Today's lunch conversation

Me: what's so funny
Kasame: we laugh at Kru Nuu
Me: why
Kasame: today Kru Nuu forget teach
              he walk around school
              he look at uhhh... what is het in english?
Me: mushroom?
Kasame: ahh yes mushroom haha
Kru Nuu: haha yes i nong (confused)
Everyone: hahahah

haha for some reason i feel like in the states a certain someone would be getting fired after this converstation but its thailand so mai pen rai

Cambodia!

A month ago I was fortunate enough to make a trip to Cambodia. I had originally planned a 5 day trip but due to some luck in the calander, it turned out to be a 10 day trip. Though my time in Cambodia doubled, I would soon realize that 10 days couldn’t even scratch the surface.

There were 7 of us WorldTeach volunteers on this trip, all first timers to Cambodia. I was a bit hesitant to travel with this many people but it was a laid back group so in the end I had no regrets. One of the high lights of the trip for me was the first 3 hours in Cambodia on the  taxi ride from the border to Siem Riep. I sat in the front seat with our Cambodian driver, Choy, while midway thru the trip the 3 other volunteers passed out in the back. I stayed awake the entire trip determined not to miss a sight and was rewarded with many. One of the top sites had to be a moped driving by with 3 huge dead pigs strapped to the back seat on their backs with their legs dangling up in the air. (Haha, oh the things you see on mopeds have yet ceased to amaze me).

Anyways back to the ride. Choy hardly spoke a word of English, but we soon realized that he did speak some Thai! So we chatted with him for a little bit using our limited knowledge of thai. Our vocabulary quickly diminished and the conversation slowed. But before this trip I had promised myself that I would always learn a few basic phases before traveling to another country. So I tried a few out on Choy, and though he was not very impressed with my pronunciation, he was excited that I was trying.  So for the rest of the ride while the others slept, he taught me some basic Khmer phrases using the only common language we had… Thai! I was so impressed with myself for not only learning some Khmer, but learning it through only speaking Thai!

As much as I enjoyed learning Khmer with Choy, im not ready to say that a taxi ride was the highlight of my trip to Cambodia. But I will say the highlight of the trip, and one of the sole reasons for the trip, was our time spent at Ankor Wat and all the other ruins. My fourth grade vocabulary can’t begin to describe with words how amazing it was. The scale, the detail, the physics, the age, the beauty… all mind blowing. So enough words, here are just a few pictures of the highlights from our trip.

still missing a few pictures from the last few days but ill put them up when i get to it

5 o’clock traffic!

for the past two months, this has been the seen on the road behind my school.

 Prior to this semester, this road was rarely used but now it is the rice planting season and so everyone and their mother heads out to the fields to help out. So on my evening jogs, these are some of the friendly faces that I pass during the 5 o’clock traffic in my village.

the traffic is a far cry from… just about everywhere else. maybe one of the only places where i look forward to the 5o'clock traffic

Don't Blink

Shit i just did! there goes july! wow i can't believe how quick this semester is melting away. and i mean literally melting. it has been upper 90's and into the 100's for most of the semester. the only saving grace is that it is also the rainy season. most days get cooled off by a storm and so i am only dipping sweat onto my students papers while i am trying to help them, for only half the day. Anyways i know its been almost a month since my last blog (largely due to lack of internet) and too much has happened this month to go back and explain it all but here are a few pictures to show what i have been up too (more pictures will be posted on photobucket this weekend)


my students dressed up as fictional characters from stories written by one of the most
revered Thai poets




students putting their candles in the big center piece thingy



my students lined up in the candle vigle during a three day meditation retreat




an entrance to one of the temples at Angkor Wat





this was my favorite temples Ta Prohm, aka the jungle wat



look familiar?
this spot was in one of the scenes from "Tomb Raider" with Angelina Jolie