Akon--means thank you in Khmer

Happy Turkey Day! This morning we are celebrating the holiday with a delicious cup of Dunkin Donut’s pumpkin spice coffee courtesy of Mom and Dad Chaudoin. Originally, we were trying to pretend that the holiday had been canceled…but due to all of the posts on Facebook, we were unable to fool ourselves. Today is just another day in Cambodia, but we still want to feel like we are part of the festivities so we have created a list of the things we are most thankful for. Take a look J

1. Family- Our families have been so supportive of us and our “crazy” ideas. We love you all and miss you—especially our little “fur baby” Lilly. I hope you are being a good little pup for your Uncle Josh and Auntie M-Dog.

2. Friends- We have friends all over the world, and each time that we see them we enjoy each others company, even when it’s for a very brief time.

3. Education- We feel so lucky to have had such great teachers in the past, some of them were really “great” at showing us what NOT to do, but all of them helped us to become the teachers that we are today. I think many of us take for granted our educations, but we have really come to understand how truly lucky we are to have an education, and we are so excited that we are able to share our knowledge with our students.

4. Health- Everyday in Cambodia we see people who are suffering from illness, discomfort, and pain. We are both so blessed to have grown up in a healthy environment. Even with all of the flaws in U.S healthcare system, it is far superior to the healthcare system here.

5. Adventure- We both have a similar attitude about trying new things. If we didn’t, we would not be living in Cambodia. We will find a way to do all the things we always dreamed about. We will not limit ourselves because of fear, uncertainty, or the opinions of outsiders.

Now for a few less serious things…

6. Central Air- It is so unbelievably hot here all year round, we were so spoiled in the U.S with constant air conditioning.

7. Traffic police- We used to think that traffic cops were a pain in the a$$, but now we miss them. Biking to campus is like a daily game of Frogger. We’re sad to say, but we would rather get caught and pay tickets for things like running red lights, speeding, and tailgaiting if it meant we didn’t have to pray to Buddha every day for safety.

8. Food options and safety- We both LOVE Asian food, but really how many days in a row can you eat rice and noodles without craving something different. I guess we are spoiled in the U.S because we have people from so many countries therefore, we have so many more choices when it comes to food. We reallllly miss salads. The vegetables here can cause some serious tummy troubles if you don’t cook them, so since we are not fond of getting sick we only eat cooked veggies.

9. Dunkin Donuts coffee- Starbucks can suck it. We both agree that DD is the number one coffee in the U.S and Cambodia needs to “run on DD” too! Thanks to our wonderful friends and family we have not been deprived. Cambodian coffee just does not compare. We are sharing the joy with our friends when they come to visit. After education, dunkin donuts coffee is the best gift you can give to someone ;-)

10. Comfortable furniture- We are oh-so-happy to have a furnished apartment because we don’t have to worry about getting rid of furniture when we are ready to move onto our next adventure. However, coming home and flopping down on a wooden bench is just about as good as it sounds---it BLOWS. If you have a comfortable couch enjoy it for us!

You buy bracelet?

So far this week has been wonderful and has helped us recharge for the second half of our term. We spent a long weekend in Sihanoukville, relaxed and organized our apartment today, and tomorrow, our first house guest will arrive.

On Saturday, we had a delicious breakfast of poached eggs, asparagus, bacon and Dunkin Donuts pumpkin spice coffee. Saturday morning at my house growing up was one of my favorite days because my mom would make us a “special breakfast”. Sometimes she would make poached eggs with cheese sauce, which is one of my all time favorite breakfasts. As I got older, I began to make my own breakfast and during college I became border-line addicted to Dunkin Donuts coffee. Most people go to the famous donut shop for tasty lumps of fried dough…but in my opinion, the best thing they have to offer is their pumpkin spice coffee. It is only available in the fall, so I usually stock up while I can. This year as soon as my friends began posting their fall activities on Facebook I immediately began salivating as I dreamed about a warm cup of my favorite beverage. After so many days of dreaming, I was pleasantly surprised to receive a box from my mom and dad filled with not one, but TEN bags of Dunkin Donut’s coffee. I wish Keith would have video taped me because I literally was squealing with delight like a small child on Christmas morning! And there it was…the start to our fabulous vacation—a breakfast that reminded me of home and a jam jar filled with steaming hot pumpkin spice. (yes, we drink from jam jars…recycling duh!)

After breakfast, we packed our bags and headed to the bus station to buy our ticket for the “4 hour” bus ride to Sihanoukville. I say “4 hours” because it ended up being more like 5.5 because we made several stops to drop off passengers along the dirt paths between Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville. Keith and I were prepared with our MP3 players filled with tunes for the road, a big bottle of water, and some snacks to tide us over until dinner. The bus stopped for 20 minutes for the passengers to stretch and “water the plants”. There technically was a bathroom, but it was probably safer to pop a squat. We hopped back on the bus and continued our drive when all of a sudden we saw a dog sprint across the road trying to dodge the charging bus…unfortunately it wasn’t fast enough. Of course I immediately began thinking about my baby dog Lilly and started feeling very sad for the unlucky pooch.

After a few more hours, we reached our final destination and got a tuk tuk to drive us to our hotel. We stayed at The Cambodian Resort which is one of the nicer hotels in the area. As soon as we walked in, we were greeted by friendly staff and fruity welcome drinks. Score! The hotel was nice and we were glad that we paid a little extra to have extras like A/C and a hot shower. Since we arrived a little after eight we decided to have dinner at the hotel restaurant (fresh barracuda with veggies) and call it a night.

The next few days were filled with swimming, sunbathing, napping, snorkeling 90 minute massages, and eating. We enjoyed many local fruits and of course the catch of the day. On the third day we went on an island tour by boat where we were able to swim, snorkel, eat fresh squid, and hunt for seashells. There was a cool spot where you could actually rent a small bungalow and sleep over night. In this area there were some dogs that seemed to be watchdogs until they smelled you a bit and then they were your best friend. The one was so cute and followed us as we walked back to the opposite side of the island. This island was really great because it wasn’t too big so we could explore without getting lost, and only about 40 or so people were on the island in total.

One thing that is not so great about the main beach at Sihanoukville is the number of merchants trying to sell a variety of items on the beach. Keith and I brought some books for a little beach reading, but couldn’t read more than a few paragraphs before being asked “You buy bracelet?”, “You want massage?”, “You buy fruit?”, “You need sunglasses?”. As frustrating as it was, I respected the people for their efforts to support their families legitimately. Poverty, drugs and prostitution are common in Cambodia, so even though these sales techniques were making it difficult to relax I tried to be patient and understand that the people are doing what they have to in order to make a living. Sometimes the aggressive tactics were a little much, especially by the children, but Keith and I gave them a little attention and they were on their way. We kept telling ourselves that we are doing the best thing we can by teaching the youth and providing them with education instead of a few Reil for a silly bracelet. On the last day, we realized that it was better to walk to the furthest part of the beach in order to get away from all of the sales people. It was a great way to end the trip and allowed us to leave on a very positive note.

We took a night bus back to Phnom Penh so that we were able to stay as long as possible. We purchased two tickets and waited for our bus to pick us up. When we got on, we realized that we were given the WORST seats on the bus all the way in the back…no reclining for us. I forgot to recharge my Ipod…so it died 20 minutes into the ride. Keith forgot to charge his laptop, so it died after 30minutes as well. We tried to sleep, but we were so uncomfortable so it was pretty much impossible. Keith got really motion sick, so he was pretty miserable. We decided that next time we take a bus we will request a better seat…it wasn’t great, but at least it was a shorter trip than the one we will be making later this year when we travel to Thailand. We were both happy to arrive safely back to our apartment.

Today we spent the day cleaning and organizing our apartment. Since it is a tropical climate here our floors are tile. Normally, I would love this, but since SwifferVacs don’t exist here, we have to sweep ALL THE TIME. So today, we did a lot of sweeping, scrubbing, and laundry. During the week we don’t have as much time to clean, and many weekends go by so quickly that we don’t get to deep clean that often, so today we cleaned like crazy. In between rooms we took some time to look through our pictures, make a few phone calls, and watch Junior Master Chef Australia (those kids rock!).

Tomorrow, our first guest will be arriving from Siem Reap. It’s funny the way life works sometimes…Last year in November I was eating dinner at my friend Lauren’s house when she told me her friend was teaching in South Korea. Now, that same friend has made her way to Cambodia where she will be stopping in for a few nights before heading back to the U.S.A. We are very excited to have her and hear about her experience teaching abroad.

We will put up another post in a few days so stay tuned. For now, enjoy some of our photos from our trip!

Xo,

Chantelle and Keith

Fancy Parties and Failing Students

Alas, we have made it halfway through the first semester of classes and through our first exams. About two weeks ago we both proctored our first exams for our older students and just this week we proctored our exams for our high school students. Next week is off for Water Festival and most students will be heading back to their home provinces, teachers have the week off as well.

The exams for the older students went very well and fortunately for my classes, no one failed the exam. Also, I was not forced to deduct any points for cheating or absences. Chantelle’s experiences were slightly different. Her students had more absences and she had one student who was obviously cheating. There is a big difference in culture at schools here in comparison to the United States. Here, the “Zero Tolerance” policy is not widely enforced; therefore, students typically start school with Khmer teachers who tend not to strictly examine students while they test. Some schools have absolutely no policy against cheating and students are allowed to pretty much take tests as a group. Fortunately, most of the students in our higher level classes have been under the policies of PUC for a few years now and know that they will lose large portions of points for even attempting to cheat. It is quite a different story with the high school classes.

Unfortunately yesterday my stomach was feeling upset, so I wasn’t able to proctor the exam for the first high school class. A substitute was able to cover for me. Today when I went in to proctor my second class’s exam, I found out the office had printed and gave me a totally different exam than what I had written for the class. So, both the students and I had a surprise when we looked at the exam for the first time. The information was on everything we covered in the chapters, but the questions were set up completely different and with different sentences for each section. A listening and writing section were also added. During the exam, I was forced to mark down at least 6 papers for cheating, each of them was even given a warning, yet they continued to cheat. We will see how this affects them in the long run.

As it goes for the social life, we attended the birthday of our friend Soma Norodom last weekend on Diamond Island. It was a pretty spectacular event that included appearances from many famous Khmers. Many of the attendees were from the Royal Family. There were also several bands, actors, and break dancers for entertainment and everyone got to walk in on a giant red carpet and immediately start getting pictures taken. We later found out that the pictures were being used in the Phnom Penh Post newspaper’s Socialite section. The majority of the party guests were friends and associates of Soma’s, who were of all walks of life. It was a pretty unbalanced ratio of Westerners (like ourselves) to Khmers. We were starting to believe that the entirety of the Caucasian population of Cambodia was in attendance. The food was served Khmer style on large platters for everyone to share from. They started us with fresh fruit, cheese, and breads, followed by fried noodles, followed by penne pasta in tomato sauce, followed by duck with rice, followed finally by birthday cake. I believe I ate about half the duck and most of the rice because no one seemed to be that interested in it. There were about 250 guests at the party and upwards of 50+ wait staff. The whole event ended up looking like a wedding based on how it was set up.

Thus ends the adventures of the last couple of weeks. We will be taking our vacation in a town called Sihanoukville at the ocean in the southern part of Cambodia. We will make sure to take plenty of pictures and post them within the next couple of weeks!

Birthdays, Spider Bites, and Traffic Jams

The past two weeks have been absolutely crazy. We have had celebrations, illness and small accidents. Everyday has been filled with surprise, some better than others.

Last weekend we celebrated my 24^th birthday. We had a group of friends over for a little party, followed by karaoke and dancing. Karaoke in the USA is so different from Cambodia. We were expecting the usual local bar filled with mediocre singers and a lot of drunk people. What we got was a private room where we could sing to some American songs accompanied by weird music videos. It was definitely an interesting experience J. After karaoke, a few of us went to a local club for some dancing. We remembered our keys this time, so no attempts were made to climb over the gate to our apartment’s entrance.

Unfortunately, after such a great night out I became sick with a head and chest cold that was an unwelcomed present from one of my students. As if a cold wasn’t enough, I also got a nasty spider bite that I had an allergic reaction to. I tried to be tough a make it through the week before I went to a clinic, but I couldn’t wait because after 5 days the itching had to stop! I wasn’t sure what the huge, swollen, itchy spot was, but I knew it was not getting better with the over-the-counter medications I was using. Literally, the spot grew to the size of a baseball on my stomach…gross! Keith and I made our way to a highly recognized international clinic to seek medical advice. At least now we know where to go if we become seriously ill.

As a birthday present to myself, I bought a used bicycle so that I could get around town faster. Walking in the heat is exhausting and paying for rides to nearby destinations is not only impractical, but expensive over time. Keith also got a bike and today we got helmets to protect our valuable brains. If any of you have ever traveled to a third world country, you probably understand when I say that life here is extremely unorganized. The streets don’t have many stop signs or lights and when they do most people don’t think that they mean anything. That being said, walking, riding bikes, and driving vehicles becomes very difficult. Everyday our senses are in overdrive making sure that we don’t get run over by another person. At times it is very scary, but being in this situation has made us both thankful for our traffic laws and vigilant police officers.

This weekend we have been recovering from an exhausting week. We both needed a lazy weekend after the madness. Tomorrow we are back to the grind and will be up to our necks in lesson plans and grading. Hopefully this week will go smoother than the last and we will both stay healthy.

Short, sweet, and SpicY

This week was short and sweet with a little spice at the end. We had a five-day weekend due to the national holiday Pchom Ben, which is Cambodia’s equivalent to Memorial Day. Since we have been spending more than we were making we didn’t go anywhere, but we did enjoy spending some time with our fellow teachers. On Monday, we finally got a few more classes to teach and are feeling much better about the whole situation. Keith now is up to about 15 hours per week and I am at about 22 just with English. Next week Keith will get more hours in English and I will begin teaching my Environmental Science class. The only downside to more classes is that they are all over town. I will be traveling to 4 different campuses, at least 3 per day and Keith is at 3 for now. For the most part we are very excited to have a full schedule because there was only so much Wipe-Out, NCIS, and Master Chef that we could handle everyday.

This weekend we attended a new teachers meeting on Saturday morning. We met some new people and learned about how things work around here. We were told that most semesters begin the same way—with utter chaos. We also learned that six teachers did not show up for the semester, which caused an even bigger headache for the administration. There are over 600 English classes every day, so there are a lot of people to organize. After the meeting we relaxed for a little before Keith left for Bokator. He is really enjoying training and is getting better each week. We decided to celebrate our new teaching gig with a dinner out at a place called Villa Khmer. The restaurant has very swanky décor, but is not super expensive so we could celebrate without feeling too guilty for spending too much. After dinner we met up with some friends at a local bar for some live music and drinks. We listened to a famous band called the Cambodian Space Project. The band is made up of people from around the world with a female Khmer singer. They were good, but we didn’t understand a thing! After a hop to another bar we rode home to find that we were LOCKED OUT of our apartment! It made us feel safe knowing that they lock our apartment entrance at night…but a bit frustrated because it was late and we wanted to go to bed. After Keith attempted to climb over the fence a few times we gave up and paid $10 to stay at a guesthouse down the street. Normally, the guesthouse requires that you show your passport and pay in advance, but since our passports were locked in our apartment and we only had a few dollars we had to explain our situation to the front desk attendant. After a few minutes they told us that we could pay in the morning and handed us a key. Today we cleaned our apartment, went to the market to pick up a few things, looked around for some cushions for our wooden couch, and relaxed. Keith went to bokator again, but it rained so they weren’t able to get a full practice in. Tonight we had spaghetti with meat sauce because we received a wonderful care package from Lisa (Keith’s mom) filled with all sorts of gluten free goodies and 3 bags of Dunkin Donuts coffee. When we opened it I jumped around the kitchen and squealed like a little girl! Hooray!

This week we will get a taste of how the rest of the semester will be as we run around town like busy little bees. On Thursday Keith and I will be heading to a restaurant that we have wanted to go to since we arrived to celebrate my birthday! We also decided to have a little party at our apartment on Saturday next weekend with some of our newfound friends. We will be pretty busy, so we may not write a post for a week or so. We hope you all are well and are thinking of you!

Xxoo,

Chantelle and Keith

First week of school

After sweating it out…literally…we have started teaching at Pannasastra. It has been a pretty interesting first week and we are looking forward to see what happens the rest of the term.

At 5pm on Monday night we FINALLY received our class schedules, only to learn that we would only have two classes for the first two weeks. It’s a bit frustrating but we are dealing with it. After picking up our schedules and dry erase markers we looked over our teaching manuals and began to plan our lessons.

On Tuesday we went to pick up our textbooks and then made our way to our classes at another campus. Fortunately we can walk to campus in about 15 minutes. We are relying on our legs until we can afford to buy a bicycle. Our first classes were pretty slim, as many of the students were still trying to figure out which campus had classes available to fit their schedules. My class only had 2 students and Keith’s had about 20. After all students are finished enrolling we are supposed to have an average of 30 students in each class.

Since neither of us had a full class and many students still needed to pick up their textbooks we didn’t complete our first lessons until Wednesday. My class is learning about kiwis (the bird) and camels with a focus on understanding how to use singular and plural nouns as well as differentiate nouns, verbs, and adjectives. It’s so weird to go back and break down everything that I say, because on a daily basis I don’t think, I just speak. Thank goodness I had good teachers and a persistent mother with an English degree.

Thursday I had two classes, one with students who are college aged and the other with high school students. The college aged students are the one’s I mentioned previously who are learning about kiwis and camels. These students meet M-F for 1.5 hours. The high school students only meet M/Th for 1.5 hours. They are learning about different types of addictions such as caffeine and gambling. The interesting thing is that the high school lessons seem more advanced, but what I think the difference is, is that the high school lessons introduce topics and the college lessons refine the grammar…who knows really. We haven’t been given any instruction on how to run the classes, we are given complete trust and control. Hopefully we don’t totally screw up!

Friday was pretty easy. We both only had one class so we had most of the day to do what we wanted. My class played a game using the vocabulary that they had learned during the week and had them practice determining the words that were nouns and adjectives. It went pretty well and the students seemed to enjoy it.

This weekend we gave our apartment a deep clean and watched some new movies that we bought from a local dvd shop. We have Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off for a holiday, but since we aren’t making very much money we are stuck hanging out in our apartment and touring the area by foot. It’s not exactly how we had envisioned our time here, but we are trying to make the best of it. Hopefully this coming week we will be given more English classes. On October 12 I will begin teaching Environmental Science at another campus. I am pretty excited for this since it is more like what I was expecting. I am supposed to be teaching health science next semester, but since things have been off to a bit of a rocky start I’m not so sure that this will happen. We will give you all an update when we hear more news. For now cross your fingers and wish us good luck…if not, we may be seeing you sooner than April J…

Xo,

Chantelle and Keith