The Carnival is Over

The 4th Annual Logos International School Carnival is over! Praise God it wasn't as hot as the 1st one, which was back in February 2007, when I was relatively newly arrived in Phnom Penh. Wow, 4 carnivals and I've been here for all of them. This one was rather different for me. Instead of running a game with my students I was running our first ever Scholastic Book Fair. While we didn't sell out, or even sell enough to cover costs, we did make a reasonable number of sales, and we can always have another go sometime in the next couple of weeks. So while I sat in the relative peace of the Art Room, surrounded by books, the rest of the school buzzed with excitement as children and adults tried their hands at a wide variety of games, enjoyed heaps of tasty snacks, and even checked out a couple of Chevy cars! My teaching assistant, and the library assistant very capably ran the 4th grade game of "ten pin bowls", which had been popular last year, and was just as popular this year. Thanks Mr Kosal & Mr Ly. The "ticket" booth, and prize table were busy places, and we had a parade of unusual faces wandering through the book fair. One of the grades was operating a "jail" where, in order to get out of jail, you had to have your face decorated with moustache, eyebrows and other interesting features. All in good fun.

After all was over, and we'd back up and counted the takings, a few of us decided that a swim would be the best way to cool off on a hot humid afternoon. The water was very comfortable, even a little warm for me, and I managed to swim 30 laps today. Sadly I'm feeling it now, with some aching shoulder muscles. It's about 12 days since I last swam, so it was hard work, but I'm keen to build up to the point where I can complete 40 laps (1km) in 20 minutes. OK, OK, I know that won't win me any world records, but it will be good exercise, and a big step back to improving my fitness level.

Well, I have a pile of Math tests waiting for me to grade them, so I'd better go and get on with it. Who said teacher's work 9 - 3 and have lots of holidays. They obviously have never been a teacher!

That's it for now

Karen