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.