Summer Camp: Student Movies...and a SPAZ UPDATE

The second week of summer camp went by almost flawlessly. It was partially because we touched up the lesson plans from week one but mostly because there were only 15 students instead of 25. On the summer camp evaluations almost every student commented about how much they loved making a real movie. For a group of fairly low level students, they really did a pretty good job writing scripts and stage directions in English. The day we devoted to script writing, one of the 5th grade teachers helped us out-- so for 4 groups of students there were 3 English speakers there to bombard with questions. Not to mention the stack of dictionaries.  Each week, the most popular phrase used (with no prompt or spelling help from the teachers) was 'OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!' There were always ghosts, monsters, vampires, and aliens. This is what students are interested in, why on earth don't the state English textbooks have stuff that 10-13 year olds actually care about? Below are some of my favorite videos from week two. The sound on the first week's videos is a little wonky. ...Also, I don't feel like waiting for ten videos to upload.

This is called Vampire. The line you can't hear when the boys are around the corner is "Run you fool! She will eat you!"

My Sister Was Kidnapped was cute. They only had 3 people in their group but they wrote in a 4th character (the police officer) and begged my co-teacher to do the part. Of course she obliged!

One of my favorite videos won't load! It's about these vampires that fiend for coffee instead of blood and beat up on humans to get them to buy them coffee and such. Obviously, students after my own heart...errr minus the violence.

Ridiculous spaz update: While chewing an innocent bite of rice at lunch, I bit the side of my tongue so hard that my entire mouth got bloody. I am now sipping coffee that tastes like it's been flavored with blood. The student movies have abducted my subconscious!

I'm a terrible blogger or More Angkor

I've gotten into my 'it's about to be a new semester I need to obsessively plan and make worksheets storm.' So far I have killed several trees but everything is double sided and amazing!

...And back to the pretty! More temple loving.

Me poking out of a window. I frequently took pictures and then said to Cragon 'you know what would make this picture perfect? A person in it!' Cragon got used to posing and taking pictures. And by 'got used to,'
I mean looking slightly exasperated in almost every single one. I smiled prettily because obviously my mother gives far more frightening guilt trips about coming home from vacation without a plethora of pictures of myself.

Just to give you an idea of the sort of steps I was climbing all day. Angkor is not for the feint of heart--or ankles. I dutifully wore my ankle brace until somehow, 4 mosquitoes bit me THROUGH the brace and the rubbing created so much itching I thought I was going to explode.  This is why your mini first aid kit should always have anti-itch cream in it. Thank you, Dad for making me the most over prepared traveler I have ever met, it pays off sometimes. Of course I frequently mentioned that I would probably die of Dengue fever but I appear to have escaped unscathed. (The people climbing the steps are not us but some tourists who then took the same type of pictures of us scrambling up the steps.)

As you can see, it took me a lot longer to carefully pick my way up the steps than Cragon. Since I didn't sprain my ankle for the 4th time in 2 years, I have decided that moving like a sloth is the way to go!

...I just realized that these pictures are not from day 3 at Angkor as I originally thought but Day 1 at Ta Prohm and perhaps one other temple. Note to self: don't wear the same color shirt for major picture days. Ta Prohm is the temple above with the giant trees growing out of it. It should look familiar to you if you have ever seen Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (which I re-watched recently just to glory in the fact that I'd actually been there). Unfortunately, a lot of my cool tree pictures didn't come out very well because I was having some problems with the auto-focus on my camera. Apparently, Canon really doesn't like being in ridiculous 90+ temperatures with high humidity. Fair enough, neither do I.

The elephant and I are having a glorious conversation.

This temple was smaller than many of the very popular temples but the carvings were amazingly well preserved.

I could probably do one more post about Cambodia. We'll see. I'd like to go back to blogging about my day to day life eventually.

Cambodia, Angkor Wat Day 2

Today I got an e-mail from my dad which said:
ALEX
DID WE MISS A POST?

(And yes, he really does do everything with the caps lock on.)
 Back to Cambodia! I really appreciate everyone's support while I was moping away. I'm feeling better, and teaching really helps keep my spirits up. Having kids write scenes with lines like "OH MY GOD, it's blood!" is always good for a laugh.

For the second day at Angkor, we got up at 4:30 and left the guest house at 5 so we could watch the sunrise over Angkor Wat.  Unfortunately, my camera is great at capturing sunsets but I couldn't get the setting perfect for sunrises. I really wish I'd consulted my mother on the proper manual setting the day before but such is life. It was still breathtaking. We also ran into some other acquaintances from Korea but I was too busy snapping pictures and oohing over the pretty to really want to talk.  It just goes to show how small the world is sometimes.

There are many reasons why Angkor Wat is so popular among all of the temples. For one, it's absolutely immense. It is also in amazingly good shape, particularly the bas reliefs (wall carvings).  There are hundreds of meters of them and each wall tells a story.

Angkor Wat is easy to get lost in (and I did). Note to future travelers: your Lonely Planet guide is not sufficient to get you around Angkor.

I could post every picture I took of Angkor Wat and it still wouldn't do it justice.

...because sometimes I get bored of smiling and victory signs.

More tomorrow!

End of Summer Camp, Week 1

For two months before summer camp I stressed over every minute detail of my lesson plans. I agonized over how to structure multilevel writing activities. Everything that had to be modeled was scripted, practiced and memorized.  In the weeks leading up to camp, I spent hours making elaborate custom flashcards and decorations for the board in my class. It kept me up at night, worrying if I had made the correct movie choice or if the kids would be bored.  It sounds like overkill, to stress out about a one week program with my students that won't be evaluated formally or informally but the camps are really important to me.  My winter camp students had a leg up on reading, writing and listening skills. They also had a renewed enthusiasm for the subject which was contagious in class.  Sometimes the school textbook is so boring ("Where is the bank, Nami? Go straight and turn left at the corner.), that even fun activities don't really distract from the fact that elementary school students don't care about the material. 

Yes, it sounds like I went a bit overboard with the planning but to be fair, with 20 hours for lesson planning a week I could afford to do it.

Basic Premise:
Theme: Movies (specifically, High School Musical).
Objectives: Learn movie specific vocabulary (actor, director, etc), practice creative writing, and listening skills.

My favorite moment was on Day 3 when we had the students work in small groups to create a short movie scene.  Usually, every 40 minutes we take a break to let the kids get up, go to the bathroom and goof off. We called time for break, the students waited for us to finish talking, and then they ignored us and went back to work. Even my co-teacher was amazed. After class she said to me: 'normally, they really hate writing but they really seem to love this.' The scenes were hilarious and we helped the students figure out the blocking and a little bit of acting.

I love teaching camp. I wish I could always have this much fun with my students.

On death

There is nothing to make you feel desperately far away from home as a phone call announcing someone's death. At eleven PM a couple of days ago my mother called me to let me know that my grandfather had died peacefully in his sleep. At 88 years old, that isn't a bad way to go. And yet, it was still devastating. For the first time in my two years of working in Korea, I took a personal day. My school was really nice about it and suggested that I take two days off but really, one was enough. Yesterday, I just couldn't face being cheerful and energetic after being up so late mourning. Today I was back and my students cheered me up just by being themselves.  

My grandfather was unfailingly kind, supportive, and funny.  Early this morning my mom put me on speaker phone while the family told stories for the rabbi to gather for the eulogy.  I couldn't put my finger on any one thing that he did that was wonderful and yet he was the best grandfather I could have asked for.

It's hard to be so far from home when all I want is my family.  I'm giving myself a few days from being responsible. I'll finish blogging about Cambodia soon enough though.

Angkor! Day 1...the morning

I know I said I'd post Everyday to make up for not posting during vacation...but I lied. I'm lazy! I'd like to say that I was marvelously busy this weekend but mainly I slept, ate, read, and went for walks. Very exciting stuff.

Since we'd been traveling for 15 hours the previous day we decided not to get up to see the sunrise over Angkor Wat and save that for day 2. So instead we did a revised version of the Small Circuit which is about 17km and chock full of temples.  I'd like to say that if I had my notebook I'd know what every picture was....but that would be a lie. I was just so awe struck and clicked away, forgetting that if I had trouble remembering the name of the temple we were at then I'd never remember it via pictures.  It was just a bit of temple overload (in a good way). I do remember that the first few temples we did were Bayon, Bahphuon, Phimeanakas, Preah Palily, Tep Pranam, Preah Pithu, and the Terrace of the Leper King--all part of the city area of Angkor Thom.  So the following pictures are from that area.  Being at Angkor was like being in a dream, it's hard to articulate how beautiful it all is.

 Walking toward the gate.

And these photos are just of the gate and me on the gate.  I love the faces everywhere.

I'm not sure how to edit these photos. I have hundreds of photos of absolutely beautiful things, crumbling pillars, bas reliefs, spiraling heights....how do you choose?

Climbing to to the top.

Also, let me take a moment to remark upon my respectful attire. The guidebooks remind you that monks still use many of these temples and that they are in fact temples.  Rules for the appropriate dress are not strict, your shorts should reach your knees and your shoulders need to be covered (i.e., no tanks). Most people complied or wrapped thin scarves over their tanks to hide shoulders and cleavage and yet I saw plenty of people wearing tube tops and short shorts. Disrespect in holy places (whether or not it's your religion) is a huge gaffe. At least it wasn't just Americans, I saw plenty of Korean and French people dressed outside of the guidelines. 

The stairs of Angkor are terrifying. They weren't constructed to be ergonomically correct--it wasn't supposed to be easy to get to the realm of the gods. Add difficult proportions to years of erosion and crumbling and you start to get the picture.  I saw many people avoiding treacherous stairs but if you wanted the magnificent views and hidden nooks you needed to climb the stairs. And while I may be a morbid and frightened person (I've already posted my will twice in the two years since I've had this blog) I've never let that stop me from what I want to do or explore. The worst that happened to me on the trip: mosquito bites.  Not even DEET can save you!

More pictures, stories and adventures of Angkor coming soon. 

The wheels on the bus go round and round...

The bus ride from the south to Siem Riep was supposed to take 9 hours, 10 tops. We booked a larger, more comfortable bus with working air conditioning and luggage storage. However, I didn't think to ask if the ceiling was in good repair, I mean who asks about that sort of thing? It poured, I mean really poured for most of the trip...and the ceiling had many leaks. I spent the entire journey with my rain coat zipped up, my hood up, and Cragon's coat spread over my legs. It took 15 hours to get to Siem Riep. Fifteen bloody hours-- I don't even like sitting still for a 2 hour movie.  The following bits I had actually forgotten about (read: trauma induced memory blockage) until chatting with Cragon trying to remember some more details.

What I didn't realize about the first bus to the south is that it had such a lovely horn, you couldn't really hear it inside of the vehicle which is important, considering people use their horn every time they need to turn or pass someone or alert a cow that is wandering in the road or something. This bus's horn was piercingly loud so that every time you had just managed to doze off 'BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP' and you are up again!

There was a TV on the bus, probably provided for entertainment but only served to torment me further with very loud, very terrible music videos and shows that defied logic. The volume was turned up so loudly that my ipod headphones could not drown it out, I had to endure the torture.  I shall never again take a bus in Southeast Asia without ear plugs. Never.

Every 3-4 hours we took a 10-15 minute break to go to the bathroom, let the driver smoke a cigarette, and grab some food. Only, the places we stopped at had seriously questionable cleanliness. Now, I have a pretty hardy stomach when it comes to street food but there is no sense in tempting fate on vacation. I had a few baguettes over the course of the trip that looked safe and the rest of the cookies and dried fruit that I had packed as snacks.  The toilets themselves weren't too horrible...it was just the plethora of bugs, flies, and lizards on the walls of the stalls that started to get to you.

The hardest thing was that there were no bilingual Khmer/English or Khmer/French speakers on the bus so we had no idea what was going on or even a rough idea of when we might arrive. At the stops the few French tourists and I would shake our heads and ask each other if we had somehow discovered something about how far we were.

This is the only whiny post from my trip, I promise. It was just a truly uncomfortable bus ride. I did however manage to put a large dent in Anna Karenina while there was still light. Coming up, gorgeous pictures of ANGKOR!!!!!!!!!!!

Lack of spaz update: I went for another run last night and didn't maim myself. Assah!

A ride to the jungle: Koh Kong and Peam Krasaop Wildlife Sanctuary

I learned this the hard way: never ever let your hotel/hostel/guesthouse book a bus for you without really interrogating them on what sort of bus. For instance, I asked if it was air conditioned. They assured me that it was. They didn't mention that it was an old, tiny van with 15 people crammed in, minimal leg room (I'm 5'3", it takes a lot to make me complain about the lack of leg room), with barely functioning air conditioning. There was also next to zero luggage storage which meant that we had the joy of bags on laps. However, I arrived in Koh Kong 5 hours later, sweaty and cramped but happy to be off of the bus. Also very happy that I called ahead and arranged for a driver since there was a swarm of very eager tuk tuk drivers all vying for our business.

In any case, the Blue Moon Guesthouse was clean, comfortable and air conditioned. Can you ask for more? Not to mention that the lizard living on the wall seemed to keep the fly count down. We had booked their waterfall/jungle/island/ tour in advance which included a driver for the day and meals. However, we were later told by locals that it was a complete rip off at $25 dollars for the day since you could go out to the street and get a local driver for $5 for the day. What did I know? In any case, our driver was nice and the food was yummy. My only complaint was that they didn't take us to the island advertised that we wanted to go to, Koh Kong Island. We went to another smaller island which was okay. They claimed that the waters were too rough but they looked pretty calm to me. Who knows, I certainly don't know anything about boating.

Walk to the waterfall through the jungle. My hat may be slightly ridiculous but my face did not get sunburned during my trip. Sunburn=wrinkles and cancer. Ewwww.

Waterfall love! I went swimming in a calm pool to the left of the water fall in the river above. Nice way to cool off after a hike.

I stopped Cragon from stepping on a snake on the way back. As my guidebook pointed out, most of the snakes in Cambodia won't kill you instantly but antivenins aren't widely available in hospitals. Obviously, I saved him from a slow and painful death. Unless it was a Cambodian garden snake, in which case I saved him from an unsightly squishing!

The countryside was really beautiful, you don't have to go far outside of Phnom Penh or Siem Riep to find it either. Most of the country seems very rural. This picture was taken on the ride back from the waterfall.

The tractor in front of us on the dirt road.

Into the mangrove forest! This is another guy who joined our group for the afternoon. If you think my hat was silly...well imagine a cowboy hat with AX jeans and a Lacoste polo. Apparently, this mangrove forest is one of the largest untouched in Asia though I just got that via the grapevine. It was pretty surreal with giant roots like spider webs arching about.

On the river, all of those clusters are mangrove trees.

Fishing village on stilts, and only accessible by boat.

Highlight of the day was how many dolphins we saw. They were too fast for me to get on my camera, but believe me I tried. According to my book it was probably the endangered Irrawaddy dolphins.

Question: Too many pictures? Not enough pictures? Just the right amount? Leave your feedback and the dominant party shall be responded to!

Day 2: Genocide and Torture

Everyone who goes to Phnom Penh recommends going to the killing fields. However, they were recently privatized by a Japanese company meaning that the profits of your admission are expatriated and aren't helping the local populace. I decided to skip the killing fields and instead head to the infamous S-21 prison where 17,000 people were tortured and murdered instead. S-21 was left exactly as it was found, with implements of torture, chains, tiny cells and converted into the Tuol Sleng Museum. Like the Nazis, the Khmer Rouge regime was meticulous about documenting their prisoners, each were numbered and photographed upon admittance.  There were also extensive photos taken from after torture sessions. These have all been preserved and put on display in the museum, as well as some information given about the leaders and people who ran the prison and the Khmer Rouge--and their subsequent trials (or lack there of).

It was one of the most horrifying experiences of my life. The fact that the prison was converted from a high school just made it seem even more perverse. The equipment for working out and gymnastics on the grounds was all converted to torture instruments. I was shaking during most of the visit, with goose bumps on my arms despite the 90 degree weather. 

These were the regulations of the prison. They have been reprinted and translated into Khmer, French, and English for the visitors.

This was the primary rule for visitors. Not very difficult to follow.

The size of an individual cell.

I believe these larger cells were for holding larger groups of prisoners and also torture sessions though with the absence of my journal my memory is not as precise as it could be.

An after photo.

After the museum, I got lunch and then hopped a 5 hour bus to the southern coast to visit Koh Kong. It was hard to talk about, to express how I felt about the museum. During my research on the Rwandan genocide my senior year, I often felt the same way, that verbalizing such atrocities was a strangely daunting task. It's hard to reconcile the fact that I am the same species as the people who committed these crimes and yet I am. Despite intensive research it is still so hard to get at the why.  Sometimes I'm not sure if it's possible to understand.

I promise more tomorrow--and far less depressing material.

Day 1 in Cambodia: Phnom Penh

To start, a Spaz update: I actually unpacked last night. Not out of some sort of new found love of unpacking but because I was looking for my journal. Confirmed: it must have fallen out of my handbag somewhere between Cambodia and Korea. For those of you who don't know me personally, I write compulsively. And when I travel I keep a record of what I do when and the names of things I ate especially now that I blog so I don't go 'and then I ate some funky noodle dish.'

I'm really bummed about this. I don't think I've ever lost a journal before (as evidenced by the giant shelf of journals I have in NY) and to boot this was a beautiful silk covered one that I bought last year in China. It did have my Korean address in the back so maybe some good Samaritan will mail it to me?

Actual tales from my travels!

So we had arranged to have a pick up by our hotel at the airport but they somehow didn't remember to do it. No worries, we pulled out the address, insisted to a driver that we had already paid for this hotel and didn't want another, and were off on our very first tuk tuk ride. A tuk tuk is a covered carriage thingy pulled by a motorcycle. Lots of fun though kind of nerve racking in the busy, dusty streets of Phnom Penh. I finally ended up closing my eyes during busy intersections and asking Cragon to tell me when we were through.

See how there are only 3 people on that motor bike? I have seen 5 people crammed on many times. Apparently there is a helmet law requiring the first person to wear a helmet since I saw someone driving without one get pulled over. Because you know, the people sitting behind the driver won't get hurt at all in an accident.

First stop: the museum. Mainly statues, temple carvings and writing tablets. What I loved best was that all of the tablets had translations of what they said posted. I mean looking at old writing is cool but not nearly as interesting and finding out what it says. The only disappointment was the post card selection where they tried to charge a dollar for a single post card. That's expensive by American standards!

And a very pretty building, built specifically for the museum in the early 1900s. EXACT INFO IS IN MY JOURNAL. Also, my guide book but I'm not at home right now...

"Oh how I search for things...with closed eyes!"....or how I become slightly delirious in the sun and do increasingly ridiculous poses. This is taken in the courtyard of the museum.

Onwards, we fended off very determined tuk tuk drivers who were determined to get our business to drive us to the royal palace even though it's only a 5 minute walk away. 

I don't think I will ever stop being amused by monks on motorcycles.

 The royal palace was actually much better than I had expected. In my Lonely Planet guide, the picture and description made it seem a little lame but in reality, it was stunningly beautiful even though you couldn't enter most of the buildings (since they are in use by the royal family). Unfortunately, we visited it in the afternoon when it was blazing hot and with very little shade or refuge from the heat. I recommend going in the morning but it wasn't open the morning we arrived due to a function or something. 

Oh look at that magnificent ankle brace! I'm in front of the throne room here.

Monkeys in the complex. Very cute!

Pavilion thing. My descriptive powers know no bounds!

Lots of very cool doors for me to photograph. Unfortunately, I was having a little trouble framing pictures well in the intense sunlight but I got better at it as the trip progressed.

So I remember taking detailed notes about what we ate at this restaurant...and all I remember is that the starter was a green mango salad and possibly the most amazing thing that I've ever tasted.

I have no idea what we ate except for the fact that it was absolutely glorious and we devoured every single bite. The waiter had actually studied Korean for awhile in an effort to get a job in South Korea but the paperwork to get a visa was prohibitively expensive and complicated.

Coming up tomorrow: Day 2!

A night in Kuala Lumpur

For whatever reason, it was difficult to find an affordable flight directly to Cambodia so we decided that a layover in Kuala Lumpur could be exciting. Customs and getting to the city center took a lot longer than predicted so we didn't get to our hostel until 8pm--far too late to really see any temples. Not to mention by that time Cragon and I were dying for dinner. We wandered around and decided to just get some cheap street food. We poured over the Malay menu (which had a few pictures) but 5 minutes later the owner managed to scrounge up a very beat up English menu! It was nice to at least know which animal we were going to be eating. 

I have no idea what this is called. It was on the table at a lot of places, if you want one you ate it and they charged you for it. Basically rice, spicy curry with a bit of anchovy and hard boiled egg on top, wrapped in a banana leaf. Very yummy. Then I had some mixed rice dish which was very tasty though a bit generic.

Then we went to look at a building that was recommended by my guide book and isn't open to tourists even during the day. So you know, yay for not missing anything. The Sultuan Abdul Samad building is well, a building. Built by a British colonialist and now facing Merdeka Square which is the independence square. It used to be a rather large cricket pitch. My guide book says that the flag pole there is the tallest in the world but it is a few years out of date and wiki says it's 'one of the tallest in the world' so who knows. Wandering around the streets of Kuala Lumpur was more fun than actually looking at the building.

Me looking awkward and still in my airplane clothes! Notice the white thing on my toe? I somehow managed to rip up the skin on the bottom of my big toe 2 days before traveling. However, constant wrapping and coating with Neosporin during the day got it healed by the 2nd day of my vacation.

I don't know, it was fun to look at. I'd love to go to Malaysia one day and travel about. It seems like a really beautiful country and there are lots of old temples.

After wandering around (and getting very lost, we had to take a taxi back to the hostel) it was time to crash.

Not so exciting first post but the rest of the vacation series shall be FULL of gorgeous pictures of Cambodia, spaztastic tales, and so forth! If I don't post everyday this week, feel free to send me hate mail.