Not that this really fits with anything on this post...I just thought it needed some pictures. This is an awesome soup that one of the girls made for dinner last week. It is called tong yam and is a sour shrimp soup. It is soooo good!
This week I haven't done too much outside of the dorm (other than yesterday which was Wednesday). On Monday I basically had to get ready for my history class that evening (an overview of US history - very very hard to give to the beginners class!!), find sample personal statements, and look for possible scholarships for the girls to apply for. Lots of things like that. Tuesday I really just worked on my dissertation; something that I really need to start doing today!!!!
Then, Wednesday I did all sorts of things. I met a friend in town at the Sovanna Phum puppet theater where she is working this summer. It is a really great theater that makes the traditional puppets and offers a variety of shows (puppet, drum, traditional dance). I think I am going to arrange a visit for the girls to go and do a puppet making workshop. It is just the cost of the puppet that you make, and you get to keep the puppet! No extra charge for instruction. Isn't that amazing? Even though I have movie night in the dorm on Saturdays at 9pm, I am going to see if I can be a bit later and go to a big drumming show at the theater. It is supposed to be very good! Here is a link to their website, in case you would like to learn a little more: Hopefully I will have pictures of neat puppets to show in a week or two!
Here is one picture of a traditional Cambodian shadow puppet so you can get a sense of what I am talking about. This is not one that I took; I just found the picture online.
After a looked around the theater for a little bit, we went to eat at a nearby restaurant. It was a Chinese restaurant where everything is vegetarian and most things are vegan. They had a ton of weird fake meat products that I have never seen before (you could buy some of them) - like fake snail meat and fake kidneys. Ewwwww. We both got some kind of noodle soup and shared some steamed dumplings. It was only okay. I definitely was a bit disappointed after an article I read about the place in the Phnom Penh Post. Oh well. Still, it was nice to try. And, I didn't have rice :) Here is an interesting section that was in the newspaper a few days after I arrived in town. The one about no meat being no problem is where I read at this restaurant:
Following lunch, I went over to Tuol Sleng (S-21) which is just 2 or 3 blocks from the puppet theater while the person I met went back to paint the puppet that she had just finished making. I will write a separate post on Tuol Sleng since there is a lot to say about, and it just seems wrong to include it in a discussion of eating and shopping. So, more on that coming soon.
When I finished at the museum, I went back to the theater and from there we walked to a really neat store and workshop called Tabitha Cambodia (). It looks like the organization provides training for poor women to make things like quilts, etc from the locally produced silk. It also has a program that sponsors the building of homes and wells in rural areas for poor families. It was a very large store with an extensive array of products - wallets, purses, wall hangings, Christmas ornaments, fabric, scarves, tablecloths and runners, quilts, and pillow cases. And, I actually bought some things! I got 3 meters of a beautiful fabric (at $10/meter it is much more than I usually spend on fabric but it is so nice!) that I can have made into a dress for $15. The person I was with is getting one made right now, so she knows all about it. I also got a small coin/money person that will work better than the one I am using now. And, of course, I got two things for my mom. Again, she will just have to guess as to what they are! I need to start buying some things for other people!!! Not that everyone needs a present. I can't really see my dad or brother enjoying most of the silk products for sale. Then again, my brother has started toting around a man pursing, so maybe he needs a nice silk version!
Following our lengthy excursion to that store, we walked a little further to a cafe/coffee place. Fresco, I believe. It was very new and modern looking. We shared a white chocolate apricot truffle (soooo good) and a pumpkin cheesecake muffin (not so good, dry). She got some kind of iced coffee drink, and I got a smoothie with yogurt, pineapple juice, passion fruit, and some other things. It was pretty good but $3. This definitely was a pretty pricey place where most things cost about the same as items in the U.S.! We ended up staying there for quite some time because just when we were getting ready to leave the sky opened up and it poured for a couple of hours!
After that I just went home and didn't really do much for the rest of the day. I know, I know, I needed to work on my dissertation, but it just seemed so anti-climatic. I did work on all of my new pictures so that I can finally upload some to this blog! My dad told me about this program called jalbum that will resize all of my pictures at once, which would be a huge help. I downloaded it, but to run it I also need to have java, which is refusing to download correctly on this computer.
For today, I got up but then immediately went back to bed until around 11am. I woke up very very tired and with a sore throat (which I still have...sigh). I am taking some airbourne, and we will see if that helps. I hope this isn't the beginning of my sister's mono!!!! At least I know I won't have a drug reaction because I definitely will not be taking an anti-biotics here :) After I am done with this, I am going to get cracking on my dissertation again. Speaking of which, I think I have a defense date!! Thursday, September 10th. I can't believe it. Okay, okay, back to Cambodia. This evening instead of teaching to the advanced students, I have invited two people to come to the dorm and talk to the girls. They both go to the same college as my sister and are in Cambodia for the summer working on a project. One of them is from here, the provinces I think, so I think the girls would really like to hear about his experiences - how he got to the U.S., what it has been like, what his plans are for the future, etc. I hope that goes well!
Okay, that is all for now.....
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