Friday, April 2, 2010

Relaxing

March 30, 2010

This evening I had an interview with San Francisco State University, so I decided to make it a mellow day.

I began with my usual coffee at the hostel, where I chatted with Sophie again. Sophie is extremely nice, and like many Khmer people is working hard to learn English and get an education ( I actually spent some time helping her and Tony with their english studies and emails the night before, very fun). It turns out she's 29 ( I pegged her at 20-21 max) and is working on getting back into University.

I strolled down the river and found a nice spot to read my book. The book is about a USAID doctor working in Loas in the 60's and 70's, and is extremely interesting. I promised Ben, the guy I met the other night, who is actually working with USAID, I would leave it for him, so I've got to finish it before I leave Phnom Penh.

I spent a few hours at the river and in a cafe before I made way to National Palace. The palace grounds were beautiful, with tons of grass and flowers, and the buildings were also very beautiful in the typical buddhist fashion. I was a little unimpressed with the pagodas, and was upset that three quarters of the grounds were off limits. Something not shown in the map you see before paying your $7 entry fee.

I made way back to the hostel for a shower and some R&R, and went to the park by the river in the early evening. The park was buzzing, a large group of women were doing aerobics, a few people were playing badmitton, and there were a few games of Sai going on. I ate some noodles and chatted with a friendly monk until dusk.

I then searched out a good internet connection for my skype interview. I found a good internet cafe down the street from the hostel, at the reasonable price of 2000 Real per hour. My first interview was at 8 PM and the second at 9:45, and they both went well. In between I played chess with the boy who runs the cafe with his family. He kicked my ass.

I think tomorrow will be my last day in Phnom Penh. As much as I like it here my feet are itching to move a bit. I have to decide whether to go North to the mountains, South to the beaches, or East to Saigon. I think I'll decide tomorrow.

No comments:

Post a Comment