Two month mark!

Not many updates...

The other day, on my way back from my private lesson in Phu My Hung in District 7 (about 20 minutes away or so), my xe om driver turned on a street near to the one where I live, and there was a "roadblock" (Vietnamese road blocks consist mostly of cops sitting at a little table next to the road with a whistle, and whistling at people that they want to stop).

The police whistled at us, and instead of stopping, my driver sped up. One of the cops ran after us and ripped the key out of the ignition. He pushed his bike back to the table and chairs where the rest of the police were, and we stood there in the street (he knew what was going on, I obviously didn't, as the extent of my Vietnamese is what I've learned in my survival class...though earlier that day I did learn the word for "police officer" - but didn't think the cops would appreciate me pointing at them and showing off my amazing Vietnamese skills...

Fortunately there was another guy who had been stopped at the road block who spoke English, and the cops asked him to translate for me. My xe om driver didn't have his license, so basically he had to bribe the cops. The guy who spoke English asked where I was going, and since it was only a few blocks away (I would've walked, but that would involve crossing a 4-lane highway during rush hour), he dropped me off at my place on his way home. Just another day in Vietnam, and yet another reason I've got to get a motorbike...

I've decided to stick with the Vietnamese classes. It was really frustrating at first because I couldn't say anything, but now that I'm learning a few phrases and able to ask and answer a couple of questions, it's encouraging. I get most of my practice in on Wednesdays, immediately after Vietnamese class, on my xe om ride from the school to my private lesson. And by practice, I actually mean asking the driver what's your name? how old are you? and where are you from? (answer: Vietnam), and while bargaining with people (though the only real bargaining phrase I know is "too expensive!" and I've forgotten most of the numbers, so it's pretty ineffective). Now that I've gone to four or so classes (not to mention my extensive practice outside of the classroom), I'm starting to pick a fair bit up, so the language is less intimidating, which is definitely nice.

The school-sponsored trip to Mui Ne is on Monday and Tuesday. I've taken Tuesday off and plan on staying Monday, Tuesday, and taking an overnight bus back Wednesday night to get back Thursday morning in time to plan my lessons and teach that evening. It's a much-needed break, and it'll be nice to lie on the beach, relax, and do absolutely nothing.

Just getting around to uploading a few random pictures off my camera...

Julie (my private lesson student), after I noticed just how small her finger was:


Delicious pork on a skewer that I got just around the corner from where I live...could be my new addiction here...


Lewis modeling his fashionable and stylish glasses that he bought so he doesn't get dirt in his eyes when he's on his bike:


The other news is that I found out this morning that I got into the MPA program at UW, with enough financial aid to make it a viable option for me. I'll be getting back to them in the next few days to see if I can defer, but in general, I'm very excited about the idea of living in Seattle!!

My visit to the Vietnamese Hospital and other adventures

My first time in a Vietnamese hospital was thankfully not due to a motorbike accident. I had to go in for my health check to get my work permit. It was, as expected, a truly Vietnamese, bureaucratic experience (not to mention a complete waste of time). Five of us met at ILA headquarters and one of the TAs came with us to translate. The medical exam consisted of:

- an eye check
- drawing blood
- urine sample
- chest X-Ray
- ear and throat exam
- blood pressure
- talking with a doctor

Seems like a normal enough medical checkup, but...here's what actually happened:

- We arrived at the hospital and waited in the waiting room for 20 minutes. One of the other teachers and I each had Earth Song on our ipods, so we listened to them sychronizedly and marveled in how epic a song it is.

- eye check: I walked into a room, they asked if I had in contacts. I said yes. They had me read the chart (with my contacts in) and asked what my prescription strength was, and sent me into another room down the hall where I put my chin on a machine, and the man shone a bright light in one eye, scribbled something on a piece of paper, stamped it, and sent me back to the waiting room.

- drawing blood: took a sample of blood out of my wrist and squirted it into two separate vials. Gave me the cup to pee in (more on this later)

- urine sample: the opening on the cup they gave me was literally smaller than a shotglass. And the bathroom was down the crowded hall. And had no toilet paper. Surreptitiously carrying my urine sample back down the hallway was one of the more entertaining parts of the visit.

- chest x-ray: After walking across the hospital, we arrived in the x-ray area, which had a live tree growing through the middle of the waiting area (it was surrounded by glass. I went into the changing area of the x-ray room, took my top off, and put the gown on. I walked out, not sure what I was supposed to do next. The doctor pushed me towards the wall, pulled my arms behind my back, and shoved me further toward the plate I was meant to lean up against. I was so confused the entire time about what was going on that I hardly had time to react.

- ear and throat exam: Went upstairs for the ear and throat exam. Consisted of the nurse making small talk about how hot it was outside, a doctor using a tongue depressor and looking in my mouth for a total of one second, and then shining a bright light in my ears for another two seconds.

- blood pressure and talking with the doctor : After a nurse took our blood pressures, it was about 4pm and the TA we went with who was translating for us informed us that the doctors were going to leave on time at 5pm that day, and there were 10 people in front of us in line to see them, so at best, the doctor would only get to two or three of us, and the rest of us would have to go back tomorrow. After a few minutes, the TA was able to talk the doctors into seeing us before the rest of the other patients (she takes ILA teachers to the hospital at least twice a week, so the doctors there know her). The doctor visit consisted of her asking where I was from, then saying "tell me about your family". I was a bit unclear on whether she was trying to make small talk, or get medical history, so I gave a noncommittal response (something along the lines of "They're fine. They're healthy". Then she asked me to lift my shirt up, looked at my belly, put my shirt down, and started poking at my belly.

The whole process took about 4 hours, and felt really pointless. But it's done now, so I'm well on my way to getting my work permit!

Teaching's still going well...I've started doing graded readers (basically "dumbed down" versions of well-known books in English) with my S4s (my favorite class). The plan was to assign 25 pages or so, then have a book discussion in class the following day. The book discussion format that I planned on doing was actually the same one that I did when I was in 6th grade - there are five or six people per group, and each person has a different job (discussion leader, passage person, word master, connector, etc.) and is responsible for analyzing a certain aspect of the story and explaining it to their group. My class chose Gulliver's Travels, and I handed the books out last week, along with the job sheets. I'd planned to have the talk on the following Saturday. We got into class and played a brief game to warm up, and I separated them into their book groups. When I looked around at their sheets, I realized that none of them had done their homework and it would be impossible to have the discussion. I was so pissed!! I had to pull the "mean teacher" card and made the students write essays for 15 minutes about the importance of being prepared for class. The whole time they were writing, I wrote different ideas/questions on the board for them to think about (Why do you come to ILA? Can you get as much out of class if you aren't prepared? How would you feel if you were a teacher and your students didn't do their homework? What would their punishment be?) The students felt really bad, and I got some pretty good responses back from them. A few of my favorite excerpts are the following:

It is important to be prepared for class. But today, I am not prepared for class an I am not done the homework. That is my fault. I think my teacher feels sad. I want to apologized to my teacher for that. "I am sorry and I promise I will prepare for class and done the homework at home from today." That's what I want to say to my teacher.

I don't want upset my teacher and my classmate. And I'm sorry because I didn't do my Top. I have many time but I don't do it because I'm lady. I promise I will do my Top every day, I'm very sorry. I would feel very sad if I was a teacher and my students didn't do their homework. Their punishment should be I kick them and say that "you are a lady student I never want to see you again go away of my life"

The first ten minutes or so were easy to maintain the "I'm disappointed" thing, but after sitting for a while and thinking about how ridiculous the entire situation was (like, seriously, who let ME be a teacher? I have no idea what I'm doing! And most of the time I'm just laughing at all of my students' inappropriate jokes...) I'd gotten way too lax with that class, so it was good to give them a little reminder that I was their teacher and not their friend. They did get the picture, and on Sunday every single one of them had done the homework, and the one girl who was absent sent her completed homework in with another student. Hurray for small teaching successes!

Apart from that, teaching's been pretty uneventful. Tonight in class (with my Level 6 Elites - advanced level teenagers), we had a 45 minute discussion about prostitution. The book had a section on different phrases used to give opinions, so I figured we'd practice with a lesson out of a book called Taboos and Issues, which would be more fun than just bookwork, and give them a chance to express their opinions using the new language. My favorite part of the lesson came when we were going over vocabulary beforehand, and one of the word was pimp. It was a matching activity, and the definition was something like "a man that manages prostitutes blah blah blah". My students were a bit confused, and I asked why, and they said that most of the prostitutes here are managed by a woman. So, yes, on my third lesson with this particular class, I indeed did teach them the word pimpette.

I'm off, as I've got to finish up my homework for Vietnamese class tomorrow...

February Updates

Every day that goes by, I get more and settled in and comfortable here. I've had at least three teachers act surprised when I told them I've only been here a bit over a month, since all of them thought I'd been here for ages since I was so comfortable in the Teacher's Room and interacting with everybody. I've gotten to know a few of the road names in the area, so that always makes me feel good about myself, and helps me realize that I am living here long-term. Also helping with that is the fact that three or four new teachers have arrived, so I'm no longer "the new kid". Two of them (Jo from Manchester, and Zara from London) are really cool, and I I get along with them really well. We've already talked about living together, and plan on checking out some apartments and houses later this month.

Everything else is continuing along just the same. My private lessons are going very well, and Julie is still absolutely adorable. I've officially got a full load of courses that I'm teaching (2 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and 4 on Saturdays and Sundays), so I'm busy, but it's nice that they're my classes, and I can run them however I want. Yay! I had my observation (by Rachel, the boss of the entire branch where I work - eep!). I had her observe my J3A's (my worst class, full of 15 boys and 3 girls - 8 or 9 of the boys have absolutely no desire to be there, one boy has a learning disability which means that he spends about 30% of class walking around the room and humming). I was a bit nervous, but overall it was really, really helpful, so I'm looking forward to incorporating some of her advice and tips into my lesson with them tomorrow.

I'm two weeks into my Vietnamese lessons and so far they're going pretty well. It's a very difficult language, and often I can't even hear the difference between what I'm saying and what the teacher is saying (damn tonal language!). After two weeks, I know numbers 1-99, and how to say What is your name, What is your phone number? Where are you from? (along with the names of about 20 different countries), and How old are you?. I've used Vietnamese...twice after starting the class. Once I was in a taxi, and told the driver the road, and he asked for the number and I was able to tell him. And another, I was at a bar with Zara and Jo, and a little girl came up trying to sell us gum and I asked her what her name was. I was pretty proud of myself. I'm not sure how long I'll be staying in Vietnamese class. I definitely would like to learn, but it's pretty demoralizing to never be able to say anything correctly, plus the class is on my day off.....the plan as of now is to stick around in the class until I feel like it's stopped being useful (which I don't see happening anytime soon).

In terms of other things I've been doing....

Lewis gave me my first scooter lesson the other day. Overall grade....2/10. For fear of Mom and Dad reading this and flipping out, if anyone wants to know just exactly how badly it went, feel free to ask me. (And don't worry, Mom and Dad - it wasn't THAT bad). Also, don't worry, as I'm not taking another one until my health insurance goes through...

The other day Kim and I went to the War Remnants Museum (formerly named the The House for Displaying War Crimes of American Imperialism and the Puppet Government). It was a pretty intense experience (particularly the jars of fetuses that had birth defects from Agent Orange), and many of the photographs and descriptions of torture techniques. Kim and I finished up there around 10:30, and our first act after leaving was to go next door to the bar and have a beer. It was that kind of museum.....

Coming up on March 22 and 23, ILA is sponsoring a trip to Mui Ne. They're putting us up in a 4 star resort, paying for the bus to get us there and our meals while we're there (verdict's still out on whether they're paying for drinks, though that could be quite dangerous for them). The bus leaves at 6:30 on Monday morning, and gets back at 4pm on Tuesday, in time for us to teach our lessons Tuesday evening - however, realizing that would be awful, and not nearly enough time in gorgeous Mui Ne (I can't believe that the only two times I'm leaving the city are to go to the same place twice...), I've booked off of work on Tuesday, so plan on coming back Wednesday or Thursday evening. Should be very exciting!

I've gotta head in to plan some lessons, so I'm off! I'd love to hear updates from all of you on how/what you're doing!!