Practicum Week

Being sick during Practicum week has not been ideal... We're teaching three hours a day, to twenty-five bright-eyed, excited teenagers who have looked forward to learning from "the foreigners," and, of course, receiving scented [!] certificates at the end of the week that prove they've completed an 'íntensive week of study of the English language.' These students are packed with energy, and expect you to be too, regardless of whatever illness chooses to ail you at the most inconvenient of times.

Sunday night came around and I started to feel kind of funny... Stomach ache, cramps, the usual sorts of feelings you experience when you're about to get the flu. I wasn't too worried about it, as I assumed I just ate something that didn't quite agree with me. I usually have a pretty tough stomach and so can handle unpleasant feelings without much issue... However, this time was no ordinary time. I went to bed and, ahem, to put it delicately, had intestinal issues throughout the night. Thinking I just needed to let it pass, I tried to ignore it, grin and bear it, and not take medicine as I thought that'd just stop things up rather than help. "Lape t'nam!" my sister would encourage me, (take medicine!), but, being stubborn as I am, I refused, only to wake up the next morning, bleary eyed and miserable, to say "Howie chooh boa..." (still sick stomach) to my sister as we met on the stairs.

After five straight days of this, you will be happy to know, I caved to my illness, finally recognizing that, evidently, my immune system couldn't go this one alone, and at the PC medical director's consent, started to take antibiotics. And, miraculously, I'm feeling loads better! Amazing what modern medicine can do. We decided I probably had a bacterial infection, which could've been acquired a million different ways, and wouldn't have gone away on its own.

So, sorry for the long, drawn-out story about my ill health, but unfortunately that's pretty much consumed my week. In every other way besides my actual physical condition, practicum was great. I loved our kids; they had so much energy and were so enthusiastic about everything we did. The first three days when I was teaching with two other PCTs, we played a lot of games, decorated the classroom to our liking (a huge map of the U.S. when we talked about where we're from, with a true-to-size Cambodia off to the side so the students could see the contrast; pumpkins, spiders, and ghosts for our Holidays lesson; and a disassembled body for our body/health lesson), and could pretty much do whatever we wanted... This was a blast for us, and the kids loved it, but it was totally unrepresentative of what our classses will actually be like. Also, our class did always seemed to be on the brink of chaos...

The final three days were more true to form, when we were working with our Cambodian co-teacher. Luckily, our co-teacher, So Kim, was great. She was not only not drunk (yay!), but also fairly receptive to changing things up when we wanted to, and not only using the EFC (English for Cambodians), which most of us are not entirely wild about...

So that was a lot of text, and no pictures (sorry about that!), as well as a lot of griping. More exciting news to come very soon. We find out where our permanent sites will be in two weeks, and will get to travel to them to meet our families and explore our new environments for three or four days soon after. I will keep updating as things progress!

Don't forget to let me know what all of YOU are doing! Not only so that I know who is actually reading this (which I am very curious about), but also so that I have some idea of what's going on back home. I love to read about anything you're doing, so please don't think anything is too boring or mundane to share. (Leah, reading an e-mail from a friend, Oh my God... And then she ate oreos? While watching 90210? Fascinating...)

<3