Vacation or Work?

Well, I've been in Phnom Penh for two days now and everything has been going perfectly. Where to start describing what is going on is difficult, so for the sake of my parents, I'll begin with the food.

We have been fed some very delicious food, pretty much what I had expected before I got here, lots of white rice with plenty of vegetables and a protein. So far I haven't had a need to really go out on my own to buy special foods, but there will most likely come a time when I need some cheese to eat, but until that day comes I'll be eating the food they prepare for us. For breakfast this morning we had some bread, fruit, danishes, and doughnuts. There was also some type of dumpling that was filled with pork and a fried egg, although I didn't get to eat it because I was already full. The fruit is exactly what I was hoping for, tropical fruit that would never be found in the States, it's incredibly fresh and packed with flavor. This coming weekend we will be taking a trip to the countryside where I'm told there are fried tarantulas. If I don't throw up at the sight of a cooked spider, I may consider eating it... although it's very doubtful.

The house that we're staying in is way bigger than I expected. We have a small kitchen (that I probably won't use much), a TV room with movies and cable, a larger living room (with spare lesson plans, and a computer and such), a big dining room that has a table with about 15 places to sit, a huge balcony on the second floor, and another rooftop terrace on the third floor, but it's a bit sketchy and dirty, although it's a decent view of the rooftops around us. All of the rooms are spread out around two floors. They're pretty standard, with two of us to a room. I live with a kid from Yorkshire who is around my age, but I'm not quite sure. We each have our own bed with mosquito net, a piece of metal to hang clothes on, a bedside shelf thing, and we have an en suite bathroom that is small, but it serves the purpose. The bathroom is one that has enough room for a sink, a toilet and a place to stand, and the shower drain on the floor of that small standing space. All in all, I'm pleasantly surprised with the rooms, the house overall, and the massive balcony where I'll probably spend a lot of time (and where I am right now in the afternoon 88 degree heat).

In terms of all the people that are in the program, it's quite diverse. There are only four Americans, the other three all from the Midwest. At least ten people from the UK, a Dutch, and two or three from Australia. There are some people who are returning for another semester to teach, and some other people who are living on their own, so not all the volunteers are in the house.

The school is actually pretty impressive, they just put in A/C units, which is pretty amazing considering the price of electricity is much higher than home. There are quite a few classrooms that all have white boards, and that's about it. We don't start teaching until next Monday (the 5th?), and even after that, we have a lot of long weekends because of holidays during the semester. And on top of that time off, we will be teaching for only three of four hours a day. As it looks now we have a pretty laid back semester.

And as for living in Phnom Penh, it's a strange blend of run down third world city and partially developed Asian city. There are wooden stilts holding up a house being built across the street, while there is a skyscraper being built in town with cement. We're living in the south of the city where there is little to see for tourists except the Russian Market (an overcrowded street block of small shops that sell anything you could ever way). I have a feeling that navigating this area is also going to be quite troublesome. The roads are numbered, but in no specific order. Our house is on street 147, then you turn right onto 155, and the next parallel block is 136. With no rhyme or reason to the streets, it will take awhile to learn streets by sight, since there are no markings of street numbers and everything is in Khmer, so I can't read it anyway.

Next week we head to Kratie province in the North, but I'll write more on that after it happens instead of what I speculate it will be and this has been a lengthy post anyway. Now I have about an hour before I head to my first Khmer lesson, should be quite the challenge but I think I'm prepared.

And also, Happy Thanksgiving!