Life is going pretty smoothly these days, and things are becoming routine, so feel free to skip over this long and uneventful blog post. No offence taken! The classroom is settled, the apartment is settled and there was a week off for Khmer New Year. I was concerned that with many people going away, I would not find much to do, but…not the case! I finally got a chance to play the guitar I purchased about 3 weeks ago, and actually started an art project (not yet finished). That, along with a few Netflix shows, some exploring, a massage, a haircut, time by the pool and a few dinners out, the week flew by! There is usually a frenzy around holiday time with teachers going everywhere, but I totally enjoyed my time in Phnom Penh. Then, back to school, where all teachers and staff had to undergo Covid 19 testing. Although things seem pretty much back to normal, there were 2 teachers I know of that were out with Covid, one for 14 days and one for 10 days. Cambodia’s tourist industry is still suffering from the Covid outbreak, and it is said that Siem Reap, where Angkor Wat is located is still at about 30% of normal tourism. So, perfect time to visit if you haven’t already seen this amazing site! My birthday was a lot of fun. The students at school were so excited and so sweet! I received birthday greetings in Chinese, Korean, Japanese and English! The students I am working with are new to the school from other countries, and at an English speaking school with no English. Despite the upheaval in their lives, the students are resilient, keen to learn. and a pleasure to work with! One thing I love about teaching at an international school is hearing about the different places teachers have lived and taught. Conversations often involve stories from Mali, Lebanon, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Dubai, Spain, Scotland to name a few and then my own of Ghana, Honduras and Macau. Some of the teachers have had their children when overseas (Third Culture kids) where the children have never been brought up, or even visited their parents' home country. Many of the students at the school are also Third Culture kids. Settling into expat life again is remarkably easy. The apartment gets cleaned twice a week, an evening out for supper with 2 glasses of wine the other night was $10.00. Needless to say, this is not helping with the waistline. Since I have decided it is too expensive to cook, my newest effort to feed myself is a place called Nom Nom, where you have a choice of healthy meals that you order by the week or the month. The cost of a meal including delivery is between $4.50 and $7.00 a meal. There is a special on now, where you can buy 20 meals for either $76 or $116 depending on the meal. I’m excited to try this out! There is also lots going on around town. Last week a friend and I went to a movie at the mall for a cost of $3.50. Last time I went to a movie in Canada it was $15.00. For a midweek treat yesterday, we went to see 2 visiting Indian musicians, one on sitar and one on drums that were playing at an art gallery for free. Tomorrow a movie at a cultural center, and next week is a choir singing at the Sofitel Hotel. Today was a trip to Toul Tom Pong Market. The markets are so interesting, as there are tourist souvenirs beside a wet market, beside fabric, beside baby clothes, beside mechanic tools. It is always a surprise what you will run into. Because the markets are not air conditioned, an early morning trip is always the best. Temperatures here are getting hotter and rainy season is just starting. For anyone who has not been in the tropics for rainy season, it is an experience! The wind picks up and it rattles the windows and doors in buildings, and then the rain comes down in sheets. An umbrella is of no use, as it would just get broken from the downpour. The sewer systems cannot keep up, so streets are temporarily flooded, so if you are walking, you are soon up to your calves in who knows what. Everything pretty much stops until things clear up, which is usually within an hour or so. Today, the temperature was 38 degrees but felt like 44 degrees. When you leave an air conditioned building to go outside, it feels like you have walked into an oven. Sweat drips from your eyelids and your clothes are soaked with perspiration. The good thing is that when you wash your clothes, they dry in about an hour. The air quality in Phnom Penh has also gotten worse over the last week. Students were not able to play outside for a few days due to the pollution index. Here for 9 weeks, 10 weeks left to go.
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It’s been a few weeks since I last posted, which means things are going well. I have settled into my new apartment and I am loving it! I have my classroom up and running, so things are going well there as well. I am now off for a week for Khmer New Year. It is a huge event here, with most of Phnom Penh shutting down for Friday, Saturday and Sunday as most workers go back to the provinces where their families are. That means very few restaurants are open, few tuk tuks running and few grocery stores open. Not sure what I will have to do if I actually have to cook! Life here is very easy for an expat. Food is delivered to your place for between .25 cents to .75 cents. The number of amazing restaurants here is mind boggling, including Indian, Greek, Chinese, Korean, Western, Vegan, Vegetarian, Steak houses… These restaurants are all available through an app that you put in the kind of food you would like, and a variety of restaurants come up with your food choice. The food is then delivered to your door. The other night I was at an Italian restaurant and had gnocchi with feta cream sauce and walnuts, a juice with mint and ginger, and creme brulee for $13.00 US. Often I will order a meal at a restaurant and take half home for either lunch or supper. Another night was a Greek vegetarian platter for 2 for $12.00 which included pita bread, 2 salads, zucchini fritters and lots of other appetizers which lasted 3 meals. So I have concluded, no point cooking! The new apartment has a great rooftop pool where the water is perfect to swim in, with a sauna, a steam room and an exercise room (not sure why anyone in Cambodia needs a sauna or steam room as we live in one). This week the plan is a friend and I will order Mama Wong's dumplings, bring a bottle of wine, and sit by the pool for a picnic. Most of the other teachers have gone to far off places, like Bali, Maldives, Thailand and some of the islands off Cambodia, but I am so excited to be finally settled and just enjoy some downtime. I am planning on doing some art, play the new guitar I purchased, maybe do some art quilting, read and sit by the pool. On Friday at the school, the Khmer teachers organized a day of activities for the students. The first event was a presentation about Khmer New Year, and how and when it is celebrated. Many of the events center around the pagodas where offerings of lotus flowers, incense, food and a can of coke are brought. Then students went from station to station and did some traditional Khmer activities, some of which are very similiar to things we do, such a tug of war, an egg and spoon race, flower making art activity and many more stations. I was at the Apsara dance station in the yoga studio of the school. Two dance instructors came and taught students from ranging from 4 years old to 12 years old various apsara dance steps. I was one of the lucky people who had a station in the school with air conditioning, as the temperature for outdoor activities was 39 degrees but felt like 42 degrees. Other news, the construction site across from the apartment continues to be an area of interest for me. It goes from a construction site from 7:00 am to about 7:00 pm when the floodlights go on, to a volleyball court, to a children’s playground to a place to play cards. The newest purchase is now a karaoke machine, which has to be turned up full blast until about 11:00 pm. Rainy season has just started with sheets of rain, thunder and lightning last night. I was thinking that might put a damper on karaoke, but they just moved indoors. With about four 25 storey highrise apartments surrounding the building site, I’m sure everyone is as thrilled as I am to have this new karaoke machine, but with all the hard work that these people do, I am happy they have some fun as well! I just need some better ear plugs. |
BerniceAfter being retired for 4 years, an opportunity came up to go back to the Canadian International School Phnom Penh, where I had worked for 2 years before retiring. Of course, I jumped at the chance. Here is where I will be posting the everyday and often mundane events of going back to work and going back to Cambodia! Archives
April 2023
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