Lover's lane

With her many visits to Ben Tre and her champagne personality, Violet has developed quite the fan club among my student friends. So, naturally, I had to spread the news that she would be spending one last day in Ben Tre on Monday. We were supposed to meet at four but the rain had something else to say about it and we had to wait it out until almost 445. But, our spirits did not exhibit the same dampness as our clothes, and we had a great time at Kim Nhi, our habitual milk tea place. It has gotten a facelift and now, instead of teenage graffiti, posh international motif wallpaper coats the walls. I feel like it has lost its youthful ambiance, but the drinks are as good as ever.

Our next stop was the supermarket, for another round of photoboothing. Hijinks ensued while we waited for an awkward couple to finish their own photo shoot. We took our pictures and hung out for a good while, and then decided it was time for dinner. Violet wanted to try the gà ác (black chicken/silkie), so we all went there. Since I'd already had it, I decided to try another unusual specialty served at that restaurant: pork brain soup. It was delicious and left me wanting more, though that was mostly because the portion was rather small. We were going to go home after that, but we were besieged by a second rain (breaking the rainy season rules!) and tried to wait it out, but eventually just bought a raincoat and went home, where we were met by a second uprising of the insect plague.

The plague!

Tuesday morning, Violet joined me and Trang for our routine breakfast of bun bo hue. Originally, we had hoped to have Violet participate in my Vietnamese lesson, but we were delayed by rain (noticing a pattern?) and so Violet had to head home to Tra Vinh right after breakfast. In the evening I had the English club, and for once it actually had a positive impact on my mood. I had asked them to prepare to tell me about their moms since it had been Mother's Day on Sunday. After that, I initiated phase one of my sneaky plan. I taught them cooking vocabulary and asked them to prepare a Vietnamese recipe in English to bring to class next week. However, they one-upped me with their own cleverness and decided that instead of having a class next week we will have a cooking lesson/farewell party at someone's house. I am perfectly pleased with this turn of events. Naturally, we women will start cooking in the early afternoon and the men will show up to eat once the food is ready.

Wednesday morning was the moment of truth: my Vietnamese exam. I was a little irritated to discover that most of the vocabulary and the oral part of the test was based on the material I learned back in Hanoi. It did not help my persistent feeling that I have made negligible progress in learning Vietnamese since then. But then, the reading comprehension part was practically incomprehensible. In the end I did about the same as I'd done on the practice tests. I passed decently, but certainly not with flying colors.

Afterward, I went to lunch with Trang's sister. This time, we had frog legs, shrimp, and morning glories. The frog legs were good but my stomach has been ribbiting ever since, so perhaps my innards disagree. I also tried a new fruit, bòn bon. It tastes a lot like a guava, but with a totally different consistency. On the way back into town, as we were crossing the bridge, we saw that we were about to cross into a major afternoon rain.

Frog leg platter on the lower left

 

I had a small Vietnamese triumph when I was getting dinner. I went out to get spring rolls, and after asking the woman at the cart for them, I stood there waiting. Then I heard someone else talking. Suddenly, I realized that I understood what she was saying and that she was talking to me. Maybe it doesn't sound significant, but the fact that I could understand something with half-attention felt good.

In the evening, it was time for the English club. Only four students showed up, the same four who have been consistent for the last several months. Not even the teacher who is supposed to come unlock the classroom showed up. We got the key eventually, and we also talked about mothers and Mother's Day. Somehow this segued into talking about childhood memories and misbehaving, and one particularly mischievous student shared several hilarious stories of her youthful indiscretions. With such a small group, the club just felt like a long chat, and it was nice. Like last week, I invited them out for sinh tos after about an hour, but this time I made sure to declare, "I'm inviting!" so that no one would try to pay when the time came. We had a great time quizzing each other on fruit names in English and Vietnamese, and just generally chatting.

Luckily, I had nothing on my schedule today. I say luckily because I have been sick all day. Boo. Hopefully I'll be well enough to enjoy my first going away party tomorrow. In other news, a skink seems to have taken up residence under my washing machine. I see it several times a day, and it always scuttles away under the washing machine. Also, my bathroom is starting to feel like a cheap motel. I keep coming across languidly copulating millipedes.

Easter coconut

“If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.” - Woody Allen

It was such an eventful weekend I had to split it into more than one post. In anticipation for my several visitors, I had grand plans of where I would take them to eat, where we would relax, and so on. Of course, I forgot that I was in Vietnam, the country that laughs at your plans even more than God does. Originally, Lam (ETA) and Vincent (non-Fulbright ETA in Tra Vinh with Violet) were supposed to arrive in Ben Tre on Saturday and leave at their convenience on Sunday. On Friday night, in the midst of poring over youtube videos of Nguyễn Hoàng Nam, Vincent informed us that he'd actually be coming with one of his students, Thu, and that his program director and his wife would be coming in from HCMC to join us. Suddenly, instead of having two motorbikes and four people, we'd be juggling seven people on those two motorbikes. But it got worked out.

On Saturday morning, Violet got a message from Vincent informing her that his motorbike was suddenly out of commission, so they'd be late and using Thu's bike. Lam informed me that he'd be arriving at two, give or take a couple of hours. Violet and I got a decently early start and had bun bo hue for breakfast before hitting up the lake stage. The road closures for the festival rerouted everyone onto a usually quiet side street, and I was intrigued but not at all surprised by the clots of sidewalk fruit sellers and the number of vendors that suddenly inhabited previously empty storefronts. There was happening on the stage, but it was open to the public so we clambered around and hoped we wouldn't suddenly plummet into the water of dubious cleanliness.

Dragons frolic among coconut palms

I frolic on a my-size Rach Mieu Bridge

A posse of teens goaded each other into working up the courage to talk to us in English, and one of them finally asked us if we could take a picture of their group. We did so and then, after briefly consulting together, they decided that we were beautiful and they asked if they could get a group picture with us in it. We complied. The next order of business was shopping. Violet and I have both been dreaming of acquiring a Vietnamese-style blazer (colorful or polka-dotted and perhaps adorned with an assortment of buttons and zippers). I'd seen a few shops that looked promising, so Violet drove us there to commence the hunt. Alas, it was a futile search, and I had my dreams crushed by a red and black blazer that was perfect except for the fact that it was about two sizes too small. No success on the blazer front, but we both made other purchases. A tank top for me and a romper for Violet.

At this point, Violet and I were feeling hot and thirsty, so we headed back to campus to get sugarcane juice at a place just outside the gate. Right as we sat down, we saw Vincent, Thu, and Patrick and Jessica (Vincent's program director) arriving at the college. Perfect timing! We ordered four more nuoc mias and did some getting to know each other. It was right around lunch time, so our next stop was my preferred not-quite-upscale restaurant. It's not street food, but it's not nearly as fancy or expensive as restaurants. I ordered the Ben Tre specialty, canh chua (sour soup), fish cooked in fish sauce, and we also got a plate of fried squid. We chowed down with vigor, and Patrick and Jessica declared it the best meal they'd had in Vietnam. Score! 

Seeing as how this is my home turf and all, it was up to me to figure out what everyone should do. There isn't much to see in Ben Tre other than taking a river tour, but that's not even in the city. My main knowledge of Ben Tre is it's food offerings, so despite the fact that we'd all just stuffed ourselves we went to have some milk tea. It was just two blocks away, so it was easy to get to despite our limited vehicles. Since we arrived with two blatant foreigners in tow, the owners closed the doors and turned on the air conditioning for us. We hung out for quite a while, long enough for Lam to meet us around three. We decided to order a plate of fried fertilized quail eggs to perhaps not so gently encourage Patrick and Jessica to give them a try. They acquiesced, content with having tried them, but not eager to have any more. After all of this, Patrick, Jessica, Vincent, and Thu went to the coconut festival while Violet, Lam, and I decompressed and tried to decide where we would all meet up for dinner. Lam wanted to go somewhere where we could grill at our table and have some beers, but I have never been somewhere like that. I texted Mr. Hoang, whom I know to be an avid social drinker, asking him for a recommendation. I should have seen it coming. He was out drinking, and recommended that we join him. 

All of us met at the place that Mr. Hoang recommended, and though we did not sit with him we made sure to visit his table and clink our glasses. Service was slow, and Patrick and Jessica actually had to leave before our main course arrived. The rest of us were going to meet my students, Thy, Nhu, and Di, and go to the coconut festival, and we never ended up getting the roast chicken we ordered. Instead, we dove into the festival traffic. It was more packed than any traffic I have ever been in in Saigon or Hanoi, and I have done some rush hour xe om-ing. We were inching along, and I was getting grazed by passengers on other motorbikes.

Not bumper to bumper, elbow to elbow

The festival was even more crowded than it was on Friday night. Since most of us had seen it already, we didn't spend as much time there. I did, however, get a better look at the coconut handcrafts, and discovered the rather out of place trinket below.

Is Ben Tre exporting coconut crafts to Hawai'i?

The students went home, Vincent and Thu went back to Tra Vinh, and Lam and Violet and I headed back to campus. We ended up staying up and chatting until 4:30am. Sunday morning made it abundantly clear that our bed time was not a well thought out idea.

Lam was supposed to catch a 7am bus back to Ca Mau. Remember when I mentioned God laughing? His alarm didn't go off. Luckily, sort of, mine did. I don't remember hearing it, but some part of my subconscious heard it and I turned it off in my sleep. Violet heard it and woke us up at 715. Lam decided to join us for 730 mass. However, we were three people with one motorbike. Instead of piling on and risking getting pulled over, Lam got a head start on my bike and Violet and I set out on her motorbike soon after. We caught up to him and I tried to push him along with us, as I've seen many Vietnamese youths do for their unmotorized friends. It was not nearly as easy as they make it seem. It should be a straight shot from campus to church, but road closures made us take a pretty wide detour, and we didn't actually make it to church until around eight. We sat, sweated, and bemoaned the fact that we'd had less than three hours of sleep. I was glad we made it to mass, but it certainly wasn't the jubilant Easter Sunday morning I had pictured. We grabbed some food after mass, again, not the sumptuous Ben Tre Easter feast I had envisioned earlier in the week, and then Lam had to rush to catch his backup plan. He biked to the city center and asked a surprisingly smart-mouthed taxi driver into taking him and the bike back to campus, where the bus would pick him up. 

We all reconvened briefly at the college before the bus came for Lam. Violet and I promptly returned to bed and caught an extra three hours of z's before continuing our day. We had pho and then decided to go back to milk tea - for the third day in a row. We'd been there for half an hour when, who should arrive but Nhu and another one of my students. They joined us and ordered a kipu tea for us. It was the first time in a long time that I had to grin and bear it. Whatever the tea itself was, it was mixed with ground up peanut. There are very few situations in which I find peanuts tolerable, and this was definitely not one of those situations. Flavor aside, needing to chew grit in my beverage is not really something I enjoy. The tea also had some sort of jello/flan made from eggs, which was surprisingly the best part of the glass's contents.

Then it was time for Violet to get on the road to Tra Vinh, and for me to join my trusty coconut festival ambassadors once more and visit the third site of the festival. While the scale and popularity of the fair was quite impressive, the Coconut Street next to the river was what really outshone my modest expectations for the whole festival. It was in the same place as the flower market from Tet, but a million times better than just a bunch of people selling (beautiful) potted plant after potted plant. On top of the very wide riverside sidewalk, in twenty days, people installed a rice field, planted coconut palms, made ponds with bridges over them, and more. Not only was it an admirable feat, it was designed with an extremely western-compatible aesthetic. It wasn't campy, glittery, or styrofoamy.

Mini rice field

A fish turning into a dragon, over a coconut inlaid with the contours
of the continents: a symbol for Ben Tre's aspirations

Di, Nhu, and Thy on a monkey bridge

There really are orange coconuts, though they are kind of brownish but they're called red

Yes, believe it or not, under all of that there is normally nothing but a big old riverside sidewalk. Because I am the Foreign Princess of Ben Tre, I was given the royal treatment by my loyal subjects on coconut street. One man I vaguely remember meeting several months ago was working for the festival, and he joined our group (me, the students, and a teacher) and made himself our guide. He showed me a clever mousetrap made out of bamboo, traditionally used to catch a coconut mouse. Naturally, you don't use cheese as bait; you use a sliver of coconut. I tasted what I can only describe as a coconut fruit roll-up, though it is much more traditional and much less artificial than that. We went to a booth where people were making crafts out of palm fronds. It was kind of like Palm Sunday meets balloon animals. Roses, birds, centipedes, fish, dragons, and vuvuzuelas took shape amidst the skillful hands of the people working the booth. One of those people was a former attendee of the English club for teachers, and he immediately presented me with a rose. Then he asked if I wanted to learn how to make one. I got a personal tutorial on how to make a rose (it turned out pretty pathetic) and then how to make a bird (this one turned out pretty good). All the while, a professional photographer was snapping shots.

After exploring all of Coconut Street's offerings, we went to get a drink at a cafe before going home. I found out that the local government spent 2 billion VND (about $1 million) on the coconut festival. I can't say whether it was worth it, but I certainly enjoyed it.

Famous on Friday

Friday's classes were an invigorating experience after Thursday's struggles. I had no desire to try to wring another lesson relevant to our current unit, Traditional and Modern, so I just did something else. I made a survey for students to use to interview their classmates. There were eighteen questions, and they had to find a different person who fit each question (e.g. someone who doesn't know how to swim, someone who has eaten pizza, etc.). We worked on structuring the different necessary questions: have you ever...?, do you...?, and are you...?, and then we went outside and let the surveying commence. The students took on the task with great enthusiasm, and I only had to remind them to use English a few times. Funnily enough, the hardest task was to find someone who wanted three children. One girl, in playful frustration, started running through the group shouting, "Do you want three children?" and everyone else shouted back, "No!"

When we got back inside I started to poll them, to find out which of their classmates fit each criteria. After a while of struggling to figure out what names were being shouted at me and how to spell them correctly, I decided to appoint a scribe to write down people's names on the board. Then I used this list to ask for the backstories from students who had broken a bone and students who had met a famous person. One of the students said that the famous person she has met was me. I smiled and replied that I think I'm only famous in Ben Tre. But it was a sweet moment. The students asked me if I had ever met a famous person. I guess I have, but no one who would be famous to them came to mind.

Violet arrived in the evening and we went out for milk tea with Thy and Nhu. After about an hour of hanging out and breaking the ice, the four of us went to the coconut festival. I was glad we were going with them, because unbeknownst to me there were three different locations. We tried to go to see the performances on the stage on the lake in the city center, but when we got close we discovered that they had closed off the street and weren't letting people in anymore. This was the first sign that this festival might be an even bigger deal than I had imagined. We headed to the outskirts of town to see the fair.

Not this way

This way!

Considering that up until about two weeks ago, no one had been able to tell me the dates of the festival, it was hard to imagine that this would really be a big deal. I imagined something along the lines of flower street during Tet -- lots of coconuts laid out on a closed-off street, and people insisting that it was magnificent -- plus that stage in the lake for performances. Well. Well, well, well. I was wrong. When we got to the fairgrounds I saw more people than I have ever seen at once in Ben Tre. It took about ten minutes just to park. The fair reminded me a lot of the livestock show and rodeo back home, except that it was about coconuts instead of cows. There was one big tent full of coconuts, coconut crafts, coconut products, coconut candy, free samples of coconut wine, and informative exhibits.

People waiting to get in

Inside the coconut tent

Me, Nhu, and Thy with a tiger made of coconut

Coconut candy girls

Coconut packing machine

Pyramid of coconut varieties, plus coconut flowers on top

Outside of the coconut tent there was a food court, where some of my students were working. There was another tent full of merchants selling everything from mattresses to pots and pans to electric fans (which provided a nice, breezy break from the heat). We passed a stage with people pretending to be statues and, naturally, a karaoke stage.

Cow mascot inviting people to try free samples of juice.
Our photo-op spared him from a horde of toddler boys
pommeling him in the udders.

Living statues

Musicians in rainbow sombreros

And now let me tell you about the most magical and memorable moment of the evening. Our wanderings led us to the main stage. We had passed it earlier and seen people competing in a blindfolded feed-your-partner-hot-dogs contest, but now someone was singing. I used my crowd navigating skills to bring us closer to the stage, and we had a great view of Nguyễn Hoàng Nam's  stellar moves and deep dimples. Violet, my students, and I were all rather smitten. He had clearly mastered the smoldering eyes required for a pop ballad and the pelvic wiggles necessary for an upbeat song. In addition to his vocal styling, his styling styling was of note. Not many people could accessorize with sheriff's badge, a single glove, a leather cuff, a wallet chain, and pirate boots and still look attractive. Here are a couple of his more popular music videos: 1, 2.

Just look at that stage presence!

Just look at those accessories!

For some reason, I wished I could go on stage and dance. (If you clicked on the video links you'll note that they're ballads, but he mostly performed upbeat songs at the concert.) I quickly dismissed that wish -- never gonna happen. But then I had a second thought. If it would happen anywhere, it would happen in Vietnam. Before his next song, Nam called out to the audience, asking for people who wanted to join him on stage (which I understood courtesy of my students' translations). Violet, fearless soul that she is, seized my hand and raised it high into the air. We, along with about four other people, were chosen.

On stage, no big deal

We got on stage and suddenly realized that from now on we would have no idea what was being said, or what we might be expected to do. Was it a contest? Were we supposed to copy his moves? Who knew. He started singing, and everyone seemed to be doing their own thing, and so we all just let loose and danced around on stage. Nam came over to dance with me. I had given my students my camera, but sadly they did not see fit to photograph my one-on-one time with him. Nevertheless, I assure you that it happened, and it was unforgettable. When the song ended, an MC came out to ask Violet and I if we were foreigners visiting the coconut festival. Despite the fact that this exchange occurred in English, we somehow ended up telling him that we were from Tra Vinh. All of us who went on stage received a gift for participating and got to shake hands with Nam before we left. We all received hanging clocks in boxes that looked deceitfully like pizza boxes, and for some reason I also received a six pack of bottled green tea soda. Off stage we reunited with my gleeful students and worked our way back through the crowd, who looked upon us with a mix of envy and admiration.

Part of me wished I had saved my Friday morning survey for next week. If I had, I would have a famous person that is actually famous to my students, and had a great story to go with it.

Future and foreigners

"The future used to be such an abstract idea. The dream was enough, ... and now the future has the nerve to show up, and it’s expecting us to do something" - Kurt, on Glee

These days it feels like I'm buckling under stress about the future about as often as I was overwhelmed by homesickness in my first several months in Vietnam. Most of the time I feel like I have a good idea of what I want, but burrowing into the world of job searches brings me down when I can't find what I want or find it but don't feel qualified for it. Onward and upward, right?

Last night I spent another hour sucked into the drain that is the teacher's English club. As proposed by the administration, five students showed up to help the teachers. This happened to work out to one student per adult. I tried discussion again, using the discussion questions one of the teachers proposed (Why do people lie? Is it ok to tell white lies?), and it went about as (un)well as usual. Some of the teachers actually engaged with their student partners, but some just giggled or stayed silent the whole time, even when I encouraged them to talk to each other. Some teachers ignored their partner and chatted with another teacher instead. Given that there were only five adults, this left us with about two who actually discussed with their partners. Then, when I asked each pairing to share their opinions with the whole group, the adults wanted the students to talk for them. Clearly, the purpose of having student helpers/partners is not so the people for whom the club exists can eschew participating. Why do they even come? I felt bad for the students (and for myself), for whom it felt like a waste of time, but I consoled myself with the thought that at least they're getting some extra time to practice English and maybe even get to feel like a bit of an authority on English. Given that everyone has acknowledged that the club is a failure but refuses to cancel it or let me make any productive changes, I am resorting to the silent protest of ending the club early. Honestly, I'm pretty sure the teachers are perfectly happy to go home early, anyway.

After the English club I went out to dinner with Thy, Trúc, and Ngoc Mai. We had bun bo hue, my new favorite soup, and I discovered that there is a special night market already set up to accompany the upcoming coconut festival. Ben Tre's normal night market is just one block, but this one covers several blocks on several streets. We did some window shopping but didn't buy anything. It made me laugh inside when my students were shocked to realize that I could understand what the shopkeepers said.

I've been having wrist pain for over a week now. When it started I assumed I'd slept on my hand funny, but it didn't go away and yesterday I could barely move my hand, so I went to the doctor today. Trang was busy so another English teacher, one with significantly lower English skills, took me. Visiting the doctor was an experience. I pad four dollars for an x-ray... with no lead apron and with my teacher/translator in the same room. At first I thought that no one was even going to talk to me or look at my wrist, but I did end up seeing a doctor. He asked if I was Philippina. When he found out that I was an English teacher he asked if I would like to visit his house/teach his children. He prescribed anti-inflammatory medicine and, for some reason, heartburn medicine (proving to me that my compulsion to look research every medicine I am prescribed in Vietnam is well-founded). I had to pay $18 for this medicine! It may not sound like a lot, but compared to how much I have paid for medication here and how much I paid for the x-ray, it seems exorbitant. Later in the evening, I got this slightly confusing email from a concerned administrator:

Hi Adelina,
This afternoon your doctor what results, did not cut myself off, if you need I will use tomorrow's Chinese hot oil to remove the pain of you watch out?

Tonight I had the student English club, which was the complete opposite of the teacher English club. We started out with a discussion of the appeal and dangers of playing video games, and even though I knew that gaming and e-cafes are really popular, I didn't realize just to what degree. All of my students spend time playing computer games, whether it be 10 minutes a day or an hour a day. After about half an hour of discussion it was clear that they were itching to talk -- but not necessarily about the topic they'd selected, so I decided to do the conversation speed dating again. They loved it, and we decided to do half discussion, half conversation next week.

"Our subjest iso't cool but he fakes it anyway..."
Excellent shirt belonging to one of my students

On my way back to my room after the club meeting, I saw two foreigners on campus. Two! Foreigners! Near my age! It felt like a mirage. I walked up to one and found out that they're Australians and they're helping students learn choreography for the coconut festival. Why they're here doing that is unclear, but they'll be here for about two more weeks and we're going to try to meet up tomorrow. I'm still in disbelief.

Rational thoughts

It's often intriguing to me the topics that my English textbooks teach (ahem, telepathy), and today's listening lesson centered around an interview with a man who claimed to have been picked up by a UFO. The man saw bright lights, went outside, and saw a UFO and a pair of aliens. The two aliens spoke to him and instructed him to go with them. They took him into their craft, but when they discovered that he was 74 they said he was 'too old for their purposes' and booted him out. As part of the post-listening activities I asked the students if they believed the story. Most of them said they did not. Several said it was because they didn't believe in aliens. What stood out to me, however, was the second most common reason. It seemed absurd to them, too unlikely, that these aliens would speak English. Wouldn't the aliens speak their own language? And English is so difficult! It wasn't the existence of aliens that they took issue with, it was the probability of English-speaking aliens. This stood out to me because I don't think it would have been a common answer or even an answer at all in the US. The general population seems to expect the rest of the world to speak English for them, so why wouldn't aliens speak English, too?

I had the rest of the afternoon free, or so I thought. I got a text from Thy, one of the girls I went out with last week for milk tea. They'd told me that they wouldn't be free tonight, but apparently things changed, so we made plans for later. Then I got a call from Hong, asking if I'd meet with her to take pictures for some project. I didn't quite understand what it was for, but I agreed to meet her at four. I'm still not exactly sure how they will be used, but it was nice getting pictures with her and some of my other students. They are participating in the upcoming speaking competition I've mentioned, and somehow the pictures are relevant. They also asked me to talk to them about ambition (part of the theme, Ambition and Challenges). I get the general feeling that my potential interpretations of this theme are not the same as the intentions of whatever Vietnamese person came up with it, especially since the theme doesn't really make sense to me to begin with. I tried my best to be helpful.

From the photoshoot

A few hours later I met up with Thy, Nhu, and Túc, a new addition. We went out for milk tea aka bubble tea and this time I tried kiwi instead of strawberry. I also actually remembered to get pictures with the girls. We started out with me editing what they've prepared for the speaking competition and then we relaxed and chatted. They asked me what fruits I've tried in Vietnam and we ended up spending a good while brainstorming fruits and making a parallel list of their English and Vietnamese names. I'm pretty knowledgeable about fruit in Vietnamese, but we had to pictionary a few that I didn't know. Túc had been quieter than the other two, but near the end, out of the blue, she asked me if I have a religion. It turned out that she's Catholic too, and it looked like we hit upon a topic she wanted to discuss. All of a sudden she was dominating the conversation, although the other two, who are Buddhist and agnostic, also participated. Túc told me about how she goes to church with her mom every Sunday, and how much she enjoys the (Vietnamese version) of the Christmas pageant. I learned the word for angel (thiên thần) and taught them the word 'Bible', which they previously just called the 'holy book'. We called it a night at 9pm and to my surprise they even let me pay for everyone. Here's hoping for a repeat next week.

Drinking milk tea with tapioca at the graffiti-covered hangout

On Friday I taught speaking to the first years. The new unit is Traditional and Modern, and strengthened my conviction that this textbook is not really adequate for this level of students. For starters, the unit vocabulary in the warm up included words like avant garde and fuddy-duddy. Additionally, because students can't afford textbooks, they have photocopied versions that often obliterate the images that the book provides for activities. Instead of having students compare one black square that used to be a picture of something modern to a fuzzy square that should be a picture of something traditional, I decided to try and have some discussion. I introduced an easy application of 'traditional v. modern' regarding clothing, and asked students whether they prefer wearing traditional or modern clothing and why. Then I took it to the next level, and asked them to think about cultural manifestations of 'traditional v. modern,' for example, seeking matchmakers versus dating. Then we moved on to discussing woman's role in traditional and modern society. It gave me teacherly satisfaction to hear my students using English, no matter how limited, to talk about something more academic than their weekend plans. 

I did the same thing with the second group of first years, but they were treated with a visit from a foreigner, Violet, who had come to purvey adventure. I was a little disappointed by how few of my students took the opportunity to ask her questions, even though I had given them time to prepare questions before she came, but a few of them stepped up and asked her a whole slew of them.

Teacher Violet and my first years

Weekend getaway

On Saturday morning I took the bus to HCMC and met up with Violet, Brittanye, and Kelly. After a delicious home-cooked lunch of utterly western burgers at the house of a consular employee who is a friend of a friend, Violet and I went looking for a tailor. Lam had given me the address of a good tailor outside of downtown, outside of the tourist area. Unfortunately, when our taxi deposited us at the given address, there was neither a tailor nor any of Lam's other landmarks in sight. After doing some wandering and asking around, Violet and I gave up on the quest, and just went shopping instead. It was raining in torrential spurts, so the shopping helped us stay dry. We didn't buy anything; we just partook of the ritual of trying on clothes that will never fit, central to life as a shopping-inclined westerner in Vietnam.

We stopped at a smoothie place and I had the best (only) avocado smoothie I've had in a long long time. Vincent, who teaches with Violet in Tra Vinh, and several of their students met us there, and then we all went back downtown. We went out for a few drinks and then went to dinner. After our western pizza dinner we went to a Vietnamese place for more food. We had a great time, and it was interesting to see how precocious and adventurous the Tra Vinh students are compared to mine.

Despite our late night out on Saturday, we got up at a decent time on Sunday and went to English mass at the cathedral. It was nice to go to church, even nicer to go with friends, and even nicer to be able to understand the language being spoken. After lunch we went to brunch at an American restaurant that actually felt like being and eating in America. So many times, western food just isn't quite right, which is why most of the time I prefer to eat good Vietnamese food rather than an approximation of American food that will never really satisfy my craving. But this food was good.

After that it was time to come back to Ben Tre. Violet and Vincent had gone to HCMC on Vincent's motorbike, and since Ben Tre is halfway between there and home, they stopped for a few hours in Ben Tre on the way back. We went out to dinner together and enjoyed some local specialties that I only get to eat when I have company. They also got to try some sweet Ben Tre coconuts before getting back on the road.

On Wednesday, the last USA class, I gave out course evaluations. One of the questions I asked was "What did you think about the quizzes?" I was very curious whether my students would feel that they were helpful, too difficult, or what. Here are some of the replies I got:

• I don't like quizzes because there is less time to remember the lesson. And the quizz that is immediate will not be good.
• It is pretty difficult but after the quizzes we can remember something from lessons.
• They are useful and necessary.
• The first, I think it help me developing my writing skill. The second, according to the quizzes, I can test my ability, my knowledge, my understood after readed material.
• I thought the quizzes were a good way of measuring my understanding of the material so that I could try more. 
• I think it's very necessary. It help us can express our opinion.
• I like doing quizzes after finishing the lesson. I can summarize what I learn in the class. I think the quizzes is very useful. If I can't understand the material clearly, but (after) when doing the quizzed I can know the main ideas or special line.
• I think it's not difficult and not easy too. But I must try more to get good marks.
• Quizzes are very important and necessary. It focuses on main points. They help me consolidate what I learn and test my knowledge on it.

"What is something the teacher did very well?" Got several replies like this one:

• Explaining the reading and materials clearly; preparing for lesson (techniques, photocopied papers, teaching devices); be friendly, kind, lovely

"What lessons or activities did you like? Why?":

• I like the revision games in the last lesson because it helped me remember the lesson and I felt very interesting.
• Game and work group because it help more interesting when I learning and it help improve many skills.
•  I'm very happy about spotlight on the U.S.A. Through the course I know more about the U.S. (people culture, states,...)
• I like work in group (speaking). Work in group, I can talk about my idea. 
• I like discussing in groups and answering teacher's question. I like the way which teacher describe something for us. I mean: body language.
• I like work in groups because I can discuss with my friends, I will solve matters quickly. And I feel more comfortable and confident.

I was happy to see that the students' response to the quizzes was largely positive. Of course I am a teacher and quizzes are a teaching tool, but with the quizzes' rocky start, I felt some level of guilt about implementing them. The students' replies showed me that they could see why I had quizzes, and the quizzes accomplished what I intended. I had also been curious about students' thought about how often we did group work (almost every class). I asked them if they liked group work and solo work in the first section of the evaluation, where students circled a number, ranging from 1 - strongly disagree to 5 - strongly agree. All students agreed with the statement "I like it when we work in groups" and most students disagreed with "I prefer to work alone." I was grateful that several students chose to address this further in their answers to the open ended questions, as you can see above. Students saw group work as an opportunity to practice speaking, help or learn from their friends, and get more comfortable with the material.

In the additional comments section, one student wrote, "I think we should have more periods with American teacher in a week." Another said, "I love to do with Adelina, teacher. I hope she can stay more time in Vietn Nam." I'd call that very positive feedback.

Five months later

Friday morning I awoke to a surprising phone call: 'Please come to the office. You have a package.' Who could have sent me a package? No one had told me to expect one. What could it be. I got to the office and got an even bigger surprise. It was the package my dad and Sandra had sent for my birthday, five months ago! By now we had all assumed it would never make it. I celebrated with grits for breakfast.

September 15, 2011

In the late afternoon, Violet arrived. We had planned for her to visit me this weekend before my spontaneous visit to Tra Vinh last weekend. The last time she came was for my birthday weekend, about five months ago. Back then I had yet to discover all of the awesome nooks and crannies of Ben Tre, and I didn't have a way to take us around. This time, I have more local knowledge and she has a motorbike, so we got to be more adventurous. Violet came to my door and a snake joined me in greeting her. We went out to my favorite hu tieu place and then came back and enjoyed a bottle of wine that I had received in my Tet gift basket from the college.

The snake did not like having its picture taken

On Saturday we had the luxury of sleeping in. I hadn't woken up so late (past 10) in at least a month. We went out for bun thit nuong and then went to a nice outdoor cafe to relax for a while. After that we took a quick tour of the city center, and Violet saw the supermarket, the market, the Ben Tre River, and the lake. We came back to my room and Violet asked me to cut her hair. I was happy to comply, though slightly apprehensive about having so much responsibility thrust upon me, given that it was my first time cutting anyone's hair other than my own (not counting haircuts using clippers). Lucky for both of us, I'd say it turned out well.

Final result

It's alive!

We went out for bo la lot for dinner, and since it was still light outside I got my first decent picture of the delicious dish. After that we went on a mini road trip to My Tho to visit it's bustling night market. We made it to My Tho easily, but one wrong turn on the way to the night market got us turned around for quite a while. I was wondering at what point it would be better to give up when I saw a sign for it. Hooray! I ended up buying a rare Adelina-sized dress with serious bargining tactics. A few other items caught my fancy but were just not reasonably priced.

Typical night market 'English'

This morning Violet went back to Tra Vinh, and I stayed in catching up on all of the grading and lesson planning I put off while she was here. It's amazing how quickly the weekend goes by when you have things to do and someone to do them with.

Going back

12.30
We left Phu Quoc for Saigon, this time spending less than an hour in transit, thanks to the magic of airplanes. Our afternoon was largely uneventful, other than dinner. I took Elliot to try banh can, one of my favorite dishes in Saigon. I only know how to get there by way of somewhere else, but I thought I had figured out the address so that we could walk there directly. Unfortunately, the address I found was completely wrong. Fortunately, I managed to get us there anyway, making only one wrong turn in the process. (If Elliot is telling this story, he will insist that it was more than one wrong turn, but that is false.)

12.31
I saw a motorbike with six people on it when we were on the way to the War Remnants museum. My record thus far! I had chosen not to go to the museum, previously, and I was a little apprehensive about this visit. I envisioned an emotionally dark and gut-wrenching experience. It wasn't as bad as I thought, but I also exercised a lot of judgement in which exhibits I chose to see; some were just photos of victims of agent orange, for example. I spent the most time looking at a collection of international photojournalism from the war.

After lunch we headed to the Reunification Palace. On the way there, a Vietnamese man called out to Elliot to compliment his beard. At the palace we discovered that, for some reason, they had now removed all of the signs that tell you what each room is supposed to be, perhaps to make more people want to pay for a tour guide. While both the museum and the palace had a clear bias and agenda, Elliot found the historical video shown in the palace (during which I fell asleep, yet again, but not as early on, at least) to be the worst in that regard.

Looking out from the top of the palace

We went out for dinner with several other ETAs who were in town for New Year's, and rung in 2012 with the masses.

with the ETAs

Happy new year!

1.1.12
It was time for Elliot to go back to the U.S. I regret to report that our last meal in Vietnam was at a newly opened Burger King at the airport. I guess it was a good transition point.

Elliot packed light, unlike everyone else in front of him

time to say goobdye

When I left the airport I went to the dentist to investigate the toothache, and you already know what came of that. I was lucky that all of my fellow ETAs were still around, so saying goodbye to Elliot didn't leave me abruptly alone in the city. At night we saw many of the city's decadent new year's  decorations that were still up.

1.2.12
I had to wait until Tuesday to have the tooth extraction, so I had a leisurely day. I had a rich spinach lasagna for lunch and I realized that I might have a hard time re-adjusting to food in the US. In the afternoon I pursued some retail therapy.

1.3.12
It feels silly to call it surgery, even though I did get a couple stitches. The whole thing was pretty quick and easy. I only got a local anesthetic, and I was able to watch most of the procedure reflected in my dentist's goggles. I've heard so many stories of what comes afterward that I was expecting the worst, but I've been just fine. Just in case, I spent the day at the hotel. I was rewarded when I caught the last five regulation minutes of the Stanford-Oklahoma State bowl game. How I've missed football! Even though the nurse repeatedly urged me to 'stay on top of the pain killers,' and medicate before I felt pain, rather than after, I felt so fine that taking codeine just felt excessive. I didn't take any. I've pretty much felt fine to eat and all that this whole time, but I'm trying to be responsible and careful. No chipmunk face has developed.

This was taken today, the 5th, the day at which I should be at 'peak swelling'.
Do I look chipmunky to you?

1.4.12
I got back to Ben Tre with a feeling of deflating. Back to reality, back to the daily grind, back to being alone, back to not understanding the voices around me. But the reality is that reality isn't bad at all. At the mid-year conference we received letters we wrote to ourselves at the end of orientation in Hanoi. I was pretty sure my letter would just remind me of all the goals I have failed to reach (e.g. cook often, learn Vietnamese), and consequently was reluctant to read it. However, I found that what I wrote four months ago was well-worth reading. At this time of resolutions and new beginnings, I would do well to keep my words in mind:

I want to make a point of getting out of my room and letting people in. I want to be in people's lives outside of the classroom, and I want people in my life. I don't want to look back on my year and wish I'd done it differently. I don't want to hear other peoples stories and wish they were mine. I want to love my story.