Sunday:
I spent most of the day working on my dissertation, although I did make one trip out to PBC bookstore. It is a local bookstore, but pretty large. Lots of academic type books, not so much novels. Most of the novels they had actually were in English. This seemed strange, but apparently few Cambodians read books just for fun. They have all of the books for school and studying, but most people don't read other books. I guess that rings true because even in the dorm only one of the girls has said that she likes to read in her free time. Everyone else likes to listen to music or watch movies. I think reading would almost always be one of the first ones I would mention. Who knows how many books I read for fun over the past five years in Arizona. I definitely am going to miss having access to a library like that in Romania next year. Buying books is definitely much more expensive!
At the bookstore, I ended up buying two IELTS (like the TOEFL) study guides and cds with practice exams, one study guide for teh GRE, and six classics in English. I got Sense and Sensibility, Alice in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass, The Secret Garden, Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Adventures of Tom Sawyer all for the girls to read. All of that only cost $38.50. I am pretty sure in the US that just the GRE study guide would cost about that much. Isn't that crazy? When I came over, I brought four Khmer-English disctionaries that cost about $14 or $13 each. I found them at the bookstore for $1.30!! I need to go back sometime this week to buy a few more of the novels and to get at least one more study guide for the GRE and one for the GMAT. Apparently there is another bookstore in town with similar books, and I would like to look there as well so that I can find a study guide for the LSAT.
It was just about to rain when we left the bookstore. Check out Savada and I in our brightly colored rain coats! It was so windy that when we got home I had a thin film of dust on my face and hands (ick).
We also had the second talk in the Women's Empowerment Lecture Series. I wanted to leave at 3:20 to arrive around 3:30, but I didn't end up leaving until around 3:40 or 3:45 and then the moto kept having a flat tire. I was soooooo frustrated (the person who was taking me took a shower at 3:15 instead of just getting dressed!!!). While I was waiting to go, I checked to see if the other girls were getting ready and no one was, which made me nervous. They were told repeatedly to arrive at 3:45 and it was almost that time already! I ended up finally getting to the bookstore with the person who was going to translate, but by about 4:10 none of the other girls had shown up! We went ahead and started the talk because a few outsiders had attended. The speaker (from the IFC and World Bank) definitely was not pleased and neither was I. The girls ended up arriving about 30 to 45 minutes late. Afterwards they said there was a problem with the tuk-tuks, and they were waiting for the tuk-tuks because they thought they had been arranged but then none never came. I basically told them that it was still their fault. They could tell I was pretty unhappy with them, but I am not sure they realized that it really reflects badly not just on me (which I guess doesn't really matter that much but still bothers me!!) but on them and on the dorm! I need to send a pretty stern email out, and I guess designate someone to be in charge of all of this.
Here is one picture from the talk. The speaker had some really great messages and ideas.
Other than that, I just worked on my dissertation all weekend....
Monday:
Today! I finished my last chapter (other than the conclusion)!!!!!! It turned out better than I anticipated, but I definitely have some worries about it. This morning I met with one small group of girls and another group this evening to start studying for the IELTS. I think a few of them might do okay, but even most of the advanced students have a lot of work to prepare for that. I think that test will be hard enough, and I am pretty sure any of the other standardized tests like the GRE or LSAT are going to be impossibilities. I keep encouraging them to look at schools in countries that don't require additional tests like that, so we will see what happens. I guess I can really just help so much, and the rest is really up to them. It is hard because I like to be someone who can really help a lot, but I am just here for a short amount of time. It is hard to imagine that I will be able to have much of an impact or create much change (not that change is really needed but guidance and success in the grad school application process).
Then, this evening I had the beginners group for my history class. Today we started American women's history, and this time I made a worksheet with some words and sentences (fill in the blank) that were all organized around early women's history. I think it was a lot more effective that last week when I just tried talking about US history. I think I will use the worksheets again for the intermediate group, but also talk more. For the advanced group I will just talk.
And, here is the shocking thing I just learned!!! My friend Abra (the one at the puppet theater) was on a moto going home late on Saturday night and was hit by another moto. My worst fear realized. She was wearing her helmet and is pretty much okay, but her leg is all swollen and her shoulder is really beat up. Apparently she was just a block away from the SOS clinic which is the international clinic/hospital (which I have never heard of!!! I need to get some of this info in my phone in case something like this happens to me!). She is staying in a hotel now and will be going home early. I am going over to see her tomorrow around lunch, so I'll report back then.....
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