Malasian Adventure

Apparently, this will have to wait until I return to battambang (don't worry, I'm taking pictures and notes). I don't know what to say guys - I've been BUSY doing all sorts of fun little things, e.g. tomorrow we film a music video about late-night malaysian eateries (mamaks)! between things like that and this online course, my days have been full. I thought writing while travelling would be easy, but I had a stable internet connection in phnom penh, and a less socially demanding schedule. Either way, hope everyone's well!

love,

Ashraf.

p.s. spoiler pics on facebook.

Battambang and Beyond

I went up to BB on the 11th of March, arriving just in time to help set up the chairs, tables, etc. for the second birthday party (note: this was a joint birthday party with Prema, whose birthday landed on the 12th). I met one Ruhi Zandra just before boarding the bus to Battambang – story as follows:

The P-units drop me off at the bus and peace out. I’m standing around, looking at my bus, waiting for the guy to let me load my bags. I call Elyssa to let her know that I’m leaving. Seconds later, she calls me back, telling me to look out for this Ruhi woman. I asked for a description, and, each bit of information she passed on correlated to the body in front of me! So I just walked up to her and was like “Ruhi?” and she said yes, and how did I know, etc. We then got a chance to hop on the bus, and decided we’d continue our conversation at the next bus stop. It being the fast, we both slept through the whole 5 hour ride to Battambang, postponing our friendship-building until later.

Back to the party:
It was pretty sweet, set on the rooftop of Gems International School, with around 20 attendees. We ended up eating kind of late, but I broke the fast with a mouth-watering coconut, so I was in no rush anyway. Prema made some tasty chocolate fudge cake, and banana-chocolate cake. Sweetest birthday presents ever. We all played Mafia after dinner, with Sopheap (from CORDE) being the first victim of the mafia. Ryan “interlashional” lash turned out to be the mafia ringleader, and after he fell, the rest followed suit. Alas, I was the final victim of the Mafia. The next few days involved sleep, Settlers of Catan, and mango shakes – I like!

Trip to Bangkok

Saturday the 14th, Quddus and I hop in a taxi to Poipet (Cambodia-Thailand border town). The taxis in Cambodia insist on having a minimum of 6! Passengers for each trip. After the guy came to get us, he needed three more. So we roll up to this random part of BB, where taxi drivers and potential passengers congregate. It was hilarious to watch: as each passenger arrives (usually on a moto), all the taxi drivers walk over and try to win over their business. The tactics ranged from grabbing their luggage and walking towards their taxi, to paying for the moto, to insulting other taxi drivers, to what our guy did, which was point to the foreigners in his taxi. I felt like he should have given us a discount. Either way, we ended up leaving with a decent 5 passengers in a regular sized sedan: Quddus, a negligibly-sized Cambodian guy, and I sitting in the back, while two ladies shared the front seat. We all had to fork up an extra dollar so that the guy would drive, but it was worth it. I’ve learnt some Khmer by this point, so I could make out the conversation between the two ladies, talking about the “thom-thom’s” in the back seat. Thom, of course, meaning “large”. So I let them know that I knew by laughing when they said it, and once the ice was broken, we had some good times speaking back and forth in broken khmer.

Then we got to the border in Poipet.We waited in line to immigrate, hoping we wouldn't end up like this:

We made it through with plenty of time to organize a ride to the International Ariport. After shopping around for options, we settled on a little minivan for 300 baht (originigally 350). Making sure that we were guaranteed a ride straight to the airport. Of course, once we were near the airport, the guy feigned ignorance, and insisted that he was only going to Suvarnhabumi town, not to the airport with the same name. *sigh* After leting him know that we wouldn't be paying an extra 100 baht each, and Quddus insisting that we get a chance to speak to his managers, he shook his head, waved his hands, and gave up his quest for extra cash. We met a cool Cambodian guy who was on his way to visit a friend in Bangkok. His name was Paul - which I didn't believe at first, and demanded he give me his real khmer name. As it turns out, Paul is a khmer name as well (it was like wei-paul or something).

The Bangkok airport is actually a cool spot to hang out for a while (lucky for us). In our hurry to reach the airport, we'd provided ourselves 5 hours before our flight, and 2 hours before we could even check in!(which we discovered after waiting in line at 3pm). I burned up time by reading another chapter out of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. The chapter I read was titled "The Complete Annihilation of the Western Empire" - so good.

Then we went back into the lineup (where the air asia ladies asked Quddus to pose for a photo with them, sexy time!):

After getting through passport control, we hunted for a place to break the fast (this airport is horrible to be fasting in, the smells of delicious food are everywhere). Food was tasty (but soo pricy!), we also had a tasty dipped cone from DQ.

I had, for some unkown reason, decided to pack my toiletries in my carry-on. I know, I haven't packed them in my carry on for ages! Ridiculous. Either way, I haggled with them to let me keep my aftershave (unmarked bottle!) and had to let go of some aveda haircream that I got in montreal. I tried to convince them to take the hair cream, but they weren't really interested. I think they genuinely felt bad about taking it away by the end of the conversation, but this didn't stop them from doing their job...too bad :( Quddus and I made jokes about the fast being a time of detachement anyway, so I little mourned the loss of some haircream.

We boarded the plane, took our seats, and had a sweet fligh out to malaysia. We were about to buy bus tickets from the air hostess, but the couple behind us gave us theirs becuase their friends were coming to pick them up. Sweet! Quddus and I had an "amazing race"-style landing. We quickly made our way to the front of the line of people walking to passport control, were the first to get our bags, and first to bust out of the airport! Where we found, to our surprise and excitment, our friends, waiting to pick us up! (here's us putting our "M's" down for Malaysia)



End Part One.

MALAYSIA!

I had many travels - to Battambang, to Poipet, to the Bangkok airport, and finally to Malaysia!

And since I've had a sketchy internet connection, I've been unable to post! Not to worry, I have pictures and some video, and will upload them in a few hours. For now, we have to go change money, buy local sim cards, do some work :( , and get to know the area!

ah, life. So cool.

quick additional note

Two good buddies came over wanting to say goodbye, and learn more about the faith (they'd ben asking, and I'd been promising some sort of mini fireside). So I gave about half of Ana's presentation to two guys named Eddie and Ana. Hah! Anna for Ana.

anananananana!

Bifday

This day,  an estimated 24 years ago, I was birthed into this tumultuous existence. Legend says I "rolled out", predating Ludacris'  hit song by a good 16 years. I was also a reportedly happy baby, enjoying moments of life, failing to balance myself as I explored the world, and generally being chubby and chill. Not too much has changed, but I am working on having greater balance in life, and Cambodia is taking care of my chubbiness, slowly but surely.

Either way, today, I continued my slave labour for AII, entering all the details for report cards, and ALMOST printing them, except the printers were occupied by others, so I got, how you say, the shaft. I will have to make a special trip in tomorrow, before I depart to Battambang, just to print the report cards, and get my last little bit of pay. Hopefully that all goes A-ok.

I had a svet little birthday party, with a few friends. The complete photos will be on facebookolet, but here are a few key photos:

breaking the fast

eating the dinner avec cat hats

Bringing the cake

blowing out the candales.

After this manner, I had a sweet little 24th birthday party. Tomorrow, we continue the festivities in Battambang, where Prema and I will celebrate a joint birthday on the night of the 11th (her bday is the 12th). I was promised large quantities of mango, and a rooftop party - so the future looks bright (and sweet, and orange). 

I got many sweet and thoughtful messages, which, to be honest, put my birthday-wishing to shame. Apparently, 24 is the year where people get professional with their birthday greetings, and really throw some effort into the well-wishing.

All, however, was not well in the party. It was bittersweet, since we celebrated my departure as well (note: for some, it is entirely possible that this is doubly sweet, who knows? ;) ) This threw the small wrench of awkwardness into the mix, but it was an joyous occasion nonetheless. I even read quotes from African wisdom in a Nigerian accent. Also, as far as food goes, Shaku made chicken curry and palak paneer(but it was with other cheeses), AND banana cake! Delicious!

Tomorrow, I quest out into the wide world of dust, travel, and tenuous internet connections.

These are some new birthday clothes from yesterday's Russian Market trip.

PEACE!

The Day Before the World Began

more like my world, but anyway.

Today I spent some time reading about unity as a necessary precursor for lasting peace, and had some interesting discussion with my fellow online-course mates. I also, as they say in India, "did the needful": I did my laundry, paid off some debts (this is a long story in itself), bought some new clothes, and made sure I invited a few friends for my birthday party. My p-units have decided to throw me a CLASSIC birthday party, with supper, cake,  hats, and noise-makers. So I could invite only a few people (much as I'd like to invite everyone I know out here in PP), but I still think it'll be a sweet time.

Also, sweet moment of the day: we broke the fast sitting on the balcony with some tea, dates, cookies, and prayers. It was great, but then it got better - as soon as the sun set, what should appear, but lightning! Y'all know how I love a good lightning storm, and this one delivered - a solid half-hour of non-stop lightning. Ah, I am so easily amused. Either way, I solidly enjoyed the evening.

I noticed today how quickly my departure has come - I've only just finished teaching, and now I head out for three weeks of gallivanting across the Malaysian peninsula! No time to spend bonding with the p-units...I guess I'll have to wait for Batambang in April to spend some nice family time. 

That's all for now!

(tomorrow is the birthday, so I will likely have much more to report) Although, I am already feeling older, but that's been accumulating over the last few months.

video notice.

you will find a new videpo on the right. This was taken on monday night at Neissan's place. The video describes the night so well, I felt no need to write about it.

Le Fin de Semain

Struggle as I might, my posts have fallen into a bi-weekly rhythm. The good thing is that I get more time to sleep at night. The bad thing is that I forget some great little stories. Luckily, (and with thanks to Munir and Adaeze) I bought a digital camera, and have a great memory-aid.

I delivered the final exams to my students, desperately tried to prevent them from cheating, and finally had a little party with each class on Thursday. The kids out here cheat SO MUCH! It's actually ridiculous. I was having to firmly remind students not to leave their sheets hanging off the ends of their tables - and every time I went to answer a questions, I got the sneaking suspicion they were strategic questions, posed to give their friends a chance to cheat. Either way, even if they cheated, it did them no good - as many of my students failed their exams (oddly [or not], the classes with the least cheating got the highest scores). I had a great time partying it up with the students, some of them even got me gifts (a Parker pen, and a silk wallet!). I later realized the gifts were likely bribes, as the students who delivered the gifts were definitely failing. :)

Oh, oh! I had a student FAINT during a final. She was seated right in front of my desk, near the front of the class. She had come in to the exam a little bit late, and was out of breath and fanning herself for a few minutes. She looked a little pale, and I thought nothing of it, but then she looked at me and said "teacher, I'm feeling dizzy". "Great" I thought, "at least she's got the grammar right on reporting medical conditions"...not realizing how serious she was, I opened a bottle of water that I had sitting on my desk (awaiting sunset), and offered her a drink. Just as I did, she dramatically collapsed out of her desk, arms flailing about, knocking the bottle from my grip, and generally causing a scene. The class quickly came to her aid, and we soon had her laid flat on the ground, with her head supported. Someone busted a strong perfume out of nowhere, and with its aid, she eventually came to. The chaos in the class allowed a few entrepreneurial spirits to take a gander at some of the abandoned final exams of their classmates, but most students were focused on their fallen comrade. Security was called, and manged to get her down to the office. I had to quickly reestablish order in the classroom to prevent further cheating, so I firmly maneuvered the kids back into their seats. Our victim was taken to a hospital to ensure that she didn't have a concussion, and thankfully, all is well.

Friday was filled up with school work, finalizing the marks and such. Marking went much faster this time - I felt an increased sense of efficiency and achievement. Unfortunately, I am still not finished with the administrative work (even though my contract is done, and I will receive no more pay!). Thus, in my updated C.V., I will likely list myself as having volunteered for AII as well.

Tonight was fun! The school booked out a little restaurant/cafe called "Gasolina". They served us all the food and drink that we could want, and gave us a good chance to get to know each other. Many people invited their families and significant others, but I brought along my p-units. They had a great time, meeting the president of the school, mingling with the teachers, and eating some free foods.

I ended up having the ever-famous "why don't you drink?" conversation with many of the staff...only to happen upon this: one of the teachers was like "oh yeah, I used to have a friend in uni that didn't drink as well - he was a cool guy...he was Persian though, not Egyptian." I thought to myself "well, there are a lot of Persian Baha'is in Australia." so I asked him "Was he a Baha'i" He goes "Yeah! That's the one - that's it! How did you know?" Lucky guess I guess :P

A handful of us continued the festivities at a place called Fly Lounge. It was pretty fly. They have a pool encased in plastic/glass that sits right beside the dance-floor. This way, some of the swimmers can see some of the dancers, and vice-versa. Interesting/funky idea. It was a strange club experience for a few reasons, but mostly because some families brought their kids along. I danced with some of my Nigerian brothers, and later walked home. good times.

The Fast

Is a beautiful time of the year.

from march 2nd, till march 21st, Baha'is around the world do the ludicrous - they don't eat or drink from sunrise till sunset. This is all in the hopes of achieving some spiritual growth, or at least doing some spiritual spring-cleaning. The idea, as far as I get it, of fasting is this: if you're not eating for God, you learn two things (at least): one is self-restraint, and the other is remembrance of God. The self restraint one is a simple 'technical' skill you learn from fasting - the repeated denial of a basic instinct allows one to control their desires. Of course, this doesn't always work out, sometimes you'll have a drink without realizing what you did till it's done - but even that can teach you to be more aware of what your regular routine is. The second is less technical, and more state-of-being-ish: fasting, for me, is more of a spiritual exercise...every time I feel my hunger or my thirst, I think of why I am hungry and thirsty, this leads me to think of God, and, in this way, I re-center my mind on God. It's surprisingly simple, and incredibly effective. I imagine, one could fast for any cause, and end up with similar results - you would center your mind around that which you fast for. For me, it's God - so the fast ends up being a spiritual reset-button - a kind of yearly battle against spiritual entropy. It's very nice, I like.

So that's the lowdown on my current mind-state. In the foreground, I'm still teaching the ESL, just closing up shop, marking finals (I became efficient!), having parties with the students in class (pics to come), and generally enjoying life. I've not had time to write my thoughts, feelings, or interesting stories up here for a few days now...and I've felt odd. I think blogging is becoming a part of my life routine -dangerous.

Thoughts on fasting?

thanks munir!

Munir linked this on facebook - the way I feel about most things in life.

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.

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)

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 ;)

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!).

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.

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?

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!

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.

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

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?