Certified ESL Teachers!

Mackenzie and I completed our TESOL certificates a few weeks ago and just received them in the mail! 

 

I think I'm more excited than she is... :) 

Now we are officially certified to teach English as a Second Language. We've put in a lot of hours and have gained some really great insight in to the difficulties and gifts of ESL teaching, and we can not wait to experience them ourselves. Only 30 more days until departure!

Update!

Just wanted to update everyone with the progress we've made on our trip! We've all now started our TESOL certificates, which has been really fun! I am about half way through, Samantha and Caitlin have made significant progress as well. We still have 45 days left to complete it! We've begun putting together lesson plans and materials we can use in our classrooms.

I found a good, affordable travel insurance plan for us all. Which is a big relief! We will sign up in January, and it will cover us for a year. It has good illness/injury, emergency evacuation and political evacuation coverage, with low deductibles and fairly high maximums!

We've also seriously started to think about getting a new home for Kaycee. I posted an ad on Pet Classifieds and Craigslist. We've had lots of responses! Our plan is pick someone and have some meet-ups and sleepovers for Kaycee, to see if they make a good fit. Hopefully we can find someone that loves Kaycee as much as we do!

The last few weeks we've been focused on selling/getting rid of all of our worldly possessions! We've posted some things on Craigslist, and sold a few. Though, most of our effort has been put toward making a website that has everything we want to sell on it. Please check it out! More stuff will be posted daily!
everythingisforsale2013.blogspot.com 

Cheers,
Mackenzie

One-way ticket to Phnom Penh

We booked our flights! :)

We are leaving out of Portland on January 29th in the Evening. And miraculously, even though we are using air miles and Cait is paying cash we have gotten onto the same flights from Seattle all the way to Phnom Penh.

We are so excited, and yet realizing there is SO much to do still. It's an interesting feeling, looking around a room that I once felt was bare and yet, now seems so full! We have been very productive lately, beginning to sell books and clothes and making the decisions of what we will keep in storage here in the states and what we will part ways with. It's a very interesting dynamic, especially being someone who has definitely valued 'things' and the accumulation of 'things' in my life. I can already tell that my mind is being challenged to accept new realities and place importance elsewhere, and I can not wait to further this process in our move.

Mackenzie and I started our TESOL certificates tonight, and I am seriously excited about being in school again. I miss the world of academia and I am so excited to be apart of it once again.

We talked today about bringing my video camera, so watch out for some video clips in the future!

Thats all for now,
Sam

Learning Khmer

Learning the native Cambodian language has been a slow but enjoyable process! Here are some of the best resources I've found;

Websites/videos;
http://www.seasite.niu.edu/khmer/
 -The most comprehensize website I've found. Teaches you the basics of the language; grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, general sentence structure, etc. It's broken up into different units and also has a quiz function to test your knowledge along the way!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0XPeQACWm4
-If you are more visually inclined; here's a youtube tutorial on the basics of Khmer(Lesson 1 of 5). 


http://www.studiomartin.us/learn-khmer-cambodian.cfm
-Good resource for learning Khmer script and vocabulary.


Books;
Cambodian for Beginners by Richard Gilbert
Everyday Khmer by multiple authors
I haven't read either yet, but many of my resources have referenced them and they seem to be a good starting point;

It is also helpful to purchase an English-Khmer Dictionary, though most don't have the phonetics from Khmer to English, so they're pretty useless unless you can read Khmer Script.


There is no Rosetta Stone for Khmer, but I've found a similar program called 2Speak, which sells a complete Khmer language course for $65.95. I'm planning on buying the course and will let you know if it's worth the money!
http://www.2speaklanguages.com/learn-khmer.html

Moving to Cambodia?

For anyone thinking about moving to the Cambodia OR interested in what life is like in the Kingdom of Wonder, here are the best blogs/websites I've found!

Great website for seeing what life is like in Phnom Penh or Sihanoukville;
http://retirecheap.asia/retire-thailand/?cat=268

Great info on pretty much all the specifics of moving to Cambodia; including insurance, health care, phones, internet, rent, etc. $7.99 in multiple formats.
http://www.movetocambodia.com
Another great E-book is "The Definitive Guide to Moving to SE Asia: Cambodia": $6.99 from Amazon on the Kindle.

Great resource for finding apartments/housing, jobs, cars/motorbikes, etc;
http://www.khmer24.com

Relevant blogs to follow;
http://www.khmer440.com/k/
http://www.travelfish.org/country/cambodia

It's official!! The Puppets are moving to SE Asia!

It's official...
                  ...we're moving to Cambodia on January 29th, 2014!

Mackenzie and Samantha visited the Kingdom of Wonder in March of 2013, while there they fell in love with the people, the atmosphere and the landscape. Even just spending a few days in Siem Reap convinced us that we should move back there and teach English. Ever since returning to the states we have been in planning mode, doing as much research as possible to turn our dream of returning to Cambodia a reality. After Caitlin moved to the states from Scotland and was introduced to Mackenzie and Samantha, she quickly jumped on board with the idea. She has taught English as a second language in Italy, and has already contributed so much knowledge and insight into what being a ESL teacher is like, and how you can best prepare.

After doing exhaustive research on the internet and in book stores, we have decided to start a blog as an attempt to provide a somewhat cohesive body of knowledge and resources for anyone hoping to make the move to the Kingdom of Wonder, we hope you enjoy! :)