The first thing I want to say is how much I can't wait to enjoy a delicious strawberry Icee.
Moving on.
We just finished a unit on life cycles of different insects, and I was really proud of the posters the kiddos made. We are still working on the whole "group work" thing, but they were delegating tasks and solving their own problems with little interference from me, so yay!
My kids are currently obsessed with learning cursive. It's not in our curriculum, and we definitely don't have extra time to spare, so I've taught them a little during their "Fun Friday" time. In return, I asked Rosanara to show me how to write my name in Khmer. I wanted to show them how they see cursive like I see Khmer (except they can still read cursive for the most part). My attempt is on the top. I think it says "Necru (female teacher) Gore," but I'm not entirely sure...
And now for an update from Gavin:
This post is coming to you because of the events of yesterday. It was just another boring day out and about in the streets of Phnom Penh...
Our first stop was Boston Books, which is sadly being dwindled to nothing so the whole building can become Steve's Steakhouse. I'm mad at you, Steve. Now where will we get affordable books for our classroom? Maria was hoping to find a book called Bunnicula, and what do you know, it was right there on top of the pile! Our first win for the day. I got a few for my class as well aaaaaand a couple for me because I have a problem. There aren't enough books in my bedroom and I think it's affecting my sleep.
Next, we headed to Daughter's for lunch and pedicures. For lunch, I bet you can guess what I ordered. That's right, the same thing I get every single time because I am still a picky child. My caesar salad was delicious. I love my pickiness because I am rarely disappointed. It works. Maria may want to adopt my method of ordering after her meal yesterday. She decided to try one of the specials of "grilled vegetables with feta cheese," and this was what she got:
That is, in fact, grilled vegetables with feta, but it took her about five seconds to eat it and you had to use binoculars to find the cheese. The moral of this story is: it pays to be picky. From there, we decided to walk to the riverfront so Maria could get a wrap at a Lebanese restaurant. On the way, we passed the memorial built for the King's father, whose funeral ceremonies were last week.
Another something we saw on our walk was a group of tourists. Like, they put the tour in tourists. Matching sun hats, vests, t-shirts, everything. I was walking straight towards them and didn't have the heart to whip out my camera, but don't worry, we saw them again later that day. Maria got her wrap and we headed to Brown so I could get some coffee. While we were there, I realized I say, "Do it to it, Lars" at least twice a week. I also realized Maria has never once understood that reference. Oh, peaches. Just in case any of you didn't get that, locate a copy of Heavyweights IMMEDIATELY.
For now, just watch this:
From Brown, we wanted to go to Sorya Mall so we could get some DVDs and go to Lucky (a grocery store). Of course, when we don't want a tuk tuk we get asked about a million times, but when we do want one, it's like they don't exist. We walked for a ways and finally got a ride. Our Sorya experience was great! We got all the seasons of Downton Abbey and I got seasons 1 and 2 of Sherlock. Happy happy happy.
And then.
They came, I saw, I photographed.
Leaving Sorya meant entering a sea of tuk tuk drivers bidding for our business. I usually let Maria handle the negotiating because she's better at it, but today I guess I felt brave. Here's how it works, a driver will approach you and usher you to his tuk tuk without setting a price. They don't know that we live here, so we are regularly asked to pay 3x what we will end up paying. So, one of the drivers began doing the ushering business, but I stood my ground. I told him to come back to we could haggle. I said, "Toul Kork. Two dollar half." All the drivers around me began to groan on behalf of this one driver, then they all tried to chip in with their thoughts. They were asking six dollars, like we were in Times Square and I wanted to drive three feet.
My favorite quote from that conversation: "It's Chinese New Year, so it costs more." I called shenanigans on that one and said that doesn't change anything. The thing is, Maria and I have become quite stubborn when it comes to these drivers. We will walk because we refuse to pay more than we should. Finally, one driver agreed to $2.50, and off we went. On the way, we saw the same tourist group again. Lolz.
And then.
The Toul Kork roundabout is about one mile from our house, and this is where our driver decided to pull over. He said, "2.50 gets you to here, any further will cost $4.00."
Lord. Have. Mercy.
I asked God to take control of my vocabulary and my actions in that moment, because my first reaction wouldn't have been becoming of a Christian lady. From the two of us, he probably was the recipient of the two most terrifying teacher looks in all of Cambodia. We said that's fine, we'll walk. We paid, got out, and strutted across that busy roundabout because we weren't going to let that man rip us off. We are carrying our bags and thinking a mile isn't that bad when we happen across some men sitting outside a restaurant. We get beckoned, whistled, kissed at...it was disgusting. I don't know what came over me. Maybe it's the fact that this has happened to me about seven thousand times too many in my almost 25 years, and my quota was full. I'm not even sure what I yelled at them, but they stopped. I am woman hear me roar!
Then we saw three unleavened rats.
What would Jesus have done in that situation, I wondered. "I don't think Jesus was ever whistled at on the streets of Bethlehem."- Maria
We decided we needed a picture of how this day made us feel. You can choose one, because we obviously were confused about our emotions.
<3 M
