Laurie's World

So I blogged a little bit in my first week here about what I was eating back then. I think I mentioned that I ate at the restaurant at the hotel a few days and that I went and got fried rice with beef a couple times at a restaurant down the block. When I got into the apartment, I did buy a few groceries for home since I have a microwave and a fridge. There is a cooktop but I don’t have any pots and there is a rice cooker but I haven’t made any rice because what good is just rice to me ?? In the kitchen, there is literally 3 plates, 3 bowls, 3 forks, 3 spoons and 4 glasses. so it’s not ‘nothing’ in the kitchen, but it’s not enough to actually cook anything with.

On my first day here I went off in search of a knife so that I could make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Now, based on my search, I don’t think knives are really a thing here in the way that I’m used to a fork knife and spoon always coming together. I found a couple stores that have lots of forks and spoons but no knives to be found. At the Chipmong market where I bought some supplies on Sunday, I think I blogged about that experience 😬, I bought what I would call a paring knife, so if I need to cut fruit or make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich I could use that. It’s a little aggressive for that purpose but it’s all I can find.

Since I don’t really have a way to make lunches it was my intention to buy the school lunch. But as soon as I told Makara that I was going to do that, she said oh no no no, you need to come see a good place to get lunch. It’s 6,000 reil, which is A little under $1.50 USD. I’m skeptical, but of course i’ll go check it out. It’s a super small place literally right outside the back gate of the school. It simply doesn’t get any closer! There’s two food carts at the front then another smaller cooking area. As I look around and then tell Makara what I might eat , Makara then tells the lady at one of the carts some thing and then the next thing you know I’ve got food to-go and I’ve only paid $1.50. It was absolutely delicious! I think the meat is pork there’s rice cucumber and tomato and a little bag of some kind of sweet pickled ginger slaw. That’s the only way I know how to describe it.

I already know what I’m getting for lunch tomorrow and probably every day this week. By Thursday when I walked up, they just started making it for me, no gesturing required 😂😂

One of the other teachers told me they have a menu that I can choose other things from. At this point however I’m very happy with this meal so I just get the same thing every day, until today. I go over there right at 11am when my kids go to lunch and… The cart I usually order from is missing…… fortunately I see a couple teachers from the school including Makara, sitting at a table eating. I asked them what I’m supposed to do, and they say because today is a Chinese holiday, sometimes some places might be closed if those people celebrate those holidays. So if I want some thing from there I have to either order a sandwich from the other cart or order off the menu. 😳  One of the teachers has a sandwich and she is showing me what’s in it, and it looks like the palest of mystery meat. So while I’ve no issue with HER eating it, I don’t think I’m ready for that yet. So, I think I’m gonna go with something off the menu. PHEW! The menu is in English and Khmer. So I order some thing called fried rice with chicken and basil. I think it might’ve said something else too but that’s the essence of the dish. Once again they do not disappoint.

It was 8,000 riel, (which is just a little under two dollars) and there was enough food there for lunch and supper. I just warmed up the half that I brought home!!

Truly amazing! Anyways, I write this so that you know I’m not starving. A couple nights this week I have made eggs in the microwave and turned that into a delicious egg sandwich, since I got a loaf of bread back when I was in the hotel. I purchased peanut butter when I needed to bribe Nichol to take his meds And I picked up a jar of jelly at the store last weekend. So I have made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I also picked up some fruit and yogurt, Oreo cookies and some sour cream and onion chips. So I’m doing OK in that department. I did notice when I was at Landon‘s back when I first got here, he had a large block of cheddar cheese in his fridge. I have now asked him where he got that and he said over at the Makro. That is a large store similar to Costco (but maybe not quite as big) that is about a 30 minute Tuktuk ride. I will make that trip this weekend to pick up a few more supplies. The estimate on a grab to get there is 10,400 ($2.75) so it’s a more serious trek 😂😂 as it will cost me that to get back too!!

I see lots of rice in my future! Please however my plan to go over to Brooklyn Pizza this weekend! So stay tuned for pictures of that.

Well, here I am sitting on my balcony at 3:56 PM on Friday afternoon. I am able to gleefully confirm that I survived my first week. My first week back in the classroom, full time in person, since before Covid, my first week of teaching second grade and my first week of international teaching. All of these things are phenomenally exciting. I’m here for roughly 3 months, the last day of my contract is October 26 which is a Wednesday. It seems like a really random day, but it must have something to do with the return date of the teacher on leave. To be honest I’ve vacillated multiple times a day all week about whether or not I should be counting days until this is over. It is a tremendous amount of work, for a bunch of reasons. Of course teaching is always ALWAYS work, but to be fair to myself, I haven’t had to really embrace the rigor of teaching for the last year. I subbed on and off when I was home and able, and the rest of the subbing I did was in the virtual program with my school district. So being ready and energetic enough for this experience, well it’s gonna take some time for me to adjust. Fortunately I only have 15 students in my class, which is a fantastic doable number. And the maximum number of students attending on any day this week was 13. Two students already out sick pretty much every day.

It was NOT my intention to NOT blog daily this week. Honestly it was through sheer determination that I was even able to briefly update the blog on Monday as I haven’t been this tired in a long time. I left school at 4 o’clock every day this week up until today when I left at 3:30pm. I came home and walked Nichol, had something to eat, walked Nichol again and then fell into the bed. That is the sum total of my ‘activity’ after work. So my apologies for being off the grid.

I did get a doggy daycare lined up for Nichol. He went on Wednesday this week and then again today. In the mornings, the driver can pick Nichol up between seven and 715 or between eight and 815. So since I have to be at school by 7 AM neither of these times are great. But then it occurred to me that I could run home at 7:50am (thank you 2 minute walk) when my teaching partner is running her lesson and get him to the Driver and then just go back to school. So that’s what I did on Wednesday and it worked beautifully. I did tell them that I would pick Nichol up from the daycare after work on Wednesday. When I got there it was pretty chaotic in the clinic. There was a lot of people coming and going so they had a staff member walk me down to the daycare to pick up Nichol. The doggie daycare is about half a block down from the vet clinic. When I got there the rest of the dogs went absolutely nutzzzzzz! So one of the ladies inside the daycare brought him out and he was pretty excited to see me but also crawling up as high as he could on top of her shoulders to get away from the other dogs. As they were all jumping up. They sent me some pictures in the afternoon to show me that he was happy and eating, and I could tell that he was very tired but really happy to be there. (He stays in an area with dogs his size). We walked back up to the clinic and they asked me to come inside. I was confused at first and then they told me that before the dogs leave every day, they quickly check them to make sure they’re OK. So even though I was picking him up they still had to check him. Of course he was OK so we were sent off. I told themI would send him back on Friday and have the driver pick up and drop off. We went for a short walk and then I ordered a Grab to take us home. Just as we were getting into the Grab a torrential monsoon started. We were very happy to be in the Tuktuk rather than trying to walk!! It would take us about 30 minutes to walk from the daycare back to my apartment. Or it was a 12 minute Tuktuk ride. Certainly reasonable use of a dollar to get a Grab in that rain. That’s the most common time of day that there’s rain here between 4 and 7 PM.

Nichol very happily jumped right into the car today when the driver got here and tolerated me taking a few pictures. They’re going to drop him off between 5 and 6 PM they said. It’s a pretty long day for him and I’m expecting that he will be very tired when he gets home. We will both certainly enjoy our rest this weekend !!

Pretty sure this car is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen. But he’s definitely easy to spot pulling up in front of the apartment! And I also think that Nichol already knows the car! The lady at the daycare told me that it’s the only car like it in Phnom Penh. Not a total surprise😂

I survived the first day of school! I have to say I didn’t know exactly what to expect today, but I was prepared to meet the kids, have fun and just make sure that the first day back to school for my class of second graders was the best it could possibly be. Schooling here has been inconsistent at best since February 2020. (Just as everywhere else in the world) The students and the teachers need to get back in the swing of things. I’m especially needing some time to adjust given that I primarily took the entire last year off to travel around the states.

My class roster has 15 students. We had a random student show up that we did not see on the roster but just went ahead and added her to my class. I did have four students absent today and one went home at first recess with a fever. So the bulk of the day was 11 students. I’m looking forward to meeting the rest but not gonna lie, that wasn’t a terrible way to baby step my way into my new role. I absolutely love my Khmer teaching partner Makara! Our styles complement each other and I love having another teacher in the classroom, it’s a lot like my teaching experience in the states when I had a team in my room. Makara is absolutely brilliant at moving fluently between Khmer and  English so the students are very lucky. Most of my students are fully fluent in English and come AND Khmer. I think many of them primarily speak English in the home. I believe I have two students that are learning Khmer as a third language. The ability of children to learn multiple languages is truly amazing. I wish I had that skill. We will see how much Khmer I pick up bring here!!

I will update more soon. I just wanted everyone to know that all is well….

……but my faith in humanity has been boosted!

I had my final list of items that I needed to settle in here, so I went in search of a grocery store this afternoon. I possibly overpaid, but for convenience but I chose a store called Chipmong that was about a 12 minute walk from the apartment. I feel like maybe it’s an average price place, because the peanut butter that I paid five dollars for at the Aeon mall on Tuesday was only $2.10 at the chipmong market so it’s probably more expensive other places but not the worst price offender. I needed dish soap and laundry soap and hand soap and a knife, hangers, you know stuff, 😉maybe some food??  Although I am inclined to not have any food in this apartment that I can’t keep in the fridge based on what happened when I put Nichol’s kibbles down for him. They seemed to attract a hefty line of ants. This was not an issue in the hotel…..🤦🏻‍♀️

Anyways amongst a handful of stuff i my cart, I had even got myself a celebratory bottled drink 🍹  to have tonight on my balcony as I enjoy the view of the city at sunset. I’m at the til and they are starting to run stuff through and then all of a sudden I realized I hadn’t brought the right wallet. So I had to have them void everything and assured them that I would be back. I had to run home to the apartment get my wallet and then run back to the grocery store and sure enough, they had all my stuff waiting there for me in my cart. An extra bunch of steps for me for sure 🏃‍♀️

**But what restored my faith in humanity was when I was standing there in line with all the stuff and not enough money, the nice lady behind me in line offered to pay. Can you believe it?? It was going to be almost $60, so I could not possibly accept that. Plus it was a lesson learned for me to check my bag before I leave! Once I get my bank account set up and I can use the ABA Mobile pay app this won’t be an issue but until then I’m stuck in a world where I either need my credit card or cash. I did however book a Grab home from the grocery store, 3,400 reil. That’s 86 cents. I just can’t get over how cheap it is here to catch a Grab. The Chipmong is 100% an expat store, so my next outing for things like this will be definitely to the Russian market. That will require some focus and some energy and I wasn’t quite there today. Stay tuned for details on that upcoming field trip😉😉

I’m pointing at my school! It’s closer than it  looks in the picture!

OK, so there are a few things I need to update on. Let’s start with the visit to animal mama yesterday afternoon. I really think this is something that would be good for Nichol as honestly I can be a little boring. And I think it would be good for him to be around other dogs every so often. The small dogs are kept separate from the large dogs. The big dogs are outside and the smaller dogs are inside. He did great with all of it even considering that all the other dogs kind of went nuts when he and I walked in. Lots of butts were sniffed and  introductions were made. I saw the car that they pick up and drop off in. I think he’ll like that! It also occurred to me on the way back up hotel that he could get picked up at the second option for pick up time which is between eight and 8:15 AM. I have to be at school at 7 AM so the initial pick up time of seven to 7:15 AM would not work, but my students are in their Khmer lesson from 7:45 to 8:45 am so since I’m only a two minute walk from school I can run home grab him and meet the Driver. I think we will start slow, so I’ve booked him to start on Wednesday. I will probably go pick him up early so that his first day is a little shorter. If I get them to drop him off he’ll get dropped off between 5 and 6 PM. They promised they will send me lots of pictures during the day, so I’m looking forward to that.

At 4:30 PM Sinet came and picked me up at the hotel so we could go over to the apartment that I chose, to pay the deposit and the first months rent (and sign a contract). It’s a three month contract so it will end on November 5. I feel bad because the agent is only going to get a small tip instead of an actual commission from the building because of the three month lease thing. But there will be other things that I will use him for as he provides many services for ex-pats. So I will try to help him out there where I can. The $700 per month rent gets me a two bedroom two bathroom fifth floor apartment with a balcony and a washer that is only a couple minute walk from my school! The beds are a little hinky, one room has a queen and the other has two doubles. So obviously this is not ideal once Troy comes but I suspect we will be moving on pretty quickly once he gets here. The fifth floor is actually more like the seventh floor since hear the first floor is actually the ground floor and there is another floor for management. So that adds a couple floors to the number. My apartment is the length of the front of the building on my floor and there are only four apartments on this floor so it’s pretty quiet. My other requirement was an elevator, after spending a week and a half at a hotel with no elevator (and being on the third floor) that was a lot of stairs to carry my furry friend up and down while the bad knee is acting up. Given that that will be an ongoing issue, we are much better off with an elevator. Besides, I will get my fair share of stairs at school as my classroom is on the fourth floor. I’ll be going up and down those stairs multiple times a day!!  💪

As it turns out I don’t get the keys to the apartment today since the landlord needs to sign the contract. So we bring up the bags of stuff that I brought over and I’m just gonna leave them there. It wasn’t my intention to stay the night anyways because there’s things I need to get. I’m told I need to come back tomorrow at 11 AM to pick up my keys. So that is what I will do! I told Sinet he didn’t have to drive me back to the hotel, that I would walk. (It’s about a 24 minute walk). I did stop at the small restaurant close to the hotel and picked up an order of beef fried rice that I had tried a couple nights ago. Very tasty and only $3.50 USD!

So now it is Sunday, and I managed to sleep until almost 6 AM today. That is just perfect as I will need to be up bright and early just like that on school days anyways. I do prefer it to waking up at 3:30 AM however 😉 I was able to catch up with Troy and purchase his ticket to Phnom Penh for October 14. So it feels good having that set and bought and now we can start counting sleeps!!🎉 🎉 🎉

I got all our stuff packed up and hauled  downstairs where the extremely loyal Tuktuk Driver (that waited patiently for me to need a Tuktuk again ever since Monday) was ready to drive me over to the apartment. I needed to get a more traditional Tuktuk Driver for this trip since I had a couple extra bags. The bulk of my stuff was moved over yesterday with Sinet in his truck, but a small Grab Tuktuk would have been a little cozy. So I just decided to have Yim take us over.  I gave him 10,000 riel (~$2.50) and he was very happy with that! I also did go over to the mall this morning to get a couple towels and some cloths and cleaner and a few things  that I will need.

I showed up here exactly at 11 o’clock and the gal at the front desk was waiting for me. She gave me my keys and it was just that simple. It’s actually a card, not a key…..feels very New Age 😉 I came up and it took me exactly 51 minutes to clean everything I wanted to clean and unpack my two little bags. I opened up the windows and the slider and since I have windows on three sides, I get a nice Crossbreeze and some great fresh air. So hopefully I won’t even have to run the air conditioning that much. Electric is going to be the big expense here. It is about twice as much as electricity costs back home. It’s $.25 per kilowatt hour. I expect it will be probably close to $200 a month depending on usage. The only other thing that’s not included in my rent is water, the tapwater and drinking water. Tapwater averages between five and eight dollars a month and the drinking water is a 5000 riel ($1.25) for one of those gigantic water cooler jugs. Seems reasonable enough. I can get them from the lobby downstairs, so it’s extremely convenient.

Lazy start to my day, despite being awake at 5am (AGAIN!)

Gave me the chance to catch up with my sister and mom early on in their Friday evening (to them). So grateful for them always answering my FaceTimes! ❤️❤️

Working on scheduling the move in time with Sinet and the apartment. Looks like it will be sometime after 4:30pm. Good thing I booked another night at the hotel. (It’s an 11am checkout). Nichol is completely oblivious to the two cats that live here and they are completely oblivious to him too. This is one of the cats that literally lays in the middle of the last step of the stairs most days….

Mid day I decided to check out a dog friendly cafe called Aigo. It’s just a couple minutes walk from hotel. We’ve walked past it about 15 times in the last week  but I almost always never walk with my phone or bag (for street safety) so can’t really come in without getting something. I can go to Odom Garden without buying anything I suppose, but this is a little different set up. Anyway it’s great. There was a corgi puppy here and he and Nichol had some low key fun. (And I had a banana Nutella waffle). 😋 yummy!

I need to get to animal mama for a daycare visit/tour, so I best go now.

TTFN

I’ve chosen an apartment!!!!!! It’s a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom 5th floor apartment that is a 3 minute walk from school. It’s nothing too fancy but I’m only one person with a dawg until Troy gets here. So should be plenty spacious for us to stretch out in. I literally have two duffels bags and a kennel…..

I saw so many apartments on Wednesday I did not take pictures of any of the places! When I get there later today I will take some pictures and I’ll update blog.

I took Nichol back to animal mamma today to get a pre daycare check up. They were so impressed with his improvement they said to only give him one more dose of his meds then to stop! Yayy! (And of course he is healthy enough to attend daycare. He was put through the health ringer to be able to come to Cambodia in the first place).

It is fascinating to me how inexpensive it is to get a grab here! It’s 6,800 or sometimes 6,900 riel to ride there in tuk yuk. (That is $1.68 usd….I checked my credit card bill). With a 1,000 riel tip (24 cents) it’s really quite amazing.

i also went to school for a couple hours to meet with Brandie (grade level teaching partner) and Makara (my Khmer teaching partner) and pick up my computer. (A chromebook!) uh oh….Laurie needs learn something new…..what?? No MacBook ??😂😂😂. Anyway Monday is going to be interesting. I am not even remotely prepared, but every assures me it will be fine. So I’m going with that 🫣

First outing to Odom Garden! It’s a park in Tonle Bassac, close to my hotel. (~6min walk). Nichol and I are ready for a little low key fun after working on selecting an apartment this morning. No final decisions on that yet, but stay tuned, Sinet is working on it for me now. Let the negotiations begin. Hoping for a decision and move in on Saturday! 🙏

The park is just what we need. I am having a coffee and fries.

Slightly inflated pricing here, but I’m happy to support a small local business that is ultimately here for dogs and their people. It’s the only place like it in Phnom Penh!

As I write this, i am pretty sure the rains are coming. So we can have some outdoor fun with shelter from that! It’s 89 degrees but cloudy so actually doesn’t feel very hot. There are fans by the cafe so it’s really quite lovely!

The coffee is in the tiniest of thimble mugs. That is a standard sugar packet 😂😂😂. Sometimes when you order coffee you get a cup of coffee, sometimes you get a thimble……it is undoubtedly the same amount of caffeine as a cup of brewed coffee (maybe more) I’m expecting a SHOCK upon my first sip…..#batteryacid 😬

The condiments are truffle mayonnaise and some kind of Odom garden ‘signature ketchup’. The mayo tastes very garlic’y and the “ketchup” is pretty spicy. All good though 🤩

After I eat this, we will go over to off leash area.

Wow, my head is spinning. Spent 2 hours this morning and another 2.5 this afternoon looking for an apartment. Saw 11 in total I believe!

The range of price and amenities and ‘niceness’ here is huge. Someone from east west connected me with Simet from Cambodia Expat Services. He picked me up in a nice Lexus suv and drove me all over the place to find an apartment for the next few months. I’m looking for a two bedroom place so that Troy has a place to work when he gets here! I Saw places that cost between $700 and $1,300. It’s so weird that most say they are negotiable. Why negotiable? Just say a price, in my opinion, but that’s how pretty much everything works in SE Asia. So not too sure if that means $25 or $50 or $100 off?? But that is what I have an agent for. 😉You can rent without an agent but zero chance I am up for that challenge right now 🤦🏻‍♀️

Some apartments I was able to rule out immediately, but a couple seem doable. One is 3 minute walk from school!! Most are more than that (but max a 10-15 minutes Tuktuk ride away). Wouldn’t that be perfect to be only a 3 minute walk?! I need to really sit down and think about this tonight (or maybe tomorrow morning). It’s 7:31 pm and I’ve been up since 4am so I’m seeing the ‘wall’. 😂 I need to finish this margarita pizza I ordered (again). Don’t judge…..it’s just easy. I may also need to research what I am eating exactly as I just realized this probably isn’t regular cheese?? I don’t know if cheese is vegan. 😉🤔 plus I need to get out of here before the ukulele folksong karaoke starts. That went on for hours last night and I can hear it well enough from my room, I probably don’t need to be right in the middle of it. 😅😂

ps: Nichol doing even better today after two doses of his meds! 🎉🎉 I feel like he will be back to his old spunky self within a few more days.