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!!