hustlin' and bustlin'... with a li'l cu chi on the side

in the last few days i've gone from easy breezy to insanely crazy-busy... it's been a little hectic since i last blogged, but i must say that getting back into somewhat of a scheduled routine is pretty nice - at least now i can figure out what day and month it is without having to re-check my blogs... oy.

but without further adue, here's the latest scoop:

wednesday, september 15
bill, matt, and i on yet another adventurous excursion stopped by this corner-to-corner ice cream parlour for a brief pitstop, which was in good time too, because it had began to rain. i've come to learn that in vietnam, when it rains, it RAINS, and the people are prepared for it. seems like even just after the first couple of raindrops hit the ground, the streets are filled with motorcyclists wearing an interesting array of coloured ponchos - this was quite amusing watching it from the ice cream parlour window... the name of the place escapes me at the moment, but the ice cream was amazing. if any of you ever get the chance to come to ho chi minh city, you can't miss this ice cream parlour, it's pretty huge :oP - and i have come to discover that dalat strawberry ice cream is the most wonderful thing in the world... YUMMY! :o)
we then finally made our way over to the benh thanh market in central ho chi minh city. the benh thanh market is approximately 12,000 sq. metres of meat, food, fabrics, electronics, hustlers, televisions, cameras and just about everything you could think of... wall to wall and aisle to aisle of bargains. and when you walk around, your nose just tingles at the fine smell of spices and aromas around you, and you can find small places to sit and eat at the back of the market. pretty nifty - you could literally spend a day walking up and down the rows exploring what some people are selling. but what i wasn't aware of was how "persistent" some of these shopkeepers were. i was walking with bill when one of the shopkeepers selling fabric stepped out in front of him, and asked him, "sir, what are you looking for?" - not realizing what was coming next, bill then turned around and told the lady to ask ME what i was looking for. that then began a struggle to keep my arm - this woman would NOT let go of my wrist, and managed to lead (read: drag) me halfway into her store, and yelling out prices into my ear before i could shake her unexpectedly strong grip off of my wrist. yeesh. i guess some people's sales tactics are umm... different from others. :oP but all in all, it was a great experience. i think before i head back home to canada, i'm gonna stop by the market and get some good deals on some souvenirs for y'all back home :o)
in the evening, the whole team gathered for our first worship/prayer/sharing meeting - it was refreshing to hear what everyone's been struggling with these past few days that they've been in vietnam, and i felt comfortable knowing that i wasn't the only one :o) it's something that i've been really missing the past few days that i've been away from home, and it was just a wonderful time of fellowship between new friends. i'm starting to finally feel more at home with these people who i call my team... *sigh* it was definitely a good way to end the night.

friday, september 17
moving day. i packed up all of my belongings, and moved them all from logos 3 on le van sy street to logos 2 on dien bien phu street. the weather was definitely not on my side, as it rained and rained for most of the day. it was a little amusing to see SUVs, bicycles, AND motorbikes try and manouvre their wheels in ankle-high to shin-high waters... by the time i came back from a meeting at the high school i'll be teaching at, the waters flooded the alley where our house was. even after minh hung, our driver dropped us off right at our doorstep, i found my entire leg covered in almost river-deep water. i've never seen anything, or experienced anything like it before. but it was quite the experience.
and now i have a new roomie :o) liz and i are sharing the same room on the 5th floor - and let me tell you, it's quite the climb. i can already feel my buns turning into steel. lol. but liz has been just awesome these past few days, what with our girltalks and our spontaneous dance sessions :o) *happy sigh* it's so nice to have a girl around to talk to, and finally reach some sort of balance with the levels of estrogen in the house. :o) it's also pretty nice to come home to a good home-cooked meal every day... mrs. le, our housekeeper knows how to work that kitchen, and she's just been so wonderful... i can tell that the next few months living in my new home will be full of interestingly good times :o)

saturday, september 18
well, plans for visiting the mekong delta fell through, and have been temporarily postponed till next week or the next week after. but still feeling a little touristy, the whole team minus aaron decided to hop on a tour bus that headed over to the cu chi (or as max would like to call them, the "cuuu chi cuuu chi cuuu") tunnels about 45 miles southeast ho chi minh city. the cu chi tunnels were one of the famous battlegrounds of the vietcong during the vietnam war. just imagine a 75-mile-long underground maze where thousands of fighters and villagers could hide the soldiers, as well as some of the villagers who would actually live in these tunnels during the war, and as a means of defense from the american soldiers. from at least 30m to 100m underground, i was pretty impressed with the structure and the framework of these tunnels - they had bunkers for everything, complete with kitchen, hospital, sleeping quarters, conference rooms, and so on... kinda similar to an underground city... what really got to me was the size of the entrance holes on the surface - you'd have to be pretty skinny and short to fit into these tunnels. even when they altered the size of the tunnels for the tourists, it still seemed pretty small. it was an interesting experience though, for all of us to get on our hands and knees and crawl in between tunnel after tunnel. i could have gone for the full 100km, but it was just so incredibly stuffy in there, i could only do 30km before i wanted to get out and see daylight again. wowsers. liz and jeremiah were brave enough to tackle the smaller tunnels - liz is quite petite, so she made it through without breaking a sweat. i was pretty impressed with jeremiah though - picture a beefy texan boy squeezing into a sardine can... but he made it through in one quick turn. dang...
our adventures in cu chi worked up our appetite, so we decided to head over to "cappuccino's" along backpacker's alley for a bite to eat, and then headed back home... to then later head out to "super bowl" up above the saigon tourist plaza in the posh area of town to meet up with autumn, a new friend from church who is going to be here in ho chi minh city for the next 6 months studying vietnamese... now, i have never seen such a posh bowling alley before. first of all, the workers are either dressed in red cocktail dresses (the women), or full 3-piece suits (the men :oP) - my goodness. talk about taking bowling seriously. they even bring your bowling shoes TO YOU as you sit down and enjoy sipping an iced cappuccino... i'm here thinking, "this is so NOT bowling..." - i almost expected their washrooms to have the server-dude inside handing out complimentary lotion. but sadly, i was disappointed, because as nice as their facilities were, once again to my dismay, toilet paper was nowhere in sight... i've grown accustomed to the hose though :oP

sunday, september 19
church, and then an indian food buffet. hehe. it's pretty funny how i'm finding all these culturally-diverse restaurants in vietnam. first korean, then japanese, and now indian. it was pretty yummy though, and the buffet only cost us 6.00 for all-you can eat goodness. *sigh*
the evening only gave way to more eating. mrs. tuyen, the landlord at my old house (logos 3) invited the whole teaching team, and officemates for a grand vietnamese dinner. when she cooks, she COOKS - we had all these vietnamese dishes piled high to the sky... noodles, soup, seasoned pork, salads, chicken, rice, more noodles, and more rice... yeesh. i was amazed at all the food - it must have taken her a day to cook everything. she's such a wonderful woman... and of course, no evening would be complete without a little karaoke and a lot of good laughs.

monday, september 20
(happy birthday edmond!) i started my first teaching lesson today. every monday, wednesday, and friday, i will be teaching an intermediate class from 5-7pm, and then a beginner's class from 7-9pm over at the private high school. i was surprised to learn that vietnam has more private high schools than public high schools, and the one that i'm teaching at right now is the largest school in all of ho chi minh city, because it's the only one with 2 campuses. my first teaching experience went okay - i just reviewed the basics with them, played a little hangman and let them ease in, and be familiar with me. funny story: i gave my kids nametags so that it would help me pronounce their names better, and i told them i would collect them after class. i come across this boy (who must have been like 13 or 14), who gives me his nametag. i read it, and notice that he puts an extra note on it. the note reads, "i love english, and i LOVE YOU" - i look at him oddly and ask him if he wrote this, and he just smiled and giggled profusely. heh... and so it begins. teaching the beginners i've found to be quite the struggle though, and even a little bit overwhelming. but i'm hoping that once we get the ball rolling, everything will fall into place. what i do appreciate is that they're very responsive to doing new things, like walking around the classroom and getting out of their seats - something that they would never really get to do (or be allowed to do) in their normal classes at all... but i'm planning to take things slow, one day at a time - really, that's the only way you can live life here in vietnam :o)

tuesday, september 21
liz brought me and phuong (now named "jasmine" - apparently it's vietnamese custom to make a name for foreigners, and vice versa :oP) to her women's bible study today. it was pretty good - and i got a chance to see what the inside of norfolk mansion looks like. pretty posh - from what i understood, most of the westerners who come to vietnam live in these apartments, and it looks exactly the way they do at home, complete with private western toilets and the like. except, like all kitchens here in vietnam, there isn't an oven. hmmm. these women are just wonderfully nice and so hospitable - such a blessing, indeed. :o)
after the study, the three of us went along the "furniture" street, where most, if not all stores along the street sell everything from couches to shelves, to coatracks, to hatstands... liz and i were on a hunt for a shelf for our new "bachelorette pad" :o) - we found a pretty good shelf that actually matched the furniture in our room for about $200 500 doung (almost $20US), and managed to talk it down to $200 000... not a bad deal. of course, it was an adventure on its own to fit that sucker of a shelf into the back of a taxi, and still make room for one of us to sit in the back - but after 20 minutes of shifting and lifting, we finally got it to fit, and were able to bring it back home, haul it up to the 5th floor, and set it in place... :o) we are women, hear us roar... LOL.

wednesday, september 22
teaching day #2 - ViUS (my organization here in Vietnam) decided that to make things easier for Bill and me at the high school, they would hire a vietnamese TA to help around the class, especially for the beginner classes. we found this out 15 minutes before leaving for the high school. turned out that mrs. kim was actually a big help in explaining the activities to the beginner classes. and the kids were just great in participating in the class - they are still a little shy, but overall, things are looking good. i taught them about feelings today, and personalities. i showed them a couple of pictures from back home, of friends, and family, and i think i was hit with my first sensation of homesickness. but eventually it subsided, and the class went on. they were actually really interested in the pictures that i brought in - wanted to know what the names of my friends were, and my family members, and everything :o) what was funny was that half of the girls in the class seemed to have developed a crush on my brother after they saw his picture... i heard a lot of "dep trai" (pron. "dep chai" - meaning handsome) after i told them who he was in the picture... hehe. on the way home, she even said that she can help me find some decent-priced fabric for me to make an au dai for myself - apparently all the high school teachers at the school wear them while they teach... hmm... :o)

and now it's thursday - the weeks seem to fly by now that there's something to do every day, and my sleeping patterns are finally kicking into a nice stable pattern. it's my day off today, so i just plan on taking some time to rest - something that i've been looking forward to since i got here :oP, perhaps take some time to unload my suitcases and set them aside, take a nap, or maybe grab a fruit-cocktail smoothie (very good!), or "sinh to" (pron. "sin toh") nearby my house and just chill... who knows :oP

on tonight's agenda: liz and i, and a few other girls that we've met, and perhaps jeremiah and aaron might head over to "la casa latina" in district 1 for some free salsa lessons... yes, in vietnam :o) hehe. should be interesting... :oP

to those of you who have expressed their concern about my temporary "blogging absence" through e-mail and messenger, know that i'm alive and well, and haven't fallen off the face of the earth just yet ;o)

*drum roll please*

we officially have internet now at our place here - as i type this, i am sitting up on the 3rd floor of our house, and surrounded by huge open windows that stretch from wall to wall, accompanied by sounds of the nightly city buzz... there's a light breeze coming from all sides of the room, and it just feels wonderful. to my left, i see nothing but the lit rooftops of other houses - just beautiful, especially when the sun sets... but i think by friday i should be settling down at the other guest house. well, more like as soon as they can move a bed into liz's room - which should be interesting since she lives on the 5th floor and they'll have to get that sucker up there by rope and pulley through the center opening of the winding narrow staircase of the apartment :o) ... should be interesting... *sigh* as excited as i am to move (again), i'm kinda feelin' a little in between about it all cuz i'm finally starting to settle down and get a feel for le van sy street... oy. but one must do what one must do...

btw, i've managed to get matt and bill hooked on this wonderful thing called blogger. while bill's still in the process of making his blogspot a spectacular spectacle, in the meantime you can read about matt's encounters in vietnam at tompsett.blogspot.com

... even in vietnam i'm sharing the gift of blogger - teehee. ;o)

it was bound to happen sooner or later...

so yesterday, bill and i were feeling adventurous once again (we're officially the last 2 teachers - without a regular schedule of some sort - standing), and decided to explore down dien bien phu street (where logos 2 is located). we stop by this outside restaurant for dinner that seemed really interesting (the name of it escapes my memory at the moment...) - they were big on the whole outdoor charcoal bbq grill type of thing, and you could watch the cooks grill the most mouthwatering concoctions right in front of your eyes. so bill and i thought it would be a good experience to try it out. from the 30+ page menu, we had decided on ordering the grilled season beef in banana leaves, steamed-fried bean curd, and chinese style fried rice, of all which were very delicious and tantalized our tastebuds.

halfway through our dinner, i looked over to the chair beside me, and realized that my purse was gone. i searched all over the tabletop, and underneath the chair to make sure it hadn't fallen, but it was nowhere in sight. i then look to the corner behind me, and lo and behold, there was our waiter, hiding in the corner, crouched down and LOOKING THROUGH MY PURSE - bag wide open, his grubby hands all over my personal belongings and shifting through everything. when i asked him "what the heck do you think you're doing?!", i startled him, and he looked at me with this petrified look on his face. he didn't speak any english, but his gestures and tone of voice gave me the impression that he was being very apologetic (that, and i could recognize his panicky repetition of "xin loi" which means "i'm sorry")... from what i got out of his motions and rushed dialogue was that he was trying to explain to me that he was trying to pick up the purse because it fell down, and he was just making sure it was mine... he then put the purse in my lap, and once again started repeating "xin loi". luckilly everything was still there, because i had placed all the important documents and cards into the "secret pocket" of my purse. but still... i was slightly bummed after that experience, but at least i know not to get too comfy while i'm over here. so here's another valuable tip to y'all who are planning to travel far and wide: keep a close eye on your bags and personal belongings - yes, it can happen to you. :oi something like that can really change the mood and ruin a perfectly pleasant dinner, i'll tell ya that much. in conclusion, i doubt i'll be heading over there any time soon :o(

after our "interesting" dining experience, bill and i decided to put the past's poopiness behind us and talk about much happier things over smoothies, coffee, and blueberry cheesecake at AQ (hehe, i think i'm eventually going to become a regular at this place)... i've come to notice that vietnamese people (as are all asians, esp. including filipinos) are quite nosey. i mentioned before that i've been mistaken numerous times for being vietnamese. this whole observation first came to my attention after a few days living with matt. see, because matt and i are the only ones who live in logos 3 at the moment, and because we go everywhere together (canadians tend to do that ;oP) - to the grocery store, to the karaoke bar, to the restaurants, to catch a taxi, etc. - people are starting to get the impression that we're married. oy. and during my excursion with bill yesterday, i got a few cut-eye looks from a few women while i was walking with him, who probably thought that we were married too... yeeesh. this has become quite the running gag between me and matt for the longest time now, and unfortunately one that i can't seem to escape from. but now the plot thickens... apparently i've left matt for bill, and will soon be leaving bill for liz when i move in with her at logos 2 by the end of this week (we're going to be roomies! which is actually going to be a nice of atmosphere, because i'm starting to feel an imbalance of estrongen ;oP). but who knows, if i keep going with this whole marriage business thing, after 4 months i might leave this country with having been married at least 4 times. lol. talk about cramping my style - now how am i supposed to find my young vigorous rice boy farmer if the people here are already under the impression that i'm attached and off-limits? :oP

(for my parents who i know are reading this, i'm JUST JOKING! JOKE LANG!)

today, just like the rest of the week looks pretty free - once bill comes back from the bank, he, matt and myself will be heading back over to le van sy street (where matt and i live) and do some restaurant hopping for lunch. tomorrow (wednesday), the team will be having their first home praise/worship fellowship over at logos 2 - pretty excited about that because aaron brought his guitar so some Godly jammin' sessions will be much appreciated :o) *sigh* in other news, i'm getting really antsy in anticipation for next week's teaching schedule. apparently once classes officially start in october, my days will be even more busy because i'll be teaching in the day as well, and on 2 high school campuses - starting as early as 6:30AM! i don't even think i'm asleep yet at 6:30AM! but busy can actually be good as the days will become shorter. oy... but as i've grown accustomed to in the past few days, i keep in mind that this information may be out of date in the next 5 minutes... :oP

tangent: it turns out that msn web messenger works fine here in the school office too (we still don't have net hooked up at our house just yet :oP) so if you guys are still up in the wee hours of the morning (it should be almost 3am toronto time as i write this blog entry), feel free to chat with me either on yahoo or msn.

as always, know that i'm thinkin' of ya, and i miss you guys lots!
estelle

ps - charlene, i almost forgot to mention that herbert bunked in my room last night. there was a blackout (one of 4 that happened in a row), and he found shelter and comfort under one of my shoes. :o) he's such a cute little bugger. :oP

taxi hopping

oy... busy busy busy. but once again, here's another briefing on what's been going on with me so far:

friday, september 10
... and the exploring continues. after an "unexpected" taxi-tour from one end of the city to another to get to the other teachers' guest house, matt and i finally met up with bill, liz, and max, to then hop in another taxi and let the wind take us wherever it wanted to take us. now, in ho chi minh, it's never a problem to get a taxi - it's cramming everyone in that's the challenge. but after strategically placing liz across our laps, we managed to fit everyone in the compact "now" clown-car, all limbs inside (and still in tact). "20 minutes" later, we find ourselves in downtown/central ho chi minh city. the english geek in me decided to take up bill on his invitation to go bookstore hunting - we came across two fairly large bookstores, but unfortunately came out of both of them empty handed... however, it took me a while to debate on whether i should have purchased a viet-learner's guide called Learn Vietnamese in Two Months... *sigh* the rest of our morning included checking out the "tourist" department stores in diamond plaza and saigon tourist plaza - kinda reminded me a lot of the eaton centre in downtown toronto, but cleaner and with more security guards. oh, and one more thing that i've come to notice about vietnam - toilet paper in public washroom facilities is a rare thing... instead, the washrooms come with portable hoses (at least in the ladies' room) to finish your "business" with.
there were also a great number of beggars in the tourist area - far more than in our own neighborhood, and even more persistent. while liz and i were walking down one of the main streets, this elderly woman in a wheelchair that was being pushed by another elderly woman followed us down at least two blocks before leaving us alone. i knew that vietnam had a lot of people living in poverty, but coming face to face with it is a completely different experience altogether. there's a huge difference between seeing someone homeless and begging for money at union station in downtown toronto, and seeing someone homeless and begging for money on the streets of ho chi minh... it humbles me to a point where it's actually a sad thing to know how spoiled we all really are back home in north america... usually if you see this sort of thing on television, you're more likely to change the channel and ignore it - but when you're constantly surrounded by it, it becomes more of a harsh reality check. for some if not most people here, they don't have the option of changing the channel or ignoring it - because to them, this is real life.

saturday, september 11
the group of us headed over to one of ho chi minh's private high schools to give the placement tests to the students. the first portion of the test was 20 minutes of listening to a tape and answering multiple choice (which was pretty hard for them - i speak english pretty well, and i even had trouble making out what was on that tape!), and the second being a 5-minute interview with yours truly. i think i probably saw about almost 20 kids, and half of them couldn't get past saying their name... what was interesting was that these kids, who are about 12 and 13 look so much younger than that... there was one child that i was talking to that looked about 8 years old, but was really 13. i'm really looking forward to teaching these kids. as frustrating as it was for them and myself in trying to communicate with them, you can easily tell that they have this genuine eagerness to learn the language... but oy, i have a feeling i might become one of those teachers who are "generous markers", because i can easily see my grading methods being influenced by their cuteness :oP especially when they're in full uniform.
after the test, matt and i headed back to our place (logos 3), where aaron and his friend phuong (pron. "fung") were waiting for us there to have dinner with our landlord and her family. on the menu: lotteria - the vietnam version of mcdonalds. our landlord was sweet enough to order out for us, thinking that we were in need of some "comfort" food. well, the look was definitely there, but after biting into what seemed like their version of a "big mac", i was slightly deceived. it was edible nonetheless, but somehow it just didn't taste like beef - but in situations like these, ignorance is bliss, i suppose. but i did become a huge fan of their "shakey fries" - the fries come in a paper bag, you add "artificial cheese flavoured" powder, and you shake 'em like there's no tomorrow... none too shabby! :o)
after dinner, the kids around our neighborhood, joined us for some hardcore karaoke action to help digest our fabulous grease-feast - yes, karaoke AGAIN. :oD what was dangerous about the place where we went to is that it's only a 2 MINUTE WALK AROUND THE CORNER... AHH! *gleeful scream* - a few hours of belting out "i will survive" and "the lion sleeps tonight" with the clan brought nothing but a smile to my face. i even learned to sing in vietnamese too - pretty good times, indeed!

sunday, september 12
hopped on yet another taxi and drove to church at the duxton hotel in the morning again - i'm getting used to the taxi rides across the city. one thing i forgot to mention is that the vietnamese are really big on calling/address/business cards. if you want to get somewhere either by taxi or motorbike taxis and don't have the address on hand, you can always show them a card with all the necessary information on it, and you're set. most of the taxi drivers here don't speak english, so it helps a lot if you just pull out a card and show 'em where to go. the rides can be pretty quiet, especially if you're travelling alone, but i'm hoping that'll change in the next few weeks once i start attending vietnamese language classes. church was followed by lunch at this small cafe called "central cafe" - a small western-style cafe a block down from the hotel. surprisingly their smoked salmon bagel was actually pretty yummy. gabriel, another new friend that i met from church (who's from louisiana and yes, just like the angel) joined us for lunch. he's been to vietnam several times and just moved here permanently since june. such a funny guy, and super nice. he entertained us during lunch with his adventures of being in the city and his encounters while teaching english...
once lunch was done, we headed back to logos 2 (the other teachers' guest house) to pick up a few things for our team dinner later that night. aaron thought it would be a cool idea to cook up a traditional (north) american meal and invite some of our new vietnamese friends. on the menu were pancakes, scrambled eggs, and bacon. so we did a bit of shopping for the basic necessities, but not until AFTER we stopped at AQ for a cafe suah da... before trying it, bill warned me of how rich it was (because they pour in a load of condensed milk instead of regular milk)... the way it worked was that they'd bring out the cup with the coffee filtering on top of the condensed milk, with a separate ice tray to mix it with once you removed the coffee filter. omigoodness... bill wasn't kidding - after taking just one sip, i felt as if my throat was completely coated in rich, buttery, creamy, coffee goodness. even after loading ice cube after ice cube, it did nothing to dilute it... but i wasn't complaining. it was heavenly. :oD it was a good thing we were inside, because while we were schmoozing over our drinks, the rain hit pretty hard - first time in a long while that i've seen the streets flood with water. i now know what "rainy season" means... once the sky cleared up a little, we made an attempt to walk back to the house. very valuable tip: when wearing flip-fops in ankle-high water, you become prone to losing one or perhaps both of them. while crossing the street, halfway across i looked down at my feet and realized my left foot was naked. once i looked back, i found my other flip-flop, back at the sidewalk, floating downstream on top of a gargantuan puddle of water that looked more like a river. i could only do what was absolutely necessary to save my temporarily-estranged flip-flop: i slowly turned around, literally sacrificed my life in dodging a few motorbikes, WHILE being splashed on by oncoming traffic, finally made it back on the sidewalk, and retrieved my poor shoe. *sigh* the things i do for shoes... and like the gentlemen they were, matt and bill both stood there laughing their heads off in utter amusement during the whole ordeal while standing on the opposite side of the street, completely dry and safe from harm... men. yeeeesh. :o)
once i was dry again and in a fresh, new change of clothes, the evening was once again filled with good laughs and good times. aaron's dinner/breakfast was successful, and enjoyed by our viet friends - with blueberry pancakes, and a whole lotta butter, you can never really go wrong :oD. and to work off dinner, we all headed over to super bowl for a little bowling action. i've never been good at bowling, but one thing is for sure - when the vietnamese play, they play HARD... *sigh*

today's agenda, like most of my days already spent here, is up in the air... :o) i called my family this morning, and as usual, they put me on speaker phone for all to hear. *sigh* it's always good to hear their voices. i got a little kick out of it when my dad started a whole chain of conference 6-way calls to my other relatives in scarborough. hehe gotta love him. :o)

updates on my teaching position: there's been a bit of confusion as to when i'm supposed to start teaching and getting things together. bill and i were supposed to start teaching at the high school tonight at 5pm, but on account of miscommunication, we've just been informed that we're not actually starting till next week when they have their curriculum all sorted out. no worries - there's always something to do in ho chi minh city, so i know i'll find something to keep me occupied in the meantime. to make things more easier on our driver, it looks like i'll be moving into the other teachers' guesthouse earlier than originally planned - probably in a few days, so i think i have quite the packing spree ahead of me as well.

rumor has it that we'll be taking an overnight trip to the mekong delta this weekend from saturday to sunday. for $14 US, you can easily book an all inclusive trip, including boatrides, hotel, transportation, meals, and so much more. i have a feeling that if we do go, a lot of film will be used on this trip :o) the mekong delta is just beautiful, and it's supposed to give you a feel of what vietnam was like before industrialization - jungles, rainforests, and as a whole whopping load of vietnamese history and traditions... it's all there. there are a few digicam pictures taken from the past few days floating around somewhere - it's just a matter of posting them up, so hopefully i can get around to linking them onto this blog sometime in the near future...

hmm... the more and more i spend time with my team, the more easier it's getting to settle down in this busy city of ho chi minh - everyone here is getting along just fine, and gradually breaking out of their shells ;o) the past few days have just been so wonderful. i can't wait to see what the next few weeks have to offer. it's only been a week, but i've already discovered how visually stimulating this city truly is - the colours, the people, the buildings, everything... 4 months may not be enough for me to absorb everything. but i sure am gonna do my best to try ;o)

hope the rest of y'all are doing well - for those of you who are starting school again, or on their co-op terms, hope everything is just peachy-keen!

until the next blog post...
estelle

"the heat is on in saigon!", indeed!

today was yet another scorcher. a blazing 31+ degrees celsius, give or take 10+ degrees on top of that with the smog and the humidity. oy. i've discovered ho chi minh's equivalent to starbucks or tim horton's: AQ. liz, matt, bill, and i decided to cool off by grabbing some iced coffee or caphe sua (pron. "cafe suah") - but after seeing that there was a wide variety of fresh fruit smoothies on the menu, our tastebuds lead us in that direction instead. really, you can never go wrong with a nice cool glass of fresh mango shake, blended to perfection. *muah*

other events that happened today included checking out the canadian consolate, strolling around downtown ho chi minh city, and accidentally stumbling upon the notre dame cathedral that was built by the french during the days of colonization. but unfortunately it was closed for the day, so we plan on coming back... :o)

oh, and it seems we have another resident staying at our place. a cute little lizard (for those ilongo ppl reading this, a "tiki"). i found him staring right at me once i opened my room door this morning. cute little thing, if you ask me. i named him herbert. there's actually a lot of them scurrying around the buildings here in ho chi minh city. but better than cockroaches, for sure. :o)

so now i'm here, back at the language center, passing time before my first tag-team lesson with liz. she thought it would be a good idea for me to jump into teaching mode by teaching the students one activity in tonight's class. tonight's topic: the weather. as i went through the lesson plan, i felt my first sensation of nostalgia: not being able to see the leaves change auburn, brown, orange, and gold this coming fall. why i let it hit me now, i have no idea, but it's sinking in. it's something so small, and yet, i know it'll be something that'll i'll miss - especially since i've come to learn that vietnam has 2 seasons: dry and rainy. we're currently in the rainy season which will pretty much last till the beginning of november... eeeps.

saturday i'll be giving a placement test to the high school kids on the other campus with bill, and then a grand dinner hosted by the landlord of my house. and who knows where the rest of the weekend will take me? :oD

that's one thing about vietnam - you never plan more than "20 minutes" ahead. :o)

chao for now!
estelle

xin chao!

greetings from ho chi minh city, vietnam! first of all, i'm sorry for the delay in reply. we still haven't set up a computer at the house yet - i'm actually in the school office as i type this. *sigh* when i said i was going to be amidst the hustle and bustle of this city, i sure wasn't kidding. it's been on the get-go since i first set my feet in this wonderful city... so, without further adue, here's a breakdown of what i've been up to in the past few days:

tuesday, august 31
after a tearful goodbye to my family and the triple j soul sisters (hesed, i'm so sorry i missed you and your family by only a matter of minutes!), i hopped on a plane for sunny, hot and humid californ-i-a. once i landed in LA, oddly enough the adventures just kept happening one after the another - truth be told, i haven't had such excitement in one day and a half. it all started when kim, my coordinator and i headed out for pasadena after picking me up at the LAX airport. on the freeway, not even 10 minutes after we leave the LAX, we see a small white ford car swerve in between the wheels of a huge flat-bed semi-truck. the truck's wheels completely rolled over the car's hood at over 65 miles an hour... glass breaking, metal crunching, tires screeching, smoke fuming all over the freeway - and we're watching this at only a few meters distance and only one lane over. after the car finished spinning a 360, the driver still managed to bring it over to the side of the road AND get out of his car, unscratched and un-bruised to check out the damage. several cars stopped to help him out, however the driver of the truck that ran the poor car over KEPT ON DRIVING at FULL SPEED! kim and i managed to catch up to him 15 minutes later on the same freeway, took down his licence plate number and called 911 to report the case. it was like watching Speed all over again. unbelievable. but thankfully (read: miraculously) no one was hurt in the end... talk about your warm welcomes :o) ... only in the states i guess ;o)
they had me start training the moment i got there - what was normally a 5-week training session was packed up into 2 days, as i was told that i would be leaving wednesday night for hong kong. watching videos and one-one training sessions filled the rest of my day. i was able to stay the night at the william carey international university in pasadena - such a beautiful campus. waterloo doesn't even hold a candle. just outside my dorm room, right when you step out, there is an incredible view of these mountains, and it's really just breathtaking. the atmosphere and the scenery was just beautiful. i was almost disappointed that i couldn't stay longer and admire it all, and just let everything sink in...

wednesday, september 1
(happy birthday kris!) after more training, a compacted 25 minute practice-lesson in front of the other teachers at ESI, and a superb send-off dinner with kim, i was again off to the LAX. however, i was faced with yet another obstacle - only half an hour before we were supposed to head to the airport, the zipper of my carry-on decides to be fickle and completely breaks, leaving me with no way to open my bag. trying not to panic, kim willingly drives me to the closest marvin's multi-purpose department store so i can find a cheap, affordable, yet stylish bag that i could quickly transfer my entire universe of belonings into before we got to the airport. the cheapest bag i could find was $30 US - yeesh. it wasn't even that cute... :oP but we made it to the airport in good time. thinking that everything else would go smoothly, we then realized that on my visa papers, it had me listed as an american citizen, when clearly my passport and the rest of the documentation i had in my slightly-beginning-to-sweat hands read otherwise - not a good thing. apparently kim was able to set things straight on the receiving end in ho chi minh city, but not in time to get everything arranged and updated in the states. oy. so, we had decided to keep things quiet and just not tell the airline people at cathay pacific unless specifically asked. we made it through - man, if ever i had a james bond moment, that would definitely be it. SO... thinking that nothing else could go wrong, well... it did. when checking my baggage in, one of my suitcases was over the weight limit by 2 kilos. so, i'm here thinking... not a big deal, i'll just switch some stuff around the two suitcases, and everything will be peachy - BUT... what i thought would only take a few minutes, ended up holding the rest of the baggage line up, because the guard had trouble locking and re-locking the locks on my suitcase, and couldn't find the right key... so, here i am, l'il ol' me, looking really sheepish at this point and slightly embarrassed at the fact i was holding everyone up, especially because it was during peak hours and everyone was on the rush to get outta there. *sigh* i guess that since this was my first time travelling by air on my own, it only made sense that i experience everything and anything all at once :oP but thankfully the guards took pity on me and let me proceed, luggages locked and boarding pass safely in hand...
... and then there was customs. man, i knew that the states were strict about it, but dang... if i had to remove any more articles of clothing, i'd be a little exposed - and that's all i gotta say about that :oP but once i got through customs, the coast was finally clear - in a matter of 14 hours and 45 minutes, i would be in hong kong.

friday, september 3
(happy belated birthday yesterday cristina!) - i arrive at the hong kong airport for a 2 hour-stop over before heading to ho chi minh city... not much to say about the hk airport, other than the scenery was once again captivating - the mountains that surrounded the island were just amazing to look at, but were unfortunately covered by a slight fog for most of the time i spent there. the sun popped out finally once i was on the plane.
after another 2 hours or so on another plane, and i am finally in ho chi minh city, vietnam. apparently i had no trouble fitting in, because everyone here actually thinks i look vietnamese - when i had to get my landing visa approved, it took me about 30 minutes to explain to him that i didn't have a clue of what he was saying... but it was funny that we both took humour from it all. it's a completely different world over here, but strikingly familiar to what i remembered when i visited the philippines a few years back. the people here are just wonderful - very pleasant, and very hospitable. once i was picked up at the airport by my newfound friends doung (pron. "tune") and quang (pron. "whang"), we went to see the school office, and then had lunch at a pho (pron. "phah") restaurant nearby. what's pretty convenient and really cool about ho chi minh is that no matter where you go, there's always a store or something nearby - everything is in easy access. the girls and i have this running gag that everything takes "20 minutes" to get to. :o) another thing that i noticed the moment i got here was that everyone who's anyone here rides a motorcycle - the number of motorcycles actually outnumber the cars here. and crossing the street is a challenge all on its own. i haven't had the courage yet to hop onto a motorcylcle taxi just yet (called a "sey on"), but who knows, knowing that i could easily buy one for a little over $300 US (and we're talking BIKES not mopeds), i might just invest some money and purchase my own... :oD
after lunch, the girls took me to where i'll be staying for the next little while - because things seem to be up in the air about some schedules and teacher positions at the moment, there had been an overflow of teachers at the house i was supposed to be staying at. right now they have me staying at another guest house "20 minutes" away from the original house. the houses in vietnam are tall, and extended upwards, rather than sideways. some houses can have 6 floors, whereas others can have 10 - with no elevators at all. my buns are definitely gonna get a good workout while i'm here :o) i'm actually pretty overwhelmed at the hospitality the people here have shown to me so far - i almost feel like i'm living a life of luxury. i've never had someone hired to wash my clothes before, and i've never had someone hired to drive me where i want to go and when i want to go. it's crazy, but these people are so genuinely friendly. so far everyone has done more than enough to help make the transition from living in canada to here so smooth, and it's just been so wonderful to still be able to feel a sense of being at home.

saturday, september 4
there's another teacher named matthew (also from canada, eh!) who came after me, and is also staying with me at the guest house. we picked him up at the airport, and then had lunch again with duong and quang. once he got himself settled down, we got ready for dinner and met up with the rest of our teaching team. there's aaron (who is 6'7"!), jeremiah (from texas), liz (from arizona and my newfound dance partner), max (a former journalism prof), and bill (... really quiet but friendly). such a great bunch of people - a lot of us have different personalities, which is good because we seem to balance each other out :o) after dinner at saigon pho (a really posh restaurant in the heart of ho chi minh city, but with relatively cheap prices), aaron wanted to show me and matt some of the nightlife in ho chi minh city. he then asks me... "do you guys like karaoke?" - not even 10 minutes later, we find ourselves in a crowded taxi and heading down for the nearest karaoke joint. i then make the conclusion that i absolutely ADORE these people - watching them sing and dance to popular 80s hits such as "eye of the tiger", "oh what a feeling", "say you, say me" - it was awesome. we even did a l'il "daaaay-o" on the side :o) definitely good times. the locals must have thought we were crazy, because we were just that loud, and maybe even perhaps slightly obnoxious.

sunday, september 5
aaron took us to this international church service that was held at the duxton hotel in the central part of ho chi minh city (formerly the saigon prince hotel) - gorgeous atmosphere. it was a christian service specifically geared for foreigners who spoke english - it was awesome. the worship band was actually pretty good, and i knew most of the songs, and learned some new ones too. i also met an array of fabulous people, including this guy named alvin gonzales sanchez - he's filipino, and a missionary teaching english in vietnam. he even speaks ILONGO - it was absolutely refreshing to be able to talk to him in ilongo, which was pretty funny, considering he didn't think he would be able to find anyone who spoke the language in vietnam... i also met some more people who were from the states, even from canada. just awesome... after church, we went over to this place called cappuccino's in the tourist district of ho chi minh city. most of the backpackers and westerners in seek of "comfort food" go there to schmooze and browse the tourist attractions. and i must say, their pizza actually does taste like pizza - yummmy... as much as i love my pho, i gotta say that the occasional grease fix definitely does the body good. :o)

monday, september 6
yesterday i was able to sit in on one of liz's classes to learn the ropes and prepare for next week when i start to teach the students. it's a wide variety when it comes to age-range and knowledge-capacity, but it's amazing how eager everyone is to learn english. and it kinda makes me realize how much of it we really do take for granted - these students try so hard to keep up with the class and absorb so much that i just can't help but sit back in awe of it all. and the smiles on their faces help remind me how much i really want to be here and do this... one funny moment was when i was sitting at the back, observing, and this cute middle-aged woman named xinh (pron. "sin") asked me if i was a student or a teacher. once i explained to her that i could be teaching the class next week, she further asked for my age. when i told her i was 23, she then asked me if i was married. after telling her no, she then elaborately explained that she has 3 sons who are 21, 24, and 26 who are all in school, and can speak english, and just happen to be single. she even slyly (but cutely) managed to pass a wink or two while she talked. such a wonderful lady... hehe but thankfully i managed to gracefully sway her into talking about other topics... like fruit markets and motorcycles. :o)

... which brings us to today - nothing much has happened just yet, other than confirming my teaching schedule. it looks like i'll be teaching at the language center either 3 hours on mondays and wednesdays, or tuesdays and thursdays. once october hits, i'll also be teaching a couple of classes at the high school on top of that. their weekends are from friday-sunday, so my schedule seems pretty light as is, so in that free time, i hope to see as many things as possible while i'm here for the next 4 months. this weekend coming up, i think we're planning on heading out to the mekong delta to look at the water markets, see a bit of water puppetry somewhere in the city, and perhaps even manage to fit an exploring of the cu chi tunnels that were used during the vietnam war... other future events include heading down to a local seamstress with liz and have our very own ao dais (cultural dress - pron. "aye yaies") sewn for us four our outing to the opera house, and maybe try to fit in a pagoda tour around the city... wowsers. talking about putting the hustle in the bustle :o)

wish you guys were here :o)
luv always,
estelle