I just wanted to let ya'll know that I did have my share of Christmas greetings this year. I have included some here for your viewing pleasure.

I received a gift that was possibly from all the people in one class, which was a wind-up musical thing that had a ferris wheel type thing with tiny bears that spun around and flowers and wishes of good luck.

My host brother gave me a stuffed, pink hippo which I have now named Alfred.

I got various pieces of candy and gum from random students.

A card from a student: On the front "Congratulations" Inside "To: My good teacher and sister. In happy winter Solstice day, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year 2009. I wish you alway get happiness, good health, successful, properity in your whole family."

Text from a student 11pm Christmas Eve: "Good evening teach.were u sleeping?if u are not yet please prepare to recieve my wishes.all ur dreams come true.more healthier and more beautiful."

Texts from co-teachers: "Hi! Happy marry christmas! I wish u meet good luck, good health and successful of all working."

"HI! Merry Chrismas and Happy New Year 2009 i wish the god gets u n family a success, healthy, wealthy, happiness, Lucks...n may god bring u a real full love.especially wish u get more n more beautiful.Be enjoy your day."

Ok, it is now time for funny stuff.

Writing from students.

At the end of a letter asking me to excuse two students who had to work on a project: “Please teacher apology us by giving us a permission in spite of there are some thing wrong with our writing. Thank you!”

From essays about pastoralists, or people who raise animals for a living.

Interesting Vocabulary: “And we can use the shit for fertilizer.”

Confused vocabulary (two points if you know what word he meant to use): “Most people in Cambodia like to pet the animals such as pig, cow, duck and buffalo...In contrast, among of people are still petting these two kind of animals. I think, people should pet the livestock because it can improve economics and help in job.”

And now....drum roll please....The Cheesecake Saga.

In honor of the fake International Cake Day several MCC staff had a small get together. Christa decided to make cheesecake. I fully supported that idea, and played my usual role of sometime helper (a.k.a. tag-along).

So the first step was obviously to get ingredients for the cake. Not as easy as you might think in a country with a large suspicion of dairy. After visiting a couple of the usual ex-pat-ish grocery stores we got directions to a third and headed off in full confidence for Pencil, which we had been to once before and so felt confident that we would recognize it when we saw it. Once we the upper northern limits of the city we thought we might have past it somehow. After calling several people we realized we were on the wrong street entirely. But on our backtrack route we found the other grocery store, which did have cream cheese, so all was saved.

Once back at the office we proceeded to make the cheesecake. I peeled some mangos for the topping: one ripe, the other was more mouth-puckeringly unripe. While I was calmly using the very dull knife to fling mango peel everywhere except the trash can strategically placed beneath my hands, Christa set about to mix the cream cheese. She was very excited by the discovery of a mixer in the cupboard, so she stuck that in the bowl with the somewhat softened cream cheese and then went to plug it in.

That was the point when I laughed harder than ever before, as the mixer immediately turned on high speed, flung itself out of the bowl and began jumping all over the floor, all the while spraying cream cheese bits all over the floor and walls. Christa had the presence of mind to quickly unplug the rogue mixer, which was good, because I was lying on the floor completely incapacitated by tears. Five minutes later, when we were finally able to move again, Christa calmly picked up all the cream cheese chunks off the floor and supposedly scraped off the dirty parts before returning them to the bowl and continuing with the process.

That was the end of the major mishaps, but the only other hurdle in the cake process was getting both it and ourselves to the Talstra's house. Christa decided we should drive instead of take a motodupe. Which meant that I held the cheesecake wrapped in a towel while she searched for a helmet she could steal that didn't have a face guard that would blind her in the dark. She was moderately successful and managed to keep the shield up while on the paved road, but once we hit the bumpy dirt roads it fell down every other second.

Deciding that this was not a sustainable state of affairs, I spent the time when I wasn't flying off over the unseen bumps to hold the shield up with my “free” hand, and mostly just prayed that the cheesecake wouldn't also be jarred from my tenuous grip. But once we arrived safely the cheesecake, as well as all the other cakes tasted delicious. The only step that remained was the recounting of the story to everybody else, involving more crying on my part.

Ok, so my blog is now far beyond overdue, but I'm not feeling super guilty because I don't think people read it. Now whether that is a cause or an effect of my laziness is a point that is open for debate.

Teaching is going ok, though recent tests I gave did not score as well as could be hoped for. Also, I detest grading workbooks and have thought about suspending homework altogether so I wouldn't have to grade them. Better keep the day job, I'm not so sure about this teaching thing in the long run. Maybe if I actually understood what I was teaching and didn't cringe from any student questions. Some of my classes do keep me going though, with a level of personality that I appreciate, even if it does get us off track sometimes.

The other big news is that I am changing host families. My previous family had to move out of the city for pragmatic reasons, so in a few days I will be moving in with a different family. They live a little bit further away, but still conveniently close to the MCC office.

My moto driving skills are slowly improving, but I still get mocked about that subject and probably always will given that I made such reputation for myself early on. My language skills are also improving, hopefully I will get more chance to practice when I move in with my new family.

I am enjoying celebrating the Advent season by attending an Anglican church and going to various concerts. I'm also trying to help plan the MCC Christmas Party, so we'll see how that goes.

I will hopefully post again before Christmas, but knowing me...it might not happen. But I wish a very Merry Christmas to anyone happening to read this.