Starting TESOL Class

I thought I'd catch everyone up to speed as to what I'm doing here in Phnom Penh. I'm currently taking a TESOL (Teach English Speakers of Other Language) certification course. It is a four week course which puts me here in Phnom Penh until December 20. The course is taught by Languagecorps, which is an American company. My class consists of six twenty-somethings from the U.S., three British guys who are all 39 or older, and two New Zeleander women, who I think are both thirty or older.

Our class runs from 9:00 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. and takes place at Pannanastra University, which is a local school that teaches entirely in english. It's a five-story building and only has two stairwells. It's smaller than my high school.

Right now, we're on day three of the class. It seems pretty overwhelming that I will be teaching my own class in China in just a month's time, but my teachers all ensure us that we will be ready and highly effective at the end of the certification course.

My housing situation:

I stay at "the villa". The villa is a two story, six bedroom house that is about fifteen minutes away from the school and equally far from the tourist area. Its kinda cool being in a local part of town, and away from all of the Western influence of the tourist area. For example, about thirty seconds from the villa is a "restaurant" that serves breakfast and coffee for under a dollar total. I use the word restaurant loosely because this place consists of a tent in some dirt with plastic chairs and cheap folding tables just sitting on the side of the road. The food is quite good though. My best meal so far in Asia, was when we found a little stand outside of a market and it served noodles with chicken and about six other food items I can't name. It was damn good though. The lady charged us a dollar, but after talking to Khmer (local name for Cambodian) people, it became apparent that she probably overcharged us. As long as I don't accidentally eat dog one of these days, I''ll continue to eat on the street at the foot carts and stands.

The traffic is another thing that I'm finally getting adjusted to. About 90% of the vehicles on the road are motorcycles. It's common to see four adult men all huddled onto one motorcycle. I about shit my pants in astonishment the first time I saw that, but I'm kind of used to it now. It's also common to see them transporting huge items on their motorcycles. The other day I saw two guys holding a queen sized mattress on their motorcycle. Definitely not something you'll ever see in America.

This is also the most lawless place I've ever seen in regards to traffic safety and regulation. I've seen maybe two traffic lights in the entire city thus far. Why they even have the traffic lights installed in the first place is beyond me. Green light means GO to Khmer people, and Red light means GO to Khmer People. There is no such thing as rules on these streets. When our driver (we have a personal tuk-tuk driver) makes a left turn into oncoming traffic, he always goes into the left lane (oncoming traffic) for about 10-15 seconds and drives down the wrong side of the road until someone will let him over into the correct lane. This scared the hell out of me the first couple of times, but I realized that it is necessary for him to do this, because there are no stop signs or traffic lights, so if he were to wait for an opening in the road, we would be sitting their until next February. Surprisingly, I haven't seen any accidents, as I think everyone is just used to driving in a crazy manner out here, so that crazy is actually routine for them, and they know how to properly navigate the traffic and roads.

I've got to head back to class right now, but I'll try updating again in a few days with a post about the nightlife out here. Nightlife essentially meaning " any establishment that serves alcohol/prostitutes."

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. We found an American bar which also happens to be one of the few places that serves alcohol without a shot of prostitute on the side. They are having a thanksgiving turkey buffet, so all of us American students are going to be going there at 6:30 after class tomorrow for dinner. I'm pretty excited. I wish I had a pilgrim costume to wear, but I guess just eating turkey will have to do.

Hope it's not too cold back home. My back sweat is quite unsavory here in Southeast Asia.

Arrived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Right now it's Sunday night in Cambodia (13 hours ahead of Chicago), and my second night here in Phnom Penh. It was complete culture shock when I first got here, but I feel like I have a little feel for the city now and at least know my way back to the villa/house they provide for us. There are six of us staying in the house, five americans all in their twenty's, and Dara, our professional Cambodian tuk-tuk driver. We start classes tomorrow and I'll try and write more about the city and my experiences here in the next day or so when I'm not so tired.

Here's the link to my first batch of photos from Cambodia.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2317603&l=c623e&id=15903165


I hope everyone is doing well back at home.

P.S. It was 85 degrees today.

R burger

Here's my first piece of travel advice:

If you are ever hungry while waiting for your flight at the Bangkok airport, whatever you do, do not eat an R burger. The kid at the counter couldn't speak any english, so I had to try my luck and opt for the R burger; whatever it is. Wrong choice.

My stomach now feels like there are six caged monkeys inside of me, all trying as hard as possible to escape.

Damn I miss American food.

Going to Cambodia tomorrow morning.

I'm leaving for Phnom Penh, Cambodia tomorrow morning to begin my Teaching certification course. I think I'm gonna be in Cambodia for four weeks or so before I move to China. I've had a great time in Koh Samui. Just lots of relaxing and going out at night. Here is some additional photos for the 55+ demographic who haven't seen them already on facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2316864&l=80c36&id=15903165

Pics from Koh Samui

As promised.....

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2316124&l=3d503&id=15903165

In Koh Samui

Yo,

Just wanted to give a brief update as to my whereabouts. I'm in Koh Samui, and am staying on Chaweng Beach. This is my favorite place so far, and I decided to stay here until November 22 when I fly to Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

The Full Moon Party was insane. It was definitely the craziest party I've ever been to, much more so than any Spring Break party I've ever been to. The party went all night long, and it seemed like the majority of people were still there when the sun rose. The best way I can describe it for everyone back home is if every single person in Cancun's clubs and bars decided collectively to go to a single beach party until ten in the morning. I'll post pics in the next couple days or so.

Ko Phangan Island

Right now it's 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday and I'm sitting in an internet cafe on Ko Phangan Island in Southern Thailand. It was quite the journey to get here. I had an hour and a half flight at 8:30 p.m on Monday from Bangkok to Ko Samui, which is an island close to Ko Phangan. Towards the end of the flight, we encountered a thunderstorm and hit some really rough turbulence. It was pretty scary for about five minutes. About ten minutes away from landing the pilot informs us that the weather is too rough so we have to head back to Bangkok. Sweet.

Our new flight was scheduled for 6 a.m. By the time I got my luggage it was already midnight. Looks like I'm staying at the airport.

Luckily I made friends with some guys on the flight; two guys from England, a German guy, and an Italian. We stayed up all night in the airport lobby talking about various subjects: politics, sports, women, how much America kicks ass, etc...

I got into Ko Samui around 8 o'clock the next morning. I then took a ferry to Ko Phangan Island. It's only accessable by boat. and is about a 45 minute trek. I met some Australian girls on the ferry who were real cool, and have been hanging out with them here on the island. The beach where I'm staying at is called Hat Rin beach. Hat Rin can best be described as a year-long spring break. This place is swarmed with young Europeans, Australians, and Israelis. I've yet to meet any Americans, or "yanks' as the Australian girls like to say.

Tonight is the Full Moon Party which takes place on the beach once a month during a full moon. It's supposed to be the largest beach party in the world. I've read that the crowd ranges anywhere from 8000-30,000 people. Should be fun. I'll try and update again in a few days if I get the chance. Ko Phangan is really beautiful so I've included some photos below.


http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2315097&l=4e2a3&id=15903165

Arrived in Bangkok

I'm here in Bangkok right now on my first full day and even though I haven't done very much here yet, I thought I'd post just so everyone knows I'm alive and haven't died of Malaria yet.

Today, I did some touristy stuff, nothing too exciting. I saw the Grand Palace, which is a palace that is very grand. I think the King of Thailand used to live there or something. The architecture was pretty phenomenal though and I've included a link for pictures of the Palace below. I also got Thai massage for 1 hour long. It came to $8. Pretty fresh.

Tomorrow night, I'm flying to Ko Samui, which is an island in Southern Thailand. It's supposed to be really beautiful. I think I'm gonna be in those parts for six days or so, and then I'll probably be flying to Chiang Mai, which is a city in Northern Thailand.

Once I do some cool stuff, I'll post again. Hope all is well in the U.S.

-KP


Link for photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2313875&l=28860&id=15903165

First Entry

Dear Gas Man:

Packed up and moved to Asia. Sorry about the $$.

-Kyle.