Big Orange Backpack

The last few days have been so interesting, but so typical of the experiences I've had this summer.

Sunday on the beach I would be sitting in seemly paradise, however every so often mine victims, missing a leg usually, would come over with a box of videos and books around their neck selling things. It was disgusting and quite sad that these disabled men were forced to crutch their way through the sand hunched over, holding a heavy box of books and DVDs around their neck. The best I could do was smile and nod, at least acknowledge them, which is more than most tourists do. They would smile back though, these sincere wonderful smiles, which are so typical of the people here.

On the bus home we passed by an accident and I saw my second 'dead guy' while living here. I on average see an accident daily (when I go out), so considering this, the fact that I've only seen two deaths is a miracle.

Also on Sunday a new teacher arrived, Sue, from South Africa. She was supposed to be taking over Jessie's classes while she is in Siem Reap this week, but is too nervous to do so yet, so is just co-teaching with us until she feels ready. She watched me teach Jessie's level 1 class and was sincere in saying she thinks that I am a natural teacher, which I found very kind.

Last night we went out to drinks to celebrate Sue's arrival. Lee and I went on seperate motos and the moto driver got lost, and neither of us really had a clear idea of where we were going to begin with (Helena had told the moto driver and then stayed behind to get on another). We got off and went into Lucky Supermarket so I could buy chocolate and also to ask directions. In there we met Sopheap, Narin's wife. Narin owns Coffee Korner, a cafe we all often go to. Last week he had a free dinner for us at the restaurant and opened 4 bottles of French wine he bought while in Hong Kong. They both work for Bangkok Airways as flight attendants in addition to owning the cafe. She has a car (whoa!) and drove us to Street 278 but really wasn't sure where we were going either. When we mentioned Flavours, the name of the bar she said, "Oh! My friend owns that place!" It was so lucky and funny that we ran into her, and Lee and I felt like celebrities when we drove up to the outdoor restaurant and bar and everyone saw us get out of a car. She went back to her house to get Narin, and the lot of us sat there and enjoyed some cocktails and good conversation. Narin drove Michelle, Helena and I back to our house in their car, and the whole time we pretended as though we were flying a plane back. Narin would call Helena his "co-pilot" and ask her to perform the landing checklist for example. It was quite fun, probably more than it would've been if we all hadn't been a little tipsy.

Yesterday the police found three bombs at the base of a monument in the centre of Phnom Penh. The monument celebrates the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia which led to the downfall of the Khmer Rouge regime. It's very controversial because the Vietnamese are historic rivals and often enemies of the Cambodian people. They also overstayed their welcome in 1979 when they invaded, staying for 10 years. There was also an explosion and fire near the airport which destroyed five planes Narin told me. None of my students knew anything about it, and there is the possibility that it's being hidden by the government. They knew there was a fire near the airport, destroying fifty homes, but I'm not sure which version is the truth. There are a lot of problems with the government here, and the possibility is that there might be a coup or something of the likes in the works. Alice and I are going to our respective embassies to register today just in case. Even if there were anti-governmental violence, it would not be targeted against the foreigners, so I'm safe either way. However, I tend to bring bad luck with me whereever I go (does anyone remember the war last summer while I was in Israel), so I'm expecting anything.

Anywho, I'm going to go and take a nap before going to the post office and the embassies later today.

Okay, not quite, but close. I just got back from the best most relaxing weekend this side of ever. Michelle and I went down to the beach, and it was divine. We rented a room literally ON the beach for $8 for a night, and spent all day on the beach. I got a bit burned, but it was so wonderful. We had a seafood BBQ for $3 each last night, and the restaurant was so close to the water we actually had our feet get wet a few times when a particularly large wave came in. I plan on spending the next four weekends there until I leave, which is a month from today. Weird.

I called Lori today to wish her a happy belated birthday and I got a present of my own, a niece or a nephew!! She's pregnant and due February 10th, and I'm SO ridiculously excited. I'll probably come home practically every weekend to see the little dude or dudette.

Today was Alice's birthday and we all had a great big meal with the school staff and all of the volunteers, it was great fun and we bought her a chocolate cake and everything.

I come home in about a month, and now I'm starting to get really excited to see some baby-bump action.

I arrived yesterday morning wicked early from Bangkok into Phnom Penh. I slept for a while before going out with some of my students at 2pm. We went to kareoke (a classic Khmer past time) before going Lucky 7 (a fast food restaurant, they wanted to make me happy by eating some 'American' food), then the riverside. We were looking for a boat to take a small trip, but because it was a Buddhist holiday and a Sunday, they were in high demand, and thus asking too high a price. We went into FCC (Foreign Correspondants Club) and had some sangeria (they love sweet stuff here, so it was right up their alley). One of the students, Khim, had to leave early to go to work at a bar, and he called us about 20 minutes after we left and said that the bar was dead, and invited us to come. After this bar I felt a bit drunk, as were we all, so we went to a Khmer restaurant, which is on the street and people sit in a cafeteria like building and they serve the same thing to everyone, but dinner was only $.75. It was great too. I finally came home after that, four hours after I had started to suggest we do so.

Today I went to an orphanage with my tutoring student. It was a nice place, but it was so sad to see that these children live 10 in a room together, and I took their information, and maybe I'll be able to do some fundraising for them when back in the States. It was a fun tuk-tuk ride through bad streets, so we were bouncing all over the place. Twice we had to get out and push it out of a ditch. We then went to pick up our skirts from the tailor, and now I'm having one more made, and probably a few pairs of nice trousers for next year for conferences and then later work. Bleh. Work. Real world.

I've had one of the most amazing weeks of my life. Angkor Wat was unbelievable, Singapore was a dose of 1st world heaven, and Bangkok has been shopping and Jew-tastic.

I walked around a lot Friday before going to Chabad. I met some great people there, and today I went to the market with them. One of the girls I met, Sara, actually goes to Rutgers, and while we have many of the same friends in common, we didn't know each other (not surprising given the size of the school). We then went back to Chabad for a great lunch (can we say chillunt?!) and now we're going for massages. After the massage I'm going to go back to my hostel for some Harry Potter action. I leave back for PP tomorrow morning wicked early and will be on the same flight as Neil, one of the other teachers at CWF. I've met so many cool Jews and Israelis, it's going to be difficult to be without that again. Only five more weeks, it seems like too little time and far too much at the same time. I can't wait to stay and I can't wait to leave. I think Naomi and I are going to go to Saigon before I leave in the end of August. One of the reasons I wasn't going to go was because I was running out of visa pages, but now that I have extra, I think it'll be a blast.

Next time I write, I'll probably be home, back in the bodge.

I arrived here last night at about 12:30, it's a far cry from the comforts Singapore, but more like what I've been used to. I passed out last night and this morning I woke up and went to the Royal Palace and the National Museum. Then I wandered around Chinatown for a while before heading down here, to Kao San Road, the backpacker centre of Asia. I'm in culture shock seeing so many white people. I bought some cool lighting fixtures, and I plan on going a little crazy at the world's biggest market tomorrow. As for right now, I'm off to go to Chabad for Shabbat services before heading back to the hostel for a sorely needed shower and sleep.

This place is amazing and I never want to leave. It's called "Asia on training wheels" and it has all of the comforts of home.. most importantly Cheerios and hot water. I arrived in Singapore half an hour early and I got a ride in a taxi with a girl that lived around the corner from Eric and Naomi's (my cousin Lori's friends whom I'm staying with). When I arrived Eric and I went to the Museum of Asian Civilisations which was AMAZING. Probably the best museum I've ever been to before, and our tour guide was great so it was really a wonderful experience. Then we went to Naomi's office where we packed her up because it was her last day of work. We dropped off the stuff at the apartment and then went out for foot massages!! After walking around Angkor Wat for three days, one of which without shoes on, it was an amazing treat. We came back to their (amazing and beautiful apartment) and then went out to dinner with some of their friends (a Serbian guy and an Israeli couple, they were all great company). The dinner was the best I've had in recent memory and I got to experience a lot of local Singaporian fare.

This morning after waking up really late (10:30!) we had some breakfast (Cheerios!!) before going out to the American embassy to get me some more pages in my passport. I'm not running out quite yet, but if I decide to go to Vietnam I'd might need it. Singapore is the easiest place to get it done, and if I needed it done at home I'd have to send it to Philadelphia, and considering the craziness going on with people waiting months for their passports to be issued, I'd rather do it here in fifteen minutes and for free. This passport has got to last me another eight years, so I would've needed the extra pages eventually. We came back and went to the movies (whoa! WHAT? the movies?!) and saw Harry Potter, which was great. I'm really looking forward to buying the book when I'm in Bangkok. I really hope J.K. Rowling doesn't kill him in the end. As we were walking out of the movies and looking for a lunch place Naomi started to feel really sick. Long story short, I got to experience the Singaporian hospital and medical system. She's spending the night there, but she should be fine, they're just being really careful because tomorrow afternoon they're supposed to fly out to Europe for 12 days. As for me I'm flying out to Bangkok at 11:30 PM. Naomi and Eric have been so amazing, and I'm a little loath to go back to the 3rd World, my Aunt Karen was right, it's going to be hard to go back. After I do, however, I only have five more weeks before permantly returning to the 1st World, which I'll never take for granted again. I'm having such culture shock being here the past two days, having to comply to rules and laws again, not seeing body guards walking around with guns holstered, seeing animals roaming the streets and poverty everywhere. I got so used to it, it was jarring to not see it anymore, and to realise all that I had become accustomed to in Cambodia. It really is a great place though, and it'll be nice to get everything so cheaply again, as well as be above the law and the like... I was talking about it at dinner last night, and it was funny to see how surprised people were about where I've been living.

Anywho, Bangkok late tomorrow night for the weekend before fortunately or unfortunately, returning back home to Phnom Penh.

This experience at Angkor Wat has been truly special. I feel as though I got a truely unique experience, and one I'll always treasure. This morning I took in the sunrise at Angkor Wat, and while it made for a few good photos, it was completely unmoving. It was crawling with tourists and it really took away from the experience. I however did get a laugh when two women bought a coffee and a tea and happily turned over $5 per drink.

The first three temples I visited, were, I was very surprised to find empty. The first was awesome, the second was under massive rehab and so I only snapped a picture before turning away. The third was also great, but I wasn't feel that well and climbing up the tallest temple at Angkor did a number on me. The view was worth it. I then went to Ta Prom, which is featured in the Lara Croft movie (Tomb Raider) and understood why it would be the perfect location for a film. It was a temple engulfed by the jungle and for the first twenty minutes I was also alone (shocking considering it is one of the top three most popular temples at Angkor). It was completely wicked. I took more pictures there than I took most of yesterday. I then went out to a farther temple, which was about 45 minutes away on tuk-tuk. It was very beautifully decorated, although small. However, the heat, the crowds, and temple-itis was getting to me and I left soon afterwards. I went to the Children's Hospital to donate blood but I couldn't today, so they gave me a list of hospitals in Phnom Penh that are reputable and I'll do that when I get back.

I'm uploading today's photos now, and it seems as though it's working.

Tomorrow morning Singapore!

In order of oldest to newest here they are:

http://rutgers.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2184807&l=4c572&id=8818340

http://rutgers.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2187919&l=b97e3&id=8818340

http://rutgers.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2187925&l=6011e&id=8818340

http://rutgers.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2187927&l=c4921&id=8818340

http://rutgers.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2187940&l=09b0a&id=8818340


With four albums filled at ~60 pictures each, I hope you're sitting somewhere comfortable.

This is one of the most amazing places I've ever been. It was a beautiful bus trip, as always, I left at 7h30 and arrived here around 2pm. I was accosted the second I got off the bus, and was very happy to see Phal (pronounced Paul), the tuk-tuk driver one of my students arranged for me. They had gone to Bible College together, and Vilot, my student, was nice enough to arrange it so his friend could give me a good price during my visit.

I arrived at my guesthouse and dropped my stuff off and practically ran to Angkor Wat. I bought my ticket ($40 for three days!) and decided to spend the rest of the day inside just Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat is actually the name of just one temple, but the entire temple complex outside of Siem Reap has been given its name. It is the largest and probably the most impressive of the 30+ temples in the area. I took the best photos I've ever taken. In the centre there is a tall building that you're meant to climb up. It was almost a vertical climb, nothing like this would exist in the States where you could actually go to the top. It was so scary and dangerous. I, stupidly, had a skirt on, and came to regret it. I had to hike it up in order to make it up safely. I wandered around up top and took some great pictures of the view of the jungle before climbing back down. While wandering around I ran into Sasha and Navita, two girls that I've met twice before that were with Jessie's NGO delegation. We hung out the rest of the day. They hadn't been to the top temple yet, so I begrudingly went back up, even though I felt as though I had escaped death the first time. As I was going up there was an entire Cambodian family laughing hysterically as they almost certainly saw my knickers. We walked around quite a bit before waiting for the sunset. However, we got caught in the middle of a downpour instead. The girls set to dancing in puddles while I sat and talked with a monk for a long while, waiting for it to be "safe"to make our descent. It was again petrifying, but exilerating. We had dinner at my guest house before I retired, watching TV for the first time in a month, the last time being in Battambong for one night.

This morning I woke up at 2:30, 3:30 and finally at 4:30 too excited for words, and at 5am I headed out to catch the sunrise and have my only full day at Angkor Wat. I went to a reflecting pool called Sra Serang for sunrise and caught some amazing photos. I was accosted by children selling all sorts of things, and I was afraid that it was setting the tone for the day. However, I was fairly unhassled most of the day, which is lucky. After speaking for a while with one of the children sellers, I went across the street to a run down temple. I visited three or four extraordinary ruined temples in the morning, and at all of them I was the first person there, and the only one there. It was really a religious experience, and one that I greatly preferred to the busier and more famous temples that I vistited in the late morning, early afternoon. My shoes got really muddy and wet while walking, so I spent the better part of the day barefoot, which just added to the experience. I wish I had more to say, but I hope the pictures speak for themselves.

I was able to upload past photos from this internet cafe in Siem Reap, and it seems as though I'll be able to upload my first day and a half from Angkor Wat too. I'll put the link to all the photos in another entry.

Screw Friday the 13th luck, this has been the best day! I had great classes with good turn out. I played two of my favourite songs in my last class, which is my favourite class. They all sing along and the acoustics are great, and they're awesome people. It was a great time.



I also got a parcel today from the best and sweetest boyfriend ever. I never got a notice in the mail at the school, but Alice, Michelle, and I were all expecting parcels and went to see if they had arrived before we left for holiday. We went into the post office and they told us to come back in an hour, so we went to a bar on Riverside and then came back. We scanned the books and saw Alice's name and she picked up her package. I was very forlorn and asked if there was anywhere else it might be and she said "oh well if it's over 2 kilos it's in window 34 around the side of the building" I would've fancied her volunteering that information, but whatever. We scanned the book there and I saw my name and jumped with joy (literally). I paid $1.20 ransom (Cambodian post makes you pay when you pick up parcels, it's ridiculous) and brought my parcel outside. Alice and I openned them together on the stairs like it was Christmas morning, and we were both very pleased with the thoughtfulness of our senders.



I leave in the morning for Siem Reap, I probably won't post again until I'm in Singapore on Tuesday.


Yay! It's holiday time!

I leave for vacation at 7:30am on Saturday. I will be catching a bus at 7h30 up to Siem Reap and will be there Saturday eve, Sunday and Monday.

Tuesday morning I'm flying to Singapore and I will be there Tues-Thursday night.

Late Thurs night I fly to Bangkok until early Sunday morning, when I fly back into Phnom Penh.

So excited.

Last night was top ten worst nights of my life. Here's the backstory.

Jess has come here twice before with a human rights delegation teaching college students and older how to work in the human rights world. She stayed for a month each time at the Bodhi tree, a restaurant/guest house. She became tight with the manager, Nan, and we often go and visit and eat. A few weeks ago he invited us to his sister's wedding. Okay, that's not accurate. He invited her and I got myself tagged along on the invite. So it comes to yesterday and he has hired two mini buses to bring us to Takeo, a province an hour outside of Phnom Penh. The organisation that she came with the previous two years are here, and they came along too. The bus ride went from one hour to three hours, as the bus broke down multiple times in the middle of the countryside. They used Jessie's phone as a flashlight as they tried to fix it. We finally arrived, but we were too late for the food. We stayed from 8:30-11:30 and had a great time listening to music, watching ceremonies (the bride and groom feed their families, not each other), and dancing. I made a Khmer friend and we danced for about an hour and he taught me tons of Khmer dancing. It was super fun, but by 11:30 we were exhausted from the trip and the dancing, and I knew I had to wake up at 5:40 to teach.

We got back on the bus and within minutes it breaks down. They tied the two buses together with bamboo. Repeat. Bamboo. All of the guys that were doing it were drunk and stupid out of their minds. We spent about four hours trying to tie the buses together with either bamboo and a pair of silk pants or rope. Shockingly, it didn't work so well. By about 2:30 I started screaming, calling them brainless men and demanding to squeeze onto the other bus and drive back to Phnom Penh cramped, but moving. I was in the broken bus and breathing exhaust for the entire time. We would tie the bamboo or rope, which would take 20-30 minutes, then we would drive for at maximum 7 minutes. It was infuriating.

We all squeezed onto the front bus in a coup and said drive, we're not doing this anymore. So we all squeezed onto the next bus, but they insisted on towing the other bus anyway. Everytime the rope broke they'd tie it closer to our bus. By the end there were inches between the buses and the second bus driver kept falling asleep at the wheel. Jess was sitting in the way back and if anything had happened brake-wise, she would've lost her legs. For me, I was standing in the middle of the aisle face to face, two inches apart from an American guy named Mark (part of the delegation, I knew him beforehand thank G-d) from 3-5AM as we slowly bumped into Phnom Penh. We listened to my iPod and I tried to stay awake by dancing. We arrived back at the house and wrote a mellow-dramatic message on the white board on the wall that people would have to cover our morning classes and we promptly passed out till noon, but I'm still wicked exhausted. Oh, did I mention that Jess and I had peed all over our feet in the jungle in the middle of all of this? Sorry, that might be TMI (too much information), but I really need the world to grasp how absolutely miserable that entire experience, sans the wedding itself, was. Everyone keeps saying in a few days we'll laugh about it. I hope so.

I came to this internet cafe almost two hours ago, and the second I walked in it started to pour and has not let up. Chances are I'm swimming home. I'm supposed to go to a wedding tonight outside the city, but at this rate, I'm not 100% that's going to happen.

I'm reduced to blogging for lack of other things to do. Here's an interesting article on the state of the Kingdom of Cambodia for you Grandma and anyone else:
http://www.sundayherald.com/international/shinternational/display.var.1528397.0.0.php

This time next week I'm going to be in Siem Reap, and hopefully visiting the temple complexes at Angkor Wat. I will be in Siem Reap from Saturday to early Tuesday morning. Then I will go to Singapore until late Thursday night when I will fly into Bangkok until early Sunday morning. It should be a super fun time, and after that I will pretty much have a single room, as Jessie will either be away or staying with her visiting boyfriend at a guesthouse. Said guesthouse has A/C, hot water, and wireless, and I have promised many a visit.

After I get back from vacation I only have five more weeks, which is so crazy to me. I can't believe I've been here a month and a half, and I'm almost halfway through my time here. I'm not quite sure how I feel about it all. There's part of me that's absolutely miserably homesick, and secretly hopes I get a mild case of dengue so that I can go home. But that's a pretty small part usually. I love the Cambodian people, they are so kind, always smiling and always cracking jokes. I understand less and less everyday how Pol Pot and genocide could have occured here, only 25-30 years ago. I don't think Cambodians understand either. School is what keeps me going, my students are awesome. I get along really well with Jessie and Alice, and to a lesser extent Helena, Michelle and Lee; but two women in the house drive me absolutely mad. Jessie and I spend most of our time in our room, and it's a bit boring and suffocating. I have the entire middle of my day open, and I usually don't know how to spend it. I give myself one "job" a day to do, on Monday it's to buy more postcards, and Tuesday to do laundry and Wednesday to send aforementioned postcards.

It's remarkable how accustomed I've become to absolute abject poverty. I saw a half-naked woman who was laying on the sidewalk passed out from hunger and/or thirs, and her child crawling up to her breastfeeding. It looked like they could've been dogs instead of people on the sidewalk. I couldn't decide what was more disturbing; that I witnessed this or that I wasn't the least bit alarmed, nor was anyone else.

I'm starting to get excited about plans for next year after I graduate, thinking about where I might want to live and what I might want to do. I think after being here the future can't really scare me. While I might not be certain of my plans, I can always waitress and volunteer at an NGO somewhere. I'll never live in a shack and I'll never go hungry. So really, what's there to be nervous about?

I think the rain stopped, I'm going to bolt before it begins anew.

I was able to upload a few pictures:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2173743&l=53876&id=8818340

http://rutgers.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2184807&l=4c572&id=8818340

I just picked up my dress that I had made at the Russian market today, and I have a totally new and foreign addiction. Clothes making. I bought this beautiful raw silk fabric for $24 and had the dress made for $20. I think I am going to have skirts made, tons for Shabbat, and on average it will cost $12 per skirt, when I get to design it, pick the fabric, and have it custom fitted. I'm spending more than I wanted to this summer, but to have beautiful clothes made I'm willing to be in debt a little.

Tonight I'm going to the French Culture Centre for a photography show openning. Three of the students that are being showcased are students at the school, although none of them are mine.

The other day one of my students really floored me. I don't really like him (he doesn't appreciate my being Jewish and not Christian, and asks me inappropriate questions like 'does Cambodia give you diarrhea?'). We were practicing illness words and each student made a sentence using one or two vocabulary words. He chose "dizzy"and "faint".

"During the Pol Pot regime I would work for 12-16 hours with very little food. I would feel dizzy all day when I was working in the fields. At the end of the day walking back to the village sometimes I would faint and my friends would carry me."

A lot of my students know very little about the Khmer Rouge, but one of my students is studying it intently. He has told me that all of his grandparents and all of his father's siblings died during that time, and he is on a quest to find out why and how. The KRT (Khmer Rouge Tribunal) has just kicked off, but most folks around here regard it as a big of a joke. We're just waiting for the government to find some reason to stop it, as after 1993 many Khmer Rouge alumni were allowed into government positions. They have a scary amount of power, and the Prime Minister, among other crazy and corrupt things, has been floating the idea of kicking out all of the foreigners.

On another note, I have four and a half days before my flight leave after school lets out in the end of August. I'm thinking about going up to Rattakankri province, in the northeast, and checking out the minority villages, waterfalls, and elephant treks. I'm starting to look into it now and it should be a blast.

I'm trying to upload pictures as I type but the internet connection is too slow. I'm going to be in Singapore in a week and a half, so I'll do it there.

Vacation is coming soon, and then after that I only have five more weeks! Where has the time gone?!

I've grown fond of riding around Phnom Penh on my bicycle. It's hard to not get killed, and I have to pay attention 100% of the time, but it's fun and it's good exercise. I'm actually gaining weight here because it's too hot to move, so now I might actually come back looking decent.. which is nice.

Things I've learned about Cambodia:

The cockroaches are the size of mice
The mice are the size of rats
The rats are the size of cats
The cats are normal size.


Happy 4th of July! I'm telling all of my students about my country's birthday today and I wish I could be home eating hotdogs and watching fireworks!

I'm sick of being sick. I'm not sure what is wrong this time, and I don't really care, I just want it to go away. I'm still on medication for my ameba though, so I don't know what kind of illness I could have contracted.. But my tummy hurts. Again. Still. I don't know anymore.

This weekend I went to Battambang, in the north by the Thai border. It was a 5 hour bus trip Saturday afternoon and we were only there 24 hours before getting back onto the bus though. It was a great trip though, and looking out the window was far more interesting than reading my book, it was wonderful to get out of the city and see the countryside. Saturday night Jessie and I went to a home for homeless families and they did some performances and then we ate a lovely meal. Sunday I met up with some kids that were traveling with the NGO that Jessie came here with the past two years (they're working at the home we visited the night before) and we wandered about the "city" (I use that term lightly, even though it's the second largest in Cambodia). On the way back into the city I was looking out the window and saw into a grocery store that had Cheerios! I gasped and grabbed Jessie's leg and she immediately knew and asked "do you see Cheerios?" I guess I've been obsessing about them. I'm going to go and get some this week.

I was able to put the pictures on a CD but now Facebook is down. I'll post photos in the next few days though.