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Friday, June 7 Last day

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We officially made it to our final day in Cambodia! We met up a little later   after our very long and activity-filled day with the temples and the circus. We got back to morning meditation, health check-in, and the way of the day. Today was a big transference day. We mainly reflected on all of the places we have been and everything we have experienced and learned, bringing significance to the trip as a whole. We got into groups of four, each group creating a poster of one of the places we have traveled to. We covered everything in Chambok National Park, Phnom Penh, Koh Pdao, and Siem Reap. After sharing, we grouped up in a circle and passed a big ball of crumpled papers around while Mony simultaneously is telling us a story of tourists (our group) traveling through Cambodia, and every time he mentioned one of the four cities we visited, the person holding the paper ball would take one piece of paper off the ball. Each paper had a question on it and helped prompt reflections of the tri
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Cambodia - Information on Return (Saturday, June 8) and Re-Entry (Sunday, June 9)

Parents, Menlo Abroad will soon be coming home. I know the students are looking forward to seeing you as much as you are looking forward to seeing them. They have had unique and powerful experiences in the last three weeks and will no doubt have much to share with you, although they will need a good night's sleep first! What follows are details regarding Saturday, June 8 (the return), and Sunday, June 9 (the re-entry day).  SATURDAY (Return) The Cambodia group's return flight itinerary is below: Singapore Air 163 Departing Siem Reap (SAI) Saturday June 8, 10:40 AM; Arriving Singapore (SIN) Saturday June 8, 2:15 PM Singapore Air 34 Departing Singapore (SIN) Saturday June 8, 7:50 pm; Arriving San Francisco (SFO) Saturday, June 8, 8:15 PM  (They'll be crossing the International Date Line) The flights are currently on time, scheduled to arrive at SFO on Saturday at 8:15 PM , but you might want to check the  flight status for updates closer to the group's arrival. They will
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Thursday, June 6 Angkor Wat

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  Today we had a really early start at 5am to make it to Angkor Wat to enjoy a beautiful sunrise. Sadly, we were a little late and missed the first half of the sunrise; still, we got to see the second half and take breathtaking pictures. Then, we sat down and had a yummy breakfast while dodging adamant sellers. We heard a spiel from our tour guide about the significance and history of the temple. We got to explore the temple on our own for a while. Some fun facts about the temple are that the king employed 20,000 people to build it, and it took 37 years to build. Also, the shadow of the pillars form the shape of Angkor Wat, and the temple is aligned to the compass. After exploring Angkor Wat, we took the tuk tuks to the Ta Prohm temple. This temple has giant ancient trees growing through its structure. It was really cool to see the temple blend into the jungle scenery. The last temple we visited was a state temple built by a king in order to make a Buddhist state (the time of Angkor Wa
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Wednesday, June 5 Siem Reap

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  Today was our first day in Siem Reap! We started our day a little earlier than usual (in preparation for our 5am start tomorrow to see Angkor Wat) and following our morning check in we enjoyed breakfast at the retreat center (our first taste of Nutella in weeks!) Then we got to take our final language lesson with “Professor” Pum before boarding tuktuks to the PEPY learning center. At PEPY, we met 25 Cambodian students around our age. We participated in a handful of activities where we got to practice our Khmer as well as help them practice their English. We also learned a few Khmer dances, and did the Macarena and chicken dance with the students.  We then boarded the tuk tuks again to the old town market, where we had around 45 minutes to grab lunch with our new friends and get to know them. Some of us chose to go to nearby restaurants while others ate inside of the market itself. Lots of us also traded social media handles with our friends to keep in touch.  After our new friends le
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Tuesday, June 4 transport to Siem Reap

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Today was a travel day. We had breakfast at 6:30am and said our goodbyes to our homestay families. We carted off all the plastics we had used for the week. After a boat ride to the mainland we had a 9 hour bus ride.   Along the way we saw beautiful green rice fields, Students enjoyed stopping for cold smoothie drinks and a pizza restaurant for lunch. On the bus we wrote about what we will remember most from Koh Pdao…. Family with widowed mom and two daughters, age 16 and 18 (away at school)  Sophie H: I will most remember going to the school and meeting the neighborhood kids; they were very welcoming and cute. I will also remember learning Khmer from my homestay mother.  Sophia: I will most remember the stories we gained from interviews with the local people, particularly of their experience coping with the Khmer Rouge and the joy they have found today. Caroline: I will remember going to the Wat with my homestay sister dressed in the beautiful traditional clothes she lent us, a
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Monday, June 3 Koh Pdao ceremonies

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  Today was our last day on the Koh Pdao Island. We started the morning with breakfast and then went home to change into our traditional wear for the Wat ceremonies. Our homestay mum picked out these beautiful skirts and ornately beaded shirts— the colors matched us perfectly! We were so appreciative of their generosity, and they even tailored the clothes to us. Our homestay mother and sister-in-law had big smiles on their faces after we had put everything on. We made our way to the Wat where we got a water blessing from the monks (they literally just poured buckets of flower water on us). Afterwards we went back to our houses, and we ate a delicious Cambodian lunch prepared by our homestay parents. We had a peaceful afternoon relaxing with our families in the hammocks under the house. We also gave the homestay hosts the bags from SF (thank you parents back home!) and photos of our families.  In the afternoon, we went to the community center and learned about international development
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June 2 - Koh Pdao cakes and interviews

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We have officially made it to the penultimate day in our Koh Pdao homestay experience! Today was a pretty routine day. We were picked up from our homes at 7:30am and taken to the community center for meditation, way of the day (which today was "right view"), health check-in, and breakfast. Afterwards, we had another Khmer lesson with Pum and learned the words of many fruits like pineapple and mango, and directions like up, down, left and right. But something special that we did before lunch was to cooperatively prepare banana leaf cakes, a traditional offering to the monks of the island made of rice flour, water, salt and sugar and filled with yellow mung beans and shredded coconut. It was an extremely fun task in which we broke up into groups and took on a separate roles such as cutting and oiling the banana leaves and also forming the cake. We got to eat some of our cakes for lunch--very delicious! After lunch, we had two hours of downtime in which a couple of us played vol
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