Frustration...

i have no idea what is going on with our blog. i have tried too many times to fix it. i am sorry some of the pictures aren't working and the text is getting all screwed up. i really wanted to share some of those pics. maybe they will work next time. i am getting to frustrated to mess with it any more today. thanks for reading, on to the next adventure...Angkor Wat.

Sihanouk Ville

We had the great experience of teaching in Sihanouk Ville last week.  It was a nice break to work.  (Yes, that is what I said.) We drove into the city after four hours on the Mekong Express, the nicest of Cambodia’s bus systems.  It was air conditioned, they provided snacks, and only a few seats had leaks over them.  The Koreans who run Life University met us at the bus stop and took us to lunch at a very nice, very vacant hotel.  We had a lovely meal, and truly enjoyed the company.  The Koreans spoke beautiful English and made us feel welcome from the beginning. 

They took us then to a hotel where we were to stay for the week.  We were intending to stay on their campus but it filled up more than they expected so they paid for our hotel, which was directly on the beach.  I have included some pictures of our hotel, because although it was more than I expected, I don’t think we can communicate the weirdness of it unless you see pictures.  I could never tell if it was being put together or taken down, but there was almost no furniture in the whole place, and although we were their only four guests we were on the third floor, away from the ocean.  The beach was virtually unusable, as there were no chairs or tables outside, and it was covered with trash and had a concrete beam was running through it.  If you walked down a ways it was usable, but the beachfront property was wasted on our hotel. 

We spent one day on the popular Serendipity Beach.  Tourism is the main draw for this city, but they are seriously lacking on major fronts.  Don’t get me wrong, I would love to live and teach here next year, but things are just not what I know you may be picturing.  The tuk-tuk dropped us off at Serendipity at the top of a long steep hill that he could not drive down with his moto and tuk-tuk because it was so rutted out.  We gladly walked down the hill, but I was shocked that their main beach was so inaccessible.  There were some little shops on the side of the road, and many guesthouses to choose from.  The entrance to the beach was unclear.  You had to go around this little stand selling all sorts of random wares, to the right or the left, climbing down a concrete wall or over dilapidated stairs.  Both directions on the beach were lined with restaurants and bars, some belonging to guesthouses, some standing alone. They all had chairs set up to enjoy the ocean view, but the cushions on the chairs were wet and I am pretty sure never moved out of the elements. 

Sitting on this beach is tiring.  We came down mid-morning and until we left at 4 we were constantly surrounded my women offering manicures and pedicures on the beach, or massages, or a strange form of hair removal I didn’t want to know anything about.  Some were friendly, some pushy, but it was constant. There were others selling fruit, or seafood along with tons of kids selling all sorts of things, crafts they had made, bookmarks, bracelets, etc… Their goal seemed to be to get you to say, “Maybe later,” and then they make you pinkie promise that you will buy from them later, and no one else. They will remember you too, so don’t think you are getting out of it for one second.  It only took me one pinkie promise to learn this lesson. 

Before heading to Sihanouk Ville I read about how to treat the kids who sell stuff on the beach. It is understood that they don’t get to keep their money and they are sort of pimped out.  They all say they are paying for school but that is hard to believe since they are there everyday.  I tried talking to one little girl about the truth of this. She didn’t try to sell me anything, she just kept touching my tummy and asking questions about my family and telling me about hers’ when I asked in return.  She said she gets to keep most of her money, but sometimes bullies take it. She also told me about some other kids who sell on the beach who are her enemies because they are not nice. I don’t know the truth but it is hard to ignore all of them, and that somehow doesn’t seem helpful either.

All in all, our time in Sihanouk Ville was too short. I would have loved to stay another week and teach another course.  Our students were excellent.  They loved having us too.  When they finished their test we told them they could leave, but they all stayed until we absolutely forced them to go, which was 45 minutes longer than class was supposed to run.  They even gave us a gift when we left and they all put notes in it.  I am excited about the prospect of teaching there in the future, even if it is in small spurts like this last week was.

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...