It’s interesting living in a country that celebrates three new years. These are International New Years, Chinese New Years and Khmer New Years (that’s coming in April).
Currently it is the third day of Chinese New Years and I can tell I’m new to this. The previous two days I have had no students at my morning pronunciation class, not because they don’t love the class but due to the holiday. So this morning I called up Vatanak just to confirm that there will be no class so I could do something else.
Today I also have no Kindergarten or Year 2 class so I decided that I would go to the book shop to buy some folders, to help organise myself at school, and have a look at the English resources there. It is a shortish walk so off I went. When I finally arrived at the shop – it was closed!! Oops the foreigner forgot that stores close for New Years.
So I turned around and walked back past the same people. They must have thought I was lost, confused or just plain crazy. However, I did see a lovely teenage girl who rode her bicycle past me and called out “Hello teacher” (she must be in my pronunciation class), an adorable little boy on a moto shouted, “Hello” and a moto duek driver with no front teeth asked “Motobike?” so maybe my little walk was really worth it. These small things can truly light up ones day.
