“The President of the World is Here!!”

This is the first thing the man who sells me coffee told me today. I was a bit confused at first but, after a minute or two, I figured out that he meant Ban Ki-Moon, and by here he meant Phnom Penh. Ban Ki-Moon, the Secretary-General is in Cambodia this week to meet with people from the Khmer Rouge tribunal and, of course, Hun Sen. There are some reports that he will be meeting with those groups representing the people who will be – or are currently- displaced because of the Boeng Kuk lake development in the center of Phnom Penh. But this has not been confirmed. Information about his visit: http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010102544261/National-news/ban-ki-moon-visit-un-chief-to-see-court-drug-clinic.html

In other news, I am currently busy at site for the first time in months! My days range from hectic to slothful but mostly are somewhere in between. School is in session and so I am teaching nearly every weekday as well as running in the mornings. I am attempting to run my first half marathon in December although- between the monsoons, sickness, and an awful school timetable – I have been very bad at sticking to a training schedule. My goal is just to finish – whether it be by running, walking, or limping over the finish line.

I have also ambitiously decided to start a community service learning club at my school. This is ambitious only because a club has yet to be attempted – ever, it seems- at my school. I am lucky to have a very committed co teacher who is also the “head” of the English department at my school. He seems to think it will be successful and has conveyed this message onto the school director and sub-school directors. Who, when I met with them about the club, just nodded and smiled and said “okay!”. If only all meetings could go so well. Although I have a very strange feeling they may have just been humoring me…

Although I have been studying on and off for the last few months, I’ve only recently really started to commit myself to studying for the GRE and hope that three months of studying will be enough to do well on the test at the end of January. I took the test right after I graduated in 2007 but was not satisfied with the score, nor was ready to go to graduate school then. Now, with the many hours of self reflection that Peace Corps has given me, I am ready to pledge myself to two more years of coursework. Between studying, running, club planning, and teaching, I now have things to do everyday and a limited amount of free time - which is not a bad thing at all :)

Well, I’m hitting my afternoon slump (i.e. naptime) and must get back to facebook stalking and catching up on current events before I fall asleep. Until next time…