Good Week

Yes, this past week has been a good one. I've worked almost every day (sometimes at three different locations in the city in one day) and have also been working out. The combination of working and feeling physically fit is an awesome one. Next week I will start private English lessons with three siblings and I'm excited for that too. It's always good to challenge yourself and put yourself in different teaching situations.

This week I've been substitute teaching for kindergarteners and preschoolers and they are truly adorable. In the preschool class, I put the sand shovel on my head and asked them if it was a hat. They laughed for no less than 10 minutes. I love sitting amidst them and making up games to review the new words. With a blanket as a cape, a shovel as a wand, and a pail as a hat, my students quickly became princesses and kung fu pandas. Their joy is palpable and boundless. I sincerely think that God wants us to retain that childlike sense of joy and trust even into our adult years. I'm working on it. :)

This week has also been awesome because I've been sleeping in an actual bed! On Monday, our landlord finally brought our new mattress. The last one was bedbug-ridden, if you remember. The new mattress was accompanied by an actual bed frame! No more mattress on the floor! Sometimes I'm bothered by how much I'll let slide in my life. For example, I was o.k. with my mattress lying on the floor until the bedbugs conquered it. I was also o.k. when my motorbike taxi driver ran my knees into a taxi. Only rug burn-like wounds occurred, so all is well. Anyways, the mattress also features incorrect English and Tom and Jerry, which is awesome.





At night I've been eating with friends, singing with the International Choir, making fruit smoothies, and watching movies. Trinh's birthday party was also this week, which featured a night with friends and cake at Crazy Cocktail.





This week DiDi and I saw the movie "Bride Wars," (DiDi's choice....) which was ridiculous. These two women are getting married and they both go crazy before their weddings. It was scary actually. We also went swimming with friends on Sunday and dancing at Vasco's on Saturday night.





On Friday night, I was observed while teaching my adult class. Observation is a usual occurrence where a guy from my company comes and watches me teach in order to make sure I'm doing well and to give feedback. I was a bit nervous because this was only my second week teaching this class and only my second class teaching adults. Luckily my students talked more this week and the lesson went very well. Afterwards, the observer met with me and told me that my lesson and teaching are very good but that I need to have the students model more of the activities to accompany my aural directions. Other than that he said that my teaching style is effective, my speech is clear, slow, and unaccented (thanks, Connecticut) and I was able to elicit their answers and speech very well. I was happy with this report, especially considering the fact that I don't consider teaching adults to be my strong suit.

Right now I am really excited for next weekend, when DiDi and I will again travel by bus to Bac Lieu. We will stay with DiDi's mom again and I'm really stoked. Great people, great food, and some fun adventures await. :) Also, this week I've decided to unofficially begin studying Vietnamese again. I've purchased a small notebook where I write down all of my new words. I already have quite a few words and phrases, which I'm really excited about. I feel badly when I can't understand my neighbors' Vietnamese, since I am living in their country. Continued learning also feels awesome and will prevent early onset of Alzheimer’s. :)

In terms of coming back to the states, I will book my flight in the next month or so. I love living here but it will be nice to come back and see everyone as well. I'm really excited about August because I just booked Andy and I tickets to see James Taylor and John Williams in concert at Tanglewood (in Massachusetts) at the end of that month. It'll be the perfect end to our crazy road trip from Florida to Connecticut.

That's all the news from this week. Here are some of my favorite photos I took this week:















Miss you all...

BEDBUGS: The War Was Lost

It's true, 79/8 Nguyen Huu Cau, Sai Gon, Viet Nam, has been infested with bedbugs. After discovering lines of bites on my arms last week, the problem was confirmed this past Sunday. The landlord came and sprayed Raid all over the room and the mattress. Unfortunately, this only coated the bug-infested mattress with chemicals and led to one mid-sized cockroach twitching in the middle of our empty room. I also had to throw away my pillow and Spongebob Squarepants pillowcase, which was a sad day. Matthias, my teddy bear, has also been to the laundry woman. Bad news. DiDi and I then requested a new mattress and the landlord just came and sprayed everything again. After a third call placed to him, he said he'd buy us a new mattress on Thursday. We have yet to see a new mattress and DiDi has moved into JP's room and I've been sleeping on a small Vietnamese mattress on the living room floor. Every morning I set the mattress against the hallway wall and rearrange the living room. It's working out for now but the landlord had better bring our new mattress soon. It looks like we've lost the bedbug war.








In terms of good news, I was able to substitute almost every morning and afternoon this week. Teaching still proves to be challenging and rewarding. I also have a brand new class that started on Friday night. This is a class of adults, all of whom are at least my age (and one or two women are my mother's age). The first class dragged by because they didn't want to talk much. They started to warm up at the end but I prefer to teach children for sure.

I also joined a gym right near our apartment. It's only $30 per month and has really nice machines--everything from treadmills to bikes to weights. Lockers, a locker room, and clean showers are also provided. It's like belonging to a gym in the U.S. which is really nice. I was feeling lazy and out of shape but have been going every day and really sprinting for half an hour straight. I'm trying the immersion plan haha.

This week has also been full of parties. There was a housewarming party for some of our friends on Saturday night as well as a going away party and a birthday party on Thursday night. Unfortunately, our friend Tom went back to New Zealand and our neighbors and friends Sarah and Seweryn went back to Germany all on Friday. The only good thing to come of this is that our other friend Inny has moved into Sarah and Seweryn's old apartment, which is two floors above ours. We helped her move in this morning after I finished teaching.

As usual, here are some of my favorite photos from this week:





















That's all for this week! Miss you all...

Lots of English

Yes, I have been teaching A LOT this week. I taught almost every morning and night. This weekend, I taught my usual Saturday and Sunday mornings. In addition, as of this upcoming Friday I have a new class in the evening. Needless to say, I've been keeping busy. It was kind of a homesick week, however. Andy and I had our five year anniversary and I really wanted to be back in the states. I was also in a meeting in a coffee shop and someone said the word "blurb," which brought me to tears. The homesickness comes and goes. Next week should be better. In other news, Kristen sent me MAIL! It was AWESOME and was indeed filled with amazingness, as promised. :)



I'm currently substitute teaching during the week and I have a couple classes of fifth graders. They're very entertaining and always have me laughing. This week they were told to write about going to the beach and most boys wrote about going to see girls playing volleyball in bikinis. Some girls made up stories about taking a vacation with their classmates and seeing some of them kissing. The students mentioned in those stories would playfully yell "I hate you!" when those stories were read out loud. In addition, the class clown of one class is Tom. Last week his class was completing a workbook page where they had to pretend to write a postcard home from summer camp. He wrote that he slept next to his girlfriend and signed it "Tom Handsome." I guess some things are universal. :) I'm really enjoying working with them.

When I wasn't working, I saw movies ("Two Lovers" was awful. Don't bother) and went out with friends. On Tuesday I had a free morning and found my way to the military market, Dan Sinh, across the city. It's a giant market that is basically a hardware store as well as a place for uniforms and some old war stuff. I saw everything from security guard uniforms and nightsticks to American Army leftovers--gas masks, helmets, flack jackets, even old dog tags. Most of the dog tags are fake, but I still didn't want to buy any. Everyone wanted me to buy dog tags but I wanted nothing to do with it. It's weird to own someone else's name tag, especially if they died over here. I spent quite some time in this market and got lost intentionally. It's more fun that way.











After work one day I went a couple blocks over to the river. I found a couple Vietnamese guys sitting next to this older bridge and began to talk to them. Before long I smelled smoke, which no longer alarms me. The men then pointed out that the old bridge (next to the new one) was burning. No one knew if this fire was intentional (maybe to get rid of the old bridge) but everyone just watched it burn on its own. Who knows. I then made friends with some babies on the way back to my apartment. They were really cute twins. Actually, they look like old men already.



















While the flood was building last weekend, I was stuck in the market. I ended up buying a mask to wear while riding on motorbikes. The air here is horrible and most people wear masks while driving. This is because the gas in Viet Nam is still leaded and unrefined (thanks for your leftovers, China). I also like wearing the mask while on the bike because less people stare at me-- I'm incognito Caucasian. :)




The first photo is a bit scary so I decided to take one with flowers. Everyone loves flowers.

This morning my friend Abbie had a soft launch for her company, Sai Gon Movement, of which I am a part. It was a giant fundraiser/soccer tournament and we had a few of our usual games under a tent. We achieved our goal of telling people about the company and had some parents sign their kids up for classes. Hopefully this will expand nicely. The party had a DJ, a caterer, and a field full of children. It was very much like being back in the United States, which was odd. After the party ended, however, I jumped on a motorbike and was instantly transported back to Viet Nam. Funny how that works.

In other news, my family has decided that Seadale family vacation will be the second week of August. Soon I will book my flight for the beginning of August. :)
That's all the news for now. Here are some other photos from this week:


This father was having his child drink beer, which the small child seemed to enjoy. Who knew? Wait, can we get some parenting books in here for a quick consult?






















Miss you all...