Meeting white people* turned out to be just what the doctor ordered.  Furthermore, it turns out our guesthouse is on the edge of town so white people do actually exist in Phnom Penh and there are a multitude of eating establishments with English menus. They seem shockingly expensive compared to our “authentic” Khmer food (think 3-5 dollars compared to 1.75 for a meal), but we just had a Nepalise/Indian meal this afternoon that was the most filling & satisfying meal since our arrival.  We left feeling full for the first time.   Anyways, back to the tour on Sunday afternoon, we met our TESOL course group at the tour, there are 10 of us and it is quite the amalgamation of characters, more on that to come. I’m still trying to figure everyone out, and I’m hoping to group them into a linnus-esque system of personalities, though even the strangest ones are warming on me.  The tour was pretty standard, a couple different Wat’s (name for Buddhist Temples, Angkor being the biggest one), the palace, and a multi-story mall full of western style over-priced amenities. Pictures below.

I’m going to go into more detail regarding the different personalities among our group and our teachers, but I’m a little sleepy at the moment. We just watched the Killing Fields which is a worthwhile flick to devote a couple hours to if you haven’t already.  We are planning on going to the torture prison & killing fields next Thursday, so we’ll post pictures of that when the time comes. Anyways, we drank a bottle of wine during the movie, first wine in Southeast Asia, feels just like home! The only problem is between the 7 dollar bottle of wine and the Indian meal, we spent more today than in the last three days combined, but what can you do; sometimes you need to live a little (and also, hence the sleepiness). One last thing I wanted to share, I feel like this needs to have a devoted section within the blog-the “Lewd & Crude” per se. In Cambodia, toilet paper is not a standard accessory in the “water closet.” What they have instead (in the fancy bathrooms at least) is a spray hose (think old-school kitchen sink) that takes the place of toilet paper.  Anyways, half of the week we have our TESOL course at the local university, and today was one of those days. After our enormous, and enormously satisfying Indian lunch, I headed straight for the university bathroom only to find the forewarned bathroom with spray-hose. At first sight, I turned around and went back to the classroom figuring I could wait an afternoon till we got back to guesthouse. Well after another two hours I was starting to get self-conscious with my active stomach in close proximity to the rest of the class, and in the name of science, I went for broke during the next break. The jet pressure was strong enough presumably for a sanitary job.  The only problem was shaking around doing some sort of dancing jig by myself in the stall trying to air-dry as quick as possible, all the while still having a strange sensation from the jet-stream!

 Anyways, all in good fun, pretty busy with this 8-6 learning how to teach business so I’ll try and keep y’all informed as best as possible.  Angkor Wat this weekend so great pictures to come, but till next time!



* Per Zoe's comment: In SE Asia, "white people" refers to all western non-asian people.  It does not have the offensive racial undertones as it does in America.