Thanksgiving and not a cornucopia in sight!

Thanksgiving came and went. No one cares about the Pilgrims here, except us farangs. So we ate a fabulous meal at the Pullman Hotel where I wasted no stomach room on turkey, but filled it to the brim with the pasta bar, salad (a rare commodity here) and dessert after delicious dessert.

Apparently I say annoying a lot. My coworkers pointed it out and now it annoys me how much I say it. Not only because it’s a boring token word, but also because it must mean I am complaining a lot, and I really do not have much reason to complain these days. Neuki taught me a word for annoying in Thai which is guwan deen, but she failed to tell me that it is not a direct translation. I found out after I said it in class that it is not exactly G-rated.

So I went to Cambodia and it was great. I traveled from Thailand with the help of a new Cambodian friend appropriately named Mom. She helped me dodge the overzealous tuktuk touts at the border, took me to a hotel, to dinner, and literally fed me dessert with her own spoon. Mom and I parted ways in the beach town of Sihanoukville, though I had already met some Canadian pals and had quite the adventurous bus ride. A crazy drunk Italian Mario-brothers-look-alike attempted to hijack our bus wielding a small knife, after threatening to pee on the head of the driver when he failed to pull over promptly for the guy to relieve himself on the side of the road. We did eventually pull over and got a really nice moonshot of crazyman as he unnecessarily dropped his pants to his ankles. It was not until the rest stop that the attempted hijacking occurred. (Luckily, I was off the bus and got to watch from the sidelines). We left the guy at the rest stop and he chased our bus with his knife threatening to find us and cut certain body parts off. Anyways, I got along with the Canadians really well except that one guy doesn’t believe in human-induced global warming and littered on the beach just because there was already trash on it. Let’s just say, I had a word with him.

For those of you who are not aware, there was a genocide in Cambodia in the late 70s and I spent two days in Phnom Penh visiting Tuol Sleng or S-21, a former school converted to a prison and torture chamber, as well as the Killing Fields where thousands of people were executed by the Khmer Rouge in their attempt to rid the country of educated people and their families. I had just finished reading First They Killed My Father which is a book written by a survivor of the genocide and I was really glad to have the book to provide me with a background to the horrific story. No one really knows how many people were killed, but at least one million, so many that everyone in the country knows someone who was killed. Despite this incredibly recent tragedy, Cambodian people are the friendliest people I have encountered since the African village. On the whole, they speak pretty good English and although there is some petty crime I found everyone to be incredibly kind, from Mom to the questionably intoxicated tuk-tuk driver that drove Mere and I around the Angkor Wat Complex. Ah, Angkor Wat. There is really nothing more to say than Go. Just go. Sunrise over Angkor Wat. I checked that off my life list, but somehow seeing it again is back on the list. Is that allowed? Greedy? I knew I would love that temple, but I had no idea how amazing the rest would be. Mere and I spent two days exploring the ruins and it was incredible. Each temple had something unique to offer and some were downright mind-blowing. Have you seen Tomb Raider? Guess where it was filmed? Angkor Wat aside, Cambodia is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. Rice paddies and palm trees as far as the eye can see.

So now I have been back in Khon Kaen more than a month. Teaching is frustrating because of the book that was chosen, a regrettable mistake in the Language Institute, but one that cannot be changed without incurring huge financial kickback. It is above the level of comprehension of even my best students. I supposedly teach six sections of the same course but in reality teaching 20 Radiology students who come prepared and already understand some English is radically different from teaching 45 Engineers, 42 of which are male, at 4:00 to 5:30 in the afternoon. They pretty much eat me for a pre-dinner snack, refusing to do anything I ask. But, I still love the students and just when I am about to give up, we have a class that seems like a breakthrough, even if all I do is get them to participate in a silly game.

The weather has really cooled off. Since I am used to South Bend, I thought I would never say that I am cold here. I went so far as to bet Alison that I could go the whole winter without saying it is or I am cold. Well, I lost the bet already. In looking for an excuse as to why I did not want to go to the dance bar, I said I was too tired and cold to go. Shoot. I guess it might have dipped into the 50s the other night and it feels much colder to my body! I bet 50 would feel absolutely balmy to some of you right now. During the day it is always in the 70s with a cool breeze and a bright sun like those once in a while days at ND where everyone crowds on the quads and throws Frisbees. Let me tell you though, my internal calendar is really confused about Thanksgiving.

I am learning to read and write Thai! Haha, it is pretty hilarious, but I know all the basics. It is proving to be difficult, but I guess not as bad as I thought. It is really rewarding and gives me another perspective on language altogether. The more I learn, the more complicated the language becomes and I realize how royally I have been slash still am screwing it up. Let me just say that the word for far is glaai, said with a falling tone, and the word for close is glai, said with a low tone. Really? Really? Come on!

Neuki moves on Monday and that is going to be a major bummer, but Cait, Jess, and Sha arrive on December 21st which will be here in a jiffy and for that I am so thankful! <3