Siem Reap 2015 Part I

I've been meaning to post this since forever ago, but I get "dizzy" whenever I looked through pictures and videos taken of the trip because there are TOO MANY of them. But I've finally sorted them, and my word, looking through them brought back wonderful memories. This was the first trip my entire family has taken together in 8 years! Between school and missions, all five members of my family have not lived under one roof for those many years, and so my mother decided that we should do a family trip in August 2015. Since my parents and I had a wonderful time in Siem Reap in 2014 (you can read about my first trip HERE), we decided to take my sisters there.

Here is a quick summary of the trip.

ACCOMMODATION
August is a good month to visit because it is off-peak season, although it is still hot. Like hell-hot. Thankfully we checked into Laysung Angkor Boutique Hotel (review on tripadvisor HERE), an off-the-beaten path hotel that some tuk tuk drivers had never heard of. It is located right next to a village, and you are greeted by the crowing of the rooster every morning. But oh man, the hotel was beautiful, had a nice pool, good air-conditioning, the rooms were cheap (about $60/night), and the service was #1!!! It is located near the major tourist destinations, and had GOOD food :) HIGHLY RECOMMENDED once you have a map of where it is. That is a picture of my room on the right, and below is a picture of the small pool. Nice huh?

So lets talk FOOD because it's one of my favorite subjects. Cambodians love their lemongrass, a distinct flavor that my family is "meh" with. Guess we are too used to our strong coconut milk-flavored curries. But you have to try other food. I believe most restaurants are catered to tourists, so the food is not 100% authentic, but like my tour guide said, "the bacteria in our stomach" is different from the Cambodians so eat authentic food with caution. For one, locals are used to a different standard of hygiene. I totally get that because I'm sure some tourists in Singapore are appalled by the hygiene of our famous hawker centers. Same thing, different country.

Anyway,
 From left to right, top to bottom: 
- At Khmer Kitchen near Pub Street, eating Khmer food that was DELICIOUS! Two different curries, Asian egg omelette and a green mango salad. My sisters fell in love with the famous Cambodian amok curry.
- You MUST try their cheap and (mostly) fresh fruit/ nut shakes.

- Authentic Cambodian-style corn on the cob in husk-- I loved this!

- Me trying my hand at stirring palm sugar over fire. 

- Roasted palm husks containing sweetened rice and beans-- this is 100% authentic Cambodian. Reminded me to Chinese glutinous rice. 

- Fresh coconut juice and flesh.

Some food might be more questionable, such as "chicken breath" and "pineattle" but overall, sooooooo good!

And of course you have to try insects. Cambodians, driven by starvation under the brutal Pol Pot regime, began catching insects to eat in the 1970s. Now, they catch and sell insects along on the roadside as "normal" food. Once again, its fun to try but non-locals can't eat too much because (once again) "different bacteria." Our guide stopped to buy some along a random roadside store. I believe the insects pictured on the right are crickets, and two different types of beetles and larvae. 

 I made a video documenting my experience, which I uploaded on YouTube. This is the URL link to the whole "Siem Reap 2015" playlist, while the link to this particular video of me eating a beetle for the first time in my life is at: https://youtu.be/qQjFYzRur0w (in case the video doesn't appear below since its "unlisted"). 

TRAVEL

This is not mandatory but I highly recommend getting a local tour guide because they are better able to explain the significance of the Angkor temple ruins, and will enhance the experience x1000. Sure, it costs more but think of it as contributing to the local economy. Our tour guide, Mardy, grew up in Siem Reap, and spoke fluent English. He was knowledgeable, friendly and very accommodating, and I definitely recommend him. He charged a reasonable fee for the 3.5 days we spent with him, and included in his fee was a private van and driver. Believe me, it is worth every penny to have the air-conditioned private van once you see how hot and crowded it is. 

Our hotel also provided FREE transportation to and from the major tourist shopping areas (Old Market, etc.), which is another reason why I say this hotel's service was #1. 

Finally, you HAVE TO sit on the famous Cambodian tuk tuk. I wrote about my first time sitting a tuk tuk, and this second time, I was more prepared for the "chaotic order" of Siem Reap traffic. What I was caught off-guard by was the uneven, pot-hole-laden, short off-road to get to the hotel from the main road. I promise you that I did not purposely shake my hands-- it was all caused by the pot holes. 

URL Link: https://youtu.be/dZCMSzp40F8 

BACKSTREET ACADEMY

If you are ever touring my side of the world, you have to participate in Backstreet Academy, a NGO that organizes "local" activities for tourists to participate in. Sign up for a stone carving class, a dance class, or learn a musical instrument-- each city has 20-60 options for visitors to choose from! My sisters and I decided to make purses from tire scraps. 

I made that bag (with lots of help)-- pretty proud of myself.

Read my review of the experience HERE (don't know why the system allocated me to Senegal). As you can tell, we had a great time, and I HIGHLY recommend these activities to visitors. Besides, it helps the local people, so it's a win-win for everyone :)  

Now, on to the famous temple ruins of Angkor and other sightseeing activities, which I will write more about in the next post! 

When healing does NOT come

Just read one of the most beautiful blog posts about faith-in-crisis, and hope you enjoy it as well.

When God Doesn't Show Up from lemmonythings.com.

I feel SO RELIEVED that someone has finally shared about their time when they felt NOTHING about spiritually and still stuck through it, and in the end, came out stronger for it.

For this is what I've gone through.

Please know that I know and understand how you feel. I know because I too carried the burden of bitterness inside me for a very long time. It came to the point that I dreaded General Conference because everyone around me would be excited about it, and I just didn't feel the same. I went to church because I wanted to believe and desire, but would return home disappointed, again, that I received no answer. I've been through temple sessions where I've emerged feeling a NUMBNESS that I know shouldn't be there, but am helpless to combat.

I know what it means to hunger and thirst for any/something to heal you, but all you see is a wilderness of spiritual-nothingness that stretches even beyond the horizon. In some rare instances, I would see a flash of spiritual light that would make me go, "Is this it? Am I finally getting my answer?" Then the light would fade, leaving me with a weird combination of hope and despair, like a marathon runner who sees a mile marker with no numbers on it: it keeps you going but you wonder exactly how much more you have to go. And sometimes, the only thing that kept me in church was a) stubborn pride (probably the only time when stubbornness and pride is a good thing), and/ or b) my intellect that kept recalling past experiences of spiritual highs. I knew that Heavenly Father loved me because I had seen His hand in my life before, but my pleadings to feel His love during those crisis-years came to naught. I kept up with my Book of Mormon reading because I knew it was true, but it did nothing to strengthen my spiritual or emotional state.

Thankfully it didn't take me a decade before I felt something positive about my faith again. Nonetheless I still recall the mental, emotional and spiritual loneliness, and the load of doubt and resentment I carried inside for a long time.

I hope I never have to go through this experience again, but I've emerged from it with a better ability to recognize God's love for me, and more significantly, I've experienced the sweet feeling of healing that comes from the atonement. 

So I beg those of you who are clinging on in silence-- keep holding on. Keep doing the best that you can. Please know that there is a God who is watching, and I testify that healing DOES come.

And finally, on a more light-hearted note:

Artist credit: Risa Rondil, from Pinterest. 

P.S. I hope this talk by Elder Neil L. Andersen helps you "keep swimming!"

Merger of Two Loves

So the Superbowl dropped a new Independence Day: Resurgence trailer. Let me confess that the original Independence Day film is super cheesy, but *gulp* it is one of my favorite movies. Not just because I'm born on Independence Day (happy birthday to both me and USA!), but well, it has all the elements of a fun, no-brainer summer blockbuster movie. And I still get *good feels* whenever I hear that famous president's speech:

"We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight. We're going to live on; we're going to survive. Today, we celebrate our In-de-pen-dence Day!"

If our presidential candidates spoke like that, I'll vote for him/ her, confirm. Well, except for Donald Trump. Donald Trump is irredeemable.

Anyway, so there is a new Independence Day: The Sequel trailer floating around, and *gasp* it features my beloved, beautiful Singapore!!! I could not believe that Singapore is in the new Independence Day film. Two of my loves merging...*squeal!!!*

That is, until it hit me that Singapore is being DESTROYED in the trailer. Like, you literally see this tableau

Picture taken from www.yoursingapore.com. You can see the iconic Marina Bay Sands hotel/casino on the left (the 3 buildings with a boat on top), and the CBD area on the right. 

Being taken d
                     o
                      w
                        n.

Here is the Superbowl Trailer. The destruction of Singapore is from 00:24-00:26.

Which caused me to reflect on how I should feel about this movie:
Should I be excited that Singapore is apparently a significant enough city-country to feature in a Hollywood film, similar to how London and Moscow were shown and destroyed in the first film?

OR should I be wary that once again, the United States is saving the world because smaller countries like Singapore are sure goners in the case of an alien invasion?

I have no idea.

You're probably thinking that I'm taking this issue way too seriously for a trailer. "Give the movie a chance," you say, "It's just the trailer. Watch the film before passing judgment." You're right, but sorry, my graduate-school-academic brain reads way too much into many ALL things now.

Whatever the case, I'm still excited to watch it, and will buy my tickets pronto!

Top 10 Memories for 2015

Once again, my annual list of top 10 memories for the previous year in no particular order:

1) I passed my candidacy examination! For those of you outside of academia (and count your blessing that you are), the candidacy exam is the last major exam you take as a PhD student before you can are allowed to write your dissertation. You can read more about my experience HERE and HERE.

2) Family trip to Siem Reap, Cambodia (again). I fall in love with Southeast Asia more each time I return. I promised a post on it and...it's coming. I know, I said that like months ago, but really, I'm finally going through my gazillion pictures and trying to select the best. A preview of things to come:

3) Family trip to Penang, Malaysia. The entire city/ state of Penang is a UNESCO Heritage Site, and I can see why. There is a rustic charm to it that I fear perpetuates Orientalism so I have mixed feelings whenever I visit "UNESCO Heritage Sites," but I still had a wonderful time. I will post about it once I get done with my post on Siem Reap. Not as many pictures but certainly just as many fun memories!

4) I received a huge national grant that will enable me to stay in Singapore until September 2016. Hooray! Counting my blessings. More food bwa ha ha ha ha!

5) I drove from Ohio to Utah alone (again). As I wrote in this post, NEVER AGAIN will I make this trip alone, and this time for realz. I'm dragging a sibling/ friend with me the next time I have to do it again. I was in Utah for a month to participate in the 50th Mormon History Association Conference, and do more archival research at the Church History Library. Oh yes, and I used Airbnb for the first time. Very satisfied transaction and will use it again in the future (this post is NOT sponsored).

6) I taught my first undergraduate class online: History 2610: History of Women and Gender in the United States. Teaching a class for the first time is time consuming. I heard teaching it online is 10x worse, and I can see why. I'm SO glad it is over. While I learned a lot, it wasn't the most pleasant experience. Maybe I will write about it in a few months time after I've healed from this hard, emotional journey.

7) SG50 -- Singapore's official "name" in celebration of its landmark 50th birthday. You don't see a country turn 50 years old everyday, much less one as prosperous and developed as Singapore. So many retail and food outlets gave discounts in honor of SG50; public transportation was free on National Day, and the National Day celebration parade was quirky and awesome! My tears welled up when the camera panned in on the empty seat of 国父 Lee Kuna Yew. In addition to being home for the celebrations, my friend randomly selected this weekend to visit Singapore! We had fun visiting the Botanical Gardens, eating, braving the crowds along the bayfront at Marina Bay, and Universal Studios Singapore.

8) Church Assignments. I have mixed feelings about this because everyone naturally assumes that since I am "only" a graduate student, I have plenty of "free time." Right? NOT TRUE. Anyway, this year alone, I've been assigned to these various jobs, sometimes one at a time, other times simultaneously: ward missionary, my congregation's music chairwoman, temporary music leader for Primary (church session for children), substitute Sunday School teacher, and led my congregation in organizing part of a live Nativity put up by my church. My congregation was in charge of King Harod's room (cast and decoration). Considering that my assistants and I had never done this before, and limited resources, I have to say we did quite a remarkable job.

Pics courtesy of Zhang YC

As my congregation's music leader, I also put up my very first Christmas-Sacrament Meeting cantata. Lots of work and so grateful for the angels (earthly and heavenly) God sent to help.

9) My maternal grandmother passed away, and we held a Buddhist funeral procession for her. I wasn't close to her but she was amazing in the sense that she lived till a ripe old age of 97 despite being a life-long chain smoker and gambler. It's good that I was home to say my last goodbyes, and I saw LOTS of relatives.

10) Living back home for months in one long stretch... haven't done this in a loooooong time. It is tough to move back in with the parents for a long period of time. Not going to lie there. I desperately miss my apartment, roommate and INDEPENDENCE in Columbus. But life is full of trade-offs, and I guess I can tolerate being un-independent again for the next 8 months in exchange for instances of maternal pampering and THE FOOD. Oh my word, the food is worth everything.

Honorable mention: 3-day trip to Guangzhou, China in September. First time to China! I went with my friend and her colleague, and while the trip was too short, it was fun and there is A LOT of shopping to do there. Too bad the clothes weren't to my taste. We also toured a mausoleum of one of the ancient kings of Guangzhou-- super cool!

Happy 2016, and I hope I'm more consistent at blogging this year!

Facepalm Final

Wow it has been a loooooooong time since I last updated my blog, and caught up with other people's blogs. Oops! Sorry, the semester passed like a whirlwind, and I was (and still am) caught in it. I'm in the middle of grading the final examination essays that my students submitted, so I don't have time to do a long update, so FYI
1) I will update soon! Once the semester is over. So much to share!

2) I just had to share this. I almost posted this on Facebook, but felt it was too mean to do so. For one of the final examination questions, my students had to write an essay comparing and contrasting the First and Second Wave Feminist Movement. I've read quite a lot of bad (and a few good) essays, but this one... takes the cake.

"The First and Second Wave Feminist Movements were similar because they were both centered around women."

Please note that the student wrote this sentence to open a new paragraph, and in the next sentence, talked about something else. Well duh. How do you elaborate upon this inane, obvious sentence? Of course both movements centered around women. That's why they are called "feminist movements." 

Facepalm. 

Why can't students just READ instructions?!

I assigned my students to watch a documentary, and told them where they can access it on the syllabus. Last Friday, I wrote them a reminder email, and included the links and instructions on how to obtain the film again.

This morning, a student emailed me to ask where the film is and how she can access it.

*facepalm*

And we are only beginning Week 5. I'm pretty sure it's not my email server because I sent the email via the school's email portal, so it should get to all my students. Plus it's on the syllabus, which I told them to read. Yet, I've had a few of them email me similar questions regarding other assignments. Sometimes I just want to make a montage video of people asking "Why can't you just read instructions?! I just sent them to you!"

Okay, I won't. But it's tempting to do so. I'm sure other instructors will appreciate it ;)

His Perfect Atonement

I have sooooo much to blog about: Cambodia (again), the new semester, Guangzhou China...and those posts are coming, but for now, I hope you enjoy this poem by Kasey Hammer (Utah), published in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Liahona September 2015 issue (link HERE). I testify that Christ's atonement is real and that He is able to make us whole again, no matter the sin/ mistake/ trial.

His Perfect Atonement

I used to believe

That there was a hole

In Christ’s Atonement—

That He could save everyone—

Except me.

But I was wrong.

There is not one hole,

But seven.

Two holes in

His Hands

Where they nailed Him

To a cross

At the behest of those

He would die

To save,

Two holes in

His wrists

Where they ensured

The weight of His body

Would not cause

His hands

To rip through

Before His penance

Was complete,

Two holes in

His feet

Where He stood

As a witness to all

Of God’s unyielding love

For each

Of His children,

And one hole in

His side

Where they pierced Him

To prove His work

Was done.

Seven.

Perfection.

Seven perfect holes

In earth’s only

Perfect Man.

The perfect Atonement

To patch the holes in our lives.

His holes make us

Whole.

I was wrong.

There is a

Whole

In Christ’s Atonement

For me

After all.