Sihanoukville

  Well, here we are two weeks into the teaching course and I am so terrifyingly nervous I could just die right here at my computer. Why? Because tomorrow I start teaching real students…like with brains and faces and names and such. AHHHHHH!!! I’ll be teaching two classes a day for the next two weeks. In the morning I will be teaching at a place called the Korean Center, which is a local orphanage consisting of about sixty kids ages 8-18 years old. Of the sixty, I will teach about thirty 8-13 year olds very basic English.  Then in the afternoon, I have been assigned to teach the bar staff at the hotel where I live.  I am to focus on conversational English as well as good customer service skills as most of them are new to the hotel and never worked in the tourism industry. Holy. Moses.

            Like anything else, this is a process: meet students, assess students, make lesson plans, be prepared, dress nice, be on time, be professional, and have fun.  Yeah…I don’t know if I have all those skills at the current moment but I suppose I will acquire them soon enough. Keep breathing Madi… This will be a ball! Right?!

            On a different much less panicked note; this past weekend the whole group took a trip to Sihanoukville, Cambodia’s most famous beach town.  It is a backpacker’s haven, with bar lined shores, a water trampoline, endless seafood barbeque, and no shortage of ways to waste your hard earned money. We spent Friday afternoon lounging on the shore and playing in the waves while swatting away countless saleswomen offering message and manicure services along the beach. They are truly relentless! That evening we all gathered up for dinner after which I fell asleep immediately full of shrimp and mashed potatoes.

            Saturday was a real hoot! Three other students and I were collected from our hotel at 8am and whisked away to boat where we spend the rest of the day island hopping off the coast and snorkeling. I heard rumors of three whale sharks in the area, but never saw any signs of them.  We shared our boat with a British couple, six Estonian men, a Swede, two German backpackers, a group of four Vietnamese travelers, and two Cambodian guides/boat drivers. As you can imagine we were a lively bunch all trying to communicate and have fun together.  It was really a blast.  We got back to our hotel at about 3:30pm oceaned-out and utterly exhausted. Our full day boat tour included breakfast, lunch, snacks, drinks, and snorkel gear for $15/person!! With prices like that, I may never leave… ;) We ended our lovely day with a supper of Pho soup and fresh coconuts.  What a dream!!

I should pause here and be honest about one major roadblock, which brought my enjoyment level down about 10%.  I was mercilessly, unfairly, and irrevocably scalded by the sun. L I reapplied SPF 50 about every forty minutes all day, and still look like a lobster.  I think I have come to the conclusion that I just don’t get to wear cute bikinis like everyone else. Instead I should rely primarily on an XL male t-shirt to keep the sun off.  Attractive.  So I spent Sunday showering myself with aloe vera and cursing the day I was born with ivory skin, but what’s done is done and I am over it now.  If nothing else, tomorrow I can demonstrate how the colors red and purple look. Joy.

            Also, I know you are all dying to know how Mr. Charlie Pants is, and I am happy to report he is fabulous. Mom sent me this picture of him the other day and says he is happy and healthy and looses no sleep over my absence. Little rascal!!! Well, I think that is all to report for now!! I will let you all know how the teaching goes next week (assuming I am not eaten alive by my students), and for now I’m off to make my lesson plans. Wish me luck!!! (I really need it :S ) xoxo