Helpful Tips on living or visiting Phnom Pehn

1. Traffic in Phenom Pehn -- Like watching a fast paced game of Frogger. Sometimes Frogger looses. 2. Driving in Phenom Pehn -- Like being in a game of Frogger...But you only have 1 life to play with. Use it well young tadpole! 3. Eating in Phenom Pehn -- There are all types of food here. Pizzas are awesome! Just becareful to specify Happy and Not Happy. Then there are 3 types of happy: Little, Medium and lay it on thick. 4. Walking in Phenom Pehn -- What is this walking thing people talk of? Motos all the way. Walking can be fun and actually it is probably the safest... as long as you can avoid the motos on the side walk.5. People of Phenom Pehn -- A mix of used car sales men and an innocent child. I love the Khmer people, honestly I have more Khmer friends then western friends. Though you do have to becareful when making friends that you make the RIGHT friends.6. Bugs in P.P. -- Unlike in Taiwan where I saw cockroaches on the streets almost everywhere. I have only had the pleasure of being checked out by 4 here. There are very few mosquitos and LOTS of ants. (a) Ants -- Natures trash men! (b) Mosquitos -- Really annoying as you don't see them and don't know you have been bitten until you are scratching your skin off. (c) Cockroaches -- F**KING HUGE!!!!!!!!!!! It is not a pleasure to run into one of these. They do size you up and fly right at you. The other night Uncle (guesthouse family that has adopted me) laughed so hard at me, just because I was so happy to have killed a cockroach all by myself!So to conclude the bug section, if you don't like them it shouldn't be to much of a problem just be warned. 7. Weather in P.P. -- Well we get about an hour of HARD rain a day then it is just hot and humid. Hence I am not looking forward to returning home to -40. 8. Dating a Khmer Man – Not recommended! But occationally you find a good one that turns out. Though most of them just want one thing… 9. Holidays in Cambodia – Well Cambodia is second in the world for the amount of holidays that you get. They also tend to be right when you need a holiday. A lot of them are just long weekends, but like the one I have coming up you can get almost a full week.10. Friends in Cambodia – As I said above I do have a lot of Khmer friends, this is because it is hard to get attached to any western friends as they come and go. Today I’m having to say good bye to Leslie, she is going to Poland to get engaged. It was a rather last minute and sudden decision on her part. I’m going to miss her quite a lot. Another girl that I have met is Liby, a nice Aussie girl who talks a lot, but again she is leaving in a few weeks.11. Learning Khmer – Rather easy surprisingly! I have quite the extensive vocabulary of words now and am learning more and more each day. 12. Internet in Cambodia – All over the place for a price. Although I do get free internet through the school, here I have to deal with the slow networks!! At Internet shops you can pay anywhere from 600R – 1.50$/hour. So you do have to watch yourself when you go in.13. Moto Accidents – I’ve been in a few near misses, never my drivers fault. I have also been in one very, very minor accident where my knee got banged up. Although there are quite a few maniacs on the roads so you just have to be careful. Thing is though is that it is a fact of life here, accidents DO happen. 14. Choosing your Moto – Choosing the right moto is much like playing the game of Life. Your life to be exact. I have a driver that I pay monthly now, as well as a night time moto (very nice soldier). He is always on time, he never drives to fast, and he never, never drinks, answers his phone or tries to gun it across the yellow lights. Although when out on the weekends if I need to take another moto then my regular guys, don’t be afraid to smell them and ask them questions. If they don’t drive well, don’t be afraid to hit them either and yell “STOP!”. You always have to remember it is your life in question, so if you do not feel safe, stop the ride.15. Clothing – HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Do not try and find anything in the markets to wear unless you are a size 4 or less. Although! Materials are very cheap and tailors are great. If you can sketch them what you want they will make it to fit. I already have lots of clothes that I have had made. 16. DVDs – What movie do you want. There is everything, even things that haven’t even come out in North America yet, or even things that have JUST come out in North America. It’s great and now I have far to many. So if people want me to look for DVDs for them just tell me the name and I will see what I can do. Most DVDs are only $2.50 - $3.0017. CDs – Again I can get anything! I now have over 100 now and the number keeps going up. CDs run $2 or for double CDs it is $2.50-$3. 18. Food – Khmer food (once you get the nerve to try it) is some of the best food you can get. It’s oily and sometimes doesn’t look good, but it is so good. Plus a huge take away of Noodles, Beef, Veggies and a fried egg is only 2500R (about 0.60$) It really is the only way I eat now. Heck I think I’ve even eaten dog. Not that I ever want to know if I am but I think I have. Sorry puppies that I know.This concludes this lesson on Cambodia please stay tuned for more when I think of more.Love and Miss you all, Jax

SNOOPY DANCING!!!!!

I'm sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Happy right now...... *does the snoopy happy dance!!!!* I'M GONNA BE AN AUNT!!!!!My brother and sister are now letting this be public knowledge so I am shouting it from the top of this keyboard.... I'M GONNA BE AN AUNTIE!!!!!My brother better be careful too, when I was younger I had nasty ideas of only buying noisy toys for my neice or nephew. Oh this is great news!!!!!!!!!Love you all, miss you all, hugs to all, talk more soon!!!!Jax

Life and times in Phnom Penh

Hey all this is a post that will help you to understand the day to day life living in Phnom Penh. A typical Day:This is how my days go from Monday to Friday. I get up at 5:45am then take a finish marking homework, take a shower, get dressed and gulp down a can of UFC coffee. My driver meets me at 6:55 - 7am and off across the city I go to the school. To explain, I live in downtown Phnom Penh the school is in the Toul Kork district which is about 20-25min. away. I usually arrive at school at 7:20am. I change out of my jeans and have just enough time to dash up the six flights of stairs to the teachers room and drop my stuff off. Then dash back down the six flights of stairs across the road to the Primary school (K-3. From 7:30am til 8:20am I teach grade one english. This truely is a test to my non-morning person attitudes, as I have to be happy, energetic and patient. Thank God I love children! Then at 8;20-8:40 there is a breakfast break, so back to the other building up 6 flights of stairs again and into the teachers room. I usually don't have my first meal until lunch, so in this break I talk with the other teachers. Then at 8:40-9:30am I head back down 4 flights of stairs to the second floor where I teach a mixed gr.4-9 class. I really do not enjoy this class as there is such a mixed age group that it does become rather difficult at times. Then up two flights to my 9:40-10:30am class...Grade 10! These guys make me laugh, they are a good bunch of teenagers but alas they are still teenagers and no matter where you are in the world when you are 16 your life is coming to an end at all times. Then from 10:30-11am I return to the teachers room and do some marking, bitching and gossiping with some of the other teachers. At 11am my moto driver picks me up from the school and I will usually go to Lakeside (backpackers district) for lunch. I go to either the Flying elephant or to The lazy Gecko. I know the owners of both places so its a good chill place to eat and have nap time. Luckily part of being shafted with the 7:30am class means that I have a four hour lunch break 10:30am til 2:30pm. Then Samuth (my moto driver) will pick me up and take me back to the school, I try and get back at 2pm so that I can hang out with another one of the teachers a Canadian named Tony for about a half hour. At 2:30-3:20pm I teach the afternoon mixed gr.4-8 class, I like this one though as I only have 6 students and they are all girls. Then at 3:30-4:20pm I teach my afternoon grade tens, in this class I have 5 boys. *sighs* Even though it is my smallest class it is my hardest class out of them all. The reason being is that they are all boys and I am a woman...backwards thinking I know but this is the way that some of these boys have been raised to think. They will out right ignore me, as is normal if you don't want to hear something you just ignore the person saying it. It's normal here... so if I come home and just ignore you when you are talking to me I am sorry but it is something I have had to get used to doing. It really does help walking down the streets of PP trust me. Alrighty back to my days, so at 4:20-5pm I am in the teachers room to be available to any student who may need to speak to me on a problem as well I do some marking in this time. Then at 5pm Samuth picks me up again and takes me back to Angkorchey (my guesthouse) where he waits for me to dash up the 6 flights of stairs, to my room, get changed into my civies. Then I take some of my marking to my little restaurant The Kings Court. Its a rather nice place on riverside with decent food and good prices. I usually arrive at about 5:45pm and work on homework til about 6:45pm. Then I spend until 7:45pm teaching some of the staff conversational english. Then at about 8pm I head off to my local pub, the ginger moneky. Here I have two routines depending on the day, ex.1 I arrive hang out with some friends have a few beers and play pool. ex.2 I arrive and sit with the guard of the Monkey and teach him english, while of course drinking some beer. Then I usually arrive home by 10:30-11:30pm and off to bed. A usual weekend:Wake up at 10am ... shop, chill out all day then party all night. Sundays I go for breakfast with some of my Khmer friends, get a manicure and pedicure then finish the last of my marking. Go to the Monkey and play some pool. So that is a usual week for me, I don't really watch TV anymore and if you want to learn to a good work ethic this is the place to do it! Unfortunatly there are a few draw backs to being here... you need to find ways to de-stress or you will explode. Hence going out and having a few beers every night is not a bad plan, and my pool is getting to be kick ass so every one better watch themselves when I get back. The good thing about teaching adults after school is that I am learning alot of Cambodian. So far I can say, Hello, How are you, I am happy, angry, sad, hungry and tired. I can count easily to 1000, not so easily to infinity. I can ask how much things are, where is the toilet, thank you, I am sorry... Lots is what I am trying to say. Lets see new news, things are going well and I have a good group of people I hang out with now so I am feeling alot better about being here. Last night the Ginger Monkey had a great pub crawl/party called the Amazing Race, I was well wasted last night. It was set up just like the A.R. you get on TV. So you had clues that you had to figure out, challenges at each bar, and a cyclo. It was a blast! I got in my first moto accident, I AM FINE!, it was really minor. My knee though is rather large and funky coloured at the moment. But the way I look at it is... I'm not dead and it was bound to happen. Everyone I know has been in one with in the first few months of their arrival. It's like an initiation and I passed. I am thinking about just not finding an apartment and staying on at the guesthouse I am in, even though I don't have a kitchen it is clean, quiet and extremely safe. I've also become very good friends with the family that runs this place, to the point where I am now called cousin. Basically I've been in a weird way adopted by them. It's nice though, I'll sit and watch Khmer TV with them in the lobby they laugh at me because they know I can't understand so they help me out. The only problem is that sometimes they disapprove of my choices in moto's and will glare at the moto til he leaves quickly, it is rather funny to watch. Anyways I have another big post on disk that I will put up tommorow from school that is entitled Things you need to know, before living/visiting here. Love and Miss you all greatly!!! Jax

Better late and free then pay and soon!

Okay so it is Friday again and I know that I said that I would update my journal sooner than this but honestly... This is the first time I have had a chance to do it. The weekend went well, Friday I went to a friends and we just had a quiet night of things. Then Saturday was Leslie's birthday party. It was fun we went to a french place for dinner Comme La Maison. It was yummy! Then we went to Rubies which is a nice little pub like bar. I started with a Sprite and Redbull Then moved to red wine. Then off to one of the three dance clubs Riverside Lounge. Where I met a charming Khmer fellow who is not only the bouncer at the club but Leslie's trainer at the gym... He is sooooo yummy! Nice eye candy! I call him Dom even though that is his last name it is the easier to say and remember. He was the second runner up in the Mr. Cambodia body building competitions last year and is hoping to be first this year. Then Sunday we had plenty of black-outs (which are very common here) so I slept. Even God took that day to rest so I figured... why not! Then again it was Monday and school...Mondya wasn't that bad, and I am working with my grade one's on Hello, Hi, Good Bye and Bye. My Name is... and the phrase of the week is 'Can I go to the toilet please?' I love my grade one's but some are too young to be in school yet let alone grade one. I do have my favorites (eventhough I'm not supposed to) I have one little girl Hay Pichharopon (and I though Jacqueline was a cruel name, Hay BTW is her last name) she's about 3 or 4 years old, and someone yesterday was bullying her and she started to cry. It was my first crier as we the grade one teachers call them. I don't really like my grades 4,5,6,7,8 class they're just aggrivating. Although my grade 10's are suprising me! Their all pretty cool, I got in good with them today as well as wel talked about Footie, WWE wrestling (which is HUGE here!) , Music and pool/snooker. There are definatly a few in that class though that are just going to fail... then their parents will pay and they will pass. Sigh. But that is the way things work here, if you have the green you can do anything! I got myself a helmut and a good moto-dop driver. He is an older fellow who not only drives slow, has mirrors, and a working light... but speaks french! Alot of the older Khmer speak french here, not many of the younger generations though. So I am more relaxed on Moto's now. I figure I might as well relax instead of being tense, because if we get in an accident I would rather be limp then tense and broken! I'm up to 9 moto accidents seen now, still only 3 fatalities. It's just another part of Khmer life that I am adjusting to. Anyways I need to cut this off now as class is about to begin... so I'll write more in my spare before I go home... I have plenty more to write about. Love you all!!!

The Weekend

Oh my gods is it chaos at this school!!!!!!Well school started on Wednesday and it has been good so far. There are about 8 international teachers and we have all bonded fairly well. There is one British guy Peter that well I think he is a bit of a know it all... but I don't have to deal with him so, good. My kids vary from the extremely adorable pintsized cuties to the sixteen year old my life is falling to peices. All was good until Thursday when the Grade 1 teacher never showed and basically quit... so now I start bright and early each day at 7:30am with Grade ones (yikes) Then off to teach grade 4-8 elementary english. Then to Grade 10... Oh my gods!!! Todd is happy as he actually gets to teach next week. Todd is the ESL teacher BTW.So I am off to celebrate my first weekend as a teacher and de-stress. As well as go to Leslie's birthday party. But I will update my journal with a longer post later this weekend.Love you all Jax

This is funny!

What Makes You Purr? by bluemystique82Name:Age:Favorite Food:You purr when:you eat turkeyYou as a kitten:Quiz created with MemeGen!

Update on my blues...

Thanks everyone for your suggestions and concern. I am planning on wearing more pants, though the funny thing about the skirt that I was wearing was that it was ankle length! As for the laws... what laws. Cambodia is a rather backwards 6thworld nation... yes i know there is no such thing as 6th world but it fits. There was a police officer watching as the boob grabbing happend, but they won't do anything. The way I look at it cops are just for show, and most of them are corrupted. If I were to get a weapon as some have suggested then I would be the one arrested... so I can get a bodyguard for about 40$ a mnth. Which I can easily afford. Even though i am making only 800$/US a mnth. I am making 650-600$ more then any well payed Khmer. It is just a difficult adjustment that is all, and in time I will get used to it. I talked/cried on Leslie's (my boss, and quickly becoming a very good friend) shoulder. It took her about 3 mnths before she stopped crying almost everyday and wanting to go home as well. So my new plan is to get my bodyguard for a few months until I am more comfortable with Phnom Pehn as for the other things that make life there difficult... well I'm getting a moto helmet, I pray alot now to Buddha, I signed up for the gym and will be taking Kickboxing, and I have found a new relaxing thing... Manicures and Pedicures. I know I don't want to come home with out trying because then I will doubt myself for the rest of my life, and I also don't like the fail. So I will take each day and trial as it comes to me. it helps to be able to talk to you all this way and still get your support... It helps to make me feel some what still at home. Today I am feeling better, and for my and Leslies last night here in Bangkok we are going out and shakin' our booties and gettin' liquored. I like that plan! But first as Leslie is napping (she is not feeling well today)I am going to go down the street and have my very first Thai massage... Oh i can feel the stress melting away as I type and dream about it. Oh! Funny story... As Leslie and I were eating dinner last night we met a young gentleman named Steve he like Leslie is from Seattle. But as soon as he found out I was Canadian he had a few stories to relate about his Canadian adventures. The first being that as a teenager he a bunch of his friends used to pile in the car to drive 2 hours across the border just to go to TIM HORTONS! For coffee and doughnuts. One time as they were returning to the States the guard stopped them and asked them how long they had been gone. After responding that they had only been gone for 45minutes, the guard then asked why. Well after explaining that they had just gone to Timmy's, and offered the guard a doughnut. The guard thought they were nuts, and more so after he got them to pop their trunk and he found 10 boxes of doughnuts all neatly lined up in their trunk. So it just goes to show timmy's is addictive. The second story of Steve's that was funny was about his friend... They had gone to watch the Canucks play the Sens in Vancouver. His friend being a Leafs fan (not the good type like Keith, but the annoying type!) tried to start up a Sens Suck, Leafs Rule chant. Not only was his friend BOOOOOOO'd, but he had people throwing popcorn at him, dumping their beers on him and all the like. So not quite yet disheartend he went back to his seat and tried again. So the little granny behind him dumped her popcorn on his head and told him to shush! Then the group around him started chanting Go Sens, Go Canucks, Leafs Sucks! I had to laugh when I heard that one. Anyways love you all... I have a massage calling me. Miss you and see you in 2005

The Day after Yesterday

I want to come home!I don't want to be grab and molested anymore! I have had men come up to me and grab my breasts then laugh as if it was nothing! Then this morning on my way to school I had some young lad lift up my skirt. So I am going to give it a bit and try to find a body guard. Although I am seriously considering... (a) Going somewhere else for the year. or (b) Hanging my tail between my legs and coming home. I know it is just part of the home sickness... But I can not take being molested at every point and having nothing I can do. If I were to hit the man who did it... unfortunatly in Khmer customs he can hit me back and it would do no good. Sigh, at least I am taking a vacation in Bangkok ATM and their are big chested women here too... so I don't get harrassed. I want to come home. Love you all talk soon.

HEY ALL!!!

Well it has taken me almost a week to update my LJ, but here it goes. The flight here was... okay I guess. We didn't crash if that makes it any better. No the trip from Ottawa to Toronto was alright although there was 3 newborns on the flight... OyVey! Then came my melting point at the Toronto airport when I went to check in for my flight to Hong Kong they were rude and bitchy! Plus I ended up having to pay an extra $185 for my carry on luggage (Which in the end I had to checkin) *sigh* Needless to say I was in tears by the time I got onto my flight. The flight was nice though, I had my own TV and could choose what I wanted to watch (movie or TV), or play as there were games as well. We only hit turbulance over Japan as a Typhoon was hitting Okinawa. Then came HELL the flight to Cambodia with a bunch of Khmer. No offence to any of them but ARRRRRGGHHH!!!! Lets just leave it at that because as the old saying goes if you have nothing nice to say don't say anything at all. I didn't have many problems getting my VISA or any of the other million and a half forms (that all seemed the same to me) filled. Once I was out it was nice I was met by the Dean of the english department Leslie Napora and one of the schools directors whose name I can only say not spell. They took me to my guest house, and then Leslie and I went to the FCC for tapas and drinks. My guest house is one of the nicer ones (HAHAHAHAHA) although it is a hole! I am now in the process of looking for an apartment to get out of there as quickly as possible. I keep finding more and more problems with it each day. So on Friday, Leslie took me around PP and got me aquainted with some of the more interesting things. We went to Java cafe, which is one of three places you can get a decent cup of coffee. She took me to the central market, many pretty sparklies there. Oh hell she took me all over and although it smells horrid here and it's ickie I like it. Leslie and I have become very fast friends this was helped as I went on a trip with the school admin. team to Sihanoukville for the weekend. Originally we were to leave Sat. morning and come back Sun. but after some poo that happend Leslie and I decided that we would find our own place to stay. (* The poo by the way was a family disagreement, and nothing to do with us) Which we did rather sucessfully, we also decided we would stay Sun. and come back Mon. the last decision was because we did not enjoy our time at the Occhoteal Beach, as it is a Khmer beach and we were hassled none stop. So we went the next day to Victory beach which is a tourists beach so no hassles (ahhhhh...) At our guest house we met a very nice lady from Sweden named Ingela. So we all trouped to the beach together, swam, sun bathed and I had to have a HAPPY Bannana Milkshake. From there we went back to the guest house, had dinner, then we went and got massages and the rest of the night was spent having Margaitas at the GH's bar. Well when Leslie and I got back from Sihanoukville we went to FCC for lunch, and then went to senses and got $2 manicures/pedicures. (Gods I have such a hard life) we bummed around for the rest of the day and then said our goodbyes for the night. Tuesday we met for lunch, and then I went to the school with her and helped edit a few thing. After work we went to the Russian market. ( There are two major markets here Central and Russian. Then there is one or two malls the mall I know is Sorya) There I bought a few Khmer silk pillow cases for my mom, see I have also bought her the watch she always wanted. So I wanted something to wrap it in when I sent it.. so for 5$ I wasn't going to complain. Then we went to Chit Chat Bubble tea for dinner, nice place. Then I went to see Gloria, my doctor here as well... I'm rather ill. NOBODY WORRY! It looks like I will have to invest in a Nebulizer (a mister for asthmatics) as well I am on antibiotics for a bit. it is completely normal for people to get sick in their first little while here as there is alot of garbage and pollution so no one (mom) worry I am okay and have a wonderful doctor. I have to go and see her tonight again just to make sure the medications are working, and drop off all of my medication to her as she is willing to store it for me in a safe location. Today I am at the school again doing some editting work to help out Leslie, then I am not sure where we are going for dinner. But tommorow we are going all expensise payed for by the school to Bangkok to pick up the new textbooks for the school. We will be there from tommorow (Thurs.) and come back on Sat. It's funny though I have found my weakness here DVD's. At $3 a piece I now own, Brother Bear, I Robot, Whale Rider, Kiki's Delivery Service, The newest Pokemon (not even out in N.A.), Freida, Two Brothers. There are so many more that I want to get as well. Although i also need to go out and buy a Motorcycle helmet, I like my head intact! And as the only mode of transport around here is moto... you get the picture. I'm like and old pro now on the moto's I can even ride side saddle. If any one wants to know about my first experience on a moto just ask Kim. She'll tell you and you can feel free to laugh. As for Phone calls, I can call people rather cheaply from Internet phone, there is a lag in talking but it is cheap for me to do. If you wanted to talk to me though, I suggest going to the Bravo (Bank&Metcalfe) and picking up a phone card. They have one's specific to Asia there. You'll need to look up the country code for Cambodia but my number is 011240511 and I now know it costs me nothing to talk if you call me (sorry mom I didn't know). As for snail mail... I am still working on that so no one write me yet, as it will cost me money to pick it up from the post office, they don't deliver it, and any one has access to pick it up. It may be better that once a month if people want to send me something you all work something out to courier it to me at the school. I'm not sure yet and I will look into it.Anyways I love and miss you all... I'll write more soon. Now that I know where the teachers lab is at the school. Oh one last thing and you can all laugh... I am sooooo craving a Poutine!!!!!! So someone have one for me please and send me happy yummy thoughs. Alrighty HUGS and KISSES to all.