Going to Saigon today

I’ve now finished my second week of my four week course. I will be taking the final two weeks of class in Saigon, Vietnam. It is about a 6.5 hour bus ride from Phnom Penh. I leave today at 12:30 p.m.

As some of you already know, I most likely will not be teaching in China anymore. There were some issues with obtaining the necessary work visa. Supposedly China is constantly changing their visa requirements, and they now require two years post-graduate work experience in order to get a work visa. I was kind of bummed out for a day or two, but eh whatever.

Now I almost certainly will be teaching in one of two places; Saigon or South Korea. The next two weeks (hopefully it won’t take longer than that) will be spent looking for jobs in these two places. I’m hoping to start working as soon as my TESOL class is over. If I had to guess, I think I’ll end up staying in Saigon. Its 90 degrees every day, just like Phnom Penh.

Since my last update, I went on a weekend trip to Siem Reap, Cambodia and saw the Ankgor temples, which are a collection of temples built over 1000 years ago. These were very cool. I’m pretty shitty at describing things so I’ll post the link for the photos below.

Also yesterday, I went to the Tuol Sleng genocide museum here in Phnom Penh. Tuol Sleng was a prison that the Khmer Rouge used during their reign of terror in the late seventies. Over 17,000 people were imprisoned at one point, and only seven of them survived.

It was quite the experience. Unlike American museums and tours, at Tuol Sleng, nothing was off-limits to the visitor. You can walk into every room and square inch of the facility. It was pretty surreal to stand in some of the rooms and think of the torture and atrocities that took place right where I was standing less than thirty years ago. I took a bunch of pictures, but maybe it’s tasteless to post them? (Dad, I can email them to you since I know you wanted to see them.)

Well, I have to repack now for the gazillionth time in the past six weeks. I will post photos from Saigon when I get the chance. Go Mizzou and Florida!

Photos:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2319105&l=0e768&id=15903165

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2319106&l=35425&id=15903165

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2319103&l=a307e&id=15903165 (these are of Siem Reap and the bus ride back to Phnom Penh)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2319102&l=a00c6&id=15903165 (some more pics of Phnom Penh)