awesome! We also got to pick their brains on giving birth in Thailand, and raising kids in Cambodia as they have two of their own.

On Saturday, we grabbed a quick dinner with our French roommate, and then headed to the Gasolina. Now, for those who don’t know, the Gasolina is a local restaurant that serves great food, but also sponsors the soccer team I play on. Anyway, this particular night we headed to the Gasolina because our French roommate was in a Khmer fashion show! Yes, you read that correctly, a Cambodian fashion show. It was…an interesting experience, and still proves to be fodder aplenty for our relationship with Alex.

We have had many other meals these last few weeks that have been memorable, but in the interest of space I will wind it down. On Monday we headed out to NPIC for a monthly English department meeting. It went well, and we are really looking forward to starting classes in November. In other news, we leave next week for Sihanouk Ville where we will be teaching a one week class at Life University on public speaking. This should break up our schedule nicely. Classroom time in Asia (at least in our experience) is greatly coveted. Also, Andrea has been under-the-weather a bit lately, and is just now beginning to recover from a minor cold. Despite a runny nose and a cough, she is as graceful as ever, and busy reading all of the baby books she can get her hands on.

We love you all, and will keep you posted. Hopefully our next blog will have something to say about the Cambodian classroom.

Ben and Andrea

Good Morning Cambodia...

As per the usual, we are currently sitting at the Java café in the heart of Phnom Penh writing this little update. Outside the weather is a wonderful autumn eighty-five degrees (with a hundred percent humidity, making it feel like ninety-five), and so we are trying our best to soak up the free air conditioning (electricity in Cambodia is equivalent to buying an H2 in the states). This very moment—Saturday morning—Andrea is looking up the definitions to baby names in preparation for our coming child, and I am sipping on a café au-lait in preparation for my afternoon football (that’s soccer) game. What a wonderful morning indeed!

Lately, we have really been hitting our language studies hard, or should I say “ch-ran” (make sure to roll the “r” [this of course means, “a whole lot,” in Khmer])! Our language teacher is named Damson, a twenty something Khmer with a law degree, who is a friend of our English teaching team.

In other news, the baby began to kick a bit. Unfortunately, it’s still an “it,” and so we are both having a difficult time grasping what it will mean to be parents. Soon enough though “she” will come, and our experience here in Cambodia will drastically change.

In about two weeks we will be teaching at a University here in Cambodia about four hours outside of the capital named Life University. We will be giving a week long course on public speaking, and so we are now in the process of developing our syllabus and lesson plans. It’s not exactly fun, but it is definitely helping pass the time until our full time gig at NPIC begins. We are also in the market for a car but the search so far has turned up nil. However, I did test drive a car the other day with a steering wheel on the right side of the car. It provided a strangely queer sensation: imagine compensating for extra space on your left side rather than your right, weird huh?

Other than that, we’ve also been hanging around with our French roommate Alex, a really nice and funny guy who provides the majority of our entertainment. It’s been a pleasure getting to know him, and has given both of us a new found respect for the French.

Well, that’s all we have for now. We miss and love you all.

Ben and Andrea.

Just some pictures to share...