Last days in Cambodia

Hello !  Tomorrow, I return to "civilization", as I know it.  It's hard for me to believe that five weeks have past and it's now time to return home to obligations and my OU coursework.  

This field school experience and Cambodia in general has been a really wonderful challenge punctuated with new encounters and discoveries.   The people here are so gentle and it seems hard to fathom how such horrendous acts and genocide could have occured here. 

My recent visit back to Siem Riep / Angkor was a good wind down to the field school. I was able to see certain temples again taking my time to look at the bas-reliefs and sculptures and to also visit other less-viewed temples.  I have so many pictures that it will take me a whole week just to put them into order !!

When I return to Paris on July 20th, I will leave that night for London.  My residential school for my OU Psychology class is starting on the 21st of July in Brighton.  I wish that I had more time to recover in Paris before heading off to London, but I'll manage !!  I'm so fortunate to have these opportunities.  The residential school will take place over one week. A good portion of the distance-learning students for my course will come together for training and to run an experiment.   I'm working towards my British Psychological Society (www.bps.org.uk) certification.  I am trying to work towards training in psychological anthropology, so I need this certificate.

I saw my colleague Jiny off today at 8 am.  The maids were delighted to recover all her shampoo and other feminine articles left behind !!  I really want to stay in touch with her because she is interesting and very nice.  She will study archeology with a focus on Laos.

I called Dr. Ledgerwood today just to thank her again for all her efforts and organization during the past 4 weeks.  I also returned the SIM card that her brother-in-law obtained for me.  

Today was spent buying last-minute gifts.  We went to the Russian market where I bought some scarves and a Buddha for Serge.   It got its name because it was popular among Russian tourists in the 1980's.  You can find hardware, statues, hardware, silver, gems, books, toys, maps... It must be about 110 F inside the market because of the corragated roofing which they use.  You literally can sweat to death !!

Tonight, we had dinner with some friends on Street 240.  There are lot of nice restaurants on this street.  We ate at  'Tamerind' , which was a mixture of North African and Lebanese. 

Tomorrow, it will just be packing time and then it'll be back to Paris.  I'm flying Thai again.  I just read about the crash of the Airbus in Brazil.  So many passengers lost their lives.  Again, my heart goes out to the grieving family members.

I hope to come back to Cambodia next summer to do some research for my Master thesis.  I recently emailed a student at LSE who just finished her PhD dissertation on a subject concerning Cambodia. 

Thanks for reading my blog and for all your support via emails.  My trip is coming to an end now.  It was a wonderful experience and I hope you enjoyed some of my stories and pictures !

Zhom riep lire !  Goodbye !