June 18: The Adventure Begins

Hi! Yesterday marked the first official day of SEALnet Project Cambodia 2007. My morning was a mixture of anticipation and butterflies as I awaited the arrival of old and new friends at the airport. Team members arrived by planes, cars, and touk touks to Phnom Phen at various times of the day. Team members zipped back and forth welcoming team members. After settling into CARA, our home for the next 2 weeks, we took a walk through our neighborhood and headed to nearby Wat Phnom. Even though this is my first time to Cambodia, the people and smells feel familiar. I often wonder what the locals think of us. The messiness of the city life is thrilling and also a good source of energy.

In the middle of the park’s cobblestone path, surrounded by green trees, locals and the humidity, we recieved a brief project description and began some team building excercises (among other activities, we described ourselves as fruit. I’m sugar cane, if it qualifies as a fruit). A little about myself: I’m Alex, short for Alexandra. I’ll be working on daily journaling excercises for the group, the marketing workshop, as well as assiting with the publicity in concert planning. I’m a rising junior at USC in Los Angeles double majoring in Fine Art and Communication. I’m inspired by my family, kindness and quirks. I was born and raised in San Francisco and my family hails from Vietnam. I enjoy drawing, gardens, dancing (ballet and more recently traditional Chinese dance). I’ve been invested in the arts since I was young and and am excited to work with and learn from our peers from Cambodia who share this love.

I’m grateful to be among such a talented group of people in this city. I look forward to our time together and further realize our vision together. It feels good to be part of an ensemble. We ended our first night together with dinner at the nextdoor restraunt complete with karaoke entertainment before heading home to catch up on much needed sleep. Having spent the past 3 days in Siem Reap, I didn’t struggle with jet lag, but made the mistake of staying up late. I have to keep reminding myself how little time we have. Our schedule is packed and we have an early morning tomorrow. I look forward to meeting the students tomorrow and seeing the Team members perform. Goodnight Cambodia!

Cheers,
Alex