Cambodian Trip - Day #1

First of all, we've officially fallen in love with a new airline - Emirates. We were sitting in regular economy class (of course) and can't even imagine the luxuries that the business and first class passengers receive. We were first treated a hot towel before taking off. We then noticed that every seat has a small television on the headrest in the seat in front of you. No big deal because there are some US airlines which have those too. BUT, these offer a full menu of over 400 movies, television shows, and games which you can control with the half sky phone/half remote control. I played a little backgammon and some mini golf before watching some of the movie Iron Man. Jamie watched Friends episodes the whole trip. All of this is free with more leg room and the food was really tasty as far as airline food standards are concerned.

We took the Emirate flight out of Hong Kong on Friday evening at 10:30 and arrived just after 1:00 am in Bangkok, Thailand. Our flight for Phnom Penh, Cambodia was not scheduled to leave until 7:40 am on Saturday, so we have plenty of time to relax. Have you ever tried to relax in an airport? Impossible. We did, however, find the lounge area for Bangkok Airlines and we were able to find some couches to sleep in until about 6:00 am.

Our flight to Phnom Penh was not spectacular, but the breakfast was tasty. We filled out our forms for customs, visa application, and arrival card. The visa for Cambodia is only $20. You are supposed to have a passport size pictures, but they will wave that for $1. I did have my picture taken by some webcam. Jamie didn't. The driver of our guesthouse was waiting for us outside and quickly drove us to our guesthouse, Frangipani Villa.

We couldn't check in yet, so we decided to walk around the city for a while. I'm posted some pictures in a slideshow entitled "Cambodia 2008 - Eric" and Cambodia 2008 - Jamie." We both have cameras and it is just easier to upload from 2 different ones. Feel free to browse them and let me know if you have questions. I'm not sure I'll be able to place a caption on all of them. Not sure I'll place a caption on any of them right now. Nonetheless, enjoy the photos.

We walked around Independence Monument and then up by some shops near the Royal Palace. We couldn't get into the Royal Palace until the afternoon, so we decided to go to the Cambodian National Museum instead. It was nice and you could read more about it by searching than I could ever type here explaining it. I have taken several photos you can view below. Jamie has also taken some from her camera.

Driving in Phnom Penh. While it is a general rule that you drive on the right side of the road, this is just simply a "guideline." Phnom Penh drivers make Chinese drivers look like Drivers' Eductaion instructors. There is no public transportation, so just about everyone drives a motorcycle. Tourists are guided around by carraiges pulled by motorcycles. These are called "tuk tuks," and they are very useful. We have had some problems so far the drivers not being able to find our guesthouse, but they are all friendly. A tuk tuk ride across the city can be exciting as you will find yourself going the wrong way down one way streets, going down the wrong side of the road, making U-turns in the middle of traffic, and nearly getting nailed by larger vehicles at just about every turn. We were going to rent bicycles from our guesthouse, but riding them in this city would be a deathwish.

We rested in the afternoon and went to Khmer Surin for dinner. Jamie had a traditional Thai/Cambodian fish plate and I had pineapple chicken fried rice. We had "banana soup" for dessert which consisted of cooked bananas with sugar and coconut juice - yummy!

We have free internet here at our guesthouse which is good for posting these and emailing. We were going to watch the UT and UGA games, but the Slingbox is working really, really slow here. We might actually have to miss a game. Not to fear, we have them recorded and we can always watch them when we return back home or this week if we have a faster internet connection in Siem Reap.

One of the cooler pictures we took today is of the 5 different currencies we've used in the last 24 hours - Chinese RMB, Hong Kong dollar, Thai Baht, American dollar, and Cambodian Riel. Cambodia for the most part takes American dollars which has been odd for us considering we haven't used US dollars since we left Atlanta on July 30.

Long post I know, but it has been a busy day. Our plan tomorrow is to go the Genocide Museum and the Killing Fields as well as the Royal Palace for a tour. We leave Monday to go to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat.

Hope I haven't forgotten anything. Let me know if you have any questions or you can just leave a comment below.

Thanks for reading!!!

7 Things...

I haven't posted in a while but things have really slowed down for us. It is about to pick up again in several areas though, so stay tuned. Here are 7 things that will catch you up:

1) We leave this weekend for Cambodia. Keep checking back for updates. They have plenty of Internet service and I'll be taking a million pictures particularly when we get to Angkor Wat next Tuesday.

2) We are finalizing our topics for our dissertations; and once finalized, we will be hitting that pretty hard to finish within about a year or so. It has been since January since we finished our comprehensive exams, but the move to China has slowed our work. We are settled enough now to seriously start working on it.

3) We are looking into shipping Griffey over here. Frankly, I really miss my dog and want him over here. It is doable but really expensive. I dare not post how much because people will think I'm crazy. Let's just say it would be cheaper for us to ship a human being over.

4) Our work is still great. Kids are settled in just as we are. We are winding down our first quintile and will do so the week after our first break. Kids have to pass with either an A or B so many are busy retesting, rewriting, and re-everythinging. I just made up a word.

5) Jamie and I are missing some food from home. We have already planned out where we will eat when we get off the plane next June. My goodness how we miss Zaxby's and Chik-fil-a!!! I, of course, miss Chilis and their southwestern egg rolls. Good ol milk sounds good right now with some pinto beans and cornbread. Yummy! We'll stick to eating rice, chicken, pork, meat, and veggies.

6) We had 2 packages sent from home on August 21/22. They have not arrived. It says they were attempted to be delievered and they are in some sorting center in China. That's nice. China is a large country with 1.3 billion people. We are convinced that our packages are in Mongolia and they are enjoying our DVDs. We figure either we'll get these packages sometime in the next month or they will be sent back to the states.

7) We've learned a new term. TIC = This is China. Most of the time, this will be the answer when you question why something is the way it is. TIC explains everything yet doesn't explain anything. Go figure...

That's about it! Number of hits to the website have gone down and I have had a follower sign up in about a week. We are up to 22 now, so if you are reading this and have not signed up to be a follower, please do. Take care... Go Vols!!! and for this week, Go Dawgs!!!

My New Pin!

Check it out! A co-worker from Tennessee gave this to me today. For those flag illiterate, it is a lapel pen of the Tennessee state flag and the Chinese flag. Apparently, Phil Bredeson, Governor of Tennessee, came to China, and this was one of the gifts they distributed. I'm going to wear it daily and with pride and will wear it when I return home for summer. I'm really excited about it, as you can tell.

We are winding down our first week with the students and getting into a routine. We will receive our passports and year work visas tomorrow, so we will be able to go into Hong Kong. We are both excited about going to Hong Kong. For me, I just want to see the city. For Jamie, she is excited about going to an English bookstore. Please pray that she will not spend all of our money on English books.

The students continue to amaze me at their ability and eagerness to learn. They are so well behaved and are truly a delight to teach. I have started my Mock Trial "specials" class, and it is going fairly well. They are amazed at the American legal system, although I'm not sure they understand their own legal system. Nonetheless, we are putting Roy L. Kingsman on trial for agitating Humpty Dumpty enough that he fell off of the wall. Of course, all of the King's horses and all of the King's men couldn't put Humpty Dumpty back together again. I'll let you know how my students decided the fate of Roy L. Kingsman.

I have a percentage of the students who are attending QSI Shekou this year. There are 47 nationalities represented. The nationalities break down as follows:

27% Korean
16% USA
11% European Union (8 countries)
9% Brazil
9% Japan
7% Taiwan
6% Hong Kong

For those looking for Chinese students, the school is not allowed to enroll Chinese nationals. Not sure why, but I'll ask. Why so many Koreans? Well, aparently, the Koreans are the builders of the world now, so they are moving all over the world to build factories, high rises, and other buildings. The Korean students are very well behaved and are excellent at Math. They are eager to learn English, and I will often get responses on their papers that mention they can't wait until the master or perfect the English language. Many also want to "make their parents' proud." How many American students would write that down as one of their "3 wishes."

Thanks for those who have been posting comments. I really enjoy reading them and the emails you send. It keeps me closer to home. Feel free to drop me an email anytime. If you really want to correspond, you'll download Skype on your computer. We can then correspond for free. Google Talk is also a way to do this, but I've never used it. Let me know if you get Skype and I'll add you to my contacts. It is quite amazing to watch via webcam and listen to someone 7000 miles away.

Long post but I've slacked lately as I've gotten busy with school. Things will settle down a little bit. We are 100% positive we want to go to Cambodia for our first break. We will be flying into the capital, Phnom Penh, and then taking a boat across a lake to Siem Reap. From Siem Reap, we'll be able to see the world's largest religious temple of Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat was the capital and center of the Khymer Empire of Southeast Asia. It was only uncovered in 1861. Truly amazing! I will take more pictures than I can snap and will share all of them until Google shuts me down. I'll keep you posted. We won't go until the end of September, but I'm down right giddy thinking about it. How many people do you know have been do Cambodia?

Have a great day America! College football starts Thursday night! GO VOLS!!!