Thai-rific

Jeff couldn't resist - at a huge mall in Bangkok

On September 28th, Jeff and I took off for a week-long holiday in Thailand. School was closed for a widely-observed Khmer holiday during which people travel back to their home provinces and visit pagodas to honor the souls of deceased family members. It is also quite a rainy time in Cambodia, (lots of our students experienced flooding at home), so we took the chance to escape to cooler, drier Thailand.

Although Thailand borders Cambodia to the west and is only about an hours flight away, the two are very different. I have to admit that before moving here, I lumped Thailand and Cambodia together whenever one was discussed. From my limited knowledge, they seemed to be one and the same: small countries in SEA, primarily Buddhist, rather poor, gorgeous green rice paddies, etc. The reality is that while Thailand and Cambodia share general climate, location and religion, they are actually quite different, especially when you consider history and economics.

To start with, Thailand remains the only country in Southeast Asia never to be colonized by a European power. It also escaped the fates of its neighbors Vietnam and Cambodia when it came to the hellish trifecta of genocide, war and demolished economies. Thailand experienced an economic boom in the late 80s and early 90s, and is now seen as both a popular tourist destination and a new player on the world stage of industry and exporting. Meanwhile, Cambodia is still doggedly picking up the pieces of its wrecked economy, seeing steady progress only in the past ten years. Just check out the discrepancy between travel guides for the two countries and it's obvious which one has gotten the better end of things.

Although we traveled a lot throughout Asia last year, this was our first time in Thailand. First, we flew into Bangkok and then took a flight directly to the largest northern city, Chiang Mai. We spent four nights at a wonderful boutique bungalow called the Secret Garden, before heading back to Bangkok for two nights. It was a brief trip, but we fit a lot in (thanks to Jeff's close relationship with Trip Advisor) and it was incredibly relaxing. Even though we weren't gone for long, we returned feeling refreshed.

Northern Thailand is really amazing. It's easily 15 degrees cooler than Cambodia, so we did not need to sleep with the AC on. The city roads are paved and maintained, and traffic flow, while considerably less than Cambodia, is actually monitored by law. There are stoplights, turning lanes and highways, sidewalks and curbs. How revolutionary. Our first impression of Chiang Mai was the morning after our late flight and arrival at the Secret Garden. We awoke to a gorgeous, tucked away property including about 15 different bungalows, a open-air communal dining area, a small pool and a wonderful German-Thai family to welcome us. Pai and Peter, the owners, along with their daughter, made sure that we had everything we needed. We started each day with books and breakfast; hot coffee, freshly squeezed fruit juices, homemade German meatballs and croissants. The entire property was serene and quiet, with babbling fountains, beautifully lit trees and a handful of animals including dogs, some birds and a little rabbit in a hutch.

The Secret Garden

It was only a 20-minute ride to the city center, so we went into town every day we were in Chiang Mai. Sunday night we hit the night walking market, which was so much fun despite its tendency toward sensory overload. The streets were closed down to cars and were overflowing with thousands of people trying on clothes, eating pad thai and fresh corn on the cob, admiring paintings by local artists, patronizing the street-side masseurs and people-watching. Despite the amount of people in attendance, the tone was not frenzied and the market itself remained easy to navigate. It had a certain flow and energy to it with so many things to do, see and eat.

Immediate differences were noted between Phnom Penh's night market and Chiang Mai's. First of all, the Thai market was absolutely huge. It expanded in all directions and seemed to encompass anything one would want to buy. We walked for almost three hours and did not make it through the whole thing. Every side alleyway would lead to another enclave of tasty food or products for sale. Not to mention the street performers and amazing people watching. Another difference was the quality of products available. In PP, most items being sold at the markets are mass produced, poorly made and cheaply sold. At this night market, the products were of a much better quality, although you could still find your cheap t-shirts and reproduced photos of the countryside. I also appreciated that in Chiang Mai, vendors were not hassling you to buy their wares. The layer of desperation that often comes through when dealing with Cambodian market vendors was not apparent there. Everyone seemed to be pretty relaxed, many of the vendors interacting with customers who approached them first, others sitting back and playing games on their iPads. The Thai people appeared much more used to seeing and interacting with Westerners. We did not get many stares or second glances, which is the norm where we live. Also, many more people spoke English. We indulged in the street food scene and got a massage, which was really just a chance for us to sit down and watch everything happen around us. The best thing I ate was a dish of mango sticky rice. It was freaking delicious.

Monday morning we were up early and on a bus headed for the rainforest. We had signed up to go on a zip-lining tour and it turned out to be worth the trek. The company was called The Flight of the Gibbon, and while we did not see any monkeys, we pretended to be monkeys for almost three hours. We were in a group with five Chinese tourists, including a sweet 11-year-old boy, and a really nice couple from London. The nine of us had two guides, the primary one called Cash. Cash was not short on funny phrases and encouragements when things got a little scary. We started by taking a bus up a huge mountain, and when we got out, walking even further up the incline. After a few brief minutes of safety instructions, including that we were not allowed to harness or unharness ourselves and a warning about grabbing the rope for fear of zipping over our fingers, we were off. Literally. Without any delay, Cash hooked up one person after the next and literally pushed them off the side of the mountain. The second guide had zipped on ahead to the first platform to unhook us. The whole day was really fun, albeit exhausting. We zipped through the trees among over 30 different platforms, the longest zipline taking about 30 seconds in its entirety. It was exhilarating and challenging, especially in trusting that the line was going to hold you. We were really high up. There were also two sheer drops that we had to repel down toward the end of the day, but thankfully neither was very high. Overall it was a ton of fun and very safely and professionally managed.

Before we took off for zip-lining, in all our gear

After the main event, we had a delicious lunch at a local restaurant and then headed to a waterfall about three minutes away. We hiked up hundreds of misty, slippery steps to get to the top, but the view was worth it. We were also the only people there besides the rest of our tour group, which made it really peaceful and special.

Reppin BC!

After the long day, I fell asleep in the van on the drive back to the city center. That night we stayed at the Secret Garden for dinner. Pai made an absolutely delicious traditional northern Thai dish called khao soi (pronounced cow soy). It has a steamy, yellow curry broth with thick noodles and crispy noodles on top, usually with veggies and chicken. It was so good that we have already sought out a restaurant in Phnom Penh that makes it, although not as well as Pai.

Our last day in Chiang Mai was a little bit rainy, so we headed into town and went shopping. Of course my first stop was at a used bookstore, and I was not disappointed to find out there were actually two huge used bookstores right next to each other. After buying two new books, including Zadie Smith's recent novel NW, I posted up at a nearby Starbucks while Jeff milled around town on the moto. One interesting thing that happened was that two teenagers who had parked their motos outside illegally had their bikes chained together when they were discovered not to be patronizing Starbucks. A police officer stood outside blowing his whistle loudly for a few minutes and when they did not turn up, he wrote them a ticket. It was certainly something you would never see in Phnom Penh.

We left Chiang Mai after breakfast on Wednesday morning and flew back to Bangkok. We stayed in a really nice part of the city, which was easy to get around by walking. The traffic was certainly hectic, which we had been warned about, so getting in a taxi was never really your best option. We had two nights in BKK and spent them at the Sukothai Hotel. When we got there, we were immediately upgraded to a private suite. I still have no idea why, but it was pretty much the best thing ever. We stayed in a room with two bathrooms, a huge living room, a massive bedroom with a California king bed and the best mirrored bathroom I have ever seen with two closets, a shower, a tub and two sinks. There was a private kitchen stocked with an expresso machine and any other amenity you could ask for. We had a private balcony overlooking the pool and two entrances to the room, just in case. We also had something called a pillow menu, which listed the special kinds of pillows we could choose from. The best part? We paid a fraction of the actual price of the room. It was listed on their website as $1200/night. Woo!

Balcony overlooking the pool

Although we didn't have that much time in Bangkok, and no one would have blamed us for never leaving the room and instead indulging in an imaginary life where we were the King and Queen of Siam on holiday from our royal duties, we managed to fit in a lot. Jeff had signed us up for a food tour and we took a water taxi up and down the river one day to see some beautiful temples and the massive Reclining Buddha, a solid gold statue that filled a room the size of an airplane hanger.

On the food tour, which took us to five different local spots on foot, we met a bunch of interesting people, including a couple currently living in Mumbai; he is Spanish but was raised in Germany and she is German with hair like Rapunzel. Also along for the ride was a couple from Indonesia who spoke nary a word and ate almost nothing. Instead, they photographed each plate from every angle. The other members of our group were a North Carolinean woman whose DEA agent husband was in Thailand speaking at a conference, and a tourist from Rio de Janiero, backpacking around Asia on his own.

First on the menu was roasted duck and rice from a Thai Indian place. The original owner was there and had to have been 75+. He was almost blind and used a cane, but damn that duck was good.

Next came both mine and Jeff's favorite dish of the day, a noodle curry with rice noodles, bean sprouts, curry sauce, palm sugar milk, tofu, hard boiled egg, crunchy peanuts, pickled radish and beef. It was served at a very popular Muslim restaurant and the food was made right in front of us by a member of the third generation of the owning family. The storefront was open air and didn't look like anything special. It was not a place we ever would have wandered into on our own, so it was cool that we had the opportunity. This particular establishment also specialized in a cow brain dish which our Brazilian friend was eager to try. I eventually tried it too and it was pretty gross and texturally mushy. You aren't missing anything.

After the first two places, we sat down for a while at the third spot, which we needed to cross the river by public ferry to get to. This spot served northeastern Thai food, including a dish called crispy catfish that looked like honeycomb and tasted like crunchy nothing. There was no fish to be found. It was served with a Thai style papaya salad and spicy pork salad with peppermint. Our tour guide told us that the pork salad is so popular it is actually on the menu at Thai McDonalds and KFCs. This was the spiciest food we had, though our guide told us that Thai people love sweet things and put sugar on everything.

Our fourth stop was a Thai bakery. I could have stayed in there all day because it smelled so good. We tried Thai iced tea, which is made with condensed milk and therefore is very sweet, but I liked it. We also tried two buns, one with BBQ pork inside (very good) and one with green custard (extremely popular in Thailand, but not good to us). Lastly, we went to a more traditional and seemingly more upper class restaurant for green curry and some sort of ice cream. At this point we were pretty full, but it was a nice way to end the day together.

Reclining Buddha

My sexy female leg parts had to be covered to get into this temple, which we thought was the reclining Buddha at first, but clearly was not. Stupid cab driver brought us to the wrong place.

In front of the temple with the small Buddha inside, as storm clouds gather

A final note on Thailand as it compares to Cambodia: its socially and environmentally incomparable. This is a place with multiple vegetarian options on its menus, indicated with a V. It was even hosting a Vegetarian Week in November. In Cambodia, people eat rice and veggies because they can't afford meat every night. At the night market, my mango rice was served on a biodegradable plate, which I read about on a sign printed in English. When I went to throw it away, a woman was waiting to assist me in depositing it into the correct recycling bin. There is not even a basic trash system in Phnom Penh, let alone recycling. I saw ads for weight loss, something no Cambodian I've ever seen struggles with. I also saw an ad for an animal clinic. HA! That will be the day Cambodia makes it to the 21st century. The day they open a clinic for actual animals and people pay for animal medicine. Not to mention the ads for Bangkok's Car Free Week.

Anyway, if you are someone looking to travel to SEA, I would highly recommend Chiang Mai and Bangkok, especially if you are not as adventurous and/or are looking for more of the comforts of home that Cambodia does not provide. Don't get me wrong, I love Camby and all its backwards ways, but Thailand had a lot to offer and gave us a great holiday.

In Chiang Mai at a temple we happened upon; there are thousands of temples in Thailand

Start It Up

"This is a start-up."

A common refrain from last year, this phrase served to remind us that we were still in the throes of massive growing pains. Institutional growing pains, staff growing pains, growing pains as a result of being a start-up in a third world country. At times, it was a relief to hear, as it meant that the detail we were worrying about was negligible in the long run. At other times it served to sink us further into a hole encompassing exactly what we had signed up for. But regardless of how it made us feel, it was true. Last year was Year Zero. It was all new everything.

I want to summarize a few points to give you a better ideas of some of our major challenges.

1. We started with nothing. No formal curriculum materials, no curriculum scope and sequence (what to teach and in what order), no overarching daily schedule, no grouping system, no assessment data (except basic student entrance material), etc. It was ENTIRELY up to us (six teachers and three interns) to design and implement what we wanted to, based on our limited knowledge of what our kids needed. Our library books didn't even arrive until six weeks into school.

2. Last year was very "isolationist." By this, I mean that there was not a lot of collaboration or connection-making among the content teachers. Everyone chose their specialty (Literacy, Math, Science, Art, Entrepreneurship and Technology), kept their head down and created and taught their own curriculum. Certainly there are conclusions to be drawn from this, which I will not get into, but I do want to acknowledge that we all played a role and that it probably resulted from grasping onto the familiar in an endless landslide of new and unfamiliar. Unfortunately, it was every man for himself.

3. We made a lot of changes. All the time. Our students did not know consistency apart from consistent revamping and tweaking. Whoops! (What do you expect? This is a start-up.) But really, what I mean is that we toyed with a ton of ideas. New groupings, new schedules, new content areas, new spaces, etc. In a way it was positive because we were able to immediately stop something that wasn't working and try and improve it. In another way it was a ton of work and most things felt fragmented and fleeting.

At the end of last year, all things considered, I felt overwhelmingly positive. I would never want to go back, but if I did, I would say, "You are one sneaky bastard, Year Zero. You tried to break us. I am glad you are gone and that we are still here. We win. Sucka."
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Now we are back.

Students returning from the summer holiday

So far, this year has been incredibly different from last year. Our head of school departed, along with two teachers and one intern. Dom stepped in as head of school/country director, with direct support from Mr. Jeff, a fabulous new counterpart to both the admin staff and the teaching staff. Thankfully, he was able to begin working with us at the end of last year, so by the time we left for the summer we had the first six weeks planned.

This year our curriculum is standardized but flexible. Everything feels more permanent, both for the staff and for the students. We have four major pieces to our daily schedule.

Students are enrolled in two Advanced Enrichments per week. AEs are meant to expose them to more advanced concepts, as well as give them a taste of different areas that they may want to pursue later in life. For the past seven weeks we offered Psychology, Algebra, Botany and Khmer history, Computer Programming, Anatomy and Infographics/Stats. I taught Psychology and really enjoyed it. We covered things like body language, optimism versus pessimism, introversion, extroversion and then moved into a really fun unit about animal psychology. With only two weeks left before they get to sign up for new ones, I will be teaching positive and negative reinforcement and instant gratification (marshmallow test anyone?). The best part has been having my psych kids refer to something they learned in class when telling a story about their friends or family. I love the sprinkling of big vocab words in their otherwise  developing English. Something like: "That monkey is optimism behavior because he determination for open the cup for eat the nut."

Some psych students playing Suspend while their classmates are at the dentist.

Next, we have Foundations. Literacy and Math. Every student gets both every day. No exception. We recently introduced one-to-one laptops to the students and teaching Literacy has taken on a whole new dimension. They are emailing me their verb quiz corrections, logging their daily journal entries in a Google spreadsheet and relishing reading their leveled books on RAZ Kids. It is amazing the engagement level that can be achieved when language is presented on a computer screen.

Students also have one hour of Khmer language each day with the Khmer learning facilitators. I have also learned some more Khmer, including the word for brain, which sounds like coo-cah-bah with the emphasis on the first syllable. I now say "use your coo cahbah," at least ten times a day. Such a linguist.

Finally, we have Explorations. These six-week, project-based learning units are the crux of our curriculum. For example, Jeff's first Exploration was leading an investigation of the Liger water system. His students learned all the pertinent science content (how to test water, what is pH and turbidity, etc.), and took field trips off campus to observe and participate in local efforts to provide filters to the community. His students compiled what they learned in a blog, and their culminating project was to conduct a water tour around campus, speaking in both Khmer and English, explaining how the water gets from the tanks on the roof, through the pipes, under the ground, through two filtration systems, etc. Below is a picture of two of Jeff's students, ready with their props to give me the water tour. If you are interested, the blog link is: www.ligerwater.wordpress.com.

Other Explorations last block included teaching English lessons to local students and studying different learning styles; interviewing local community members and developing multimedia biographies, and creating toys using recyclable materials and knowledge of simple machines. The goals of these projects are community involvement, content knowledge, hands-on experiences and student-led collaboration. So far, the first four were major successes. The Community English group is continuing English lessons as an after-school Extension. The Biographies group ended up profiting on the sale of their photos of community members. The Toys group has thousands of hits on a website where they filmed and uploaded step-by-step instructions on how to build their toy, and they ran a two-day toy building workshop for a school in a nearby province.

So no pressure as I start my first one tomorrow. Ha!

My group is going to learn all about newspapers, visit two local newsrooms, research newspaper history, learn about famous headlines and ultimately create the first Liger newspaper. I am very excited, but also really nervous about it. Running simultaneously is an Ecosystems project with a week-long camping trip to a national park and an elephant sanctuary, a Renewable Energy project with overnights to Kampong Speu province to teach community members how to better save energy, and an Art and Entrepreneurship project in which students are going to design and paint bags to be sold in the city.

Don't you wish your school was like this?

The other two pieces of the week are Extensions and Inspirations. Extensions are after-school activities with purpose. I ran a Magic School Bus activity the first block and had a blast reading the books and watching the TV show with a few kids. Next block I am working with students on a sort of Medic badge, a la the Girl Scouts. I am going to teach basic first aid, etc.

Magic School Bus in the Time of the Dinosaurs (note the loiterers in the window)

On the bus back from Silk Island

Inspirations happen in lieu of a regular schedule on Wednesdays and are aimed at pure exposure. These kids have such a narrow worldview that in order to turn them into "global citizens," we need to dedicate substantial time to exploring what the world holds. We have already covered topics such as optics/light science, student questions (where did the first fire come from? why can some people not see or hear?) and have also taken the chance to explore Cambodia. One trip we took was to Silk Island, where the local women weave silk on their homemade looms. We spent the day in small groups meeting with the weavers and then visiting a silk worm farm.


Our little start up is really beginning to pick up steam. The kids came back extremely refreshed and excited for everything new. They are becoming remarkably self-aware and introspective, and their capacity to absorb content and English never ceases to amaze. It is increasingly funny to interact with them as they learn to use their sense of humor and push back at some of the teasing we hand out. After seven weeks, it looks like this year is going to be tremendous.

I promise the next entry will be about Italy and Thailand.

Some of the silk on the loom at Silk Island

Repatriation

As I detailed in my last post, being home for the summer was the perfect conclusion to an exhausting, yet rewarding first year at Liger. What I forgot to include was a few observations about my transition back into the U.S.

The first thing I noticed about being back was the sheer number of people with whom I interacted every day. In my daily life in Cambodia, I interact with the staff and our students during the work week, but in my personal life, I experience much less social interaction than I did living in Boston. First of all, living in a country with a native language different from your own immediately impacts the number of those spontaneous interactions that are commonplace in your home country. Secondly, we live at school and the city is 40 minutes away, so we do spend a lot of our free time at home, where there are only two of us. Thirdly, the number of phone calls, text messages, emails and other forms of regular communication are fewer in general, and further limited to a certain few hours of the day, due to the time change. So, truth be told, the social interaction patterns I have developed since being here are quite different to those I had in the U.S. Side note: you may now think that I am socially starved and friendless. I assure you, that is not the case. Actually, who am I kidding? It's all true...my only friends here are ten-year-olds.

Anyway, upon arriving back in the States, the number of people who struck up a conversation with me increased dramatically, and with it came the knowledge that I had become rather socially awkward.

Example A: I went to Target, something I had literally dreamed about doing for months, to purchase a selection of kitchen items that we were unable to find in Cambodia. Among them cupcake tins and an electric hand mixer. When I reached the check-out counter, the sweet, older man cashing me out made a remark about how I was crazy to be baking in such hot weather. I was so out of practice at making small talk with vendors that I literally had no response. Then my brain began juggling about fifteen things to say, including: "Well I actually live in Cambodia, which is much hotter than this, but yes, this is quite hot for Boston. And I am not actually buying these to use now, but to bring back with me, which may seem weird, since they are really heavy, and I am worried about overage charges, but we can't buy these things there and I really like to bake even though the Cambodian climate makes baking challenging and my shortbreads never turn out right...", etc. Like a crazy person, I simply stared at him silently and nodded with a strange smile on my face. Yeah. Cool as a cucumber.

Example B: That same day, on a budget shopping spree of sorts, I headed over to Brighton's infamously eclectic Arsenal Mall. Another place I missed, for its blindingly bright, bass-pumping Forever21 on your immediate left, the Gap Outlet where you can buy half-priced polos and feel like you are cheating the corporate system, and the interesting clientele; there are usually at least two ancient-looking Chinese men asleep in the sitting area as the burrito-lovers in Chipotle watch them drool. Anyway, as I was leaving this fine establishment, (I'll admit it...burrito in hand), two teachers from one of my old schools were coming in. I saw them and my brain registered exactly who they were. But, for some reason, my mind went blank and was then overtaken by the image of myself trapped by these two women, explaining in detail the last five years of my life. So, you may ask, what did I do? I quickened my pace and exited before they could stop me. As if these ladies, who I barely knew and had only worked with for a year, were all that interested in spending their afternoon listening to my life story.

Upon reflection, I realized that Cambodian living had turned me into some sort of strange, non-communicative alien. I had so much on my mind that I could no longer make small talk. I vowed to remedy it. This brings us to Example C. I shall call it: overcompensation.

Entering a Starbucks in Newton Centre (you Bostonians really don't know how good you have it...), a man in his early thirties stopped and held the door open for me. Shocked by his kind gesture and with my earlier social failures fresh in my mind, I shouted out a thank you so loud, so high-pitched and so overly ambitious that the barista adding three pumps to a frazzled looking woman's Passion Fruit Iced Tea Lemonade nearly dropped the grande cup. I was so embarrassed, as was the poor man, that I wished I could turn around and leave. Instead I joined a line of under-caffeinated Newtonites who were probably debating if I was hard of hearing or just insane. Perfect.

To add to my social communication deficits, I was also struggling with the overwhelming feeling that I knew practically everyone who walked by. This was new. For the first time in a year, I was surrounded by people who looked much more similar to me and all the people I know. I must have stopped at least three or four times a day to inspect someone's face on the off-chance that I knew them. Someone would drive by and I was sure it was one of my best friends. Walking in the city, every third person was someone I knew back in college. I was almost never correct, but the feeling didn't go away. Now that I am back in PP, walking through a city where I only actually know a handful of people, I understand why.

Aside from my social failures, which thankfully decreased over time, it was startling to go back to living in a place where you can understand everything that is being said around you. When I am out and about in Phnom Penh, it is assumed that nearly everyone around me is speaking Khmer. Along with the cars honking and the funeral music blasting throughout town, the language of the locals blends into a nice thrumming background noise. I am never really on alert for someone to approach me and ask me something. Once back in the States, I again became privy to everyone else's conversations. In line at Dunkin, I learned all about the party that the BC Summer Staff students had the night before. Waiting to meet a friend at a bar, I listened to an exchange between two friends about whether or not her boyfriend was "the one." At first it was exciting, and made me want to chime in simply because I could: "Hey! I'm a BC alum recently back from a socially awkward year in Cambodia. Would it be cool if I joined in on your next Foster Street rager?! I'll bring the Bud Light!" But after a while it actually got annoying. Excuse me, Bleach Blonde Goth girl and your friend Falling Down Drunk? Hi. Yeah. Can you please take your mumbled conversation elsewhere? I am trying to catch the T and make it home for a ten pm bedtime and I am afraid you may end up causing an accident whereby the T service is suspended. K, thanks.

The other two observations I made were experienced with pure joy. One: driving. Two: being in the same time zone as the people you love. These need no anecdote.

And finally, I observed that Boston is truly a great city, filled with great people. And crazy people. And distressed people. And people who should take their business off the streets and into their homes. Over the course of my short time there, I saw an altercation break out between a T driver and an innocent bystander who witnessed the T driver "purposely try and close the doors on" a girl entering with a large suitcase. "Don't make me come down there!" was uttered more than once in real time. I saw the previously mentioned Falling Down Drunk girl and her partner, literally laying on the floor of the T station together, cooing meaninglessly. I saw a man in his late thirties, clad in Red Sox gear, walking two paces ahead of his young wife, openly crying in Kenmore Square. There was no Sox game that day. I saw a young couple, clearly post blow-out break-up, at an attempted make-up dinner at the Capital Grille on Boyleston. She was wearing a tight leopard dress, pointedly ignoring her man and texting and he was dressed for the financial district with elbows on the table, head in hands.

Take it elsewhere, people. Oh wait, this is America. I missed you!

Summa Summa Summa Time

                                          

At the end of June, Jeff and I made the long trek back to the USA. We flew from Phnom Penh on a late night flight, through Korea, and on to JFK. When we landed at JFK we just stood there, clearly in the way of other people, but unable to move for the beauty of it all. The people. The colors. The food! After getting our bearings, we shuffled off to the side and made a game plan. There was no time to spare. We still needed to get through security and onto our JetBlue (my favorite!) flight to Boston. There were so many dining options and such little time, but we quickly made up our mind that a quality sandwich was what we had missed most. There was an actual Boar's Head deli counter where they would make to order any sort of sandwich you desired. And desire we did. Within fifteen minutes we were grinning like two little school children who had just tattled on the mean kid in class. We had cold Diet Coke, we had two delicious sandwiches to share and we had potato salad. Heaven. We couldn't even wait until we boarded -- we ate them at the gate.

As we got in line to clear security, I checked my Facebook for the first time since leaving PP. I gasped as I read the news that my Mom and my step-father, Tom had gotten a call (not their first) from the Cleveland Clinic and were on their way to get a pancreas. What?! I immediately texted my sister to confirm and she told me that unfortunately, they drove 99% of the way there (about three hours) before receiving a call telling them the organ was not viable and turning around. Brutal. But since Tom is one of the most upbeat people ever when it comes to such crushing defeats, I did not let it dim my newly-arrived-home light.

After an hour-long flight to Boston, during which I fell in love with the MTV show Girl Code (side note: I would typically be embarrassed to admit I gave that channel more than a glance, but this shit is GOOD), we landed in Boston. Even after the travel we had just experienced, we were feeling good; the potato salad didn't hurt either.

We then proceeded to launch ourselves into 43 days of whirlwind travel, up and down the East coast, with our home base being Boston. Here are some highlights.

1. Buffalo. After about five days spent relaxing and reconnecting with friends in Boston, I left early on a Sunday for Buffalo. Jeff planned to fly in to meet me Tuesday night and we were going to spend the week of the Fourth of July with my family. My sister and her husband flew in from San Fran, and both of my brothers were home, albeit working a lot (and generally behaving as handsome, young males in their early 20s do). Little did I know that my dear boyfriend had designs to turn the week into more of a party by proposing at 9am the day after he landed. Woo! So, I left Boston a (theoretically) single lady and three days later was saying yes to a very emotional and authentically-Jeff marriage proposal. He had respectfully filled in my entire family before asking, and it was a great chance for us all to be together to celebrate. I had thought that we were going to wait until the following summer when we would potentially be finished living abroad, but he had other plans. That night we kept the news a surprise and were able to get some pretty good reactions from people as we slowly spread the news. At this point there are no serious plans on a wedding as we first need to figure out what next year will look like. Our party line is that we are taking our time, enjoying being engaged, and will let everyone know when we have decided something.

It was a great time to spend with family, of which I have plenty. I also got to see my nephew, Theo, for the first time in a year. He will be two in August and is absolutely adorable. He is also quite clever and very sweet. One of the things I regret most is not being around for his babyhood, but the time we had together was great. 

2. D.C. - After a week in the Buff, I flew directly down to Washington, D.C. where I spent a lot of time with Lindsay, one of my best friends from college (and future bridesmaid -- what what!). The main purpose of my visit was to attend a conference/training on a language program called SIOP, which I am going to be implementing at Liger this year. Collectively, we made the decision to transition from translation-based learning to English immersion, which basically means we are no longer going to teach content by having our Cambodian TAs translate. Instead, SIOP planning and strategies are going to support our students' language development in lieu of having content translated. Stopping translation is a pretty contentious topic among schools in general, and even among our small staff, but we have faith (as well as a lot of logical, reliable data from last year) that our students will rise to the challenge. Furthermore, we are not going to a black and white system where there is absolutely no translation allowed or any sort of punishment for speaking Khmer. We are instead going to use common sense to determine when and where the use of Khmer is appropriate. Learning English has to be our first priority if we want these kids to be competitive with same-age peers for college acceptance in 6-8 years. Anyway, the conference was fabulous and I learned a lot, despite being the youngest teacher there with the least amount of experience with SIOP. I made some good connections with other participants and had a good time. It was also nice to catch up with D.C.-based friends (Lion Pup) and I am sure Jeff enjoyed the time in Boston by himself, post engagement whirlwind.

3. South Carolina. For those of you who know me, I am sure that you have heard a lot about Pawley's Island and the family reunion that we have there every year. When my grandparents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, my Mom's nine brothers and sisters contacted each other and set up a reunion. I had just turned eight years old. Our family at the time numbered around 30. We lived in Canada, Buffalo, New York City, Florida, New Jersey, California and Chicago. We didn't get to celebrate holidays together because we were so spread out and because no one's house could really hold us all, and so, Pawley's Island began.

18 years later, Grandma and Grandpa are celebrating 67 years as a couple, and in Grandpa's heart-wrenching words, "are going to try and hang in there as long as we can." We know how rare and special this type of family gathering is, and this year was no exception. Seriously though, how cute are they?
                                 

This was Jeff's first year attending, so we were able to celebrate our engagement with everyone. We also celebrated the engagement of my cousin Dan to his boyfriend Josh, the high school graduations of my cousins Chelsea, Timmy and Oona, the birth of five-month-old Rowan, my uncle Paul's donation of his kidney to Tom earlier this year, and the college graduation/acceptance to med school of my cousin Meaghan, who unfortunately couldn't attend. Even with that extensive list, I am probably forgetting something else monumental in the life of one of my family members. Sometimes its hard to keep track with so many people! This year we numbered 69 total, overtaking six different houses on the small island. Jeff and I were only there for four days out of the week, but it was absolutely amazing. I don't think I have ever been so proud to introduce Jeff around, knowing that everyone he met means so much to me and has had a hand in making me who I am.

Grandpa, with the five girls of 1999

The Ten and Grandpa (Daws is there in spirit): Mom, Jerry, Kathy, Timmy, Terry, Susie, Andrew, Meg and Tom

4. Speaking of the kidney donation, shortly after Jeff and I left Buffalo, Cleveland called again and this time the pancreas transplant actually happened. Tom and Mom only spent six days total at the Clinic before being sent home. Medical miracles do happen and Tom has now experienced more than his fair share. The patient is at home and doing well, although unfortunately he had to miss Pawley's.

Doesn't it look like he chose the leopard print scrubs? So handsome post-surgery!

Overall it was an absolute blast of a summer. At times we sort of felt like drifters, unattached to a house of our own, lacking a car, not working, etc.. Jeff's parents/brother and my best friend Bridget (another future bridesmaid -- this part is so fun!!) were our main hosts, and all were incredibly helpful in arranging things so that we could get around and see everyone. Now we are back in business, with school starting Monday. Unbelievable, but so exciting!

Last year we accomplished A LOT. We established that the students we have are not the students we expected when we took the job (gifted), but are teeming with curiosity, adapting to daily challenges with a smile and astonishing us with their developing personalities and intelligence every day. This is a group of kids that I doubt I will ever be able to match or even come close to if I were to teach in a different place every year until I retire. Their enthusiasm, wit and sheer happiness is unparalleled. Even when I have had a zero day on a scale of ten, there is undoubtedly a story that Jeff can tell me about one of the kids that can make me smile. They are like our fifty new best friends and what I am going to say next is going to sound cheesy and trite, but we absolutely DELIGHT in them. They are why we returned. They are what drive us. We are so excited for this second year with them.

More to come on observations about being home and Italy!

Alphabet of Emotions

Cambodia has stolen our hearts? No...

We have fallen in love with Cambodia? Sounds lame.

Cambodia, we love you!? Mehhh..

It is so hard to put into words the way I feel about this country now that the first year has come to an end. Nothing I say could adequately express all the nuances and layers of this experience.

Let me try to explain.

First of all, Cambodia is dirty. On the whole and in general, it is a dirty place. The streets are dusty and there are piles of trash on many a street corner. Often, out towards our house, farther from the city, said trash is lit on fire. On the flip side, in the city, there are people searching through these garbage piles with headlamps on, looking for anything salvageable. There are men urinating in public constantly, just on the wall or on a tree, making me wish I had a blow dart kit with me at all times.

Cambodian streets are unsafe. There are potholes, deep puddles marked only by a reflective CD (yeah, they are creative...), random trash, a million dogs and this is not to mention the traffic. There are limited to no traffic rules that locals consistently obey other than 'try and avoid the cops,' who stand en masse around corners, trying to pull you over and weasel two bucks from you. I would wager that 80% of the people on motos are without helmets, and often they are accompanied by three to five family members, a propane tank, a newborn infant attached to an IV and a live rooster. Mom also has a bag of cucumbers on her head.

Cambodia has poor customer service. What is on their menu is not actually what they have.

Episode one: "I'll have the Caesar salad." "Sorry...we are out of that." "Out of salad? Why don't you tell me specifically which ingredients you are out of and we can try and make this work." (awkward smile) "We are out."

Episode two: "Can I please have the burger with onion rings instead of fries?" "Onion rings?" "Yes, onion rings. Can you do?" "Yes." (ten minutes later, a burger and fries arrives)

Episode three: "Three mojitos please!" (waiter brings over indistinguishable light brown drinks with chunks of some sort of citrus floating in it)

Then there is the fact that Cambodia smells. There is the smell of bright yellow, homemade-recipe gasoline on the side of the road, sold in old, glass Coke bottles. There is the smell of the fish and shrimp paste factory down the road (we often take bets on how much someone would have to pay us to live in this area). There is the smell of trash fires. Dogs. Wet dogs. There is the smell of the many different food vendors selling their wares on the side of the road. And don't forget the smell of the fish market where live fish are clubbed over the head fresh to order!

Cambodia's weather is brutal. It is either stiflingly, all-consumingly HOT, or it is stifling, all-consumingly HOT and RAINY. The roads flood. The power goes off and on.

There are animals and bugs everywhere. I had a large lizard, longer than your hand, crawl across the ceiling and then poop on my bed. ON MY BED. Day in the life. You walk across the room at night to use the bathroom just praying that the huge brown spider you saw earlier is tucked away somewhere for a snooze and not scuttling at top speed toward your toes. Mosquitos. Frogs that chorus louder than the Rolling Stones, keeping you up. Roosters crowing at all hours. Trucks of pigs oinking by.

This is not to mention the absurdly loud music and Buddhist chants that are played over loudspeakers for the entire village to hear whenever there is a wedding or funeral. Which there seems to be one of every few days in our part of town.

Oh, and the main dish here in this obscenely hot country? HOT SOUP. Enough said.

So. Wanna come visit?!

But my point is that despite all this, despite the newness and the challenges, the smells and the wet jeans. Despite dripping sweat from all parts of your body on the two minute walk to work, I love it. I love that gasoline smell and the fish market. I love the policeman who is stationed right outside that fish market with the biggest smile you've ever seen, waving people by with a baton in the heat. I love the little man with one regular leg and one half a leg farther down our major road who occupies that same role, simply because he enjoys it and not because he gets paid. I love crossing over the Monivong Bridge from our side of town and looking down at the water (brown on its best day), with the whole city in front of us. I love the annoying call of "tuk-tuk? tuk-tuk?" no matter where I walk in the city. I love the restaurants with heavily-adjectived names (Lucky Bright Restaurant). I love seeing the reject tee-shirts from the factories that everyone wears with English sentences that barely make sense. Once I saw a shirt with just an eagle and a muffin on it. One of my students wore a "name brand" Abibas shirt to school.

Just as with everything, you adapt, you figure things out and you succeed. We have succeeded in finding things to love in every part of this stupid place. And we are happy to return for another year.

Sushi Conveyor Belts and Ramen Galore

This is not a food blog, but I love food. And Japan really knows their food. From the start, we were excited simply by the idea that we would have access to former favorites including Starbucks, McDonalds and Subway. But that was just the beginning, evidenced by the fact that out of those three we only made it to Starbucks (twice).

Beer:

This is a sore spot for us, as Jeff and I are both lovers of good beer. I would never turn my nose up at a Blue Light of course, but give me a delicious IPA any day. In Cambodia, the beer choices are limited to the lukewarm, watery cousins of Miller Light and PBR. Japan, on the other hand, offered us a glimpse of our old, hoppy, flavorful, cold, beer-drinking lifestyle. They have a decent number of craft breweries and we went to three different craft beer bars. Despite the steep prices (about $9/beer), it was well worth it for those tastes that we have craved for ten months. Lower Depths, watch out. We arrive home in less than a month and we are coming for you...

                              

Snacks:

Rice balls covered with tempura flakes, seaweed and sauce. Steamed pork buns. Green tea Kit-Kats. Turkish gyros. Pork and veggie gyoza. Baby octopus on a stick with dipping sauce. Vanilla soft serve smothered in yuzu honey. You name it, it was plentiful. And indulge, we did.

Pork buns and tea in the geisha district of Kyoto.

Weird looking, but surprisingly delicious fish-ball in Tokyo.

Sushi:

Every student I have taught in the past five years has known with certainty my favorite food: sushi. It is one of those questions that you eventually get to when teaching elementary school. At first, sushi was the primary reason why I was so excited to go to Japan (I know, I should be ashamed). Upon arrival, we found that their sushi was mostly just a piece of raw fish served over rice, instead of the variety of sushi rolls (maki) that I am used to. However, the fish was so fresh that it was just as good, if not better. 

Our favorite sushi-eating experience occurred in Tokyo. We had paused on a street corner near an incredibly busy section of the city, known as the Times Square of Tokyo (or maybe we just called it that), and were perusing our map, trying to locate a sushi place from our guidebook. A Japanese man in a crisp suit, briefcase in hand, stopped and asked if he could help. Seconds before he looked like he was rushing to a meeting, I swear, but in Japan the most unlikely-looking people stop and help all the time. He was unable to point us to our desired restaurant, but did us one better and suggested his own personal favorite, about three blocks away. What we arrived at minutes later was an actual sushi conveyor belt (pictured below). Dreams come true people, dreams come true. We sat at the bar and as the plates came by, grabbed whatever we wanted. In the end, the cost was determined by the number and type of empty plates we accumulated. Horse meat was on the menu, but we didn't try it. We each had six or eight dishes and came in at right around $8/person. It was such a cool experience. 

Fast food:

Even Japanese "fast food" is delicious. Their manner of ordering involves entering money into something that looks like a slot machine, choosing your menu item by pressing the correct keys and then handing a welcoming, smiling waitress the ticket that emerges. You then choose a seat and your piping hot meal arrives within seven minutes. Since Japan is pretty expensive, especially compared to Cambodia, we tried to budget on lunches to save money. We ended up at a few chain restaurants and were more than pleasantly surprised each time. From their steaming bowls of veggies and thick noodles with broth, to their roasted pork fillets over sweet rice with a side of soba (pictured below), we ended up full and happy for less than ten bucks. (And as you can see, the portions were almost always big enough that we couldn't finish everything.)

Japan, I miss you. Sushi, we will meet again soon.

Japan 2013: They Really Thought of Everything

Flashback to my last post: I was writing from the hallway outside our hotel room in Kyoto, Japan, mid-way through the most amazing, food-filled, beautiful, cultural, fun trip we have ever been on.

Now let me introduce you to today.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013.

Thirteen more school days.
Two more planning days before the technical end of the year.
Four weeks into our "plan for next year" bootcamp, run efficiently and passionately by our fabulous new captain, Mr. Jeff.

Today alone we spent roughly five and a half hours (for the second Wednesday in a row) planning for next year.

Let's just say next year is going to be a gecko of a different color (ha, sorry, that was bad). But before I get into that, which I am sure will expand into a candid and emotional reflection on this whole year, let's dig into Japan.

We had the best time. It is an incredibly easy country in which to travel, due much in part to its fabulously clean, efficient and expansive public transportation system. Coming from Cambodia, where the only "public" transportation is tuk-tuks and moto-bikes for hire, it was a welcome relief. Additionally, the Japanese have thought of everything. And I mean everything. Their entire country, or what we saw of it (three cities of varying size), was neat and clean, organized and clear. There were people at every wrong turn to give us directions, offer their advice on a great local restaurant or walk us 12 blocks to the bar we couldn't find (not a joke). They used maps, their phones, other people...whatever it took; these strangers went out of their way to make sure that we had a positive experience traveling in their country. And we did.

I could go into extreme detail, as I am prone to do, but I am going to play it differently this time. And that is all thanks to Nica, our little, tiny, budding photographer. Her eye for beauty coupled with her high-powered camera were all we needed to document our trip.

I shall, however, split the trip into three major areas: beauty, food and weird. First, I give you beauty, of both the natural and cultural kind, in no apparent order.

Enjoy.

This was in Tokyo, and one of the first gorgeous spaces that we visited. We walked and walked and then there it was, right in the middle of the city.

Cherry blossoms! One of the reasons we were so excited to visit Japan in the spring was to experience the cherry blossoms. Although the weather was unseasonably cold (especially for us, having come from temperatures that don't dip below 85), we managed to find some really beautiful trees.

This was part of an extensive garden, which was created for members of the royal family long ago.

Before entering certain temples, we had to ceremonially wash our hands and mouths. One of them offered these dippers to help with the task. Keyword: ZEN.

                                                       Kyoto. The view from our hotel.

                The geisha district in Kyoto. Cobblestoned streets and real geishas. So effing cool.

                                                                The Bamboo Forest.

This is not a postcard. It's right on the edge of a perfect gurgling river, and it was a beautiful day for a picnic in the sun. Minus the rocky ground.

                                                  We win awards with those smiles...

                                                               Oh, hello Mt. Fuji.

                                                               Lake Kawaguchiko.

Stay tuned for food and weird.