Sara takes the plunge

When Mike and I traveled to Ha Long Bay, I almost gave him a few heart attacks after I decided to go swimming in the bay.... and I started by jumping off of the balcony of the boat .... at least 10 times   :D

Ha Long Bay teaser

Mike and I just spent 2 days in Ha Long Bay, we haven't gone through all the pictures (there and many) but here is a short teaser :)

Our boat where we spent the night!

Out our window :)

Kayaking through the floating village

It was pretty amazing.

The boat ride!

A video of our boat ride to the perfume pagoda

A visit to the perfume pagoda

We went, with a few other teachers, to the perfume pagoda. It was a two hour bus ride, then 45 minutes by boat, then a cable car ride in order to get to the cave. It was a rainy day, but so beautiful!

preparing to get on the boats after our bus ride

paddling down the river

the mountains were so beautiful, rising out of the mist

waiting for the cable car, which only runs twice a day

walking up the path on the side of the mountain, entering into the mist..

at the bottom of the steps to the cave, entering the pagoda

One of the shrines inside of the cave

The entrance to "heavens kitchen" pagoda

secret dragon carved into the side of the mountain behind "heavens kitchen" pagoda

I am a little sad I did not have my camera ready for when the boat ladies tried to shake us down. They get paid by our tour guide, but we read online they will demand tips, and they did. We hopped out of the boat and walked 2 blocks to our bus and got inside. They followed us, and stuck their heads in demanding tips, and when we handed them a tip, they went "more tip!" and "bigger tip!!" until we closed the door and drove off....

The temple of literature

Molly and Kayo visit HaNoi!

Molly and I in front of the pillar pagoda

Pillar pagoda

Action shot -- we are confused as to where to go

crazy scary steps

Mike and I on top of the HaNoi wall

Entrance to the temple of literature

along the side of a path in the temple of liteature

Mike looks like a gangster in all the pictures I took of him

temple of literature

DELICIOUS BUN CHA! No one spoke English, we didn't order -- they just brough us food and it was so so good

Molly enjoys her meal

Ice cream and sad things

Its very unfortunate, but two of our close friends have decided to leave Hanoi. They are heading back to Minnesota for a while, and Mike and I are really going to miss them!For those of you who remember when I worked at the daycare in New Rochelle, it seems as though things may be headed in a similar direction here.

Sorry no photos, but a little update -- about 10 of us went to an ice cream buffet tonight, I had about 7 scoops which was great! Their coffee was particularly good. On the walk home we saw our first scooter accident. No one was seriously hurt, I don't think they were going very fast but there were a few plastic pieces strew about the road.

Good bye Eric and Laura, we are going to miss you!

Honey Jars

Just got this from my mom, 5 jars of honey from our beehives already!!! I AM SO ENVIOUS

Some animals are more equal than others

Today Sara and I decided to shake off the cobwebs and explore the city a little bit. Our original plan (emphasis on ‘original’) was to eat at a recommended Korean restaurant, and then head to the Old Quarter to do some bargaining. But of course, things rarely go according to plan…

We did make it to the Korean restaurant easily enough. It was across the street from the Daewoo Hotel, an aging, once-prominent haunt of Korean businessmen, diplomats, and celebrities. The restaurant’s signage is on Kim Ma (a busy thoroughfare), but is actually tucked away in the back of an alleyway.

The inside of the restaurant was small and underwhelming. Added to that were the high prices of the dishes. But, we had trekked this far, and we’d be damned if we were going to storm out over a fifteen dollar piece of BBQ. And let me tell you, we sure were glad we didn’t. The moment after we ordered (Sara got the beef, I got pork belly), the banchan started flowing…

There was kimchi, spicy bokchoy, a strange tofu-scallion concoction, a bowl of seriously intense dried fish flakes, garlicky green beans, and, most importantly, our delicious bowls of spicy clam soup. Shortly thereafter the meat, lettuce leaves, garlic slices, and spiced oil arrived, and we feasted until our plates were clear, and then we feasted some more (since they kept refreshing our empty plates). We left blissfully contented.

Our original plan was to visit the Old Quarter, but we decided to walk towards a small lake/park that caught our attention just down the road. As we got closer, we noticed a flock of swan boats on the lake surface, and a small, picturesque bridge leading to an island. We decided to investigate. As we got closer, it got more and more crowded. Where were we heading? What was so special about this place? Then, we got stopped!

“Tickets please.” Huh? Two ladies we had barely noticed were sitting there with a bucket of torn ticket stubs. “Tickets!” the ladies exclaimed again as they pointed to a little shack set off to the right. Not even knowing what we were buying tickets for, we purchased them anyway (they were only twenty cents!) and headed into the park.

There were kiddie rides, and people selling candy and toys and all kinds of goodies. There were children running and screaming and laughing. There were long winding paths and giant concrete structures everywhere. And then, we saw the map.

We had inadvertently walked into the zoo.

It was dusty and overcrowded, and had the unmistakable air of being ill-equipped and poorly maintained. The animals lived in big, ugly concrete cages with little in terms of amenities. Some of the monkey cages were absurdly small. People fed and pet animals without repercussion (except for the threat of catching a bite on the hand).

Bustle

Posing

Peacock fountain

Looking happy after being rained on by a wet canopy

I wasn't alone in my misery

Narrow island section

Fun for the whole family

Really?

Dehydrated and tired, we headed out of the zoo, satisfied having checked off the underwhelming experience from our list.

Until next time,
-Mike

Mike's classroom!

Sign outside the door

Famous authors photos with a quote

Close up :)

Mr. Knapp and his desk

A walk to school

This is our building from below! We live on the 10th floor

There is a gas station right on the corner of our street. Every single person on a scooter drives down the sidewalk for half a block to a driveway instead of getting back on the road at the gas station. Also, every single day we see people cut across traffic to start driving the wrong way down the street so that they can drive up on to the sidewalk to get to the gas station (instead of going further up and doing a U turn and not going into oncoming traffic)

A view of the street we walk down to get to work. You can see across the street most people park their scooters right on the sidewalk. It makes walking difficult :P

The ridiculously massive propaganda poster inside of the police station down the street.

I caught a gecko! He stayed with me for the whole walk home one day! Mike thinks he was playing dead, but I knew he wanted to be my pet. I set him free though, sigh

Dueling Cultures

Just as I was starting to think that maybe I was beginning to chip away at understanding Vietnamese culture, I get thrown for a loop and school starts. And we’re teaching an almost exclusively Korean population. I thought it’d be hard enough to understand the intricacies of one culture, but now I’m faced with a daunting task - tying to reconcile with these two totally different cultures simultaneously…

For instance, I’m beginning to learn very fast that Koreans and Vietnamese have different learning styles and expectations from their teachers. Not only that, but the Vietnamese are vastly outnumbered in our school, making them feel like outsiders in their own country. And don’t even mention our Iranian student - she is a fish out of water through and through - nobody (aside from her parents) speaks her native language, whether it be in or out of school.

But so far, I’ve found my students to be pretty fun. The smaller classes can be a little… intense sometimes. Especially my tenth grade class, which is totally packed to the gills with one student. Yep, ONE STUDENT. By the end of class, he is ready to go find a corner to crawl into! Poor guy. Overall my first week has been a positive one - I’m already starting to feel like a teacher, although I know that I have so much more to learn. The week has left Sara and I totally drained and in dire need of a respite, that we plan to find tomorrow in the form of the Daewoo Hotel’s grand lunch buffet spread…

Until next time,
Mike

My classroom before the start of the first day!

I will write about how the first day went, but for now here are a few photos of my classroom :D

Sorry its a bit blurry, but here is my sign on my door

I only have two students right now! But each desk is all set up with their bell ringer

The daily schedule, which we are not totally following yet because we dont have books/textbooks/materials/uniforms/etc yet 

I will write more soon, but for now just be assured that Mike and I made it sucessfully through the first day of school! Now for the second....

Sara