It's hard to believe that I've been here for a month. It's flown by, and if the rest of my time here goes this quickly, I'll be home before I know it!
I'm doing well with getting settled in here. I was speaking with Sydney, one of the other teachers who's been here about three months, the other day. She asked how long I'd been here, and when I told her three weeks, she was shocked. Because of the way that I was interacting so comfortably, joking with all of the other teachers, she had assumed that I had been here for much longer, and was just away on vacation for the three months that she'd been here.
Tet holiday ended well - On Wednesday Freya and I went to the Cu Chi Tunnels. It was really, really crowded with other tour groups, but interesting to see nonetheless. We didn't really get any pictures worth putting up, since most of the pictures are just holes in the ground that lead to tunnels, or holes dug out with bamboo spikes sticking out of them. (On a side note, our tour guide informed us that the term "booby traps" comes from the Bamboo that the Vietnamese used in their traps during the war). There was a shooting range at the Tunnels where visitors could buy bullets for any number of machine guns, rifles, or handguns that were used in the war, and shoot them at targets across a field. It was a bit disconcerting to hear gunshots while walking through the jungle on the tour.
After we got back from the Cu Chi Tunnels, Freya and I both had a nap, then went out to dinner and on Huong Vuong Plaza to watch Avatar in 3D. Watching movies in foreign countries is always amusing, and this was no exception (though not really worth going into in detail on here). The rest of Tet holiday was rather uneventful - it consisted of lots of 24 watching and sleeping in. On Friday we went into school to plan all of our lessons for Saturday and Sunday.
I had my first full weekend (four classes on Saturday, four on Sunday). It was every bit as exhausting as I expected it to be. Afterward I went out for a few drinks and dinner with some of the other teachers, and in true ILA style, ended up at T and R and ran into a bunch of other teachers there. I ended up staying out til 5am and got back to my guest house as the guy who works here was waking up. Ooooops!
I started my private lessons yesterday. I'm working with a 10 year old Korean girl, Julie, who has fairly good English, but trouble reading, writing, and connecting the words that she knows when they're spoken to what's written on the page. She's absolutely adorable, and working with her is so much fun that I almost feel bad for charging...At the end of the lesson, we play bingo with numbers 1-30, where we each write numbers in a 3x3 grid, and draw little slips of paper with the numbers written on them out of a drawer. Becky told me that Julie always beat her, but also warned me that she cheated when they played. Before we started, I told Julie that Becky said she cheated (how's THAT as an example of reported speech...), and that she wasn't allowed to cheat when she was playing with me. I won the first game, and was excited, and told Julie that Becky said that Julie always beat her badly. Julie said "I know...it's because I cheated". She's so adorable, it seems like the perfect job! The only downside is that it means I don't have any days off now (work at ILA on the weekends and Tuesdays and Thursdays, and this on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays), but I'm very much looking forward to it anyways.
There's not a lot else going on here. My Survival Vietnamese lessons start tomorrow afternoon, and I'm very much looking forward to being able to communicate a bit...or at the very least, learn some pronunciation so that I can say my students' names....
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
Chúc Mừng Năm Mới (Happy New Year!!!)
The bus trip to Mui Ne was a lot more fun than I thought it would be. It took about 5 hours, and was actually a sleeper bus (which felt a bit odd since we were making the trip during the daytime, leaving at 8am). There were three beds going across the bus (one in the middle of the bus with aisles on either side and one on each window side).
Freya and I had the luck (still not sure if I'm being sarcastic when I say luck or not) of being all the way in the back, where it was just five sleepers across, with no aisles. Apart from Freya and I, there was a British guy next to me, then a Vietnamese guy next to him, then a Dutch guy on the other side. The Vietnamese guy was really friendly (even though he had practically no English), and kept laughing and making jokes that nobody understood, but laughed along with anyways. The atmosphere was quite fun in the backseat, even if it was cramped at times. The most comfortable way to sleep on these buses was on your side, and the seats weren't very long or wide, so at a few points I woke up to notice that the 5 of us were all laying on the same side, knees bent, and basically spooning each other.
During the bus ride, it sunk in that I'm living in a developing country. It's easy to forget that when I'm with all of the expats in District 1 of a big city, but once we ventured out, it was easy to see the poverty in the country. There were open fires by the side of the road; lots of cattle, either roaming around or lying down, but not fenced in; and houses that looked like they'd fall over at any moment. Despite this, most any person that we passed looked happy. The other daunting thing about the bus ride was that our driver wouldn't slow down while going through towns - he'd only honk his horn - and was whipping through towns and passing motos, cars, and other buses going about 50.
As far as I can tell, drivers will honk their horn when:
- they want to pass somebody
- somebody is passing them
- somebody is pulling out in front of them and they don't want them to
- the person at the light in front of them takes more than half a second to go after the light changes
- or whenever they damn well feel like it.
Our bus driver was constantly honking, which made it a bit difficult to get as much rest as we would've liked on the bus ride. We arrived in Mui Ne safe and sound and went to grab some lunch and plan the rest of our time there.
To clarify - Freya and I decided to come to Mui Ne about two days before we left, and hadn't planned a single thing. We had the name of a few resorts in our guidebooks, and a hotel that another one of the teachers was staying at, but that was about it. We had no idea what to expect, or how long we'd be there.
We sat down and started calling the resorts in the guidebook that sounded affordable and nice, and for every single one, were either told that they were full, or that the price was $50 and up. It was a bit discouraging, since we were counting on finding a nice room for about $20. Our waiter came up to us and told us that it was high season (Tet), so everything was full and prices were high, and gave us a map with lots of different hotels and their phone numbers. We scanned for the cheap ones and started calling, but got the same answers (full or at least $50). After a while, the waiter returned, gave us a pamphlet of a place nearby, said that the owners were eating a few tables over, and asked if we wanted him to see if they had room. We said yes, then after looking at the map and seeing that the price listed for this particular resort was $120+ per night, panicked a bit. The waiter came back, said they'd give us a room for $45, and it was right down the road. It was more expensive than we wanted, but it looked really nice, and we didn't have much choice, so we took it.
The resort was reallllly nice. The room was very new and clean, and the resort itself was right on the beach, complete with a bar (and people to come around and ask if you wanted anything to drink) swimming pool, and free breakfast (which consisted of coffee or tea, a buffet, and the option to order eggs or crepes).
We spent the first day trying to figure out what to do, since the trip was costing us about twice as much as we'd planned on. We decided to go for a walk along the beach and spend a while watching the kite surfers (Mui Ne is known for its kite surfing, though that also tends to make it a very touristy place, as we all know that Charlie don't surf). The afternoon consisted of sitting by the beach reading, snoozing, and watching the kite surfers. I ended up with a bit of a sunburn, but it was so relaxing sitting in front of the beach, being out of the city for a while that I couldn't bring myself to move into the shade.
After our relaxing afternoon, Freya and I decided it was time for dinner. We headed for a place that my guide book had recommended, though after walking about 3 kilometers and finding nothing at the address listed in the book, we popped into the closest decent-looking restaurant around. The entire time we couldn't stop laughing about how poorly planned the whole trip was, but were also pleasantly surprised that it was going so well. On the way home after dinner, we stopped by a bar on the beach for a few drinks. While we were sitting talking about how relaxing Mui Ne was, but also about how much we missed Saigon, an Australian girl came up to our table, sat down, and started talking about how she was traveling alone and lonely, and wanted to sit with us. We talked with her for a while, and she invited the two guys who were sitting at the table behind us to join us (Chris from the UK, and some guy from Canada). We sat for a while, sharing travel stories and advice, and "enjoying" the karaoke going on behind us. We found out that Chris was headed to Saigon within a few days, so before we left, we gave him our contact information and told him to give us a call when he got in.
The next day was officially the Lunar New Year (and Valentine's Day), and Freya and I woke up to our complimentary breakfast at our resort. The entire day, everybody was wishing us a happy New Year. It's actually quite cute, because people here don't say New Year, but ratherHappy New Year, as if that's what it's called. Similarly, It's not your birthday, it's your happy birthday (as in, my happy birthday is August 1st.) When Freya and I were buying our bus tickets, the man at the agency was explaining "because it's Happy New Year, the traffic is slow, so the bus might be late." It's amusing, and I'm not surprised that none of the students' teachers have tried to correct them (although maybe they have, unsuccessfully), because when you hear it, you can't help but laugh (in a culturally respectful way, of course).
We spent the rest of the morning going for a walk on the beach and lounging by the pool at our hotel again. After lunch we headed back to the resort since we'd booked a tour go to Fairy Springs, and the sand dunes near Mui Ne.
The Fairy Springs were really neat looking - it was basically a kilometer-long walk through a small stream a few inches deep, but with cool-looking rock formations all around. I was surprised that the majority of the people there were Vietnamese, and the children especially were absolutely loving it. As Freya described the experience, it was kind of like an water park, but "without the thrill". At the end of the spring, there was a small waterfall. After snapping a few pictures, we turned around, walked back down, collected our shoes, and got in the Jeep to go to the white dunes.
On the way to the white dunes we stopped so that we could take some pictures of the fishing village of Mui Ne. There were hundreds of boats, and the pictures don't really do it justice, but it was very peaceful looking. After our quick break, we headed on to the white dunes. It was weird seeing
a desert after seeing beach only a few minutes before, but it was also gorgeous. It was also a bit odd since people don't typically tend to think of deserts when they hear Vietnam...It was my first experience in a desert, and the vastness of it was astounding. We rented a hard plastic sheet so that we could go sledding down the dunes, but after lugging it all the way to the top, found that it didn't really work, but rather just sunk into the sand, resulting in a disappointingly slow ride down. Freya tried to go just sitting on it, and when I saw how slowly she was moving, I decided to try going head first, but that was just as disastrous, and both of us ended up with sand everywhere. We were laughing about it until we realized that we 
were catching the 2am bus that night for Saigon, had already checked out of our hotel, and wouldn't be able to shower until we got home...
After we finished at the white dunes, the tour took us to the red dunes for sunset. Both the white dunes and the red dunes were beautiful, but I think I preferred the red dunes because the ocean was visible from them - very bizarre. We watched the sunset there, took lots of pictures, Freya failed at an attempt to make a sand angel, and headed back to the Jeep again (we decided not to bother trying with the sand sledding this time...)
We got back in time for dinner and went to a bar/restaurant that was open 24
hours and showed movies, since we had to wait for our 2am bus. We got dinner there and proceeded to stay for six hours, watching a few different movies and talking a few other tourists (some were waiting for buses also leaving fairly late). At 2, we hopped on our bus, immediately passed out, and woke up in Saigon at 6:30, ready to shower.
We still have the rest of the week off, so Freya and I have been taking full advantage of not having to teach...we bought the box set of 24 (all seven seasons), so we've been watching that and trying not to get too addicted (we limit ourselves to four episodes in a row, after which we force ourselves to go outside for at least ten minutes or so before coming back to watch the next four episodes that we allow ourselves...). We met up with Chris last night for dinner, a few drinks and a game of pool, and after meeting an Australian and another American at the bar and sharing jokes, we decided to call it a night. Today we met with Chris again for breakfast (we all had delicious western breakfasts - french toast, omelette, scrambled eggs, sausages, hashbrowns, coffee, orange juice...) and the three of us booked a half-day tour to go see the Củ Chi tunnels tomorrow morning. I'll put pictures of that up when I get back.
After booking that, and feeling rather productive, we went to the movie theater in District 5 where they show Avatar in 3D and bought tickets to see it tomorrow night. Afterwards, we wandered around Chinatown for a bit and found a nice little cafe where we got juice and sat for about half an hour before the long walk back to District 1. Freya and I were both very pleased that once we ventured out of District 1, there was hardly a westerner to be seen. The nice thing about Vietnam is that you can always get a nice Sunday roast or hamburger when you want one, and hang out with westerners when you feel like it, but if you really want to get away from that, all you have to do is venture a few blocks away from the backpacker district ("the Phạm" - called this because one of the main streets in the backpacker district is Phạm Ngũ Lão). It's also nice to walk around outside of the Pham because the Vietnamese are so excited to see foreigners - just walking down the street to school (or anywhere else, for that matter), at least two Vietnamese small children (they're usually children, although today we had a few that were adults) will smile, wave, and shout "Hello!", and the smile they show you when you say Hello back is incredible.
Wow. I feel long-winded, and I've got a bit of sleep to catch up before Freya gets here to watch 24...Also, I've just posted pictures of the Tet lights on the last entry, so feel free to take a look at those!
Freya and I had the luck (still not sure if I'm being sarcastic when I say luck or not) of being all the way in the back, where it was just five sleepers across, with no aisles. Apart from Freya and I, there was a British guy next to me, then a Vietnamese guy next to him, then a Dutch guy on the other side. The Vietnamese guy was really friendly (even though he had practically no English), and kept laughing and making jokes that nobody understood, but laughed along with anyways. The atmosphere was quite fun in the backseat, even if it was cramped at times. The most comfortable way to sleep on these buses was on your side, and the seats weren't very long or wide, so at a few points I woke up to notice that the 5 of us were all laying on the same side, knees bent, and basically spooning each other.During the bus ride, it sunk in that I'm living in a developing country. It's easy to forget that when I'm with all of the expats in District 1 of a big city, but once we ventured out, it was easy to see the poverty in the country. There were open fires by the side of the road; lots of cattle, either roaming around or lying down, but not fenced in; and houses that looked like they'd fall over at any moment. Despite this, most any person that we passed looked happy. The other daunting thing about the bus ride was that our driver wouldn't slow down while going through towns - he'd only honk his horn - and was whipping through towns and passing motos, cars, and other buses going about 50.
As far as I can tell, drivers will honk their horn when:
- they want to pass somebody
- somebody is passing them
- somebody is pulling out in front of them and they don't want them to
- the person at the light in front of them takes more than half a second to go after the light changes
- or whenever they damn well feel like it.
Our bus driver was constantly honking, which made it a bit difficult to get as much rest as we would've liked on the bus ride. We arrived in Mui Ne safe and sound and went to grab some lunch and plan the rest of our time there.
To clarify - Freya and I decided to come to Mui Ne about two days before we left, and hadn't planned a single thing. We had the name of a few resorts in our guidebooks, and a hotel that another one of the teachers was staying at, but that was about it. We had no idea what to expect, or how long we'd be there.
We sat down and started calling the resorts in the guidebook that sounded affordable and nice, and for every single one, were either told that they were full, or that the price was $50 and up. It was a bit discouraging, since we were counting on finding a nice room for about $20. Our waiter came up to us and told us that it was high season (Tet), so everything was full and prices were high, and gave us a map with lots of different hotels and their phone numbers. We scanned for the cheap ones and started calling, but got the same answers (full or at least $50). After a while, the waiter returned, gave us a pamphlet of a place nearby, said that the owners were eating a few tables over, and asked if we wanted him to see if they had room. We said yes, then after looking at the map and seeing that the price listed for this particular resort was $120+ per night, panicked a bit. The waiter came back, said they'd give us a room for $45, and it was right down the road. It was more expensive than we wanted, but it looked really nice, and we didn't have much choice, so we took it.
The resort was reallllly nice. The room was very new and clean, and the resort itself was right on the beach, complete with a bar (and people to come around and ask if you wanted anything to drink) swimming pool, and free breakfast (which consisted of coffee or tea, a buffet, and the option to order eggs or crepes). We spent the first day trying to figure out what to do, since the trip was costing us about twice as much as we'd planned on. We decided to go for a walk along the beach and spend a while watching the kite surfers (Mui Ne is known for its kite surfing, though that also tends to make it a very touristy place, as we all know that Charlie don't surf). The afternoon consisted of sitting by the beach reading, snoozing, and watching the kite surfers. I ended up with a bit of a sunburn, but it was so relaxing sitting in front of the beach, being out of the city for a while that I couldn't bring myself to move into the shade.
After our relaxing afternoon, Freya and I decided it was time for dinner. We headed for a place that my guide book had recommended, though after walking about 3 kilometers and finding nothing at the address listed in the book, we popped into the closest decent-looking restaurant around. The entire time we couldn't stop laughing about how poorly planned the whole trip was, but were also pleasantly surprised that it was going so well. On the way home after dinner, we stopped by a bar on the beach for a few drinks. While we were sitting talking about how relaxing Mui Ne was, but also about how much we missed Saigon, an Australian girl came up to our table, sat down, and started talking about how she was traveling alone and lonely, and wanted to sit with us. We talked with her for a while, and she invited the two guys who were sitting at the table behind us to join us (Chris from the UK, and some guy from Canada). We sat for a while, sharing travel stories and advice, and "enjoying" the karaoke going on behind us. We found out that Chris was headed to Saigon within a few days, so before we left, we gave him our contact information and told him to give us a call when he got in.
The next day was officially the Lunar New Year (and Valentine's Day), and Freya and I woke up to our complimentary breakfast at our resort. The entire day, everybody was wishing us a happy New Year. It's actually quite cute, because people here don't say New Year, but ratherHappy New Year, as if that's what it's called. Similarly, It's not your birthday, it's your happy birthday (as in, my happy birthday is August 1st.) When Freya and I were buying our bus tickets, the man at the agency was explaining "because it's Happy New Year, the traffic is slow, so the bus might be late." It's amusing, and I'm not surprised that none of the students' teachers have tried to correct them (although maybe they have, unsuccessfully), because when you hear it, you can't help but laugh (in a culturally respectful way, of course).
We spent the rest of the morning going for a walk on the beach and lounging by the pool at our hotel again. After lunch we headed back to the resort since we'd booked a tour go to Fairy Springs, and the sand dunes near Mui Ne.
The Fairy Springs were really neat looking - it was basically a kilometer-long walk through a small stream a few inches deep, but with cool-looking rock formations all around. I was surprised that the majority of the people there were Vietnamese, and the children especially were absolutely loving it. As Freya described the experience, it was kind of like an water park, but "without the thrill". At the end of the spring, there was a small waterfall. After snapping a few pictures, we turned around, walked back down, collected our shoes, and got in the Jeep to go to the white dunes.On the way to the white dunes we stopped so that we could take some pictures of the fishing village of Mui Ne. There were hundreds of boats, and the pictures don't really do it justice, but it was very peaceful looking. After our quick break, we headed on to the white dunes. It was weird seeing
a desert after seeing beach only a few minutes before, but it was also gorgeous. It was also a bit odd since people don't typically tend to think of deserts when they hear Vietnam...It was my first experience in a desert, and the vastness of it was astounding. We rented a hard plastic sheet so that we could go sledding down the dunes, but after lugging it all the way to the top, found that it didn't really work, but rather just sunk into the sand, resulting in a disappointingly slow ride down. Freya tried to go just sitting on it, and when I saw how slowly she was moving, I decided to try going head first, but that was just as disastrous, and both of us ended up with sand everywhere. We were laughing about it until we realized that we 
were catching the 2am bus that night for Saigon, had already checked out of our hotel, and wouldn't be able to shower until we got home...After we finished at the white dunes, the tour took us to the red dunes for sunset. Both the white dunes and the red dunes were beautiful, but I think I preferred the red dunes because the ocean was visible from them - very bizarre. We watched the sunset there, took lots of pictures, Freya failed at an attempt to make a sand angel, and headed back to the Jeep again (we decided not to bother trying with the sand sledding this time...)
We got back in time for dinner and went to a bar/restaurant that was open 24
hours and showed movies, since we had to wait for our 2am bus. We got dinner there and proceeded to stay for six hours, watching a few different movies and talking a few other tourists (some were waiting for buses also leaving fairly late). At 2, we hopped on our bus, immediately passed out, and woke up in Saigon at 6:30, ready to shower.
We still have the rest of the week off, so Freya and I have been taking full advantage of not having to teach...we bought the box set of 24 (all seven seasons), so we've been watching that and trying not to get too addicted (we limit ourselves to four episodes in a row, after which we force ourselves to go outside for at least ten minutes or so before coming back to watch the next four episodes that we allow ourselves...). We met up with Chris last night for dinner, a few drinks and a game of pool, and after meeting an Australian and another American at the bar and sharing jokes, we decided to call it a night. Today we met with Chris again for breakfast (we all had delicious western breakfasts - french toast, omelette, scrambled eggs, sausages, hashbrowns, coffee, orange juice...) and the three of us booked a half-day tour to go see the Củ Chi tunnels tomorrow morning. I'll put pictures of that up when I get back. After booking that, and feeling rather productive, we went to the movie theater in District 5 where they show Avatar in 3D and bought tickets to see it tomorrow night. Afterwards, we wandered around Chinatown for a bit and found a nice little cafe where we got juice and sat for about half an hour before the long walk back to District 1. Freya and I were both very pleased that once we ventured out of District 1, there was hardly a westerner to be seen. The nice thing about Vietnam is that you can always get a nice Sunday roast or hamburger when you want one, and hang out with westerners when you feel like it, but if you really want to get away from that, all you have to do is venture a few blocks away from the backpacker district ("the Phạm" - called this because one of the main streets in the backpacker district is Phạm Ngũ Lão). It's also nice to walk around outside of the Pham because the Vietnamese are so excited to see foreigners - just walking down the street to school (or anywhere else, for that matter), at least two Vietnamese small children (they're usually children, although today we had a few that were adults) will smile, wave, and shout "Hello!", and the smile they show you when you say Hello back is incredible.
Wow. I feel long-winded, and I've got a bit of sleep to catch up before Freya gets here to watch 24...Also, I've just posted pictures of the Tet lights on the last entry, so feel free to take a look at those!
Thursday, February 11, 2010
On vacation!!!
So I've officially finished work and am on vacation for the New Year! A week off....I was originally planning on sticking around Saigon, but realized that a week here would be a long time, so Freya and I are leaving for Mui Ne tomorrow (feel free to check out the results of a google image search) and staying there for three or four days. It should be a nice, relaxing time, and I'll be sure to post pictures when I get back.
I haven't been up to much - working and hanging out with some of the other teachers. On Wednesday Marleen and I went to the Sheraton for Happy Hour, and then down to the street to take some pictures of all of the lights that have gone up for Tet.
The view from the Sheraton (Rex Hotel on the right, the middle has millions of flowers on display for Tet):
Enjoying my Singapore Sling at sunset:
Sunset and smog:
Tet lights:
View of a side street in District 1:
Tigers and Flowers off of Lê Lợi:
View of Lê Lợi (and an absolute mob of motorbikes and pedestrians):
More of Lê Lợi:
Other than that, nothing much to report from here. I'm starting to get my own classes and when I have to start work again (on the 20th), I'll have a full schedule of four of my own classes, then one of my own the following Tuesday and Thursday...which means that I'm just one class (on Tuesday/Thursday) shy of having a full schedule of my own classes!
Hope everyone's enjoying their winter weather as I'll be sweltering away on a beach in 95+° heat.....
I haven't been up to much - working and hanging out with some of the other teachers. On Wednesday Marleen and I went to the Sheraton for Happy Hour, and then down to the street to take some pictures of all of the lights that have gone up for Tet.
The view from the Sheraton (Rex Hotel on the right, the middle has millions of flowers on display for Tet):
Enjoying my Singapore Sling at sunset:
Sunset and smog:
Tet lights:
View of a side street in District 1:
Tigers and Flowers off of Lê Lợi:
View of Lê Lợi (and an absolute mob of motorbikes and pedestrians):
More of Lê Lợi:
Other than that, nothing much to report from here. I'm starting to get my own classes and when I have to start work again (on the 20th), I'll have a full schedule of four of my own classes, then one of my own the following Tuesday and Thursday...which means that I'm just one class (on Tuesday/Thursday) shy of having a full schedule of my own classes!
Hope everyone's enjoying their winter weather as I'll be sweltering away on a beach in 95+° heat.....
Saturday, February 6, 2010
My Big, Fat American Feet - and other observations
I'm halfway through my first weekend of teaching (starting out with just three classes per day on Saturday and Sunday; after Tet, I'll be moved up to four). The three that I started this weekend are my permanent classes (as opposed to cover classes, which is what I was doing before), so that's helped a lot in feeling settled into the job. My first class was J2s (Juniors, which means age 6-11, level 2, which is pretty elementary). The class is 13 boys and only 5 girls, and Tyler, the teacher whose class it was, had warned me that they were a rowdy bunch...he said that I should consider it a good teaching day if I could fit 15 or 20 minutes of actual teaching into the 2 hour lesson. Overall, they were a pretty fun bunch. Very energetic and involved, though I could see how it could easily get out of hand.
My next class was S1s (Seniors, which means age 11-15, level 1, or pretty elementary). This class also used to be Tyler's, and he warned me about how shy and unparticipative/untalkative they were. I definitely noticed it, and I'm not sure if they were hesitant to participate because it was after lunch, or they're older and too cool for school. Anyways, I've definitely got my work cut out for me on that one.
My last class of the day, S4s (Seniors, level 4 - intermediate) is by far my favorite. Their level of English is quite good, which makes it fun because we can actually have conversations about things. They all get along and work well together, which will make the class so much easier. Also, the TA for that class is wonderful - very involved, very good English, and really nice. One of the first activities that we did in that class was having each student make a name tent so that I could learn their names. They asked if I wanted their Vietnamese names or English names, and I told them either, but that I would call them that for the entire course, so they should pick something good. Fortunately for me, every single one of them opted for an English name (Vietnamese names are really hard to pronounce, not to mention name tags don't help at all because pronunciation is not what you would expect - for example, I have a student whose name is spelled "Dung", but it's pronounced more like "Yoon"...not to mention my student "Phuc"). Most of them chose actual names (Jenn, Martin, Sawyer, John, Tom, Cindy, Angela, etc.), but I will also be teaching students named: Balloon, T.V., Dragon Sky, and Money (similarly, one of my J2's chose the name "Catfish" for himself). Rather amusing, until I have to discipline them ("Ballon! Sit down now!" or "Dragon Sky! Listen to me! If you don't stop talking, you'll fail your exam")
In other non-teaching news....
Freya and I went to the tailor the other day and chose fabric for some clothes that she'd designed (she got a dress, I got a skirt), and we're picking those up tomorrow, so hopefully they'll turn out well. If they're good, then we plan on going back to fill out our teaching wardrobes - how can one resist tailor-made clothes for only $15 or so?....
I've officially moved rooms (same guest house, but two floors up, so my balcony actually has a nice view - not that I'm ever out there...it's way too hot and humid). I've put all my clothes away and am starting to get everything organized in here, so that's helped a lot with the settling down process.
A few other random observations from my time here:
- People here have tiny feet. I needed new shoes for work since I was tired of wearing heels, so decided to go shoe shopping. First stop was Aldo of course, though everything they had was too small (and pretty expensive). It was quite an accomplishment finding reasonably priced shoes for myself (and I'm only a size 8!)
- The way the shopping here is set up is a bit bizarre. There will be one street filled only with computer shops, another with only furniture shops, another with only sporting goods, etc. I've overheard some of the other teachers referring to the streets by what they sell ("Yeah, just go all the way down Computer Street, cross Hat and Helmet Alley, and you'll find the pho place"). The system is pretty good for comparison shopping if you know what you want to buy, but if you don't know which street has what you're looking for, or are just trying to go shopping for an assortment of things, it's a bit annoying.
- Grocery stores in foreign countries will never cease to be amusing.
- Vietnamese people, in general, are very, very nice. The other day Freya, Marleen and I were having trouble crossing a really busy street, and a Vietnamese man noticed us, detoured from his route, walked across the street with us and delivered us safely to the other side, then turned around, crossed back to the side of the street we started on, and continued on his way.
- I've seen lots of older people here with missing limbs. This is basically the only effect of the war that I've seen, and it makes me feel very sad (and a bit guilty. Maybe I'll start telling people I'm Canadian).
- Everything's really clean here! I'd heard that it was a very dirty city, and was prepared for that, but if anything, I've noticed how little trash there is in the streets. There are tons of street cleaners that walk around with brooms and carts and clean up all the garbage. There are also very few homeless people (that I've seen at least - maybe there are in other parts of the city). Yay Communism for providing lots and lots of jobs! (Another fun side effect of Communism and the low unemployment level here is that each restaurant has about four times as many workers as it needs. This results in waiters hanging around the table waiting for you to decide what you want to order, or standing there while you sort out the money to pay them, or anything else, really. Despite this, you never can seem to get a waiter's attention when you want it (when asking for the check, for example). On the upside, it does result in lots of little, folded paper napkins. Maybe once I finish the teaching thing, I'll stick around here and hone my skills as a napkin folder)
Anyways, I'm getting up at 5:45 tomorrow so that I can be in at school by 7, so I'm off to bed!
My next class was S1s (Seniors, which means age 11-15, level 1, or pretty elementary). This class also used to be Tyler's, and he warned me about how shy and unparticipative/untalkative they were. I definitely noticed it, and I'm not sure if they were hesitant to participate because it was after lunch, or they're older and too cool for school. Anyways, I've definitely got my work cut out for me on that one.
My last class of the day, S4s (Seniors, level 4 - intermediate) is by far my favorite. Their level of English is quite good, which makes it fun because we can actually have conversations about things. They all get along and work well together, which will make the class so much easier. Also, the TA for that class is wonderful - very involved, very good English, and really nice. One of the first activities that we did in that class was having each student make a name tent so that I could learn their names. They asked if I wanted their Vietnamese names or English names, and I told them either, but that I would call them that for the entire course, so they should pick something good. Fortunately for me, every single one of them opted for an English name (Vietnamese names are really hard to pronounce, not to mention name tags don't help at all because pronunciation is not what you would expect - for example, I have a student whose name is spelled "Dung", but it's pronounced more like "Yoon"...not to mention my student "Phuc"). Most of them chose actual names (Jenn, Martin, Sawyer, John, Tom, Cindy, Angela, etc.), but I will also be teaching students named: Balloon, T.V., Dragon Sky, and Money (similarly, one of my J2's chose the name "Catfish" for himself). Rather amusing, until I have to discipline them ("Ballon! Sit down now!" or "Dragon Sky! Listen to me! If you don't stop talking, you'll fail your exam")
In other non-teaching news....
Freya and I went to the tailor the other day and chose fabric for some clothes that she'd designed (she got a dress, I got a skirt), and we're picking those up tomorrow, so hopefully they'll turn out well. If they're good, then we plan on going back to fill out our teaching wardrobes - how can one resist tailor-made clothes for only $15 or so?....
I've officially moved rooms (same guest house, but two floors up, so my balcony actually has a nice view - not that I'm ever out there...it's way too hot and humid). I've put all my clothes away and am starting to get everything organized in here, so that's helped a lot with the settling down process.
A few other random observations from my time here:
- People here have tiny feet. I needed new shoes for work since I was tired of wearing heels, so decided to go shoe shopping. First stop was Aldo of course, though everything they had was too small (and pretty expensive). It was quite an accomplishment finding reasonably priced shoes for myself (and I'm only a size 8!)
- The way the shopping here is set up is a bit bizarre. There will be one street filled only with computer shops, another with only furniture shops, another with only sporting goods, etc. I've overheard some of the other teachers referring to the streets by what they sell ("Yeah, just go all the way down Computer Street, cross Hat and Helmet Alley, and you'll find the pho place"). The system is pretty good for comparison shopping if you know what you want to buy, but if you don't know which street has what you're looking for, or are just trying to go shopping for an assortment of things, it's a bit annoying.
- Grocery stores in foreign countries will never cease to be amusing.
- Vietnamese people, in general, are very, very nice. The other day Freya, Marleen and I were having trouble crossing a really busy street, and a Vietnamese man noticed us, detoured from his route, walked across the street with us and delivered us safely to the other side, then turned around, crossed back to the side of the street we started on, and continued on his way.
- I've seen lots of older people here with missing limbs. This is basically the only effect of the war that I've seen, and it makes me feel very sad (and a bit guilty. Maybe I'll start telling people I'm Canadian).
- Everything's really clean here! I'd heard that it was a very dirty city, and was prepared for that, but if anything, I've noticed how little trash there is in the streets. There are tons of street cleaners that walk around with brooms and carts and clean up all the garbage. There are also very few homeless people (that I've seen at least - maybe there are in other parts of the city). Yay Communism for providing lots and lots of jobs! (Another fun side effect of Communism and the low unemployment level here is that each restaurant has about four times as many workers as it needs. This results in waiters hanging around the table waiting for you to decide what you want to order, or standing there while you sort out the money to pay them, or anything else, really. Despite this, you never can seem to get a waiter's attention when you want it (when asking for the check, for example). On the upside, it does result in lots of little, folded paper napkins. Maybe once I finish the teaching thing, I'll stick around here and hone my skills as a napkin folder)
Anyways, I'm getting up at 5:45 tomorrow so that I can be in at school by 7, so I'm off to bed!
Monday, February 1, 2010
Starting work!
Today was my first day teaching, but I'll start with the boring stuff (and pictures of food...)
I've been going out a lot with the other new teachers recently. The other night Marleen and I went to a Korean restaurant on Bui Vien. It was a very bizarre experience, since we didn't really know what we were doing, and the restaurant was playing the same song on repeat the entire time we were there (it sounded like a Vietnamese Celine Dion, so needless to say, it wasn't the most pleasant dining experience). The food was...bizarre. Still not sure what anything was, except for what we later determined was some sort of sardine....something or other. Unfortunately we only realized this after sampling large chopstick-fulls of it.
The sardines:
Dinner was an adventure, so afterwards, to relax a bit, we went out for a few drinks, and then a few more at the Blue Gecko (an Australian bar) with a bunch of the other teachers to say goodbye to Jane.
So moving on to the real-world, grownup topics...Today was my first day teaching. I'm starting my schedule off easy with just one class, S3s, plus it's just a cover class, so there's no real pressure if I screw up too badly...
I spent the night before doing my lesson plan in bed. Photographic evidence of my highly organized work area:
Overall my class went really well. The students were at a lot higher level than I was expecting, which was a nice surprise. Also I'm beginning to get used to Vietnamese pronunciation, so it was much easier than I was expecting. I've got the same class again on Thursday, but I'm administering a speaking test, which means I'll be talking to the students one by one in a separate room while the rest watch a movie. Not quite sure how it works yet, but I do know I'm responsible for assigning a grade, which is a bit worrisome since I have no experience with that sort of thing. That finishes up my week, except for my Saturday and Sunday, when I have 3 classes each. These will all be my classes that I'm taking over, not just classes I'm covering for another teacher going on vacation or taking time off. It'll definitely be nice and help me feel settled into a routine, but there's also a lot more pressure to lay down the law on the first day and play the part of mean teacher (not sure if I'm capable of that yet, but I'll give it a spin). It should be good though, and I'm starting to get more excited about it. Anyways, I'm off to attempt early bedtime #2 in a row...
I've been going out a lot with the other new teachers recently. The other night Marleen and I went to a Korean restaurant on Bui Vien. It was a very bizarre experience, since we didn't really know what we were doing, and the restaurant was playing the same song on repeat the entire time we were there (it sounded like a Vietnamese Celine Dion, so needless to say, it wasn't the most pleasant dining experience). The food was...bizarre. Still not sure what anything was, except for what we later determined was some sort of sardine....something or other. Unfortunately we only realized this after sampling large chopstick-fulls of it.
The sardines:
Dinner was an adventure, so afterwards, to relax a bit, we went out for a few drinks, and then a few more at the Blue Gecko (an Australian bar) with a bunch of the other teachers to say goodbye to Jane.
So moving on to the real-world, grownup topics...Today was my first day teaching. I'm starting my schedule off easy with just one class, S3s, plus it's just a cover class, so there's no real pressure if I screw up too badly...
I spent the night before doing my lesson plan in bed. Photographic evidence of my highly organized work area:
Overall my class went really well. The students were at a lot higher level than I was expecting, which was a nice surprise. Also I'm beginning to get used to Vietnamese pronunciation, so it was much easier than I was expecting. I've got the same class again on Thursday, but I'm administering a speaking test, which means I'll be talking to the students one by one in a separate room while the rest watch a movie. Not quite sure how it works yet, but I do know I'm responsible for assigning a grade, which is a bit worrisome since I have no experience with that sort of thing. That finishes up my week, except for my Saturday and Sunday, when I have 3 classes each. These will all be my classes that I'm taking over, not just classes I'm covering for another teacher going on vacation or taking time off. It'll definitely be nice and help me feel settled into a routine, but there's also a lot more pressure to lay down the law on the first day and play the part of mean teacher (not sure if I'm capable of that yet, but I'll give it a spin). It should be good though, and I'm starting to get more excited about it. Anyways, I'm off to attempt early bedtime #2 in a row...
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