A Day at the Office

So I'm at work now, but I don't have anything to do at the moment because my computer is being fixed and until I get it back and set up AutoCAD, I can't really do much in the office. This morning I went back to the IFL (Institute for Foreign Languages) and went on the roof to take some measurements with the Cambodians in our group (Soklay, Chhoy, Pagna #1 and Pagna #3 [so called because of their year in school]). Vann Molyvann (the architect whose buildings we're documenting) did three buildings at the IFL, but we only worked on the biggest one today. It's three or four stories tall with a large inner atrium and fairly good ventilation. I wish I could post some pictures of it, but they'll have to come later. The people here are fairly friendly and sometimes speak passable English, but the Cambodians we're working with are very well educated and their English is very proficient.

Cambodia appears to have pleasant relations with many other nations as there are monuments to friends such as Vietnam, Thailand, a center for Korean Friendship, and a Cambodia-Japan Connection Center or something like that (they call it the CJCC) on the campus of the IFL. It was done by a Japanese architect and is a typical Japanese building with fine proportions and made with that grey stone ubiquitous to the Tokyo scene.

One important fact to know about Cambodia is that the wattage is 220V (I think. Whatever's the higher one than in the States) and since I'm currently using Nancy's computer with the charger that's used to US voltage, her computer is supercharged and prone to shocking me if I touch any part other than the keys. It's actually a bit unpleasant.

My other impressions of this developing nation include the following:
It's really frightening to cross the street
Riding motos is nerve-racking even if I know the driver, even more so if I don't
They really like crispy money here
The "new rich" as they locals call them love to drive Lexuses and Land Rovers and plaster huge stickers on the side of their cars with the logo and name
The fruit is exotic and okay, even though I've had some of it before at home. It all seems to be less sweet than what we have at home, but perhaps that's because I don't know where to buy the good stuff. One of my new favorites is dragonfruit.

I guess that's it for now. Nancy, Yasemin, and I are leavin for Siem Reap tomorrow morning to see the ruins of Angkor Wat and other stuff too. I booked a hostel last night on hostelworld for $7.50/night because the place that Nancy and the grad students previously stayed, the Golden Banana, was all full.

It's almost time for lunch here, so I think I'm going to go on a lunch break and then I get to go to the National Stadium in the afternoon for the first time! Apparently I have to measure some dimensions for the pool building.