Getting Out of the Bubble

Delicious hand-made sugar phoenix, which shattered in the wind a few moments later! So once again we are back in school and three weeks into the new term. It's amazing how quickly things can go back to normal, but here we are! Business as usual. The majority of my classes this semester are with the same students I had last semester, which is great for a person like me to has such a terrible memory for names. It's proving easier second time round with the kids, they know me and what I expect of them in the classroom, and I know them and what to expect of them. This means that, even though classes can still be manic and full of running around and shouting, there is a sort of controlled craziness. I'm having a lot of fun with my students and overall I feel like they are having fun too! Class is a routine now, and lesson planning is getting easier and easier as time goes on. But while things are routine in some areas there are lots of new things to get used to. This...

If first impressions count for anything, our first impression of Cambodia wasn't a great one. After all the horror stories of muggings and terrible food from our friend, Alex, I was slightly apprehensive of our destination choice for the Chinese New Year holiday. Add to this the disastrous beginning to the trip of delays, missed flights and an unplanned night in Beijing, and we weren't off to a great start. But, we did eventually make in to Cambodia, 24 hours after we'd planned but better late than never right? As a welcome to the country the first thing we saw, pretty much as soon as we pulled out of the airport, was a dead body lying in the road. And yes, this man was definitely dead. I'm guessing some kind of road accident from the amount of blood. The most bizarre thing for me was the crowd of around 30 people - including police officers - just standing and staring at the uncovered body. It seem sort of surreal whizzing past a corpse crammed into the back of the t...