Getting more comfortable here

On the ferry with Anika, shes also doing some work for IDE but sadly had to go back to the US
On a ferry over the Mekong to Svey Reing
Lunch with Tammy who I met in at the hotel in Phnom Penh

Very Random Drag show I saw with a bunch of people saturday night-yup thats a dude- bet you didnt expect that to show up on this blog, more pictures later but Im running out the door to grab some dinner!!

I feel a lot more comfortable in my new city this week. I can’t believe another week has passed! This week I have made some new friends, looked at lots of apartments, done some work, traveled out to Svey Rieng, worn holes in my city map and scoped out some fun places to shop!

I can barely remember last Monday at this point- but I did see an apartment that was about as far from what I was looking for that day, so that was a bit of a let down. But I have enjoyed many luxurious dinners al fresco in big wicker chairs with cushions. I will have to take some pictures because when I have a house with outside space, I want it to look like that. This city is a fusion of rough edges and sprawling luxury. There are places that are best not frequented like the areas near the smelly canal and tight alleyways filled with motos and mechanical shops, but there are also so many delightful places that I can stay all day in, like the fantastic cafes here and grand avenues that you could stroll down if it isn’t too hot and sunny out.

As my second week here comes to a close, and the third one starts (because Im late posting this) I am so relieved to feel a noticeable difference in my comfort level with living in this city. I’ve done a lot this week. I have been doing a lot of reading for my literature review about Cambodian culture, and even traveled out to Svey Rieng, a town near the border of Vietnam, where my work has a lot of projects going. I did a lot more apartment searching and have even picked up on a few words of Khmer. I’ve enjoyed having a lot of great conversations with travelers and my new friends her alike! I didn’t really do anything touristy this week but I feel like I am getting to know this place a little better!

I’m home. I have finally moved in and am enjoying my first night in my new apartment. I didn’t spend too much time here tho because I am still getting used to having the place to myself. I sorely miss the company of other travelers at my previous home here, the mad monkey, but I like the fact that I can come back to a clean and quiet place that is all mine. I brought two stuffed animals with me on this trip, and I vowed I wouldn’t take them out of my bag until I had gotten an apartment. Well, I broke down and took Spike the porcupine out a few days ago and snuggled with him at the hotel, but I didn’t take out the other animal until today. It made me realize that home is where you lay your head. I made the Mad Monkey my home and have spent many more nights there than I have at my apartment thus far. Despite my yearning for a new place I do miss the familiarity and smiling faces that greeted me every time I walked into the hotel. The nice this is that I can go back anytime I want and grab a drink and lounge on the couches at the rooftop bar! Calling this apartment home is not to mean that my home isn’t still with my friends and family back in Boston. It is merely a way to create a bit of comfort here since I will be living here for six months. I like the feeling of living somewhere rather than the feeling of traveling through some place. I enjoy going to the same café week after week and seeing familiar faces around the neighborhood. Yet here in Cambodia I get to have both. I continue to get more and more familiar with the city and have been trying new places to eat, but also I have been going back to some of the same ones that I really like.

Tonight I tried a new place over by the riverside. It is called Le Moon, and is a rooftop café. I saw it advertised in one of the little travel guide books they have here. The atmosphere was really nice, you can easily people-watch, see all of the cars driving up and down the street and the boats floating down the Mekong. Unfortunatly the wasn’t that good and it was a bit overpriced, it also was the first place that I have found that doesn’t serve you a glass of water with your meal, as is customary here, for their largest bottle of water they were asking $6.00. To give you some perspective on how ludicrous that is, one could eat three local meals of noodles or rice for that price, take 6 moto rides across town or eat the equivalent of two large breakfasts at any other restaurant. I got a pineapple shake instead which wasn’t that overpriced and cost about $3.00. On my way home I stopped at the little market on my street and bough a 2 litre bottle of water and a 6pack of toilet paper and that cost me under two dollars, with the bottle of water costing just 50 cents.

Anyhow that place wasn’t even worth writing about. A much more worthy place is Blue Pumpkin. It is a café that serves up breakfast, lunch, and dinner and some deserts that look to die for. The nice thing about Phnom Penh is that there is no shortage of great coffee shops to sit in and there is always a tasty treat and a cup of coffee near by. Blue Pumpkin takes the cake! It is situated right on the riverside and the upstairs part of the café provides the perfect vantage point to take in the riverside views but away from the glaring sun. Their café is lined with the comfiest bed-like sofas that come complete with pillows a plenty and your own tray- like the kind you would eat breakfast in bed with!. I spent hours there on Saturday eating some lunch and reading my book.

Some cultural observations if you will: In some places instead of napkins they will give you a box of very thin and scented tissues to wipe your hand with, this usually leads to me having a rather sizable pile of them stacked on my plate by the end of the meal! Even if you have just gotten off of a tuk tuk or moto bike some one will inevitably yell towards you “Tuk Tuk, Lady?” I hear it about 20xs a day and sometimes I scowl and sometimes ignore them and sometimes I say “no thanks.”

One must go against everything you have been told since a little child in regards to crossing the street. You see Asian traffic patterns are much MUCH different than American ones. People cut people off here all of the time, but it doesn’t bother them one bit, they just either wait or cut around someone else. Road rage doesn’t exist here. It was explained to me that in many Asian cultures they feel that they are part of a community and don’t have the same strong sense of indidivudalism that Americans are raised to have. They don’t have the concept of its my space or its my turn, they just get from place to place how ever they can. So when crossing the street one must just stroll out into traffic at a slow and steady pace and the traffic will just flow around you, unfettered by the obstacles- being you and other people, dogs, heaps of trash, etc… in their paths. The trouble comes, when you slow down or hesitate because then it will spook the oncoming drivers and then you might get into some trouble. Another fascinating thing is to observe the driving habits of the tuk tuk driver or moto drive you are with. If they are trying to take a left, and the traffic is heavy, they will most certainly turn left into oncoming traffic until they can make their way over to the right side of the road, and this works everytime because they cars just drive around as obstacles come at them. A word on rotaries, or roundabouts as some people call them: I always thought that traffic was supposed to flow in one direction, I know that people in Massachusetts sometime have a hard time grasping the concept of merging into to rotaries in a timely fashion, but mostly everyone drives the same direction around them. Well my friends that rule does not apply here. Since Cambodia is a former French colony, there are many wide and large rotaries similar to the ones that can be found in France. If you have not visited either Cambodia or France, Imagine one 3-4 x’s as wide as an American rotary. So, if a driver doesn’t feel like driving all the way around the rotary to get to the offshoot that he needs, he will just simply drive the other way and cut directly across the rotary, once again cars just all drive around one another weaving to a fro. This strategy is in part made possible by the very wide rotaries.

This coming week I plan to make it to and from work, on my very own. Hopefully with a little practice, some key khmer words and a map I can make it there and back! I will also continue to work on my research, hang out with new friends and settle into my new place!

Buddhism

Monk Prayer time!


I have really enjoyed seeing monks walk by every morning and visited one temple today!

I even prayed with one monk! I love that they wear bright orange!

My first week

My first ride on a tuk tuk!
The driving gets even more chaotic in the rain- which happens almost each afternoon! everyone dons ponchos and carries on their way!


A cute kitty for connie- my lunch kitty - there was another one too that looked just like it too!
This was my very first lunch here in Cambodia -my lunch kitty accompanied me for this very first meal! It was noodles with chicken and some salad greens mixed in. It would have been nicer if it was hot but it was still tasty. I am slowly mastering the art of eating with chopsticks

This week has been a rollercoaster. I was pretty terrified showing up but everyone I have met has made me feel really welcome. The office is nice and my work there is slowly taking shape. Mostly I have been doing a lot of reading to inform me about the culture and the topic that I will be working on- which is related to gender and agricultural entrepreneurship. The whole office shuts now each day for a really long lunch break which may very well be my favorite part of the day. The food here is pretty good. I have been given some suggestions on where to eat and it is just a matter of time before I am able to try them all. I am surprised at the familiarity of some of the food, I have had pancakes with bacon, and a to die for brownie, as well as some decent pizza and some pretty tasty eggs benedict here!

I have just started to explore in the last day or two because most days I have just come home after work and fallen asleep. I think I am finally getting a handle on the jet lag. I did have a few unpleasant mornings when I woke quite early and couldnt fall back asleep.

I have taken the tuk tuk- a little asian taxi a couple of time which has been kind of fun and better than walking around in the heat and getting lost.

Getting around in this city is always an adventure. My work- IDE has been nice enough to come pick me up and drop me off each day, until I can figure things out here. Being a passenger in a car is always a spectacle. The driving patterns are much different here. One one waits for an opening in traffic or you would be there all day! You just ease out into the madness and cars and motos, tuk tuks and bikers make way. I would describe is as a chaotic ballet. The same goes for crossing the street!

I had breakfast with a new friend I met thru an expat site this morning and then wandered around and went to a Buddhist temple. It was so beautiful it brought me to tears. I had a pretty emotional afternoon becasue I still feel really unfamiliar in this city and it made me miss home and all of my family and friends soo much! But then I wandered around and went to the Central market which was a bit underwhelming. But at least I saw it and know what is there.Which is a lot of household good, clothes, books, jewelery, watches and sunglasses- and a bunch of stuff I just dont need! I may go back to purchase some silver jewelery but first I will need to find out what a fair price is for silver so I dont get ripped off. I will look in some of the other markets for some Cambodian souvenirs and some wonderfully baggy and flowy asian pants I have seen so many people wearing!

I have spent the majority of the afternoon hanging out in one of the neighborhood coffee houses which has been nice and relaxing. Lucking there are many places you can duck into that are air-conditioned and block out the noisy outdoors.

Arrival to the other side of the world

So the pictures are uploaded in reverse order so start from the bottom and scroll up - maybe Ill do it differently next time, but above is the sun set on the flight from from Seoul to Phnom Penh
I didnt take business class tho I would have been nice on such a long trip!
The slippers they gave me on the 13 hr haul from LA to Seoul!
Korea from the Air
I was however lucky enough to score a first class upgrade on the first leg of my flight on Virgin America! It was a pretty sweet way to start my trip! the seat fully reclined- perfect for napping!

Well I survived the three long plane flights it took to get here but now I have to survive the jet lag! I am staying at the Mad Monkey Hotel here in Phnom Penh which is a fine place to stay until I have an apartment. I am eager to get settled and unpack my bags once I have a place to live. I met some nice people while in transit. One girl was on her way to travel around South Korea and Japan, and another has come to Phnom Penh to work in an orphanage. I was so excited/ nervous when I got off of my last plane that I forgot to take any pictures at the airport that say welcome to Cambodia! But I have taken pictures from my trip along the way and have taken a few since I have gotten here. So far things are going smoothly and better than my stint in Ghana, although I dont know if I can really compare them, but there are some similarities and differences.

I have met mostly everyone here at the IDE office where I will be doing my practicum and everyone is very welcoming! I have my own desk in an air condidtioned office and am excited to start actually working once I have gotten enough sleep and can think straight.

The weather is hot but not so unbearable, but then again I havent been walking around so much just yet.

A Visit With Bryn

My visit this weekend reinforced the importance of keeping in touch with close friends. I enjoyed catching up with Bryn. We both agreed it had been too long since we had seen each other. We laughed and exchanged stories, hers about medical school and mine about school children.

I summoned all of my energy to go out and celebrate Bryn’s and Ben’s birthdays at a bar in Philadelphia. I was proudly introduced as Bryn’s friend from college who had driven all the way down from Massachusetts. I stayed up late, danced to the music, talked with Bryn’s friends over the music and saw Ben burn his finger in the processes of taking a flaming shot of liquor.

After sleeping in the next day and enjoying the breakfast that Ben made for all of us, Bryn and I headed back to Collingswood to relax for the afternoon. She showed me around a spacious park lined with mansions and filled with greenery. We walked around town and I bought a really pretty necklace and enjoyed some really tasty sushi. We shared a chicken tempura sushi that had a coconut sauce and mango on the top. We each had an additional roll. I had a shrimp tempura with tuna and mango. It was a great afternoon. We talked more about the next few years that lay ahead us. I explained that I would have the opportunity to travel abroad for six months with my graduate program in order to gain another perspective on development. We talked about long-term goals and short term and how we were both going to fit it all into our lives. Bryn explained that she will start her fourth year of medical school shortly and will have the flexibility to travel and practice medicine in various parts of the world. She mentioned going to Oregon and practicing rural medicine and then possibly going to Argentina.

I told Bryn that I was trying to learn Spanish, she has taken many years of it so he helped me practice. We discussed many words for vegetable and how to say that the cat wants melon, since we were eating melon and her cats were around.

We also had the chance to catch up on the past few years of life. Bryn showed me photos from her month spent in Nepal. How awe inspiring it was to see life on the other side of the world. Bryn is a constant inspiration to push myself further and get the most out of life. We chatted about how our families were doing, it was nice to hear how they are doing and share stories about my family.

Saturday night Bryn, Ben and I went to the Pop Shop in town. It was such a cute little diner. I ended up getting a dish called my private Idaho. It had tons of hash browns smothered in cheese and topped with sunny side up eggs. It was tasty but Bryn shared a couple of bites of her grilled cheese and that was to die for buttery tastiness. It was really generous of her to share. After dinner we headed to Rita's and I got Swedish Fish slush with vanilla soft serve on top. It was shocking how much the slush actually tasted like the candy!

Bryn, along with her boyfriend Ben told be about one of their female classmates that was helping out on a procedure on a male patient’s hip. The doctor in charge asked the girl if she could lift up the panis (the medical term for the fat that folds over on one’s stomach when one is overweight) The med student misheard the doctor and lifted up and held the penis up instead. I can only imagine the laughter that must have taken place that day, but did laugh myself as they told me the story.

It was a trip I will remember for a long time to come.

Job excitement, anxiety

It has been a pretty jam packed two days. It seems like forever ago, but yesterday afternoon I a very pleasant experience at the farmers market. I got off work early and was home in time to walk through the farmers market that happens every Monday and goes until 6 pm. I sampled some of food, had a nibble of Taza chocolate and spilled strawberry jam on my shirt. The last stall I stopped at had a lot of fish products, but also hummus. I tried the hummus which was fantastic, as far as hummus goes and exclaimed to the gentleman working at that stall that I was excited to be able to come to the farmers market since by the time I get home the farmers market will be over. He asked what I did for work and proudly exclaimed that I worked for Americorps! He didn't know what that meant so I told him. It was the first time in my work history that I have been excited to tell someone what I do for work. In the past I have always been embarrassed about my job, and granted a job is a job and sometimes they are terrible and you just do it to pay your rent, but I am soooo happy to have a job that I love. I am excited to get up and go to work everyday. Its a really great feeling that I savor every second of the day. I never look at the clock and count down the minutes. Sometimes different parts of the day can drag on but on the whole I love my job so far.

That being said, I am still in orientation and haven't started the actual position that will occupy 1785 hours of my life from now until June. Too many people want positions in the Elementary school and not enough people want to work in the preschool. I have gone back and forth trying to weigh the differences and pros and cons between the programs. Part of me thinks that it might be fun to work in the preschool and that I should just volunteer to choose that position, but the other part would really enjoy working at the elementary school. I have decided to leave it up to the program directors to decide for me. I will make the best of what ever position I get. It's one of those situations where you just can't have it both ways and will miss out on somethings but there is good to be had in both situations. I will write more on the topic once I know my position. That being said, I REALLY hope I get the elementary school. I really want to tackle all of the challenges it poses, but preschool could be fun and I would get to reach out and help more kids with that program.

We had a really engaging training this afternoon. It was all about asset development. It discussed the 40 assets that kids need to develop to thrive and grow in to successful adults. We talked about which assets we developed in our youth and discussed ways to help foster assets with the kids we will be helping. I really liked how it was broken down into 8 different areas. I liked seeing it on paper, because a lot of the assets are things you know a kid needs like love, shelter and support but it broke down the reasons as to why these were needed and how they helped a child develop in to a well-rounded adult.

On an entirely different note I wanted to mention how much fun I had last night at Grendel's Den with Ryan, Mariana, Erika, Annabell and Sasha from Russia. I went intending on only having a beer and socializing for a short while, but it ended up with Sasha ordering us many a beverage. I had a lot of fun talking with so many different kinds of people and drinking drinks that don't usually indulge in. It was a memorable night full of excitement and laughter.

More about my new job!

My new job is not just with Americorps. It is co-funded and sponsored by Leaps in Literacy, Mass Service Alliance, and the Old Colony Y. Just FYI.