Siem Reap, Cambodia

 

Where does the time go??

 

One minute, I’m lying on a beach while five Cambodian ladies cat’s cradle my hair away……… and the next, I’m sitting in a premium lounge in the Kuala Lumpur International Airport waiting for my flight to Nepal (and pounding down egg rolls and espressos like I haven’t eaten in a week).

 

Siem Reap was a DELIGHT.  Two weeks of teaching ABCs and 123s to the cutest batch of Cambodian children, with a two-day timeout to marvel at the world’s largest religious monument and drink draft beer.  In all the excitement (and lesson-planning), I forgot to write a darn thing.  And since I partied too hard with my favorite tuk tuk driver last night……… I find myself completely brain-dead with no time left on the game clock.

 

 

 

ladies night out heyyyyyy

 

we split all the food, drank all the wine, and bearhugged at the airport.  pretty sure we’re best friends.

 

 

Let’s mix things up (because I’ve spent the last fifteen minutes staring at a bowl of peanuts and unable to concentrate).  How about a nice picture montage, with color commentary, instead of the usual seventeen-page novel?  Sound good?  Great.  Where should we start?

 

How about the 12-hour sleeper bus from Sihanoukville, Cambodia to Siem Reap, Cambodia.

 

 

Did you know that double-occupancy sleeper beds existed?  Me neither……… until I pulled back the curtain of my assigned bed, only to find a large Cambodian man was already in it.  Surprise!  (Hi, there!  I love your mustache!  Tom Selleck is so in right now.  Do you mind moving over?)

 

I tried tapping him on the shoulder a few times (to get him to roll over so I could crawl in) but he just kept growling at me and pulling the curtain closed.  Sooooooooo I hopped into the empty bed above him and prayed that whoever jumped in next to me was 1. female and 2. small-to-medium sized.  Thankfully, I got one of the two (as Jen, from Sweden, was 6′ tall).

 

At one point, I woke up and Jen was spooning me, but since we’d already bonded over Black Mirror and banana chips, I figured it was inevitable.  (We ended up spending half a day together, the following day…….. sipping coffee, sharing travel stories, and belly laughing.  Bonded for life and all it took was one cuddle sesh.)

 

 

That afternoon, I hitched a ride 30 minutes outta town to my next volunteering assignment = Angkor Legacy Academy in Lolei Village.  Teaching 5-10 year olds everything from animals to vegetables to verbs to grammar lite.

 

 

 

Two classrooms.  Four classes a day.  Sixty minutes each.  Designed to force me to get over my irrational fear of teaching children in a controlled environment.

 

Not that I’m scared of kids.  I love kids.  It’s the ‘What the heck do I teach them?  How do I fill sixty minutes?  And how do I connect the building blocks of their little, moldable minds so they retain the information?’ questions that intimidate me.  Especially when there’s no rubric or resources or template for teaching…….. and I don’t know the local Khmer language.  WHERE DO I START AND HOW DO I MAKE THIS FUN YET USEFUL?

 

 

All the volunteers slept in the house next door.  Best commute of my life.

 

 

This is the room I shared with Cande (from Argentina) during week one, and Yasmine (from Morocco/France) during week two.  Niiiiiice and cozy.  Perfect for girl talk.

 

 

When we weren’t teaching or playing scattegories or eating as a family (spinning white rice, omelet, pumpkin, water lillies, morning glory, and boiled green tomatoes back-and-forth on the lazy susan), we’d:

 

 

hang out in hammocks and talk to each other

 

 

walk aimlessly through endless farmland…….. and buy sugar cane juice from the neighbors

 

 

and take turns attack-cuddling our favorite neighborhood kitten who we affectionately named ‘gerald’.

 

 

Walking around the village was so fun.  If one kid spotted you, it was only a matter of seconds before 3-6 kids were bolting straight for you, screaming ‘TEACHAAAAAAAA!!!!!!’.  Full speed.  Big smile on their faces.  Some of them naked, fresh from their afternoon baths, but way too excited to wait for their Moms to fetch their clothes.

 

And all they wanted was to say hello and give you a high five.  Ugh, I’m going to miss that.  It was so stinkin’ cute.

 

 

Bonus shot of the bathroom and kitchen, which is confusing cuz they both have a toilet.

 

 

Last weekend, the volunteers headed to Siem Reap to check out night markets, street food, and PUB STREET (where draft beers are 50 cents and tarantulas are sold on sticks).

 

 

what up, girl?  i love what you’ve done with your hair.

 

 

We sampled the local Khmer delicacies – amok (pictured below left), fish filet w/green mango salad (pictured below right), lok lac, and $1 fresh fruit shakes.

 

 

 

But the MAIN reason I ventured to the city last weekend was to visit Angkor Wat: the largest temple complex in the world and the heart & soul of Cambodia.  It. Was. Stunning.  The structures, the detailed carvings, the views from the top, the sheer magnificence…….. made only sweeter by my tuk tuk driver, Noung.

 

Equal parts hilarious and sassy, Noung is the owner of an all-female team of tuk tuk drivers in the Siem Reap area: Driver Srey.  These ladies are knowledgeable, professional, cost-competitive AND they look out for each other in a male-dominated field and you KNOW there’s nothing I love more than women empowerment and ladies helping ladies.

 

Extra bonus: when Noung wasn’t chauffeuring me around, she volunteered to be my personal photographer ninja.  Taking secret, candid shots of me, in and around the temples, and trying her very best to make me look less awkward.

 

She had her work cut out for her.

 

 

why do I look like an ogre?

 

‘Yeah, but what should I do with my hands?’

 

‘Am I framing his face??’

 

‘Stop making me laugh!  I look like I’m scream crying when I laugh!’

 

help me, Rhonda Noung.

 

 

Halfway through the day…….. she took matters into her own hands and stopped telling me she was taking pictures altogether.

 

natural wonder.

 

 

Or told me exactly where to stand and what to do.

 

‘Walk this way, come through that door, turn around, cock your head, stand up, sit down, fight fight fight.’

 

If not for Noung and her excellent direction, I would have ZERO GOOD PICTURES FROM THAT DAY.  Fact.

 

thanks for cracking me up, Noung.

 

can i hire you to orchestrate the rest of my life?

 

**a scarf skirt was always worn inside the temples to cover my knees**

 

just hanging out in doorways with my multi-dimensional scarf skirt….. NBD

 

SOMEone got fancy and changed the camera resolution because the ‘stone color would pop’

 

and that’s a wrap.

 

 

After my full-day temple tour (and a volunteers’ night out with too many 50 cent drafts and Beatles music), we headed back to Lolei to finish out my second week……… and to say goodbye to the kids that crept into my heart.

 

 

teaching in a humid classroom with one, broken fan does wonders to my hair

 

 

I’m going to miss the roller coaster ride of emotion that is ‘teaching’, where one minute you’re on cloud nine that you *might* be breaking through to a student…………. and the next day, deflated (yet supremely amused) as the entire class screams out the wrong answers in unison:

 

• What country is this?  CHICKENNNNNNNNN!!!!!!
• What am I wearing?  BANANAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!
• What color is this?  CHICKENNNNNNN!!!!!!
• What fruit is this?  YELLOWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!
• What color is this?  MANGOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
• What fruit is this?  CHICKENNNNNNNNN!!!!

 

Even though it was absolute BEDLAM at times, it was downright exciting to change strategies on the fly and figure out what worked.  Many thanks to all my teacher friends out there who sent me sing-a-longs and simple learning videos!  I used them and they LOVED them.  Plus, head shoulders knees and toes always came through in a pinch.

 

 

bedlam.

 

and yet, the bedlam is what i’m going to miss.  because kids are CHICKENNNNNN adorable.

 

 

i need more kids in my day-to-day life.  you think i can rent 1 or 2 in Nepal?

 

alright, last one.  disregard my triple chin.

 

 

Hard to say goodbye (but SUPER EXCITED TO SEE MY BUDDIES FROM HOOOOOOOOME), I left Cambodia this morning and I’m headin’ to Kathmandu.  Wish me luck on the hike, as I did zero planning and don’t really know what to expect……… just jumped on my friend Linsea’s tour group and booked a flight.  ha

 

My only basis for comparison is Mount Kilimanjaro, which I hiked in October 2016.

 

One can only hope there’ll be half as many dance parties……

 

And just as many cups of hot chai tea at sunset…….

 

And maybe I’ll meet the love of my life (again)…….

(Rama- you know you will always be the man for me.)

 

 

Because who can resist THIS:

 

 

Who knows how it’ll go………

 

One thing’s for certain: Villanova will be ON my mind and IN my heart.

 

GO NOVA!

 

 

Our EBC 12-day trek starts Easter Sunday morning so I’ll miss both the Final Four AND the Championship games.  (tear)

 

Mom- please remember to tape both games.  🙂

Jalen- stick those threes.

Bridges- use those gangly arms and monster-block a b*tch.

Jay- go with the pinstripes.

Everyone else- TAKE CARE OF BUSINESS and GO CATS, GO!

 

Wildcat for life.

\\V//