Life Update

I'm about to start week 5 of my 9 week training program. Everyone says the training is the hardest part, which is good because, to reiterate, they've been keeping us very busy. I had a bit of a routine in place last week, which was nice, because we did our teaching practicum e.g. I woke up around 5:30, if i decided to go running, or 6:30 if not. I climbed out of my mosquito net and met the true practitioners of dawn patrol i.e. a gaggle? of roosters who romp around crowing at the tops of their lungs competing with the noise from the ferral dogs, who seem to be omnipresent, omnibarking, and to hate runners (sometimes I carry rocks...but generally a loud noise and a quick raising of both arms above the head does the trick). Then I would pull up a few buckets of water from the well and take a lovely refreshing bucket shower. After showering, I'd head to the market where I met my favorite breakfast lady "Perry" who serves me pork and rice and laughs at me while I try to practice Khmer. I then biked a few miles to the local school and taught a classroom of 45ish Khmer students English, who, by the way, were amazing! They were incredibly respectful and polite and even threw us a party after our last day of class. We had bread and curry that the students made, there was Khmer dancing and some American dancing thrown in as well. Normally, after class, I rushed home to try and get in a quick hour of hand washing laundry or if I was lazy I just sat around and read. Then I'd eat lunch with my host family, and try to squeeze in a 10-15 minute nap before lesson planning. Two hours of lesson planning later, i would go to meet my language group and practice a few hours of Khmer. Afterward, I would either go to an extra Khmer study session with Vanny, one of the language teachers, or I would meet a few of my fellow compatriots for a drink and debrief session at the local bar. Then, I'd have dinner with my host family, lesson plan for another hour, and go to bed. That's been pretty much my life for the last week, with a few wonderful moments mixed in e.g. biking with Dave, or when my friend Che brought his class over to mine to sing us 8 days a week, or when our students listed "beer" and "drugs" as things that make up a "bad diet," or the party I had with my host family when my host brother passed his exams, or the nutella pancakes I had this morning. As cliched as it sounds, it's really the little things that are keeping me happy.