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

The first day

Well, it is finally upon us. Tomorrow is the first day of school.

I am super nervous, and still have a lot of preparing to do tonight but I am still very excited! I have, unfortunately, dropped from having three students to having only two. Its going to be very interesting! I met both Joon and Kim on Saturday, they are both very excited and surprisingly proficient in English (they are both Korean).

My room looks pretty nice if I do say so myself, it is MUCH more decorated than any other elementary room, I am a little surprised. I will make sure to take some photos tomorrow before the day starts at 8:30

I think the first few weeks are going to be a total shit show honestly, so that is why I am not completely freaked right now. Some rooms dont have furniture yet. There is no playground. We dont have books. No bookshelves. No textbooks. No uniforms yet. Still missing a lot of materials. so I don't feel that worried, everyone is in the same boat as me!

I will let you know how it goes tomorrow, WISH US LUCK!

Sara