After an hour-long bus ride on roads that were more fitted for an ATV, with frequent interruptions from cows, we arrived at the university, situated amidst rice fields. Quyen and I were teaching for the first hour, followed by Lam, Maria, and Andrea. We weren't expecting smooth sailing, but I don't think any of us expected it to be quite as rocky. It all began with snag #1: my MacBook projector adapter didn't fit Quyen's MacBook Pro. Luckily the school brought us a spare laptop and we had our presentations saved on a flash drive. While we set up we all introduced ourselves to the class. Snag #2: Their professor stood in the back of the class and kept translating everything into Vietnamese and interrupting Quyen to tell her how better to teach. Luckily our coordinators asked her to leave before she could continue undermining our authority. Snag #3: Our lesson plan was over their heads. Quyen's two years with Teach For America and quick thinking skills enabled her to edit our lesson plan on the fly and make it more accessible.
But there were good things, too. We were teaching listening skills by presenting about tourist destinations in the US (this is a tourism-focused university). We asked them if they knew of any famous places in the United States, and the only place someone volunteered was Texas. Once we crossed the hurdles of explaining instructions, students were more than capable of performing what was expected of them. At the end of class, again, students wanted to take pictures, pictures and more pictures with us. As we posed, one girl linked her arm with mine. It was such a simple, camera-oriented act, but it made me feel very welcomed and appreciated.
Our class
The view from the classroom
For lunch, our coordinator recommended that we all go to a restaurant together instead of splitting up for lunch like we usually do. Since it was her suggestion, it was hard to turn down. We got off of the bus and to my dismay I discovered that we would be eating at a 'Tex Mex' restaurant. I wanted to cry. To elucidate my feelings, it is necessary to understand that I generally avoid Tex Mex in Texas, so to be taken to somewhere offering a confused Vietnamese rendition was far less than thrilling. It made me feel the way normal people would feel if they were told that lunch would be pig's feet and puppy tails. I had been hoping to try rice porridge today, but it had to be put on the back burner. Instead, I had to tiptoe my way through a menu that offered items like a 'quesadiliad' made with a 'totila'. I ended up sharing two dishes, surprisingly good pasta and very filling fried rice, and it turned out ok. But it definitely would not have been even near my top choices for lunch spots.After this we re-hashed and evaluated the day's teaching and then headed to our corner bia (beer) hoi place to toast our teaching. We spent some time in the hotel relaxing before dinner, and then sought 'chicken street.' There, we had some savory skewered chicken and the highly anticipated honey bread: mini-baguettes doused with honey, pressed, and grilled. It was, in a word, delicious. In three words, it was finger-licking good. After dinner we took the most terrifying cab ride of my life. We hailed a cab and seven of us (not including the driver) piled into a tiny four-passenger cab. I sat on someone's lap in the front, and pretty much had my head in the windshield. Visually, I was subjected to a particularly up-close and personal experience of just how close the driver got to motorcycles and other cars before braking. I also had really prime seating to appreciate the full acoustic effect of his frequent horn honking. Meanwhile, very heated discussions in Vietnamese were taking place between him and other members of our group. I could understand people yelling to stop and the rear door opening and closing while we were still in motion. Then the cab driver electronically locked all the doors. Mildly creepy. Finally I heard a number and agreement and I realized that this had all been aggressive haggling techniques because he wasn't using the meter. Parents, you can breathe easy because I'm still alive.
When we got back to the hotel I got my first bee sting ever and then we headed out on foot to a cafe. A few blocks, a super sketchy alley, and three flights of stairs later, we were on a rooftop overlooking the lake. It was a picturesque ending to what felt like a largely absurd day.
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