Bridget here: Today we did a dance and musical instrument workshop with Cambodia Living Arts. First we had an orientation to the mission and vision of the organization started by Arn Chorn Pond, who visited Polytechnic a couple of months ago to share his story of surviving the Cambodian Genocide. We then listened to two CLA scholarship alumni play their instruments and sing before we got to have a turn attempting to play the instruments. Then we got dressed in traditional Cambodian dancing wear before watching the dancers from Bompay present traditional Khmer folk dances. The dancers demoed each of the different movements that represent the emotions of the character  character archetypes. Lastly, we got to follow along as the dancers showed us how to do a traditional wedding dance. This was an amazing workshop showcasing different Cambodian instruments, some of which were only preserved from paintings on temple walls, traditional Khmer dancing outfits, exercises, and wedding dances, and an amazing history behind that CLA organization.       

Ronen here: In the second part of our day, we visited a nearby high school and performed some frantically arranged American songs. Most of the boys in our group performed a brilliant rendition of "I Want it That Way" by the Backstreet Boys, which was received pretty well until the crowd of high schoolers began clapping and discovered that we were horrendously off-beat. On the other hand, the second half of our group performed "When I'm Gone" by the Carter Family, and did a great job actually laying down a beat themselves and sticking to it. August and I volunteered to learn a traditional dance from a group of eighth graders, which might not have been our wisest move; we were scrambling to keep up with them before long as we're not the most flexible (we aren't flexible at all). After this failure we were queued right up for another, as we decided to teach them the macarena in return (neither of us knew the macarena). In a wildly unexpected (very unexpected) turn of events, they knew the macarena better than we did.  Needless to say, with our infallible swagger, August and I did not let these setbacks stop us from making the most of the situation. At the end of the performances we were swamped with new friends who all wanted pictures with Cambodia's latest stars. 

 August here: Although the day was hot and lengthy, we learned so much from CLA and had a blast at the high school. I think that CLA's message is extremely important; arts are such a large part of Cambodian culture, and their preservation revitalizes what was lost in the genocide. On a more positive note, the high school will definitely be a highlight of the trip. Ronen and I made many new friends, and even though our performances were sub-par at best, I think what the students will remember most is us doing our best for them.