Hmm

I just wanted to mention how much I love it here. 

There is something about it, that makes it very easy to fall into step. I've heard this from others as well - and truly, I had been here only a few days and it felt like ages. 

To be fair, foreigners can live a very good life here. A few dollars go a long way - meals are anywhere from $1-$5....more if you want to get really fancy. There's happy hour everywhere and a pint is 50 cents. The Vietnamese coffee is amazing - and packs a good punch too! And for coffee hot or iced is usually 50 cents to $1.50 depending where you are. 

Getting around Siem Reap is easy as it's all walkable, or when it's hot, cycling is popular or hop a tuk tuk for $1. (I've really gotten used to the whole tuk tuk thing.....I'm going to get home, get in my car and roll down all the windows, just to get that wind in my hair feeling! But don't worry, I won't try to make left hand turns through walls of traffic or anything.....)

So for the average foreigner, life is pretty great. But that's not all there is here. The people are pretty amazing - they are very friendly, and very welcoming to foreigners. It's really not just because tourist dollars are important since only a very small percentage of tourist dolllars stay in Cambodia - it's just how they are.

Being able to get out to the schools, and to interact with the kids has been a real privilege. And classes are pretty relaxed - at the one school that I taught at for one day, (before my schedule was finalized) volunteer teachers really just walk in and say, Can I teach your class today? Seriously. And sometimes teachers walk in and out of the class during lessons....not really sure where they go....things are pretty relaxed!

I've been lucky enough to do a few day trips as well  with Lori and the other volunteers -I haven't written about the fishing village on the Tonle Sap River yet, but look up pictures - it's wild! I've also been picking up the language as much as I can - it's super hard! The writing comes from Sanskrit so I cannot read it, but I can count to forty!

That's it really. It's lunch time, and just yesterday I found the best iced coffee in the city.

More later,

J.