Recently I was surprised by my own surprise.  Our washing machine broke 5.5 weeks ago. We had especially bought it brand new from a g...

My teacher was famous for saying that. I heard about it before I studied with him. Then it turned out he did say it a lot in class so we al...

About 14 years ago I was walking along the street and people kept bumping into me. It was so annoying. The others on the short term team and...

It wasn't until I was in the middle of the road that I realised I was crossing an Aussie road in the way I would cross a busy Cambodian ...

“Kassalin, you are looking fatter now.” Another comment from my Chinese friends that made me feel uncomfortable and embarrassed. Meanwhi...

“How much did your bike cost?” I was vaguely aware that the person I was asking had a strange look on their face. “Six hundred dollars,...

I was surprised when I first got to China... ....but then I got used to it and was surprised other Aussies didn't think like that.  ...

I was grossed out the first time I had Chinese friends over when I started living in China. They said they would wash up the dishes after ...

“Teacher, your face is white.” In my first few months of China I felt kind of offended to hear this. Was she saying I looked sick? Or like ...

“Do you have any tomato sauce?” was the beginning of another confusing conversation. My friend had moved into the same building as me. As ...

There were many surprises when I moved from China back to Australia. As I started interacting with Australians again I realized I’d taken on...

The other night we were talking idols and images of gods. I brought up the "classic Jesus" picture as an example of a picture of t...

I'm beginning an occasional series on this blog called "Surprise!". Actually the first one is back here: http://khmerkronicle....

“ When you’re ready to go out for dinner come to our room,” I said to my mum. My husband Kimsoeun and both our mums were on holiday together...