Family Dinner

After gone for 3 months, it always feel nice to sit down as a family for an enjoyable dinner and some booze.
My brother takes cooking as quite a serious hobby so he's back from Davis for the weekend to impress us with his newest mastered dish.

Brother and mum set-up as I....watch lol.

Seared beef sushi.... yum!  :)

Wedding

It's always nice to attend a wedding, especially when you're there with your close friends from college.

Congrats Will and Jess!! :) 

Last Day

Last day in Siem Reap. Not only am I overwhelmed that I have to leave this city and country that I love but there are too many things that have been going on with my life that I've been getting really emotional these past days. My mood should be festive as it's Khmer New Years but my mind is jammed with the many conflicting thoughts that I'm concurrently faced with.

I know I will be back in Siem Reap for sure in the near future so I'm not too sad about leaving but it's just the heavy feeling of all the things I will have to leave behind after having a life here for the past few months.

Nevertheless I am so grateful to be able to live my life to the fullest in this beautiful country. Working at LHA has been one of the most erratic yet best decisions of my life. A lot has happened in these 5 months and it has moved and changed me in so many ways.

I'm also grateful to be spending the last few hours of my time here with my favorite French guy :)  And yes, I am eating pizza for my last feast. With Angkor beer. I cannot be more happier.

New Years at Angkor Wat

For Cambodians, Angkor Wat is much more than a historical structure. It represents national pride, spiritual haven, and cultural center point. Which is why the entrance fee is $20 for tourists but entirely free to Cambodians. All throughout the year Cambodians come to visit this colossal structure as a pilgramage but no other time would they visit more than during new years. It's good luck plus there's many events going on throughout the entire grounds of the Angkor Wat landscape. 

My colleague's friend Thanney suggested that we go see the events during this grand festivity and we bravely venture out in our bicycles to the grounds. We wondered why Thanney suggested we take bicycles when we had enough motorcycles. But sure enough the place was jam packed with cars and motorbikes, resulting in a huge congestion. We weaved our way through in the front of the Angkor Wat were crowds of people enjoying picnics, playing traditional new years games, and dancing. 

Since we were just staying outside of the temple, the guards permit us in to stay given that we will not enter into the buildings. 

Hoards of buses, cars, motorbike on the way to Angkor Wat

Traditional game playing time

Cambodian boxing

Traditional peacock dancing

picnic time!

procession

TONS of delicious vendors

Last views of Angkor Wat before leaving

It was amazing to see this many locals in one place and at the same time it really makes you realize how special Angkor Wat is and what it means to them.

This also happened to be my last day in Cambodia so what a way to finish up this great journey! Now time to get ready to pack up.

Vegetarian Dinner

Cambodians are ferocious meat and fish eaters but there seems to be a growing movement for vegetarianism. It's a growing trend amongst Taiwanese Buddhist temples who have been doing charity work and spread the dharma. With Khmer New Year and my last days in Cambodia approaching, a few of my students made vegetarian dinner for us teachers. Although I'm not entirely vegetarian, I go on spurs of meat fasting so it was such a treat.

Vegetarian hot pot..yum!

The girls cooked at one of the girls' family owned restaurant

Fried rice, soup, stirfry... all Cambodian girls are such great cooks

Post dinner beer time

I also want to take this moment to thank all my students. Having never had actual classroom teaching experience, being a teacher in front of students staring wide-eyed at me has been a scary experience. But everyone's been so generous, kind, and forgiving it really gave me the inspiration and integrity to give them a better education in whatever way I could. It also gave me the time to do growing myself through teaching these past few months.

Everyone is so eager to learn it really made me realize how much the power of education means to them. Education not only is acquiring knowledge but freedom and a ticket to move upwards in society.Cambodia is still a young country but with it's high ambitions of the younger generation, I have no doubt that they will grow exponentially on the world platform.

New Years Game Day

One of the highlights of the New Years is the various events that go on all over the city. Wat Damnak, aka my office also hosted a few traditional games day in which a variety were played and MC-ed by the monks. It's a great way to bring the community together both locals and tourists. And of course, there's lots of dancing in between!

Cambodian version of a piñata! Instead of a paper mache, they're clay pots!

Money and candy inside :)

French guy being suave

Fruit offerings

Special New Years Buddha altar

Ceremonial mounds. Believe it of not, it took the monks 3 days to make! It's made with extreme precision

Participants have to suck in water from a bucket and fill the water bottles up!

The monks are not allowed to participate in the games but they were having a blast as MCs!

Apple eating game

Bean bag race

Boys vs girls, traditional rock throwing game

Village School Party

My colleague Carena, who also teaches at a village school, had her farewell party and some of us LHA staff were invited. I've known the kids at the school from the field trip so it was a wonderful way to see them one last time as well. 

I'm really proud of my colleague and how she has progressed with the school. This is not just an English school for the village; it's practically the only school. It's questionable how many of the 40-50 children in the village even go to public school. In a setting in which an education institution is lacking, it's very difficult to implement a learning environment. Children are not used to sitting down quietly to learn so discipline is a huge problem. Also as the school only had one makeshift classroom in the middle of a residential house, there were chickens and dogs running around during class which is quite unthinkable in a normal school setting. Nevertheless the children have learned how to read the alphabet and talk in simple conversational English in which I was very impressed. I can see that the children's' pronunciation has improved over the weeks as well. And mind you, Carena is German. It's fascinating to see the progress of learning and I really do hope that these kids will continue to be exposed to an educational environment.