So today, a Saturday, I woke up early (I think it might be the first Saturday morning I've seen since I landed in Cambodia) and hit the Russian Market. I'd never been there early on a Saturday morning, and it was amazing! This city is so full of life so early!
Anyway, I had a list of things I needed to buy, and quickly, as I had somewhere to be at noon. It always takes sooo long to find things and buy things in the Russian Market so I was hoping to be able to purchase everything on my list in an hour or two. The Russian Market seems impossibly crowded, impossibly confusing, impossibly hot. Every shop looks the same, you can literally get lost inside of it, and the smell itself is enough to make the strongest shopper turn around and head for the relative comfort of Central Market. So no matter where I am dropped off at the Russian Market, I always try and find my way to my DVD shop. It is my home base and frame of reference. If I can find this one particular shop, I feel okay. I feel comforted in a way, every time I see this shop. Maybe it's because my first week here, waaaaay back in August--which feels like years ago--this DVD shop became the first place in Phnom Penh that I felt sane, helped, and even happy.
I was completely lost in the Russian Market that Saturday in August so long passed, and I stumbled upon this DVD shop. The girl working was about my age, and I had just had a near mental and emotional breakdown, trapped inside the sweltering heat and confusing aisles of the market. I saw this girl who looked so friendly and just told her everything. I told her I didn't know where I was, had just got here, and I didn't have any money on me. She helped me find an ATM, sold me the complete series of Mad Men, and just listened to me. She was one of the first people here I felt was my friend. Now, I will never buy a DVD anywhere else. I just look for that shop and feel like things will be okay.
Today I needed Christmas music for my students. (We're having a Christmas recital and they are going to sing and dance to "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.") I went to my DVD shop, which also sells CDs. I told the girl working, my friend, that Mom will be here to visit me in a few days, and she was so happy for me. She asked me how long I had been here now and could not believe it was almost 5 months! She said she remembered that first time I walked into her shop, anxious, scared and terribly confused. I said I remembered that day, too. She pulled up the various new releases I had requested last time I visited the shop and put them in a bag for me. She remembered every DVD I asked for, (movies still in the theaters in the US), and has even started to suggest titles she thinks I would like! Even though in all reality I am just a customer, she and I are friends. She could not possibly know what she did for me that day in August. The good luck and blessings I feel at that shop put me in a great place, and I went on to make a new friend at a shop around the corner. The woman working there ran around collecting things for me, and even added that she was so happy to help me because she'd seen me before and I was always so friendly. I actually don't think anyone has every called me "friendly" before (probably because in the US, I'm NOT). Another girl at a different shop gave me the price I asked for on a small bracelet without contesting or bargaining simply because, as she put it, I was her first customer and we will give each other good luck today. I left the Russian Market in under thirty minutes, having purchased everything on my shopping list, having seen an old friend and having made two new ones.
I need that good luck. We've got two more performances tonight of the Christmas pantomime (I am co-director) with the Phnom Penh Players. Have I conquered Phnom Penh? Not entirely. But I will happily give myself the small victories of successful market shopping, making friends, doing theater here, and being open to new people.
Friday, December 9, 2011
Monday, November 21, 2011
Thanksgiving Thoughts...
Happy almost-Thanksgiving, everyone! I suppose that is the theme of this entry...
It’s been a bit of time since my last update; these things just aren’t coming as easily as they once did. It’s hard to write about what you cannot accurately explain, even to yourself. And that is my life in Cambodia… hard to explain even to myself. The best way I am able to understand it right now is… I love Phnom Penh, somehow. Somehow I am able to love everything about this place. There is just something about this city and I grow to love it more and more each day. Each second, actually. Each day here seems to be better than the last. So I guess I can write about that, but that just seems like some sort of sickening exploration of personal joy, and who the hells wants to read a long blog entry about someone’s happiness?! It’s so much more interesting when things go wrong, isn’t it? Well, as I sit here and write that, I have to realize that nearly EVERYTHING goes wrong all the time here! It’s difficult and hilarious to complete even the simplest tasks, like visiting an ATM or getting a cup of coffee. But the weirdest situations slowly become… normal. Life in Cambodia is just Life now. So that might be why it’s hard to write about it. I am reluctant to simply share my life via my blog when, to me, things are routine here.
That being said, I suppose I can update a little bit on the actual goings on around here. The Water Festival has come and passed. I didn’t catch much of it as I was sick with a nasty cold in bed most of the week, but what I did see was a scaled down version of what was once the second-most exciting time of the year in Cambodia (the first being Khmer New Year in April). Last year at the Water Festival (held every year in November), several hundred people died in a stampede. Add that element in with the highest waters Cambodia has seen in ten years, and the Prime Minister had due cause to cancel the boat races down the Mekong this year. So, because of the cancelation of the races, and because of the tragedy of last year, far less people descended unto Phnom Penh than in normal years.
School is going better, which I suppose is relative given how bad it really was in the beginning. My boss said, point-blank, she was “surprised I hadn’t quit yet,” given I am a new teacher and have the “worst class she’s ever seen in seven years teaching in Cambodia.” The principal of the school refers to my students as the “insane asylum children.” I wish I were making this up. But after a month of absolute hell, my kids are slowly realizing I am NOT someone to be messed with or ignored. They are coming around, beginning to listen in class, and are even… sort of… growing on me. ☺
My work with the theater group the Phnom Penh Players is going well. Our Christmas pantomime family show, which I co-directed, is going up at a local venue in a few weeks. It is weird to be a bit less involved in production, namely, working as solely co-director, not writer, director, producer, promoter, actor, etc, etc, of a work. I can’t complain too much, it is a fun show and I’m looking forward to the week of production. Hopefully I can get my own work up through the Phnom Penh Players later this year. We shall see where this road takes me!
I have mentioned before in this blog that I had been going out at least once a week to an orphanage in the city to volunteer. Well my roommate, Shae, who introduced me to SFODA (Sacrifice Families and Orphan Development Association), has been going out there to volunteer for over a year, and because of her long hours and our collective interest in the organization, the Chief of Child Care offered us last week a voluntary position of the board of directors for the orphanage! We are officially going to be helping the orphans find sponsors to provide medical care (many of the children are HIV positive), school supplies, and adequate food. We will also attend board meetings to make sure we feel SFODA’s (and the children’s) needs are met. I am so honored to be a part of this organization. I am so happy to be actively helping something, someone, a whole group of people! It isn’t often we can ACTUALLY be helping people directly, is it? Or maybe it is, or it should be, I’ve just never experienced it so directly before. The eight-year-old girl I’m closest with, Sabath, officially has a sponsor as of today… ME! She is an angel with the curliest hair I’ve ever seen on an Asian person! I am so humbled and excited to be able to help her on her journey… And, as I said earlier, who knows where this road can take me? I know that I will be involved with SFODA for the rest of my life now. It is a beautiful thing to commit to something like that. I realize I’ve never committed to something for essentially my whole life… WOW….
As I bask in this thought, I’ll sign off with thoughts and wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in America. I’ll be doing it Phnom Penh style. I pray I can find some decent pumpkin pie in this crazy city. I certainly have a great deal to be thankful for. I am thankful every time I dodge a near-moto accident. I am thankful every time I am able to play with the children at SFODA, and, although my students are in a completely different world than the orphans at SFODA, I am, in turn, thankful to spend time with them as well. I am thankful to have graduated from one of the best universities in the world. I am thankful to be American and to be a native English speaker. I am thankful for my family and friends, here and abroad. And I’m so thankful that I get to travel! And to do, right now, exactly, literally, completely what I want to be doing. Without doubt or hesitation.
I’ll be back with more, probably after another stint in Siem Reap for the annual Angkor Marathon. No, don’t worry, I will NOT be running, I’ll be cheering on the sidelines, sitting in the shade, with a cold beer in hand. And I’ll be avoiding the temples and the markets and simply basking in this glorious country I am so fortunate to live in. A few more weeks until Mom joins me! Really, seriously, so many things to be thankful for and to look forward to! Until then… ☺
It’s been a bit of time since my last update; these things just aren’t coming as easily as they once did. It’s hard to write about what you cannot accurately explain, even to yourself. And that is my life in Cambodia… hard to explain even to myself. The best way I am able to understand it right now is… I love Phnom Penh, somehow. Somehow I am able to love everything about this place. There is just something about this city and I grow to love it more and more each day. Each second, actually. Each day here seems to be better than the last. So I guess I can write about that, but that just seems like some sort of sickening exploration of personal joy, and who the hells wants to read a long blog entry about someone’s happiness?! It’s so much more interesting when things go wrong, isn’t it? Well, as I sit here and write that, I have to realize that nearly EVERYTHING goes wrong all the time here! It’s difficult and hilarious to complete even the simplest tasks, like visiting an ATM or getting a cup of coffee. But the weirdest situations slowly become… normal. Life in Cambodia is just Life now. So that might be why it’s hard to write about it. I am reluctant to simply share my life via my blog when, to me, things are routine here.
That being said, I suppose I can update a little bit on the actual goings on around here. The Water Festival has come and passed. I didn’t catch much of it as I was sick with a nasty cold in bed most of the week, but what I did see was a scaled down version of what was once the second-most exciting time of the year in Cambodia (the first being Khmer New Year in April). Last year at the Water Festival (held every year in November), several hundred people died in a stampede. Add that element in with the highest waters Cambodia has seen in ten years, and the Prime Minister had due cause to cancel the boat races down the Mekong this year. So, because of the cancelation of the races, and because of the tragedy of last year, far less people descended unto Phnom Penh than in normal years.
School is going better, which I suppose is relative given how bad it really was in the beginning. My boss said, point-blank, she was “surprised I hadn’t quit yet,” given I am a new teacher and have the “worst class she’s ever seen in seven years teaching in Cambodia.” The principal of the school refers to my students as the “insane asylum children.” I wish I were making this up. But after a month of absolute hell, my kids are slowly realizing I am NOT someone to be messed with or ignored. They are coming around, beginning to listen in class, and are even… sort of… growing on me. ☺
My work with the theater group the Phnom Penh Players is going well. Our Christmas pantomime family show, which I co-directed, is going up at a local venue in a few weeks. It is weird to be a bit less involved in production, namely, working as solely co-director, not writer, director, producer, promoter, actor, etc, etc, of a work. I can’t complain too much, it is a fun show and I’m looking forward to the week of production. Hopefully I can get my own work up through the Phnom Penh Players later this year. We shall see where this road takes me!
I have mentioned before in this blog that I had been going out at least once a week to an orphanage in the city to volunteer. Well my roommate, Shae, who introduced me to SFODA (Sacrifice Families and Orphan Development Association), has been going out there to volunteer for over a year, and because of her long hours and our collective interest in the organization, the Chief of Child Care offered us last week a voluntary position of the board of directors for the orphanage! We are officially going to be helping the orphans find sponsors to provide medical care (many of the children are HIV positive), school supplies, and adequate food. We will also attend board meetings to make sure we feel SFODA’s (and the children’s) needs are met. I am so honored to be a part of this organization. I am so happy to be actively helping something, someone, a whole group of people! It isn’t often we can ACTUALLY be helping people directly, is it? Or maybe it is, or it should be, I’ve just never experienced it so directly before. The eight-year-old girl I’m closest with, Sabath, officially has a sponsor as of today… ME! She is an angel with the curliest hair I’ve ever seen on an Asian person! I am so humbled and excited to be able to help her on her journey… And, as I said earlier, who knows where this road can take me? I know that I will be involved with SFODA for the rest of my life now. It is a beautiful thing to commit to something like that. I realize I’ve never committed to something for essentially my whole life… WOW….
As I bask in this thought, I’ll sign off with thoughts and wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in America. I’ll be doing it Phnom Penh style. I pray I can find some decent pumpkin pie in this crazy city. I certainly have a great deal to be thankful for. I am thankful every time I dodge a near-moto accident. I am thankful every time I am able to play with the children at SFODA, and, although my students are in a completely different world than the orphans at SFODA, I am, in turn, thankful to spend time with them as well. I am thankful to have graduated from one of the best universities in the world. I am thankful to be American and to be a native English speaker. I am thankful for my family and friends, here and abroad. And I’m so thankful that I get to travel! And to do, right now, exactly, literally, completely what I want to be doing. Without doubt or hesitation.
I’ll be back with more, probably after another stint in Siem Reap for the annual Angkor Marathon. No, don’t worry, I will NOT be running, I’ll be cheering on the sidelines, sitting in the shade, with a cold beer in hand. And I’ll be avoiding the temples and the markets and simply basking in this glorious country I am so fortunate to live in. A few more weeks until Mom joins me! Really, seriously, so many things to be thankful for and to look forward to! Until then… ☺
Friday, November 4, 2011
Siem Reap
Hello everyone!
Latest update will be about my trip to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat. I decided to do this entry in the form of a "Best Of" List. Hope you enjoy!
Best Of: Siem Reap/Angkor Wat Edition.
Best Market: Night Market!!! OMG! The markets there are sooo much nicer than the markets here in Phnom Penh. The aisles are wider, there are fans and ventilation, and the markets are way cleaner. Siem Reap is set up for tourists there in a way Phnom Penh has yet to figure out. The Old Market was fun but I really like the Night Market because it had a cool vibe--like it was a place to hang out or something (unlike the Russian Market here where you want to leave as soon as possible...) Needless to say, serious shopping was had!
Best Sunrise: Angkor Wat, duh! It was amazing. I am continually surprised by my ability to be continually surprised in this country. Things have happened here that make me think, "Well, now NOTHING will surprise me after that." But then, always, things STILL manage to make my jaw drop and take my breath away. Watching the sun peak behind the clouds over the largest religious monument in the entire world was for sure a take-your-breath-away type moment. Even though you go into something like that thinking you know it will be amazing, it is always even better than your mind can possibly imagine.
Best Wat: My favorite was Bantry Srei. It was way off the beaten path, but we made sure to get out to see the "Temple of Women." It is a super small temple that is known for it's detail. The entire wat, which is literally a miniature wat, was covered completely in scenes and stories, figures and gods. I have never seen something so complex and wonderful.
Best Tuk Tuk: Any tuk tuk that wasn't the one we were riding in around the temples! It was literally the smallest tuk tuk I have ever been in, and with four people who are large by Asian standards (read: Western), we were so cramped! Our knees were touching when we were all sitting.
Best Elephant: The one we rode up to the top of a mountain to watch the sunset over all the temples! What a ride! The beast was precariously close to the trail's edge and I was terrified the entire time, but it was sooo fun and surreal to be atop an elephant! One of the things on my list was to ride an elephant--another activity to cross of my list as accomplished! :)
Best Guesthouse: Angkor Friendship Inn was where we stayed and I highly recommend it. It was clean and friendly and even had a pool! It was cheap too for what it offered (breakfast included, internet, swimming pool).
Best Nightlife: Pub Street!!!!! So much fun. It was like Del Playa in IV or something like it... I wish 51 in Phnom Penh was even half of the scene in Siem Reap. But, it's just another excuse to visit I suppose! I was happy to see people dressed up on Pub Street for Halloween. Made me a little homesick for IV Halloween.....
Best Trip: This one of course! It feels amazing to go somewhere that you have only seen in pictures. To imagine what it will be like to go somewhere and then ACTUALLY GO THERE. To live one of your dreams. It's surreal and I feel so blessed to be able to have access to such beauty in the country I live. And to be living here. Things are changing in Angkor Wat; there are signs labeled "Do Not Touch," ropes, and even guard rails on some of the stairs. I can't even imagine how much this country will change in the next 5, 10, 15, 50 years. I am proud to be here on the cusp, in the middle, of change and modernization. I am just so happy to be here, even though America is always in the back of my mind.
Best Ending to a Trip: It was King Sihanouk's 90th birthday the day we got back into the city, and as we ate at one of my favorite restaurants, fireworks went off over the river. What a place to be, Cambodia.
I'll update soon. The Water Festival holiday is coming up, but I plan to stay in the Penh and actually have a holiday where I relax and explore this city a bit more. And the next holiday after that: Bangkok with Mom and Shae! I cannot even wait!!!!!!!
Latest update will be about my trip to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat. I decided to do this entry in the form of a "Best Of" List. Hope you enjoy!
Best Of: Siem Reap/Angkor Wat Edition.
Best Market: Night Market!!! OMG! The markets there are sooo much nicer than the markets here in Phnom Penh. The aisles are wider, there are fans and ventilation, and the markets are way cleaner. Siem Reap is set up for tourists there in a way Phnom Penh has yet to figure out. The Old Market was fun but I really like the Night Market because it had a cool vibe--like it was a place to hang out or something (unlike the Russian Market here where you want to leave as soon as possible...) Needless to say, serious shopping was had!
Best Sunrise: Angkor Wat, duh! It was amazing. I am continually surprised by my ability to be continually surprised in this country. Things have happened here that make me think, "Well, now NOTHING will surprise me after that." But then, always, things STILL manage to make my jaw drop and take my breath away. Watching the sun peak behind the clouds over the largest religious monument in the entire world was for sure a take-your-breath-away type moment. Even though you go into something like that thinking you know it will be amazing, it is always even better than your mind can possibly imagine.
Best Wat: My favorite was Bantry Srei. It was way off the beaten path, but we made sure to get out to see the "Temple of Women." It is a super small temple that is known for it's detail. The entire wat, which is literally a miniature wat, was covered completely in scenes and stories, figures and gods. I have never seen something so complex and wonderful.
Best Tuk Tuk: Any tuk tuk that wasn't the one we were riding in around the temples! It was literally the smallest tuk tuk I have ever been in, and with four people who are large by Asian standards (read: Western), we were so cramped! Our knees were touching when we were all sitting.
Best Elephant: The one we rode up to the top of a mountain to watch the sunset over all the temples! What a ride! The beast was precariously close to the trail's edge and I was terrified the entire time, but it was sooo fun and surreal to be atop an elephant! One of the things on my list was to ride an elephant--another activity to cross of my list as accomplished! :)
Best Guesthouse: Angkor Friendship Inn was where we stayed and I highly recommend it. It was clean and friendly and even had a pool! It was cheap too for what it offered (breakfast included, internet, swimming pool).
Best Nightlife: Pub Street!!!!! So much fun. It was like Del Playa in IV or something like it... I wish 51 in Phnom Penh was even half of the scene in Siem Reap. But, it's just another excuse to visit I suppose! I was happy to see people dressed up on Pub Street for Halloween. Made me a little homesick for IV Halloween.....
Best Trip: This one of course! It feels amazing to go somewhere that you have only seen in pictures. To imagine what it will be like to go somewhere and then ACTUALLY GO THERE. To live one of your dreams. It's surreal and I feel so blessed to be able to have access to such beauty in the country I live. And to be living here. Things are changing in Angkor Wat; there are signs labeled "Do Not Touch," ropes, and even guard rails on some of the stairs. I can't even imagine how much this country will change in the next 5, 10, 15, 50 years. I am proud to be here on the cusp, in the middle, of change and modernization. I am just so happy to be here, even though America is always in the back of my mind.
Best Ending to a Trip: It was King Sihanouk's 90th birthday the day we got back into the city, and as we ate at one of my favorite restaurants, fireworks went off over the river. What a place to be, Cambodia.
I'll update soon. The Water Festival holiday is coming up, but I plan to stay in the Penh and actually have a holiday where I relax and explore this city a bit more. And the next holiday after that: Bangkok with Mom and Shae! I cannot even wait!!!!!!!
Saturday, October 15, 2011
On the road again... or more like, down the street.
Hey all! So to give a quick update....
This week I am moving apartments! I really like the apartment I live in now, but the rent is pretty high and the location isn't very good. I live too far away from my work and every place I go to. It's the kind of thing you wouldn't know when you're apartment hunting, but after two months living here (OMG I just realized it's been 2 months from yesterday!!!), I know I'm not happy with the location I'm living. So I will be paying less than half the rent I am now and moving in with my good friend from work! It is a real house and not an apartment so that will be a nice change. I'm so happy and relieved to be saving money on rent and moto rides to school.
The most amazing thing about this whole experience, aside from the final result of moving into a better place, is just how easy this is all turning out to be. I just broke my lease, and the family who owns my apartment complex didn't even say anything. I mean, I'll lose my security deposit, but still you think they would have at least forced me to uphold the month advance notice to move out. But, nope, she didn't even blink an eye! I've never had so little hassles with a landlord in my life! Plus, the people I'm going to be living with have already been so chill and welcoming.
I think the biggest shock of this whole experiences' ease has been my own internal thoughts. I'm already packing and it seems incredibly easy to just pack up and move everything I own. Completely the opposite of the stress I felt packing to move here two months ago. Somehow it seems as though I have less stuff now than what I came with, but I know that can't be possible! It's just a mental thing, I think. I can already see how much I've changed and relaxed. I decided to move on Saturday, began packing Sunday and told my landlord the same day. I'll be sleeping in my new place by Thursday. The person I was even a few months ago would have been an anxious mess at all this sudden and drastic change. But the vibe of this country--extremely mellow, relaxed, "no problem"--is rubbing off on me more than I thought. It's a really new and really amazing feeling for me.
Anyway, off to pack some more. Will update more soon! :)
This week I am moving apartments! I really like the apartment I live in now, but the rent is pretty high and the location isn't very good. I live too far away from my work and every place I go to. It's the kind of thing you wouldn't know when you're apartment hunting, but after two months living here (OMG I just realized it's been 2 months from yesterday!!!), I know I'm not happy with the location I'm living. So I will be paying less than half the rent I am now and moving in with my good friend from work! It is a real house and not an apartment so that will be a nice change. I'm so happy and relieved to be saving money on rent and moto rides to school.
The most amazing thing about this whole experience, aside from the final result of moving into a better place, is just how easy this is all turning out to be. I just broke my lease, and the family who owns my apartment complex didn't even say anything. I mean, I'll lose my security deposit, but still you think they would have at least forced me to uphold the month advance notice to move out. But, nope, she didn't even blink an eye! I've never had so little hassles with a landlord in my life! Plus, the people I'm going to be living with have already been so chill and welcoming.
I think the biggest shock of this whole experiences' ease has been my own internal thoughts. I'm already packing and it seems incredibly easy to just pack up and move everything I own. Completely the opposite of the stress I felt packing to move here two months ago. Somehow it seems as though I have less stuff now than what I came with, but I know that can't be possible! It's just a mental thing, I think. I can already see how much I've changed and relaxed. I decided to move on Saturday, began packing Sunday and told my landlord the same day. I'll be sleeping in my new place by Thursday. The person I was even a few months ago would have been an anxious mess at all this sudden and drastic change. But the vibe of this country--extremely mellow, relaxed, "no problem"--is rubbing off on me more than I thought. It's a really new and really amazing feeling for me.
Anyway, off to pack some more. Will update more soon! :)
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Laos Adventuring!
Hello everyone! Long time no see! Well, I'm pretty sure it's only been about a week, but it really feels like so much longer. A week in Laos kind of makes time stand still. I forgot what day it was, never knew the time, barely made it to any planned destinations... but in the best way because Laos was so relaxing and absorbing. I went with my friend from work and her two friends from back in Australia. I'm still a little bummed I wasn't able to make it Siem Reap due to massive flooding, but I'm so thankful I made the choice to go to Laos. All in the pursuit of crossing destinations off of my bucket list! Officially have been to Don Det/4000 Islands, Vientiane, and Vang Vieng. And who knows where else on the way. There are so many more places I have to see in Laos. I'm hooked!
Let me break it down since, as I think I sort of explained, time just ran together on this trip!
Day 1: Spent traveling by bus from Phnom Penh, Cambodia to Don Det, Laos. It was a 12-hour bus ride made 14+ due to the heavy rain and lack of roads. There were so many times the bus just had to stop to find a route around the mud, puddles, cows, and mud. It was sort of the bus ride from hell... although, in retrospect, it wasn't the worst bus ride to come! Eventually, we made it to some sort of city in Southern Laos and got off the bus. Then we took a mini-van and then a ferry to Don Det, which is an island among the 4000 Islands of Laos. Oh, I didn't mention stopping at the border between Cambodia and Laos. It was a sort of shack and we were in pitch black. It took about an hour but I guess, for a border crossing, passed without much incident. I only mention it because I still don't understand why the Australians I was with had to pay $40 for their Laos visas and I, as well as the other Americans on the bus, had to pay $41!!! It shouldn't surprise me, really. I shouldn't even use that word anymore because nothing should ever surprise me, living in Asia.
Day 2: Finally in Don Det, we rented bicycles and decided it would be such fun to bike around the island and to the next island to see some sort of waterfall and some sort of dolphin beach. Well, I guess it WAS fun, but it was mostly just muddy. The roads (why do they bother calling them roads?! They are NOT roads, they are dirt piles that are sort of smoothed out!) were pretty muddy and getting a really crappy, rusty rented bike through super deep puddles was quite the task. My chain kept popping off even when we were on relatively solid ground! It was ridiculous! We did make it to the waterfall and it was beautiful. Well, it wasn't really a waterfall because the river was so high. It was more like a rapid river. But beautiful and "danger-rious" (as the signs read) all the same. After that excursion we laid around a nice restaurant, got massages, and relaxed. It is so absolutely wonderful to do nothing for hours on end! It would take me a long time to get sick of it.
Day 3: This was the day of all days. We hit the road (or more like hitched a ferry, then the road) to Pakse, a city a bit farther north. After about 4 hours of a drive, we made it there and spent the day in the markets. Then we joyous embarked on a VIP sleeper bus to Vientiane. The bus was confusing at first. We kept walking farther and farther back wondering when we would see our double beds. We could only see single beds. When we reached the back of the bus, we realized the beds we had been passing were, in fact, "double" "VIP" beds. I think I could just barely lay flat on my back without my arm hanging off the side of the bed for lack of space. Which I could have dealt with for one night. Except that the "double" "VIP" beds were for two people. So Shae and I climbed the "ladder" and got into our "bed" for arguably the worst night of my life. I couldn't lie on my side because we were on the second level and there was no railing, so every bump (do I need to mention this was the bumpiest ride I've ever been on?) I almost fell off and down from the top bunk. It was almost funny.
Day 4: When we woke up from our "night of sleep," we were in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, located in the northern part of the country. We quickly boarded into a car to be driven to Vang Vieng, which was our final destination. So approximately 28 hours from the time we left Don Det, we were in Vang Vieng! We met some really cool people along the way and ended up staying in a lovely guesthouse with them. We hit the town, which is a big backpacker stub in Southeast Asia. It was so weird seeing so many white people! It was so amazing to eat a hamburger that tasted almost Western! It was so confusing that despite the tourist draw, hardly any Lao people in said tourist industry in the town spoke English!
Day 5: Today was the big day to go tubing. Look up tubing in Laos on youtube for videos that give you the idea. It was sort of like Floatopia but even crazier! We rented tubes, hopped on the Mekong and floated from bar to bar all day. It was so much fun meeting all these interesting backpackers, drinking from ridiculously large buckets, and soaring through the air on swings and slides. Every time I found myself climbing a platform to get to a jumping point, destined for the rocky and dirty Mekong waters strong with the wet season's current, I thought to myself, why are you doing this? One wrong move and you could be destined for the jagged rocks! But I had to jump, of course! Needless to say I am bruised and scratched like I've never been before from exclusively awkward landings. Thank goodness for the men at each bar that stand at the water's edge with intertubes tied to ropes to pull in us crazy people who plunge into the rapid waters! A couple of times I missed the bar I was aiming for and the current pulled me down all the way to the next bar! I wish I had more pictures from tubing, but I wasn't about to bring my camera since I was soaking wet and muddy all day. You buy this little bags to keep your belongings dry in the water, but since you're in Laos you can't be surprised when they don't work at all and your Kip is soaked. I think tubing would illegal in anywhere but Asia (you know, in places with laws!), but I also think it was one of the most fun and crazy things I've ever done! I loved meeting other backpackers since, as an expat, I usually stick with other expats. I am definitely not a backpacker, but it was fun to live like them for a few days. I also ran into someone that I knew from Semester at Sea! He was on my voyage and recognized me! I love that I haven't seen someone in over 2 years and I can run into them in Vang Vieng, Laos. The world is a pretty cool place.
Day 6: Another day of tubing, although a little less insane since we drank a few less buckets and sort of knew the lay of the land. This time I tried to jump off as many swings and slides as I could! This one really long tile water slide about destroyed my body and that's when I called it a day. Tubing and being out in the sun all day just wears you down. I haven't been this physically drained, even now, days later, in forever.
Day 7: We decided to sign up for a tour and went kayaking. I realized as I was handed the paddle that I, in fact, had never been kayaking before, and began to freak out when I saw the current speed and the rapids of the river I was supposed to plunge in to. Luckily, Shae had experience and steered our kayak to safety (most of the time) in between rapids. We went tubing through a cave and also hiked to a cave where there were Buddhist statues. It was a really famous cave (called Elephant Cave) because it is a site of religious significance. In the cave there is a natural rock that really resembles an elephant. The whole area is called the Elephant Village and one finds elephants on nearly every imaginable object. It was cool to see, although by this point in the tour, we were all so tired from kayaking, paddling a tube through a pitch black cave, and hiking to said Elephant cave. After the cave, we kayaked to one of the tubing bars, had a beer and rest, and kayaked for what seemed like years to the stopping point of the trip. Kayaking in the pouring rain? I don't recommend it. But, I can now say I am a fully experienced kayak-er, right? That night we had a blast in the little town on our last night in Vang Vieng.
Day 8: The next morning we left in a van, back to Vientiane where we would fly home to Phnom Penh. No more buses for us! I had been looking forward to exploring Vientiane for a night, but when we got there it was not only deserted, but somehow completely full. It was a while before we found a guest house with vacancies, and when we did we paid more for the night then we had for all our accommodation COMBINED for the entirety of the trip! It was the most expensive city (waaaay more expensive than Phnom Penh), but for what reason I'm not sure since as I said it seemed completely deserted. Things sort of picked up after a pedicure and a trip to the night market. But the people weren't interested in bargaining and seemed annoyed at yet another Westerner's presence. It's confusing as to why this place draws so many tourists when, to me, it was like a smaller, less interesting, more expensive version of Phnom Penh. Maybe other travelers like that it is less developed than our cities in Cambodia, but, personally, if I'm going less developed, less English, please give me lower prices! I think I'll have to do more research to figure out the place. It was truly beautiful, though, and was more French than Cambodia. The baguettes were to die for! But overall I just found it puzzling....
Day 9: Which is today. Wow. Weird! Today we flew home on a lovely Vietnam Airways flight. I highly recommend them, it was one of the most pleasant flights I've ever had! It feels so good to be back home in Phnom Penh and in my apartment. I think I was at a turning point, going on two months living here, and I was hitting a slump. But the second I entered Laos, I missed Cambodia. I really love it here. I love being an expat and hated being a tourist. I love Khmer food! And Khmer people! And my apartment and my space! It isn't until you leave a place and come back that you can know what it means to you. And a place isn't home until it's home in your mind. When I was in Laos, I kept thinking, "I can't wait to get home." So, I guess I can officially call this home now. I loved Laos and want to go back and explore more cities, but I appreciate Cambodia and it's technologies, roads, infrastructures, food and people all the more for visiting it's neighbor.
Pictures from the trip are on facebook! There aren't many since I was in the water most of the time, but the ones I did take I am pretty proud of. It really is a beautiful part of the world, where I live. :)
Let me break it down since, as I think I sort of explained, time just ran together on this trip!
Day 1: Spent traveling by bus from Phnom Penh, Cambodia to Don Det, Laos. It was a 12-hour bus ride made 14+ due to the heavy rain and lack of roads. There were so many times the bus just had to stop to find a route around the mud, puddles, cows, and mud. It was sort of the bus ride from hell... although, in retrospect, it wasn't the worst bus ride to come! Eventually, we made it to some sort of city in Southern Laos and got off the bus. Then we took a mini-van and then a ferry to Don Det, which is an island among the 4000 Islands of Laos. Oh, I didn't mention stopping at the border between Cambodia and Laos. It was a sort of shack and we were in pitch black. It took about an hour but I guess, for a border crossing, passed without much incident. I only mention it because I still don't understand why the Australians I was with had to pay $40 for their Laos visas and I, as well as the other Americans on the bus, had to pay $41!!! It shouldn't surprise me, really. I shouldn't even use that word anymore because nothing should ever surprise me, living in Asia.
Day 2: Finally in Don Det, we rented bicycles and decided it would be such fun to bike around the island and to the next island to see some sort of waterfall and some sort of dolphin beach. Well, I guess it WAS fun, but it was mostly just muddy. The roads (why do they bother calling them roads?! They are NOT roads, they are dirt piles that are sort of smoothed out!) were pretty muddy and getting a really crappy, rusty rented bike through super deep puddles was quite the task. My chain kept popping off even when we were on relatively solid ground! It was ridiculous! We did make it to the waterfall and it was beautiful. Well, it wasn't really a waterfall because the river was so high. It was more like a rapid river. But beautiful and "danger-rious" (as the signs read) all the same. After that excursion we laid around a nice restaurant, got massages, and relaxed. It is so absolutely wonderful to do nothing for hours on end! It would take me a long time to get sick of it.
Day 3: This was the day of all days. We hit the road (or more like hitched a ferry, then the road) to Pakse, a city a bit farther north. After about 4 hours of a drive, we made it there and spent the day in the markets. Then we joyous embarked on a VIP sleeper bus to Vientiane. The bus was confusing at first. We kept walking farther and farther back wondering when we would see our double beds. We could only see single beds. When we reached the back of the bus, we realized the beds we had been passing were, in fact, "double" "VIP" beds. I think I could just barely lay flat on my back without my arm hanging off the side of the bed for lack of space. Which I could have dealt with for one night. Except that the "double" "VIP" beds were for two people. So Shae and I climbed the "ladder" and got into our "bed" for arguably the worst night of my life. I couldn't lie on my side because we were on the second level and there was no railing, so every bump (do I need to mention this was the bumpiest ride I've ever been on?) I almost fell off and down from the top bunk. It was almost funny.
Day 4: When we woke up from our "night of sleep," we were in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, located in the northern part of the country. We quickly boarded into a car to be driven to Vang Vieng, which was our final destination. So approximately 28 hours from the time we left Don Det, we were in Vang Vieng! We met some really cool people along the way and ended up staying in a lovely guesthouse with them. We hit the town, which is a big backpacker stub in Southeast Asia. It was so weird seeing so many white people! It was so amazing to eat a hamburger that tasted almost Western! It was so confusing that despite the tourist draw, hardly any Lao people in said tourist industry in the town spoke English!
Day 5: Today was the big day to go tubing. Look up tubing in Laos on youtube for videos that give you the idea. It was sort of like Floatopia but even crazier! We rented tubes, hopped on the Mekong and floated from bar to bar all day. It was so much fun meeting all these interesting backpackers, drinking from ridiculously large buckets, and soaring through the air on swings and slides. Every time I found myself climbing a platform to get to a jumping point, destined for the rocky and dirty Mekong waters strong with the wet season's current, I thought to myself, why are you doing this? One wrong move and you could be destined for the jagged rocks! But I had to jump, of course! Needless to say I am bruised and scratched like I've never been before from exclusively awkward landings. Thank goodness for the men at each bar that stand at the water's edge with intertubes tied to ropes to pull in us crazy people who plunge into the rapid waters! A couple of times I missed the bar I was aiming for and the current pulled me down all the way to the next bar! I wish I had more pictures from tubing, but I wasn't about to bring my camera since I was soaking wet and muddy all day. You buy this little bags to keep your belongings dry in the water, but since you're in Laos you can't be surprised when they don't work at all and your Kip is soaked. I think tubing would illegal in anywhere but Asia (you know, in places with laws!), but I also think it was one of the most fun and crazy things I've ever done! I loved meeting other backpackers since, as an expat, I usually stick with other expats. I am definitely not a backpacker, but it was fun to live like them for a few days. I also ran into someone that I knew from Semester at Sea! He was on my voyage and recognized me! I love that I haven't seen someone in over 2 years and I can run into them in Vang Vieng, Laos. The world is a pretty cool place.
Day 6: Another day of tubing, although a little less insane since we drank a few less buckets and sort of knew the lay of the land. This time I tried to jump off as many swings and slides as I could! This one really long tile water slide about destroyed my body and that's when I called it a day. Tubing and being out in the sun all day just wears you down. I haven't been this physically drained, even now, days later, in forever.
Day 7: We decided to sign up for a tour and went kayaking. I realized as I was handed the paddle that I, in fact, had never been kayaking before, and began to freak out when I saw the current speed and the rapids of the river I was supposed to plunge in to. Luckily, Shae had experience and steered our kayak to safety (most of the time) in between rapids. We went tubing through a cave and also hiked to a cave where there were Buddhist statues. It was a really famous cave (called Elephant Cave) because it is a site of religious significance. In the cave there is a natural rock that really resembles an elephant. The whole area is called the Elephant Village and one finds elephants on nearly every imaginable object. It was cool to see, although by this point in the tour, we were all so tired from kayaking, paddling a tube through a pitch black cave, and hiking to said Elephant cave. After the cave, we kayaked to one of the tubing bars, had a beer and rest, and kayaked for what seemed like years to the stopping point of the trip. Kayaking in the pouring rain? I don't recommend it. But, I can now say I am a fully experienced kayak-er, right? That night we had a blast in the little town on our last night in Vang Vieng.
Day 8: The next morning we left in a van, back to Vientiane where we would fly home to Phnom Penh. No more buses for us! I had been looking forward to exploring Vientiane for a night, but when we got there it was not only deserted, but somehow completely full. It was a while before we found a guest house with vacancies, and when we did we paid more for the night then we had for all our accommodation COMBINED for the entirety of the trip! It was the most expensive city (waaaay more expensive than Phnom Penh), but for what reason I'm not sure since as I said it seemed completely deserted. Things sort of picked up after a pedicure and a trip to the night market. But the people weren't interested in bargaining and seemed annoyed at yet another Westerner's presence. It's confusing as to why this place draws so many tourists when, to me, it was like a smaller, less interesting, more expensive version of Phnom Penh. Maybe other travelers like that it is less developed than our cities in Cambodia, but, personally, if I'm going less developed, less English, please give me lower prices! I think I'll have to do more research to figure out the place. It was truly beautiful, though, and was more French than Cambodia. The baguettes were to die for! But overall I just found it puzzling....
Day 9: Which is today. Wow. Weird! Today we flew home on a lovely Vietnam Airways flight. I highly recommend them, it was one of the most pleasant flights I've ever had! It feels so good to be back home in Phnom Penh and in my apartment. I think I was at a turning point, going on two months living here, and I was hitting a slump. But the second I entered Laos, I missed Cambodia. I really love it here. I love being an expat and hated being a tourist. I love Khmer food! And Khmer people! And my apartment and my space! It isn't until you leave a place and come back that you can know what it means to you. And a place isn't home until it's home in your mind. When I was in Laos, I kept thinking, "I can't wait to get home." So, I guess I can officially call this home now. I loved Laos and want to go back and explore more cities, but I appreciate Cambodia and it's technologies, roads, infrastructures, food and people all the more for visiting it's neighbor.
Pictures from the trip are on facebook! There aren't many since I was in the water most of the time, but the ones I did take I am pretty proud of. It really is a beautiful part of the world, where I live. :)
Friday, September 23, 2011
Holiday!
So, off on holiday now thank goodness! I was supposed to go to Siem Reap to visit Angkor Wat, but because of intense rain storms, the roads are flooded and my trip was canceled! After being devastated for a few hours, I decided to hitch on to my co-worker's trip to Laos. So, only a day later, I find myself having just packed for a backpacking trip through Laos (4000 Islands and Vientiane, etc.)!!!! I'll have limited internet during the trip, so check back in a week or so for a grand tale of my adventures in beautiful Laos! :)
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Attempted Insights
So Blogger just told me that my page has 605 views which kind of made my day! 605 times someone has come here to read what I wrote... wow. It is encouraging because I haven't really wanted to sit down and write even though I need to. I want to update and I need to write down everything that's happening.
Anyway... I'll start somewhere...Well, it's officially been over a month living here. Which is so surreal to me because I feel like it's been SOOOO much longer than one month. It's good to remind myself that I've only been here a month so I can't expect to be completely set up yet! It just feels like so much longer. It's hard to picture the life I had for my previous 21 years. When I think of a memory or event from the past, even the recent past, it seems like a dream. To be in America seems like a dream. I suppose in a way it is, because, now, Cambodia is reality. As I live and work through the "honeymoon" phase, I'm slowly learning where things are and how I will need to budget myself. It's way easier than I thought it would be to spend a lot of money here. The little things add up quickly and everything's so cheap you end up living extravagantly because you can! Massages, getting my nails and hair done, it's all wonderful but I'm going to have to slow down if I want to be saving money while I'm here. I have to remind myself, you don't need all this, you live here, it's NOT a vacation! It's real life! Eventually I won't need to remind myself, but right now I still do.
Let's see. I can talk about work. It's weird to blog about daily life. Not like blogging about an exciting vacation. I want to think of witty and interesting things to put in my entries, but mostly it's just life. Well, actually, I probably COULD blog about everything here, because "life" is not at all simple or uneventful here. EVER. Just completing simple tasks is always a challenge. For example, laundry. My power and/or water seems to go out every Sunday (and only on Sundays), right when I always do laundry. Buying a water bottle is a challenging task sometimes, too. UGH I don't even want to go into the little irritations of daily life somewhere outside America. We really have it lucky. God, I miss Starbucks. Well, yeah, so just going to work can be quite the adventure. My tuk-tuk driver is awesome and speaks great English, but, because of that, he is really busy. Sometimes he sends his friends in his place to pick me up. I find this incredibly annoying and have to call him and get firm with him. We'll see how he does this week. Last week we got into a heated argument! All the guards at my school laughed at me and told me I should get a new driver. But I really like this guy I have for some reason. He's so flaky but he just makes me feel really safe. So, I guess I'll keep him. For now.
Anyway, I guess talking about driving to school can lead me to talking about school. I can't believe I've only worked 2 full weeks in my classroom with my students. It seems like time is moving at the most glacial of paces! I am more tired than I've ever been just trying to keep up with my crazy five year olds! SOME of them are really sweet. There's a few that haven't quite grown on me yet, or, rather, they haven't shown me their sweet sides AT ALL. But most of them are really great. They are affectionate and react so powerfully to positive reinforcement. I really tried to give them a lot of freedom in the first week or so, but they are a rambunctious group to say the least so I've had to really enforce some strict rules with them. My training at the children's center in Santa Barbara would probably not approve, but I can't have them screaming all day and biting each other, can I?! Well the new, stricter rules have had an amazing effect. These kids are going to be whipped into shape when I'm done with 'em! They really respond to clear cut rules with consequences. And they are so happy when they do well because I really tell them how proud I am of them. Positive reinforcement is potentially new to many of the kids as this is a culture where the kids will surely be punished for doing wrong, but won't always be praised for doing well. I give them a lot of love and they really return it! My favorite little story so far is of Pangnavorn, a naughty boy who just needed me to sit with him and ask him, does he want to be a good boy or a bad boy? He said he wanted to be a good boy. I told him, then show me how you can be a good boy today. He went from night to day! Now he draws hearts with my name in them in his journal! He told me he wants to be a police officer and insists I call him "Officer Pangavorn!" He melts my heart! So even though I have some really, really bad hours during the work day, if I have one little moment where they are sweet to me, it usually makes it all better. I just hope I can really help these guys! I think I can... :)
Anyway, that's a super glossed over, positive reenactment of my work life. In terms of free time, I'm usually soooo tired, but I force myself to go out and meet friends and see new places in the city! I am so blessed to be making good friends quickly here. I love the night life here, even though it is still really new to me. It is an uncomfortable reality to see "sex-pats" and prostitutes out and about at night. It's so weird to just be sitting with your friends and see things like that, but it's something that I notice less and less. I don't know if it's good that I notice it less. But I have to accept what's happening here at all levels, even if I don't really like it all. If I tried to fight everything--the limbless beggars, the children selling bracelets, the students at my school that drive up in Mercedes, the prostitutes, everything--well, I'd be fighting my whole time here. And I'm not here to fight the culture or the way things are. I'm here to help, to work, to enjoy myself, and to witness this country's growth and rebuilding. Hmmm... okay I guess I am getting some insights out of this blog entry! And I'd been fighting trying to write it! I guess I listen to myself, you can't fight it in Cambodia, whatever "it" is!
In a last bit of potentially exciting news, I'm planning on working with the expat theater troupe the Phnom Penh Players! I went to their first meeting and will be helping with the group's Christmas Panto show. The goal is to help and work with the group, figure things out, and hopefully produce my own plays within the group in the next year or so. The group is wonderful because all their shows' proceeds always go to a Cambodian Arts fund of some sort. So hopefully I can not only officially call myself an "international playwright," but I can also help raise money for the arts! It doesn't get better than that, does it?! I'll keep you all posted on that business as it arrives!
It's another lazy Sunday in these parts. I've lived through another birthday. My twenties are looking pretty cool... turned 20 in Morocco. Turned 21 in Santa Barbara (with a trip to Las Vegas two days later!). Turned 22 in Phnom Penh. My official goal for this decade: be somewhere amazing every birthday in my twenties. Who knows where I'll be on my 23rd birthday?!
Anyway... I'll start somewhere...Well, it's officially been over a month living here. Which is so surreal to me because I feel like it's been SOOOO much longer than one month. It's good to remind myself that I've only been here a month so I can't expect to be completely set up yet! It just feels like so much longer. It's hard to picture the life I had for my previous 21 years. When I think of a memory or event from the past, even the recent past, it seems like a dream. To be in America seems like a dream. I suppose in a way it is, because, now, Cambodia is reality. As I live and work through the "honeymoon" phase, I'm slowly learning where things are and how I will need to budget myself. It's way easier than I thought it would be to spend a lot of money here. The little things add up quickly and everything's so cheap you end up living extravagantly because you can! Massages, getting my nails and hair done, it's all wonderful but I'm going to have to slow down if I want to be saving money while I'm here. I have to remind myself, you don't need all this, you live here, it's NOT a vacation! It's real life! Eventually I won't need to remind myself, but right now I still do.
Let's see. I can talk about work. It's weird to blog about daily life. Not like blogging about an exciting vacation. I want to think of witty and interesting things to put in my entries, but mostly it's just life. Well, actually, I probably COULD blog about everything here, because "life" is not at all simple or uneventful here. EVER. Just completing simple tasks is always a challenge. For example, laundry. My power and/or water seems to go out every Sunday (and only on Sundays), right when I always do laundry. Buying a water bottle is a challenging task sometimes, too. UGH I don't even want to go into the little irritations of daily life somewhere outside America. We really have it lucky. God, I miss Starbucks. Well, yeah, so just going to work can be quite the adventure. My tuk-tuk driver is awesome and speaks great English, but, because of that, he is really busy. Sometimes he sends his friends in his place to pick me up. I find this incredibly annoying and have to call him and get firm with him. We'll see how he does this week. Last week we got into a heated argument! All the guards at my school laughed at me and told me I should get a new driver. But I really like this guy I have for some reason. He's so flaky but he just makes me feel really safe. So, I guess I'll keep him. For now.
Anyway, I guess talking about driving to school can lead me to talking about school. I can't believe I've only worked 2 full weeks in my classroom with my students. It seems like time is moving at the most glacial of paces! I am more tired than I've ever been just trying to keep up with my crazy five year olds! SOME of them are really sweet. There's a few that haven't quite grown on me yet, or, rather, they haven't shown me their sweet sides AT ALL. But most of them are really great. They are affectionate and react so powerfully to positive reinforcement. I really tried to give them a lot of freedom in the first week or so, but they are a rambunctious group to say the least so I've had to really enforce some strict rules with them. My training at the children's center in Santa Barbara would probably not approve, but I can't have them screaming all day and biting each other, can I?! Well the new, stricter rules have had an amazing effect. These kids are going to be whipped into shape when I'm done with 'em! They really respond to clear cut rules with consequences. And they are so happy when they do well because I really tell them how proud I am of them. Positive reinforcement is potentially new to many of the kids as this is a culture where the kids will surely be punished for doing wrong, but won't always be praised for doing well. I give them a lot of love and they really return it! My favorite little story so far is of Pangnavorn, a naughty boy who just needed me to sit with him and ask him, does he want to be a good boy or a bad boy? He said he wanted to be a good boy. I told him, then show me how you can be a good boy today. He went from night to day! Now he draws hearts with my name in them in his journal! He told me he wants to be a police officer and insists I call him "Officer Pangavorn!" He melts my heart! So even though I have some really, really bad hours during the work day, if I have one little moment where they are sweet to me, it usually makes it all better. I just hope I can really help these guys! I think I can... :)
Anyway, that's a super glossed over, positive reenactment of my work life. In terms of free time, I'm usually soooo tired, but I force myself to go out and meet friends and see new places in the city! I am so blessed to be making good friends quickly here. I love the night life here, even though it is still really new to me. It is an uncomfortable reality to see "sex-pats" and prostitutes out and about at night. It's so weird to just be sitting with your friends and see things like that, but it's something that I notice less and less. I don't know if it's good that I notice it less. But I have to accept what's happening here at all levels, even if I don't really like it all. If I tried to fight everything--the limbless beggars, the children selling bracelets, the students at my school that drive up in Mercedes, the prostitutes, everything--well, I'd be fighting my whole time here. And I'm not here to fight the culture or the way things are. I'm here to help, to work, to enjoy myself, and to witness this country's growth and rebuilding. Hmmm... okay I guess I am getting some insights out of this blog entry! And I'd been fighting trying to write it! I guess I listen to myself, you can't fight it in Cambodia, whatever "it" is!
In a last bit of potentially exciting news, I'm planning on working with the expat theater troupe the Phnom Penh Players! I went to their first meeting and will be helping with the group's Christmas Panto show. The goal is to help and work with the group, figure things out, and hopefully produce my own plays within the group in the next year or so. The group is wonderful because all their shows' proceeds always go to a Cambodian Arts fund of some sort. So hopefully I can not only officially call myself an "international playwright," but I can also help raise money for the arts! It doesn't get better than that, does it?! I'll keep you all posted on that business as it arrives!
It's another lazy Sunday in these parts. I've lived through another birthday. My twenties are looking pretty cool... turned 20 in Morocco. Turned 21 in Santa Barbara (with a trip to Las Vegas two days later!). Turned 22 in Phnom Penh. My official goal for this decade: be somewhere amazing every birthday in my twenties. Who knows where I'll be on my 23rd birthday?!
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Teeeeeacherrrr
Hello everyone! Greetings from the happiest, most relaxing place on earth, Cambodia! Well, sometimes Phnom Penh isn't so relaxing, but I'm relaxed and so is everyone else. I think it's impossible to be truly unhappy here!
Anyway, I'm officially a kindergarten teacher now! The first days of school and over and now it's time to get moving with lessons, songs, games and all that "fun" stuff! My kids are very... "sweet" haha! I have 24 kids, most of them Khmer and mostly boys. Some of the boys are troublemakers but they are all so cute and sweet in their own ways! It's always funny for them to hear me try to say their Khmer names but I'm slowly remembering how to pronounce them correctly. It's never how you'd think it would sound. So I just have to listen to "Teeeeacherrr, that's not how you say my name!" I'm looking forward to seeing them slowly grasp reading this year! That being said, it sure feels like it's going to be a looong year. I don't know yet if it's in a good way or a bad way!
This weekend was the first chance I've really had to sleep in and it's been marvelous. I finally feel like I'm over the jetlag and myself again! That being said it's killer to wake up so early for school. I haven't done that since high school, really and it's a brutal battle every morning. But, with a little coffee, I'm ready for the screaming and running and jumping at 7:45am.
I'm still trying to figure out the best tuk-tuk driver to take me to and from work each day. I thought I had someone I really liked, but he is kind of flaky so we'll see where it goes. I miss biking every where in Santa Barbara! (Although many people ride bicycles here, I'm not super interested in A) Working up a sweat before I get to work and B) Being hit by speeding SUVs on these crazy, law-less streets!) I do sometimes wish I lived a little closer to work, though, so that I could walk. That being said, it's always a great feeling to be riding in a tuk-tuk, the wind blowing dirt all over you, the blaring BEEPS from honking passerbys. It really is wonderful although it sounds like a sarcastic remark!
I love meeting so many new people everyday. I also really like all the people I work with. The teaching assistants and guards in front of the school are really nice, and all the other teachers at my building are super friendly! Oh, and speaking of guards, my apartment building has a guard in front which is really nice of course, but it's so funny because he has taken it upon himself to be super protective of me! He does not speak much English but he glares at anyone I'm with as if to say "Don't mess with her!" He also seems to get frustrated and worried if I come home too late! He gives me a look like, "Where have you been?!" He also often walks me across the street (I live on a busy street) even though I have become pretty adept at crossing. It's really sweet how much he seems to take his job seriously! I feel safer coming home though, so it's very nice.
Anyway, I'm just enjoying a lazy Sunday now and going to spend some time researching more games and songs to play with the kids. They just stare up at you waiting for you to entertain them, so I better be prepared!
Until next time! :)
Anyway, I'm officially a kindergarten teacher now! The first days of school and over and now it's time to get moving with lessons, songs, games and all that "fun" stuff! My kids are very... "sweet" haha! I have 24 kids, most of them Khmer and mostly boys. Some of the boys are troublemakers but they are all so cute and sweet in their own ways! It's always funny for them to hear me try to say their Khmer names but I'm slowly remembering how to pronounce them correctly. It's never how you'd think it would sound. So I just have to listen to "Teeeeacherrr, that's not how you say my name!" I'm looking forward to seeing them slowly grasp reading this year! That being said, it sure feels like it's going to be a looong year. I don't know yet if it's in a good way or a bad way!
This weekend was the first chance I've really had to sleep in and it's been marvelous. I finally feel like I'm over the jetlag and myself again! That being said it's killer to wake up so early for school. I haven't done that since high school, really and it's a brutal battle every morning. But, with a little coffee, I'm ready for the screaming and running and jumping at 7:45am.
I'm still trying to figure out the best tuk-tuk driver to take me to and from work each day. I thought I had someone I really liked, but he is kind of flaky so we'll see where it goes. I miss biking every where in Santa Barbara! (Although many people ride bicycles here, I'm not super interested in A) Working up a sweat before I get to work and B) Being hit by speeding SUVs on these crazy, law-less streets!) I do sometimes wish I lived a little closer to work, though, so that I could walk. That being said, it's always a great feeling to be riding in a tuk-tuk, the wind blowing dirt all over you, the blaring BEEPS from honking passerbys. It really is wonderful although it sounds like a sarcastic remark!
I love meeting so many new people everyday. I also really like all the people I work with. The teaching assistants and guards in front of the school are really nice, and all the other teachers at my building are super friendly! Oh, and speaking of guards, my apartment building has a guard in front which is really nice of course, but it's so funny because he has taken it upon himself to be super protective of me! He does not speak much English but he glares at anyone I'm with as if to say "Don't mess with her!" He also seems to get frustrated and worried if I come home too late! He gives me a look like, "Where have you been?!" He also often walks me across the street (I live on a busy street) even though I have become pretty adept at crossing. It's really sweet how much he seems to take his job seriously! I feel safer coming home though, so it's very nice.
Anyway, I'm just enjoying a lazy Sunday now and going to spend some time researching more games and songs to play with the kids. They just stare up at you waiting for you to entertain them, so I better be prepared!
Until next time! :)
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Settling In
So tomorrow is officially my first day of work (other than the last week or so of observation and orientation). The kids will join me Thursday for the first day of kindergarten! I can't wait to meet the kids and start learning their long, complicated Khmer names...
Over the holiday, I was lucky enough to visit Sokha Resort in Sihanoukville with some new friends! It was gorgeous and relaxing and we ate sooooo much good seafood. It rained a lot because of a typhoon hitting Taiwan, but we still got to enjoy the pool one of the days we were there. Typhoons in Asia, hurricanes in the US... the world is going crazy, isn't it?! It sure feels like something's crazy... this city... this country... certainly me for moving here! It seems like everyday is an adventure.
Let's see... what else can I say? I really don't know. I'm just trying to figure out the price for... something... anything....
Off to work tomorrow, I'll report back with more details. Still having trouble putting it all into words. But... in a good way!
Over the holiday, I was lucky enough to visit Sokha Resort in Sihanoukville with some new friends! It was gorgeous and relaxing and we ate sooooo much good seafood. It rained a lot because of a typhoon hitting Taiwan, but we still got to enjoy the pool one of the days we were there. Typhoons in Asia, hurricanes in the US... the world is going crazy, isn't it?! It sure feels like something's crazy... this city... this country... certainly me for moving here! It seems like everyday is an adventure.
Let's see... what else can I say? I really don't know. I'm just trying to figure out the price for... something... anything....
Off to work tomorrow, I'll report back with more details. Still having trouble putting it all into words. But... in a good way!
Thursday, August 25, 2011
The Apartment
Hello everyone! I've been trying to get myself to update the blog more because there is indeed a lot to share, but I feel so at a loss for words, for once, and it makes it harder to write.
Anyway, I'm settling into my apartment nicely, but still haven't been able to clean it properly. The power went out on my floor for the whole day and night yesterday. That was not fun because that meant no fans the whole night... I didn't sleep much. I'm doing better than I expected in the heat, but that is relative. It's so so so so hot. And people are saying this is the coolest time of the year. And this year in particular is a cool one. I don't believe this satanic weather is possible! It couldn't be the cool season right now. I just hope I'll get more adjusted to it. And soon. Right now I just feel dirty, sweaty and swollen up the whole time. I'm really trying to increase my water intake, but that can be difficult during work and running around the city!
Anyhoo, summer school is over for the kids which meant the end of my little "training period" and on to a week holiday before the fall session. I've been able to visit a few of the cites in the city that I've been meaning to see, such as the National Museum and the Genocide Museum. The Genocide Museum is very moving. I can't say much on it because it is something you read about and talk about but being here and seeing the places of such horror is something entirely different. The National Museum was wonderful, but I should have given myself more time in between them; I raced through the artwork because my mind was elsewhere.
I've also had the chance to do a lot of shopping which is always fun. Prices here really vary and the bargaining can be tiresome. And all the sizes are so small! I swear you never know if something is for an adult or a child... but I am loving walking through the sticky, smelly isles of the Russian Market, which is really close to my apartment.
I feel like I will never have enough time to do all that I want to do! And I still have to really get ready for the first day of kindergarten next week! Lesson plans and decorating... so much to do... but for now, off to Sihanoukville for a beach weekend. Why not? :)
Anyway, I'm settling into my apartment nicely, but still haven't been able to clean it properly. The power went out on my floor for the whole day and night yesterday. That was not fun because that meant no fans the whole night... I didn't sleep much. I'm doing better than I expected in the heat, but that is relative. It's so so so so hot. And people are saying this is the coolest time of the year. And this year in particular is a cool one. I don't believe this satanic weather is possible! It couldn't be the cool season right now. I just hope I'll get more adjusted to it. And soon. Right now I just feel dirty, sweaty and swollen up the whole time. I'm really trying to increase my water intake, but that can be difficult during work and running around the city!
Anyhoo, summer school is over for the kids which meant the end of my little "training period" and on to a week holiday before the fall session. I've been able to visit a few of the cites in the city that I've been meaning to see, such as the National Museum and the Genocide Museum. The Genocide Museum is very moving. I can't say much on it because it is something you read about and talk about but being here and seeing the places of such horror is something entirely different. The National Museum was wonderful, but I should have given myself more time in between them; I raced through the artwork because my mind was elsewhere.
I've also had the chance to do a lot of shopping which is always fun. Prices here really vary and the bargaining can be tiresome. And all the sizes are so small! I swear you never know if something is for an adult or a child... but I am loving walking through the sticky, smelly isles of the Russian Market, which is really close to my apartment.
I feel like I will never have enough time to do all that I want to do! And I still have to really get ready for the first day of kindergarten next week! Lesson plans and decorating... so much to do... but for now, off to Sihanoukville for a beach weekend. Why not? :)
Saturday, August 20, 2011
In my new home...
Hello everyone!
Okay, so I owe you all some major updating. So much has happened in the last few days and I know I will not be able to put it all down. But I think now is the time to try. Get back into this whole blog writing business.
I am currently sitting on my new bed. I don't mean it's new, I just mean it's new to me. If I think about the fact that it's previous occupants moved out just two days ago, I might barf a little. This apartment is wonderful, but it is dirtyyyyyyy. So much cleaning to do and so much accepting that the standard of cleanliness I enjoy in America is no longer worth dreaming about. But I can deal, it will just take a little while. But that's not what you want to hear about! What can I say though, really, to sum up the last few days. Well, I know it feels like I've been hear a month, maybe longer. Not that I know anything, just that I don't remember anything else. I have so much to do here and it's so hot.
Does this make any sense? I'm reading what I just wrote back and even I'm confused. Am I still jet-lagged? I think so.
I've begun work (Heritage International School) but only just training and observation of other teachers. I will get my class for the fall term starting September 1st. I am so excited to meet my kindergarteners! They are so sweet... or at least they appear that way right now! They will all have had a small amount of English exposure but it will be my job next year to push them to English literacy! Yay!
Heritage has four different buildings, all very close and in the residential part of Phnom Penh. My building is a bit smaller, but all the buildings are tight communities and everyone I've met who is connected to the school has pretty much been wonderful! There is even a pool at my building so the kids get to go swimming twice a week. Some of the kids are from very wealthy families, some are upper-middle to middle-class. I am interested to see where my interactions with parents and families take me, as it will be very different than traditional "parent-teacher conferences" in America. Not too much to say about work except I have so much of it before school starts! So many lesson plans to write for these little guys...
Tomorrow, I will spend time with my "brother" the monk and go shopping some more for supplies and decorations for my apartment. The walls are really dull so I need to spice things up a bit in here!
That's where I'll leave off for now, on the couch in this comfy-couch of a city. Get it?... you sink in and don't really want to ever get up.
Okay, so I owe you all some major updating. So much has happened in the last few days and I know I will not be able to put it all down. But I think now is the time to try. Get back into this whole blog writing business.
I am currently sitting on my new bed. I don't mean it's new, I just mean it's new to me. If I think about the fact that it's previous occupants moved out just two days ago, I might barf a little. This apartment is wonderful, but it is dirtyyyyyyy. So much cleaning to do and so much accepting that the standard of cleanliness I enjoy in America is no longer worth dreaming about. But I can deal, it will just take a little while. But that's not what you want to hear about! What can I say though, really, to sum up the last few days. Well, I know it feels like I've been hear a month, maybe longer. Not that I know anything, just that I don't remember anything else. I have so much to do here and it's so hot.
Does this make any sense? I'm reading what I just wrote back and even I'm confused. Am I still jet-lagged? I think so.
I've begun work (Heritage International School) but only just training and observation of other teachers. I will get my class for the fall term starting September 1st. I am so excited to meet my kindergarteners! They are so sweet... or at least they appear that way right now! They will all have had a small amount of English exposure but it will be my job next year to push them to English literacy! Yay!
Heritage has four different buildings, all very close and in the residential part of Phnom Penh. My building is a bit smaller, but all the buildings are tight communities and everyone I've met who is connected to the school has pretty much been wonderful! There is even a pool at my building so the kids get to go swimming twice a week. Some of the kids are from very wealthy families, some are upper-middle to middle-class. I am interested to see where my interactions with parents and families take me, as it will be very different than traditional "parent-teacher conferences" in America. Not too much to say about work except I have so much of it before school starts! So many lesson plans to write for these little guys...
Tomorrow, I will spend time with my "brother" the monk and go shopping some more for supplies and decorations for my apartment. The walls are really dull so I need to spice things up a bit in here!
That's where I'll leave off for now, on the couch in this comfy-couch of a city. Get it?... you sink in and don't really want to ever get up.
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Cambodia
A week or so home from Greece and I'm preparing for my latest adventure, moving to Cambodia for a year. I'll be teaching English at Heritage International School in Phnom Phen, Cambodia's capital. I leave in just under 3 weeks!
I'm excited to get this show on the road, to get an apartment over there, to meet my 3 and 4 year olds who I'll be teaching for a year. I'm so excited and confident this is where I should be headed in my life.
Now, vaccinations... tetanus booster and typhoid capsules... fun times...
I'm excited to get this show on the road, to get an apartment over there, to meet my 3 and 4 year olds who I'll be teaching for a year. I'm so excited and confident this is where I should be headed in my life.
Now, vaccinations... tetanus booster and typhoid capsules... fun times...
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Conclusions!
This silly phone broke up my entries! Ah well, conclusions:
Hmm... Well I'm no expert, three weeks is hardly enough for me to make assertions about a place. That bring said, I think it's safe to say that Greeks think Greece and the Greeks are the best at, well, everything. And they are clinging to their laurels like I've never seen a culture do. They were the center of Europe, so much of the world, for so many years in ancient times. Today they are very small globally, among the poorest nations in the E.U. So it's easy to see why they think the past was so important. But the country is littered with deserted buildings, crumbling sidewalks, and as the news shows, there is much political unrest as the bailout moves forward. Or, more like, as the bailout remains stagnant, which seems to be a rather fitting albeit harsh description of Greece. To sum up our particular trip, I'd say... There were some really really annoying parts, but, overall, it's been a fun trip.
An Ending
OMG I am quite angry right now because I just spent an hour writing this entry only for my phone to betray me and delete it's contents! Why would you do this to me, iPhone? I always treat you so well! You must be mad that I've had you on "airplane mode" for the entirety of this trip. Don't worry, iPhone, you will get to text soon!
Anyway, I'll try to recreate the magic even though I'd rather just give up. Dang. It really was a lengthy entry.
Anyway, back in Athens, we went to the Acropolis Museum where we saw some amazing artifacts found in Athens and around the Parthenon. This museum, for a change in Greece, was well done. It was even air conditioned!
That night, we saw the latest Harry Potter at an open-air cinema. In the summer, they project movies outside after the sun goes down. The movie was awesome (obviously), we ate popcorn, and we saw REAL Greek life (as opposed to the other 75% of what we've seen, which has seemed set up for tourists).
The next day, we visited the Archealogical Museum where I saw the gold mask of Aggamemmnon! It was amazing. They had so much there! This country is dripping in history and artifacts and legend and myth. Mom and I enjoyed looking at the possessions of the women, Luke their jewelry. Things have changed so much since 1200 B.C. and, yet, so little.
The next day, we relaxed a bit and shopped at a few last stores in Monastiraki. We also visited a former Turkish bath house. It was interesting; Greece is such a mixture of East and West. And the bath house reminded me of the time I bathed in a haman in a village Morocco. Good times....
Today, we were package tourists! We hopped on a bus for Epidaurus and Ancient Mycenae. Epidauarus is home to the sites of the first cult worshippers of Dionysus, and still has an amazing ancient theater. The theater was so epic. They still do shows there, but sadly our timing didn't work out for any performances :( I still can't believe I was standing on the very stage where people first performed the rituals to honor Dionysus that would slowly but surely lead to theater as we know it today.
Ancient Mycenae was amazing, too. We saw the sites where so much was discovered about the great Myceneans, previously believed to have been merely the fiction of Homer's tales. The famous Lion's Gate and the Treasury of Atreus (also know as the Tomb of Aggamemmnon), the oldest structures in Europe, lie in Mycenae. They both yield blocks so large it is reasoned that only Cyclops could have built them! It's crazy to think of how many ancient things I have seen in the last few weeks. To see things that so many people have seen and touched, like these spaces in Greece and also places I have been, like the Eiffel Tower, the Taj Mahal, the Hollywood sign and the Statue of Liberty, is... Well it helps you place yourself, I guess. It helps me understand my place in the world and in time, even.
Anyway, I guess this is the end. We'll be home soon and who knows when I'll be able to come back. I should offer some conclusions then, yes?
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Milos
Hello all!
We're back in Athens after a few nights in Milos. We'll stay in Athens until our flight back home (with layovers in London and Boston).
Anyway, Milos. What a change from Santorini and Mykonos! There were way less tourists here and subsequently way less to do. It's a fairly large island but the villages are small and scattered throughout. We stayed right in Adamas, the port town.
The first day we visited ancient Christian catacombs. We also saw an ancient theater. It was awesome, obviously, because it was a theater, but what was really cool was that archeologists were excavating the theater while we were there! We saw them digging up ruins and dusting surfaces. I've never seen an excavation in process, so it was really exciting for Mom and me. It's so incredible that so much of this country's ruins still lay beneath the surface! Who knows what they will find in the seats of this theater where ancient Greeks once watched great tragedies?
After that, we headed back to Adamas and hit the little beach right by our hotel. The water is so clear and warm here!
The next day, we signed up for a tour and got in this old sailboat and hit the water. It was so much fun! We went snorkeling and went on a little boat through these pirate caves. Milos is strategically located between Crete and the other larger islands of the Cyclades, so pirates essentially ruled parts of the island, able to easily capture the large, slower ships passing through their territory. They would hide in these cavernous spaces created thousands of years ago by volcanic eruptions. These tiny caves looked EXACTLY like the caves in Pirates of the Caribbean!!!! Then our captain told us that the famous pirate Barborussa (sp?) once ruled the entire island of Milos!!! It was so crazy and exciting to imagine actual Jack Sparrows running around the rocks we were sailing by.
It was really windy on the sail boat and we had to turn to a safer route! It was INSANE sitting on the deck of the ship with these huge waves crashing down on us, literally lifting our bodies in the air off of the ship! It reminded me of my front cabin on Semester at Sea....
Yesterday we sort of ran out of things to do... The main activities of the Greeks are eating, sitting, and smoking, and since we're kinda getting sick of the food, definitely sick of sitting around, and don't smoke, we got a little bit bored on Milos.
But now we're headed back to Athens where we'll hit the rest of the museums, do some day trips to nearby sites, then hop back on a plane for lots and lots of flying. Looking forward to being home, definitely looking forward to that Starbucks in Athens...
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
We say goodbye, Santorini
Hello again from Milos! We arrived via ferry from Santorini. Let's see, after the day of wine, black sand and the nice evening in Oia, we awoke in the wonderful Hotel Antonios to frappes (Greek coffee drink) made by our wonderful hotel owner who had saved us from near-homeless-ness that day prior after our many mix ups.
Today it was time to be a package tourist! So many sights here are unlabeled and few people are helpful in helping you find your way, so we thought maybe on a tour we'd accomplish more. We did what everyone told us and walked down to the old port to meet our ship. It was 588 steps, yes please very enjoyable, we were told. After being knocked around by passing donkeys and their keepers, we thought around ever corner, this HAS to be the end of these stairs! But no, it really was 588 steps down. I literally thought my legs were going to fall off. Or that I might die if I didn't faint first from the blistering heat. Ugh. But we finally made it there and we got on an old ship and sailed to volcanic craters.
We hiked... More.... To the top of ancient rocks and craters, which was pretty cool. Then we sailed to the hot springs created by the heat of the volcano. It was so weird and muddy but really cool. It made my skin feel weird and left orange residue on my bathing suit.
We just about collapsed when we finally made it back to our room. My legs are still aching from the steep stairs and the hike up the volcano!!!
Yesterday we hit the beach, Perissa, to be precise. It was also black sand, as many of these beaches are because of all the volcanic activity Santorini has seen. It was fun to swim in the clear water. We capped off our last night in Santorini with the best lamb I think I've ever had and some refreshing Santorini wine. Then we PASSED OUT. This heat makes me so tired.
Today, before we hit the ferry for Milos, we visited the Archealogical Museum, which houses amazing finds from, like, 4000 years ago! Because of the volcanic eruptions, entire societies have been completely preserved under lava. Their society in even 1600 BC was so evolved. So many pieces of pottery, clay and wall are just sitting in this dingy, humid museum, not even covered in glass! I heard that many museums in Greece do not properly care for their artifacts, and this museum, among so, so many others we've visited, have proven this rumor true.
I'm growing tired as we pull into the third week of the trip. Greek manner is so abrupt, so loud, so unconcerned and it can prove tiring to complete seemingly simple tasks that involve others. I'm also tired of the lack of sewage or clean bathrooms, even at fancy hotels and restaurants. Didn't they have aqueducts way back when? What happened to those?
It's that natural lull in any trip, and I'm looking forward to getting to Milos, which is a bit less crowded with European tourists... Hopefully...
Until then, I'll finish this ferry ride by watching the rocky rocking of the Aegean Sea....
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Santorini Escapades
Greetings from the wonderful Santorini! Let's see when I last updated you I think we were headed for Paradise Beach back in Mykonos. Paradise Beach was everything it promised it would be and we had a blast sleeping in the sun and swimming in the clear if not cold ocean. I had seriously forgotten what salt water tasted like! I don't ever want to go that long without going in the ocean again!
After one last night in what memory makes me realize was a very crowded and even stressful island, we packed up and prepared to leave on the ferry for Santorini.
At least we thought. When we got to the dock and fought our way up to the catamaran, the man taking tickets informed us our ticket was for the following day! We checked our calendar and notes and realized we had checked out of our hotel a day early without even realizing it! And the rude lady at the hotel's front desk certainly didn't say anything when we checked out early! So luckily we could change our ticket to get an afternoon ferry to Santorini because we had a hotel reserved there that night. Or so we thought...
After a pleasant boat ride into the most stressful and probably dangerous cab ride of my life and a cab driver who tried to charge 18euros for a ten minute ride, we made it to our hotel, "Villa San Giorgio." Except we had, online, booked a room at "San Giorgio Villa," which was near Athens. This problem, the hotel clerk assured us, had risen before, many years ago. But the kindness of the local Santorinians pulled through and they helped find us a lovely place to stay down the street. We lost money on the nonrefundable hotel fee, but at least we're alive, I guess?
Once we could explore Santorini and eat some amazing seafood, we forgot all about the shit day. Santorini is by far the best place we've been in Greece so far and the people the nicest we've met here. And despite it's popularity among the islands, Santorini seems to have decent prices on souvenirs! We walked around and then put the day behind us....
Today we had a wonderful breakfast and then went wine tasting! We quickly discovered how spoiled we are with CA wines; the famous Santorini wines were certainly not the best I've ever had... But we learned a lot at the "wine museum" we went through!
Next we visited Kamari and the black sand beach which was more dark gray then black but still cool. It looked and was (apparently) too hot to walk barefoot on.
In the evening we went to Oia for an unobstructed sunset. And grilled octopus. And baklavah. Yum. Oia had an interesting book shop where I loaded up on plays to read for the plane home as I've already plowed through the reading I brought while under an umbrella on the beach.
So many thoughts on Greece as a whole are starting to develop... Only about a week and a half more here to really see if I can put this crazy, unique place into typed word. Until then!
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Mykonos, Part I
Updates from Mykonos! Aka Paradise. And we haven't even been to Paradise Beach or Super Paradise Beach (we should be hitting one or both of those spots tomorrow)! There's not so much to say except to suggest you google-image Mykonos and then sigh and ooh and aah and wish you were here. So, go ahead.
Okay, are you done? Doesn't it look MARVELOUS?!?!?
Were staying right in the "main town," Mykonos Town, at Poseidon Hotel Suites. It's a dream. Blue and white everything and a sea-salt pool and an ocean-view balcony and plenty of cats and kittens roaming around! I could live here.
The "town" is more like a series of alleyways, twisting and turning in impossible directions around graying cobblestones and white curbs. Definitely one-way walking, even as you stumble past designer, luxe shops! I can't believe there are Diesel, Sephora, Juicy Couture, designer jewelry stores here when that old Greek lady is mopping her porch and the creepy Mynokian clown keeps walking by and there you go, you just bought an Hermes bag and it all happened right next to each other! It doesn't make sense, but nothing does in Greece so, actually, maybe it makes perfect sense!
Mykonos is a lot like Vegas in it's attractions and clientele. I've decided Mykonos is Vegas and Isla Vista combined... If those places were European... And on crack....
We have been eating well and enjoying the sun, today hitting Ornos beach. There is truly nothing like laying out in the sun. I love jumping in the salty ocean and then feeling the salt crackle on my skin as it dries. I hadn't been in the ocean in a really, really long time, I realized. Sand between your toes and Greek people screaming in your ears. Perfect.
Then, tonight, as we went out and bought some gifts (!!!), we entered some sort of gay-heaven. Now Mykonos is known as being a hugely gay-friendly destination, and who doesn't love a good party island, especially the gays, but this was unlike anything I've ever seen before! I would say every third person was an extremely buff gay man in a sparkly Armani shirt and tight swim shorts. I try not to stereotype but these boys were, like, the gayest I've ever seen as they strutted into the bars kastro, Diva and Space. We hypothesize that a gay cruise ship just landed (that's not a joke) because last night there were gays, but tonight it was on another level! And with only a slightly above-average number of lesbians, interestingly enough. I think there are like 2 straight, single guys on this island. The other men are with their spouse, their family or they are super super gay. Oh Mykonos.
More updates later, two more glorious nights here, then off to Santorini. Who knows what tomorrow will hold? Either way, I'm guessing there will be sun, ocean, bikinis involved. Until then!
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Athens
Athens: After getting into Athens late due to a delayed flight from London which was allegedly the fault of the French airport workers at Charles de Gaulle (I believe this allegation), we stepped right out of the train station into the famous Monastiraki Square. Athenstyle, our hostel, was just steps away! It took us awhile to find our hostel because the online instructions said to look for an Applebee's. There certainly was no Applebee's. This was to be the first of many mistaken directions, tips and instructions from ever-screaming Athenians. But don't tell anyone that; they're Greek so they of course know best. Just re-watch the film "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" to know what I'm talking about (WINDEX lol).
After settling in, eating a late dinner and enjoying some delicious Greek beer, we headed to the rooftop of the hostel where we had stunning views of the illuminated Acropolis. Magnificent.
The next day we were off to explore the Acropolis up close. What a hike! And it's not like they have safe roads or maps or anything along the way! It's amazing to compare these places to our museums in the US; ancient artifacts lie to and fro here! It was so cool to walk the roads of Sophocles and the like. I can't even imagine the glory of these structures when they were new as they are so overwhelming in their beauty and grandeur even now.
The highlight for me was seeing the ancient theater of the Acropolis where Aeschylus, Euripides, Sophocles, etc all had their plays first performed in the great Dionysian theater festivals of the ancient eras. To see where drama as we know it all started! To see the foundations (both figurative and literal) of Western theater made me realize and reaffirm my passion for the theater. I was sitting on the steps where audiences watched Aggamemnon take the stage! Where "dues ex machina" came to be! Where The Furies and Orestes and Oedipus came to life for the first of many many many times! How could I not have been floored?! Other sites house more ancient life and history, sure, but for me, THIS is where life began and begins.
Even though we practically passed out from the heat, after the Acropolis, Mom and I headed out for some shopping. They have a lot of little tourist shops around Monastiraki Square and the Acropolis and they all sell the same souvenirs for the same prices but they have some cool stuff. We also headed to the Athens mall which had department stores, H&M, Zara, all that good stuff. After all these excursions, we were exhausted! We ate some dinner, made plans for the rest of the trip and hit the hay. Our hostel has bunk beds so it's pretty silly and small but we like it.
Today, June 3 (I think?) we went to the Athens flea market which looks exactly like any antique or swap meet in the US (read: a whole lotta junk). Then we took the 3 hour bus ride from Athens to Delphi. Delphi was small and deserted. The salespeople at the shops seemed desperate. Is tourism down? We'll see when we get to the destination spots: Mykonos, Santorini, etc. We walked along more unpaved and unmarked roads to the Sanctuary of Athena. She's my favorite goddess (and my cat!) so this was obviously awesome! We couldn't exactly find the site of the Temple of Apollo or it's famous Oedipal oracle, but it was hot, we were tired, and we weren't even sure if much of the temple was still standing so we hiked down to the one street that is Delphi and got calamari and iced tea instead We also hit the Delphi Archealogical Museum where we saw amazing ancient ruins discovered at the site. This was enough and I can say I've been to what was once considered the center of all things.
The best part of Delphi was all the cats! They roamed everywhere, scruffy and begging for treats! I take that as a sign the goddess... Er, I mean CAT Athena, was present on our visit to her sanctuary.
Now, we're on the long bus ride back to Athens. I'm sitting next to a large Greek woman and these loud Spanish (I think) teens are, like, screeching behind me. Sounds like Greece. Can I get a gyro and a cold, tall Mythos over here, or what?!
After settling in, eating a late dinner and enjoying some delicious Greek beer, we headed to the rooftop of the hostel where we had stunning views of the illuminated Acropolis. Magnificent.
The next day we were off to explore the Acropolis up close. What a hike! And it's not like they have safe roads or maps or anything along the way! It's amazing to compare these places to our museums in the US; ancient artifacts lie to and fro here! It was so cool to walk the roads of Sophocles and the like. I can't even imagine the glory of these structures when they were new as they are so overwhelming in their beauty and grandeur even now.
The highlight for me was seeing the ancient theater of the Acropolis where Aeschylus, Euripides, Sophocles, etc all had their plays first performed in the great Dionysian theater festivals of the ancient eras. To see where drama as we know it all started! To see the foundations (both figurative and literal) of Western theater made me realize and reaffirm my passion for the theater. I was sitting on the steps where audiences watched Aggamemnon take the stage! Where "dues ex machina" came to be! Where The Furies and Orestes and Oedipus came to life for the first of many many many times! How could I not have been floored?! Other sites house more ancient life and history, sure, but for me, THIS is where life began and begins.
Even though we practically passed out from the heat, after the Acropolis, Mom and I headed out for some shopping. They have a lot of little tourist shops around Monastiraki Square and the Acropolis and they all sell the same souvenirs for the same prices but they have some cool stuff. We also headed to the Athens mall which had department stores, H&M, Zara, all that good stuff. After all these excursions, we were exhausted! We ate some dinner, made plans for the rest of the trip and hit the hay. Our hostel has bunk beds so it's pretty silly and small but we like it.
Today, June 3 (I think?) we went to the Athens flea market which looks exactly like any antique or swap meet in the US (read: a whole lotta junk). Then we took the 3 hour bus ride from Athens to Delphi. Delphi was small and deserted. The salespeople at the shops seemed desperate. Is tourism down? We'll see when we get to the destination spots: Mykonos, Santorini, etc. We walked along more unpaved and unmarked roads to the Sanctuary of Athena. She's my favorite goddess (and my cat!) so this was obviously awesome! We couldn't exactly find the site of the Temple of Apollo or it's famous Oedipal oracle, but it was hot, we were tired, and we weren't even sure if much of the temple was still standing so we hiked down to the one street that is Delphi and got calamari and iced tea instead We also hit the Delphi Archealogical Museum where we saw amazing ancient ruins discovered at the site. This was enough and I can say I've been to what was once considered the center of all things.
The best part of Delphi was all the cats! They roamed everywhere, scruffy and begging for treats! I take that as a sign the goddess... Er, I mean CAT Athena, was present on our visit to her sanctuary.
Now, we're on the long bus ride back to Athens. I'm sitting next to a large Greek woman and these loud Spanish (I think) teens are, like, screeching behind me. Sounds like Greece. Can I get a gyro and a cold, tall Mythos over here, or what?!
Friday, July 1, 2011
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Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Keep on moving...
Okay, so updates! Just made it back to Long Beach after a long, crazy four years in Santa Barbara. Graduation went well. Pico Iyer was the commencement speaker for the Arts and Humanities graduation ceremony and I was super stoked on that!!! He was so eloquent and inspiring. He said those who are graduating with degrees that make money, like, say, NOT THEATER, may have the money, the houses, the cars, the "answers," but they are the ones who will be turning to us, the arts and humanities students for the REAL answers about life. It made me smile and made me think, for some reason, of my time on Semester at Sea. I wonder why? Maybe because SAS was the best thing I did in college and probably the best thing I've done, ever. And although many people chose to spend their time in school "getting ahead," staying behind, on a ship, was something that I think will get me ahead in the long run.
After graduation, me and the girls headed straight for Las Vegas. Of course. Joanne got this fantastic deal for a suite at the Encore hotel, so we jumped at it and found ourselves in a "King's Suite" on the 38th floor of the Encore with a huge bed, couch, nice bathroom and stunning view of the strip! The room was unreal. And destroyed by the time us 8-10 girls had stayed in the room for 3 nights. Utterly destroyed. We left a big tip for housekeeping!
And then, after thinking, as one always thinks to herself, or screams to her best friends in the car as she drives away from Las Vegas, GET ME THE HELL OUT OF LAS VEGAS, we made it home.
Now, I've moved most of my stuff back into my Mom's place in Long Beach and am unpacking my life as I start packing for Greece with Cambodia's packing-for-a-year in the back of my mind. It's all about the suitcases and duffle-bags and storage containers. Yup yup this is going to be an adventure... or a series of adventures...
Until next time!
After graduation, me and the girls headed straight for Las Vegas. Of course. Joanne got this fantastic deal for a suite at the Encore hotel, so we jumped at it and found ourselves in a "King's Suite" on the 38th floor of the Encore with a huge bed, couch, nice bathroom and stunning view of the strip! The room was unreal. And destroyed by the time us 8-10 girls had stayed in the room for 3 nights. Utterly destroyed. We left a big tip for housekeeping!
And then, after thinking, as one always thinks to herself, or screams to her best friends in the car as she drives away from Las Vegas, GET ME THE HELL OUT OF LAS VEGAS, we made it home.
Now, I've moved most of my stuff back into my Mom's place in Long Beach and am unpacking my life as I start packing for Greece with Cambodia's packing-for-a-year in the back of my mind. It's all about the suitcases and duffle-bags and storage containers. Yup yup this is going to be an adventure... or a series of adventures...
Until next time!
Monday, June 20, 2011
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Musings on the Museum of Woman...
The shows went so great! We performed on UCSB's campus as well as downtown on State Street in front of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art during Santa Barbara Downtown Organization's First Thursday Events. Both nights were highly successful! I got a lot of great feedback. The best thing any audience member said to me after the show was, "Thank you for doing this."
It's kind of incredible that it was, in fact, so brave to do what we did on the stage/sidewalk two days ago. I didn't realize the scope of what I was touching on. Or maybe I did, and I just refused to process it completely because I probably would have exploded with nerves. But we did something powerful out there on Thursday. We questioned society and the norms we take for granted on a physical place, a property where those norms are continually upheld. Maybe we did something brave. Maybe just a little. Maybe a lot?
Check out my university newspaper's review of the Tuesday show on campus: http://www.dailynexus.com/2011-06-02/museum-woman-art-life-inspiring-form/
She got it, and it sounded like a lot of others did, too. One step at a time :)
It's kind of incredible that it was, in fact, so brave to do what we did on the stage/sidewalk two days ago. I didn't realize the scope of what I was touching on. Or maybe I did, and I just refused to process it completely because I probably would have exploded with nerves. But we did something powerful out there on Thursday. We questioned society and the norms we take for granted on a physical place, a property where those norms are continually upheld. Maybe we did something brave. Maybe just a little. Maybe a lot?
Check out my university newspaper's review of the Tuesday show on campus: http://www.dailynexus.com/2011-06-02/museum-woman-art-life-inspiring-form/
She got it, and it sounded like a lot of others did, too. One step at a time :)
Monday, May 30, 2011
The Museum of Woman
Tomorrow night's the big show!
http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=173192126072999
http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=173192126072999
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
The Museum of Woman
This blog was originally created to serve as a connection for my friends and family while I was studying abroad with University of Virginia's Semester@Sea. Now, Fall 2009 is long gone, and so, I thought, was this blog. But as I prepare to set sail again (this time, metaphorically), I thought, why not start up my blog again? Since, after all, I am a traveler and writer. So let's do it! Watch me, read me, live vicariously through me as I traverse the world.
UPDATES. I’m graduating UC Santa Barbara in two weeks. In the last four years, a lot has happened. A lot has changed. Obviously. Ugh, I’m boring myself. The point of this lack of a story is… there is an ending to this story. I am so fortunate to have an “ending”—a culmination of my work. A senior thesis project. A performance.
Leading me to my conclusion: after a year of work on this project (and four years of work in theater), I am one week away from presenting “The Museum of Woman.” Not my first play ever produced, but the first time I truly saw a project start to finish essentially on my own. Well, not really on my own, because I have such a fantastic support system/cast/advisor, etc., but this was my idea, my concept, my original research, my play, my direction, my producing. I’m even acting in the show! So thank god this is ending in a week. And truly, thank god I have had the opportunity to create.
Check out the facebook link to the performance: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=173192126072999
After this performance, it’s off to Vegas (AGAIN), then to Greece, then almost straight to Cambodia, where I’ll be teaching English to preschoolers for 10 months. This life is a blessing! :)
UPDATES. I’m graduating UC Santa Barbara in two weeks. In the last four years, a lot has happened. A lot has changed. Obviously. Ugh, I’m boring myself. The point of this lack of a story is… there is an ending to this story. I am so fortunate to have an “ending”—a culmination of my work. A senior thesis project. A performance.
Leading me to my conclusion: after a year of work on this project (and four years of work in theater), I am one week away from presenting “The Museum of Woman.” Not my first play ever produced, but the first time I truly saw a project start to finish essentially on my own. Well, not really on my own, because I have such a fantastic support system/cast/advisor, etc., but this was my idea, my concept, my original research, my play, my direction, my producing. I’m even acting in the show! So thank god this is ending in a week. And truly, thank god I have had the opportunity to create.
Check out the facebook link to the performance: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=173192126072999
After this performance, it’s off to Vegas (AGAIN), then to Greece, then almost straight to Cambodia, where I’ll be teaching English to preschoolers for 10 months. This life is a blessing! :)
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