Hanoi at last!

TUESDAY 22^nd March         I’ve Been To Hanoi At Last!

After our last class on Sunday (5pm), Sarah and I caught a taxi to the bus stop and a coach to Hanoi! Heather (from HJ Consultancy) asked us if we’d like to join her and some other teachers for dinner... and why not??  Since I only had one class to prepare for Monday night, I decided to go. Sarah has Monday and Tuesday off so she was definitely in. Amie was undecided till she got her roster and also had Monday and Tuesday off so she decided to come, but had to catch a later bus because she wasn’t packed and ready to go.

This is Sarah and me on the coach................... off to Hanoi!

When we started out there were only a few of us on the coach, but the nearer we got to Hanoi, the fuller it became till they had the aisle full of people sitting on little blue stools!  The on board movies were both kung fu.....

 

The trip took two and a half hours, then a ten minute taxi ride to our hotel.

We booked in to The Sports Hotel... a quaint little hotel in the French Quarter which is clean and comfortable for only $16 a night. This was my room:

We bustled off for dinner with Heather and other TESOL teachers at this Italian restaurant near St Joseph’s Cathedral ... an expensive rip-off by Vietnamese standards! But the company was great. Several had left before I took this pic..

It was very noisy when we arrived, so I didn’t catch everyone’s name, but they are from the back left: Mike, Des and Lynn Rees, ? and ?; and in the front row: yours truly, Mike’s fiancé, Sarah and Heather. They’ve all been teaching for way longer than we have and had many stories to share (all Aussies except Mike’s fiancé). I was sitting next to Lynn and it turns out we are both turning 60 in May!  They are living in Hanoi right in the middle of things, so I will get in touch next time I go  so we can catch up. She and her husband have been TESOL teaching for several years... 6 months on, 6 months off... in India and China. They did several stints at a University in central China which they loved and Lynn assured me that if I want to go there, she can get me the job no problem.  Now I’m actually teaching, I love teaching the adults. They are so keen to learn and are so much more responsive than the children (and don’t even mention teenagers!!!).

By the time we finished dinner, it was after 11pm.  Amie had arrived, checked in and gone out for a meal at her favourite vegetarian restaurant (... way better value than what we had! ...) and was waiting at the hotel. The girls were set on going out on the town, so it was time for Grandma to say goodnight and turn in...   I heard them come in at about 5.30 am...

Needless to say, next morning I went for a walk on my own. I was looking for a shop recommended to me called the Russian Shop in the Hanoi Tower, which stocks large sizes. I was hoping to pick up something warm. Anyway I walked to the Hanoi Tower and couldn't identify a Russian Shop... So I walked back via the lake. It was a pretty dreary old day, I look forward to seeing it in sunshine!

The Ngoc Son Temple in the middle of Hoan Kiem Lake in the middle of Hanoi

 This dear old gentleman was doing his exercises.

 I stopped for breakfast...

...but couldn’t go past this !

I didn’t take many photos walking around, which is a pity because the city is bustling and quite delightful...but here’s the couple I did take:

check out the tree trunk !

A motorbike carpark... I reckon one of the reasons everyone rides these is because they’re so easy to manoeuvre and to park. People simply drive them into the front room to park at night, and the footpath is the go during the day. When walking, it’s always an obstacle course. Even cars get driven into the front room... nothing is left parked on the street at night.

I found a pottery shop... she claimed that these pots are 1,000 years old and they are selling for $100... maybe she exaggerated just a little?

I also found a QX Viet Nam Hand Embroidery shop, which was simply breathtaking. There were a couple of ladies in traditional dress working on big frames. The colours of their silk threads was amazing. They sew with many threads at one time... at least 8... which stand to reason considering they are filling in large areas of colour and the threads are so fine.

The standout was a life-size portrait of an old man. He was set in a large double sided frame, which showed both his front and his back. He was slightly padded, so he stood out from the black background. I’m not sure if his clothing was real or painted on, but each strand of his hair was embroidered in white silk, and his cane was embroidered. He looked so real, you almost expected him to start talking, and he had the loveliest face. Next time I go there I will photograph him. I really hope I can budget to bring home one of the embroideries depicting ancient pieces of pottery. The are simply exquisite.

By the time I toddled back to the hotel it was 11.30 and the Do Not Disturb sign was still on Sarah’s door, so I checked out and caught a taxi to the bus station. Most of the scenery on the way home was grubby humanity, but there were a few places with rice paddies and vegie farms:

 rice paddies

 Tombs on rock outcrops

Since I won’t get my first pay till the end of the month, I borrowed 1,000,000 dong ($50) from Sarah so I could do the trip, but on the bus home I realised that I only had 50,000 left and the taxi from the school to the bus station had cost us 60,000, which meant I didn’t have enough to get home!  It was about 2:30 pm so I decided to go to the school and hope someone would be there who could lend me some money...  Then when I got off the bus one of many motorbike drivers came up. One said he’d take me to school for 30,000 so I jumped on behind and off we went. I really enjoy travelling pillion anyway, so that was all good!  When I got to the school, no one was there who could speak English anyway, so I shouldered my backpack and walked home!

After a shower and a chat to Katie on skype, I prepared the night’s lesson and walked back in to school. Apparently Eathen swapped a class with Dave and that gave him 3 days off (!) so Eathen has gone off to Hanoi to catch up with the girls.

Got my clothes from the tailor... can anyone lend me a sewing machine?

TUESDAY, 22nd March

When I got to work, Sun had picked up my clothes from the tailor (and I got 80,000D change.... money for dinner!).  The shirts fit really well... but the pants?????   Dear me!   She has put elastic in the waistband at the front, and  a flat waistband at the back... who does that????  And the crutch is about 3” too low... and the waist 3” too high at the front..... By the time I roll over the front to make the waist sit on my waist and the crutch wearable, they are too short... TALK ABOUT UNCOMFORTABLE!!!   The frustration is that I took a pair of shorts which fit really well to the tailor so she could cut a pattern off them, but oh no! she didn’t need them! ...  such a shame, because the fabric is fabulous!

Guess I’ll wear my comfortable clothes to work and get changed for the teaching... how unnecessary!   If I had a sewing machine here I could make some adjustments myself...  I will have to talk to Sun about the possibility of taking them back and getting the tailor to fix them...

Gripe, gripe....

But today is Tuesday, and Dave has lent me 2,000,000D to see me through till the end of the month. It was sunny when I got up so I did a load of washing and now it’s overcast again.  Because of the rainy weather, yesterday was incredibly humid even though it wasn’t even hot. Everything was covered in condensation... it was running down the internal windows of my room, on the banisters and walls and floor.  At school the whiteboards had to be constantly wiped or they were too wet to write on!  I guess that explains why all the buildings here look drab and old because of mould on the walls and windows!

This is the class I taught last night – 3E2eA:

Ben, Riley, Anna, Jess, Moon 1, Rosa, Tom, Eminem, Kevin, Robin, Moon 2, and Hannah.  Most of them are students except Robin, who’s an engineer and Anna, who’s an accountant.  A great class of ‘beginners’.

Ah yes, after the mountaintop, there's always a valley...

SATURDAY 19^th March

Well there you go... after the high of teaching a great class last night, tonight I scored a class of non-cooperative, belligerent teenagers- mostly girls. It was a battle of wills to get them to do anything and the lesson was just horrible. I will have to pray for some strategies to counteract the power struggle. Silly thing is, they can do the written work so easily, but their speaking is not up to scratch. Maybe next time I have to teach them I’ll tell them to do all the bookwork in the first 20 minutes, then come up with a variety of activities that are not in the book... I just need to get them to do what I say without arguing! The CD player in the room wasn’t working tonight so I had the students read the script from my manual, but one girl declared that she was going to read the boy’s part and the boy was going to read the girl’s part. She was quite prepared to argue with me till I told her she could either do what she’s told or leave the room. She did comply churlishly, but that sort of confrontation leaves such an unpleasant atmosphere. And when I tried to get them playing a game, it took a ridiculously long time just to get them all out of their seats and lined up!  When the game finally got under way, they loved it!!!  AAARRGH.... teenage girls....

But then I had a new adults beginners class, who are delightful. Their spoken English is very poor, but they have an amazing written vocabulary. We played a game where they took turns to write any word beginning with particular letters of the alphabet, the longer the word, the more points they scored and these guys wrote words like application, manoeuvrability and navigation!!!    (Some of them must come from the Maritime College...) yet they can’t yet put together a few simple sentences with understandable pronunciation.  They will go ahead in leaps and bounds because they are so teachable.

Oh yes, and the thing that made today special was that we woke up to SUNSHINE!! It was a gorgeous day. When I walked to work at 4pm there was a really festive atmosphere on the streets... lots of people about, and especially lots of little children (who have been confined indoors during the rainy spell). The sun was still shining on the upper storeys of the buildings along the street and it was warm.  Now at midnight it’s cold again, which wont be a bother as soon as I go to bed!

Finally hit the 80:20 ratio!

FRIDAY 18^th March

Yeaaay! Tonight I taught my first 80:20 class!!!.... that’s students speaking English 80% of the time and me only 20%. That’s the optimum teaching ratio but so hard to achieve as a novice.  Both my cases tonight were great, but the adult class was just fabulous. They all participated with gusto and we played lots of games and I managed to come up with interesting stuff to do on the spot and the 2 hours just flew by. We all thoroughly enjoyed the class and I think the students will be well satisfied.

The young’ns and I had dinner at Megans and agreed that it must be the convenient location that makes it the ‘in’ place coz the food is very ordinary. Poor old vegetarian Amie just cannot get it through that when she asks for vegetables and no meat, she wants a variety of vegetables (like we get in our meat dishes) not just a heap of water spinach... Turns out that Vietnamese call greens 'vegetables'... if you want carrots, or onion or capsicum etc, you need to specifically name them - they are not considered 'vegetables'...  I had my first beer ... I think it’s called Halinda and it’s quite a light beer they serve icy cold on tap here in Hai Phong.  A very large glass costs 10,000D (50c). I was thirsty and it wasn’t bad.

We left Megans at 11pm and Sarah and Eathen stopped off at the Tulip Bar, but Amie rode slowly and kept me company as I walked home which was very nice of her. Much better chatting along the way than striding along on my own!

So now it’s after midnight... not as cold as it has been, but too cold for a shower, so I’ll go to bed grubby.

A smelly puppy and a drunk

THURSDAY 17^th March

Today was my day off but it has been cold (12^o) and rainy all day. I was going to go to the supermarket coz I’m out of fruit and teabags, but Dave recommended staying in and keeping warm, so I did. I watched ‘Burlesque’ and ‘Alpha and Omega’ then at 5pm decided to wander down the lane to see if I could get something to eat. They weren’t open for business yet, but Bich was there... she has a little stall in the middle selling snacks and drinks and oil and essentials. So she invited me to sit down and poured me a glass of this awful bitter tea and we tried to communicate... Then her daughter came and sat down. She’s 25 and understands written English a little, so we ‘chatted' for a bit. I came home and got some of my family photos to show them and they were very interested.

There was a very scraggly (no fur) female dog wandering around that is obviously feeding pups and I commented on her. Next thing I knew, Bich was handing me a gorgeous fat little puppy to hold. It was way healthier than the mother, but it was so very smelly, I didn’t want to hang on to it too long. But I got the perfect excuse to put it down when it started to wee on me!  Lovely... It was very cold in this open space and Bich started to talk about me needing warmer clothing.  She came out with some knitting and held it up to my arm, then a crocheting pattern book pointing to a crocheted cardigan. I hope I misunderstood, but she may have been saying she intends to make me a cardigan or something, coz next she came out with a ball of white wool casting on a long row of stitches....

At about 6 the lady in the restaurant section brought out some food and people started drifting in out of the rain. One of them was a charming young man who spoke a little English. He came over and started to chat, then went over for dinner. After a bit, Bich sat me down at the table next to him and his friend for my dinner.  They are 21 year old Maritime College students studying navigation. He was good company. I had rice and green vegies (hot) and fish and pork (cold!). It all came in little bowls.  As they got up to go, a very loud drunk cane in shouting the odds. The little lady serving the food shouted him  down, but he had no intention of going anywhere. Maybe he lives there... there are at least 3 houses opening onto this covered area. Anyhow, my young cadet came back over and hovered protectively, explaining to me that the man was very drunk and was using foul language, but not to be concerned, just ignore him.  What a lovely considerate thing to do! He and his friend waved goodbye when I got up to leave.

A little excitement to flavour a day of bleak, miserable weather! Now I’m home, tucked up under the quilt all warm and toasty... very glad not to be out teaching tonight like all my housemates.  It’s only 7:30, so I will watch another movie before lights out.

Too cold and wet for students

WEDNESDAY, 16th March

Tonight I walked to school in the cold rain at about 5pm. I printed off my lesson plan and sorted some photocopying and was all ready to go by 5.45 (for my 7.30 class). So I went to the little canteen and had Bánh đa cua(crab) a delicious broth with rice noodles, vegies crab fritters and tofu. I was sitting with Ann (the boss) when one of the girls from Monday night’s class came in and rushed over saying “Why aren’t you teaching us tonight?” What is really cool is that I remembered her name (Henley) and the two friends with her and they were obviously pleased to see me.  Exactly what every new teacher would like to have happen in front of the Principal... J

So at 7.30 I toddled upstairs to my classroom all prepared, but no students turned up!!! This was supposed to be 10 of my Monday class of 21 students... more students had registered, so they split them into 3 classes, but tonight was so cold and rainy most of them stayed home and only 7 turned up, so they were all put together and I came home early!  That’s fine by me... I asked the receptionist to phone for a taxi for me, but she was having trouble getting through (a very busy night for taxis), so the doorman asked me if I would like to go by motorbike. I had my raincape, so I was quite happy about that, but I must admit the rain on my face was freezing! The poor doorman had taken off his good shoes and was wearing crocks... I can’t imagine how cold his toes must have been! ( I paid him double the going rate for his kindness).

So tonight I am unexpectedly at home alone again!  It’s Wednesday night, so Dave is going to order pizza again and we’ll be five around the table for the first time! Like a regular family...  Till then I think I’ll just watch a little telly.

Ladies Lunch for company wives

WEDNESDAY 16^th March

Today it’s cold and rainy. Amie, Sarah and I went to the Texas Restaurant 10 minutes walk down the road (well I walked, they rode...) to join up with a group of ex-pat wives who meet there for lunch every Wednesday. There were nine of them – from Denmark, Sweden, Finland... I think they are all full time housewives, with husbands working with various companies in Hai Phong. Some have been here for years, and some have children here. They were talking about shopping in Hanoi, so I asked them how they get there? By private car... most of them have drivers, although it looked like several rode bikes to the restaurant today. They were delightful company.

A couple of them are keen to get us volunteer teaching at a near-by church. I think the students there are from fishing families, too poor to buy uniforms and pay for government schools. Marita (from Sweden – she’s been here for several years) was telling us about a couple of orphanages that they visit and support. One of them is a lady on her own who takes in handicapped children (agent orange victims) from local farm villages and looks after them for extended periods while their parents are busy working. We exchanged contact details, and will get involved down the track.

Apparently the people in Vietnam are very ignorant about HIV/AIDS. Anyone who contracts the disease is completely ostracised by their families. Only the church here (all Catholic) offer any assistance to these victims. Marita was telling us one such lady here. She got married and had a son, who became ill when he was about a year old. They took him to the hospital and he was diagnosed with HIV. When they tested the parents, both of them were also HIV+, the father having passed it on to the mother. Immediatel, the little family was cut off by their families and the community. The husband became very ill, and the wife had a to pay dearly to get someone to take them to the hospital. When they got there, they were ignored until she bribed someone else. But he died, and she was desperate. She went to the church and they assisted her and her son. The little boy is now 6 and she has a successful tailoring business and is supporting them both, and both are keeping well.