fading_firefly

Ok. So for those of you who wish to hear what happened to me today...here is the story.

So I woke up. I had thought about taking the T in for a few days because Friday traffic stinks but then I was like, what the hell, I'll just drive. First mistake.

I was running behind so I left my apartment in kinda a hurry. Jumped in the car. I got to the ramp that I usually use to merge onto I-93N and it's backed up as usual. No surprise there. 93 is always bumper to bumper traffic in the morning so merging is slow and you move pretty slow too. I get to the highway and there is a truck (18 wheeler) alongside me that is already on 93. I end up in a position where I can merge in front of the truck. I started merging in. I look in my side mirror and notice that the truck doesn't seem keen on letting me in. He was moving awfully close to me. But I was already halfway there so I kept going...I mean there's no way that he would just hit me. Second mistake.

I was definitely on the highway enough that the first strike was on the back of my car towards the side. This is when the initial shock set in. I couldn't believe he had just hit me. I'm looking for a place to pull off but there's no fucking shoulder on 93 which is annoying. I stopped because the car in front of me was stopped. He hit me again. At this point my first thought was that he must be asleep or something. No one could be this crazy. I pull forward, he goes and rams into me again. Now I'm starting to think this is intentional. I pulled forward one last time just to disconnect our cars before shutting mine off. He took that opportunity to ram into me a 4th time. I shut my car off and got out.

At this point the front end of his 18 wheeler was connected to my bumper. I wish I could say that I was trying to maintain my composure but I didn't even feel angry or upset, I was definitely in shock. I mean, I must have been dreaming. Even now, 10 hours later, I feel like this can't be real. But wait, it get's better.

I said, "What are you doing? Why do you keep hitting me?"
He responds, "Well why do you keep stopping?"

I actually thought that I hadn't heard him correctly. I'm pretty sure I asked him if he was being serious and he responded, "Yes. Why do you keep stopping?"

He had this nonchalant look on his face like this was not something out of the ordinary. Like it was normal to try to push a car down the road so it would go faster. That was the most disturbing part, the fact that he thought the whole thing was SO NORMAL.

I really had nothing to say to that other than, "I'm calling the police."

Mistake number 3: I reached into my car only to realize that I had forgotten my cell phone in my haste. I turned to the alleged psycho and asked him if I could use his cell phone. He told me no. I started trying to flag down some cars off of 93 but no one was stopping. I felt like I was invisible. I guess mr. crazy started to feel bad for how pathetic I looked (and also realized he wasn't going anywhere) so he handed me his phone. I dialed 911 and asked if an officer could come out. It took probably about 20 minutes for him to get there and it was the longest 20 minutes of my life.

The waterworks set in. I really hardly ever cry, but this was just too much for a normal person to handle. (A) I just got my own fucking car insurance. I bet Amica wants to drop me like a rock. (B) I just moved here. I mean, get serious. I've been driving to work in Boston traffic for less than 3 weeks now and I encounter this guy? It makes me never want to drive again. (C) The whole situation seemed way too unreal.

He actually asked me if I was okay. Now I needed to keep my composure. After pulling the shit he had just pulled, he was going to try to be empathetic. HAH.

When the officer showed up I was a wreck. My statement wasn't really a statement which, looking back at it, I seriously regret. I have a call into the officer though so hopefully I can talk to him tomorrow and make sure I file a proper report.

I borrowed his phone to call work but didn't know the number. I just ended up talking to my mom for awhile. I had an important meeting at 7am and I was pissed that I was late and couldn't call. It took about 20 minutes for the officer to do his job and as far as I could tell, he didn't ticket the truck driver, but I don't know that for sure. I just got a piece of paper that had an exchange of insurance information.

I filed a claim with Amica and the woman even said, "Oh my god, he sounds totally crazy." I have a $1,000 collision deductible but if I'm found to be not at fault they're going to go after his insurance company for that.

My car isn't as damaged as it could be. Pamela is a strong girl. The body towards the back is all out of line. There's one big hole in the bumper and a ton of other dents. He bent my brand new license plate pretty bad. One of my tail lights is broken. My trunk is bent slightly upward. The alignment concerns me, something makes me think they're going to need to do some major body work to realign her.

Honestly, the situation gets me angry. This wasn't an accident. This guy had a serious case of road rage and he took it out on my bumper. I mean, I was barely even on the highway at all and there isn't anything I could have done to possibly piss him off this much. He was just tired of sitting in traffic. And the worst part is that he probably won't be effected by this at all. His giant truck wasn't damaged. His truck company's policy will cover it and they'll probably give him a slap on the wrist. He doesn't need to deal with trying to figure out how he will get it repaired with zero time nor does he have to fill out a ton of paperwork for the insurance company. Seriously, it's like he was just trying to inconvenience me because he was bored.

I'm not going to lie, suing his ass for emotional damage was a thought for a few minutes. That was the only way I could think to actually take any action against him. I would NEVER sue someone for an accident if I felt like it was exactly that...an accident. But this guys intent was to hit me...multiple times. I feel like that can't go unpunished. One thing I've decided I'm DEFINITELY doing is writing a detailed letter about what happened to his employer. At the very least, he SHOULD NOT be allowed on the road. There's no question about it. He's not stable.

Anyway, as for me, I'm fine. Sorta. I was not physically hurt at all, thank god. But of all the accidents I've been in, this one has had the worst effect on me. For starters, it was extremely eye opening. It's unsettling to know that there are people out there capable of doing this. Not only that, but acting like it was the right thing to do in his mind. Not only that but I was actually really really scared. It's scary to be in a car and to have someone continuously bump into you like they're trying to hurt you. My heart was racing and it still is. The entire day I just kept getting flashes of the truck in my rear view just charging at me and not having any idea what was going on. And I kept seeing his face, the face of a nut job.

But now I get to deal with this and I won't be able to get over it or move on until it's completely over. Because this is clearly SO what I needed in my first month in Boston. *sigh*

I woke up today later than I had intended to. Probably around 11. Then I started packing up all of my stuff. I was really nervous that I was going to have trouble fitting everything. I’m still nervous that I’m going to get shit about how much I’m carrying on, but hopefully it will be alright.

Yingting and I met for lunch at 1. There was a pineapple vendor across the street as I was leaving the hotel so I bought one last pineapple to eat. Nom nom.

We went to lunch at this place called Angkor Palm so that I could get Amok. You can get either fish or chicken Amok. It came in banana leaf bowls. It’s this chicken with onions in it and this tasty sauce. In another bowl came a salad type thing with another sauce on it. Then there was a side of rice. It was very good! One thing is for sure, I’m going to miss the food here like woahhh.

After that I went to get a fish massage. I was thinking that like, you put your feet into water with hundreds of fish and they swim around your feet. More like a foot soak. But nope, I put my feet in and these hundreds of fish swarmed them and started eating them basically. It freaked me out and it took me like 5 whole minutes to even keep my feet in the water. And after that, my feet kept twitching. Sometimes it got painful if a fish nibbled at the same spot for a while. Apparently they eat away at all of the dead skin on your feet and they smooth them out for you. I forget what type of fish they were but I have honestly never seen anything like this before. When I pulled my feet out, I felt like I had brand new feet. They were so smooth and they felt really healthy. Strangest experience ever.

After that we went to the market so that I could pick up another bag. I got this foe Northface bag for $19 which is the perfect size for all of my souvenirs. Here’s hoping they let me bring that and my backpack on the plane! We got stranded at the market….again…because it was downpouring outside. I feel like we always get stuck in the market when it’s raining which is a bad environment for us since we love to shop. Haha.

When it stopped raining, we went back to my hotel room to lie around and use the internet for a bit. I decided that I wanted to take a nap before going to dinner with Meng, since I wouldn’t have time after dinner. Yingting left and I slept.

At 6:30, Meng picked me up at Mekong Palace and we went to dinner at Khmer kitchen. I got to have Fried Spring Rolls and Lok Lak one last time. Yummm. After dinner he took me to Swenson’s, this delicious ice cream place, to have some ice cream. Then we went back to the hotel where I am now, finishing up some packing and getting ready to shower before my long flight.

I can’t even believe it’s over already. It seems so surreal. I’m honestly dreading the plane flight. I don’t know why, probably because it went so well on the way here. That usually means that the return flight will suck. *sigh* 24 hours of traveling….here I come!

Anyway, my time here in Cambodia has obviously come to an end. I know I’ve always said this, but I am one of the luckiest people I know. A majority of my life has just fallen into place with minimal effort. I chose Cambodia at random because they had an English program here that I thought sounded interesting. I can’t imagine me choosing a more perfect place. I got to live like I usually live, in a decent hotel with hot water and internet. But I take a short bike ride only 2 miles from the city and I got to work in the exact environment that I was hoping for…an extremely poor and desperate one that needed me more than I could have imagined. I always thought that I’d have to live in a hut in the middle of nowhere to make a difference, but I feel that I’ve truly done something for the people here who needed it. That is the most rewarding feeling in the entire world.

I don’t really say this very often, but it’s something that I always think about. I lead an amazing life. I’m 22 years old and I’ve had more life altering experiences than most people my age. I have two amazing parents who are nothing but supportive in all of the decisions that I make. Without them, I would not have any of what I have now. I went to a college that opened more doors for me than I knew existed (a college that literally fell into my lap). I’m about to begin work for an amazing company that will, without a doubt, groom me for success. I have two siblings that I could not be more proud of. I have the coolest grandmother, who is always there to lend a helping hand and advice whenever I need it. I have friends, my support system, that have and will always be there for me when I need them. The only department that I majorly fail in is with guys, and that’s most likely because I hold them to the standard that the rest of my good fortune has set for me. I’m just so unbelievably lucky. All of the choices that I’ve made have led me to this moment, and I feel surprised and blessed that I don’t regret any of them. I’ve never had to. It has all just fallen together perfectly for me.

Cambodia was great. It was great not only because I was able to change the people that I’ve met here and to do something for them, but because they were able to change me as well. Especially the kids, they really made me feel something. It’s times like this that I feel strongly about sharing my good fortune with those who have never known it. Realizing the potential that I have now, the power position that I’m in, it only makes me want to do more in the future to make a difference.

Someday I will come back here. I’ve already made up my mind that I will definitely come back. I am now friends with Meng on Facebook so I will be able to keep in touch with him and check in on the kids from time to time. But I really want to come back to the orphanage maybe 3 years down the road and see how much the kids have grown; Maybe even find out where the eldest ones ended up.

That being said, I’m about to embark into the next chapter of my life: the real world. It’s something that I’m both excited and anxious about, but in the end it’s something that I’m ready for. I believed for a long time that when college was over, that was it. That going into the work force would mean that I was about to begin my last major change in life. This final chapter would be the longest. The idea of that really scared me. But I don’t really think I believe that anymore. I’m realizing now how many more opportunities I’ll have in this next phase. I’ll be more independent and have the ability to make bigger and bolder choices than I do now. It’s scary and exciting all at the same time.

In conclusion, this will be my last public journal entry. Thank you to everyone who took the time to read about my experiences here. I hope you enjoyed reading about them as much as I enjoyed living them. Most importantly, thank you for your support. This is especially directed to those who donated money. My plea for help ended up being much more successful than I imagined it would be. It’s hard to believe my journey is over.

Last night I went out with Yingting and I had sooo much fun. The whole night was just hilarious. At around 9:30 we started at Temple Club on Pub St. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m here during rainy season, which is the low season. Tourism this time of year (starting in June) decreases tremendously. I believe it’s because there is just so much rain here. It’s not really a vacation for people at that point. The high season is during the dry season. When, believe it or not, it’s actually hotter. They probably see it rain once in the entire dry season. Apparently Pub St gets so crowded at night that it’s hard to move. I thought it seemed fairly crowded last night but Yingting wasn’t impressed. I’d be interested to see this place during the dry season.

Anyway, we had a couple of drinks at Temple but the dancing area didn’t have anyone on it so we moved across the street to this place called “Angkor What”. It was much more crowded but it looked like a large group of people that were together wearing matching shirts that made it seem crowded. Plus, it was hot. No AC. She asked me if I wanted to go to a local place which I thought sounded fun.

We had to bikeride out of the city a bit to get there. We parked our bikes. Heading inside to this club was the most beautiful thing. It was a restaurant outside but there were a bunch of streams running through it with bridges. They also had colored lights that hit the water that just made it gorgeous. I would have wanted to eat there. But you cut through that and in the back are the doors to the club. They have a woman outside to do a pat down which I thought was the strangest thing in the entire world. She also did a very thorough search of my purse. This is the last place I would have expected to have that happen.

When I stepped inside of this place, I actually laughed out loud. There were a ton of people in there but I can say, without a doubt, that I was the only white person in that entire club. People were definitely staring at us. Yingting obviously did not stick out as much as I did. I didn’t even feel awkward, I just thought it was funny. I told her I needed a drink. Haha. When we went over to the bar, I decided that I needed to use the bathroom. I saw a sign that said W.C. and I walked inside….of the men’s bathroom. As if I already wasn’t getting enough attention as it is, this was just so funny. I was completely inside before I noticed that I was the only girl. They were all laughing at me and telling me in English that I was in the wrong bathroom. I came out hysterically laughing. Yingting realized it before I even came out and she was already cracking up. We walked over to the other bathroom.

After this, we went onto the dance floor. It was a total sausagefest. I can say for Cambodia guys that at least they can have fun without women; This is something that American boys lack. They were out on the dance floor dancing like crazy people. I was just laughing at them. I thought it was so funny. I mean, I had a great time there and it was interesting to be somewhere where there were no other tourists. However, I was ready to go back to Pub Street after maybe 45 minutes of it.

We went back to Temple Club. One of Yingtings old friends showed up, named Vincent. He is married and he is a scumbag. I’ll just put it that way. This weird Cambodian man was pulling these weird dance moves in front of me, blocking me from getting back to Yingting. I gave him the strangest look. A guy next to him noticed and said, “Do these moves work for you?” and he was trying to repeat them only it was hilarious because he was very drunk. He started talking to me. He said, “I speak Cambodian” and I immediately thought to myself that he was totally full of shit. It’s Khmer, not Cambodian. I told him I thought he was lying. He said something. Then, I quizzed him by asking him all of the most difficult Khmer words that I knew. He actually speaks Khmer. He is American, from Utah actually. I asked if he was Mormon. He was born into a Mormon family, but he is not Mormon. I also asked him how the hell he knows Khmer. I mean, really, where in the US can you take Khmer lessons? Apparently he moved to California for a while and most of his friends there were from Cambodia. He helped translate between them and Americans all the time. So much so that he learned Khmer. Pretty impressive actually.

I guess he got an opportunity to come here (now that he’s 35…yes, 35) and he just took it. He’ll be here teaching English for a month as well. It should be easier for him though because he can actually speak their language. It was pretty interesting to talk to him about his life and how he ended up here. And he was pretty thrilled to see another American. I would agree. Most of the tourists here are from Australia, Europe or New Zealand. The United States is just so far away.

I left Temple at around 12:30am, showered, then went to bed.

Meng picked me up in his car this morning. We started by visiting a local market to buy the t-shirts for the kids. I decided awhile ago that I wanted to buy 2 t-shirts for each of them. The main reason is that I see them wear the same t-shirts day in and day out. It’s something that I know they really need. There are 38 kids so we needed to buy 76 t-shirts at $2 each. That totaled $152. The same market store also has school uniforms which we purchased at $5 each, one for each child who is in school (35). Those totaled $175. All together, we spent $327 on clothing for them.

We decided that the rest of the money should be spent on rice. Honestly, I had wanted to purchase school supplies but they have enough notebooks, pens and pencils in storage to last them a bit. Although they also have rice in storage, their rice level is low and the house mom is getting anxious about it. If that’s something that they really need, then that’s what the money should have been spent on. The remainder of the $700 went to buying rice for them. We purchased 12 bags.

We had to make two trips for the rice because the bags are so large and so heavy. We split the amount in half and made the first trip. This is when I handed out the t-shirts to the kids. They were SO excited to get new shirts! We had spent quite a long time in the store trying to figure out what sizes to buy and it all ended up working out just fine! They formed a line and I separated out the sizes. I gave each of them 2, only letting them choose a color if they asked. I tried to give the pink ones to the girls so that the guys didn’t get stuck with them. Some of the kids came back and requested a color change, which I was fine with. We had a few leftovers which meant that about 5 of the kids weren’t there. They were probably at the new land, working to clear it out. I gave the school uniforms to the house mom. It will be up to her to figure out who needs the new ones now and which ones can be stored away until a kid rips or destroys one.

They all put on one of their 2 new shirts and we took some group pictures. I got to be in them! They were all so cute in their matching shirts. I took a few more pictures of them. All of the supplies that I had purchased throughout the 3 weeks for the classroom, I brought with me. I had paint, colored pencils, paper, books, etc. They had all been used but I donated those as well. At least they got some school supplies. Meng and I left to get the rest of the rice. When we returned, I had to say goodbye to all of them :-(. I was extremely sad. Actually, I almost cried. Dead serious. I made sure to get a hug from every single one of them. A bunch more of them gave me notes that had quite a bit of English writing, which made me very happy. Some of the girls gave me kisses on the cheek. After I had been sure to hug everyone I got into the car and they all gathered around, waved, and yelled goodbye. It was very sad. I wish I could even put into words how hard it was to leave these kids. Only 3 weeks and I’m already far too attached. I don’t know how people stay with them longer and manage to leave.

I can’t even explain how much I will miss this place.

My bread was moldy when I got back so I had to go out to get something to eat. I was annoyed by this.

I took like an hour long nap. When my alarm went off, I had no idea where I was or why I had set an alarm. It took me the longest it’s taken me in a while to figure it out. Yingting and I met at 3 to go to the Old Market. I had seen these elephant oven mitts in passing that I thought would be so cute for my apartment. There was only one stand in all of the markets that I had seen them though, so I wanted to go back for them. We stayed in the market for a long time because it was downpouring. Bought some other things since bargaining is fun and Yingting knows how to get the prices down really low. A couple of guys from somewhere in Europe approached me and asked for a woman's opinion on a watch. It wasn't the prettiest watch I'd ever seen, but compared to the alternatives, it was decent. The guy kept saying to me, "Rhetorically speaking...if I wanted to buy a watch for a female friend, a female friend NOT a girlfriend, would this be a good watch?" Then "rhetorically speaking of course" multiple times. I'm like...ok you idiot, it's hypothetically, not rhetorically. But I never actually corrected him despite the fact that it pissed me off.

After that I wanted to try the fish massage. But it was still raining and most of the places have outdoor fish tanks. We decided to go get a pedicure instead. When we got to the place there was some confusion about pricing. We just wanted to get a pedicure for $1.50 and instead we ended up getting a manicure and a pedicure for only $2. Quite a steal. I got my orange polish :-)

Now we’re resting until around 7pm when we plan to go to dinner and a local fair/market type place after that. Then I’ll probably call it an early night because I need to get up tomorrow and pack for my flight! Which is tomorrow night! Crazy!

Peace outtt

I almost stepped on a frog again! Goddammit. And earlier today I opened my door and a baby lizard ran in. I’m not sure where he is now.

At breakfast today, some man approached me because I had my computer. He said, “Excuse me, miss. Are you on wireless internet?”. When I told him yes he asked me if I had special privileges. Clearly he was grumbly about the internet not working here last night. I explained to him that it was likely because of the storm and that the internet here is every on again off again. Then someone from a table nearby chimed in about how he also was angry that the wireless wasn’t working. Then he started complaining about how the computers in the lobby use dial-up which is totally not true at all. I wanted to ask him if he even knew what dialup was. Pshht. Could you possibly complain more about not having flawless internet access in one of the poorest cities of Cambodia? Why are you even here? Idiots.

Meng motor biked me into the orphanage this morning with $70 in my pocket. He said that most volunteers fund a going away party that the children love. I thought it would be fun and if the kids love it, then I’m glad to do it. We gave the money to the house mom when we got there. $20 of it was for soft drinks and the other $50 was for food. There are 38 children in the orphanage, although when I’m there it’s really hard to tell there are that many. The only time everyone comes around is during mealtimes.

I “taught” my lesson today. It was just telling the kids to have fun and draw or write something. Most of them drew me a picture and wrote, “To Emily” with a note. A lot of them wrote “I love you” which is actually a very common thing for these children to say. I’ve grown used to hearing it and seeing it. Some of them actually wrote me notes that they would miss me in the best English that they could muster. Srey Mey gave me a note with a picture of a queen which referenced that it was me. Haha.

All morning they were singing happy birthday to no one basically. I guess to them, that’s what a party means. Then it turned into this being a party for me because I am going away soon. But anytime the word party was mentioned, all of them freaked out. They were so excited.`

I basically just spent the morning hanging out with the kids. They had a Chinese Jump Rope (?) and I was teaching them how to play it. They showed me a bunch of tricks with it that were very misleading to the eyes. I showed them Jacob’s Ladder, Cat’s Whiskers, Teacup, and the Eiffel Tower tricks with it. I was actually surprised I could remember them. I must have been 10 when I taught myself how to do it out of a book.

The house mom brought back all of the food. There was a ton of chicken and an entire bag of dead frogs. A biggg bag of dead frogs. Like cricket, fried frog is also a delicacy here. I went over to see them preparing the meal. They were cutting all the frogs open and putting their guts off to the side. Apparently you only eat the “meat”, which to me just looks like a rubbery skin. The chicken looked good though…haha.

I asked Sokphuong if she likes to eat frogs. She just said, “I like to eat chicken.” Heh

I talked to Meng about whether or not these kids were up for adoption. He said that technically, they are, but it’s a difficult process to adopt a Cambodian orphan. Because of the sex trade, they have to do an extremely thorough background check which is both time consuming and expensive. They want to know for sure that people aren’t adopting them just to sell them as sex slaves. Hopefully someday I am wealthy enough that I’ll be able to come back here and adopt a child. I would get one from COFCO, without a doubt.

The new t-shirts came in. They sell t-shirts to raise money for the orphanage and they don’t cost much at all. I bought one for myself and enough to send one to all the people who had donated money. On mine, I had all 38 children sign the back. For those who couldn’t write, I had them draw something. Rothana, one of the eldest boys, helped the little 4 year olds to write their names. So cute. It looks awesome!

They served the food at about 11:30. It was delicious! There was an ENTIRE plate of rice. Just a heaping portion. Apparently, that’s normal. Because it is so cheap, they fill up pretty much on rice. Which is also why they are so thin. Chicken is pretty much a delicacy for them which is why they look forward to these parties. Typically, they eat fish at most meals because it is the cheapest meat that can be purchased. The house mom told Meng that her budget is $1.50 per child, per meal. That’s next to nothing, really.

But the house mom did an amazing job preparing the chicken! It was one of the best chicken legs I had ever had. She seasoned it with something, fish oil perhaps, and it made the flavor so bold. She also made this cucumber salad that I quite enjoyed. They didn’t serve frogs for lunch.

I guess we finished eating around 12:30. The children also like the parties because there is music playing and they like to sing and dance. There was a bit of that and a bit more shirt signing. Then Meng started rushing me out because it looked like it was going to start raining. When I say it looks like it’s going to start raining here, I mean that the sky is more threatening than anything you would see in the United States. It really knows how to rain here.

So I jumped on his bike and as we were leaving all of the kids were asking if I’d be back tomorrow. They circled around the bike and were yelling “Goodbye teacher!” Many of them were still handing me notes as we were about to drive away, all of which I will be keeping.

I’ve grown so attached to these kids. It can’t be true that tomorrow is the last time that I will see them.

I need to decide how I’m going to get all of this stuff home. Luckily, I flew with Asiana Airways which basically has no limit to what carry-ons you have and allows 2 suitcases at no extra charge. Maybe I’ll just buy another suitcase at the market. Or at least a large carry-on.

Yingting and I grabbed a drink around 5:30 at the Red Piano on Pub Street. She was going to meet her boyfriend for dinner so I just walked down Pub Street for my own dinner. I was craving one of those burgers that I had last week. Soooo delicious! Best $5 I’ve ever spent. Now I’m back at the room. Yingting and I are going to go back to Pub Street around 9:30 to have a few drinks and hang out. I won’t stay out too late though because Meng is picking me up at 9am to go into the market and buy all of the donations! I am very excited! Oh and in about 50 hours, I will be boarding an airplane for home. Crazy? I think so.

In my last entry I meant to say that the bags cost $30 each so $30 x 20 = $600. Thank you very much people.

The internet here has been super shitty since this past weekend. I don’t know what’s up.

This morning when I came back to my room after breakfast there was a tree frog on my door handle. I wasn’t really sure what to do. I needed to get into my room but I’m pretty sure I was more afraid of it than it was of me. Which is silly because tree frogs are adorable and harmless. I made a gesture towards the handle and it hopped onto the wall next to the door, scaring the shit out of me in the process. It was funny.

I slept much better last night. The air conditioning seems to be working just fine now and the noise from the other ACs were not as loud.

This morning I did the jeopardy game again. I had a lot more kids this time and none of them were the kids who had played it before. They had so much fun with it! Towards the end they were working as a team on every question and were cheering very loudly when they would get it right. Plus it’s a great way to review with them. I always make it so that the teams are pretty much even. Like the team that won today only won by 100 points (or one question). I know which questions they’ll more likely be able to answer and which will take a few chances to get it right.

On the bike ride back I swallowed 2 bugs. Not 0. Not 1. But 2. It’s unbelievable. I wish I could tell you how many I’ve eaten since I got here but I’ve lost count. It’s super gross too. You can like feel them in the back of your throat for a while after.

For lunch, Yingting brought some Khmer sandwiches that she had bought from a street vendor. She also brought back sugarcane juice. It was very sweet and delicious. The sandwich had pork, some kind of sauce, cucumber, onion grass things, celery, and some other vegetables. It was delicious.

I fell asleep around 12:30 and woke up just before I had to leave for my lesson. It was really hot on the bike ride in. The sun was blaring.

Today I was trying to teach them how to read time by drawing clocks for them. It was a major fail. They didn’t seem to understand it no matter how many times I explained it to them. I guess they need more of a numbers review. So I decided to switch back into game mode. They LOVED this game that we played. By the end of it the kids were getting so enthusiastic that they knocked the board off of the stand at one point. I made 2 teams. I would give each team a word such as “life”. They would have to take the last letter of each word and come up with another word. For example “life” -> “elephant” -> “time”. They got super competitive and the teams were surrounding the board just screaming out words. It was a good end to the day 

Yingting gave them some toys that she had bought for them. She had photocopied some coloring books, and bought a volleyball and some puzzles. Then they all ran off to the new land shortly after that, so we peaced out.

On the bike ride home I was complaining to Yingting about my bike. I have been having the hardest time with it. I feel like no matter how hard I work, I never get anywhere. After the first week I decided that I must just be crazy. It had just been awhile since I had ridden a bike. But seriously, every time I make the trip to and from the orphanage I am like exhausted and dying. It’s not even all that far. Also, going over “hills” aka very small bumps in the road because this is all flat land.

So we decided to switch bikes. I was totally right, my bike sucks. It took little to no effort for me to get a long distance on her bike and she was saying that she was very tired on my bike. Legit, I was right this whole time. Bam.

Yingting bought Mango right before dinner. It comes with this dipping powder that is like cinnamon, sugar and chili powder. It’s probably one of the weirdest things I’ve ever tasted. It’s good, but weird. She’s made me try a lot of interesting things here that I’ve greatly enjoyed.

It started absolutely down pouring around 5:30. Which sucked because we were just talking about going to dinner. We suspected that it would be flooded before we left. When I think of "flooded", I really had no idea what I was about to get myself into. We started peddling out of the hotel roadway and when we got to the end, I could believe what I saw. The road was covered in like 2 feet of water. We peddled into it and it came up to my ankles on my bike. I peddled and peddled. Getting through the water was difficult. Cars were pulling through next to me and the water level had reached almost the bottom of the cars. It was flooding like I have never seen before.

The restaurant we went to wasn't that far away, but getting there was exhausting and I was laughing the whole time. Before I had plunged into the water, I took my flip flops off and put them into my bike basket. I could feel debris and garbage at my feet as I rode through the water. We finally got there!

At dinner I had Lok Lak. It’s this traditional Cambodian meal. It’s beef with some sort of delicious sauce on it served with a fried egg on top. On the side I got rice and potatoes (fries). Omgggg, so amazing! I want to go back for more at some point. Plus, it’s super cheap.

After dinner we went to the Night Market. It was still raining a lot but not as hard as earlier. That gave a chance for the flooding to go down. The Night Market was fun! It's just a marketplace that's open at night instead of during the day (like the Old Market and the New Market). I bought a bunch of souvenirs for myself and friends and Yingting helped me to bargain stuff down. Fun :-)

Now I'm really tired. I think I need to shower again since I feel gross from the rain. So I'm going to do that, then go to sleep!

Please no more donations folks. We’ve officially begun the process of budgeting what we have and are trying to figure out what we can buy. Thanks so much for everyone’s generosity. Thanks to all of you, I raised a total of $700 to purchase supplies for the children! That’s fantastic!

Today was an AWESOME day. I spent half of it on the back of Meng’s motorbike. You know what’s weird? It’s a law here that anyone driving a motorbike has to wear a helmet but passengers that sit in the back do not. Weird? Yes. I did not wear a helmet. But Meng drove safely, don’t worry.
This morning I woke up…really tired. YingTings phone was ringing nonstop for like an hour at 2am and it kept me up. Also, the A/C in this new room I’m in sucks. It only works sometimes and it kept getting really hot last night. And there is this strange noise outside my window all night. It sounds like ducks quacking but I think it’s the A/Cs to the other rooms.

I had to ask YingTing to move out today, for various reasons that I will not go into detail over.

So this morning I ate breakfast and then biked into the orphanage. I got there only to find that their white board had been completely destroyed in the storm we had last night. We had a crazy bad thunderstorm that lasted almost an hour around 7pm last night. The wide board was completely torn and bent so that it made it almost impossible to use. I taught my lesson the best that I could, but then I called Meng and asked him to take me to get them a new one right away.

I took the donation money out of the bank so that I could buy it. He met me at the hotel on his motorbike, then took me to the other side of Siem Reap to buy it. It only cost me $15! I was shocked. I also found this animal poster that I thought would be awesome for the kids, so I picked it up. They didn’t sell stands there because they said stands are normally pretty expensive. They have trouble selling them I guess. Meng said that we could either build a stand or that he could go look for one elsewhere. We dropped the board off at the orphanage after that. Then we lectured the kids on protecting their white board from nasty weather.

I asked Meng if he had seen their new land. He hadn’t, so we motorbiked over there so he could check it out. He and the house mom had a long conversation in Khmer. He was telling me about it after. Apparently the most pressing need ALWAYS is rice. So we’re going to buy them a bunch of rice. She asked for 1T which is equivalent to 20 bags of rice. Each bag of rice costs 20 US dollars. That would be $600. I told him that I’d rather distribute the money and buy things other than rice. We are only going to get 10 bags probably. The house mom also told Meng that she doesn’t really like the couple from Spain who teach Spanish every day. I guess they’re trying to tell her how to run the orphanage better and she sees it as rude. It’s definitely a cultural thing. I know that the couple is only trying to help out, but it isn’t their place to interfere and try to make things better so quickly. They’ve only been here for 1 month, they aren’t fully trusted yet. They’re supposed to be here for 9 so hopefully they can make a significant impact and gain the house mothers trust.

A few of the orphans were at the new land collecting the grassy overgrowth and throwing it into a burn pile that they had made. The house mother caught a grass hopper in front of me and smushed its head. It was disgusting.

As I was sitting there, I realized what a foreign place this should be to me. Yet after 3 weeks, I looked around at this strange environment and felt…normal….like I was right where I should be. I didn’t feel out of place at all. I’ve completely adapted to this culture. Then I realized what a shock it will be to walk away from what I used to consider insanity.

Meng and I left the new land and he dropped me off at the hotel. I had an unexpected email that took me awhile to digest. YingTing got back around 12:45. I talked to her more about trying to find a new place to live. She’s going to stay here tonight but will be out by tomorrow. I’m considering trying to get my old room back. There are people in their now; it makes me jealous to hear them go in.

I ate a peanut butter sandwich for lunch. Meng picked me up at 1:45 with a new white board stand! It only cost him $18 on top of the $15 board! Sweeeet. We motorbiked to the orphanage where we did a brainstorming exercise called “Describe Yourself”. I had bubbles branching out that were like, “Interests”, “Looks”, “Personality”, etc. Then I made them choose words that fell under those categories. It went pretty well I guess. After this, I made them write briefly about one interest of theirs that they enjoy most and they had to draw a picture of them doing it. Then class was over.

It was raining and a couple of the smaller girls came over to me with books. I read to them while we waited for the rain to subside. They are just so cute.

Meng took me the fun route. We cut through this marketplace and the roads were totally insane. Some of them were flooded. One of the roads had this giant pile of dirt in it that we had to get over. There were giant potholes all over the place. For some reason I kept thinking of the movie Aladdin with the market we were zooming through. It was so fun! Then he asked me if I wanted to try some “duck and noodle soup”. I guess it was really popular at this one local restaurant. We stopped and got some. It was actually delicious! I’ve never had duck before. It sorta reminded me of pork in a way. It was duck floating in some soup with noodles and onion grass and what Meng referred to as “pig’s blood”. He was trying to tell me that it was pigs blood that had been cooked until it was solidified. I would describe it as a brown-ish square that kinda looked like a sponge. Whether or not it’s actually pig’s blood is still up for debate. But it was good!
Meng then drove me back to the hotel and that’s where I am now. YingTing isn’t here; I’m not sure where she is. I think we’re going to meet that New Zealand guy and head to Pub St for some drinks a bit later. It’s his last night here in Cambodia.

I only have like 3.5 days left here. Crazyyyy!

The people here are so damn friendly. They always smile, wave, and say hello...even though they don't know you. It's such a foreign concept to me.

Today I went horseback riding! By far one of the best choices I've made. It was INCREDIBLE. I wasn't sure how long I would want to do it for. I ended up choosing 3 hours because I read online that someone wished they had done the 3 hour one instead of 2. I kinda wish I had done the 2 because the last hour I was just feeling guilty about my horse wanting to die.

Anyway, I took a tuk tuk there! It was $4 each way, $8 total. Which I thought was steep, but I guess it was a good distance away. It was called the Happy Horse Farm but I did this project in D-term that was called "Happy Valley Kennels" and I kept insisting that the name was "Happy Valley Horse Farm" to the tuk tuk driver. He had no idea what I was talking about. Anyway, we finally got that sorted out.

The horse farm was SO cute. I wish I had gotten a picture of it. It was huge, but the main area was circular. There was a ring in the center with a few horses. There was an area to wash them. And then there was also the office area which doubled as stables (weird, I know).

I had a choice of what type of saddle I wanted, so I chose Western because I haven't ridden in awhile and I knew I wanted to Canter. I got a guide who spoke like no English, but he really tried and I also got a boy who trailed behind me. Not sure why. But it was just me and the two of them. Honestly, I connected so much with this country and nature in those 3 hours. Because my guide couldn't speak English, most of the ride was just silent and I got to take in my surroundings.

The first leg of the trip was through this rural village area. They don't have roads there. They have little paths large enough for a bike to get to the "houses". The houses were huts made of straw. Many of them had hammocks. At one house there was a baby in a hammock just crying. There were a ton of dogs there. One of the horses got spooked by one of the dogs because it like tried to attack the horse. It was the dumbest thing I've ever seen. It was a little bigger than Sasha and the horse was scared.

Anyway....after we got out of the village area we ended up in this giant field. Large patches of it were water with like onion grass growing out of them. People were harvesting this grass in certain patches. We encountered random cows and bulls on the narrow pathways. We needed to avoid the bulls because they looked really angry.

The best part about being the only person on the tour was that we rode according to my skill level. We started off at a slow walk, then we trotted when the trail was suitable for trotting (when we first hit the open field area), then we went into a cantor. By the end of the journey I was almost galloping through fields. It was AMAZING. There was one trail that had tall grass on either side of it and was covered in about 2 feet of water. We cantered through that and the water was splashing all over the place. I was just there laughing having a blast.

Whenever we'd hit a village area, we'd slow to a walk. But when the area was open and the trail allowed it, we ran.

I loved my horse. I forget his name but he was really good to me. He slowed down when I wanted him to and every time the tour guide would turn around and say the word trot, my horse would take off like he knew instinctively that he was free to run. It was such a liberating adventure!

I did feel bad for my horse though. At the 2 hour mark he was absolutely doused in his own sweat. I've never seen a horse sweat before. I felt awful about making him go another hour. That last hour was spent in guilt.

When we got back, I tipped my guides really well. It actually made the experience better, the fact that they never spoke.

My tuk tuk driver was there waiting for me. Thank goddd. I wasn't sure if he'd actually come back for me.

I went out to lunch with YingTing. She took me to a local place where I had fried rice with chicken. It was very good and only $1. Cheap!

After that I went back to take a nap. I was very tired.

It's so strange, half of the cars here have the wheel on the right and the other half have the wheel on the left. However, they drive on the same sides of the road as the US does.

Anyway, I took a tuk tuk to the orphanage because I didn't want to ride my bike back when it was so dark out. The orphanage is a few kilometers outside of the city and the streets aren't lit. YingTing was supposed to come with me, but she was running kinda late and told me she'd bike.

I got there around 6pm and the show was set to start at 6:30. The kids all ran over to me and were hugging me. The tuk tuk driver told me he would return for me around 7:30. Which was silly. Because the show didn't even start until 7.

I love their show. Really. They are so fantastic. I'm kicking myself because I thought I could video tape the whole thing on my 4gig memory card but I ran out of space. I got some great shots with me SLR camera though.

For some reason the wireless internet here is down. I'm currently on one of the computers at the lodge.

Well my intention was to sit down here and write a novel about everything that I did and learned today. But honestly, I've forgotten most of it. I never was a history buff so trying to remember dates and names is nearly impossible for me.

Last night I went out with YingTing and a "friend" of hers. He is Cambodian and clearly they have known each other for awhile. Since January she said. He just returned for Phnom Phen. I guess he was trying to find work there or something. I actually had a lot of fun with the two of them. We ate at a restaurant on pub street where I decided to try a Cambodian burger. It was one of the best burgers I have ever had! It was crusted with something, not sure what, topped with cheddar cheese. Yummm.

After that we went to Temple Club across the street to play some pool. I used to think I was really bad at pool but I played so well last night. I even won a game against YingTing who has played pretty frequently! I was very excited. YingTing was....interesting. Haha. Any guy that would come within like 5 feet of us, "Oh hey, have you met my friend Emily". Most of them were old, way too old for me. I met one man from Spain who was a Barcelona fan. Another man was from Israel. We met this Australian couple who played pool against us. Oh my god, the wife was so embarrassing. She kept dancing like she was the only one in the room and I couldn't help but hysterically laugh at her. Then she would start frantically yelling when they would sink a ball. I was embarrassed for her husband, lets leave it at that.

At around 11 YingTing's stomach started to seriously bother her. We weren't sure if it was the food or something, but we just decided to leave. I went to bed around 11:30, which was fine. I had to be up early anyway.

So I met Meng and my tour guide (let's call him Joe because I forget his name) at 9 outside of the hotel. Joe was extremely knowledgeable on all things historical in Siem Reap. On the way to Angkor Wat, he was telling me all about the religious history of Cambodia. About how about 80% of Cambodians are Buddhist now, but that Hinduism is still big here. Actually, there are even people here who are Christian and Muslim. Cambodia has a wide variety of religions.

Throughout the day I heard tidbits of history relating to Pol Pot and the killing fields. This brief overview describes the history behind it:

"During the Vietnam War, Cambodia was used as a base by the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong, and thousands of refugees from across the country flooded the city to escape the fighting between their own government troops, the NVA/NLF, the South Vietnamese and its allies, and the Khmer Rouge. By 1975, the population was 3 million, the bulk of whom were refugees from the fighting. The city fell to the Khmer Rouge on April 17, 1975. Most of its residents, including those who were wealthy and educated, were evacuated from the city and forced to do labour on rural farms as "new people". Tuol Svay Prey High School was taken over by Pol Pot's forces and was turned into the S-21 prison camp, where Cambodians were detained and tortured. Pol Pot sought a return to an agrarian economy and therefore killed many people perceived as educated, "lazy", or political enemies. Many others starved to death as a result of failure of the agrarian society and the sale of Cambodia's rice to China in exchange for bullets and weaponry. The former high school is now the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, where Khmer Rouge torture devices and photos of their victims are displayed. Choeung Ek (The Killing Fields), 15 kilometres (9 mi) away, where the Khmer Rouge marched prisoners from Tuol Sleng to be murdered and buried in shallow pits, is also now a memorial to those who were killed by the regime."

So in other words, it was basically mass genocide. Anyone that was educated, was a threat. They tricked many people into arriving at the killing fields by telling them that because they were well educated, they were about to get so and so opportunity. Then, they open fired on the crowd. Everything that he told me was extremely devastating. Joe's own father managed to escape persecution by playing dumb in a sense. Only the brightest people knew that they needed to act stupid.

Anyway...the first place we went to was the city known as Angkor Thom. Angkor Thom contained many different temples, but we only were able to visit 3 of them.

1) Bayon: Bayon is located in the center of Ankor Thom and is one of the more famous temples. Dedicated to the Buddhism. It was build as the official state temple of King Jayavarman VII. The surrounding walls of Bayon told a story. The story of the civil war in fact. It was the Khmer people versus the Cham people and you could practically see the epic battles that took place in the art on the walls. Bayon has 49 towers. These 49 towers, plus the 5 towers which surround the entrances to Ankor Thom, represent the 54 provinces of Cambodia. They had 54 then, now there are 20 something due to Thailand claiming many provinces for themselves. Bayon is 3 stories tall. The upper terrace contains the nearly 200 faces of Lokesvara. There are 4 faces on each of the 49 pillars. I wish I could even explain how fantastically beautiful it was. There was no ceiling to the temple anymore, it had worn away considering it was built at the end of the 12th century. Many wooden walkways had been added (that Joe just found boring to walk on apparently). The stone was uneven as though they had just chosen random sandstone and limestone and didn't have the equipment to say it properly. The steps were steep and and stone was beautiful. The chiseling in the walls was wearing away but you could still see the pictures clearly and you could appreciate the work that went into carving them.

2) Baphuon: We could only look at this one from the outside since it's currently being reconstructed. It was magnificent though. It had this huge stone walkway that crossed over a pond leading up to it. We, of course, took the more rugged pathway, ducking underneath the walkway and heading into a wooded area that I'm not sure we were allowed in. Oh...Joe. Baphuon was built in the mid-11th century as the state temple of Udayadityavarman II dedicated to the Hindu God Shiva.

3) Next came Phimeanakas or the Royal Palace: This was where the king and queen lives. It had 2 adjoining pools, one small one (for the king apparently) and a very very large one for the queen. Again, we were not able to go inside. But the outside was quite magnificent. This is another Hindu temple. It was built at the end of the 10th century, during the reign of Rajendravarman, then rebuilt by Suryavarman II in the shape of a three tier pyramid.

At this point we went East of Ankor Thom to an area called Ta Prohm.

4) Ta Prohm Temple: It was founded by the Khmer King Jayavarman VII as a Mahayana Buddhist monastery and university in the late 12th century. This was absolutely magnificent. There were these giant trees growing OUT of the rocks of the temple. Though the people have looked into having them removed, it has been said that the trees are a part of the temple, making up the foundation of it. If they were to try to remove the trees, the temple would be destroyed. I wish I could even explain the size of these tree roots. They were just HUGE. And the trees were all over the temple too. They were like a part of it. This one was probably my favorite just because it was so beautiful. This Temple had a tower known as the echo tower. We went inside and were yelling. No echo. But if you lean your back against the wall and hit your chest, it's this incredible sound, this amazing echo, that you would never expect. It was so cool! This Temple is also apparently the location that Lara Croft: Tomb Raider was filmed. And supposedly Angelina Jolie and JOHN CENA (yes, the wrestler) will be coming back here to shoot another Tomb Raider. Interestinggg.

Lunch time! We stopped at some local restaurant where I had chicken and rice. Then we went on to the last temple, the most famous one:

5) Angkor Wat: It was enormous. And beautiful too. It was built for the king Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as his state temple and capital city. As the best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one to have remained a significant religious centre since its foundation – first Hindu, dedicated to the god Vishnu, then Buddhist. It is the world's largest religious building. It has 5 towers. 4 that make up the corners of the square, with a 5th larger one in the middle. However, from the West entrance which is where everyone enters, only 3 of them are visible. The 3 towers shown on the Cambodian flag are those 3 visible towers of Angkor Wat. There is 20 something libraries with Angkor Wat, 2 major ones on either side of the walkway as you enter the temple. There are also 30 something galleries within the temple, all depicting a story or what I would call a legend. I wondered today if most people actually believed the legends.

Joe told me 3 main stories today as we saw the carvings on the walls. The first was about a big battle between 2 cousins. The second was about demons versus humans and the third was about two twin brother monkeys. I won't go into detail because they were incredibly long. But the monkey story was my favorite. And as he told me the story, he showed me all of the images on the wall. It was rather fascinating.

Another long wall depicted the belief of heaven, hell and earth. On the top layer was heaven, which showed all of the rewards that people reap when they finally arrive there. In the Buddhist faith, they believe that only a small handful of people make it to heaven and that many must be reincarnated several times before they eventually do. Those who do not make it to heaven on judgement day are either reincarnated on earth (if they were good but not good enough) or sent to hell if they are bad. The wall showed souls on judgement day being sent to hell....and I can see why it scares people into being well behaved. The picture showed people hanging on to a thorny vine with fires below. It showed people in chains being whipped and tortured. And once your soul is in hell, it never escapes. The middle row, earth, simply showed the daily lifestyle of surviving.

It was an interesting wall.

After that we headed up to the 3rd tier of the temple. This was scary as hell. The steps were so steep and there were a lot of them. I basically held on for dear life. But the view at the top was amazing and I got a lot of good photos of the whole temple.

After I made the trek back down the stairs, we left the temple. Or we tried. I can't even explain how hot it was all day today. And Joe, god knows I love the man, but he felt like the solution was to get out of the sun as quickly as possible so he sprinted like everywhere we went. And the walkway into and out of the temple was like a half a mile long. I wasn't sure I was going to make it. I kept getting sweat into my eyes and it was making my eyes burn. My feet had blisters from my flip flops because Meng didn't warn me I would be rock climbing and hiking all day, so I didn't wear sneakers. I wanted to lay down and die, the sun was that bad. But we finally made it back to Meng's air conditioned car and now I'm resting up at my hotel.

Some other notes:
1) There were clearly things that all of the temples had in common. The first is that they were all temples, so they all had a place of prayer that I was able to see. They all had burning incense. They all had Hindu and Buddhist statues, depending on the temple, that people could pray to. And all of the prayer spots were beautiful.

Another thing is that they almost all were having some sort of restorations done to them. What was strange about this is the history of restorations that I had heard about. It was all French, German, Indian, etc doing the restorations. So it was always some outside hand coming in to make the changes.

2) At Ta Prohm, there was this woman. She was clearly European because she was speaking French I believe. I could not even believe what she was wearing. She had on a tube top that showed her entire stomach and shorts that were up to her butt. I saw her and was wondering to myself if she knew how modest Cambodian culture is. The people wear long sleeves for god sakes. Then Joe said something to me. He must have noticed her too. He said that sometimes, the police here at the temples will tell someone like that that they need to put more clothes on. It's actually considered offensive to see people dressed that way here. I kinda wish America was like that too :-/...haha

3) I really liked my guide! He talked to me a lot about his life. He grew up in the countryside in an extremely poor area. His father was given the opportunity to get into tourism, so they moved to Siem Reap. When he was younger, he applied to be a part of an English school along with 1000 other people. They only chose 7 and he happened to be one of them. This school opened up the world to him apparently. He speaks amazing English, the best that I've heard, and he learned all about tourism from his father. He was so knowledgeable, it was probably the best tour experience I've ever had! I gave him a massive tip. Oh, and he also realized about halfway through the tour that today is his birthday. He said he forgets his birthday a lot because he never celebrated it as a boy, and still doesn't celebrate it now. Just because he never has. I was like, "whattttt, it's your birthday!?"

4) On the way back to Siem Reap, Meng stopped at the roadside so I could get some pineapple. I think they call it "Honey Pineapple". It was a bright yellow color rather than dark yellow. It is even more delicious than regular pineapple! Nom nommmm.

So, yes. Great day all in all. Sorry this was so long. I really did learn a lot today. Oh and since I have nothing booked for tomorrow, I just booked a 3 hour horseback ride through villages and such. It begins at 8am so I'm going to have to call it an early night tonight :-). I'm excited!

I was so tired when I woke up this morning. My all day adventure yesterday really wore me out.

My room seriously smells like a gym locker. It makes me want to vomit every time I step inside. I decided to wash some of my clothes yesterday because I could feel the grime when I touched my pants. I wish I could even explain what an abysmal job I did at packing. I didn't bring enough pants with me. I told myself for the first time that I wouldn't over pack and this is the one trip where I am going to wear everything I brought...twice. And the one trip when doing so should be illegal.

Anyway, I washed my clothes in the tub with a small packet of detergent and now they won't dry. I should sit outside with them. I have no pants.

The guy who invited me to the wedding who works at my hotel just asked me what my room number was. Deadbolt? Check.

This morning I biked to the orphanage. I saw the strangest thing. One of the boys (Happy Man....yes, Happy Man) was laying on this like fold-able day bed thing that they have and the house mom was literally rubbing his body raw. I mean raw. I'm not sure what she was using but he would literally twitch and cry out in pain with how much she was tearing at his skin. When he stood up I could see that his whole upper half was bright red and there were small patches of blood. Is that a cultural thing? And if so, why?

I decided to begin my lessons on the 5 senses. It was something Trevor recommended to me. Today we did sight/see. I brought in water color paint! I told them to paint a picture, of anything they wanted. Then they had to write the colors the used, the shapes that they could see in the picture, and what the picture was supposed to be. As usual, the writing part was a complete STRUGGLE. I ended up having to sit down with most of them individually to write everything. I wish I could say the paintings came out good, but only a couple of them were really great. Some of them seriously struggled with paint. Haha.

On my way home I noticed something that I've NEVER noticed before. I'll be damned, I've only taken the trip like 808208420 times. There was a building titled Microfinancing. To me, it looked like a place where people could take out loans to start businesses. My team and I read about this a lot while we were in South Africa, the idea of microfinancing. Kiva is a big organization that does it. People in wealthier countries like the US and Europe loan out money to a person or family in a third world country...through an organization like Kiva of course. The person or family uses that money to start their own business and when they begin to turn a profit, they pay the money back! Then they can continue to run their thriving business and use it to make a living for themselves. I was so thrilled to see this building, you have no idea. Microfinancing could potentially change the lives of so many people in third world countries.

I ate lunch in my room because I knew I was going out to dinner with YingTing.

In the afternoon I didn't have high hopes for keeping their attention, since it was a Friday. Luckily, shortly after I got there, the AU group went on some sort of market excursion. They finished the walkway today, cement and all. Looks pretty good. I'll post a picture soon.

I taught the kids emoticons. I didn't call them that obviously but I was trying to convey emotions to them by drawing faces up on the board. It didn't really work out. And when we got to the activity, which was drawing different things with different emotions, they were completely checked out. My afternoon class is way worse than my morning class. I have some kids in the afternoon who decide before class that they aren't going to participate in anything. They drove me crazy today, and I drove them crazy too I think. I was getting so frustrated. So after only an hour, I dismissed them. It was a waste of my time and theirs.

I stuck around for a little while to hang out with them. Their house mom had purchased a large basket of cheap jewelry which was apparently on sale. I was going through it with some of the girls. I'm not sure if it's for them or if they're going to sell it.

One of the AU boys handed me a Disney princess book and a little Koala bear. He asked me to give it to Sokphuong. She goes to school in the afternoon so he won't be seeing her again. He really took a liking to that girl. So much so that he bought her things, just her. The funny thing about her is that she has a knack for catching a male's attention. They think she's adorable and she feeds on it. I sorta give her props if it gets her free things I suppose.

Now it's the late afternoon. I just ate an entire pineapple and now I feel sick. I'm getting dinner with YingTing at 6 and probably going out for drinks after. I have to be up early tomorrow though. I'm going to visit the temples of Angkor Wat! I'm pretty excited. They're supposed to be amazing. I have the day free on Sunday so I think YingTing and I might plan an adventure of some sort.

I can't believe I only have one week left of teaching. Crazy.


"You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give. For what are your possessions but things you keep and guard in fear that you may need them tomorrow?"

I didn't sleep well at all last night. I stepped on a frog right before I went to bed and I was feeling guilty.

So apparently there is a severe tornado warning in Worcester right now. A funnel cloud was even spotted over Shrewsbury St which is right next to WPI. The email said, "City of Worcester NOAA advises seek shelter now. Funnel cloud sighted on Shrewsbury Street in Worcester." I got that one and about 10 others from WPI.

Pretty happy I'm not there actually.

Another hot day.

On my way into the orphanage, Meng pulled up next to me on his bike and scared the shit out of me. I almost fell over. Anyway, he said he was going to pick me up and take me in on his motorbike but that the hotel said I had already left. He kept saying for the rest of the day that I had left early, but I leave at the same damn time everyday. He never listens to me.

Anyway, he had candy with him and kept telling me to hand it out to the good students. pffft.

We made the Alphabet Books today. I must admit, it took much longer than I had anticipated to explain to them how to do it. Many of them were writing really small on the page rather then using a whole page for one letter. Others were just staring blankly at the pages because they didn't understand. I didn't actually think it was a complicated concept, but I guess I was wrong. Meng took some pictures of me with the kids.





Order was somewhat restored today. The desks were back in their proper positions and the AU kids were sitting in a bunch of them when I got their. Their leader yelled at them that the kids really needed to have their English class and that they needed to be left alone. I had no problems keeping their attention today.

The walkway is about 3/4 done. It looks damn good. Once they finish putting the tiles in they're going to bring in the cement. That will probably be tomorrow afternoon? Not sure.

The Spanish teacher did indeed have my notebook. I got it back before I left.

Also, before I left Meng asked me if I was ok. He's noticed that I've had trouble adjusting to the heat. I really don't think it's possible for me to drink enough water in a day with how much I sweat. It's unbelievable.

I think I'm finally getting used to the rules of the road here. Probably the worst thing is that cars just back out of spaces without waiting for a gap. People go around the backing up car as much as possible but it squeezes all the traffic into one lane of the road. It's the only thing that still freaks me out a lot. One thing I've noticed on the roads here is that people don't like to stop, they don't want to wait. It's a hindrance for them to have to stop, so they NEVER do. No matter how dangerous of a situation they put themselves or others in.

I keep seeing entire families on motor bikes. Meng told me that he can fit his family of 5 on his motorbike. He drives, with one daughter on his lap. Then his wife sits in the back with another toddler and a baby! I've said to Meng before, "What if you ever tip the bike, what will happen to the baby?" His response was literally, "That doesn't happen." Like all of these people here feel like they have complete control of everything. He actually thinks he can will himself to never crash his moped. And it isn't just him, it's all of the people here. There's definitely no such thing as a car seat. They just "drive slow". That'll do it.

I bought a book today about Asian sex trafficking. It looked interesting.

On my way into the orphanage the second time around, I was blocked by a funeral procession (I think.). I took some pictures but it seemed like a never ending line of people. Many of them were kids dressed in their school uniforms. I'm pretty sure I saw them carrying the casket on this elaborate support system. Interesting.

In the afternoon I had the kids continue their alphabet book. It was a success! The walkway is now about 7/8 of the way done. It's seriously getting there! The AU kids were even less distracting in the afternoon.

YingTing showed up to help me teach. Afterwards, we chatted for awhile and she asked me what I was doing. We decided to get a drink. We biked back to the city together and stopped at this place that she frequents. It was SO nice on the inside. You couldn't even tell from the outside. It's right across the street from where I always lunch. It was very modern and it had a lounge area upstairs. We sat on these giant couches that had a table on the couch for our drinks. We legit sat there and talked for more than 2 hours about the most random stuff. She's had quite an interesting travel experience. She's from Holland but was born in China. She was adopted by her dutch parents when she was 3. She just graduated from High School and decided to take a year off before starting University. She began her volunteer experience in Thailand through a foundation similar to United Planet. She got really really bored there, as did a friend of hers that she met there, so they decided to switch and come to Cambodia instead. They left Thailand together. She volunteered for the 3 months that she had planned, then she prepared to leave for China for 6 months where she would live with her family and learn Chinese. Her friend said goodbye and went back to Thailand. She went through hell and back trying to get into China. Because she was born there, they didn't trust that she wasn't still a citizen there and that she would try to stay or something. They told her she could visit for only one month and wouldn't extend her visa any longer than that. So she only stayed in China for one month, then came back here to Cambodia where her friend left Thailand to meet her once more. The two of them have been here for the past 2 months. Her friend just left this past Monday and she will be here for another month before returning home to Holland!

Then she's starting university in Amsterdam. Jealousss. She was also explaining the European school system to me and it's super weird. Apparently you go to Elementary school until you're 12 and then you go to High School. Depending how you do in your first few years in high school, they place you in one of several tracks. The first track is where you go to school until you are 16 and then they train you in some profession like to be a plumber or electrician. The second is that you go to school until you are 17 and you do like internship type stuff. The third is that you go to school until you are 18, then you go to University.

The school tests you into a track. You don't get to decide which one you end up in. Isn't that totally crazy? It's like they plan your life for you.

She also thought our school system was weird. And expensive. One year of University for them is $2,000. And they think that's expensive. Pfffft.

After we had drinks she took me to this ice cream place, Swenson's. I got this brownie sundae. It was sooo delicious! We must have stayed there for another hour at least. She's super cool and she knows pretty much all of Siem Reap. We've got a ton of plans for this upcoming week. The first being dinner and drinks tomorrow night! Yay :-)

I got 1 donation so far, a really generous one from my Aunt Nancy and Uncle Warren! I'm very excited :-)

Now I'm exhausted. Time for bed!

I slept for like 12 hours last night. I went to bed at 9 and woke up a little after 9. I'm so ridiculous. Haha.

There's this lizard who lives in the hallway outside of my room. Every time I go in and out I look for him and I see him every time without fail. I should name him. I'll work on that.

I ate breakfast and then lounged out in the sun for awhile. I didn't have work this morning and, honestly, its another incredibly hot day. Too hot to take a random bike adventure.

I also wrote up the entry for donations to the orphanage. I figure that the best way to do it is to gather money from people and provide them a donation of supplies. That way, I know everything is going back to the kids. Meng said I should buy everyone the same t-shirt and then I can get a picture of them wearing it before I leave. I thought this was a cute idea. They also desperately need a new whiteboard. The one that they have is really broken and has a giant hole in the middle. Meng said he would take me to buy supplies and that we can drop them off when I go to say goodbye to the kids on that last Saturday.

So today pretty much marks the halfway point of my trip. Pretty close at least. Maybe it's tomorrow, not sure. But regardless, I'm sure the rest of it is going to fly by.

In the afternoon, I went in and taught the kids about adjectives. Then I made them write some of their own. As usual this was a struggle, but I pushed them through it. One of the kids, Menglee, gets so frustrated so easily. He always just wants to give up. It drives me crazy watching him quit because he's actually pretty bright. But if he doesn't get it right away, he gives up.

I also must admit that he is my favorite. He is just SO ADORABLE. He almost started crying today when he didn't understand it and I wanted to die.

Then I reviewed family with them again. I lost my notebook yesterday at some point. I'm pretty sure the Spanish teacher has it, but it has all of my lesson plans in it. Not to mention those damn Australians are still being distracting. Rawr. So then I made them draw a family and write what each of the family members were.

That was class for today.

Also, there's this girl who has been coming to the orphanage. She teaches English at a public school here. She isn't originally from Cambodia (I want to say she's from China maybe? I haven't asked) but she is here for like a year or something and is only here for another month. Her name is YingTing and her English is really good. Oh, and she's wicked cool. She asked me today if I want to have dinner and drinks with her or something. She said I remind her more of back home; "of the west" is what she said more specifically. We're going to have dinner and drinks on Friday and we might go to the orphanage show together tomorrow (if they have it).

On the way home I bought about 30 notebooks and another 5 boxes of colored pencils. My mom suggested that I have them make an alphabet book which I think is a great idea. We're going to start it tomorrow. I figure that's something they can do with a lot of distractions going on.

I hope I bought enough notebooks. Also, it was kinda expensive and they don't take credit cards there. I'm going to have to go to an ATM soon :-/.

I'm exhausted. I went out for dinner since I had breakfast so close to lunch time. Now I'm about to go to bed!

For those of you who don't know, I'm currently volunteering in Siem Reap, Cambodia as an English teacher in an orphanage. Siem Reap has recently become a very large tourist destination, and a very high percentage of jobs in Siem Reap are a direct result of that tourism boom. For those who can't speak English here, it is very difficult for them to find work.

The orphanage I volunteer at is called COFCO or the Cambodian Orphan Family Center Organization. Their official website can be found here. It's sole purpose is to find homeless children in need of a family and to give them one. The children in this orphanage come from abusive homes or broken families who could no longer afford to take care of them. Many of them were found abandoned in the street. COFCO takes these children in and provides them with clothing, food, and an education. The children spend half of the day in the public school system, and are taught English at the orphanage during the other half of the day (therefore, I have both morning and afternoon classes which I teach there).


At night, the children have been trained to perform a show which includes traditional Cambodian dances and acting in order to raise money for the orphanage. For all intensive purposes, they earn their keep. There is no funding to the orphanage; it relies solely on the generous donations of those who have been struck by the children's situation. And by no means is their situation adequate.


I already bring new materials to class almost everyday for the children to use, but my plan is to make one very large material donation before I leave Cambodia. My final goodbye to the orphanage will be on Saturday June 11th and I will bring the donation then.


What I'm asking of you is to help me by making even the smallest monetary donation towards the cause. I have set up a paypal account. It is my guarantee that any money donated through this account will go directly into supplying the children of the COFCO orphanage with supplies that they so desperately need and that we take for granted everyday. A donation as small as a dollar could buy notebooks for 5 children. $5 could buy paint and paintbrushes for an entire class of 25 students. $10 could clothe 1-2 children. $20 could buy Khmer/English translation books for the entire orphanage. In other words, the smallest donation could go a long way.

Clicking here will take you to the paypal donation page. I ask that you donate by Thursday, June 9th at the latest so I have time to purchase all of the materials.

If you have any questions at all, please let me know. And thank you in advance for your generosity.

~Emily

P.S. Please forward the link to this entry to anyone that you think might be interested in making a difference. The direct link is http://fading-firefly.livejournal.com/213876.html

It is HOT today. It's really gorgeous out; There are just a few fluffy white clouds in the sky. This is the first day that it hasn't been overcast in a week. But when the sky is overcast, there are benefits...like no SUN for example.

Did I mention it's hot? I pretty much died on my bike rides.

This morning I woke up with a headache. And a stomachache too. I've been feeling sick when I wake up so I take a prescription strength stomach reliever.

Some woman from Germany just like sat with me at breakfast. It was super awkward.

So the tour group DID come back today, but they came back because they're tiling a bunch more of the ground in the orphanage! I'm so happy for the children. They won't have to walk around in the mud anymore. There will only be a square area that isn't tiled, but it doesn't matter because the kids don't have to walk through it to get anywhere.

A bunch of the children went for training in Cambodian dancing. I guess the orphanage is hoping many of them will find work in that field. Considering they perform shows so often, I think it's a great idea.

Anyway, because of that, I only had like 7 kids this morning and they were all the younger ones. Because they were building the new walkway, they were extremely distracted. I read them two stories "Are you my mother?" and "Go dog, go". They enjoyed them. Then we played "hangman" except I just drew a person in a box instead of a hanging man. I've heard that it's politically incorrect and I didn't want to give the kids the wrong idea. We used that to review the alphabet. Then I did other review with them. Then I released them because I didn't think it was possible to hold their attention any longer.

I left shortly after that. I would have stayed and helped but my head still hurt and I wanted to lie down. Being in the hot sun wasn't making it any better and someone stole my water so I had nothing to drink.

At around 1pm the power in the hotel blew. My guess is that everyone was running their AC's on high. I didn't care though, cause I had to be back at the orphanage.

As I was biking there, extremely dark clouds starting to come in. It was awesome because it was much cooler for the bike ride. Maybe 2 minutes after I got there it started monsooning. Monsoons are so cool. It's just these intense downpours with bursts of thunder and lightening. It seems like the world is ending, then BAM, it's gone just as quickly as it got there.

This afternoon was...frustrating. The Australian kids were the ones who were sitting there just talking to the kids instead of encouraging them to pay attention. And their leader kept being like, "Oh yeah these kids, they're so great. You just tell them to do something and they'll help you. They're a huge help." Meanwhile one of them is telling my student to draw him a picture. During my class.

UGH. They're only here a few more days. They're only here a few more days. They're only here a few more days.

Oh, and they're building a floor. Which I guess is another positive side to all of this.

Before I left, Sokhen told me that there would be no morning classes. She explained it to me but it was something cultural. Like a holiday I guess you could say. But there would be in the afternoon. So I won't be going in in the morning.

On my way back I was looking for the fruit stand that Meng took me to for pineapple. I went the totally wrong way and got freaking lost. Which sucked because it was so incredibly hot. But I ended up finding it and my new lover cut me some pineapple (it's actually a woman who does it).

I caught of whiff of it while I was putting it in my bag. I wish I could box up the smell of fresh pineapple here and send it to all of you. It is unrivaled.

The rash keeps springing up all over my body. Then it kinda goes away. Is it weird to think that it might be from the sun? I'm sure it's just something that irritating my skin. Right now it's on my hand. It's itchyyy.

Hopefully tomorrow is cooler. *sigh*



“What if a demon were to creep after you one night, in your loneliest loneliness, and say, 'This life which you live must be lived by you once again and innumerable times more; and every pain and joy and thought and sigh must come again to you, all in the same sequence. The eternal hourglass will again and again be turned and you with it, dust of the dust!' Would you throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse that demon? Or would you answer, 'Never have I heard anything more divine'?” -Friedrich Nietzsche

I got to the orphanage today and they told me there would be no class. That a tour group was coming. Then they asked me to stay and help out. I agreed, obviously.

The tables and chairs had all been set up in the area that I usually teach. They were all facing the stage and had been decorated with garments. Many of the children were dressed in lavish costumes, clearly preparing to perform their traditional Cambodian dance show. Several girls called me over to the bedroom where they were getting ready. They were excited to show me their makeup and clothes. They really do doll these girls up, it's crazy.





I stayed with the girls for awhile and then I heard the tour group arrive. There must have been 25 of them and they were all wearing matching t-shirts. From the looks of their shirts, they were Australian. The kids who weren't in costumes grabbed hands of some of the tour group and brought them over to their seats.

I sat on one of the benches in the back with a bunch of the younger children who weren't in the show. I was helping by cutting some things out and making the children around me glue. They're so adorable. I guess it was nice that I didn't have class; It gave me a chance to bond with the kids more. A few of the children acted as servers, bringing drinks and food to the guests. They also brought me some, it was cute. "For you teacher". I'm still not really sure what the food was. I took a picture of it.

I was half watching the show which was INCREDIBLE. I'm going to go to one of their performances and sit right up front so I can take awesome pictures and videotape them. I can't believe how talented they are. I felt like a proud mom!

The kids I was sitting with kept changing. A majority of the children are in at least one act of the show. So as they'd finish or have to go up they'd come and go. I got some good pictures with them.

After the show was over the tour group was told that they could look around the orphanage and get to know the kids. Many of the kids clung to me. It's so strange to me that after a week they feel like they really know me. I suppose people always come and go to them; Stability isn't something they're accustomed to. I threw the ball around a bit, helped clear tables, took a few hits from children who ran at me without stopping, etc etc. The tour group left after like a half hour. They were walking somewhere but were going to come back? I don't know. But I also heard that they'll be in the orphanage until 4pm today and will be coming back for the next few days. Which makes me wonder if we'll have ANY English classes at all! It angers and frustrates me. Like I get that these people are volunteering and want to make a difference, but with 25 of them they can't make a valuable contribution other than money. Sorry. English class is too valuable to forgo for 3 days.

I challenged them verbally all day today. They were going to learn something, dammit.

After they left I stayed with my kids for quite awhile longer. We took a bunch of pictures. Haha. The kids love the camera. They're also greatly intrigued by my freckles and how many of them I have. One of the girls told me that Cambodians hate to get freckles. She couldn't explain why.

I got a killer picture of the monkey! BAM.



One of the girls, Chandva, always wears these flannel clothes. I'm like, what the fuuuuckkk, it is way too hot for flannel woman!







Around 11am I decided to take off. Mostly because I had to go to the bathroom and I still haven't used the bathroom at the orphanage yet. It's just really an unsanitary bathroom so if I don't have to use it, I try not to. I wasn't able to ask about whether or not we're having class tomorrow before I left because the people I needed to talk to were still off with the tour group. I'm just gonna go and hope I'll get to teach.

I came back to a clean room, thank god. The dirt on the floor was thick and it was getting hard to not drag it into bed with me. I was also completely out of toilet paper. They don't clean your room in Cambodia unless you ask them to. I should have asked days ago.

It stormed for the better half of the afternoon. I think I'm really going to have to get used to the rain if I ever want to go outside. It's the roaring thunder and lightening that freak me out. It shakes the whole country. As soon as I stopped hearing thunder I decided to go for a bike ride. It must have been around 4. When Meng drove me back from the Silk Farm, I had seen this incredible garden/park area. I wanted to go back to it. I retraced the route and eventually found it. It's not far from the hotel at all! And boy, is it gorgeous. It's huge, but the design of it is what really strikes me. It's one of the most beautiful gardens I've ever seen. I walked around in it for almost an hour until it got dark.

On my way back I stopped at a local grocery store. In an attempt to save money, I was trying to buy things that I could eat for dinner in my hotel room that I don't need to cook. I ended up spending like $40. I'll admit, I also got a 6-pack of Angkor beer. I've only tried it once and it's the local favorite so I figured I'd indulge.

It's now 6pm and I'm tired. I'm going to make myself a peanut butter sandwich, then get ready for bed. Cross your fingers that I'll get to teach tomorrow!

Got word today that Chelsea and Brian are engaged! Her ring is beautiful :-)

Paranoia is making my entire body itchy. Meng said he thinks the rash is just a skin irritation. That I probably rubbed up against something in the orphanage, like one of the dogs. The dogs there are really dirty. As much as I love the kids and I just hate saying it, the environment that I'm working in is disease-ridden and filthy. It would be pretty easy for me to pick something up there considering the environment that I'm accustomed to living in.

My morning breakfast waiter has taking a liking to me. We had a long conversation about his life today, which fascinated me. He told me that he finished University a few years ago where he studied English. His English is decent. He said he wants to go back for his master's and that he should have enough money in about 2 months to quit this job and start. He asked me how much money it is to go to University in the United States. I told him between 40 and 50k a year. He said it's $400 here. Which, I suppose, is super expensive as well. But Master's degrees are more. It's about $1,000 a year. He wants to go into Tourism he says. Then he went on to say that maybe once he gets his job in tourism, he will work in the orphanage to help the kids too. Awwwww :-)

Meng drove me to the Silk Farm first. It was so interesting! Really. First they took me out to this field where they showed me how they grow leaves there for all of the caterpillars to eat. They choose a certain type of leave so that they get a certain type of silk. Different leaves will produce different silks. Next he took me to where the store the caterpillars. He showed me little ones eating leaves first. They start off as an off-white color, just eating their leaves. Then they get larger and turn yellow. Once they're yellow, that is a sign that they are going to make their cocoon. They pull them out of the leaf pile and put them elsewhere to make their cocoon. Once their cocoon is made, they would typically hatch from it and begin mating. The Silk Farm allows only 20% to hatch, the remaining 80% are used to make the silk. The cocoon needs to be in tact in order to make it. They need 20% to mate obviously so that they can continuing getting more cocoons.

Next I saw the process of turning the cocoons into thread! There are actually 2 types of silk thread. The first is the fluff on the outside of the cocoon, that's the courser silk and is less expensive. The inner part of the cocoon is used to make the soft silk, which is much pricier. They throw about 20 cocoons into water at a time. First someone uses a machine to pull at the cocoons, which forms threads. They do this until they get to the inner shell, then they pass the cocoons off to the next person who collects the thread for the soft silk. Picture:



After the thread is taken, they dye it. The dye treatment actually makes both silk types softer. They use all natural dyes. They pull color from places like flowers, leaves, tree bark, and even rusted nails. It was fascinating. They soak it in hot water for several hours until the dye is thick.

They dry it out after that.

Then they spin it onto reels where it awaits to be used.

Really, the people who work at this place are extremely talented. It takes tremendous attention to detail to create the patterns they create. Just watching them make everything was so breathtaking...and confusing. Haha. Apparently everyone that works there was pretty much pulled off the street and trained to do every part of the silk making process. I suppose it's a good way to create jobs. I have a ton of respect for them. It was clearly tedious work that I could never do.

I ended up buying many of my souvenirs and gifts at their shop, just because I had pretty much watched them make it.

On the way back into the city, Meng pulled off to the side of the road to buy crickets. He had told me previously that they are a delicacy here. Pretty expensive. They catch them by putting up large plastic barriers that they fly into. They end up falling and land in the water where they can't escape. That's when people grab them...and fry them. Blech. He handed me a cricket and told me to eat it. It still had eyes! It was staring at me. It looked as if it were alive still. Weird! I looked at it for awhile and then decided I would have to NOT look at it in order to put it in my mouth. I looked upwards out the window and just shoved it in, chewed, and swallowed. It actually didn't taste bad. It kind of reminded me of a french fry or something. But then the fact that I had eaten a cricket set in and I felt nauseous. I look over at Meng and he's just shoving them down his throat like it was a bag of popcorn.

Nom nommmmmmmmmmmm


Next he took me to the Artisan Center. This was also very interesting. They make several things there. The first room I saw was silk painting. They get silk from the silk farm and people stretch it out and paint it with acrylic paint. All of the people who worked in this section are mutes he told me, deaf and blind. There was a poster with sign language written on it.

The next room he showed me looked like it had plaster statues. But he told me that there was "rubber wood" underneath and then showed me a sample. They take wood and paint something like 20 layers of different paints on it and before you know it, it doesn't look like wood at all anymore.

Next was copper carving. They carve these amazingly intricate designs into copper and add them to wooden boxes or make boxes out of them. In some cases, they put this weird gum inside the boxes as a support for when they're carving, then they can melt that gum out. In other cases, they weld pieces of carving together. It was pretty awesome.

Then they had a whole stone area. They carve both soapstone (softer) and sandstone (much harder). Some of the statues are just amazing, really.

They also had wood carving, which was the last thing that I saw. There were 3 different types of wood that they carve, ranging from easier to more difficult. The larger statues, he told me, had been carved in individual pieces and glued together. The smaller ones come from one piece of wood. Whereas with the stone, the largest pieces were carved out of one giant block

The people can choose what type of art they would like to do, and they are trained in that field. They have to be accepted to the artisan school first though, and apparently the test is provided by the owner.

I think I had a veggie burger for lunch but it was a questionable meal.

I found a English-Khmer dictionary! And I also found a beginners English book for Channa. I've pretty much got my lesson plans set up for next week thanks to your suggestions. It includes a lot of review from this week but Meng did say that you need to just continuously repeat things, or they forget.

Meng came back to the hotel at 2:30 for another Khmer language lesson. I'm really not getting any better. Haha.

After that he took me, at my own request, to the Khmer Ceramics center so I could take a pottery lesson. They make all of their ceramics on a spinning wheel. I was SO bad at it. Haha. You should see the look on my face in the pictures, I look like I'm in pain.

I got to make 3 things. "I" got to. More like the guy basically made them for me because I was struggling so much! I only got to choose one to keep though. I chose one that looked like a mini vase. Picture of me with the chosen one below. They also let me make a design so I added a few flowers to the side of it and wrote my name and date into the bottom. They're going to cook it and deliver it to the hotel for me tomorrow. Hehe. At least it was a fun experience. Plus I got to see the masters at work!



I'm gonna head out to dinner, then beddd.

Well my foot was itchy yesterday but I didn't see anything now I have a rash starting at the side of my foot and working it's way up to my kneecap. Meng is gonna stop by in an hour and check it out. He asked me if I remember being bitten :-/

I'm kind of sad I'm not going to the wedding tonight. It would have given me something to do and I think I would have had a lot of fun experiencing such a cultural event. Meng is too overprotective. I had to let him down easy. Well it was more like I gave the message to the front desk to pass off to him. Which took me like half a lifetime. Haha.

ANYWAY...

I wish I could even begin to count the amount of water bottles I've gone through in 5 days.

For my morning session, I ended up reviewing animals. My original lesson plan was to read them a story, like Dr Seuss, and have them answer several questions on the story. But the New Zealand couple wanted to come back and help and I don't really need their help reading from a book. So instead I created an animals lesson plan. I wrote each of their names on the board and told them all to assign each person an animal name. We went down the list one by one. They had a blast with it, but it was short lived.

After that I told them they needed to draw a picture of their animal name. On that picture they needed to write:
1) The name of the animal
2) The color of the animal
3) The size of the animal
4) The sound the animal makes (if any)

This took about 45 minutes for them to complete and the New Zealand couple was able to help with the written part.

Then, as MaryAnn suggested, we did Old MacDonald. I think I did it with like 5 animals. The kids were extremely inattentive, it was frustrating. I think it has to do with the fact that it's Friday. I had trouble controlling them all day. It made me wish I had stuck to reading them the story today. I feel like that takes minimal focus.

ANYWAY, I'm going to read the afternoon group a story.

The New Zealand couple asked me if I had taught before. When I told them no, they were surprised and praised me for how well I had done. It made me feel good :-)

A woman from Finland came into the orphanage with a bunch of food to donate. She had gone to one of the children's shows the weekend before and had fallen in love with them. You know, it's weird how the children treat visitors. It's almost as if they're trained to run to them, grab their hand, say hello, and walk them around the orphanage. They're trained to act like they love them and are happy to see them. They treat me very differently. Not that they don't like me, but they treat me as if I'm just a person almost. They respect me and like me because I'm their teacher. But they don't like me because I'm white and scream, "I have money". You know? The older kids especially, they walk straight up to the people and start schmoozing them as soon as they walk through the gate. It's like an instinct. It's like they know how to get what they need.

Anyway, they did that with this woman. I've noticed it before, but it was extremely apparent this time around. They get visitors frequently.

I talked to the woman from Finland for awhile. I told her that it was taking me awhile to adjust to the heat and she said she understood. Apparently she had just come from Vietnam and that the heat here is unlike any other part of Asia. She said that it is unbearable. I'm glad to know I'm not just weak or something.

Although it is getting easier. And I have been adjusting, that's for sure. The bike rides are actually enjoyable now and I like the sharpness of the heat when I step outside of my air conditioned room.

On the bike ride home, the dust level was at an all-time high. I don't mind getting it in my mouth and throat, but when it gets in my eyes, that bothers me. I don't see any way to stop that either. Local people wear doctor's masks over their nose and mouth to keep the dust out. But there's no solution for eyes.

I wasn't sure what to do for lunch. I had that pork and rice left over from the day before, but I felt super sick to my stomach last night and I blamed it on that. I threw it away and went to get something new.

I decided to try a BLT to see what their bacon is like. It's wayy thicker and juicier than our American bacon. Good choice. I also created the lesson plan, which was just to read "One fish, Two fish, Red fish, Blue fish". Honestly, I'm disappointed in how today went overall. My afternoon class really was a fail. I told them I'd let them out early if they didn't touch a pen or paper while we read AND if they paid attention. I kept having to yell at kids for writing while I was reading and others were clearly just not listening. It was frustrating. I, at least, got some of them to come up and read. So I accomplished SOMETHING I guess. I put questions up on the board. One girl actually managed to answer 2. Another girl answered 1. The rest of them couldn't answer any *sigh*.

I just let them draw 1 fish, 2 fish, a red fish and a blue fish. Then I dismissed class.

Well, at the end of week one here is where I'm at:

One of the girls that I have, her name is Channa, speaks no English. And when I say none, I mean NONE. I'm having such a hard time with her. I want to be able to teach her something but it makes it impossible when I don't speak her language and she doesn't speak mine. At least the other kids have some understanding so I'm able to explain word meanings to her. I talk to her and she just smiles but she looks so confused and I can tell she doesn't understand. In lessons, she relies on others drawings and words to tell what we're drawing or writing. She has this adorable younger sister who clings to her. The two of them are probably my favorite in the orphanage, but I just don't know how to get through to them. Any suggestions?

I'm literally kicking myself. KICKING MYSELF that the one things I didn't bring with me was a Khmer/English dictionary. What the fuckkk was I thinking?! That way I could at least say the English word and show her the Khmer translation so she understands. But no. I wonder if I can get one here....

I have another student, named Chantha, who is impossible. Seriously. I can tell that he understands me but he refuses to participate in anything. He won't copy off of the board and he reads a Khmer book in class. When I tell him to copy, he ignores me. It's frustrating because when he does participate he does really well. I can tell that he's actually one of the brightest students. But how can he learn more if he won't let me teach him?

The last thing, I feel like I'm rapidly running out of ideas and it's kinda freaking me out. Having to create individual lesson plans for morning and afternoon is draining me of my creativity. Plus, a lot of the stuff that I brought is over their heads or would be too hard to explain. I have the weekend to brainstorm some stuff, but I could seriously use some help! If you have further ideas, please share.

That being said, it's Friday afternoon. It's hard to believe my friend's and family's days are starting when mine is ending. Tomorrow I'm scheduled to go to a Silk Farm Center and an Artisan Center. Then I'll have another Khmer language lesson in the afternoon. On Sunday I'm going to have a cooking lesson (I'm excited for this. Meng says I can learn to make delicious egg rolls!) and a trip to the Floating Village (no idea but it sounds awesome).

And I'm outtt

Wow...today was SO AWESOME.

I'm finally getting to really know the kids and there has been such a noticeable change in their demeanor in the last 2 days. My first day there I could barely keep there attention. Today, I couldn't believe how well behaved they were! And I think they're actually enjoying all of my lessons which makes me so happy!

Today we started by reviewing parts of the body. I drew a person on the board and used arrows to point to all of the body parts. They keep laughing at me because I can't draw. Haha. It is actually pretty funny how bad I am at it. Some of the kids are AMAZING draw-ers. There's one girl who showed me a picture that she had drawn today. It was a red-headed girl and it made me feel like she had drawn me. But I still had to scold her because clearly she hadn't been paying attention in class.

ANYWAY, after we reviewed the parts of the body I played Simon Says with them. A lot of them had fun with it. One of the girls, Sokphuong, really likes to participate, but only when it's something she wants to do. And if she doesn't get it her way, she throws a tempter tantrum. She's the one who drew the picture of penny. I'm constantly having to reprimand her, but I think she really likes me despite that. We have a weird relationship.

One of the boys won Simon Says. A lot of them forgot the English words, which meant that they were out. Others got out because Simon didn't say.

After that I went over genealogy with them. Or family. I wrote all of the family members on the board (i.e. parents, grandparents, sister, brother, etc) and explained all of their relationships. I let them have a 5 minute break while I wrote Sentences on the board like, "Your parent's siblings are your ___________ and ___________". I made them try to fill in the blanks on their own, then we went over it together. Last, I reviewed body parts with them.

I went back to the lodge after. I noticed while I was at COFCO that they have a website, so I decided to check it out. The address is http://www.cofcocambodia.org/. I went to the page where you can look at the orphans and was fascinated to read about their history before they got there. It kills me that they don't have all of the orphans on the site. Actually, whats weird is that the orphan on the site who is going blind isn't in the orphanage anymore. At least I haven't seen him. I wonder where he went...I mean it doesn't look like you can adopt these children. It's less like an orphanage and more like a family of lost children.

Is it crazy that I want a Cambodian child? haha.

Lunch was the funniest experience of my whole life. I keep seeing these signs for "Khmer BBQ" so I decided to try some at the restaurant I went to. The waiter comes over and drops a plate of raw pork and some vegetables in front of me. There was a pepper like sauce on the side. I stared at it for what must have been close to five minutes, hoping it would magically cook itself. I was confused. I didn't understand. I mean, even in Cambodia, eating raw pork must be a no no. I touched it to make sure it was raw. It was, it definitely was. I contemplated asking the waiter for a pizza, I figured that would be a safe bet. About 5-8 minutes after he dropped the raw food, he came out with what reminded me of a fondue pot. Only it was different. In the center was a grill, and the edges sloped down to a ring of broth. I breathed a sigh of relief. But SERIOUSLY. He left me with raw meat for THAT LONG without a way to cook it! Hahahha. It was awful. Picture below:



But the pork was absolutely NOT awful. It was delicious. Amazing. The sauce was like a lemon-pepper sauce. The pork sat on the sloped grill while he threw the veggies into the ring of broth. Yummm. Plus, there was so much leftover that I took it back to the lodge with me.

I have a fridge. Have I mentioned that I found a fridge? It was hidden in a cabinet.

I met a man of Washington, DC in the restaurant. He was trying to sell a camera that I deemed to be broken, but he wouldn't hear of it. I didn't get to talk to him long, since I was running late for my afternoon class.

In the afternoon there were these 2 volunteers from New Zealand there. They told me that they just wanted to help in any way that they could. It was kinda nice to have them because usually I'm overwhelmed trying to help everyone at once. I taught Verbs today, which really confused the kids. But they enjoyed the activities that we did. I made them all act out a verb and the others had to guess it. This had them laughing pretty hard.

The New Zealand volunteers will be back tomorrow.

I noticed today that the house-mom was being de-loused by one of the kids. I read somewhere that a lot of the kids have lice, but their house-mom? And the girl was de-lousing her with a tweezer. That's one thing I really hope I don't pick up while I'm here.

When I was biking back from the orphanage, one of my morning students called my name from behind me. He was coming back from the public school, all dressed in his uniform. We chatted as we biked and I was telling him about how the roadways are in the US. It really interested him. He was asking if they have bikes and motor bikes there. I told him yes to both, but people only really use bikes for exercise, not as a means of transport. They rely heavily on bikes as transportation here.

When I got to the hotel one of the staff members asked me to go to a Cambodian wedding with him tomorrow. I said yes but I just talked to Meng and he doesn't think it's a good idea. I'm going to back out. Somewhat disappointed, I feel like it would have been a good cultural experience.

I think I'll go out to dinner tonight.

I want to teach the kids a song. Any suggestions?

And I leave you with a picture of Siem Reap

I passed out cold at 8pm last night. It was a mixture of exhaustion and residual jet-lag.

Honestly, when I stepped outside this morning it looked like it had hardcore monsooned all night. I must have slept through it. Knowing me, that's not shocking. The sky still looked a little threatening and I contemplated taking my raincoat with me to the orphanage. But it would just have been something else to add to my bike and the possibility of it NOT raining if I brought my coat was preemptively making me angry, so I chose not to bring it. WOMP WOMPPPPP.

The nice thing about a cloudy day is that it makes Siem Reap SO much cooler. We're talking like 15 degrees cooler. The bike ride was 10 times easier. When I got to the orphanage I was sorta shocked. Only the places that the children sleep and the classroom are protected from the rain. Considering the whole orphanage is dirt and sand, the rain turned it into mud. I took one step off my bike and got stuck in it. Both of my feet, covered in mud. It saddens me that the children have to live in it every time it rains...which is frequently.

I started the day off by taking out their name cards and reading them out loud. I'm using it as a technique to learn their names. Yesterday I just thought their names were complicated, today I began to notice a trend in them. I'm slowly learning.

In today's lesson we covered colors. Most of them knew colors but they all ended up having fun with what we did, which I thought was weird. I had bought flash cards with colors written on them and a picture on that back of something that is that color. After we went over the colors together, I gave them each a card and told them to write 3 English words that were that color. Once they finished their first card, I gave them another, and another. Some children did 8 colors, others only completed 1 in the hour that we worked on that. I tried to give individual help, but every few seconds I get a child yelling, "teacher! teacher! over here teacher!". They mostly asked me how to spell something or wanted approval once they'd finish. Any really good words that the children came up with, I wrote on the board. There were probably 20 or so words up there by the end of the activity. Then we went over those words as a group and I made sure they all knew what they meant.

The Spanish teacher showed up at 9:30 and asked if she could start. Apparently she's supposed to teach from 9:30 to 10:30 now which kinda annoys me. I was told I'd have from 8-10 in the mornings. Also, no offense, but these kids don't need to know Spanish. Siem Reap makes all of their money through tourism, and all of the tourists speak English. Done and done.

When I went to bike back it was pouring. I had no raincoat. Meng had shown up and he had a poncho that he gave me, thank god. Although it didn't really cover my legs and sure as hell didn't cover my backpack. Yeah, I got a little SOAKED. Haha. Not to mention I was covered in mud up to my ankles.

I tried Cambodian Pizza for lunch. I had low expectations and ended up pretty impressed. The beer here is super cheap and I'm always tempted to get one at lunch. But I suppose, for me, a bike would be considered heavy machinery.

I also created the lesson plan for the afternoon during lunch.

When I biked back to the orphanage, the sun had finally come out. Which meant it was hot again. I planned to go over shapes today which turned out to be an awesome lesson. The kids, I noticed, paid a lot more attention to me than yesterday. I gave them clay so that they could mold all of the shapes I was teaching them. They loved that. Then I went over numbers with them and had them draw like "six carrots" and "three dogs". Overall the afternoon class went well.

Got back to the lodge and again, I'm totally beat. I'm ready for bed and don't have the motivation to go out for dinner. I did buy lotion at the pharmacy though. When I bike I get a ton of dirt in my eyes and on my body. It dries out my skin. Blech.

I also spotted Gillette brand, which made me smile :-)

Goodnighttt

Last night, Meng came by the hotel for my first Khmer lesson. It was also around this point that the jetlag hit me. I had decided to take a nap and couldn't pull myself out of bed until right before he got there. It was a struggle lesson. He taught me the basics, like "Hello", "Goodbye", "Good morning" and "Thank you". Then we went over the numbers. They're actually pretty straightforward. It reminded me of learning the Spanish numbers.

I am mauphay pi years old. 22.

Then we reviewed some basic conversation. He kept making me memorize it in front of him and then quizzed me. I felt like one of my own English students and I greatly disliked it. I don't remember any of it.

After that he left me for a few hours, during which I slept. He picked me up at 7:30 to take me to my Welcome Dinner. We went to this place called Temple Balcony. It was this 2nd floor restaurant with no wall to the outside, just a barrier so the breeze could come in. It was gorgeous out. There were a ton of traditional Cambodian dances on a stage in the restaurant and Meng was explaining the story behind them to me. I let him order the food, and boy am I glad I did. First he ordered egg rolls. America does it wrong, seriously. These were the best egg rolls I have EVER had. They had chicken in them too; I'm pretty sure American egg rolls don't have meat. Then he got this chicken with peppers and onions which was cooked in cashew oil. It also had cashews. Weird combination, right? But it was amazing. Last he got this pineapple soup that had chicken, tomatoes, cloves of onion, and a bunch of other random vegetables in cooked pineapple juice. You could taste the pineapple on everything.

I typically don't like pineapple. But the pineapple here is unlike anything I've ever tasted. They serve it at breakfast at the hotel too. I'm pretty sure that will become the thing I look forward to the most each day :-).

I love food. I can't wait to try more.

After dinner, Meng dropped me back off at the hotel where I promptly went to bed. At like 10. Haha.

I woke up at about 6:30 this morning. Got ready, then went to breakfast from 7-7:30 where I got to eat my amazing Pineapple. Meng showed up to the hotel at 7:30 with my bike rental....

which was hot pink.

I just kind of stared at it for a minute and then decided that it would be difficult for me to lose. It also has a basket in the front of it that fits my backpack, which was nice. The rental included a bike lock.

We departed for the orphanage. He had his motorbike so he escorted me. I wish I could even describe what the roads here are like. I feel like words could never do it justice. They really bring a whole new meaning to "expect the unexpected" while on the road. Most people are on motorbikes or regular bikes, there are very few cars. There isn't really a defined side of the road the you need to drive on, although MOST people tend to drive similar to the American roadways. There is no such thing as stopping. You hit an intersection, continue through it, and pray to god that there is a large enough gap that you can slip between intersecting traffic. Just from observing people here, it's like it's almost second nature to keep a certain gap so that people can slip in between. When you go to make a left hand turn, you cross over the line in the middle of the road when there's a gap in oncoming traffic and then you turn onto the street...on the wrong side of the road...and then you cross back to the other side when you see a gap.

I don't even think that was a good explanation. Just know that I feel there is no way possible I will get through this trip without being hit by something while on my bike.

Maybe that's why everyone drives so slow. No one goes more than 25 or 30 on any road. It makes it easy to slow/stop to let some psycho in.

That being said...I'd be totally lying if I said this wasn't probably the most challenging experience I've ever had. The roadways are just a small part of what I have to get used to. The journey to the orphanage is about 2 miles. 2 miles on a bike doesn't seem so bad, right? Wrong! 2 miles both ways, twice a day is equivalent to 8 miles per day. Throw in 100 degree weather, a blazing hot sun beating down your neck, and a girl who hasn't hit a treadmill since January and you have instant death. When I got to the orphanage for the first time today I was absolutely drenched in sweat. And I'm showing up at a place that doesn't cool down at all. Tough.

I had about 10 minutes to recover before I started teaching. I wasn't really sure what to expect to be honest, and I ultimately created a lesson plan that was too difficult for the kids. But you live and you learn, and I was able to simplify it for them as I went. I'm not sure how much ENGLISH I actually taught. I guess it turned into more of an art class.

Anyway, I started by teaching them my name. I wrote my name out vertically and then put English words horizontally to try to show them my interests and teach them a few words. Then I had them do the same thing. It took almost a whole hour for me to go around to the whole class, helping each of them. Some of them were done in 10 minutes, others took the full hour and needed a lot of help. Some knew the words, but struggled with the spelling. Others didn't know any English words at all. I needed the children to help me translate to their classmates so that I could explain words. It was so difficult trying to make some of them understand. I never even realized how challenging it would be.

After this, I let them make name cards, like tents to put on the table in front of them so I could learn their names. I wasn't expecting this to be a huge event, but most of the girls pulled out colored pencils and drew pretty pictures and colorful letters. That took about 20 minutes. While they did that, I wrote my lesson on the board. I was trying to teach them nouns, but it was kind of a fail. I think part of the problem was that I was talking way too fast. So after I finished, when I gave them a task to come up with 3 nouns of there own, I ended up with a lot of really frustrated students. I turned it into, "I'm going to give you a noun and I want you to draw it for me." This turned frustration into excitement, which I guess was good. The drawing worked out well too because they added a lot of features to it like clouds and grass and I was able to ask them "What is this?" I at least got to teach something.

One of the girls drew a rabbit and she colored it the color of penny. I told her all about penny. She started writing under the rabbit, "name is...", then she asked me to spell it for her. I took a picture of her with it, but it's hard to see. She gave me her drawing as a gift. Picture below.



And this next one is of all the kids doing their drawings.



Uploading pictures here takes awhile, so I'm going to upload everything when I get home.

I collected all of their pictures and name cards. I'm going to have them present their "nouns" in class tomorrow morning.

Then I biked back at around 10. I dunno, the bike ride back felt a little shorter. I was dehydrated though. When I got back to my lodge I just chilled out for a bit. At around noon I went out to get food. It was the worst food/service I've experienced in awhile. I went back to the lodge briefly before having to bike back to COFCO.

This bike ride proved to be more difficult. Probably because I was so tired. Also, this class proved to be more difficult as well. There are a lot more children in the afternoon, probably because most of them go to public school in the morning. I had a lot of repeat children in the afternoon and I had planned to use the same lesson plan. They were clearly bored. An hour and a half in, I had lost all of their attention. They all just wanted to run around and play. So I just gave in and dismissed the class. I'm going to have to be better prepared tomorrow.

I biked back, it was verrrryyy slow. I was dead at that point. Now I'm sitting in bed, writing this entry. I'm too tired to even go get dinner, so I'll probably just forgo eating. I'll have breakfast at 7am anyway. It's only 6:15 and I want to go to bed. I'm going to make myself wait until 8 I decided.

So I ended up getting some amazing drawings from the kids today that I plan to take home AND I just finished tomorrows lesson plan. Good. Hopefully the days get easier.... :-)

Greetings from Cambodia! This entry will be long because I want to explain everything in full detail.

What's nice about where I'm staying is that it does have free wireless internet access, so I can easily stay connected with everyone.

I've been here for about 12 hours and it's been crazy thus far. But I guess I'll start from the beginning.

My parents drove me to JFK airport early on Saturday morning. My flight was due to fly out at 1pm. I ate a quick breakfast with them before going through security. I was actually sitting by my gate, laughing to myself. I have no idea why I thought it was so funny, but I was the ONLY person on a flight of 200 something people who wasn't Asian. It was definitely karma.

Anyway, I boarded the plane. I had an aisle seat in the center section of the plane with an older Asian man sitting next to me. I began to mentally prepare myself pretty early. This flight was going to Seoul, Korea and was scheduled to be more than 14.5 hours long. For those who know me, you know I hate flying. I get super plane sick and I get really anxious/fidgety after the first few hours. The flight departed a half hour later than scheduled, which sucked. I slept for the first hour or so and then decided to watch a movie.

Fricken Asiana Airways gave me heart attack. They must not have enabled the in flight entertainment yet because I couldn't find a menu for it. I looked around and no one else was using it either. I started having a panic attack. Shortly after that, however, they must have turned it on because I made one last ditch effort to hit the menu button and it actually worked.

I watched a movie, then slept, watched a movie, then slept. At about 8 hours in I was staring at my Asian neighbor in awe. 8 hours and he hadn't moved a muscle. Hadn't opened his eyes, nothing. He had killed like 3 glasses of wine when we ate at the start of the flight so I chalked it up to him being a lightweight. Then we hit hour 10 and I considered almost poking him to see if he was still alive. At around hour 11, I think he decided he needed to stretch his legs or something. He abruptly stood up and I let him through. That was the one and only time in the 14 hour flight that he moved. I wish I had that kind of perseverance.

Both meals that they served included an option for fish. Whose bright idea was it to serve fish on the airplane?! It wreaked.

Anyway, the 14 hour flight wasn't actually hell on earth like I thought it would be. And when everyone stood up to exit the plane, I didn't feel the urge to yell at everyone to get the fuck off like I usually do.

I got off in Korea and had about a 2 hour layover before my next flight. I kinda wandered the airport for awhile. I definitely had a new appreciation for standing. They have Dunkin Donuts in Korea. This excited me. But the line was long so I didn't get anything. I decided to turn my phone on which was the worst decision ever. Apparently Verizon works in Korea so I received any messages that had been sent to me. Roaming charges? Yes.

At like 7:20pm we boarded the plane. I literally had no concept of time at this point. The first movie I had watched on the first flight felt like it had been a lifetime ago. There was no wayyy it was still the same day. This flight left on time and was actually shorter than anticipated. It was only 5 hours instead of 5.5. This flight went rather smoothly for 2 reasons: The first was that my body clock was telling me that it was now 5am and time for bed. The second was that I "accidentally" mixed dramamine and several glasses of wine. Ok so, yes, not the brightest idea ever. The last thing I remember before passing out was reaching for a cup on my tray and missing it by several inches. I was konked.

Therefore, flight number 2 was successful. Slept the whole time. Woot.

Landing and Cambodia was a huge relief. It was one of those airports where you get off the plane directly onto the ground. It was like a wall of humidity when I stepped outside. Getting my tourist Visa and going through customs was a breeze. The United Planet country coordinator, Por Meng, was there to greet me. He's a really nice guy. He's worked for United Planet for a few years now and has lived in Cambodia his whole life. He told me a little about the city, Siem Reap, as he drove me to the guest house. It's a very small city with only about 200,000 people. It's one of the poorest areas in all of Cambodia. The main and almost only way that they make money is through tourism. Apparently it's supposed to be "huge" in this area, although their definition of huge is much different than mine.

We arrived at the guest house/lodge/hotel thing. It's called Mekong Angkor Palace Hotel. It's fully equipped with a swimming pool and the most adorable cafe breakfast place. It's super tropical looking with a bunch of trees. It actually reminds me of the place where I stayed in Cape Town where you have to walk outside to get to different buildings. There is free wireless internet access here although I struggled connecting to it at first. My room is really nice. It's spacious and has a queen size bed, armoire, super gorgeous bathroom, AC and a television which I've sworn that I won't turn on. I'd say my computer is enough of a distraction from this beautiful place.

So yes, I got settled in around 12:30 last night. Had to be up for breakfast around 7 which was fine because the time change and all the sleeping on the plane made it difficult to sleep last night. Breakfast was AWESOME. You get to sit outside under the shade of this wooden canopy. You have a choice of 5 different meals, all of which include the most delicious fruit I've ever eaten. I got pineapple today. I don't even like pineapple but I could have eaten a whole one. Meng says that all of the fruit is like that. I'll have to try more. I noticed this morning that there are more people staying here than I thought. I've seen like maybe 15 other people so far, most of them white but not American. Australian or European. It seems to me like most of them are here to vacation. I keep seeing people lounging by the pool and swimming. I feel like this is a strange place to vacation.

Meng came at around 8 and ran through a quick orientation with me. I was able to learn more about Cambodian culture. Their culture is strongly against sex before marriage and if a girl happens to get pregnant and she isn't married, the babies are many times abandoned at the hospital. Otherwise, the girls find themselves ostracized by the community. I found it interesting. It's also strongly frowned upon to spend time alone with a person of the opposite sex unless you are married. Women in Cambodian culture are revered by men, which makes being here alone a lot easier. I haven't felt uncomfortable at all yet. Except for the fact that I'm American and have money, but that's another story.

After this, Meng took me to a Pagoda to be blessed by a Monk in the temple. When entering the temple, it is customary to remove shoes and hats. It's rude if you do not. It's also rude to dress inappropriately. All body parts should be well covered. I first had to light incense and pray for my family and friends. Then I approached the monk with a gift. You will not be blessed by the monk if you do not offer him a gift. The monk accepted my gift which was a basket with amenities like a toothbrush and toothpaste. Because the monk doesn't get paid, he lives off of gifts that are provided by the community members.

He blessed me in Khmer, their native language, and threw water at me as I was being blessed. I had to pray during this blessing.

After that we walked around the Pagoda. It was gorgeous. There was also a public school within it. I've been trying to understand their school system, asking Meng a lot of questions about it. There is a private school located next to the hotel I'm in, I can always hear the children. This school costs ~$15 a month. The average person in Siem Reap can earn $50-$60 a month working, so sacrificing that much for a good education can be difficult for most. The public schools are free, but the education is lacking. Especially in English. That's why the orphanage that I will be working in has separate classes for the students. Some of them go to public school in the morning, and I will teach them English in the afternoon, and for others it's the opposite.

After walking the Pagoda, we went to visit the orphanage. It's called COFCO or the Cambodia Orphanage Family Center Organization. It's located about 3 miles outside of the city and I honestly couldn't believe what I saw as we drove there. You go from this city-esque area to one of the poorest areas I have ever seen. And I've been to Cape Town, ZA. It turned quickly from pavement into dirt road. The storefronts turned into shacks or stands. When we got to the orphanage, the conditions were unreal. The children are well take care of by their house mother, but their living situation is lacking. They sleep 3 children to each bed, and the beds are merely a cloth covering a piece of elevated wood. The boys and girls are separated with the exception of the youngest boys, who are housed with the girls. The expectation is for the girls to take care of the young boys...to almost raise them. The house mother makes them 3 meals a day. Granted, she provides them with much better food than most orphanages do, which is good.

They have a pet monkey. It's caged and trained not to bite. I think it looks bored but it was still fun to see a monkey. They have several dogs there, maybe 3. I lost count. The ground is entirely dirt except for the teaching area, which just had donated tile put down. There is a single whiteboard that leans against the wall. It's broken. The desks look like they were hand made and are in decent condition. The "classroom" is outdoors with just a wooden canopy built over them. There is a stage where the children can perform traditional Cambodian singing and dance to raise money for the orphanage. They also sell t-shirts to visitors. They've worked to teach some of the more talented children to be artisans - making clay statues or sewing being the biggest.

The children are....adorable. I fear that I might actually fall in love with them in only 3 weeks. They seem so intrigued and willing to learn despite their situation. Their main English teacher, the one who teaches them when there is no UP volunteer around and who supports UP volunteers when there is, disappeared a few days ago. No one has seen or heard from him. They're desperate for a teacher. They were thrilled to hear that I would be starting at 8am tomorrow. I have to create lesson plans. Each day I will teach from 8-10:30ish and then from 2-4:30ish. I've already got some good stuff up my sleeve. Some interactive stuff that I'm really excited about.

I'm going to rent a bike. I figure I'll bike there and back for the morning session and then there and back for the night as well. It is HOT here. I mean, I knew it would be hot, but this is not quite what I anticipated. I need to drink more water. I went into town today to look around the marketplace and to buy more school supplies. It was a struggle being outside for more than an hour because of the heat. Meng says that is why there is such a long siesta in the middle of the day, because no one can stand the heat.

I ended up buying more school supplies for tomorrow's class and I bought myself 2 dresses. Because they were cheap and I fell in love with them right when I saw them. The marketplace workers are desperate to sell things and even just on the main street there are hundreds of tuk-tuk drivers and shop owners who are desperate for you to pay for their services. It's disheartening, honestly. I haven't seen very many tourists here at all. In fact, this is probably the worst culture shock I've ever experienced. I walk the streets and I feel like a target because I'm one of the only tourists anywhere near them. I just don't understand how they make a living.

The streets here are crazy. I've seen some crazy things. They have these things called fish massages and pedicures where you're like in a tank of fish. The idea freaked me out. One of the signs even said, "No piranhas!" Why did they feel the need to clarify that? Oh and the food. I can't read any of the signs so figuring out what type of food restaurants serve has been difficult.

ANYWAY...Meng is coming over to the hotel in about an hour to give me my first Khmer lesson. Then we're going to my welcome dinner. I'm excited :-). Tomorrow morning I teach my first class!

I am tired though......it feels like I've put in a full day already.