America, land of the free, home of free slurpee day

I just returned to Cambodia after a whirlwind 5 week tour of America.  And while the visit was amazing, it didn't feel like home anymore.  Strange.

I feel like I was able to see the best of what America had to offer: the mountains in Colorado, the beaches in South Carolina, a baseball game, boozy milkshakes, New York City, Chicago, and the capitol.  And it was all wonderful.  Catching up with friends I hadn't seen in years, in some cases decades, finally getting in touch with long lost relatives, SHOPPING!  But at the same time, I felt like I didn't fit in anymore.  And I caught myself saying "Well, in Cambodia..." almost every other sentence.  I guess I truly am an expat now.  People would ask when I was coming back, and I had no answer for them.

What I do know is that I am ready to try someplace new.  Cambodia has been an amazing home for the past 2 years, but I am ready for more.  (More money being a huge part of my decision....) So I am making the move to Vietnam.  Da Nang specifically.  The idea of working less and living by the beach really appeals to me for some reason... The good news is that I will be able to visit fairly frequently to get a new visa, so I will still be able to keep in touch with everyone I have met here, and I will be able to meet a whole new set of people in Nam.  (Mostly I am moving there so that I can sit at a bar and say "I just got back from Nam, and you don't know what it was like man, you just don't know..." in a tortured voice...)

So for now I am still in the Bodge, tying up loose ends, purging myself of a lot of stuff, again, and saying good bye to some amazing friends.  The hardest part is going to be telling the girls that I won't be working with them anymore, I expect lots of tears on that day.  But I am excited for a new chapter and adventure to begin, and will have tons of new fodder for a new blog! Because, let's be honest, there is going to be a bunch of new strange stuff to write about from there.  Like the fact that they eat dog...

I love you Cambodia, but...

Hello again!  It has been quite a while since I last posted, but I have felt for a while that there hasn't been anything that interesting to write about.  I mean, how many times can I write about the crazy traffic, the honking horns, the strange food, the wonderful people before it starts to sound like I am on a loop.  To be honest, it was getting a bit boring, and also started to feel a bit condescending to Cambodia.  I an not sure if you are aware of this, but Cambodia is not America.  Crazy, right?  But I think to a certain extent I was judging it based on what I knew of the Western world, and that isn't even remotely fair.  Cambodia is still being formed, still has some fairly substantial problems, and is still not a Western, first world country.  So I have felt that there was really nothing new to write about.  Until now.

I am homesick.  Really really terribly homesick.  I love Cambodia, but... There are a whole lot of buts.  I miss being able to get around independently.  Here I depend on tons of other people for my transportation.  I have my weekday morning driver who takes me to school, I have my Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday afternoon driver who takes me to volunteer, and then takes me home.  I have the many many random drivers who take me to meet friends for dinner, to the market, or the grocery store, or the gym.  I try and walk, but there are no sidewalks in this country, and the constant call of "Hey lady, moto?" is nearly driving me insane.  I miss being able to get in my car, put on whatever music I want, go whatever way I want, whenever I want.  Yes, I could get a moto here and have some independence, but I am honestly pretty terrified of driving here, and am quite sure I would seriously injure myself and others.  Yes, I do have a bike, and I ride it around, but many of the places I need to go are far, and at night I don't feel safe on the bike.

I miss my friends.  I have made some amazing friends here.  And many of those amazing friends have left and gone on to other places.  It feels like I am a military brat again, with the constant flow of people in and out of my life.  I am almost getting to the point where I really don't even want to meet new people, because they will inevitably leave.  Yes, people came in and out of my life back home, but many more stayed.  I miss having dinner with friends that we cooked at someone's house, which I can kinda do here, but not really, since I don't have an oven...

And on and on.  In case you didn't pick up on it, I am having a bit of a pity party here.  It started when I booked my ticket home.  I made the mistake of booking it 8 months in advance, and now I am left knowing I will be back in the US in 110 days, but wanting to be there now.  And I have pretty much planned my entire trip in my head.  On the way from the airport, I want to stop here and eat some of this, and then on this night I will have my welcome home party, and then on 7-11 I will gorge myself on free slurpees, and etc etc.  And none of my planning is helping me be less homesick.

So I will allow myself today to wallow.  Today I can be frustrated and annoyed by all the things that are different here.  The lack of order on the roads, the weird squiggle letters I can't understand, the strange and often nauseating smells.  Today that can bug the shit out of me.  But tomorrow, I will focus on what I do love about living here.  The smiles I see around me every day, my amazing and infuriating students, the delectable indian restaurant that delivers in 10 minutes.  I promise I will love you again tomorrow Cambodia, but today, you can suck it. 

Cambodia Problems

I have decided there is no way I am going to drive a moto here.  I like my head and limbs just the way they are, attached and in one piece.  That said, I have to rely solely on others for my day to day transportation needs: getting to work, the market, the restaurant my friends are waiting at, Shine to volunteer with the girls, etc.  I have a fairly good system set up, but there are always glitches, which leads me to the subject of my post: moto and tuk tuk drivers.

As far as problems go, these are pretty minor.  Absurdly annoying, but in the whole scheme of things, minor. In the mornings, I have a few drivers to choose from.  At one point, I tried to set up a daily agreement with one, but he wanted an absurd amount of money, so I started using Mr. Smiley (I never did get his name, even when I asked him in Khmer, he just smiles.) Mr. Smiley was pretty good.  He was a careful driver, but not a turtle.  Things were going well.  Then he decided that driving down durian street and by the stinky market every morning wasn't enough of an assault of my senses.  So he added the stinky river and the worst road in the city.  Ot joe jet, Mr. Smiley, ot joe jet.  Wanting to give him another shot, I showed him the way I like to go.  It bypasses the stinky market, goes nowhere near durian street, and the roads are nicely paved.  He went that way for a day, before he found a way to again take me by a new stinky market, and along the second worst road in the city.  I was getting more and more irritated every day, telling him to turn, while Mr. Smiley just smiled and ignored me.  Then one day, a wonderful thing happened.  He wasn’t there in the morning.  I was free to pick another driver, and not feel guilty.  Then a second wonderful thing happened, the new driver charged me less.  It was glorious.  But it only lasted for two weeks.  

For the past two days, Mr. Smiley has been back.  And when I apologize, and say other driver cheaper, he, you know, smiles, nods his head, and then looks like I kicked his puppy as I go with another driver.  I wish my Khmer was better, so I could explain that a) he doesn’t go the way I like, and b) he charges me more than I want to pay now.  It doesn’t look like he will ever understand either of those factors, so I am left with apologizing to him every day for the foreseeable future.  Awesome.

Then there is Mr. Beep Beep, my tuk tuk driver.  At first I was calling him Mr. Honky in my head, then realized that just doesn’t sound right…

He takes me to my volunteer job and home after, and it is quite nice and relaxing to sit back and enjoy the sights of the city.  And to figure out a way to try not to focus on the fact that Mr. Beep Beep is trying to kill me.  I am fairly certain that he thinks honking his horn emits a force field, thereby protecting the tuk tuk from oncoming traffic.  It really is the only reasonable conclusion after driving with him.  That, or he thinks he gets paid extra for each honk.  It has now become comical, and I am waiting for the day that the horn sticks, a la “Little Miss Sunshine.”  I just hope I have either my camera or my phone around to document it when it happens…

Other than these minor problems, life here is wonderful as always.  

Long Time, No Post

Oh life, why must you get in the way of, well, my LIFE?? The past few months have flown by, it is hard to believe I have been here for 7 months already!  I'll write a reflective post later, this is a quick story that has all of my friends using the phrase "but it is not delicious..."

At my new school, they host a camp night, a sleepover if you will, for the elementary students.  In the morning, as everyone was eating breakfast, they kept running out of pretty much everything.  Towards the end, many of the students didn't get much of a breakfast, as we were out of juice, rice, eggs, and hamburgers. (Because, who doesn't like a hamburger for breakfast?) As people were complaining about the lack of these major breakfast items, I noticed a table of girls, with 8 full cups of juice, just sitting there, as they were getting up.

I went up to ask why they were not finishing their juices, and they looked at me, and with completely sincere faces, told me that they could not finish the juice because, "Teacher, it is not delicious."  I was dumbstruck.  And irritated, because I had 100 little kids tugging on my sleeve to tell me that they didn't get juice because we were out, and yet here are the girls, not drinking theirs, because it was not delicious.

Later, as I was drinking a beer, and nowhere near small children, I thought about it some more.  And I realized that those girls have the right idea.  Why should they be forced to drink non-delicious juice?  Why should people have to eat food they don't find utterly mouth watering?  So from now on, I will no longer force down food to be polite.  When I am offered durien or balut or any of another foods I find bizarre and repulsive, I will try them, and then kindly refuse to eat any more, with the lovely phrase, "but it is not delicious."  I encourage you to do the same!

I blame LMFAO

What I knew was a possibility, and a reality of life here, finally happened to me.  Walking home from dinner last night, my purse was stolen.  And it was all LMFAO's fault.

I'll explain.  My roommate and I had a just enjoyed a really good, and very cheap dinner, at what I am fairly certain is a mob hangout.  I mean, $2 jugs? How can you do that unless you are a front?  Just sayin'... But back to the story.  After joking about which parts of the city we wanted, we were walking the 4 blocks home, talking about our days at school.  Jaxon was telling me how his students were great at identifying which song he had stuck in his head.  Yesterday he had walked in with "Everyday I'm Shufflin'" stuck, and had sung one line, and then his class had burst into the rest, some even doing the entire dance.  I had stopped to laugh at his impression of them, and due to my laughing, wasn't standing totally straight, when I felt a tug on my bag. I stood up, and as I did, the two men on the moto gassed it to break the strap on my bag, and sped off.  It was over in 5 seconds.  Jaxon thought they had hit me with a belt or something, and his first thought was that the SOS hospital was closed, and where was he going to take me.  When he realized what had really happened, he ran after them.  Pretty awesome.

While he ran off after them, I walked to the main street, and began to look at every moto that drove by, convinced they would drive by.  But trying to find a dark moto with two men on it here is kinda like looking for a specific cab in New York, a white guy on a bike in Amsterdam, or a green Subaru in Colorado.  Impossible.

They got my 2004 Nokia, $4, my keys, and the biggie, my camera.  But in reality, all replaceable.  I wasn't threatened, not really hurt (my shoulder is kinda sore from where the strap was), but overall, it's the least violent crime you can have happen to you here.  Except for maybe someone cloning your ATM card, but that would have been way more costly, and a much bigger pain.

And it was totally preventable, and mostly my fault.  I had been lulled into a sense of security, I consider myself fairly street smart, and even convinced myself that I could scare off someone if they tried to mug me.  But the reality was, I was walking on the street, with my bag on the outside.  I wasn't paying attention (again, all LMFAO's fault), and I could have pretty much avoided the whole incident.  Most crimes here are crimes of opportunity, and I made myself a fairly easy target.

And I am pissed at the two guys who did it, but really, mostly at LMFAO.  I will not be shufflin' for quite  a while.

Saturday Morning in Phnom Penh

I don't know if you have heard or not, but there is a huge blizzard in Colorado right now.  Over a foot in Denver, and it's still snowing.  I am somewhat homesick, I loved me a good snow day.  But instead of wallowing in what will never happen here, barring some act of Buddha, I decided to take a walk this morning, and appreciate what I do have here.  For a bit I tried to relate how far I walked in Denver terms, from my apartment to the Independence Monument was half the distance I would walk to Goosetown.  Walking to the Royal Palace was about as far as the Capitol, and so on.  With my head phones on, I was oblivious to the constant "Hey Lady, tuk tuk?'s" I am normally bombarded with, and with the most random mix my iTunes genius has yet to come up with, I walked around and fell in love with the city all over again.

yes, they are pushing that car to make room for another. the parking dance, i like to call it.

now that is what I call I tombstone.  

I am obsessed with this building. I have no idea what it was, but wish it could talk.

Two monks walk into a wat...

I wish this tree could talk too.

So you can have your snow, I'll take this colorful place!  (But I still miss a good snow day...)

ARGHHHH!!

So I left my charger at school today, so no computer for me tonight.  But I wanted to let everyone know, if they want a post card, I need your address by tomorrow this time.  Some of you sent me addresses earlier, which is good, and you will get postcards soon!  My friend is going to mail them for me from the States, so hopefully everyone will get them this time!

Volunteering is going fantastic, I love my new school, and overall life is good!  Chinese New Year was OK, I had to work, so didn't get to partake in all of the festivities, but I did have noodles on the right day, so I've got that going for me (symbolizes long life) and waited around for someone to give me red envelopes of money, but none came.  Oh well, there is always next year!

So email addresses, and I'll get you a postcard!

Happy New Year!!

This post is long overdue, but things here in Cambodia have been busy.  Fun, amazing, exhausting, and very busy.  For those of you not on Facebook, I am no longer working with the little kids, at the end of the day, it's just not for me.  It didn't help that the school cared more about appearances than the education, but no matter what the reason, I wasn't really happy there.  So, since I am a native speaker, light skinned, and have a US teaching certificate, I was able to find another job in a day.  I'm telling you, all my unemployed teacher friends, come here!!

At the new school, I teach English (but English like I learned in high school, with literature, and essays, etc), History, and Geography.  I also teach an SAT prep class, since many of my students are diplomat's kids, they will likely attend university in the US.  I really only work mornings, and have my afternoons free to plan and grade, etc.  It is not a bad gig!

I am also really excited, because my new schedule and location will allow me to work with the girls at Transitions more!  I will now teach 2 classes twice a week, which will really benefit the girls more than just meeting once a week.  Tomorrow is the first day of the new schedule, we'll see how it ends up!

For New Year's I went up to Siem Reap with some of my friends, and it was a great time.  We went to the floating village on the Tonle Sap Lake.  Not really floating so much as built on stilts, but interesting and beautiful nonetheless.   The rest of the weekend was a blast, and we'll leave it at that...

I hope that 2012 is the best year yet for you.  I'm pretty sure it is going to be for me!

Belated Thanksgiving Reflections

I know I am late posting this, but given that Thanksgiving is just a regular Thursday here, and I had to sacrifice a lot of my Saturday to decorate my school for Christmas, I hope you will forgive my tardiness.  But even though Thanksgiving isn't a holiday here, this was the best Thanksgiving I have had in a very very long time.

Since I have been here, I have found something everyday to relish, and actually give thanks for.  Whether it is something as small as getting half price chocolate croissants or something as big as realizing that my life is actually really amazing, I wanted to take the time to make note of some of the things that I am thankful for this year.  I'll start small, and work my way up to the big stuff.

1) 1/2 price doughnuts after 8pm- On days that I have classes with the girls, I don't get home until almost 8pm.  I am fairly beat, given that I had 24 screaming 3 year olds to deal with all day, and then a half hour moto ride in rush hour traffic, each way.  I love the classes with the girls, but everything around them wears me out!  So when I get home, I don't want to cook, or even think about what to eat, and 9 times out of 10, the noodle lady is not around.  So Jaxon and I will walk to Lucky's, and pick up cheap pastries.  They make me happy.  And I am thankful for them.

2)  My moto driver, Mr. Lo, is someone who although he doesn't realize it, makes me thankful for things that would have driven me into a rage six months ago.  At first I would get annoyed with the fact that he is a cautious driver.  In my head I would think, we could get there so much quicker!  But in the chaos that is the traffic here, he is unwittingly a zen guide for me.  One night we were headed back to my apartment, and he stopped at an intersection that of course had no lights or stop signs, to let the traffic cross.  Because none of the other drivers around us would do the same, we were stuck with a Toyota in front of us and no where to go.  I realized that although it can be annoying, it is also a nice and safe thing to do.  It's like letting that car in your lane.  You don't have to, but every now and then you should.  So I am thankful that I have a kind moto driver, who keeps me safe (which is really hard to do the way most everyone else drives here) and is also kind in the small ways that are easy to overlook.

3) I am thankful that the Christmas show my school was planning is postponed until June.  That will be a separate post all on its own, but worth it, trust me!  For those of you not on Facebook, the day that I have to get up and sing Michael Jackson's "Heal the World" is now in the distant future.

4) I am thankful for the friends I have made here.  They rock, and make me miss my friends back in the US a bit less.  But I do miss everyone back there, but am glad that the internet exists to make keeping in touch a possibility!

There is so much more that I am thankful for, but I think you get the gist of what I am trying to say.  I am so glad that I made the scariest change I could make, leaving everything I know and own behind to come over here.  I work with some pretty adorable kids, I have made some wonderful friends and memories, and I get to teach some amazing girls.  They say that happiness is a choice, but I would also argue that unhappiness is also a choice.  Which one will you choose today?

Oh Asia, you so crazy!!

I have been working on getting everything together for this post for a while.  It's hard to explain the odd things that i see on a regular basis, so I had to take a bunch of pictures.  I finally feel like I have enough to do this post justice.

Let's start with the cars.  99% of the cars here are either a Lexus or a Toyota.  And 75% of the motos are Hondas.  I think there was some serious colluding going on with those companies, and they came to the arrangement that one could have the car market, the other the moto.  And in case you didn't know that the car next to you was a Lexus, a lot of them have these huge gold (always gold!) decal that says in foot tall letters, LEXUS.

I know that the "Lexus" looks silver, but trust me, it's gold.

They also like to advertise that they are driving LAND CRUISERs here....

Then you have the crazy wonder products.  They range from teas that cure everything to toothpaste that not only whitens your teeth, but also curbs your appetite.  

What can't this amazing product do??

There is also this.  I don't even know where to start with this one.

I mean really???  corn ice cream???  and it's still $6.00!!  I almost want to buy it to try.  Almost...

And then there is K-pop.  You have to see it to believe it, but they are all kinda awesome....



So yes, if you never thought you needed it or wanted it, you can get it here.  There will be more to come on this subject, because there are always new and crazy things to find out....

Water Festival, or as my assistant calls it, Water Westiwal.

Every year around this time, they have the Water Festival in Phnom Penh.  The Tonlee Sap River changes direction, it marks the end of the rainy season, and nearly a million people from the provinces come to the Big Smoke (city), to see the boat races, the concerts, and fireworks that mark the events of the Festival.  Last year's turned tragic, when nearly 300 people were trampled to death on a suspension bridge.  There were so many people on the bridge that it swayed, which in turned scared the everyone from the provinces, resulting in a stampede.  This year the majority of the events, including the boat races, were cancelled.  The Prime Minister decided the money was better spent as aid to all the people affected by the flooding.  Cambodia hasn't been hit nearly as hard as Thailand, but is also much poorer, so there is less aid for the poor farmers out in the provinces.  So thankfully, there are not nearly as many people in the city as there would be in any other year, but it is still noticeably more crowded.

Today I decided to visit Wat Lanka, the temple nearest to my apartment, then meet a friend for lunch at my favorite restaurant here so far, then we would both go and see what there was to see.

They are adding on to the current temple.

Fairly sure these are crypts...  either way, they are beautiful

My tour guide for the temple.  This cat followed me around meowing the whole time I was there

It;s good to know that even Buddha has time to read the paper and keep current.

The entrance to Wat Lanka

 Turns out, not a whole lot, but we did get a good show while we had lunch.  The restaurant is right by  Independence Monument, which commemorates Cambodia's independence from Vietnam.

Independence Monument

It is also right across from the Prime Minister's house, and his neighbor, the North Korean Embassy.  Coincidence? I think not...

In case you were wondering what Kim Jong Il was up to, they have a bulletin board, with all his "good" deeds....

The big one is the PM's house, the smaller one the North Korean Embassy.  I'm probably on some watch list now for taking this picture...

This stretch of road is also where a lot of the concerts and other events for the Water Festival are taking place.  They light up the trees and monument at night, they sweep for mines and bombs during the day!

They also closed the street, Sihanouk, which is one of the busiest, and put up metal detectors.  It was quite odd to leave the restaurant and not hear "Hey lady, tuk tuk" 20 times.  We walked around a bit, but didn't really see much, most of the events are at night.  

I am working on a few other posts for you.  I have one dedicated to the insane Christmas show the school is putting on, another on how crazy Asia is (it's like a whole other country or something!), and another on the work I am doing with the girls (I love it!!)  I know I have been lax about putting up pictures, but I will work on that, promise.  Other than that, I am enjoying my five day weekend, and working on getting all my lessons planned for the next few weeks. (next week is letters K and L.  Look at that, an entire week, done!  Gotta love kindergarten...)  I have been busy, but good.  Still love it here, but not gonna lie, I needed the little break from the kids, the school, and the stupid Christmas show.  Will post on that tomorrow, for sure!

So happy Water Westiwal to you and yours, also happy 11-11-11, and happy Veteran's Day!  Enjoy your weekend everyone!

First day of kindergarten....and Cambodian traffic suggestions...

So I finished my first full day of school, and only had one boo boo, two tantrums, and five minutes of dead air.  I really need to brush up on my little kid songs!  On the plus side, I get to play all day, they feed me snacks and lunch, and it is a five minute walk home to relax during my break in the afternoon.  I'm kinda digging the little ones.  It's nice to just have to focus on one letter a day, teach them the chicken dance (which is kinda like herding cats.  Runny nosed, adorable cats.)  They love the part where they hold hands and dance in a circle, the rest of the time they just start blankly at me while I demonstrate the rest of the dance.  Baby steps, right?

Volunteering is going fantastic.  I have had three classes with the ladies, and they have been amazing.  It is so great to see them smiling and laughing, and learning.  They have been divided into two groups, and they are so fun.  Tonight was my beginner group, and they were fantastic.  By the end of class, they could say hello, goodbye, and ask someone what their name is.  We have also started on the phonic alphabet, those kindergarten songs are coming in handy!  They were also singing ants on the apple, ah ah ah, ants on the apple, ah ah ah by the end of class.  So much fun!  Once I get more settled into teaching the kindergartners, I will try and add more hours with the ladies, but for now, I am with them three hours a week and I love it!

I also get to take a moto over to the house, and it is normally around sunset, so it is just nice to feel the breeze and enjoy the beauty around me.  (Also, if I focus on the sky, I don't see the chaos around me...)  Traffic laws here in Cambodia are more like suggestions.  Lights, lane lines, even which side of the road you drive on, pretty much anything goes.  They have a few stop signs, but I have yet to even see someone slow down at one.  If you have ever read Medium Raw, by Anthony Bourdain, he describes it so much better than I can.  But riding on the back of the moto is almost like poetry.  It should be a disaster, but it just works.  Since you expect everyone around you to do whatever they want, it's not a surprise when you see a truck or a tuk tuk coming at you, you just go around them and keep on going.  I will not drive my own moto anytime soon, but it is fast becoming my favorite way to get around the city.  Not to worry, I am buying my own helmet tomorrow, so that in case I encounter a rouge expat on the road, my noggin will be safe!

On the down side, I just realized that Cambodia doesn't do daylight savings, so I am missing out on one of my favorite weeks of the year!  I won't get the joy of feeling like I am sleeping in an hour later, and giggling over it every morning.  On the flip side, I won't be angry for a week in spring when I lose an hour...  I'll take missing a week of giggles, since it takes away one of my worst weeks of the year!  Plus, every time one of those little munchkins calls me teeCHERR, I giggle.  I'm for sure coming out ahead on the giggle/giddy front!

Happy November to everyone!  Miss you guys!

Ready for real life to begin

It's Monday morning, and I'm getting settled into my new apartment.  Tomorrow is my first full day at school, and tomorrow night is class with the ladies.  After weeks of hotel living, school, and vacation, I am ready for real life to start.  To start teaching, to start volunteering, to start cooking in my own kitchen, to live normal life here.

I am excited to start teaching the kidlets.  They are so adorable, they don't cuss me out, they don't have big problems yet.  They are just kids, and cute, and they seem to like me.  When I was in last week, a few of them would come over and just sit by me, or show me a book, and point to pictures.  It's stupid cute.

I'm ready for classes to get started with the girls.  They have been split into two groups, tomorrow is my beginner class, and Thursday is my more advanced group.  It has been so much fun, and the girls are so amazing.  It's great to see them smiling and laughing, and just having fun.  Right now I am teaching twice a week, and will do one on one tutoring once a week too.  I will do more once I have gotten settled, and am used to my other teaching schedule.

I hope that everyone out there is good!  Miss you guys.

Getting Settled

Hi everyone!  I know it has been a while and I apologize.  This supposed relaxing 2 weeks of lots of free time has turned into anything but!  I have interviewed, demonstrated teaching a class, gone to Transitions, found an apartment, started training, working on my Khmer classes, lesson planned, student taught, and still found time to sleep and eat, and spend about an hour and a half a day in a tuk tuk.  And it's not like you can work in those things, although not seeing the other cars and motos coming at you when your driver goes the wrong way on the street might be nice.  So I have been busy!  I'm looking forward to next week when all I have to do is start teaching kindergarten full time.  It'll be a vacation!!

Today was my first day at Raffles.  I got to observe, and see what I had gotten myself into.  All I can say is it will almost be a nice change to have the kids sing the Barney song vs. getting cussed out.  We'll see how long that lasts, but the kids are adorable, and they spent today coming over to me, showing me books, and their worksheets.  I know that these little kids are a whole different beast than high school and middle school kids, but maybe that is what I need and will love.  Moving here was a big change, and is working out great, so I'm going with changing the age group I teach will turn out the same.

For everyone not on Facebook, I found an apartment!  It has a great balcony, is in the part of town I wanted to be in, and is a five minute walk to school.  AND we get a cleaning service three times a week, they do our laundry, AND iron, for $50 a month.  Plus, I have an actual bathtub in my bathroom!!  Whose jealous??

I hope everyone out there is doing great, I miss you guys!

And now, you can drool over my new apartment!

Our balcony.  Enough room for 2 papasans, and a mini lily pond.  And it has plants already.  Can't wait to add more!

Our green wicker living room.  That dashing young man is my new roommate Jaxon.

My pink and yellow bedroom.

Yes, that is a tub in my bathroom...

Dining room/room of random instruments (or rori)

Check out the "stove"... and the oversized dorm fridge.

View from our kitchen

Hopefully we didn't sign our lives away.  Don't worry, I read it.  The only bad news is that we can't start a political party in the apartment.  Sorry Green Party, you'll have to find someone else to get you into Cambodian politics....