Our location in the city is fantastic; we live in The Golden Mekong Hotel, which is located right behind the Palace. We are two blocks away from the National Musuem and the Royal University of Fine Arts, a short bike ride from University of Cambodia campus, and we are in a great district that is the perfect blend of local food/cultural things (markets, Wats, street food shops) and ex-pat boutiques, bars and night clubs. We can walk and bike anywhere, and we've been having a good time marking out all the good places to eat, including an amazing and cheap Khmer BBQ right next door! We get the best of all worlds!
We started classes last Monday, and we take History/Culture/Everything-There-is-to-Know-About-Cambodia with Kyle and Khmer Language with a woman named Sopehap. She works for a language teaching company and she's awesome. Class with Kyle is an interesting experience; he has such a wealth of knowledge as he's lived in this part of the world for over 20 years. He's done research in Indonesia and Cambodia and Vietnam, and is trained as an archeologist but knows everything about everything else. He is so full of energy that it's sometimes hard to keep up! But I am SO excited because he really believes in experiential learning; we only have 1 or two lectures every week, and on the other days he takes us on different outings around the city. For example, last Tuesday we went to the local market Psar Kandal and he gave us a compass and a list of things to find and sent us on our way. We had to find different goods and make a map of where they were located in the market. Definitely my idea of a fun and interactive lesson! Here are some pictures from the market:
The rest of the week was spent adjusting and exploring; without a real campus and dining hall, it leaves us much more open to finding new and delicious places to eat, as well as fun places to hang out. We've already dubbed one internet café our favorite (as we don't have internet in our hotel...very regularly), and we've found some good clubs and bars in our neighborhood. Beer is SO cheap here (sometimes only $0.75 for half a pint!)
We have weekly meetings with Maryann and Joanna, our coordinators, and last week we met at a coffee shop right around the corner from the UC building. We chatted about adjusting and their work with different NGO's, and we enjoyed a delicious brownie (yay! finally good baked goods!)
Next post: recap of our amazing day trip and hike through the Cambodian wilderness!
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