Saturday, February 28, 2009
Time
"Time keeps on slippin' slippin' slippin' into the futuure!"
Time's been on my mind lately. I just booked a flight from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur, and back. I head out on march 14, and get back on the 7th of april - long vacation! I will try and meet with some peeps in KL who can explain to me what kind of services I can render in Battambang at CORDE, and then, who knows? This "who knows?" is such a big one too, I can feel its enormous looming shadowy presence whenever I look to the future.
Really, I need to do a few things: get a masters; pay off my student loans; work; serve; refine my skills; hone my craft (or just find a craft), etc. I have been throwing a few possibilities around, but I haven't found the option that maximizes the awesomeness available to me - rest assured, when I find the right sequence of events, I'll let you know. Looming and scary as my fast-approaching future is, I'm still quite excited about it. I think there's lots of opportunity to do svet things in life - and I intend to do as many as I can.
Also, the online course - great for keeping me focuses on growth. It's so easy to stagnate, to let the day(s) pass you by without exerting effort to change and develop in some way - but being enrolled in a course where that's the main topic, and several other people write about it almost everyday - it's like developmental gold. I highly recommend it.
Well, time is still slipping away, so grab the day by the horns and be productive. I promise you'll feel better!
love,
Ash.
Time's been on my mind lately. I just booked a flight from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur, and back. I head out on march 14, and get back on the 7th of april - long vacation! I will try and meet with some peeps in KL who can explain to me what kind of services I can render in Battambang at CORDE, and then, who knows? This "who knows?" is such a big one too, I can feel its enormous looming shadowy presence whenever I look to the future.
Really, I need to do a few things: get a masters; pay off my student loans; work; serve; refine my skills; hone my craft (or just find a craft), etc. I have been throwing a few possibilities around, but I haven't found the option that maximizes the awesomeness available to me - rest assured, when I find the right sequence of events, I'll let you know. Looming and scary as my fast-approaching future is, I'm still quite excited about it. I think there's lots of opportunity to do svet things in life - and I intend to do as many as I can.
Also, the online course - great for keeping me focuses on growth. It's so easy to stagnate, to let the day(s) pass you by without exerting effort to change and develop in some way - but being enrolled in a course where that's the main topic, and several other people write about it almost everyday - it's like developmental gold. I highly recommend it.
Well, time is still slipping away, so grab the day by the horns and be productive. I promise you'll feel better!
love,
Ash.
Organization and Achievement
Friends!
What exciting times we live in - the world is changing, nations are rising and falling, and I'm (still) marking papers! Okay, okay, so marking papers doesn't fit so well, but really, for my students the marks they receive will affect the course of their ever-changing worlds. so maybe it can kind of wiggle in.
ANYWAY, lots to recap, lots more to project, and little time to do it in:
This week:
I'm lost on what week we're on. I know that ryan lash came and stayed at my place on some weekend/weekdays. I Think it was this week, but my last few days have felt very long, so who knows? No, lets pretend Ryan, Amy, and Roshan came last week, and left this week. We did several fun things together:
From eating
To playing settlers of catan
To wearing Quddus' glasses
and even trying to find camouflaged Jarnahs!
Ah, pictures, I remember everything now. We had a great little time, eating out way too much (but for cheap!), failing to do my school work, staying up entirely too late, sleeping in hammocks - great times all around.
Then, when the guests departed, the ear-shattering, anything-but-pleasant peal of the bell of reality tolled once again. Oh, life. It was okay though - I caught up on my school work, had fun with the chillins, got more sleep, and did some laundry (though, there was a day this week where I had no shirt for work...turns out I'm now close enough to wear my fajah's - lucky...but the sleeves are waaay to small). Of greater note for the 25th (thursday), we had a small 'fireside', where we invited a bunch of peoples to come and discover the Baha'i Faith. We had four guests, and two of the guys who came thought that unity was a great idea, and believed that Baha'u'llah was a Meesenger of God, and just like that *poof* they became Baha'is. Of course, only now to discover that they have to actually actively engage themselves in the arduous task of uplifting society, one angry, troubled heart at a time. :) people rarely realize what they sign up for.
Which fails to bring us to our next point:
The questing asks the students to write a sentence in the past about an unreal condition. for question 2 (you were the oldest/youngest/only child in your family), this student wrote: If I had been the only child in my family, my parents might love me more.
aww.
(this seems like a good place to end this post)
What exciting times we live in - the world is changing, nations are rising and falling, and I'm (still) marking papers! Okay, okay, so marking papers doesn't fit so well, but really, for my students the marks they receive will affect the course of their ever-changing worlds. so maybe it can kind of wiggle in.
ANYWAY, lots to recap, lots more to project, and little time to do it in:
This week:
I'm lost on what week we're on. I know that ryan lash came and stayed at my place on some weekend/weekdays. I Think it was this week, but my last few days have felt very long, so who knows? No, lets pretend Ryan, Amy, and Roshan came last week, and left this week. We did several fun things together:
From eating
To playing settlers of catan
To wearing Quddus' glasses
and even trying to find camouflaged Jarnahs!
Ah, pictures, I remember everything now. We had a great little time, eating out way too much (but for cheap!), failing to do my school work, staying up entirely too late, sleeping in hammocks - great times all around.
Then, when the guests departed, the ear-shattering, anything-but-pleasant peal of the bell of reality tolled once again. Oh, life. It was okay though - I caught up on my school work, had fun with the chillins, got more sleep, and did some laundry (though, there was a day this week where I had no shirt for work...turns out I'm now close enough to wear my fajah's - lucky...but the sleeves are waaay to small). Of greater note for the 25th (thursday), we had a small 'fireside', where we invited a bunch of peoples to come and discover the Baha'i Faith. We had four guests, and two of the guys who came thought that unity was a great idea, and believed that Baha'u'llah was a Meesenger of God, and just like that *poof* they became Baha'is. Of course, only now to discover that they have to actually actively engage themselves in the arduous task of uplifting society, one angry, troubled heart at a time. :) people rarely realize what they sign up for.
Which fails to bring us to our next point:
The questing asks the students to write a sentence in the past about an unreal condition. for question 2 (you were the oldest/youngest/only child in your family), this student wrote: If I had been the only child in my family, my parents might love me more.
aww.
(this seems like a good place to end this post)
Monday, February 23, 2009
Dreams: I fail to comprehend them.
Of course, in my defense, I don't really invest much time into contemplating them.
Either way, the weekend was fun, but rather than relay mundane (but sometimes exciting!) details, I will instead recount two of my dreams. I had a RANDOM one on sunday morning. So I'm sitting with a bunch of friends in a moxies-like box-restaurant place, and we've just placed our order with the waitress. She's about to walk away, and I grab her arm, and say "wait a minute, wait a minute". So she turns around around, waiting to see what we need. Then the perspective of the dream changes, and I'm back in my body (before I was watching from the outside). All of a sudden, we unanimously burst into a horribly off-key(and tune) rendition of Amazing Grace. No lies. I almost forgot this most random of randoms, but I started humming amazing grace to myself a few minutes after waking, and in that instant, remembered the whole dream again.
The next one was a doozy!! I haven't had too many scary dreams that I can remember, but this one takes the cake. So I was having a conversation with a girl across a room. It was well-lit with sunlight, and I knew the girl (but I don't know who she was), most importantly, i could hear, and recognize her voice. There were a few other voices in the background, but I could only faintly make them out. Then, out of nowhere, someone jacks up the volume on the other voices...I can still make out her voice, but I can also hear snippets of millions of conversations. I seriously think I could distinguish all the conversations at once, but i can't describe what that felt like. Then comes the freaky part: the volume goes up again (I start to hear some heavy high-pitch noise); I get a simultaneous rush of exhilaration and awesomeness, and then all the sounds blend into one deep, rugged, voice (this coming from a man with a deep voice will give you an idea of its depth). It said, and I quote, the three scariest words I've ever heard in a dream, "Ashraf, Ashraf, Ashraf".
SNAP! I woke up in a fit with the words still echoing in my head, looking around me, half expecting to meet God, the Devil, or the Archangel Gabriel face-to-face! It's actually so terrifying to be addressed directly by your own name in a dream (at super-high volume, and super-deep depth). Usually, you have some background noise in your mind, but Monday morning, there was nothing but my name, laced with fear and trembling.
So after this jarring, soul-gripping experience, I obviously assumed the worst, and imagined I was in the beginnings of schizophrenia. Oh, did I mention I was sleeping on the couch (as interLashional is staying with us) and the first crack of light into the house was siting squarely on my face and no other place? Anyway, feeling exhilarated (for some reason) and supremely terrified, I researched voices in dreams from about 6-6:45 in the morning, just to see if similar experiences existed. There are a few, and most of them reported with feelings of being freaked out by it, but I still thought I was going crazy.
It's nearing the end of the midterm, and between marking, reading and writing for the online course, socializing with guests (Lashional & Amy and Roshan), and having crazy dreams, I've been well-short of time for this blog. I have more to say, but it must wait for to-more-ow.
Sweet dreams ;)
Either way, the weekend was fun, but rather than relay mundane (but sometimes exciting!) details, I will instead recount two of my dreams. I had a RANDOM one on sunday morning. So I'm sitting with a bunch of friends in a moxies-like box-restaurant place, and we've just placed our order with the waitress. She's about to walk away, and I grab her arm, and say "wait a minute, wait a minute". So she turns around around, waiting to see what we need. Then the perspective of the dream changes, and I'm back in my body (before I was watching from the outside). All of a sudden, we unanimously burst into a horribly off-key(and tune) rendition of Amazing Grace. No lies. I almost forgot this most random of randoms, but I started humming amazing grace to myself a few minutes after waking, and in that instant, remembered the whole dream again.
The next one was a doozy!! I haven't had too many scary dreams that I can remember, but this one takes the cake. So I was having a conversation with a girl across a room. It was well-lit with sunlight, and I knew the girl (but I don't know who she was), most importantly, i could hear, and recognize her voice. There were a few other voices in the background, but I could only faintly make them out. Then, out of nowhere, someone jacks up the volume on the other voices...I can still make out her voice, but I can also hear snippets of millions of conversations. I seriously think I could distinguish all the conversations at once, but i can't describe what that felt like. Then comes the freaky part: the volume goes up again (I start to hear some heavy high-pitch noise); I get a simultaneous rush of exhilaration and awesomeness, and then all the sounds blend into one deep, rugged, voice (this coming from a man with a deep voice will give you an idea of its depth). It said, and I quote, the three scariest words I've ever heard in a dream, "Ashraf, Ashraf, Ashraf".
SNAP! I woke up in a fit with the words still echoing in my head, looking around me, half expecting to meet God, the Devil, or the Archangel Gabriel face-to-face! It's actually so terrifying to be addressed directly by your own name in a dream (at super-high volume, and super-deep depth). Usually, you have some background noise in your mind, but Monday morning, there was nothing but my name, laced with fear and trembling.
So after this jarring, soul-gripping experience, I obviously assumed the worst, and imagined I was in the beginnings of schizophrenia. Oh, did I mention I was sleeping on the couch (as interLashional is staying with us) and the first crack of light into the house was siting squarely on my face and no other place? Anyway, feeling exhilarated (for some reason) and supremely terrified, I researched voices in dreams from about 6-6:45 in the morning, just to see if similar experiences existed. There are a few, and most of them reported with feelings of being freaked out by it, but I still thought I was going crazy.
It's nearing the end of the midterm, and between marking, reading and writing for the online course, socializing with guests (Lashional & Amy and Roshan), and having crazy dreams, I've been well-short of time for this blog. I have more to say, but it must wait for to-more-ow.
Sweet dreams ;)
Friday, February 20, 2009
just for love
I drank some coka (as they call coke here) late in the night, and it made me ignore the first call of sleep. Two great things happened, even as I fell deeper into tiredness: 1) I wrote a paper, and 2) I got to watch a spectacular, out-of-season lighting show as a thunderstorm rolled through the city.
I love thunderstorms. Cambodia is growing on me (and this time, not as a random bacterial skin condition!).
I love thunderstorms. Cambodia is growing on me (and this time, not as a random bacterial skin condition!).
Routine.
Today I felt like I had one.
I remember walking down the stairs at the school, punching myself out from work, and hopping on a moto to come home. This is when I had the eerie realization that I had done the exact same thing many times before. It was like all my actions just converged on that moment of time, and I felt like I did them all at once. Crazy! I know.
I don't think I've ever really had a solid routine like that before. Even in my flashes of dedication in university, when i attempted to study in the same place - it was only the same place, not the same place at the same time, every day! I'll chalk that down as another new experience.
On a more personal note - I feel like I've been confronting some character deficiencies and coming out on top (for now?), so that's put me in a joyous state for shizzle. Of course, procrastination (O bane of my soul!) has yet to be conquered. I am, however, taking steps.
I remember walking down the stairs at the school, punching myself out from work, and hopping on a moto to come home. This is when I had the eerie realization that I had done the exact same thing many times before. It was like all my actions just converged on that moment of time, and I felt like I did them all at once. Crazy! I know.I don't think I've ever really had a solid routine like that before. Even in my flashes of dedication in university, when i attempted to study in the same place - it was only the same place, not the same place at the same time, every day! I'll chalk that down as another new experience.
On a more personal note - I feel like I've been confronting some character deficiencies and coming out on top (for now?), so that's put me in a joyous state for shizzle. Of course, procrastination (O bane of my soul!) has yet to be conquered. I am, however, taking steps.
Fruit of the fruit.
So team, what is this fruit called?
Either way, it is one of the most delicious fruits I've ever sampled.
Also from yesterday: If you were a school assignment/test, what would you be?
Thursday, February 19, 2009
If I was an exam, I'd be a 100% final.
That's right. My recent days have been occupied with, among other things, the construction of finals. It just occurred to me as my fingers hit these keys: that I am a final exam. I'm not a unit test, not a pop-quiz, not a take home exam (they're so easy), and definitely not a homework assignment, or a class presentation. Then I thought about the different kinds of finals I've written, and I think I am a 100% final exam. Let me explain. When you write a 100% final, it doesn't matter what you've done before (and I don't care about what people have done before I meet them - I like to give them all fair chances); at the same time, your evaluation depends on your past preparation and general geniusness. Also, you know you can't sneak away from a 100% final - it tests everything you know; I like to think I examine all aspects of the people I meet. The similarities don't end here, but this paragraph does.
So, lots of exam writing, which mostly involves looking up interesting articles on the internet, and hoping they come with pre-made questions. Jokes, I actually made many of my own questions (all laced with self-reflexive/ironic references). I think more teachers should include references to themselves or students in the test, it seems to make it less intense for the kiddies - maybe I can do a masters in EdPsych on this? Who knows?
My buddy Neissan bought an iPhone the other day, and came over last night to update the software using our free and unlimited internet. Ended up having a nice chat about life, family, and Nigerian pick-up lines. We also conversed about the recent opening of the first Khmer Rouge trial by the international judges. I went and saw the S-21 museum. It's seriously messed up. Like, the kind of brutality that rocks your humanity. Whew, wrote myself into a little negative rut!
Feels like time for a crazy picture.
You see, my step-mom's been in battambang for a few days, so my dad and I are going a little crazy. We eat large lunches, and then ferociously devour fruits for supper. I tried eating cup-noodles one night, but spicy cup-noodles on an empty stomach just isn't that good. Mangoes, however, are awesome all the time. Also, we ate some amazing mystery fruit tonight, I thought it was rambutan, but when I googled rambutan for a picture, a different fruit appeared. Don't worry, I'll do some detectivising, and maybe take you on a virtual tour of the BKK1 marketplace in the process.
Also, not sure if I mentioned, but I got a rash on my leg a few days/a week(?) back - turns out it's nothing serious, just thought i'd inform the world about these ever so important, and often unspoken details of humid-weather life!
Peace!
So, lots of exam writing, which mostly involves looking up interesting articles on the internet, and hoping they come with pre-made questions. Jokes, I actually made many of my own questions (all laced with self-reflexive/ironic references). I think more teachers should include references to themselves or students in the test, it seems to make it less intense for the kiddies - maybe I can do a masters in EdPsych on this? Who knows?
My buddy Neissan bought an iPhone the other day, and came over last night to update the software using our free and unlimited internet. Ended up having a nice chat about life, family, and Nigerian pick-up lines. We also conversed about the recent opening of the first Khmer Rouge trial by the international judges. I went and saw the S-21 museum. It's seriously messed up. Like, the kind of brutality that rocks your humanity. Whew, wrote myself into a little negative rut!
Feels like time for a crazy picture.
You see, my step-mom's been in battambang for a few days, so my dad and I are going a little crazy. We eat large lunches, and then ferociously devour fruits for supper. I tried eating cup-noodles one night, but spicy cup-noodles on an empty stomach just isn't that good. Mangoes, however, are awesome all the time. Also, we ate some amazing mystery fruit tonight, I thought it was rambutan, but when I googled rambutan for a picture, a different fruit appeared. Don't worry, I'll do some detectivising, and maybe take you on a virtual tour of the BKK1 marketplace in the process.
Also, not sure if I mentioned, but I got a rash on my leg a few days/a week(?) back - turns out it's nothing serious, just thought i'd inform the world about these ever so important, and often unspoken details of humid-weather life!
Peace!
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
We interrupt your regular daily broadcast....
To bring you this.
I had previously elected to refrain from blogging as an escape mechanism from actually doing work. However, i felt like I had to alert you, my dedicated readership, to the link between the comedy show "the office", and the persecution of the Baha'is in Iran.
I had previously elected to refrain from blogging as an escape mechanism from actually doing work. However, i felt like I had to alert you, my dedicated readership, to the link between the comedy show "the office", and the persecution of the Baha'is in Iran.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Feb the one-five.
I'm listening to some slave songs from the south. Which I found in an old Dialektika CD case, hidden away in the front pocket of my suitcase. I think the CD was put together by my sister's old boyfriend for her, but I have no idea how it ended up in my hands. Either way, the music is playing in the background while I mark paragraphs written by my students. Coincidence? I think not.
I may soon abandon life to become a beatboxing gypsy monk philosopher.
Edit: my buddy Taeed is all up in the news.
I went to a svet potluck at Neissan's place this evening. There were around 15 of us who gathered to eat, and share some prayers and readings from different religions. The night was a great success! I once again had an impromptu meeting with Ryan Duly, the aforementioned QC officer for the blog. Shown above. I always thought his name's better than mine to start a blog. I mean really, he could start "Duly Noted"!! Amazing blog name.
I did some procrastinating, and some marking - probably a 90/10 split. Horrible! Especially when I'm trying to kick the procrastination habit. Ah well, next time. ;P
I may soon abandon life to become a beatboxing gypsy monk philosopher.
Edit: my buddy Taeed is all up in the news.
I went to a svet potluck at Neissan's place this evening. There were around 15 of us who gathered to eat, and share some prayers and readings from different religions. The night was a great success! I once again had an impromptu meeting with Ryan Duly, the aforementioned QC officer for the blog. Shown above. I always thought his name's better than mine to start a blog. I mean really, he could start "Duly Noted"!! Amazing blog name.I did some procrastinating, and some marking - probably a 90/10 split. Horrible! Especially when I'm trying to kick the procrastination habit. Ah well, next time. ;P
Feb 14.
My heart, clear of the clouds of passionate romance, basked in the singular clarity of singleness - on this, St.Valentines day. Likewise, my wallet, free from the bondage of exclusive relations, danced excitedly beyond the grasp of such hands as St.Valentine seems to embolden.
I had suggested in my previous post that I would upload phone photos today after my tuition session. This turned out to be impossible, because I managed to misplace the CD to install the software for the phone. There are two solutions: one is to find and download the software, the other is to bluetooth the photos to my dad's laptop and upload them. Neither of those seemed worth pursuing today. A thousand apologies. I will, however, console you with this ironic photo, titled, "Valentine's day when you're single":
:)
Jokes guys. The day was actually filled with meaningful interactions with other human beans, so I count it as a swet one. I "taught English"/chatted with my student for an hour and a half at Anise Hotel. He's still struggling with pronunciation, but he's getting better, and is the most driven student I've ever seen, much less taught. I later experienced my first lonely dosa, having expected to meet some friends who never made it...as a consolation prize, the dosa was incredible, and I actually read a newspaper.
I read an interesting piece of art sometime earlier in the day. It is dark now, and I don't want to turn on a light (as I might disturb the p-units), but I took a flash photo just to show you. I'll write the text out tomorrow because that was the most exciting bit. The face in the photo is an impression of Abdu'l-Baha.
I'm currently enrolled in an online course called "Constructing a Conceptual Framework for Social Action" offered by the Lazos Learning Association - so today I ventured my first online posts and responses, and kind of familiarized myself with the format of the next few months of study. I'm pumped for the course - I'm completely in love with the idea of integration . Let me explain: I'm a firm believer in the necessity of the unification of mankind as a step in the solution of the various ills afflicting us. In the same way, I'm a believer in the necessity of the unification of the self as a necessary step on the way to the discovery and use of effective solutions for the tests of life. This course is (as far as the I can see)a marriage of these two concepts. in the end, I'll have systematically explored how I want to be, live, and serve mankind, and what I want to do - such that I can do them all at the same time. I'll let you know how it goes :)
While posting to the online course, I made use of my time and did BUKETLOADS of laundry. I though tI had laundry to do, and then realized I only had the clothes I was wearing, a suit, some ties, and a t-shirt that were clean. Needless to say, I still have laundry left for tomorrow, but at least I made a dent in the dirtiness.
In the evening I went to a fastfood-gellato cafe fusion restaurant called "Lucky 7" with Sovannarith (aka Sarith, the guy who runs CRDA) while he waited for his wife to get back from visiting a friend. I ran in to some of the Cambodian teachers from my school, and it turns out one of them them knew my buddy Sarith from attending Baha'i activities back in the day. I ate some ice cream. I highly recommend a waffle-cone filled with gellato every now and again - so tasty!
The late-evening saw Neissan, Kui(sp?), and myself at a place called "Tamarind", which is actually a sexy-time location. We played a German game called coohander(once again, sp?), which is a random animal-auction game. If your name is Eric Chamney, Jeff Konawalchuck, or Bryce Kustra, you'd be fascinated by this game, and purchase it immediately.
How was your Valentine's Day?
I had suggested in my previous post that I would upload phone photos today after my tuition session. This turned out to be impossible, because I managed to misplace the CD to install the software for the phone. There are two solutions: one is to find and download the software, the other is to bluetooth the photos to my dad's laptop and upload them. Neither of those seemed worth pursuing today. A thousand apologies. I will, however, console you with this ironic photo, titled, "Valentine's day when you're single":
:)Jokes guys. The day was actually filled with meaningful interactions with other human beans, so I count it as a swet one. I "taught English"/chatted with my student for an hour and a half at Anise Hotel. He's still struggling with pronunciation, but he's getting better, and is the most driven student I've ever seen, much less taught. I later experienced my first lonely dosa, having expected to meet some friends who never made it...as a consolation prize, the dosa was incredible, and I actually read a newspaper.
I read an interesting piece of art sometime earlier in the day. It is dark now, and I don't want to turn on a light (as I might disturb the p-units), but I took a flash photo just to show you. I'll write the text out tomorrow because that was the most exciting bit. The face in the photo is an impression of Abdu'l-Baha.I'm currently enrolled in an online course called "Constructing a Conceptual Framework for Social Action" offered by the Lazos Learning Association - so today I ventured my first online posts and responses, and kind of familiarized myself with the format of the next few months of study. I'm pumped for the course - I'm completely in love with the idea of integration . Let me explain: I'm a firm believer in the necessity of the unification of mankind as a step in the solution of the various ills afflicting us. In the same way, I'm a believer in the necessity of the unification of the self as a necessary step on the way to the discovery and use of effective solutions for the tests of life. This course is (as far as the I can see)a marriage of these two concepts. in the end, I'll have systematically explored how I want to be, live, and serve mankind, and what I want to do - such that I can do them all at the same time. I'll let you know how it goes :)
While posting to the online course, I made use of my time and did BUKETLOADS of laundry. I though tI had laundry to do, and then realized I only had the clothes I was wearing, a suit, some ties, and a t-shirt that were clean. Needless to say, I still have laundry left for tomorrow, but at least I made a dent in the dirtiness.
In the evening I went to a fastfood-gellato cafe fusion restaurant called "Lucky 7" with Sovannarith (aka Sarith, the guy who runs CRDA) while he waited for his wife to get back from visiting a friend. I ran in to some of the Cambodian teachers from my school, and it turns out one of them them knew my buddy Sarith from attending Baha'i activities back in the day. I ate some ice cream. I highly recommend a waffle-cone filled with gellato every now and again - so tasty!
The late-evening saw Neissan, Kui(sp?), and myself at a place called "Tamarind", which is actually a sexy-time location. We played a German game called coohander(once again, sp?), which is a random animal-auction game. If your name is Eric Chamney, Jeff Konawalchuck, or Bryce Kustra, you'd be fascinated by this game, and purchase it immediately.How was your Valentine's Day?
Friday, February 13, 2009
The Long and Winding Road to Hell, and Valentines Day
Feb 9-13.
I've noticed, as I'm sure you, my loyal readers have, a decline in the frequency of my writing. Rest assured that we're doing everything we can to make sure arushdy.blogspot.com maintains it's quality, regularity, and prestige.
Report Cards.
I promised to write once the report cards were dealt with, and basically I am, but MAN these are a pain. I had 106 students, each needed a personalized comment (the school checks to make sure), and have the correct marks and information in the system. Now, I like the place I work at because of their organization, however, the sword of organization is, like so many other swords, double-edged. They have a team of guys who's sole job is to be a grammarian, and grammar-check everything that goes public from the school, including my report cards. They want to present a certain image, so they ensure that the English on the report cards going home is completely correct. For example, I commented that a student should watch more t.v. in English. Notice my "t" and "v" are small, they need to be capitalized, so I had to reprint some cards. All the mistakes were fair, however, there was one which I battled with the Grammar King over, and won. He insisted that my sentence which used a "however", could not (as in the previous sentence) be surrounded by commas, and should instead have a semi-colon before the "however". Something like this ";however,". Are you bored and confused yet? Yeah, I told him he was correct, however, I could use "however" however I wanted. A small, meaningless victory.
The Report cards were a struggle, but now that I know how their system works, I think the finals'll go much easier. The report cards occupied my time and energy from Monday to Wednesday. Wednesday night we were invited to a local Baha'i's house for dinner. Cool guy named Nassir. Had some great, great foods, and I managed to have an impromptu meeting with Ryan Duly, the blog's Quality Control Officer. He appreciated "interlashional man of mystery" from the unofficial Baattambang Conference Report, and we joked about how we didn't need to talk about what I've been doing, because he reads more about my life than I do. We also joked about the awkward existential twist that would occur(is now occurring) when he reads about what I write about how we talked about what I wrote about my life. From there, the conversation could only get clearer and more interesting. It did.
One point of interest, which I'm not sure I mentioned is the book "The Road Less Travelled: The New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth" By M. Scott Peck. I'd read bits and pieces,and heard my dad comment on several themes and ideas, but I read it while I was sick last week. Brilliant work. I think the guy hits so many psychological nails on so many minds, that he could be a psycharpentrist (too much? it felt like too much, but I wrote it anyway). He writes about discipline and love, and says great things about them - things that are really helping me motivate myself to hustle.
Thursday night we had a nice "fireside" with some of my friends from work. My dad gave them some small presentations ("anna's presentation") on the Baha'i Faith, and we ate sandwiches and pastries, and the tastiest dragonfruits I've ever had. Unfortunately, we were all teachers at AII, and needed to go do some slave marking work for our students the next day. Two of the guys who came were these cool Nigerian guys who are both named "Emmanuel". Yeah. They met here. I was trying to imagine what that would be like(/how hilarious it would be be), but the bitter, cynical side of my mind is refusing to let me believe it was anything but mundane with a hint of surprise. Ah, how education can sometimes ruin fun.
Today was actually a fun teaching day; I taught all my students about valentines day, bought them candies, taught them a song, and teased them about nonexistent romances. Of course, by starting the teasing process, I inadvertently opened myself up to the relentless speculation and prying of nearly 80 girls between 14-23. It was good times, and one of the teachers (a guy named Eddie) came in and taught the kids to sing while I beatboxed. We brought our evening classes together to repeat the magic, and it was tons of fun.
I am, however, tired, and unfortunately, without pictures to upload. I have some on my phone - I'll put them up on the morrow after tutoring. Love y'all.
I've noticed, as I'm sure you, my loyal readers have, a decline in the frequency of my writing. Rest assured that we're doing everything we can to make sure arushdy.blogspot.com maintains it's quality, regularity, and prestige.
Report Cards.
I promised to write once the report cards were dealt with, and basically I am, but MAN these are a pain. I had 106 students, each needed a personalized comment (the school checks to make sure), and have the correct marks and information in the system. Now, I like the place I work at because of their organization, however, the sword of organization is, like so many other swords, double-edged. They have a team of guys who's sole job is to be a grammarian, and grammar-check everything that goes public from the school, including my report cards. They want to present a certain image, so they ensure that the English on the report cards going home is completely correct. For example, I commented that a student should watch more t.v. in English. Notice my "t" and "v" are small, they need to be capitalized, so I had to reprint some cards. All the mistakes were fair, however, there was one which I battled with the Grammar King over, and won. He insisted that my sentence which used a "however", could not (as in the previous sentence) be surrounded by commas, and should instead have a semi-colon before the "however". Something like this ";however,". Are you bored and confused yet? Yeah, I told him he was correct, however, I could use "however" however I wanted. A small, meaningless victory.
The Report cards were a struggle, but now that I know how their system works, I think the finals'll go much easier. The report cards occupied my time and energy from Monday to Wednesday. Wednesday night we were invited to a local Baha'i's house for dinner. Cool guy named Nassir. Had some great, great foods, and I managed to have an impromptu meeting with Ryan Duly, the blog's Quality Control Officer. He appreciated "interlashional man of mystery" from the unofficial Baattambang Conference Report, and we joked about how we didn't need to talk about what I've been doing, because he reads more about my life than I do. We also joked about the awkward existential twist that would occur(is now occurring) when he reads about what I write about how we talked about what I wrote about my life. From there, the conversation could only get clearer and more interesting. It did.
One point of interest, which I'm not sure I mentioned is the book "The Road Less Travelled: The New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth" By M. Scott Peck. I'd read bits and pieces,and heard my dad comment on several themes and ideas, but I read it while I was sick last week. Brilliant work. I think the guy hits so many psychological nails on so many minds, that he could be a psycharpentrist (too much? it felt like too much, but I wrote it anyway). He writes about discipline and love, and says great things about them - things that are really helping me motivate myself to hustle.
Thursday night we had a nice "fireside" with some of my friends from work. My dad gave them some small presentations ("anna's presentation") on the Baha'i Faith, and we ate sandwiches and pastries, and the tastiest dragonfruits I've ever had. Unfortunately, we were all teachers at AII, and needed to go do some slave marking work for our students the next day. Two of the guys who came were these cool Nigerian guys who are both named "Emmanuel". Yeah. They met here. I was trying to imagine what that would be like(/how hilarious it would be be), but the bitter, cynical side of my mind is refusing to let me believe it was anything but mundane with a hint of surprise. Ah, how education can sometimes ruin fun.
Today was actually a fun teaching day; I taught all my students about valentines day, bought them candies, taught them a song, and teased them about nonexistent romances. Of course, by starting the teasing process, I inadvertently opened myself up to the relentless speculation and prying of nearly 80 girls between 14-23. It was good times, and one of the teachers (a guy named Eddie) came in and taught the kids to sing while I beatboxed. We brought our evening classes together to repeat the magic, and it was tons of fun.
I am, however, tired, and unfortunately, without pictures to upload. I have some on my phone - I'll put them up on the morrow after tutoring. Love y'all.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
February 8th, A Glorious Day
Today ranks up there with one of the best in my life (on a scale of pleasurable days)
First, I went with my dad and shaku to the Baha'i Centre for prayers in the morning. Then, around 9, I hopped on a moto-dop, picked up some walnut pain complet, and rode to Jarnah's for breakfast. My english class had been rescheduled to 2PM, which provided me agolden opportunity to have breakfast with friends. Breakfast was nearly prepped when I arrived: eggs with baby tomato and onion, whole passionfruits, the aforementioned bread with butter and jams, fresh croissant, artichoke tea (actually decent), and "whispers of summer" juice. It was a delightful breakfast with friends on Jarnah's roof. We all sat on a large, low table, and felt like we were Mediterranean royalty. This was my first memory of encountering fresh passionfruit, and it was so good. I actually felt the passion flowing into my veins as my body digested the fruit. I also felt the prayers slowly entering my soul as i digested the words. Overall, very healthy morning.
We helped Jarnah clean the house up a bit, and Kai and I had to battle with this old floor-carpet that just would not let go of all of its dirt. After both sides sustained heavy injuries, we consulted, and finally decided to effect a unilateral cease-fire - stopping all further carpet-bombing.
I know, it just came out that way.
We explored around russian market for a bit before I decided to head back home for quick swim. It felt great to both have energy, and an opportunity to use it. For some reason, those two rarely seem to line up in my life. I also discovered that I had received my password to log into an online post-grad course called "Constructing a Conceptual Framework for Social Action". Looks to be interesting, and I'm going to go print my materials tomorrow!
Then, I went and tutored Veth at Anise Hotel for an hour and a half, while enjoying a cheap, yet delectable lunch. Our class ended with me promising Veth I'd teach him how to talk to ladies...comic! My class with him revolves around a book called "walking the straight path", which has a series of short moral stories, all with excellent language-education material tagged on.
I then went to the living room to meet up with Jarnah, Beattie, and Kai again. We had some nice times chilling out, and I hazarded an espresso on my recently-recovered belly. It was so good.
Following the days trend towards awesomeness, we went for massages (my first ever!) and it was hilarious! The place seemed okay, but the masseuses turned out to be a little bit sketchy! if it weren't for three of us getting massages in the same room, it might have turned from massage therapy to massage the-rapy. Either way, I was fairly relaxed by the end of it, so I would chalk it down as a success.
Next was a return to the faithful Dosa Corner for some cheap eats, and then a trip over to Neissans. We arrived for a night which I had never imagined possible in phnom penh: sheesha and hokem. You see, Neissan managed to finnagle the import of a houka from malaysia, via a visitng friend. Kai is visiting, but knows how to play hook, and Quddus is also visiting, but was willing to learn, and learnt quickly. Thus, with a convergence of such disparate means, we were able to produce a night of great entertainment and joy.
Amazing day!
but lets get real about this business. having started my day off with prayers, I characterized the whole day in reference to God. This was great, because I felt none of the guilt that the religiously-inclined often do when life is good. I spent the whole day in a state of thankfulness and prayer, and it just would not let up! The day continued to deliver on little bits of grace and joy every time I took a breath. Also, I was a little down in the morning, but my dad, right before he went to Sa'ang with a bunch of the baha'is, held my shoulders, lifted them up, and said "don't look so down, stand up straight, and go grab hold of life." Or somesuch fatherly pep-talk. Surprisingly, it worked. Contemplating Words of Beauty, heeding my dad's advice, and just loving my friends was enough to make the day excellent. So I hope if all yous who read this give it a shot, you might have similarly sweet days.
First, I went with my dad and shaku to the Baha'i Centre for prayers in the morning. Then, around 9, I hopped on a moto-dop, picked up some walnut pain complet, and rode to Jarnah's for breakfast. My english class had been rescheduled to 2PM, which provided me agolden opportunity to have breakfast with friends. Breakfast was nearly prepped when I arrived: eggs with baby tomato and onion, whole passionfruits, the aforementioned bread with butter and jams, fresh croissant, artichoke tea (actually decent), and "whispers of summer" juice. It was a delightful breakfast with friends on Jarnah's roof. We all sat on a large, low table, and felt like we were Mediterranean royalty. This was my first memory of encountering fresh passionfruit, and it was so good. I actually felt the passion flowing into my veins as my body digested the fruit. I also felt the prayers slowly entering my soul as i digested the words. Overall, very healthy morning.
We helped Jarnah clean the house up a bit, and Kai and I had to battle with this old floor-carpet that just would not let go of all of its dirt. After both sides sustained heavy injuries, we consulted, and finally decided to effect a unilateral cease-fire - stopping all further carpet-bombing.
I know, it just came out that way.
We explored around russian market for a bit before I decided to head back home for quick swim. It felt great to both have energy, and an opportunity to use it. For some reason, those two rarely seem to line up in my life. I also discovered that I had received my password to log into an online post-grad course called "Constructing a Conceptual Framework for Social Action". Looks to be interesting, and I'm going to go print my materials tomorrow!
Then, I went and tutored Veth at Anise Hotel for an hour and a half, while enjoying a cheap, yet delectable lunch. Our class ended with me promising Veth I'd teach him how to talk to ladies...comic! My class with him revolves around a book called "walking the straight path", which has a series of short moral stories, all with excellent language-education material tagged on.
I then went to the living room to meet up with Jarnah, Beattie, and Kai again. We had some nice times chilling out, and I hazarded an espresso on my recently-recovered belly. It was so good.
Following the days trend towards awesomeness, we went for massages (my first ever!) and it was hilarious! The place seemed okay, but the masseuses turned out to be a little bit sketchy! if it weren't for three of us getting massages in the same room, it might have turned from massage therapy to massage the-rapy. Either way, I was fairly relaxed by the end of it, so I would chalk it down as a success.
Next was a return to the faithful Dosa Corner for some cheap eats, and then a trip over to Neissans. We arrived for a night which I had never imagined possible in phnom penh: sheesha and hokem. You see, Neissan managed to finnagle the import of a houka from malaysia, via a visitng friend. Kai is visiting, but knows how to play hook, and Quddus is also visiting, but was willing to learn, and learnt quickly. Thus, with a convergence of such disparate means, we were able to produce a night of great entertainment and joy.
Amazing day!
but lets get real about this business. having started my day off with prayers, I characterized the whole day in reference to God. This was great, because I felt none of the guilt that the religiously-inclined often do when life is good. I spent the whole day in a state of thankfulness and prayer, and it just would not let up! The day continued to deliver on little bits of grace and joy every time I took a breath. Also, I was a little down in the morning, but my dad, right before he went to Sa'ang with a bunch of the baha'is, held my shoulders, lifted them up, and said "don't look so down, stand up straight, and go grab hold of life." Or somesuch fatherly pep-talk. Surprisingly, it worked. Contemplating Words of Beauty, heeding my dad's advice, and just loving my friends was enough to make the day excellent. So I hope if all yous who read this give it a shot, you might have similarly sweet days.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Since then, till now.
I went back to work. I know, I know, bad move. But I did it anyway. The kids were all wondering why I was missing on monday, so I told them I was a secret agent, and that teaching English was a cover. Ok, I didn't, but I always think being a secret agent is the best reason for inexplicable absences.One of my classes has become a nightmare! There were over twenty kids in each of my level 11 classes, but now (since public school rotates their schedule) most of my morning kids have switched to the afternoon! I had 31(!) kids in the class, and more registered. Ridiculous. Luckily, I didn't have to deal with it this week because I manged to get sick. again.
Wednesday I went to teach in the morning, and returned to the house rather drowsy, and kind of feverish. Then, as I lay in my bed, I could feel my temperature rising, and my stomach growling. The fever left on wednesday, but the stomach cramps and such persisted till yesterday. here is a picture of my last three days:I felt much better today, and decided to go out and test my stomach on some eggs for breakfast. I met Becc, a wonderful girl working against human trafficking in Cambodia, for breakfast. She brought me some sweet home-baked cookies! I had requested them when I discovered she could bake, and was, today, happily rewarded. I later met Neissan for chess at Le Jardin. Good times. The running total for chess is now: 16-1-4. I got neis in a super-aggressive check-mate. aggressive by my standards, which is like the UFC of chess. Neis managed to slip a pawn to the bottom in our queenless game to eventually win another game. I fear my time is nearing an end, and our running total could reverse the more we play.
Battambang, the unofficial report - 2
Right, where was I? Oh yeah, I just referred you to the official article for a hint of the spirit of the conference, and an idea of the schedule and activities.
So while all of that was going on, Interlashional, Jarnah-face, "emily-with-a-T", and I wandered around looking, listening, and experiencing the event. Ryan had much more to worry about than we did, because they threw him to the lions of management, and asked him to make sure the media was all worked out. This seems ok, but if you consider the fact that they had multi-lingual, simultaneous translation, and were not sure which audio to feed into the stationary video camera, then you being to see why our dear friend might have been slightly stressed. The best part is that all the tech guys spoke only khmer. Ha! Neissan Beshrati ended up manning the stationary video-camera, which was fitting on so many levels. You see, prior to the conference, Neissan had some tasks and assignments as a volunteer, which he executed perfectly, and managed to complete before the conference started. He raved and ranted about his delegatory ability, and was excited to spend his time simply enjoying the conference. Little did he know, his name had been penciled in as cameraman all along. :)
We listened to the talks, noted and quoted, and looked around for interesting stories. I became involved in a great one myself: you see, some of the malaysians decided to buy some deep-fried bugs. They brought them over to the conference, and half-offered, half-dared people they met to eat them. Also, many of us were making a quick trip outside the gates of the compound to buy sweet, sweet sugar-cane juice from the local street-vendors. Now, I'm personally not sure which street food, or combination of street-foods caused the sickness, but sickness happened. Both Temily and I (and I think Ryan) got some serious stomach bugs. Temily got it the worst, but 3/4 of the media people were out on the second day of the conference, because of reckless eating. Of course, all it took was a few trips to the porcelain throne for us to recover (except temily), and life was back on track. While we were gone, some continued to draw inspiration and wisdom from the words of the speakers, while others found it a suitable time to engage in extremely deep meditation sessions.
So deep.
Either way, the conference was soon over, and that's when I engaged in some serious writing and compiling. We had managed to find some svet interviewers in other languages, so all I had to do was collect their work, and get ready to type. Luckily again, temily decided that it would be her job to type up the interviews, so all I was left with was the beautification of notes into happy little sentences. This went well, and my assistant continued to assist throughout. Let's be honest, I did very little actual work work. Still, I felt like I got something accomplished, and BWNS was happy, so overall it was a success.
I had to tell work that I would be absent on monday because there was no late-night bus from Battambang back. So Sunday morning I just told them the truth "I have to write a report for a conference". They took it pretty well, considering I basically just asked for a day off with no real medical condition/family emergency to back it up. What did I do on sunday? Why, eat chocolate-covered-banana-pancakes of course! I also got to see the Battambang Baha'i centre and had time to chat with some friends. I caught the bus home at 2:30PM, and somehow managed to sit beside the one Khmer guy with excellent conversational English! So good. We started talking about the Khmer rouge - he was 13-15 while everything was tense, and he recounted tales of people being conscripted in the morning, armed in the afternoon, and returning to fight at night! He also said that the 'government' and the Khmer rouge would do the same thing. He was happy because somehow, all of his family survived. Then we talked about the Baha'i faith for a bit, and he told me he knew a bah'i in Battambang. Turns out, he took English lessons from a guy named June Libertad (whom I know) and he was now working as an English teacher!
So my new English teacher friend and I exchanged numbers and promised to be friends forever...I even shared my chocolate wafers with him.
Wait wait wait!
I'm forgetting one of the funnest stories. Rewind to the sunday night: Everyone's back at their hotels, it's about 11 or 11:30PM. I get a call. It's Prema telling me that someone's bleeding at the Kehmera Hotel, and she needs me to get over there and check it out. ME? Why? Not only do I know nothing about Battambang, I also have no transport, AND sketchy-at-best first-aid skills! Nonetheless, she sounded frantic, so I made my way down there on a moto, and proceeded to investigate the situation. The youths from Thailand had been out for an evening swim in the hotel pool, and one of them had taken a vigorous dive, which eventually led the clipping of his chin on a slope at the bottom of the pool. Lucky for him, they were traveling with a nurse, who cleaned up the wound, got a cold compress, and told him to hold his skin together. He was going to need a few stitches. I was relieved to find no pressing emergency, but confused when my transport was refused. They really wanted to take him in a car! I manged to convince them that he could survive the moto-ride to the 24hr clinic, and off we went. The guys name was Warren..I think? He was pretty relaxed about the whole thing, and was like "yeah, when my mom gets here she'll be like 'again!?'" Apparently he's pretty accident-prone.
We made it to a sketch clinic, where the doctor spoke no english, and we spoke no khmer, but, by exemplary use of non-verbal communication, and the obvious gash on his chin, we were able to get he doctor to stitch him up. I stayed in the operating room long enough to make sure he pulled out the right medical implements, and then we waited outside.
The young doctor came through for us, and stitched Warren up well. in only a few hours of knowing each other, he'd decided to grow a chinstrap just like mine!
So while all of that was going on, Interlashional, Jarnah-face, "emily-with-a-T", and I wandered around looking, listening, and experiencing the event. Ryan had much more to worry about than we did, because they threw him to the lions of management, and asked him to make sure the media was all worked out. This seems ok, but if you consider the fact that they had multi-lingual, simultaneous translation, and were not sure which audio to feed into the stationary video camera, then you being to see why our dear friend might have been slightly stressed. The best part is that all the tech guys spoke only khmer. Ha! Neissan Beshrati ended up manning the stationary video-camera, which was fitting on so many levels. You see, prior to the conference, Neissan had some tasks and assignments as a volunteer, which he executed perfectly, and managed to complete before the conference started. He raved and ranted about his delegatory ability, and was excited to spend his time simply enjoying the conference. Little did he know, his name had been penciled in as cameraman all along. :)
We listened to the talks, noted and quoted, and looked around for interesting stories. I became involved in a great one myself: you see, some of the malaysians decided to buy some deep-fried bugs. They brought them over to the conference, and half-offered, half-dared people they met to eat them. Also, many of us were making a quick trip outside the gates of the compound to buy sweet, sweet sugar-cane juice from the local street-vendors. Now, I'm personally not sure which street food, or combination of street-foods caused the sickness, but sickness happened. Both Temily and I (and I think Ryan) got some serious stomach bugs. Temily got it the worst, but 3/4 of the media people were out on the second day of the conference, because of reckless eating. Of course, all it took was a few trips to the porcelain throne for us to recover (except temily), and life was back on track. While we were gone, some continued to draw inspiration and wisdom from the words of the speakers, while others found it a suitable time to engage in extremely deep meditation sessions.
 |
| From Cambodge |
So deep.
Either way, the conference was soon over, and that's when I engaged in some serious writing and compiling. We had managed to find some svet interviewers in other languages, so all I had to do was collect their work, and get ready to type. Luckily again, temily decided that it would be her job to type up the interviews, so all I was left with was the beautification of notes into happy little sentences. This went well, and my assistant continued to assist throughout. Let's be honest, I did very little actual work work. Still, I felt like I got something accomplished, and BWNS was happy, so overall it was a success.
I had to tell work that I would be absent on monday because there was no late-night bus from Battambang back. So Sunday morning I just told them the truth "I have to write a report for a conference". They took it pretty well, considering I basically just asked for a day off with no real medical condition/family emergency to back it up. What did I do on sunday? Why, eat chocolate-covered-banana-pancakes of course! I also got to see the Battambang Baha'i centre and had time to chat with some friends. I caught the bus home at 2:30PM, and somehow managed to sit beside the one Khmer guy with excellent conversational English! So good. We started talking about the Khmer rouge - he was 13-15 while everything was tense, and he recounted tales of people being conscripted in the morning, armed in the afternoon, and returning to fight at night! He also said that the 'government' and the Khmer rouge would do the same thing. He was happy because somehow, all of his family survived. Then we talked about the Baha'i faith for a bit, and he told me he knew a bah'i in Battambang. Turns out, he took English lessons from a guy named June Libertad (whom I know) and he was now working as an English teacher!So my new English teacher friend and I exchanged numbers and promised to be friends forever...I even shared my chocolate wafers with him.
Wait wait wait!
I'm forgetting one of the funnest stories. Rewind to the sunday night: Everyone's back at their hotels, it's about 11 or 11:30PM. I get a call. It's Prema telling me that someone's bleeding at the Kehmera Hotel, and she needs me to get over there and check it out. ME? Why? Not only do I know nothing about Battambang, I also have no transport, AND sketchy-at-best first-aid skills! Nonetheless, she sounded frantic, so I made my way down there on a moto, and proceeded to investigate the situation. The youths from Thailand had been out for an evening swim in the hotel pool, and one of them had taken a vigorous dive, which eventually led the clipping of his chin on a slope at the bottom of the pool. Lucky for him, they were traveling with a nurse, who cleaned up the wound, got a cold compress, and told him to hold his skin together. He was going to need a few stitches. I was relieved to find no pressing emergency, but confused when my transport was refused. They really wanted to take him in a car! I manged to convince them that he could survive the moto-ride to the 24hr clinic, and off we went. The guys name was Warren..I think? He was pretty relaxed about the whole thing, and was like "yeah, when my mom gets here she'll be like 'again!?'" Apparently he's pretty accident-prone.
We made it to a sketch clinic, where the doctor spoke no english, and we spoke no khmer, but, by exemplary use of non-verbal communication, and the obvious gash on his chin, we were able to get he doctor to stitch him up. I stayed in the operating room long enough to make sure he pulled out the right medical implements, and then we waited outside.The young doctor came through for us, and stitched Warren up well. in only a few hours of knowing each other, he'd decided to grow a chinstrap just like mine!
 |
| From Cambodge |
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Battambang, the unnoficial report.
Lets begin at the beginning...wait, quick aside: whenever I try to write the word beginning, I write it beggining. I think I might have some mild dyslexia, because I do this with a few words consistently, words that I know I know how to spell.
ok, now lets begin:
I was already pretty excited about the conference in Battambang, having read some news on the Baha'i World News Service(BWNS), and hearing of other conferences from various friends. Then I got wind of the fact that someone, somewhere, had thrown my name out as a journalist/reporter for the conference. At first I thought that they should find someone else - since I was sure there had to be someone better at journalizing and reporterizing than I. It turns out that those people existed, but they were all otherwise occupied, and thus it was that I heard the ear-piercing toll of the bell of destiny echo through me: khello english friend, time to write! true story, the bell of destiny speaks with a khazak accent and if it had a face, would look like borat.
So, I'm all geared up to go and do this thing, which I know nothing about. Luckily, I manage to snag an assistant who does, in the form of one "Emily-with-a-T", from Malaysia. Having already written a report for a similar conference in Malaysia, I was now set up to delegate my work, and simply assume responsibility and reward for the work of my slave(s). :D
I confer with Jarnha and Neissan on a regualr basis, and Jarnah informed us of the imminent arrival of Ryan Lash (international man of mystery). Also, being a facebook addict, I was able to, with the assistance of Avuth, coordinate to have Haifa stay with us when she got in to Phnom Penh. This is all to the backdrop of mountains of midterm-exam marking.
On the 27th, Avuth and I eat some banana in place of lunch, and then set out to retrieve Haifa from the airport. The bananas were packed in sticky rice, and wrapped in bananaleaf, and then BBQ'd to perfection. The Sticky rice is also coconut-flavoured. Just awesome. Before getting Haifa, we went and bought tickets for the bus to Battambang for Avuth, Haifa, Ryan Lash (interlashional man of mystery), and Myself.
When we bought the tickets, I was given this spiffy new 20,000 rial bill! I was so pumped about it that I insisted on taking pictures, and refused to use it to purchase anything until the last days of the Bang. Soon later, we found ourselves at the airport.
After picking up a terrified Haifa, we proceeded to drop off some bags, and then go for a nice khmer lunch at boat noodles. After the delicious fish amok and fried veggies, we returned to my place, only for Haifa to discover that not only was she my captive, but that she had to mark some of my midterms for me! Avuth played guitar to calm her nerves while we worked away. I realize this stpry is turning into a series of photos and descriptions, so I'll try and avoid that and move along a little quicker.
We all ate Gado-Gado for diner with beattie and her p-units, and then chilled in the park, and then had fruit juices. sweetness.
Wednesday! the 28.
I had barely enough time to do laundry, hang it up, and hope for the best by the time our 1PM bus left. Ah procrastination, the character flaw which haunts me most. Needless to say we went out for lunch, and my clothes were dry and packable upon our return. The trip up was fairly dull, except for the absolutely RIDICULOUS hong-kong-dubbed-khmer movie. Millionaires, mad-scientists, teachers, robots, great film. aske me about it sometime.
We hit the ground running in Battambang, helping out with the conference preparations by sorting out tags and stuffing folders. Avuth, Haifa, and I stayed in the CORDE building while Interlashional made his way down to Gems international school to get his photo gear sorted, etc. The next day was much of the same, Ry and I got a briefing on the conference, most of what I got out of it was that there was much yet to be decided...and I still had no clue what I was doing. I decided to do my own research, reviewing the instructions from BWNS, and reading up on past conference coverage. I was finally put at ease when my contact from BWNS gave me a shout and told me to "capture the spirit", "gloss over the details", "get good quotes", and "enjoy the conference". Instant new friend. Best news I could get. So, I reset my mind-frame to one of simply absorbing what I saw and felt, and keeping alert for the notable and the quotable.
This feels like a good place for a picture.
The Representatives of the House of Justice made it into Battambang on thursday in the evening - their departure was delayed a bit, but everyone got to watch a sweet, sweet dragon dance while we waited. Check the bar to the right for a video, and facebook for some pics! They cleared up the schedule of the conference and all the logistics in a meeting almost as soon as they arrived, efficient to the max! There were some problems, mainly with the venue: There were too many people, so the organizers had planned to move the conference outside, creating a large hall made of tents. This might have worked, except for the fact that the khmer wedding tents were too low for people to be able to see any kind of screen for presentations, etc. So they went inside to double-check the capacity. After some shuffling of chairs here and there, it was discovered that hundreds more than originally thought could be fit in by simply using smaller chairs. Genius. So it was figured that 1400 or so could fit in the main hall, with the spill-over in some tents set up outside the hall. There were many such situations like this - problems, followed by observation, and nearly-magical common-sense solutions.
Friday we did some more random tasks, and I got to move my things to a hotel - and invest in a much needed shower. There is nothing as refreshing as drenching yourself in cold water when you're in a hot, muggy, dusty place (nothing, that is, except for the shower followed by fresh lime juice in soda-water, with sweet-syrup).
I'll skip the highlights of the conference, as they are contained in the "official report"...and as it is late, and I am recovering from being a sick people, I'll hit you with the rest in the morning...but I'll leave you with a photo.
ok, now lets begin:
I was already pretty excited about the conference in Battambang, having read some news on the Baha'i World News Service(BWNS), and hearing of other conferences from various friends. Then I got wind of the fact that someone, somewhere, had thrown my name out as a journalist/reporter for the conference. At first I thought that they should find someone else - since I was sure there had to be someone better at journalizing and reporterizing than I. It turns out that those people existed, but they were all otherwise occupied, and thus it was that I heard the ear-piercing toll of the bell of destiny echo through me: khello english friend, time to write! true story, the bell of destiny speaks with a khazak accent and if it had a face, would look like borat.
So, I'm all geared up to go and do this thing, which I know nothing about. Luckily, I manage to snag an assistant who does, in the form of one "Emily-with-a-T", from Malaysia. Having already written a report for a similar conference in Malaysia, I was now set up to delegate my work, and simply assume responsibility and reward for the work of my slave(s). :D
I confer with Jarnha and Neissan on a regualr basis, and Jarnah informed us of the imminent arrival of Ryan Lash (international man of mystery). Also, being a facebook addict, I was able to, with the assistance of Avuth, coordinate to have Haifa stay with us when she got in to Phnom Penh. This is all to the backdrop of mountains of midterm-exam marking.
On the 27th, Avuth and I eat some banana in place of lunch, and then set out to retrieve Haifa from the airport. The bananas were packed in sticky rice, and wrapped in bananaleaf, and then BBQ'd to perfection. The Sticky rice is also coconut-flavoured. Just awesome. Before getting Haifa, we went and bought tickets for the bus to Battambang for Avuth, Haifa, Ryan Lash (interlashional man of mystery), and Myself. 
When we bought the tickets, I was given this spiffy new 20,000 rial bill! I was so pumped about it that I insisted on taking pictures, and refused to use it to purchase anything until the last days of the Bang. Soon later, we found ourselves at the airport.
After picking up a terrified Haifa, we proceeded to drop off some bags, and then go for a nice khmer lunch at boat noodles. After the delicious fish amok and fried veggies, we returned to my place, only for Haifa to discover that not only was she my captive, but that she had to mark some of my midterms for me! Avuth played guitar to calm her nerves while we worked away. I realize this stpry is turning into a series of photos and descriptions, so I'll try and avoid that and move along a little quicker.We all ate Gado-Gado for diner with beattie and her p-units, and then chilled in the park, and then had fruit juices. sweetness.
Wednesday! the 28.
I had barely enough time to do laundry, hang it up, and hope for the best by the time our 1PM bus left. Ah procrastination, the character flaw which haunts me most. Needless to say we went out for lunch, and my clothes were dry and packable upon our return. The trip up was fairly dull, except for the absolutely RIDICULOUS hong-kong-dubbed-khmer movie. Millionaires, mad-scientists, teachers, robots, great film. aske me about it sometime.
We hit the ground running in Battambang, helping out with the conference preparations by sorting out tags and stuffing folders. Avuth, Haifa, and I stayed in the CORDE building while Interlashional made his way down to Gems international school to get his photo gear sorted, etc. The next day was much of the same, Ry and I got a briefing on the conference, most of what I got out of it was that there was much yet to be decided...and I still had no clue what I was doing. I decided to do my own research, reviewing the instructions from BWNS, and reading up on past conference coverage. I was finally put at ease when my contact from BWNS gave me a shout and told me to "capture the spirit", "gloss over the details", "get good quotes", and "enjoy the conference". Instant new friend. Best news I could get. So, I reset my mind-frame to one of simply absorbing what I saw and felt, and keeping alert for the notable and the quotable.
This feels like a good place for a picture.
The Representatives of the House of Justice made it into Battambang on thursday in the evening - their departure was delayed a bit, but everyone got to watch a sweet, sweet dragon dance while we waited. Check the bar to the right for a video, and facebook for some pics! They cleared up the schedule of the conference and all the logistics in a meeting almost as soon as they arrived, efficient to the max! There were some problems, mainly with the venue: There were too many people, so the organizers had planned to move the conference outside, creating a large hall made of tents. This might have worked, except for the fact that the khmer wedding tents were too low for people to be able to see any kind of screen for presentations, etc. So they went inside to double-check the capacity. After some shuffling of chairs here and there, it was discovered that hundreds more than originally thought could be fit in by simply using smaller chairs. Genius. So it was figured that 1400 or so could fit in the main hall, with the spill-over in some tents set up outside the hall. There were many such situations like this - problems, followed by observation, and nearly-magical common-sense solutions.
Friday we did some more random tasks, and I got to move my things to a hotel - and invest in a much needed shower. There is nothing as refreshing as drenching yourself in cold water when you're in a hot, muggy, dusty place (nothing, that is, except for the shower followed by fresh lime juice in soda-water, with sweet-syrup).
I'll skip the highlights of the conference, as they are contained in the "official report"...and as it is late, and I am recovering from being a sick people, I'll hit you with the rest in the morning...but I'll leave you with a photo.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Battambang Conference
Here are the official reports:
general overview.
Detailed business.
The unofficial one will be up as soon as I finish report-card comments.
general overview.
Detailed business.
The unofficial one will be up as soon as I finish report-card comments.
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