There are several unique things that you see in Cambodia that would actually be really amazing for the United States. The first (and probably the most notable) is drink transportation. When you go to fast food restaurant, you get your food in a bag and the drink in your hand. The drink most likely freezes your poor hand. Cambodia has the perfect answer for that. Every restaurant and drink vendor has s strip of plastic that attaches to the top of the cup (just under the lid) and it makes a handle! You can carry the drink by the handle and not freeze your hand or dangle it off of a moto. They have the same thing on large bottles of water, there is an extra dealy that acts as a handle so you don't have to carry a big bulky bottle of water everywhere.
Another is general transportation, motos are the only way to go! Need to go somewhere? Grab a moto! Why wait for a bus? Have a bunch of stuff? Tuk tuk away! Transportation is fantastic here and I really will miss it (stupid busses). Street vendors are also innovative because it makes food so readily available. Buyer beware, if you buy any meat, it may not be the best quality. Having street venors and motos all over the place in the US may not be feasible but for the love of god, give us the drink handle thing!
Till Next Time...
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Monday, November 28, 2011
Wow! Moving out is stressful!
On Sunday, I successfully moved out of my apartment. If only it were that simple. To make the whole process less stressful for me, I did a little bit every day. I started by clearing out the trash, then I washed my kitchen, then I started packing. Actually going about it very lazily made it not stressful at all but then some things changed. Tabitha (who moved into my apartment) checked it out on Saturday and said she wanted it. I said, you move out on the first right? She says she moves out tomorrow (Sunday), my reaction is O_O. I tell her that works but she needs to come back at 5 PM the next day. Fast forward to the next day, I'm running around, sweeping, packing, and mopping like a crazy person. That day I had a wicked stomachache and I was dehydrated (I was completely out of water). By the time I finished, I nearly fainted on my freshly made bed, shortly after, Tabitha arrived and I helped her get her bags in the apartment. I signed the lease over to her and got my money back. I went to the guesthouse which is okay, it's livable, and I just watched some TV and fell asleep for 12 hours. I was exhausted.
Till Next Time...
Till Next Time...
Behemoth Sandwiches
Eat your heart out Subway, there is a sandwich shop here that's got you beat. This place sells man sandwiches! Sandwiches so big, you need two hands to eat them! My favorite is the Italian Sandwich, it's got salami, cheese, pickles, onions, tomatoes, lettuce, carrots, and peppers. It's got a lot of those things, so much that the sandwich itself stands at a towering 4 inches by 6 inches (roughly). Now let's talk about the price, yes it's 5 dollars and it's not quite Subway's 5 dollar footlong deal but let's put it this way. These sandwiches are like if you took both halves of a Subway footlong and put them on top of each other minus the extra layer of bread. They're so good and so satisfying. I gotta stop writing about food...
Till Next time...
Till Next time...
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Cambodia, the land of water bottles harder to open than pickle jars
I'm not even kidding, water bottles are so hard to open here! When you're opening a water bottle, you should not get a cut on your hand from opening said water bottle! I don't know why they're shut so tightly. I have a blister on my right hand from the stupid things and it hurts, a lot. I have a bottle of water in my fridge that is shut so tightly that when you try to open it, the entire bottle twists. It's shut so tightly that the whole bottle twists as opposed to the cap coming off, it's really frustrating especially when I'm thirsty. I'm going to go try to open a new bottle of water.
Till next time...
Till next time...
Moto drivers, you so crazy.
I haven't really talked in detail about motos but in general I love riding them. They're fast, efficient and exciting. I want to talk now about the drivers. The drivers are another story. They are some of the wittiest, gutsiest, inept, crazy, astounding people you will ever meet. I've had experiences with just about every kind of moto driver. I'll talk briefly about the inept variety.
I talked about my experience getting my care package and with that inept moto driver. I'm not chalking this up to communication barrier, oh no. EVERY moto driver should know the following landmarks, Central Market, Sorya Mall, Riverside (especially riverside), Sovanna, City Mall, Orussey, and the airport. When I had my experience with that moto driver, it made my head spin because EVERY moto driver at riverside should know where Sorya Mall or Central Market is, it's not even a mile away. This particular guy knew where none of these things were! Made my freaking head hurt.
I'll talk briefly about moto driver/ tuk tuk driver logic. You see someone get off a moto near Sorya Mall, what do you do? Ask them if they need a ride.
The image above is another meme called Confused Jackie Chan. It's a blog and internet 101! That has happened to me multiple times and it makes no freaking sense. The other bit of moto driver logic is if you walk past a line of moto drivers, each one will ask you if you need a ride. You say no to the first one, then the next one will ask you, and so on and so on. I always think "It's not that I don't want a ride from YOU, I don't need a ride period."
It should also be noted that they are completely crazy drivers, I mean crazy. Traffic jam? drive on the freaking sidewalk! Pedestrians? Squeeze through that 3 inch gap between them! What's a one way street? Traffic laws? What are those? It can be pretty scary. I was in a minor fender bender while taking a ride from an inept moto driver, the other guy hit us head on and part of the other moto slammed into my knee but it didn't hurt. Despite moto drivers being crazy and whatnot, I love riding motos, it's great fun and is one thing that I will miss about Cambodia.
Till Next Time...
I talked about my experience getting my care package and with that inept moto driver. I'm not chalking this up to communication barrier, oh no. EVERY moto driver should know the following landmarks, Central Market, Sorya Mall, Riverside (especially riverside), Sovanna, City Mall, Orussey, and the airport. When I had my experience with that moto driver, it made my head spin because EVERY moto driver at riverside should know where Sorya Mall or Central Market is, it's not even a mile away. This particular guy knew where none of these things were! Made my freaking head hurt.
I'll talk briefly about moto driver/ tuk tuk driver logic. You see someone get off a moto near Sorya Mall, what do you do? Ask them if they need a ride.
 |
| I just got off a moto. What makes you think I need another one? |
It should also be noted that they are completely crazy drivers, I mean crazy. Traffic jam? drive on the freaking sidewalk! Pedestrians? Squeeze through that 3 inch gap between them! What's a one way street? Traffic laws? What are those? It can be pretty scary. I was in a minor fender bender while taking a ride from an inept moto driver, the other guy hit us head on and part of the other moto slammed into my knee but it didn't hurt. Despite moto drivers being crazy and whatnot, I love riding motos, it's great fun and is one thing that I will miss about Cambodia.
Till Next Time...
Not quite the end
The post entitled The End referred to my teaching experience. I get to write about cleaning, packing, and miscellaneous anecdotes now! I'll be honest, cleaning is a pain. A royal pain. I look around my apartment and sigh. It's difficult to motivate myself to do it because it's so hot in my apartment. However, I've gotten some things done and I'm pleased with what I've done so far.
The first thing I want to talk about is garbage. I honestly didn't know how garbage collection worked in my apartment... You can see how this could become an issue. At first, it wasn't a huge problem, I would put something in a plastic bag, and tie the bag up and put it in the kitchen, usually. Well, garbage bags (the big old bags with pull ties) don't exist here, I ended up using grocery bags. This worked to an extent, I'd come home with whatever street food I picked up for dinner, eat most, if not all of it, and put it into a new garbage bag. This system worked except when it came to water. After my huge water incident, I started buying bottled water 12 bottles for a dollar (good deal). Instead of tossing them in a bag, I would toss them aside to reuse them (maybe), this lead to 70% of the crap on my floor being water bottles. My first step in cleaning was to clean up anything that was garbage on the floor and put it into bags. This was easy and it took almost no time at all. I also figured out where the garbage goes, there's a small garbage can outside in the alley *facepalm*.
I'd like to take a moment to explain one of my favorite Khmer dishes, mee chaa. That is the Khmer word for fried noodles with meat and vegetables. It usually has beef, broccoli, bok choy, and onion. It's delicious. Sometimes coming home from work I would get some from this restaurant near the school for a meer $1.75. They are really generous with the serving, it's literally overflowing out of the to go thingy. I had this a few times and from there it's okay. The last time I brought it home, I ate about 3/4ths of it and closed the box and wrapped it up in a garbage bag. I like the place down the street from my house, where the portion is smaller but it tastes better and is only a dollar. One day when I was moving garbage bags from the living room to the kitchen, I picked up the bag with the thrown out mee chaa and it started dripping meat juice everywhere. I put it in the kitchen and thought nothing of it.
Fast forward to today where I'm cleaning the kitchen. I finish cleaning it (for the most part, one area could use a little more scrubbing) and I started moving some of the garbage bags around. I came across the garbage bag that had the now rotten mee chaa in it. I moved it out of the way and there was a massive pool of rotten meat juice. I made some space and ran and got my mop and mopped up the rancid pool. I have an old fashioned kind of mop but it worked surprisingly well. That put me in mop mode, so I quickly mopped up the hallway which needed it. At this point I've cleared out most of the garbage, washed the bathroom, kitchen, and hallway, packed some clothes, and sorted out my important papers. I ultimately don't have a lot left to do so I'm very proud of myself.
Till next time...
The first thing I want to talk about is garbage. I honestly didn't know how garbage collection worked in my apartment... You can see how this could become an issue. At first, it wasn't a huge problem, I would put something in a plastic bag, and tie the bag up and put it in the kitchen, usually. Well, garbage bags (the big old bags with pull ties) don't exist here, I ended up using grocery bags. This worked to an extent, I'd come home with whatever street food I picked up for dinner, eat most, if not all of it, and put it into a new garbage bag. This system worked except when it came to water. After my huge water incident, I started buying bottled water 12 bottles for a dollar (good deal). Instead of tossing them in a bag, I would toss them aside to reuse them (maybe), this lead to 70% of the crap on my floor being water bottles. My first step in cleaning was to clean up anything that was garbage on the floor and put it into bags. This was easy and it took almost no time at all. I also figured out where the garbage goes, there's a small garbage can outside in the alley *facepalm*.
I'd like to take a moment to explain one of my favorite Khmer dishes, mee chaa. That is the Khmer word for fried noodles with meat and vegetables. It usually has beef, broccoli, bok choy, and onion. It's delicious. Sometimes coming home from work I would get some from this restaurant near the school for a meer $1.75. They are really generous with the serving, it's literally overflowing out of the to go thingy. I had this a few times and from there it's okay. The last time I brought it home, I ate about 3/4ths of it and closed the box and wrapped it up in a garbage bag. I like the place down the street from my house, where the portion is smaller but it tastes better and is only a dollar. One day when I was moving garbage bags from the living room to the kitchen, I picked up the bag with the thrown out mee chaa and it started dripping meat juice everywhere. I put it in the kitchen and thought nothing of it.
Fast forward to today where I'm cleaning the kitchen. I finish cleaning it (for the most part, one area could use a little more scrubbing) and I started moving some of the garbage bags around. I came across the garbage bag that had the now rotten mee chaa in it. I moved it out of the way and there was a massive pool of rotten meat juice. I made some space and ran and got my mop and mopped up the rancid pool. I have an old fashioned kind of mop but it worked surprisingly well. That put me in mop mode, so I quickly mopped up the hallway which needed it. At this point I've cleared out most of the garbage, washed the bathroom, kitchen, and hallway, packed some clothes, and sorted out my important papers. I ultimately don't have a lot left to do so I'm very proud of myself.
Till next time...
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
The End
Now that all is said and done, it's time to ask that question again. Did I do a good job? Was I cut out for this over all? Again I'm going to be perfectly honest with myself. The answer will surprise you. My answer is no. I'm not saying I did a bad job, I'm saying that given my age, and lack of experience, I was not suited to do this. I don't know a lot of teaching methodology (yet), I just did what I thought would make the students understand. It worked, but perhaps I wasn't doing it right. I asked my boss in my last conversation with him what he thought, and he straight up told me no but it was okay. For my first job, and first real teaching experience, perhaps being in a fancy private school, in a professional setting wasn't right for me. It was certainly unprofessional to have a mental/emotional breakdown. My strengths were with my grade one classes and my weaknesses were in my grade 2 classes.
What I did well: My students liked me, they understood basic grammar, and they enjoyed my class.
What I didn't do well (grade 1): application, I didn't teach them to apply the things we were learning, they could understand the grammar if you asked them but couldn't if they were writing. That was my big mistake.
What I did well (grade 2): ... Yeah, I taught it.
What I didn't do well (grade 2): Honestly, everything, I didn't know how to teach this class. C/L Conversation and Listening, where do I even go from there? The book told me what to teach but it just seemed lacking somehow. I definitely didn't do it right.
Am I giving up on teaching? ABSOLUTELY NOT! I haven't taken my methods classes yet, as a result, for this experience I had to do what I thought was right. I'll be more suited to teach when I learn further methodology, classroom management, etc. This has been an excellent experience for me, and I'm not writing it off as a failure. I'm putting it up to live and learn. I've learned how to teach English in another country, I've learned how to live on my own (sorta), I've learned how to (at least try) to be professional. These are very important things that I've learned, I haven't failed, far from it. I've learned, and the more you learn, the stronger you get. I feel that I've grown up mentally and emotionally. I want to apply these experiences to whatever awaits me in the near future. Teaching is rewarding but stressful, you learn along with your students. "You teach me, and I'll teach you" (POKEMON!), sorry, quoting the Pokemon theme song. It is a true statement though. You learn with your students, and I have learned much.
For the last time...
What I did well: My students liked me, they understood basic grammar, and they enjoyed my class.
What I didn't do well (grade 1): application, I didn't teach them to apply the things we were learning, they could understand the grammar if you asked them but couldn't if they were writing. That was my big mistake.
What I did well (grade 2): ... Yeah, I taught it.
What I didn't do well (grade 2): Honestly, everything, I didn't know how to teach this class. C/L Conversation and Listening, where do I even go from there? The book told me what to teach but it just seemed lacking somehow. I definitely didn't do it right.
Am I giving up on teaching? ABSOLUTELY NOT! I haven't taken my methods classes yet, as a result, for this experience I had to do what I thought was right. I'll be more suited to teach when I learn further methodology, classroom management, etc. This has been an excellent experience for me, and I'm not writing it off as a failure. I'm putting it up to live and learn. I've learned how to teach English in another country, I've learned how to live on my own (sorta), I've learned how to (at least try) to be professional. These are very important things that I've learned, I haven't failed, far from it. I've learned, and the more you learn, the stronger you get. I feel that I've grown up mentally and emotionally. I want to apply these experiences to whatever awaits me in the near future. Teaching is rewarding but stressful, you learn along with your students. "You teach me, and I'll teach you" (POKEMON!), sorry, quoting the Pokemon theme song. It is a true statement though. You learn with your students, and I have learned much.
For the last time...
Depression
The past few weeks I've faced my most difficult challenge yet, depression. My mom had unofficially diagnosed me with clinical depression. The past few weeks I've faced lack of sleep, too much sleep, lack of appetite, and feeling sad and worthless. The reason for this is because I miss home. I'm not old enough to be doing something like this in my life. I still need the guiding hand(s) of my family. I've even quit my job (er, was accidentally fired) and am in the process of rescheduling my plane ticket. The question that remains is, how am I fighting my depression?
Round 1: Versus Insomnia. Ready? Fight!!!
I only had one major bout of insomnia but it was awful. My body was tired but my brain wasn't. This was the day before I was going back to work. I was thinking about how I was going to quit my job and when. I tossed, turned, listened to music, put the tv on, took medicine, nothing worked. I finally fell asleep at 3:45 in the morning. I woke up 3 hours later... Insomnia won.
Round 2: Versus feeling sad Ready? Fight!!!
This fight is ongoing. It's been going up and down, on some days I feel like crap, on other days I just feel bad. I felt particularly bad while going through all of the recent drama (since only my family members read this, you know what I'm talking about). Recently, like today and last night, I'm feeling better. Last night I cheered myself up by watching Scott Pilgrim Versus the World. That movie never fails to cheer me up. I also played Pokemon!!! Pokemon is the one thing that cheers me up and never fails to do so. No matter how distraught I am in my emotional state, it always works. Always! I'm winning this fight.
Round 3: Versus appetite loss Ready? Fight!!!
I'm losing this one, I only eat one meal a day, sometimes I force myself to eat a second one but my stomach doesn't like that. All I can do is force myself to eat periodically.
It may look like I'm losing the over all battle with depression but there's one thing that keeps me going. Hope. I know I'm going home, I hope I'm going home, and there's no reason to get completely bent out of shape over this. I'm coming home, and when I do, I should be back to normal.
Till the next and last time
Round 1: Versus Insomnia. Ready? Fight!!!
I only had one major bout of insomnia but it was awful. My body was tired but my brain wasn't. This was the day before I was going back to work. I was thinking about how I was going to quit my job and when. I tossed, turned, listened to music, put the tv on, took medicine, nothing worked. I finally fell asleep at 3:45 in the morning. I woke up 3 hours later... Insomnia won.
Round 2: Versus feeling sad Ready? Fight!!!
This fight is ongoing. It's been going up and down, on some days I feel like crap, on other days I just feel bad. I felt particularly bad while going through all of the recent drama (since only my family members read this, you know what I'm talking about). Recently, like today and last night, I'm feeling better. Last night I cheered myself up by watching Scott Pilgrim Versus the World. That movie never fails to cheer me up. I also played Pokemon!!! Pokemon is the one thing that cheers me up and never fails to do so. No matter how distraught I am in my emotional state, it always works. Always! I'm winning this fight.
Round 3: Versus appetite loss Ready? Fight!!!
I'm losing this one, I only eat one meal a day, sometimes I force myself to eat a second one but my stomach doesn't like that. All I can do is force myself to eat periodically.
It may look like I'm losing the over all battle with depression but there's one thing that keeps me going. Hope. I know I'm going home, I hope I'm going home, and there's no reason to get completely bent out of shape over this. I'm coming home, and when I do, I should be back to normal.
Till the next and last time
Monday, November 7, 2011
These kids are in grade one why?
Contrary to my success story this is about kids that should not under any circumstance be in grade one. I refuse to fault myself because they scored the lowest out of all of my students in all of my classes. We will call them Y, V, and B. Y and V are twins, V does okaaaay but he still got a 56 on the test. V should not be in grade one under any freaking circumstances ever! He got a 16! 16% boggles my mind, how anyone could do that poorly on a test...
I'm not faulting him, I'm faulting grade placement. I knew he shouldn't be in grade one from the getgo. I get kids ready for tests by drilling it into their head so there is no conceivable way they could get certain things wrong. Y on the other hand, is always behind, he stares off into space, and he cannot write a simple sentence. He is not suited for grade one at all.
B, got a glorious 40% on his test. I was asked earlier to observe him to see how he was doing. He was doing fine. He even got 80% on the first test. I thought he'd be fine but he blew it on the last test. Recently he was doing the same thing Y was doing, staring off into space and not keeping up. I'm not angry at the students, myself, or even the school (proper). I'm upset with the lack of placement tests. All three of these kids have a similar story. The parents of Y and V wanted them to be in grade 1 because they thought they were smart. Needless to say they're in for a rude awakening. B went to Kindergarten at a different school and as a result wasn't as prepared for grade one as others. I would prefer that these three don't be in my class because it saddens me to fail a child who is not in the correct grade.
*sigh*
That's all...
I'm not faulting him, I'm faulting grade placement. I knew he shouldn't be in grade one from the getgo. I get kids ready for tests by drilling it into their head so there is no conceivable way they could get certain things wrong. Y on the other hand, is always behind, he stares off into space, and he cannot write a simple sentence. He is not suited for grade one at all.
B, got a glorious 40% on his test. I was asked earlier to observe him to see how he was doing. He was doing fine. He even got 80% on the first test. I thought he'd be fine but he blew it on the last test. Recently he was doing the same thing Y was doing, staring off into space and not keeping up. I'm not angry at the students, myself, or even the school (proper). I'm upset with the lack of placement tests. All three of these kids have a similar story. The parents of Y and V wanted them to be in grade 1 because they thought they were smart. Needless to say they're in for a rude awakening. B went to Kindergarten at a different school and as a result wasn't as prepared for grade one as others. I would prefer that these three don't be in my class because it saddens me to fail a child who is not in the correct grade.
*sigh*
That's all...
A success story
As a teacher, I get very nervous when my bosses talk to me (but I don't show it). Every time it happens I'm like "oh god I'm fired!" Even though I'm doing everything I'm supposed to be doing. That's just how my brain works. One of my bosses comes up to me and tells me about a student who was having trouble in my class (grade 1). We'll call her R. That day when I had R in my class I did a review activity and intentionally called on her about 5 times. I wanted to see what she knew and what she didn't. After class I talked with her one on one (I kicked everyone else out of the class). I asked her what she was having trouble with. Turns out she didn't understand spelling of abbreviations and the short question, short answer stuff we'd been working on. I spent about 5-10 minutes going over this with her and she seemed a lot happier and confident from that point on. A few days later I gave that class their test. I went through her test....
SHE GOT A 98!!!!! I was seriously freaking proud of her and myself. I told this story to my boss and he seemed proud of me as well. I was freaking delighted! Hooray! A success story!
SHE GOT A 98!!!!! I was seriously freaking proud of her and myself. I told this story to my boss and he seemed proud of me as well. I was freaking delighted! Hooray! A success story!
Friday, November 4, 2011
So I got my package...
Yesterday when I came home there was a note from my neighbor saying there was a package for me at the post office. Today I took a moto to riverside (which is where the post office is) and picked it up without too much trouble. The real adventure was going home. Getting home from Riverside is easy, just tell a moto driver "street 63, Rambo". 99 % of moto drivers know where Rambo Restaurant is. The driver that I found was the 1 %. I told him that and he started going in the right direction and he got to street 63...
Streets in Phnom Penh are strange, this wasn't my street 63, it was a different one. My street 63 goes towards Sorya mall and Central Market or towards Orussey Market (going the other way). I told him to go to Sorya mall (close to my house). We end up at the Russian embassy!!! Then I tell him to go to Central Market, we end up at a place called Phnom Penh Center!!! After a lot of backtracking, I got mixed up and we ended up near MIS! Thank God I knew my way home from there. I was on a moto for an hour and a half, it should've been 10 minutes at the most.
The package was delightful, I got my blanket, some pictures, some gum, prayer flags, a CD, and letters from my family.
That is all I have to report.
Till next time.
Streets in Phnom Penh are strange, this wasn't my street 63, it was a different one. My street 63 goes towards Sorya mall and Central Market or towards Orussey Market (going the other way). I told him to go to Sorya mall (close to my house). We end up at the Russian embassy!!! Then I tell him to go to Central Market, we end up at a place called Phnom Penh Center!!! After a lot of backtracking, I got mixed up and we ended up near MIS! Thank God I knew my way home from there. I was on a moto for an hour and a half, it should've been 10 minutes at the most.
The package was delightful, I got my blanket, some pictures, some gum, prayer flags, a CD, and letters from my family.
That is all I have to report.
Till next time.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
On Teaching I
Well it's that time, I've graded all the tests, made grade sheets. It's time to ask, am I any good at this teaching thing? Well my English teacher once said that "teaching is defined by the audience"(Greg Bachar). It is, for all of my classes I needed to teach different things at different speeds. While grading I looked at trends, to see what people got wrong. What I noticed was application, and short questions and answers.
What I mean by application is being able to use what we learn in writing. They know plurals very well but in writing sentences they will not use the plurals of those same words! Why? That is because when we do our daily writing practice I don't want to take the 10+ minutes to check each individual's writing. I want them to do the simple act of writing. To remedy this, I will put more emphasis on writing activities (it is a writing class after all).
The other problem that I noticed was asking and answering questions. Example: Am I a teacher? Yes you are. Frankly why so many kids got this part wrong is enigmatic. I drilled it into their heads for at least 2 weeks. Yet in almost all of my classes, over half of them got it wrong. The questions on the test related to characters in their textbook. Here is a very common answer, Is Brian tall? Yes it is. Firstly, Brian is a boy, secondly he is short. They should be using the words he or she, not it! Between the two rooms that I teach in, 108 did a lot better than 109. 108 has my favorite students and they're very bright for the most part. 109 has delightful students who sadly aren't too bright. The 109 morning class did rather poorly.
I will now answer the question that I set out to answer in this post. It is not my final answer and chances are it will change a lot over time. My honest answer is that for my first experience(s) teaching on my own...
I'm okay, I have a lot to learn, my current occupation isn't exactly easy. I'm not doing a bad job but I think that I can do better (particularly with my grade 2 kids). There is no self loathing or doubt here. I have provided genuine and honest reflection above. I know what to improve on and thank goodness meh test scores won't endanger my job. This answer will change over time, I will do another piece like this at the end of the term.
Till next time.
What I mean by application is being able to use what we learn in writing. They know plurals very well but in writing sentences they will not use the plurals of those same words! Why? That is because when we do our daily writing practice I don't want to take the 10+ minutes to check each individual's writing. I want them to do the simple act of writing. To remedy this, I will put more emphasis on writing activities (it is a writing class after all).
The other problem that I noticed was asking and answering questions. Example: Am I a teacher? Yes you are. Frankly why so many kids got this part wrong is enigmatic. I drilled it into their heads for at least 2 weeks. Yet in almost all of my classes, over half of them got it wrong. The questions on the test related to characters in their textbook. Here is a very common answer, Is Brian tall? Yes it is. Firstly, Brian is a boy, secondly he is short. They should be using the words he or she, not it! Between the two rooms that I teach in, 108 did a lot better than 109. 108 has my favorite students and they're very bright for the most part. 109 has delightful students who sadly aren't too bright. The 109 morning class did rather poorly.
I will now answer the question that I set out to answer in this post. It is not my final answer and chances are it will change a lot over time. My honest answer is that for my first experience(s) teaching on my own...
I'm okay, I have a lot to learn, my current occupation isn't exactly easy. I'm not doing a bad job but I think that I can do better (particularly with my grade 2 kids). There is no self loathing or doubt here. I have provided genuine and honest reflection above. I know what to improve on and thank goodness meh test scores won't endanger my job. This answer will change over time, I will do another piece like this at the end of the term.
Till next time.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
I definitely ate dog and I'm okay with it (but my stomach isn't)
In an effort to not eat a hot dog today I went to a restaurant nearby the school. One thing to know about eating in Cambodia is when you go into a restaurant, you're pretty much locked in. It is very rude to walk away without getting anything. The menu was entirely in Khmer (oh yeah, this would end well) and the waiter tried to help me translate. I told him I just wanted some fried rice (I didn't remember the Khmer word for that) communication gap ensues and I get something totally different but delicious.
Instead I get a plate that had meat, a bunch of raw onion, and tomato. I also got French Fries for some reason. I guess the waiter heard fries over fried rice. Oh well the fries were good. The meat was also good, I thought it was beef. I ate quite a bit of it until I noticed that it was a heck of a lot chewier than normal beef. It didn't taste exactly like beef either. It was still good. Then the thought popped into my head that I might be eating dog. Instead of freaking out, I actually kept eating. It was very good. I ate dog and it was good! Now I'm sitting here typing this and my stomach is having quite a time with it. My tongue may have liked it and my body may have liked the vegetables, but my stomach is not happy. Despite the fact that it was good, I doubt that I'll be having dog again.
Instead I get a plate that had meat, a bunch of raw onion, and tomato. I also got French Fries for some reason. I guess the waiter heard fries over fried rice. Oh well the fries were good. The meat was also good, I thought it was beef. I ate quite a bit of it until I noticed that it was a heck of a lot chewier than normal beef. It didn't taste exactly like beef either. It was still good. Then the thought popped into my head that I might be eating dog. Instead of freaking out, I actually kept eating. It was very good. I ate dog and it was good! Now I'm sitting here typing this and my stomach is having quite a time with it. My tongue may have liked it and my body may have liked the vegetables, but my stomach is not happy. Despite the fact that it was good, I doubt that I'll be having dog again.
The joy of street food
When I first came to Cambodia, it was advised that you don't drink the water (true). It was also advised that you don't buy from street vendors, I will freely call BS. Some of the best food I've had here were from street vendors. Here are just a few examples, fried noodles, pho', straw in a coconut, ice cream, and sandwiches. If you walked around and got one of everything I just mentioned, you would barely spend 5 dollars, if that. The value of a dollar is freaking amazing here! I will elaborate.
Fried Noodles: $1.75
Pho':$1.00
Straw in a coconut: 75 cents
ice cream: 25 cents
Sandwiches: 50 cents to $1.50
The original Language corps information stated that street food would upset your stomach. It depends entirely on what you buy. Some stands you can tell that you shouldn't eat whatever it is. For instance, I've seen humbao that was brown on the outside. It's supposed to be a white sweet bun with meat and stuff inside. My most recent street favorite is a stand in a place called Orussy market. This area is frankly very sketchy. At least inside (I imagine, I've never been), but all around it, there's food! Food everywhere! All kinds, the smells make me ravenous. It doesn't help that I pass through this area everyday going home. One day I finally decided to check it out. The place I was most fascinated with was the place that always had sausages and meats cooking. I went there, and I got half a baby baguette with meat (I assume it's beef or pork), some vegetables (carrot, onion, cabbage, pickle), and chili sauce (this was a mixture of hot sauce and garlic). It was ridiculously delicious and cheap. It's messy though because they wrap it in newspaper which is soaked by the time I get home.
Stopping there is a bit of a culture shock because that whole area is very third world. I mean really third world. The sandwich was 2700 riel, that's about 65 cents! The last time I went there I was ambushed by beggars! The time before that, I saw an old woman with no legs in the middle of the street pulling herself across on a board with wheels! It's pretty shocking and it puts reality in check. I may not be living my cushy lifestyle at home, but I'm used to it. If ever for one second I think that my life sucks, I should think of people that are a hell of a lot less better off than I am and be thankful for what I have. I came to Cambodia to see what the real world looks like. If you want a genuine glimpse of that, go to Orussy Market.
Till next time.
Fried Noodles: $1.75
Pho':$1.00
Straw in a coconut: 75 cents
ice cream: 25 cents
Sandwiches: 50 cents to $1.50
The original Language corps information stated that street food would upset your stomach. It depends entirely on what you buy. Some stands you can tell that you shouldn't eat whatever it is. For instance, I've seen humbao that was brown on the outside. It's supposed to be a white sweet bun with meat and stuff inside. My most recent street favorite is a stand in a place called Orussy market. This area is frankly very sketchy. At least inside (I imagine, I've never been), but all around it, there's food! Food everywhere! All kinds, the smells make me ravenous. It doesn't help that I pass through this area everyday going home. One day I finally decided to check it out. The place I was most fascinated with was the place that always had sausages and meats cooking. I went there, and I got half a baby baguette with meat (I assume it's beef or pork), some vegetables (carrot, onion, cabbage, pickle), and chili sauce (this was a mixture of hot sauce and garlic). It was ridiculously delicious and cheap. It's messy though because they wrap it in newspaper which is soaked by the time I get home.
Stopping there is a bit of a culture shock because that whole area is very third world. I mean really third world. The sandwich was 2700 riel, that's about 65 cents! The last time I went there I was ambushed by beggars! The time before that, I saw an old woman with no legs in the middle of the street pulling herself across on a board with wheels! It's pretty shocking and it puts reality in check. I may not be living my cushy lifestyle at home, but I'm used to it. If ever for one second I think that my life sucks, I should think of people that are a hell of a lot less better off than I am and be thankful for what I have. I came to Cambodia to see what the real world looks like. If you want a genuine glimpse of that, go to Orussy Market.
Till next time.
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