Day 3: The Rage Post

It's Day 3 on my November challenge, and within the last hour, the following annoying things have happened to me, in this order:

1. Had an altercation with a student who wouldn't stop talking during the exam. I strictly enforce the No Talking rule, and he just wouldn't obey. Push came to shove, and he wound up storming out of the classroom and crying to the front office about what I tyrant I am.

2. Became massively, unbearably hungry due to a thyroid problem; rage is not far behind.

3. Went to the Garden Center (an overpriced yet low-quality "Western" restaurant) which conveniently ran out of smoked salmon and cream cheese bagels, then sold me "chocolate chip cookies" instead...if you want to call those hardened, burnt, bland biscuits with three chocolate chips set superficially in the surface "chocolate chip cookies". I wouldn't charge $1.50 for them even in the US. Because that would be outrageous.

4. Came to Sarpino's Pizzeria. A pair of obnoxious 4-year-old brats are running around attacking each other and random customers with over-sized, noodle-shaped balloons. I guess I'm the only person who's annoyed by that.

5. Had my right earphone go dead on me as I tried to listen to YouTube to block out the obnoxious 4-year-old brats above. What annoys me about this is that I bought them brand new just this Monday from a very legit store, for not a cheap price. Now I have to buy another pair.

6. Discovered that they made the pizzas smaller while simultaneously raising prices. So now I'm still hungry. Nothing can quite take the edge off thyroid hunger, but this is just annoying.

Sorry for the rage. My evenings aren't generally this annoying. You caught me at a bad time, I'm afraid. I'm going to try to head home now without any more shenanigans.

Close Encounters of the Cambodian Kind

I have two favorite restaurants in Phnom Penh. By strange coincidence, both of them are blue: The Blue Pumpkin and The Blue Dolphin.

The Blue Dolphin is a family/bar-girl run restaurant with cheap delicious food. It's not air-conditioned, but they have comfy wicker chairs, chocolate shakes, free water, and the girls who work there are really nice. It's really close to my house, too.

The Blue Pumpkin is farther away, but is really chic. You can go in with your laptop and work for hours and hours in the air-conditioned, free-WiFi, comfy-white-couched environment. The problem is that you get charged Western prices for all the food (some of which, like the Pumelo-pork salad, is worth it).

The people at Blue Pumpkin, by the way, hate me. Every time I go in, I always wind up doing something douchey: I break a glass, I leave dirty footprints on the couch, I buy a glass of water and then sit there for seven hours without buying anything else, I start fights over the cost of their food, my friend falls asleep and snores loudly, etc. Sometimes, I annoy them simply because they think they've got me figured out.

Them: "I know! You want cinnamon ice-cream, right? Like how you've ordered for the last 27 days in a row!"

Me: "LOL!!! Today I want PASSION FRUIT ice cream!" And that's annoying of me. I am truly the Blue Pumpkin's problem child.

So, I decided to give them a break from my demanding, contrarian ways and hit up the Blue Dolphin instead. In doing so, I got a lesson on the Cambodian concept of personal space. Or lack thereof.

I came in with a mass of final exams. For some time, I contentedly sat and graded them in the cool, fan-generated breeze.

Suddenly, I became aware of a green-shirted presence.

Looking up, I saw that one of the girls had, like an angel of death, materialized over my left shoulder. She was intently watching me work.

There was nothing left to do but acknowledge her presence.

This made it impossible to work, but. . .okaaay. . .

Then, for reasons still unfathomable to me, she bent down, hugged me, and proceeded to rest her hands more or less permanently on my shoulders. Her eyes were fixed on my exams, and I was trapped like a rat.

Eventually, after I crammed the exams back in their envelope and began pointedly drinking my glass of water, she wandered away. But I didn't dare take the exams back out. Not a chance.

Because grading English exams is the most fascinating thing anyone could possibly do--except when you're the teacher that has to grade them!*

*In front of an adoring audience to boot...