Leaving Vinh

Much has happened since my last update. All the volunteers have left Vinh. I'm in Hue with Quynh, Hung, Bao and their cousin Thao. We leave tomorrow morning for Saigon where we will spend the day. I'm beginning to reflect on my experience this year and I have to say it was very different from last year.


The last few weeks my students finally were feeling more comfortable with me so I was actually able to go out with some of them. We met up with a student from Hue last year who is studying in Vinh to become a nun for the most amazing Pho I've ever had and I got to know my student An a lot more. He stood out from all my other students and I'm really glad that I at least got to get a bit more closer with him if not many other students. He took us out for coffee, Ho Chi Minh Square, Bun Bo Hue and the night before I left for Hue I got to meet his 11 month old son! He really is an interesting person. He has been married for two years, living in Vinh. His main source of income is working on the roads in the city...really back breaking work especially under the incredible hot sun. On the weekends he teaches 7th grade English.






My morning class also took me out for dinner and karaoke which was quite an experience to say the least. One big difference I've noticed this year is the focus on beer. Last year I had a very uncomfortable weekend when I visited Phong Nha because I refused to get drunk off warm beer with my student's co-workers. There was constant pressure from my students (some high school students or younger, others future priests). I have a feeling I offended a lot of them by refusing to constantly down full mugs of beer :/ Overall both dinner and karaoke were a good time, I only feel bad that my students wouldn't let me help pay the bill because it was probably very expensive for them.




Last week went pretty slowly. On a few occasions we gathered all the classes together and taught them a song.



My last day in Vinh was very hectic. We went out the night before to say goodbye to all the volunteers then had to leave Cau Ram at 6 in the morning for a celebratory mass for the new bishop. It was madness! Around 50,000 people attended. I was leading everyone though a massive crowd of Viets with a nun behind me telling me where to push my way through. One teacher got her camera stolen. Someone cut it straight from the wristband.

Vinh Ha Long

Last weekend we finally made it to Ha Long Bay and WOW. I'm a bit disappointed with how my photos turned out but the trip was still amazing. I would like to go there again another day and spend more time, perhaps explore the island Cat Bai where the national park is. Friday all the teachers dressed up in soccer uniforms we bought for $5 dollars a pop and spent our break drinking cold beer and peanuts. One pitcher cost about 14,000 VND (less than $1).


Friday night we boarded a night bus at around 10 pm. It was so cool! it had beds to lay down on. I remember my Aunt mentioning buses like this before but still it was definitely a first and completely unexpected in Vietnam.



Father was generous enough to pay for our trip to Hanoi which cost around 120,000 VND per person ( a little over $5 per person for a 6 hour drive with beds!). Upon arriving in Hanoi we took taxis to a hotel where Jennifer's sister and mom were waiting to have pho for breakfast with us. Afterward we boarded a tiny bus for the three hour trek to the Bay. It was so weird seeing so many foreigners at the dock and it continued on the boat. I really expected to be on some really crappy boat sleeping on a mat on the floor and probably not having a bathroom...Jennifer really must have pulled some strings because the boat was amazing. They dropped flowers on us when we boarded and served us an amazing 7 course meal. There were about 45 people on board and 2 people to each bedroom. The rooms and bathrooms were way nicer than the two cruises I've been on before.





The first day we got to explore this amazing cave that reminded me of something out of Indiana Jones. It was huge and open to the outside, reminded me of the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland (which seems to be a pretty realistic interpretation of my experience here in Vietnam this year coincidentally lol).




Afterward we took the smaller boat to the beach where we swam in the cool water for an hour before heading back to the main ship.





Dinner was equally amazing. It was funny because they had some fake "authentic vietnamese music" to entertain us until our TAs interrupted and taught all the forigners how Viets really party with lots of cheap beer and bad karaoke and never-ending cheers of "Zo Hai Ba..." At dinner all of the volunteers were discussing how it was really cool that we could bring some of the TA's with us because sadly that probably was one of the coolest things they'll be able to do in their lives. It's so sad that my students haven't been able to see much of their country. I had one who grew up in a province neighboring Ha Long Bay yet she has never visited it.



Day two started bright and early at 6 am. Kim and I enjoyed breakfast on the balcony with our SLRs snapping a few pics before putting them away to go kayaking. We were unable to go to a smaller bay that Jennifer recommended but that hour or two we spent kayaking was so much fun.


I really enjoyed it, maybe I'll take it up back in the states. On the rides back I got a bit sick and our bus narrowly missed hitting a car in front of us. I still am not accustomed to how ridiculously chaotic traffic is on the roads here. It's a serious problem and a major road block to the development of the country. Only 1.5 weeks left :( then Hue, a day in Saigon and a day in Hong Kong!

Phong Nha & 4th of July

So much to update on. Saturday we went to Phong Nha caves with the TAs. Last year I went with Van and my student Diep. Even though I had already visited, it was still an amazing experience. Aside from sharing pictures I really only want to comment on one experience. During breakfast, on the side of the road, they collected all of our trash in a waste basket. I had a bunch of trash in my bag I emptied into the container and was quite surprised that the TAs were being so environmentally conscientious...the impression didn't last long as after I dumped my trash the box was emptied out on the side of the road :( . People here really do not understand cleanliness. I don't think I realized it as much last year.

















On the 4th of July Thong took us to a little restaurant with "burgers" and then later to this amazing "central park." We had to pay 15,000 VND to enter ($1 = 18,600 VND). It was lit up with Christmas lights everywhere and had rides! I got some pretty good shots while riding the swings and a group of us were brave enough to go on this zipline across the pond. In retrospect that was probably a really stupid thing to do, but I enjoyed it and survived to tell the tale. Classes are going ok...my students are not studying so I don't think they're really learning as much as they could be. This weekend we're going to Ha Long Bay in the South China Sea. We'll spend the night on our tour boat! I'm really excited to get some amazing shots.

Surprise Dinner

We just got back from an unexpected evening out. The drums went off a full 30 minutes before usual today and Hung came to tell me we were going to have dinner somewhere else. We all hopped into taxis and headed off to another church nearby where they had this amazing pond with man made rocks in the middle connected to the mainland by a bridge. We spent some time climbing everywhere and taking pictures before getting a tour of a possible teaching location next year before heading to a nearby restaurant for dinner.





On the way there I snapped a great picture of these three little boys! My favorite pic of the whole trip so far.



The dinner was interesting. We got there and found all the food was literally covered in flies. We had to be polite and dig under the top layers of food to get food that hadn't been contaminated by flies and pressured all of us into singing as expected.

Cafe Sua Da 18 floors up

Our first evening out with a student! I met Linh at a coffee shop on the top of a hotel. It had an amazing view of the city and I got to meet her friend Phu who speaks amazing English despite never having been out of Vietnam. He talks to a lot of Vietnamese Americans online. He even knew about Bolsa! I also got to meet their Australian friend Daryl who will be teaching in Vinh at a private school for an entire year! When we got home the gate was locked so I had to climb over it to get one of the church boys to open it for everyone else.

End of Week 1.

The week ended on a high note. We really did nothing exciting during the week except develop our routines around teaching. As we were not allowed to leave the compound all we really did was sleep, eat and teach. Sunday we were finally allowed to go out after having a really big celebratory breakfast with all the priests. First we got Cafe Sua Da, then stocked up at the market before doing a bit of sight seeing. Unfortunately my camera died. I had no idea we'd be doing touristy things.








This morning we woke up at 5 and boarded a large air conditioned at 5:30. We drove about 2 hours to a remote village for one of the father's first mass in his hometown. It was quite an experience. The ride there we went over a number of very small bridges made with materials that would not be up to code in the US. Once we arrived at the church there was a lot going on...a parade of sorts with priests, nuns and even a band. We fortunately did not have to stay outside. Everyone moved to make way for us like celebrities. We had seats reserved just on the side of the altar with all the nuns.









Afterwards we headed over to father's family house where they had set up a feast for over 1000 people. Can you imagine that? Having to invite everyone to a relatively small home for a meal after the ceremony?! What was even more interesting was the speed at which everyone ate. They sat down shoveled everything in then left, leaving behind a huge amount of trash. Hung started gathering up some of this drink we all liked to bring home. Father Hoang caught on and had the church boys get a huge case of it for us. Some of the band members must have noticed that we also grabbed a few beers because on my way out they stopped me (JUST ME!) and put a huge beer bottle in my hand to take home. On a side note the amount of staring I have to deal with in Vinh actually is not as bad as in Hue.






This week we are only teaching four days. We go to Phung Na Caves on Saturday and Ha Long Bay next weekend!