Dec.24-27

Happy holidays!

I would say merry Christmas, but it isn't really a thing out here. Actually, I think even the "happy holidays" is excessive, because I only got one day off (25th),and even that was only because people protested last year! Either way, this little section of time was sweet!

I taught classes as usual on the 24th (thursday?) until 8:10, then made my way down to Jarnah and Beattie's place for a pot-luck dinner, which I failed to bring anything for (ah how little changes from country to country). They had been feasting for a while, so when I arrived they had polished off most of the dishes. Thankfully, they were all polite eaters, and left me a little bit of each dish, which was more than enough to fill me up! everything from roasted veggies, to sushi (made by an authentic japanese person!), to grape juice (brought by an authentic italian!). It was good times, and then got better when we played mafia.

As you may well know, I had some intense mafia sessions in malaysia just a short while ago, so my mafia skills were sharpened to the max. I ended up being a mafia, along with a cool guy from beattie's office in the UN. The game was golden. I actually can't describe how ridiculous it was. Granted, we were playing with many people who were inexperienced, but that's only because we (the mafia) were smart enough to kill off the experienced players first...In the end, there were three of us: Neissan was the angel/doctor I was mafia, and Neissan's japanese friend (whose name I cannot recall) was a citizen. Realizing that he had me, Neissan told her that he was the angel, and that I was the mafia, and that he had saved her last round. Realizing the same thing, I also told her that I was the angel, neissan was the mafia, and that I had saved her last round. It basically came down to who she trusted more, and, since I was also giving her reasons why neissan had to be the mafia, she eventually sided with me. "Damn it feels good to be a gangsta"


many people had to ditch after the game, but the few of us who stayed on were rewarded with a night full of sherades, pictionary, and interpretive dance! This most excellent of christmas-time parties lasted till 3am, and was well worth it.

he next day (25th) I eventually woke up and made my way to the school to see their christmas party. It was crazyness plus two! They blocked off some roads, hired some entertainment, organized games, and offered prizes! They also got some of the security guards to dress up in santa costumes, which was hilarious (mostly because these tiny cambodian guys were stuffing their suits try and get a belly, and were getting right into the ho, ho, ho's and all that business!)

Later that evening...I met up with Neissan, and we went to check out the "Khmerry Christmas boat party". We bought some roadside food and some drinks, hopped on the boat, and met tons of people who we didn't know before. I got to connect with some other strange-mix, third-world-raised children, such as a japanese/pakistani girl, and another pakistani girl who grew up in the Philippines! Everyone I met was pretty friendly, and we all had a good time munching on snacks and enjoying each other's company while taking in the sunset on the mekong river.

We got back, and ended up meeting some of our newfound friends at a place called "Chow" by the riverside, which has a great rooftop lounge...which we proceeded to lounge in until about 11. The conversation was semi-enlightened, and the food was delicious. The only random thing was the music. Since it was Christmas, the staff wanted to play Christmas music. Unfortunately, they also wanted to blast it. We kept asking them to turn it down, but they'd turn it off, and then several minutes later, they'd start up again with another jingle on full-blast. I finally put in the effort to explain that none of the people on the roof were into the Christmas music. The girl looked at us confused and crushed, saying "but it's Christmas!". Until that point, I figured the music was for us, but then I realized they were also all dressed up in Santa-hats, etc., and perhaps they wanted the music on. Not like any of them were Christians, but I still felt bad crushing their perhaps misplaced holiday spirit.

Next day (26th) was back to work, and I had a full-on 7:50AM-8:10PM day, coming home to some guests whom we had over dinner. I was exhausted. I did some marking, which has given me some interesting stories to tell. Actually, teaching has a few as well. I'll post up some incidents/comic homework as soon as I can post again. But for now we'll end on the 26th (because we have guests coming, and I need to clean-up!)