National Vietnamese Teacher's Day

Every country in the world should have a National Teachers Day. I only now fully appreciate how INSANELY hard teachers work each and every day and not only in the classroom. We spend a good amount of time preparing for each hour of class and we are hardly ever paid enough, but at least Vietnam shows us a little appreciation once a year! These are two beautiful bouquets I received, one from each class I was teaching last thursday. It feels wonderful to know that I’m at least a little appreciated!!! Over the few next days, I received two more bouquets, a beautiful magenta scarf, 100,000 VND and a box of Chocopies (DELICIOUS btw). =)

Note to self (Vietnamese Style)

Never:
- Buy chicken at a local street market unless I want to behead it myself
- try to drive in Hanoi unless I have a death wish
- go to the supermarket on the first day of the lunar month unless I want to be trampled by Vietnamese families of 10
- assume that “sister” or “brother” or “uncle” or “aunt” means biological relation because it rarely ever does
- work for a full straight month with only one day off unless I want to come down with the plague. THE PLAGUE!!!
- try to pass one of the INSANE men driving a moto unless I feel like resembling a squashed pomegranate

To tide you over until my next update

here are some of my kids...

 Some of my younger kids playing computer games between class periods.

 My most advanced teen class (and one of the most enjoyable) working on their Halloween decorations

Probably my favorite kids class. 8-10 year olds and really bright. They absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE word searches and that's what they're doing here =)

Culture Shock Part Deux - October 22nd

Today is...interesting. I wandered into the hotel-heavy part of Haiphong and found a number of restaurants where the servers speak English, which is, unfortunately, exactly what I need right now. I'm finally hitting that second wave of culture shock that I was warned about in Ghana but never quite reached while I was there. The first wave is simple amazement. Everything is new and exciting. The second wave consists of simply being overwhelmed...by...everything...The novelty wears off and suddenly you find that you're half way around the world, alone, and in a place where you can barely communicate with people. Locals stare as you walk by because of the color of your skin and uniqueness of your face and when you do something wrong, they have no way of telling you what it was or why. I've had quite a few Vietnamese women shout at me as though, the louder they speak, the more I will understand. I'm not deaf, I'm American! These women never mean any harm; in fact, I'd take Vietnamese women over most Ghanaian women any day. Vietnamese women, especially mothers, are always looking out for you, offering you rides home and making sure you don't get cheated. Many Ghanaian women, especially those in their 20's, somehow see you as a threat to their way of life.

That being said, I've had a rough few days and it's taken all my strength not to go out and buy a puppy just to have something to come home to (and I've not yet completely ruled it out...).

On a better note, my Vietnamese is slightly improving, which is making things better. At least that's true when I can remember the phrases. I've "learned" How are you? How much is it? 2, 3, I/me...but my tone still allows for a good amount of confusion. The other day, instead of calling a female student by her name (An'h), I called her "brother" (anh)..Do you see very little difference...? Me too...

Food, food and more food - October 10th

Having been here for a month, I think it's high time that I write about food, seeing as I've written very little as it is.

The food I eat:
Pho (pronounced like Fuh) is a noodle soup for breakfast. Its absolutely delicious, but honestly, I see it more as a lunch food than breakfast. The noodles are thin but wide, made of rice and delicious. The soup is either chicken (Ga) or beef (Bo - pronounced bo-ah) based. It has lots of vegetables and spices and I can see why it'd be the perfect meal to give you energy for the day.

However...for breakfast, I prefer...

Banh My Tru'ng: basic eggs and baguette - its essentially an omelette in a baguette with chilli sauce. Nice and spicy, and a good way to start the day. Of course, most vietnamese, if they are eating eggs for breakfast, prefer duck fetuses....If I had been aware what exactly this was the first time I tried it, I probably would have refused. Veal? alright. Unfertilized eggs? definitely....but a FETUS...never again.

Bun - this is kind of like Pho  but the noodles are thinner, much like vermicelli but made of rice (my cousin, Christian, would be ace in this country). The bowls are huge and there are often other smaller bowls surrounding them with things to add to the soup as you choose. Sometimes its spiced, grilled, meal worms. Sometimes its just chicken, beef, or shrimp. Often, there's a bowl full of basil and another bowl full of various cooked vegetables.

Generally, meals include soup of some form, cooked or grilled vegetables, some form of meat, or multiple forms of meat and rice.

There are also some treats that people have as snacks:
Pomello - a fruit that tastes much like a less bitter grapefruit. They usually eat slices of this dipped in salt.
Khô Bò: this is much like beef jerky but spiced with ginger. It's SO good
Ô Mai: dried fruits steeped in salt. It's usually apricot and its INCREDIBLY salty but very popular here.

More importantly though, I've now truly learned that it is so insanely magical that the Western world decrees Saturdays and Sundays as days off. Having been here for one full month, I finally got my first day fully off on Thursday and I have to say that Wednesday night, knowing that I did not have to go to work the next day, that I was only my own schedule for a full 24 hours, was bliss. I finally understand why my Dad just wants to watch TV when he gets home every night; I, admittedly, do the same...

AIE's Got Talent and my favorite class

 AIE is my school and we did AIE's Got Talent one night. These kids could SERIOUSLY break dance....

These two pictures are of my favorite class: the navy guys. In the top picture, they are performing a terrible English pop song that I dont even know, but taught them, for AIE's got talent (they won best group though!) In the bottom picture, the two white kids are me (obviously) and mike, the other foreign teacher. The one girl is the liaison for the class (she works at the school and is VERY sweet). From Right to Left: Top row we have (these are their "English" names) Luck, Rob, Jack Ben, and George (the highest officer in the class). And bottom row we have: Ken, Sam, Matt, and Tom. Unfortunately, we are missing Alex because he had a terrible fever that day and Terry, who is taking the picture. Hope that satisfies for now!

Haiphong

 This is a picture I took of the rooftops of Haiphong the very first morning I was there.

This is a picture of the theater about a block from my house. It was originally built by the French and now, as you can see, has a GIANT picture of Ho Chi Minh on it. Also notice all of the bikes passing by.

Because I haven't updated in forever...

Here are some photos!

 This is the little courtyard I go towards on the way to my apartment. Usually, under that La Vie umbrella, there is a stand selling soda, candy, etc but I took this at lunch time.

This is the alleyway to my apartment. Past the little plant on the left, that door in the green house is mine!!

Haiphong, Monday, September 21

Wow, I haven't even been here a week and already I've taught 5 classes. So far, I have two favorites. One: What we call the "pre-starters" (5-6 year olds). They are adorable and so much fun. The other is suprising because at first I was terrified to teach it. The school was recently contacted to teach a very special class: Navy Officers who are about to go abroad. It's 7 hours a day for one week. This class is VERY important to the school because if it goes well, the Navy will continue to send students. So NATURALLY, have your least experienced teacher teach it....? I am teaching the first FULL day then the mornings for the rest of the week (4 hours). Thus far, however, it's been really fun. Since I know quite a bit about Germany and its culture, I've been able to teach that as well as English and I love it. The men are eager to learn and very respectful.

As for my adjustment here, it's been very smooth, except for the fact that I constantly feel like an Amazon woman. The mornings are boiling hot and by the time I reach the school, I feel as though I've swum there instead. I had my first two horrifying Vietnamese specialties: mealworms fried in spicy peanut sauce and a hard boiled fertilized egg. One of these horrified me far more than the other. Can you guess? If you said fertilized egg, then you are correct sir! But Tan said it was a Vietnamese delicacy and offered me a bite. First of all, it tasted horrible. But you could also see the veins and feel the wing feathers in your mouth. But hey, I tried it. Who's to say I'm not adventurous? As for the mealworms, they were actually quite tasty!

Although  can't understand a thing people are saying to me, I've surmised one thing about eating in this culture. Women can't stand to see you doing it alone! It makes them very sad. So this has led to some very awkward situation in which a gesture has led me to eating lunch with the owner of the restaurants whole family. I mutely sit, fumbling with my chopsticks until one of them fetches me a spoon with a pitying smile (I am, however, determined to learn!!!!) They jabber on in Vietnamese while I smile and nod but they always seem genuinely happy to have a foreigner at their table.

My apartment is slowly morphing into a home but I honestly spend little time there. I'm getting into the swing of being a teacher, getting more creative with my lesson plans. But I honestly can't wait until the third foreign teacher gets here and I have more time. I've found out about a fascinating woman through the school that I really want to volunteer for when I've learned some Vietnamese. She was a soldier in the Vietnam War and has since brought 28 children into her home, all who were affected by dioxin poisoning. I'd love to go out there and give the kids some lessons or do crafts with them or just play a little football. They live in horrible conditions and many were born deformed because of their parent's dioxin poisoning. I would love to brighten their world in any way possible. Of course, I would also love to learn of the woman's experience in the war if my Vietnamese was better and she was willing (Now I wish I'd brought a tape recorder...)

Time for lesson planning!

My first days at home

Haiphong, 16:49 local time

After about 30 hours of travel time, I finally arrive in my new home. My new boss and a colleague pick me up at the airport, take me to my hotel and then take me to dinner. To my horror, they take me to a Texan BBQ place. They explain that they understand some teachers go through culture shock and they wanted to ease me in with familiar tastes, which is sweet. My boss, Ms. Linh (pronounced Ling), is a very sweet mother of a five year old boy and seems like she will be great to work for. After a long sleep (or better yet, long coma), I'm taken to see my apartment in the morning before I go to school for the first time. Its a sparse tower of a house wth a small kitchen and a small living room with internet on the first floor, a bedroom on the second floor (WITH AC!!!) and an empty room  I can turn into whatever I want (most likely storage for my luggage) on the third floor. If I'm adventuresome, I can climb a rickety ladder to a balcony from the third floor. Guess how much this place costs me per month? A princely sum of $155!! The woman who took me to see the house is both the granddaughter of my landlord and a fellow teacher at the school. We have quickly become friends with her helping me shop and get my way around (thank God for her because outside of the school, no one speaks English). She has taught me a few Vietnamese phrases, of which I have only retained "thank you" (pronounced roughly gahm-ahn) and hello (pronounced zin-chow). Luckily, my Vietnamese lessons will start in 2 weeks when the other foreign teacher joins our school. 

On hearing Vietnamese for the first time: 

Because Vietnamese is written in Roman letters (Thanks colonialism?), I had somehow fooled myself into thinking it wouldn't be as difficult as other Asian languages. PSYCH!!!! For those who don't know, Vietnamese has 6 tones. Even beyond the tones, the pronunciation is unfathomable to me. Thank goodness for free Vietnamese lessons as provided by my contract. Learning it alone seems a task designed for Sisyphus. 

I can't imagine having come here without my experience in Ghana. Though things are still very foreign to me, there are still some things that seem familiar. Street vendors, small family owned shops, sparse living conditions, slow internet and standing out are not new things to me. Speaking of standing out, beyond my pink skin (which quite a few have already commented on), I am no less than a giant here. Everyone, even the men, stand a few inches shorter than me. Eyes follow me walking down the street as there are truly not many ex-pats here. In fact, I've only seen one other and he works at my school. 

As for school, I teach my first course today. I have two adult classes, two classes of children and one teen class. Until the other teacher comes, I'll be picking up her classes and working 40 hours a week! Welcome to the world of the employed, I suppose? Luckily, anything over 20 hours is overtime so that will help me save up for my moto really quickly. Tan, the granddaughter and fellow teacher, is going to teach me how to ride as I have scarcely seen ANY public transport and almost everyone, from 12 year olds to 60 year olds, have their own moto. As I live a 20 minute walk from the school, it will be great to drive there when I have early or late classes. 

Pictures and commentary on the culture I'm seeing here will be coming soon!!

Landing on the other side of the world...

Hong Kong, 8:20 local time

Stepping off the plane in a time-lost stupor after approximately 20 hours of travel, my breath caught in my throat, shaking me awake. The Hong Kong airport is surrounded by lush green mountains that touch the clouds. It suddenly hits me: I'm in ASIA!!! You'd think that being amidst incomprehensible Asian languages for 13 hours straight would have alerted meto what was coming but I was wholly unprepared to see such gorgeous landscapes by the airport. Suffice to say, I'm coming back to explore Hong Kong someday. Going through security, a nice Asian woman asks if I'm going through to Bangkok. I say "No, Vietnam" and she replies "Ah, you look like a teacher." I explain that I am, in fact, teaching in Vietnam and we part ways. I've been slightly worried over the past few days about getting into the rhythm of lesson planning and teaching but this interaction lifts my spirits a bit. At least I look the part?

Okay, flight 3 of 4 is boarding so here I go....onto my home for the next 6 months or so; Vietnam, here I come!