The last two months that I’ve been in Vietnam have been the longest period of time I’ve gone without running since I was probably 13 years old. I’ve never met so many obstacles to a good run before. There’s the heat, the constant sweating, the stomach woes, the stares, and worst of all, the smog. I thought I had finally resigned myself to a year of yoga and flabby thighs, but this past Sunday I thought I would go crazy if I didn’t get some kind of physical activity beyond breathing and stretching. So I decided to try the Can Tho University Campus 1 “track.”
When I say “track” I mean the quarter mile loop of gravelly, pot-holed road that connects my house with those of all of my neighbors. During the daytime it’s just your average neighborhood street in Vietnam. But come early morning/evening, it’s a hub of activity. Whole groups of women in day clothes, walking and talking, mothers pushing their babies in strollers, shirtless old men plodding along, even whole families out for a nice stroll around the block. Despite the appealing atmosphere, I’ve avoided this exercise option because, well, the thought of running every day without ever actually going anywhere for the next year made me cringe.
But out of pure desperation on Sunday afternoon, I pulled my running shoes out of the closet, and with Benny Benassi blasting in my ears, psyched myself up for the most boring run ever. I had only done a couple of laps when I came out of my adrenaline rush/iPod haze enough to realize that I’d attracted a sort of following. Apparently I’d become the afternoon’s amusement for a bunch of six-year old boys. As I rounded the first corner of the “track,” I’d see them hunch over in starting position, watching my approach. Then as I came up to where they were crouching they’d race me until they were out of breath. I’d finish my lap, round the corner, and the game would begin again. This went on for a solid 20 minutes, and they held up impressively against my exponentially longer legs! Definitely the most bizarre race I’ve ever run, but also probably the cutest competition…
About thirty minutes later I came in, sweaty and more exhausted than I should ever be after four miles. But it was worth it for the much-needed, much-missed endorphin high. I think I’m going to keep up my daily turn around the Campus 1 “track,” and hopefully I’ll encounter my little friends again soon.
More soon. Life has gotten surprisingly hectic but this weekend I’m taking some time to go to Phu Quoc Island for a little R&R. Yeah, don’t be too jeal. Love and miss you all!
Monday, September 29, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
On Chewing the Proverbial Fat
I’ve come to realize that one of the things I have missed most about America over the first few months is conversation. Real, interesting conversations have come fewer and farther between for me here in Vietnam, for a number of reasons I think.
First of all there’s the fact that, hey, I’m new here. Moving from a place infused with the comfort of four-year-long friendships to a new city – let alone one across the world – has its challenges and frustrations. There’s Alice, of course, but let’s be honest – there aren’t many subjects the two of us haven’t covered! Just kidding…but seriously.
Then there’s the obvious language barrier. Alice, Samantha, Frank (new PiAer in Rach Gia, about 3 hours away) and I have a running joke that most conversations with Vietnamese people follow the same pattern of simple questions: “Hello hello, where you from? Where you go? How long you stay in Vietnam? What you think of Vietnamese students? What you think of Vietnamese food?” Which, let’s be honest, seems like a highly sophisticated interchange when compared with my shameful attempts at communicating in Vietnamese. Hard to string together a conversation with “How much?” “I like fruit” and “Your baby is beautiful”…
But it also seems to me that relationships work differently here. I remember at the beach this summer when, momentarily exasperated with my all-too emotionally articulate family and friends, I told my aunt that I could not wait to get to Asia where “no talks about their feelings and opinions, EVER.” Though I was joking at the time, I’ve found the stereotype to be more or less true. People will welcome you into their homes for a meal without hesitation, but there is a certain reserve when it comes to letting you in to their hearts and lives. Not that deep friendships don’t ultimately happen – they maybe just take a little more patience and persistence.
The relative absence of such “real” conversations has made me realize how much of the learning and growing up I did over the past four years happened around the dinner table in Forbes or at Cloister, having morning coffee with my parents, cooking (or peeling carrots in Karli’s case) at 9 Linkoping Rd., or with all 4 roommates crowded into our tiny 47 Spelman kitchen in the wee hours of the morning. These and countless other times are what I miss most, and what I always hate leaving behind…
Which is why it has been exciting that I have recently started to find more of these moments happening in Asia.
Take for example my friend “Michelle” (sorry, I feel weird using people’s real names!). I met Michelle through the orphanage project – she was hired by Kate as a summer volunteer and just a few weeks ago joined the regular year staff as well. Michelle is different than a lot of Vietnamese girls I have met...
The women’s lib movement and all its implications have yet to really hit the Delta, particularly when it comes to social expectations. Girls cannot stay out past 10 p.m., or socialize with a group of men without being assumed a “loose woman” (as Mom & Dad like to say). And though women with careers are becoming increasingly common, men are still seen as the primary providers and women as the primary caretakers. And you can tell by looking around that the feminine ideal remains extremely girly – all about frills and pink, avoiding sweating and looking “lovely.” But they also work really hard – they have a LOT of babies, somehow manage to keep everything super clean and pretty much every woman is a kick-ass cook. My wonderfully blunt Vietnamese-American friend Thu put it perfectly, “They are such flowers. Incredibly strong in many ways, but such flowers.”
All this has been interesting for me. In some ways, it is kind of a fun experiment to be in a place where I can anonymously explore my inner girly side by bedazzling my nails and frilling my wardrobe, etc. But at the same time, I don’t think I’ll ever stop hating pink, loving to sweat, or enjoying having male friends, and the girlish giggles of my female students when called on in class continue to drive me nuts.
Anyways, sorry for the brief digression but this setting is why Michelle proves so fascinating a person to me. She is definitely not a flower. I’ve found her to be more open and easier to talk to than almost anyone else I’ve met. The other week at a party at our house, we spent a solid 45 minutes talking about her plans for after graduation – how she is debating between in staying in Can Tho and moving to Ho Chi Minh City, why she and her boyfriend of three years recently got engaged, differences between dating in America and Vietnam. Just the other day, after a meeting for the orphanage project, she took hold of the notebook I was using and began analyzing my handwriting a bit (It was kind of freaky how many things she could tell me about myself!), which got us going on an interesting little discussion of personality traits and whether or not we believe in things like handwriting analysis and astrology, etc.
It seems to me that Michelle has the best of both worlds – all the drive, smarts and confidence of any “liberated” Western woman, but without completely abandoning the quiet strength and grace that I so admire in so many Vietnamese women. And on top of that, she has a heart of absolute gold. I’m looking forward to getting to know her better…
On to moment number 2 of real conversation…anyone who knows me well wouldn’t be surprised to learn that I was beyond thrilled when last week one of my students asked me to have coffee with him to discuss the American political party system. This kid, who we’ll call “Jack,” is an all-star. For the first two years of college, he refused to speak in anything but English to his roommate in an effort to master the language. On the first day of class this semester, he marched right up to me afterwards and asked me who I preferred in the upcoming presidential election, who I had preferred in the Democratic primary, and told me his opinions of all the candidates and their motivations. I was blown away.
So naturally, when I headed out this Sunday to meet him for coffee (with Frank in tow as another good source of American political knowledge), I was excited to see where the conversation would go. Jack started off by asking me if he could change his in-class presentation topic to “Why the government should allow more than one party.” Although my insides leaped for joy, my better judgment suggested that maybe we keep things social in the classroom of a government-run university. He continued on from there to ask Frank and I our views on the election, Sarah Palin, the current financial crisis, China, Bill Clinton, and capital punishment, among other things. I think he was better informed about international news than almost anyone I know. And in his own turn, he was remarkably honest about the political climate in his own country. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I had the chance to ask him all the questions that I was dying to get answers to – what is and is not appropriate to ask, how people view the government, etc.
It was both an inspirational and a humbling experience, to witness a student so thirsty for knowledge and eager for exchange that I was making his day by spending just an hour or two talking over coffee. It began to make Vietnam, and my role here as a foreign teacher and representative of my own country, more real to me, more of an actual purpose than just a fun/ridiculous stint as a local celebrity.
Another thing that has made me exceptionally happy recently is that Alice, Samantha, Thi Bay and I have started eating in on occasion. Though I love the taste and cheap prices of street food, cooking at home can be much more relaxing and social. I.e. today at lunch Thi Bay went on a pretty interesting rant about Cuba in the fantastic way that only Italians can (I miss you Micol!). I’m also hoping some of my students will teach me how to make a few Vietnamese dishes before I go home for Christmas.
So anyways, these encounters – and a couple of others that I won’t bore you with – have made me even more excited about the possibilities for the coming months here in ’Nam. Next step is to get myself healthy – my shameful sleeping habits have landed me sick for about the 23094203984234th time since I’ve gotten here. Ugh.
Oh, and to everyone out there, if you like having “real” conversations as much as I do, well, we can still have them! On Skype. Do it do it do it now. Until then, chào các ban (goodbye everyone (I think))!
First of all there’s the fact that, hey, I’m new here. Moving from a place infused with the comfort of four-year-long friendships to a new city – let alone one across the world – has its challenges and frustrations. There’s Alice, of course, but let’s be honest – there aren’t many subjects the two of us haven’t covered! Just kidding…but seriously.
Then there’s the obvious language barrier. Alice, Samantha, Frank (new PiAer in Rach Gia, about 3 hours away) and I have a running joke that most conversations with Vietnamese people follow the same pattern of simple questions: “Hello hello, where you from? Where you go? How long you stay in Vietnam? What you think of Vietnamese students? What you think of Vietnamese food?” Which, let’s be honest, seems like a highly sophisticated interchange when compared with my shameful attempts at communicating in Vietnamese. Hard to string together a conversation with “How much?” “I like fruit” and “Your baby is beautiful”…
But it also seems to me that relationships work differently here. I remember at the beach this summer when, momentarily exasperated with my all-too emotionally articulate family and friends, I told my aunt that I could not wait to get to Asia where “no talks about their feelings and opinions, EVER.” Though I was joking at the time, I’ve found the stereotype to be more or less true. People will welcome you into their homes for a meal without hesitation, but there is a certain reserve when it comes to letting you in to their hearts and lives. Not that deep friendships don’t ultimately happen – they maybe just take a little more patience and persistence.
The relative absence of such “real” conversations has made me realize how much of the learning and growing up I did over the past four years happened around the dinner table in Forbes or at Cloister, having morning coffee with my parents, cooking (or peeling carrots in Karli’s case) at 9 Linkoping Rd., or with all 4 roommates crowded into our tiny 47 Spelman kitchen in the wee hours of the morning. These and countless other times are what I miss most, and what I always hate leaving behind…
Which is why it has been exciting that I have recently started to find more of these moments happening in Asia.
Take for example my friend “Michelle” (sorry, I feel weird using people’s real names!). I met Michelle through the orphanage project – she was hired by Kate as a summer volunteer and just a few weeks ago joined the regular year staff as well. Michelle is different than a lot of Vietnamese girls I have met...
The women’s lib movement and all its implications have yet to really hit the Delta, particularly when it comes to social expectations. Girls cannot stay out past 10 p.m., or socialize with a group of men without being assumed a “loose woman” (as Mom & Dad like to say). And though women with careers are becoming increasingly common, men are still seen as the primary providers and women as the primary caretakers. And you can tell by looking around that the feminine ideal remains extremely girly – all about frills and pink, avoiding sweating and looking “lovely.” But they also work really hard – they have a LOT of babies, somehow manage to keep everything super clean and pretty much every woman is a kick-ass cook. My wonderfully blunt Vietnamese-American friend Thu put it perfectly, “They are such flowers. Incredibly strong in many ways, but such flowers.”
All this has been interesting for me. In some ways, it is kind of a fun experiment to be in a place where I can anonymously explore my inner girly side by bedazzling my nails and frilling my wardrobe, etc. But at the same time, I don’t think I’ll ever stop hating pink, loving to sweat, or enjoying having male friends, and the girlish giggles of my female students when called on in class continue to drive me nuts.
Anyways, sorry for the brief digression but this setting is why Michelle proves so fascinating a person to me. She is definitely not a flower. I’ve found her to be more open and easier to talk to than almost anyone else I’ve met. The other week at a party at our house, we spent a solid 45 minutes talking about her plans for after graduation – how she is debating between in staying in Can Tho and moving to Ho Chi Minh City, why she and her boyfriend of three years recently got engaged, differences between dating in America and Vietnam. Just the other day, after a meeting for the orphanage project, she took hold of the notebook I was using and began analyzing my handwriting a bit (It was kind of freaky how many things she could tell me about myself!), which got us going on an interesting little discussion of personality traits and whether or not we believe in things like handwriting analysis and astrology, etc.
It seems to me that Michelle has the best of both worlds – all the drive, smarts and confidence of any “liberated” Western woman, but without completely abandoning the quiet strength and grace that I so admire in so many Vietnamese women. And on top of that, she has a heart of absolute gold. I’m looking forward to getting to know her better…
On to moment number 2 of real conversation…anyone who knows me well wouldn’t be surprised to learn that I was beyond thrilled when last week one of my students asked me to have coffee with him to discuss the American political party system. This kid, who we’ll call “Jack,” is an all-star. For the first two years of college, he refused to speak in anything but English to his roommate in an effort to master the language. On the first day of class this semester, he marched right up to me afterwards and asked me who I preferred in the upcoming presidential election, who I had preferred in the Democratic primary, and told me his opinions of all the candidates and their motivations. I was blown away.
So naturally, when I headed out this Sunday to meet him for coffee (with Frank in tow as another good source of American political knowledge), I was excited to see where the conversation would go. Jack started off by asking me if he could change his in-class presentation topic to “Why the government should allow more than one party.” Although my insides leaped for joy, my better judgment suggested that maybe we keep things social in the classroom of a government-run university. He continued on from there to ask Frank and I our views on the election, Sarah Palin, the current financial crisis, China, Bill Clinton, and capital punishment, among other things. I think he was better informed about international news than almost anyone I know. And in his own turn, he was remarkably honest about the political climate in his own country. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I had the chance to ask him all the questions that I was dying to get answers to – what is and is not appropriate to ask, how people view the government, etc.
It was both an inspirational and a humbling experience, to witness a student so thirsty for knowledge and eager for exchange that I was making his day by spending just an hour or two talking over coffee. It began to make Vietnam, and my role here as a foreign teacher and representative of my own country, more real to me, more of an actual purpose than just a fun/ridiculous stint as a local celebrity.
Another thing that has made me exceptionally happy recently is that Alice, Samantha, Thi Bay and I have started eating in on occasion. Though I love the taste and cheap prices of street food, cooking at home can be much more relaxing and social. I.e. today at lunch Thi Bay went on a pretty interesting rant about Cuba in the fantastic way that only Italians can (I miss you Micol!). I’m also hoping some of my students will teach me how to make a few Vietnamese dishes before I go home for Christmas.
So anyways, these encounters – and a couple of others that I won’t bore you with – have made me even more excited about the possibilities for the coming months here in ’Nam. Next step is to get myself healthy – my shameful sleeping habits have landed me sick for about the 23094203984234th time since I’ve gotten here. Ugh.
Oh, and to everyone out there, if you like having “real” conversations as much as I do, well, we can still have them! On Skype. Do it do it do it now. Until then, chào các ban (goodbye everyone (I think))!
Monday, September 15, 2008
Six-Week Sound Bites
Hello dear readers, Julia the bad blogger here. So these past few weeks, my teaching schedule came and hit me square in the face. One-hundred and fifty students is a lot to keep up with, apparently. In other news, the downside to, well, having friends here is that my weekends have become busier and less prone to idle rumination.
So on that note I don’t have time for a full post right now, but in an effort to pretend like I actually write in this thing on a regular-enough basis I leave you with some six-week sound-bites.
#1 A brief update on my efforts to assimilate…
My appearance. Since I’m sitting here in my second pair of day clothes, complete with bedazzled fingernails (first time I’ve worn blue polish since I was 10, thanks very much!) and pimpin’ Detroit hat, I think it is safe to say that I have mastered the art of “Vietnam chique.”
As for adopting the local schedule…I cannot. I tried my best to wake up at 5 a.m. to run this week, and it made me into a miserable human being who hated life. No one should get up when it is still dark out. Ever. Because of my penchant for sleep, running without losing half my body weight in sweat doesn’t seem to be an option here. Instead I’ve decided to pursue another path of Asian assimilation by doing yoga every day so hopefully when I come back to the States I’ll be freakishly flexible.
I have, however, succeeded in biking around a bit more to find the best of the best in local cuisine. I now have favorite places for pho (FUH) and curry, and a couple of great vegetarian stands to get bún cha gìo (BOOM cha YO) or noodles with veggies and fried spring rolls. Last week a German friend took us on a long bike ride out of the city to eat lunch. After winding through alleyways and over bridges, we pulled up to what was essentially someone’s home with a few lawn chairs set out on the patio, and proceeded to feast on the most delicious bánh xào (BUHN say-oh) I’ve ever had. A Can Tho specialty, bánh xào consists of rice made into crêpe-like wraps stuffed with shrimp and vegetables. You take some of this crêpe and wrap it with mint and other herbs in a huge lettuce leaf doused with spices, then dip it all in special sauce. SO good.
#2 Speaking of which…
After being around for a while I’ve decided that the Vietnamese are schizophrenic eaters. What do I mean by this? On one hand, meals in general are pretty lean – rice and noodles, broths, small quantities of meat, and vegetables, vegetables, vegetables. For the first few weeks of living here I ate so many dishes like this that my body was crying out for grease. I thought I was the only one besides Alice with an inner fat kid. And then I discovered it – the underbelly of Vietnamese cuisine. Hidden beneath the healthy façade of greens and rice are layers and layers of fried, sugary deliciousness. You can pretty much fry anything here. Bananas. Plantains. Sweet potatoes. Sticky rice. Dough. Chicken. Squid. It’s like the American South on steroids. It is also safe to assume that sugar has been added to anything you drink. Hell, you can even drink sugar, straight from the cane.
#3 It was bound to happen sometime…
That’s right, ladies and gents, my first traffic accident. Ironically just this morning I commented on how comfortable I was starting to feel biking around, and mere hours later I found myself face-planted on the asphalt with bruised knees and palms. To my credit it was not actually my fault. The turn through the university gate is always kind of a crap shoot, with tons of motorbikes and bicycles bottlenecking onto the shoulder going the wrong way down the street. Anyways, today as I was turning in some little punk came up alongside me and cut me off – his rear wheel knocking into my front wheel, overturning my bicycle and sending me flying. Luckily I was close enough to the side of the road so I was more shaken up than anything. And mad, as the expression on my face betrayed apparently. He helped me pick up my bike but was looking at me the whole time like I might bite him. So I just grabbed my stuff and said “BE CAREFUL” in a tone that made it the Vietnamese equivalent of an expletive-deleted. It was kind of nice to show emotion in public, even if I did lose a little face.
#4 Nothing is creepy in Vietnam.
It’s true. I’ve decided that you can approach anyone, anywhere without feeling any qualms about beings construed as socially awkward or intruding on their privacy. Take for example my new friend who we will call “John.” One day as I am bicycling home from school, John rides up alongside me and greets me with a cheerful “Hello Julia, where are you going?” Oh great, I thought, this is one of my students and I don’t recognize him. I try to play it cool and casually asked him could he please remind me what section of my class he was in again? “Oh no, I’m not in your class. No no, I just like to make friends with the foreign teachers to practice my English. I knew Nathan and Mark (last year PiAers) and heard that the new foreign teachers were Julia, Alice and Samantha. And I knew you were Julia because of your hair. You are famous because of your hair.”
Or take this excerpt from an email I recently received. I met its author “Tammy” while having coffee outside the school library. She said she had heard of our orphanage project and wanted to join us, and would we be able to give us our contact info? A few days later I received a note from her (Subject line: Making friends!) in which she again expressed her wish to join the project (which was very sweet). But then she comes out with this…
“Another thing I'd like to let u know is both my parents and I are vegan for many years.I think we can obtain many benefits from changing into an alternative living by reducing meat consumption.Meat is delicious but poisonous. Ucan be healthy if u limit eating meat.Take it easy, i don'tmean to convince or force u,just invite and encourage u to lead a better life without violence to animals and other species frommyown experience.
By the way, I'd like to introduce to u these 2 websites,u can visit them when u r free.I m sure it can bring u many benefits:
www.Godsdirectcontact.org
www.SupremeMasterTV.con”
I’m not sure what about my appearance screamed “raging carnivore,” but I do think it is one of the better arguments for vegetarianism that I have heard, and I can’t wait to visit these websites…
#5 It does get “cold” here!
I’m quickly discovering that the “rain” I experienced during my first weeks was only a taste of the joys of the rainy season to come. It has poured and poured and poured over the past few days to the point that my super-sweet poncho never has time to dry before I need it again. Last night on the way to a birthday party we had the pleasure of encountering just such a nasty spot of weather. Only a short distance away from our destinaton, we decided to forego pulling over to throw on our ponchos. Big mistake – within five minutes we were soaked through and had to sit through dinner in our wet clothes.
But the upside of the rain is that the heat subsides, and we even get days that are cool with nice breezes. Who would’ve thought? It might also be that I have just gotten accustomed to obscene temperatures. I now have to bring a sweater/jacket with me whenever I go someplace air-conditioned because I get too cold. My student Cherub (FYI not a made-up name) tells me that it even gets down to a "freezing" 25 degrees Celsius in December…
#6 Music to my ears?
Jack warned us on arrival that the Vietnamese seem to have a somewhat different conception of what constitutes appropriate volume. In my short time here thus far I have found this to be overwhelmingly accurate. Note to self – bring headphones whenever you travel, because 4 hours in a mini-bus blasting music at 12 decibels can get tiresome.
I’m also starting to wonder if the Vietnamese have different melodic standards as well. Maybe the somewhat nasal quality of the language also shapes music tastes? Because every song that I hear seems to have the same medley-of-a-dying-cat sound – makes me all the more psyched for my first karaoke experience! I’ve also noticed this even in everyday sounds. I.e. when a truck is backing up, the noise it makes is not the usual “Beep, beep, beep” but instead some variation on “It’s a Small World After All,” “Happy Birthday To You,” or “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.” It’s like every truck is the ice cream truck.
Vietnamese techno, on the other hand, is fabulous – as I am reminded every time I pass a clothing store blasting it at full volume. So maybe not all hope is lost for my continuing musical education…
* * *
Turns out that this was not the short post I originally intended. I’ll write again soon with a real update. In the meantime, best to everyone!
So on that note I don’t have time for a full post right now, but in an effort to pretend like I actually write in this thing on a regular-enough basis I leave you with some six-week sound-bites.
#1 A brief update on my efforts to assimilate…
My appearance. Since I’m sitting here in my second pair of day clothes, complete with bedazzled fingernails (first time I’ve worn blue polish since I was 10, thanks very much!) and pimpin’ Detroit hat, I think it is safe to say that I have mastered the art of “Vietnam chique.”
As for adopting the local schedule…I cannot. I tried my best to wake up at 5 a.m. to run this week, and it made me into a miserable human being who hated life. No one should get up when it is still dark out. Ever. Because of my penchant for sleep, running without losing half my body weight in sweat doesn’t seem to be an option here. Instead I’ve decided to pursue another path of Asian assimilation by doing yoga every day so hopefully when I come back to the States I’ll be freakishly flexible.
I have, however, succeeded in biking around a bit more to find the best of the best in local cuisine. I now have favorite places for pho (FUH) and curry, and a couple of great vegetarian stands to get bún cha gìo (BOOM cha YO) or noodles with veggies and fried spring rolls. Last week a German friend took us on a long bike ride out of the city to eat lunch. After winding through alleyways and over bridges, we pulled up to what was essentially someone’s home with a few lawn chairs set out on the patio, and proceeded to feast on the most delicious bánh xào (BUHN say-oh) I’ve ever had. A Can Tho specialty, bánh xào consists of rice made into crêpe-like wraps stuffed with shrimp and vegetables. You take some of this crêpe and wrap it with mint and other herbs in a huge lettuce leaf doused with spices, then dip it all in special sauce. SO good.
#2 Speaking of which…
After being around for a while I’ve decided that the Vietnamese are schizophrenic eaters. What do I mean by this? On one hand, meals in general are pretty lean – rice and noodles, broths, small quantities of meat, and vegetables, vegetables, vegetables. For the first few weeks of living here I ate so many dishes like this that my body was crying out for grease. I thought I was the only one besides Alice with an inner fat kid. And then I discovered it – the underbelly of Vietnamese cuisine. Hidden beneath the healthy façade of greens and rice are layers and layers of fried, sugary deliciousness. You can pretty much fry anything here. Bananas. Plantains. Sweet potatoes. Sticky rice. Dough. Chicken. Squid. It’s like the American South on steroids. It is also safe to assume that sugar has been added to anything you drink. Hell, you can even drink sugar, straight from the cane.
#3 It was bound to happen sometime…
That’s right, ladies and gents, my first traffic accident. Ironically just this morning I commented on how comfortable I was starting to feel biking around, and mere hours later I found myself face-planted on the asphalt with bruised knees and palms. To my credit it was not actually my fault. The turn through the university gate is always kind of a crap shoot, with tons of motorbikes and bicycles bottlenecking onto the shoulder going the wrong way down the street. Anyways, today as I was turning in some little punk came up alongside me and cut me off – his rear wheel knocking into my front wheel, overturning my bicycle and sending me flying. Luckily I was close enough to the side of the road so I was more shaken up than anything. And mad, as the expression on my face betrayed apparently. He helped me pick up my bike but was looking at me the whole time like I might bite him. So I just grabbed my stuff and said “BE CAREFUL” in a tone that made it the Vietnamese equivalent of an expletive-deleted. It was kind of nice to show emotion in public, even if I did lose a little face.
#4 Nothing is creepy in Vietnam.
It’s true. I’ve decided that you can approach anyone, anywhere without feeling any qualms about beings construed as socially awkward or intruding on their privacy. Take for example my new friend who we will call “John.” One day as I am bicycling home from school, John rides up alongside me and greets me with a cheerful “Hello Julia, where are you going?” Oh great, I thought, this is one of my students and I don’t recognize him. I try to play it cool and casually asked him could he please remind me what section of my class he was in again? “Oh no, I’m not in your class. No no, I just like to make friends with the foreign teachers to practice my English. I knew Nathan and Mark (last year PiAers) and heard that the new foreign teachers were Julia, Alice and Samantha. And I knew you were Julia because of your hair. You are famous because of your hair.”
Or take this excerpt from an email I recently received. I met its author “Tammy” while having coffee outside the school library. She said she had heard of our orphanage project and wanted to join us, and would we be able to give us our contact info? A few days later I received a note from her (Subject line: Making friends!) in which she again expressed her wish to join the project (which was very sweet). But then she comes out with this…
“Another thing I'd like to let u know is both my parents and I are vegan for many years.I think we can obtain many benefits from changing into an alternative living by reducing meat consumption.Meat is delicious but poisonous. Ucan be healthy if u limit eating meat.Take it easy, i don'tmean to convince or force u,just invite and encourage u to lead a better life without violence to animals and other species frommyown experience.
By the way, I'd like to introduce to u these 2 websites,u can visit them when u r free.I m sure it can bring u many benefits:
www.Godsdirectcontact.org
www.SupremeMasterTV.con”
I’m not sure what about my appearance screamed “raging carnivore,” but I do think it is one of the better arguments for vegetarianism that I have heard, and I can’t wait to visit these websites…
#5 It does get “cold” here!
I’m quickly discovering that the “rain” I experienced during my first weeks was only a taste of the joys of the rainy season to come. It has poured and poured and poured over the past few days to the point that my super-sweet poncho never has time to dry before I need it again. Last night on the way to a birthday party we had the pleasure of encountering just such a nasty spot of weather. Only a short distance away from our destinaton, we decided to forego pulling over to throw on our ponchos. Big mistake – within five minutes we were soaked through and had to sit through dinner in our wet clothes.
But the upside of the rain is that the heat subsides, and we even get days that are cool with nice breezes. Who would’ve thought? It might also be that I have just gotten accustomed to obscene temperatures. I now have to bring a sweater/jacket with me whenever I go someplace air-conditioned because I get too cold. My student Cherub (FYI not a made-up name) tells me that it even gets down to a "freezing" 25 degrees Celsius in December…
#6 Music to my ears?
Jack warned us on arrival that the Vietnamese seem to have a somewhat different conception of what constitutes appropriate volume. In my short time here thus far I have found this to be overwhelmingly accurate. Note to self – bring headphones whenever you travel, because 4 hours in a mini-bus blasting music at 12 decibels can get tiresome.
I’m also starting to wonder if the Vietnamese have different melodic standards as well. Maybe the somewhat nasal quality of the language also shapes music tastes? Because every song that I hear seems to have the same medley-of-a-dying-cat sound – makes me all the more psyched for my first karaoke experience! I’ve also noticed this even in everyday sounds. I.e. when a truck is backing up, the noise it makes is not the usual “Beep, beep, beep” but instead some variation on “It’s a Small World After All,” “Happy Birthday To You,” or “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.” It’s like every truck is the ice cream truck.
Vietnamese techno, on the other hand, is fabulous – as I am reminded every time I pass a clothing store blasting it at full volume. So maybe not all hope is lost for my continuing musical education…
* * *
Turns out that this was not the short post I originally intended. I’ll write again soon with a real update. In the meantime, best to everyone!
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
From Toddlers to Teaching to Thoughts I've Been Thinking
Dios mio, has it been a long time since I’ve written in this thing! Life has taken off with a running start around here, so this is the first time I’ve really been able to come up for air in a few weeks. I’ve had so much to say I don’t even know where to begin. So naturally I just kept putting it off and putting it off until tomorrow. I guess some things never change, huh?
Anyways, first thing’s first…teaching! I’m now in my third week of classes and though I still feel like I have no clue what I’m doing, things have been going surprisingly well. Alice and I each have four sections of Listening and Speaking 4 for third years, and will soon each pick up a section of a first year pronunciation class. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how much younger the students seem to me than they actually are. Most are only a year or two younger than me, so I was worried about being able to establish any semblance of authority in the classroom, but their bashful giggling in class make them seem to be more high-school age than college.
The students are also EXCEEDINGLY polite and respectful to me as their teacher. When I enter the room, they all rise and say good morning in chorus, and every student comes to my desk and wishes me a pleasant afternoon on their way out the door at the end of class. Once I corrected a student for talking in class and he came up to me during the break, apologizing profusely for chatting when it was “so silly to do so.” RESPEK.
The students are also extremely eager to learn English, and particularly excited to study with a native speaker. Many of them have studied English for years and have an extensive grammar and vocabulary, but when it comes to speaking they almost never have the chance to practice with someone who speaks fluently. And as anyone who has taken a language previously will know, that can make communication very difficult! In the Delta in particular, mastering the English language is seen as the ticket to opportunity, to moving up and out, to earning a decent living. The first week of class, we played a name game in which I asked them all to share with me their “dream for the future.” Very khumbaya, I know. I’m such an American – I expected to get answers like “to cure for cancer” or “to circumnavigate the world.” The almost universal response was “to get a good job in Ho Chi Minh City and make a lot of money.” Never before had I thought of dreaming as a luxury…
As for what the hell I am actually teaching them, it’s hard to say – listening and speaking, obviously, but beyond that your guess is as good as mine. The University gave us a loose syllabus that outlined five suggested topics as vague as “communication” and “transitions,” recommended a textbook, and told us to get to work designing a class. Despite the many classes as I have taken and enjoyed over the past 8 years, I’m learning fast that I’ve never truly appreciated how much hard work, meticulous planning, and creativity it takes to teach a wonderful course. I’m looking forward to having some time this weekend to sit down and do some big-picture planning, as up until now I’ve been throwing things together week-by-week in a manner that is a little more fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants than I’d like it to be. Mostly for now, I try to focus on skills and vocabulary that will actually be useful to them in real life, and make them laugh as much as possible. One of the conclusions that I’ve come to in my limited experience as a leader for OA is that one of the best ways to put people at ease is to play the goof. Lucky for me (and thanks to my parents), I’m exceptionally talented at making a fool of myself in all areas of life, so I just try to put myself out there as much as possible!
Outside of class, Alice and I have been spending a lot of time over the past week working with Kate and Jack Thirolf on a project at two local orphanages. I think I have alluded to the project and to Jack and Kate before, but I wanted to take a second to explain it in more detail. The Can Tho Youth Empowerment Project (as it is called) was founded by PiAer Danny White a few years ago, and recruits students from the University to teach English and Computer classes for the children at the Buu Tri Pagoda and Hoi Tu Thien orphanages. Jack took over the project from Dan and ran it remotely from his post in Rach Gia (2 hours away) for the past year. This summer his sister Kate received a grant from the University of Michigan, where she is working on her Ph.D. in Educational Management, to come to Can Tho to carry out a month-long summer program with the help of a team of student volunteers from both Can Tho and Ho Chi Minh City. You can check it out on her blog at http://canthoyouthprogram.blogspot.com/.
Almost as soon as we arrived, Alice and I began making trips with Kate and Jack to the orphanage every few days to help out with the project. It was a great way to jump right in, especially since we will be taking over leadership now that Jack has left. Highlights included teaching the chicken dance to a group of six-year olds (I think it was actually a bigger hit with the 21-year old volunteers!), spending six hours on a boat up the river with booting and peeing babies, and playing human jungle gym for hours on end. But seriously though…taking part in Kate’s project led me to feel a sense of community and purpose very early on during my time in Can Tho, and I was sad to see it end. Fortunately, many of the student volunteers who I befriended will continue on with us throughout the school year, so I will get to see much more of them!
And let’s be honest, what is more fun than playing with adorable Asian babies for hours on end? (Pictures below!) For all of their rambunctious behavior, it is hard not to love these little guys. There is Van Anh, one of the oldest orphans, who speaks better English than most of my students and has more patience with her little friends than most saints, and Nhi (left), who manages to get away with anything by flashing her toothless grin. There is Kien (or “Monkey Baby” as Alice and I affectionately call him), a bald little guy who doesn’t hesitate to snuggle up to you within minutes of meeting you, and Chunkers, the fattest, happiest Vietnamese baby that ever lived. One and all, they light up the room with their enthusiasm, and the love and affection they show us is without bounds. I’m excited to be able to work more with this project in the future – Alice and I are only the “third generation” of leadership and will really have the chance to shape its course from here on out.
After spending last weekend in Saigon (more on this later) with the Delta PiAers – sending off Jack and welcoming his replacement Frank – life is beginning to settle down into a nice little routine of work, sleep, and coffee dates (believe it or not, the Vietnamese mode of socialization and relaxation – what better place for me to live!). My world here is definitely much smaller, which takes some getting used to after the wonderful rush that was these past two years, but after spending some time in the big city this past weekend I’m starting to really appreciate the slow pace and community feel of Can Tho.
As I’ve regained my sense after the initial overwhelming plunge, I’ve been thinking a lot and have tried to set some little goals for myself to make the most of this unique opportunity to immerse myself in some place so completely different than I’ve ever known. I’m trying my best to get on the Vietnamese schedule – up in the early morning to exercise before the heat, to bed by ten, and meals at least an hour earlier than the rest of the world. Attempt number one to get up at five failed miserably – I woke up at six in a daze, lying on top of my alarm clock. Oh well, there’s always tomorrow. I want to take time over the next few days to ride my bike around the entire city and orient myself a bit better, to try something at every food stand that I see. I want to find a favorite restaurant for every Vietnamese specialty, a favorite street, a favorite bike shop, a favorite bookstore. I want to befriend the owners of the fruit stand and the photocopy place and the pharmacy across the street. I desperately want to be able to speak Vietnamese – I’m starting class tomorrow at long last. Learning key phrases such as “Where is the bathroom?” and “Could you peel that mango for me please?” could really enhance my day-to-day life around here. Mom, you’ll be happy to know that I’m adapting quickly to Vietnamese standards of neatness around the house – keeping the cockroaches away provides motivation even where years of parental training doesn’t, I guess. I might even go so far as to embrace the uniquely bizarre Vietnamese female fashion sense and bedazzle EVERYTHING I own. If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. Strange to think that I might actually be less conspicuous wearing flowered day clothes (an outfit that essentially amounts to polyester pajamas), long white gloves and a face mask (to protect skin from the sun), and a sparkly, floppy hat.
Well, as this post has turned into a lengthy one, I think I will wrap it up for now. I promise to turn this blog into more of a weekly update than a monthly dissertation in the future. More to come on the weekend in Saigon soon, but for now, love to all! Hope that you are happy and healthy wherever you may be…
Anyways, first thing’s first…teaching! I’m now in my third week of classes and though I still feel like I have no clue what I’m doing, things have been going surprisingly well. Alice and I each have four sections of Listening and Speaking 4 for third years, and will soon each pick up a section of a first year pronunciation class. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how much younger the students seem to me than they actually are. Most are only a year or two younger than me, so I was worried about being able to establish any semblance of authority in the classroom, but their bashful giggling in class make them seem to be more high-school age than college.
The students are also EXCEEDINGLY polite and respectful to me as their teacher. When I enter the room, they all rise and say good morning in chorus, and every student comes to my desk and wishes me a pleasant afternoon on their way out the door at the end of class. Once I corrected a student for talking in class and he came up to me during the break, apologizing profusely for chatting when it was “so silly to do so.” RESPEK.
The students are also extremely eager to learn English, and particularly excited to study with a native speaker. Many of them have studied English for years and have an extensive grammar and vocabulary, but when it comes to speaking they almost never have the chance to practice with someone who speaks fluently. And as anyone who has taken a language previously will know, that can make communication very difficult! In the Delta in particular, mastering the English language is seen as the ticket to opportunity, to moving up and out, to earning a decent living. The first week of class, we played a name game in which I asked them all to share with me their “dream for the future.” Very khumbaya, I know. I’m such an American – I expected to get answers like “to cure for cancer” or “to circumnavigate the world.” The almost universal response was “to get a good job in Ho Chi Minh City and make a lot of money.” Never before had I thought of dreaming as a luxury…
As for what the hell I am actually teaching them, it’s hard to say – listening and speaking, obviously, but beyond that your guess is as good as mine. The University gave us a loose syllabus that outlined five suggested topics as vague as “communication” and “transitions,” recommended a textbook, and told us to get to work designing a class. Despite the many classes as I have taken and enjoyed over the past 8 years, I’m learning fast that I’ve never truly appreciated how much hard work, meticulous planning, and creativity it takes to teach a wonderful course. I’m looking forward to having some time this weekend to sit down and do some big-picture planning, as up until now I’ve been throwing things together week-by-week in a manner that is a little more fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants than I’d like it to be. Mostly for now, I try to focus on skills and vocabulary that will actually be useful to them in real life, and make them laugh as much as possible. One of the conclusions that I’ve come to in my limited experience as a leader for OA is that one of the best ways to put people at ease is to play the goof. Lucky for me (and thanks to my parents), I’m exceptionally talented at making a fool of myself in all areas of life, so I just try to put myself out there as much as possible!
Outside of class, Alice and I have been spending a lot of time over the past week working with Kate and Jack Thirolf on a project at two local orphanages. I think I have alluded to the project and to Jack and Kate before, but I wanted to take a second to explain it in more detail. The Can Tho Youth Empowerment Project (as it is called) was founded by PiAer Danny White a few years ago, and recruits students from the University to teach English and Computer classes for the children at the Buu Tri Pagoda and Hoi Tu Thien orphanages. Jack took over the project from Dan and ran it remotely from his post in Rach Gia (2 hours away) for the past year. This summer his sister Kate received a grant from the University of Michigan, where she is working on her Ph.D. in Educational Management, to come to Can Tho to carry out a month-long summer program with the help of a team of student volunteers from both Can Tho and Ho Chi Minh City. You can check it out on her blog at http://canthoyouthprogram.blogspot.com/.
Almost as soon as we arrived, Alice and I began making trips with Kate and Jack to the orphanage every few days to help out with the project. It was a great way to jump right in, especially since we will be taking over leadership now that Jack has left. Highlights included teaching the chicken dance to a group of six-year olds (I think it was actually a bigger hit with the 21-year old volunteers!), spending six hours on a boat up the river with booting and peeing babies, and playing human jungle gym for hours on end. But seriously though…taking part in Kate’s project led me to feel a sense of community and purpose very early on during my time in Can Tho, and I was sad to see it end. Fortunately, many of the student volunteers who I befriended will continue on with us throughout the school year, so I will get to see much more of them!
And let’s be honest, what is more fun than playing with adorable Asian babies for hours on end? (Pictures below!) For all of their rambunctious behavior, it is hard not to love these little guys. There is Van Anh, one of the oldest orphans, who speaks better English than most of my students and has more patience with her little friends than most saints, and Nhi (left), who manages to get away with anything by flashing her toothless grin. There is Kien (or “Monkey Baby” as Alice and I affectionately call him), a bald little guy who doesn’t hesitate to snuggle up to you within minutes of meeting you, and Chunkers, the fattest, happiest Vietnamese baby that ever lived. One and all, they light up the room with their enthusiasm, and the love and affection they show us is without bounds. I’m excited to be able to work more with this project in the future – Alice and I are only the “third generation” of leadership and will really have the chance to shape its course from here on out.
After spending last weekend in Saigon (more on this later) with the Delta PiAers – sending off Jack and welcoming his replacement Frank – life is beginning to settle down into a nice little routine of work, sleep, and coffee dates (believe it or not, the Vietnamese mode of socialization and relaxation – what better place for me to live!). My world here is definitely much smaller, which takes some getting used to after the wonderful rush that was these past two years, but after spending some time in the big city this past weekend I’m starting to really appreciate the slow pace and community feel of Can Tho.
As I’ve regained my sense after the initial overwhelming plunge, I’ve been thinking a lot and have tried to set some little goals for myself to make the most of this unique opportunity to immerse myself in some place so completely different than I’ve ever known. I’m trying my best to get on the Vietnamese schedule – up in the early morning to exercise before the heat, to bed by ten, and meals at least an hour earlier than the rest of the world. Attempt number one to get up at five failed miserably – I woke up at six in a daze, lying on top of my alarm clock. Oh well, there’s always tomorrow. I want to take time over the next few days to ride my bike around the entire city and orient myself a bit better, to try something at every food stand that I see. I want to find a favorite restaurant for every Vietnamese specialty, a favorite street, a favorite bike shop, a favorite bookstore. I want to befriend the owners of the fruit stand and the photocopy place and the pharmacy across the street. I desperately want to be able to speak Vietnamese – I’m starting class tomorrow at long last. Learning key phrases such as “Where is the bathroom?” and “Could you peel that mango for me please?” could really enhance my day-to-day life around here. Mom, you’ll be happy to know that I’m adapting quickly to Vietnamese standards of neatness around the house – keeping the cockroaches away provides motivation even where years of parental training doesn’t, I guess. I might even go so far as to embrace the uniquely bizarre Vietnamese female fashion sense and bedazzle EVERYTHING I own. If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. Strange to think that I might actually be less conspicuous wearing flowered day clothes (an outfit that essentially amounts to polyester pajamas), long white gloves and a face mask (to protect skin from the sun), and a sparkly, floppy hat.
Well, as this post has turned into a lengthy one, I think I will wrap it up for now. I promise to turn this blog into more of a weekly update than a monthly dissertation in the future. More to come on the weekend in Saigon soon, but for now, love to all! Hope that you are happy and healthy wherever you may be…
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