So admittedly I am not the best about keeping an updated blog. I guess part of me is stuck between living my everyday life, which is somewhat boring, and all the new and different things about living in a foreign country. And...the other part of me is pretty lazy.

So in the past few weeks I have been continuing to teach, when there isn't a holiday, which so far seems 50/50. I've learned a few more of my students names and been assigning very regular homework, much to their chagrin. Of course that leaves me with a pile of grading which I still have to go back and finish after this week-long holiday. Hopefully by this point I will be able to better know what their ability levels are and whether they are understanding anything I'm saying.

Over the long weekend a while back Christa and I headed out to Prey Veng in an effort to relax and ward off onsetting culture shock. We went for a bike ride in the afternoon and luckily didn't get rained on. I also got to go out moto riding with Scott and practice driving on unpaved, muddy roads. Quite a different experience than driving in Phnom Penh traffic.

This past weekend Christa, Amy and I headed up to the provincial town of Koh Kong. It is a pretty small town, but we were able to get out on motodupes to see some very nice waterfalls and beach.

Since then I have been back in Phnom Penh but have apparently come down with some kind of bug which prevented me from getting to see the boat races at the beginning of the week, but hopefully I'll get to see some later.

Ok, so I recognize that my last post was somewhat of a disgrace. So now I will tell you a little more general stuff, but also tell a coupe stories of the past week, which will probably provide a better idea of life here.
I did start teaching course material to my second year students, both the pre-intermediate and the intermediate levels. That went pretty well, as far as I can tell, but I don't really have any way to judge myself at this point. I also did first-day introductions with the year one students on Tuesday and Thursday. I think they got short shrift because I was slightly burned out on that by then. Hopefully I'll be able to do better next week (which is really only one day of lessons for each class because of holidays and an upcoming teacher meeting).

So now to stories, because that's better. The first one is actually from the week before, but important. So when we were walking back from lunch at the on-campus restaurant we saw a few boys in a circle yelling and pointing at something. Assuming it is a creature of some kind we make a small detour to get around and noticed a small snake. At that point however, one of the boys throws a rock at it, with surprisingly good aim, given how small the snake was. The snake's reaction to that was to sit up and form a small hood around his head. In turn, our response to that was to significantly increase the size of our detour around the snake. We did stop a safe distance away and thus were able to witness when the boys judged it wisest to kill it with their shoes. Luckily no one died except the snake. Later in that same day my wildlife encounters expanded to included the killing of a sizable scorpion in the classroom by one of my students.

On my first day of teaching my intermediate students I was attempting to teach about grammar that I didn't understand. I had two columns and was trying to get the students to classify different types of verbs. My advice to others is to consider what students suggest as answers before writing them on the board. Because then you will avoid having a student raise their hand to say “Teacher, those aren't verbs, they're adjectives.”

The staff bathroom near the English office has one key that we all use at various times. So one afternoon, a fellow teacher comes back and tells us that there is a snake in the bathroom. We were surprised and somewhat entertained by his casual attitude, explaining that it was very small. When we pondered what to do, his suggestion was: “I think we leave it there - that is its habitat.”

My last class of the week was in a different room that had no air conditioning. Fortunately the electricity was working so we were able to have the fans going full blast. This led to a unique discovery about the interaction of ceiling fans and skirts. My skirt was mid-length and fully lined, but in certain parts of the room it decided it wanted to be a parachute instead of a normal skirt. The students of course found it very entertaining, but I found it more challenging to teach class with one hand always occupied by counteracting the prevailing winds.

Teaching idioms is also a endeavor that leads to unique situations such as students raising their hands to say “Teacher, can you explain 'messing around' again?”

At the beginning of October we were finally able to give placement tests to year 2 and 4 students. Last week we started teaching two days a week and also gave placement tests to first year students. On Monday and Wednesdays I teach year two students, both pre-intermediate and intermediate. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I will be teaching first year students, also pre-intermediate level. Thus far I have only done introductory materials with my two classes, including playing games. The students seem very excited, so I am slightly worried what their reaction will be when we don't do that every day. This week I will start on the coursebook with those two classes, and more introductory stuff with the two new classes. With 25-30 students per class, I think it is going to take me a while to learn all the names.

Despite the best of intentions, we were not able to give the English placement tests as scheduled. Reason? No students came. Ok, to be fair, five students did show up, but we had to reschedule anyway. So now placement tests will be this next week instead. So in spite of my dearest wishes, I have yet to meet an actual student.

To console myself I took off for six days in Vietnam. Very early Saturday morning I took off with Carol, Amy and Christa. We spent about 8 hours on the bus to Ho Chi Minh city and were very excited to finally get off and eat dinner by the end. We also we lucky enough to secure a very nice guest house, which was clean and cheap, even if it was at the end of a very dark and sketchy ally. The next morning we took another bus up to the central highlands area of Dalat. The ride was enjoyable with very nice scenery, and spectacular when we found we could open the windows and actually feel downright chilly. The night in Dalat was actually cold enough to tempt us to buy socks and jackets, but we did resist.

On Monday we spent some time out on a small lake in the city. Very high-class, we rented paddle boats in the shape of swans. Defying my predictions, we did not fall through the bottom of the boat, despite numerous rusted holes. Later, after a fierce negotiation we took motodupes over a nearby hill and climbed down to a waterfall that was pretty amazing, as well as the continued chill that meant we could walk without sweating, such a novelty. In the afternoon Amy and I walked around a flower garden nearby which was filled with hydrangeas, much to my surprise and delight.

On Tuesday we returned to HCM (or Saigon) and spent time wandering the shops and checking out a jazz club. Wednesday we had a half-day trip out to the Cu Chi Tunnels, which are remaining fortifications from the American War. It was also very interesting to hear all of it talked about from a different perspective, aka, one that is at least nominally supportive of the VietCong. When we got back to the city we visited the War Remnants Museum which was also very sobering. Thursday we had a leisurely breakfast and reflected about the wonderful time we had before climbing back on yet another bus to head back home to Phnom Penh.

I've spent this weekend resting before the upcoming week of work. I've also been regularly feeding my new addiction: grilled bananas. Just five inches of hot, tasty banana. And you get five of them for $0.25, this is going to be hard to stop, but why would I?

This past week I spent time visiting MCC partner organizations in the province of Prey Veng. Christa and I traveled out by mini-bus on Saturday morning. After being dropped off and leading Carol on a wild chase in the pouring rain, we eventually met up and had lunch. Later we went and saw her spacious home, which we were lucky enough to stay in for the whole week. On Sunday we went to church and then had lunch with the Weiderkhers, a MCC family also living in Prey Veng. We later took a lovely afternoon bike ride and were chased home by the storm just in time.

On Monday morning we headed out to the district of Mesang to visit the Organization to Develop Our Villages (ODOV). The road out was considerably bumpy, at least according to Christa and I who were duping on the back of the motos. We were somewhat bow-legged by the time we got off two hours later. That afternoon we were able to hear about ODOV's work in the district as well as visit a finance meeting of a village bank. Once we arrived the focus shifted somewhat from finance to stare at the baraang (foreigner). The next morning we visited several local farms and were able to see the work being done on food security and diversification: not being completely dependent on rice production. After that we headed back to the town of Prey Veng. I rode with Charles, another MCC worker on the way back. We took a different road than before, and though it was less bumpy it was considerably more muddy. After the first spill in the mud I realized I might have to rinse off when we got back to the office. After the second, I provided much entertainment for all the people who we passed for the rest of the ride, being mostly covered in mud.

Wednesday was spent visiting Charles' partner, a village school some distance away. Because of the reputed poor road condition, we took a boat across the flooded plain to reach the village. This ended up being a slightly wetter experience than I anticipated, but I eventually dried off and really enjoyed seeing the primary school there and partaking in the community lunch at the pagoda.

During the week, Christa and I also spent time learning to drive moto ourselves and making preparations for the team meeting. Now that I am back in Phnom Penh, I will spend this week going over curriculum and helping administer placement tests in preparation for classes starting October 6. I'm also looking forward to a side trip to Vietnam this coming weekend. I'll be going over the Cambodian holiday of Pchum Ben with three other MCC workers, so that should be a very exciting time.