Excuses, Excuses...and the Reason? It's Holiday Season!

Angkor Wat at Sunrise

So I suppose this is another occasion to excuse myself from the lack of blogging I have been doing (considering that this my first post again after two whole weeks). I assure you that (if you were concerned at all) I have been alive for this period and am very well indeed. If you find yourself unable to forgive my unforgivable absence - well, now it is time to forgive and forget with this blogtastic entry you are about to read.

The best kind of excuse is one in which the excuser has, although guilty, been spending a spectacular-magniferous time. Well truthfully the best excuses run along the lines of "I broke something" (something being perhaps a leg, a mug...) or "my dog has a very special homework diet". But for the purposes of this, the best of the BEST excuses is for spending a delightful and well-earned holiday.

These last two weekends, I have taken two rather spectacular holidays...


Destination 1: SINGAPORE

The date? 15th-20th September 2010. The reason? For doing my university application. A poignant moment? Arriving at 2am and eating a plate of cheese and strawberries.

Going back to Singapore was, surprising, quite a poignant experience for me just in general. Upon reaching my destination I was immediately struck by a feeling you wouldn't really expect at all. I've lived in Singapore for 9 years and so would consider it my close-second home to England. So why was turning the tap in a vertical direction so strange? The pressure of the shower - are the plumbing company trying to kill me? What is with the lack of motorcycles on the road, and why is it that, when I try to reduce the price to "moouy dollar" ($1) in the stores, I still have to pay the whole $20 on the tag?

The reason for this? Easy - I had been hit by a large dose of culture shock. I suppose it makes sense, after how comfortable I now feel in the PP house, but even so. Quite a strange experience.

I suppose what struck me the most about returning to Singapore was the indulgences that I immediately received - the comfy air-con cab, the un-chipped plates in the spotless kitchen and the overdose of perfect cuisine in the fridge. This reaction seems to be slamming the state of life that we live in Cambodia, that I'd prefer to have all those things back permanently. Yet of course, an even stranger feeling hit me. That I don't really need all those things, that I am perfectly happy surviving on the bare essentials. In some ways, even more so, now I'm making a difference and budgeting for my own living. Now that I am my own authority, I'm thriving with the feeling of responsibility.

Funny though - after Singapore for 9 years, I spend a month in Phnom Penh and I'm completely thrown off.


Destination 2: SIEM REAP

Awkward group photo at Ta Prohm (the tree temple)

The date? 24th-26th September 2010. The reason? For visiting Angkor Wat and the various other historic temples in the region. A poignant moment? On the 6 hour bus ride on the way there, we definitely drove straight into a goat.

Angkor Wat was, naturally, incredible. I could lapse into an essay-ful of description, but a picture tells a thousand words, and I'm sure the ones throughout will convey it much better than I could.

Double AW!

The day progressed from our 4am wake up call to our departure at 4pm, meaning that we spent almost 12 hours of temple madness in 3 different locations. My favourite would have to be Bayon - the detail of the architecture was incredible.

A montage of temple photos!

We were guided through our "journey" (if you will) by a guide, who told us some amazing stories about the temples and statues. Lots of interesting historical and mythological facts. Most of the specific dates went in one ear and out the other, but a large portion of it I'm sure will stick. I feel like I'm advertising tour guides at Angkor Wat...but if you do happen to go, I'd recommend it. Otherwise it's just a bunch of (albeit, wonderful) buildings in the blazing hot sun. 

Unfortunately the only evidence I have of our guide is the smudge at the top of the lens in this picture

So there you have it! A fun- & ful- filled last two weekends.

I sincerely hope you have enjoyed this latest blog experience - blogsperience even. But now, after just having taken the 6 hour bus ride back, a well-earned pizza awaits.

Adios muchachos,

Juliet; traveller extroadinaire.

An Extraordinary Month

I've always kind of loved that word. Extraordinary. EXTRA ordinary. It's not just ordinary - there's something extra about it.

Last Saturday marked our 1st month anniversary (or as it should correctly be named, month-iversary) in Phnom Penh. A great triumph! Yet, exactly what IS the triumph of this, you may most justifiably ask. Alright, so we've survived living in another country for a full 30 days, but so what? Most of us have spent half our lives coping with moving to new countries and settling in. Alright, so we've maybe managed to keep ourselves comfortably alive for the duration, eating (mostly) well, sleeping (mostly) well...but after all, we are all (around) 18 years old and should be able to do these things with no effort.

In order to prove to you, oh so valiant reader, that we are actually making good use of our time here, I will provide a list of worthy accomplishments that we have so successfully managed.

1. Doing our own laundry (a good start I feel - cleanliness!)
2. Cooking for ourselves (and secondly, nourishment - see how the list builds!)
3. Washing up after ourselves (without complaining too much)
4. Managing to figure out the hot water in the showers
5. Getting the best deals for tuk-tuks aided by...
6. ...our new knowledge of the Khmer language
7. Crossing the rather scarily busy road that has the statistical potential to kill a great many of us
8. Ability to make our way to the gym without getting TOO frightened by the small dogs that run and bark at us (small, but scarily aggressive) 
9. Getting up every morning...at UWC hours
10. Surviving a bumpy tuk-tuk ride that sends dust in every direction
11. Arriving to teach with smiles on our faces
12. Being able to stand up in front of a class (with the knowledge that we have something to offer them)
13. Preempting that our lesson plans will always be either too long or too short for the intended lesson
14. Cementing the pronunciation of stomach to be "stuh-muck" and not "stoh-much"
15. Making the students understand that they have to do the writing before they get the colouring pencils
16. Spending a full five minutes encouraging students to participate (which seems to have paid off)
17. Teaching 8 idioms to a bunch of 18-22yr olds, which they now use in daily conversation
18. Explaining, to a class of kids that know approximately 10 words in English together, the concept of when the teacher asks a question, you actually answer the question, and don't just repeat what the teacher said. ("How old are you?" "How old ar-" "No no, I'm asking" "No no I'm -" "Yeah nevermind")
19. Baked a most extraordinarily good cake.

The Masters of Confectionary

And an ordinarily extra good cake it was indeed. Now, from the picture, it looks rather like a miniature igloo that Alex and I baked for a "science project" that would win best prize for yummy-ness, but not perhaps for relevance or value. However, dare you to slice into the delicious-ness within, you would find a carrot cake centre (with real carrot-flavoured pieces!), that looked like a bit like a giant muffin upon removal from the oven, with exactly the intended millimetres of burnt-ness at the base. If you were perhaps lucky enough to sample the flawless icing, which not only covered the entire top of the cake but additionally was smothered through the centre, you would be astounded by the perfection of the real lemon flavour and not at all question why a whole bag of icing sugar and a whole block of butter was required to create it.

Wow. I just wrote an entire paragraph dedicated to a cake.

I haven't been teaching for two days now, owing to the fact that I have lost my voice! A huge setback for a teacher, I have found. In place I have planned all Will's lessons for him, and feel extremely guilty at him having to teach alone. It's very dull being at home and I am dearly hoping to be able to teach again tomorrow. In the meantime, below are some photos from last week that I'd just like to share.

We taught colours the way you should - using colouring pencils blu-tacked to the board.

I love the way the students always share the colours between
them, and these three boys were a prime example.

Just a demonstration of how incredibly tiny the students are.
This girl is particularly small, but compensates with her overwhelming cuteness. 

Tomorrow night I will be flying back in Singapore for the weekend...a sudden but welcome break. Expect more blogging when I return!

Much love to my followers (even if you delete the notification email as soon as you get it) and any other readers (who arrived at this page by accident, decided initially that it might be worth reading before realising it was complete and utter dribble) and any other internet weirdos.

x

Idioms

This will be a short post of a mostly informative nature. Since I began teaching them, I have had a large number of people question me; what is an idiom? So for your convenience, I will list the 8 idioms Will and I have successfully managed to teach to a group of our students, to see if you recognise them. 

• Butterflies in my stomach
• Don't bite off more than you can chew
• Break the ice
• Your eyes are bigger than your stomach
• Arm and a leg
• Earn a living
• Cut to the chase
• Go with the flow

The funniest thing is, they actually use them now.  Success.

Happiness, Slacking, Khmer

Happiness

The enthusiastic students at Tiny Toones

The happiness in this photo pretty much sums up my own happiness over the past week.

I have been here for enough time now to know that the next few months are definitely going to throw, well - some erupting volcanoes at me. Metaphorically of course. Yet the smallest token of appreciation from those silly scallywags above gives me such an immense volume of satisfaction.

For the past few weeks, I have been receiving a large number of - well, gifts from the students! Many of them have taken to drawing me a picture (and then squabbling over who gets to present it to me) and even more prise open my notebook to draw "A is for apple" there. One girl even presented Will and I with Cambodia bookmarks. During class time, making origami boats and flowers is also a must.

Some examples of the wonderful presents I have received

A large portion of the time at Tiny Toones is also dedicated to the students drawing me pictures in my notebook, which I am then forced to identify in English. They then accept this new word into their new vocabulary with curiosity and joy (although a few days after I had told him the correct saying, one boy kept saying 'Eleven' instead of 'Elephant'. Oh the joys of cross culture).  The connection achieved through a Khmer child drawing you an object that you have to identify in English is a surprisingly effective way of bonding - and even an effective way to teach. This week one of our classes proclaimed that (after countless vocabulary and grammar lessons) they greatly wished to draw - so we obliged, to some wonderful results.

Slacking

This is the first time I've blogged in quite awhile and I have to admit I'm out of the habit. I will offer you a long explanation/excuse as to why this is:

I started reading my book on the first day of Cambodge. 2 weeks, 3 days later and I was barely half-way through it. This was mainly because I was spending all my usual reading time blogging instead - thus, the book gets untouched. 

So of course, by the 3rd week it was time to switch it up - time dedicated to reading and not blogging.

Here's a list of items from my notebook that I was SUPPOSED to blog about last week:

• The washing machine broke? (temporarily - Erica's clothes came out all soapy and there was a brief kerfuffle in which it was carried downstairs - but now it's made a comeback and is better than ever...well, to be honest it's just the same as it ever was but that wouldn't be so interesting now would it?)
• Amazing sausages and mash (back to many of our Western roots, with a hint of Asia - wasabi in the mash and naturally, very suspicious looking chicken sausages)
• Sept 1st = Cambodian tradition of the morning classes switches to the afternoon and vice versa - in other words, we get new students - EEK! (...this TECHNICALLY occurred, although now we have half our old students and half new, which is a bit confusing. Backup lesson plan...always colouring!)
• Khmer class - which I will discuss below vvvv

Khmer

Posin'

Since the last time I blogged, we've had several Khmer lessons (aka, lessons in the Cambodian language). It feels like IB again! Just kidding. If it did, I'd probably have killed myself by now (If you're currently in Grade 11/12 then again, of course, that's a joke. If otherwise...cue crying). 

Some cheeky words & phrases to add to your foreign dictionary:

Hello = Soou sdey

Goodbye = Lia hery

My name is... = Kh'ohm ch'moous...

How are you?/I am fine = Sok sa bai (yes, it's the same thing! Which means the people involved have the potential to get considerably confused)

Nice to meet you = Rik riay dehl ban joub niak

Stop talking = Chob moat (very useful during class time)

And just for kicks...

Food = Ah-ha (Alan Partridge-style)

Rice = Bye (which is why when we bid our students farewell they expect food as opposed to departure)

Noodles = Me (lol I'm a noodle)

Knock knock! Who is there? = Koous koous! Nor na ke? (!!! although unfortunately I don't know how to say the rest of the joke)

Must depart my lovelies. Promise not to take so long a blogging brrrrrrrrreak next time!

Juliet

(NOTE: The pictures throughout this blog don't always have much connection with what I'm talking about - I just happen to like the photos XD)