The Great Flood

Imagine you are Noah in his ark, Deucalion in his chest, or Utnapishtim in his boat. A god has commanded a deluge--for the world to overflow with water. You are sealed inside, warm and dry, but you can hear the storm. It is raging and roaring, the noise deafening, rushing through your ears so quickly there is no room, no time, to hear anything else. You shout to your wife but the only thing heard are waves crashing, the water overtaking the Earth as you huddle, safe in your vessel. All you can think, feel, hear is water pounding, pushing, swarming outside. You are awed by the power, thankful for blessed safety.

Now imagine you are in bed in your house. Outside it's monsooning and you are dreaming about water, about Noah, Deucalion, Utnapishtim, and all the flood myths from around the world. You are incredibly thankful that you are inside, that you are dry, that monsoons end, that, in fact, monsoons only last a few hours altogether, and that it sounds as if you are standing in the middle of a waterfall and isn't that a beautiful thought?

Through the din you sense a sharp, sudden knock. It startles you awake. Someone is yelling but you can't understand them, the monsoon is drowning them out. And then there is light as your door swings open. Your housemate is standing there, yelling about how cold it is, and still--still your head is swimming through water, unable to hear much of anything. Only now you can see, too, and you are not just hearing the monsoon, it's right in front of you; it's cascading down three flights of stairs, gushing into your room, flooding your house. You are no longer safe, you are no longer dreaming, and you are no longer dry. Everything is wet, soaked, drenched, and it is cold, like ice, freezing your toes. The center of your house has become a waterfall and it is most certainly not beautiful.

It's just past 1:30 in the morning and you are experiencing a great, tragic flood without the benevolent assistance of a higher power. The one lousy drain on your roof couldn't keep pace with the pouring rain and you were asleep, totally unaware of the devastation until, by chance, the noise like crashing thunder woke one of your housemates.

You will spend the next half hour ankle-deep in water, unclogging the drain, mopping up the mess, and sulking miserably. The whole time you will be wishing, more than anything, that you are Noah, Deucalion or Utnapishtim and that some god had prepared you for this.

My First Real Vacation

A great many things have happened since I last posted here. It feels like time has flown by. When I first told people at home that I was thinking of teaching English abroad for a year, the majority reaction was to exclaim, "So long?!" Or, you know, something to that effect. But, honestly, I've been away from home now for about seven months and it hardly feels like it. In fact, how quickly the year is passing has made me want to extend my stay. This time next year, I could be teaching English in South Korea.

That decision is only one of several things that occurred these past couple of months. February started off with my first real trip since I arrived in Vietnam. The third of February was Lunar (Chinese) New Year, so I had the first two weeks of February off to celebrate. My chosen form of recreation: travel. I jetted off to Singapore and Malaysia for ten days by myself. It was one of the most relaxing and enjoyable trips I've ever had. Having said that, there's not much to tell. I desperately needed a vacation, to relax and just have some quality "me" time. I didn't feel much like doing anything but I didn't want to do not do anything in Vietnam where everything closed for the holiday. I'd been suffering some pretty serious wanderlust for a few months so getting out and away was necessary for my peace of mind.

First stop: Singapore. (Try out it's Malay name: Singapura. Is that not so much fun to say? It's also a kind of very small cat.) Coming from the States, Singapore would seem like any other big, crowded, loud city in the world. Coming from HCMC, however, Singapore felt like a breath of fresh air--literally. It was spectacularly clean. There are strict laws about littering and where you can't eat or drink. It's also illegal to chew gum and spit, and you can bet there are hefty fines for doing either. I cannot express enough how much I appreciated the cleanliness of Singapore. It was the first thing I noticed and the last thing I thought about when I left. It's been more than a month since I was there and I'm still rhapsodizing about the complete lack of litter and general grunge. Even the metro was sparkling with no lingering odors or suspicious stains. The fast and cheap public transportation was also a major highlight for me. It was so easy to get everywhere and there were lots of things to see, do and, especially, eat. I spent two days in Singapore walking around the city and eating delicious, delicious food.

The best meal I had was shared with a German girl I spent a day with. We had walked all over Chinatown and the city center for about eight hours and ended up in Little India for dinner. At the Banana Leaf Apollo our meal was served on (I've sure you've guessed) banana leaves laid down as place mats. We both ordered the chicken set meal, which included a cabbage dish, a potato dish, basmati rice and mouthwatering, falling-off-the-bone spicy chicken. The food was so amazing that we neglected conversation for more than 15 minutes as we dug in with gusto.

Other than the cleanliness and all the amazing food, what also struck me about the city were the people and the architecture. Singapore is made up of Asians from all over. I hadn't seen so many different people of all shapes and sizes in a long time. A Singaporean man told me, however, that despite the diversity in the country, there is very little co-mingling; the Chinese stick with the Chinese, the Indians stick with the Indians, the Malaysians stick with the Malaysians, etc. For such a small country, I don't know how these divisions hold, but it is interesting nonetheless. As for the architecture, virtually all of the skyscrapers, of which there are a great many, as well as the buildings in general, are unique and interesting designs. I know nothing of architecture, but it seemed very innovative to me and, mostly, fun to look at. There were sloping roofs, malls with bubble designs, blue windows, giant TVs, rooftops that look like snowboards and even a giant microphone (that tragically looks more like a durian...) that is the opera house.

So, while I didn't really do a lot--I only went to one museum and a few mosques and temples--I felt like I saw a lot. I love walking around new places. It's really the best way to see and get to know a city. Each full day in Singapore, I walked around the various cultural areas for about ten hours, and I loved every minute of it.

The only downside I encountered was how insanely expensive the city is. To go from eating lunch for about $0.75 to $10 felt so wrong. In the end though, I was on vacation and the food was so fantastic that I got over the prices quickly and just went with the flow. Also, the rampant consumerism is frightening. I read a joke somewhere that if Singapore had a national sport it would be shopping and I couldn't agree more. There are massive malls everywhere. You can't turn a corner without coming across another one. For some, this is probably not a downside, but I have never enjoyed shopping and I certainly don't go on vacation just to buy things, so I think I have to add that to my list of dislikes. I know that alone would have turned me off if I had arrived straight from the States, but as I didn't, I could easily forgive all of the things designed for people to own more things than they could possibly need. Did I mention how clean it was?

Needless to say, I left Singapore feeling refreshed and delighted to be off on another adventure. After spending way too much money on a bus ticket, I made it into Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for Chinese New Year's Eve. This turned out to be a mistake. In Singapore, there were lots of festivities going on, including a free outdoor concert on the floating dock in the city center that I happened upon my second day there. In Kuala Lumpur, there was nothing going on as far as I could tell. I thought I'd stumble upon something going on for the New Year but the only thing related that I ended up seeing (besides all the decorations and advertisements, including something called a "Prosperity Meal" at McDonalds) was a small Chinese dragon dancer show in a mall... Other than that, there's not much to say about my stay in Kuala Lumpur. I found it very boring. Even walking around the city wasn't very interesting. It felt like any other big, ugly city in the world. I did meet some interesting people in the hostel I stayed in, but that's about it.

My next stop was a small town on the Southern coast of Malaysia called Melaka. It was very, very touristy but somehow it felt sleepy and relaxing. Again I stuck to my usual: walking everywhere and eating as much good food as I could get my hands on. I lucked out to be there over a weekend because that's when there is a night market in Chinatown. Prowling that both nights was awesome. The red Chinese lanterns swaying slightly above the crowd provided the main source of light and set the whole street aglow. People were selling everything from windup toys to handmade jewelry to ShamWow mats and mops. Absolutely the best part was the street food. I dined on chocolate covered strawberries, little egg tarts and the most miraculous, brilliant treat yet: a potato on a stick that was then cut into a spiral, spread out, deep fried and then sprinkled with any number of toppings--instant chips! I probably ate too many of these...

I spent my last day in Singapore doing the exact same things as I'd done the rest of my trip. My trip may sound boring but the simple pleasure of being able to walk anywhere and everywhere was too good to pass up. It's so difficult to walk in HCMC, so I took every opportunity to enjoy free, open sidewalks and real, working stoplights and crosswalks that drivers pay attention to.

I'm back to working too much and living a terribly boring life but, for the most part, it's a good one.

Worthwhile

As an elementary school teacher, there are a lot of days where all I want to do is scream and kick and cry (just like my students). Little kids are terrors. They know all the ways to drive someone crazy and do so as often as they think they can get away with it, which is to say all the time.


I have one student who has to either hit or take something from someone every time he walks by them. I have another who only ever wants to sing or color. Or sing while coloring. Another of my students thinks he's too cool for school. He's seven and he's got the most apathetic expression I've ever seen. If you looked up the word "whatever" in the dictionary, you'd see a picture of his face right after he's told me, "I know that already." I also have a student who thinks she's the boss. And she's mean. It doesn't help that she is the only girl in her class. The oldest student in the class is so spacey that he never knows what's going on. I could speak fluent Vietnamese to him and he wouldn't notice that I was talking. An airplane could crash into the school and he wouldn't look up from his doodles.Then there are the twins. One of them is really good at English. He always finishes his work before everyone and he thinks this gives him permission to walk around and bother the other students. His brother is not very good at English and has a complex about it. He's the first student I mentioned. And all of them--all of them--love to tattle on each other. This might seem like a silly thing to complain about, but it really bothers me. My American upbringing taught me that being a tattle-tale is bad but Vietnamese people don't think the same way.


These are just a few examples of my students' behavior. All of my students can be the most annoying, difficult kids depending on the day. Despite this, I absolutely love and adore them. Sometimes I even think I want to keep them forever. Of course, that last thought usually passes quickly. I tell myself that my students have clearly driven me to the edge of craziness and I need to immediately haul myself back so I don't tip over.

In the midst of all this craziness, however, is still me trying to be the best teacher that I can. The results vary. For the most part, I don't consider myself a great teacher. I'm not a bad teacher--at least, I don't think so--but I don't really know what I'm doing and I don't enjoy teaching enough to be truly great at it. Also, I'm never really sure whether I'm teaching anything to my students. Certainly I try, but because my students are so young, it's often difficult to see improvement. It's not as if I can tell them something once and then they get it, remember it and use it. I can't tell them something fifty times and expect them to do all this. Learning, after all, takes time.


I have found (like many others before me) that most worthwhile things are hard to come by; they take time, effort and, sometimes, a lot of blood, sweat and tears, as the cliche goes. Nothing has cemented my belief in this, cliche though it may be, as much as being an elementary school teacher.


I have recently realized that something I love, something that I find beyond worthwhile, is actually one of the most difficult things to learn: reading. You might be thinking that this is a no-brainer. Of course learning how to read is hard and not just worthwhile but necessary to functioning in the world (or a lot of the world, I should say). I would argue, though, that reading is something most adults take for granted. Even if they don't like to read or don't read particularly fast, most adults can still see and recognize words we use every day right away. We read exit signs and aisle markers in grocery stores and the "send" button in our e-mail accounts without even seeing the words anymore. We just know what they are.

I know I am wholly and utterly guilty of taking reading for granted. I had forgotten how hard reading actually is until now. Since November, I have been teaching a six year old (Sebastian) how to read and, in case you've forgotten as well, let me tell you that reading is hard. It is not an automatic skill. If nobody had ever told you that we read English from left to right, you wouldn't know. Or how to differentiate between a letter, a word and a sentence. Or that "a" is the same letter as "A." Did you know that some English words we all memorize because phonics doesn't help us read them? (Think about "of." Why do we pronounce the "f" like a "v"?) Oh, and phonics? Yeah, that stuff isn't easy, especially vowels, which all have several different sounds and they all feel the same in mouth when you say them.


And here is where I'm getting to the point of this post. (You might think I didn't have one as it's a rather ramble-y post. However, you would be wrong.)


Two weeks ago, Sebastian read his first book. I thought I was going to cry. It was hands down one of the best moments of my life. I was so proud of him.


So, despite all the chaos and frustration, and despite how difficult teaching is, there are some pretty amazing perks that I wasn't aware of until I became a teacher. Teaching may not be in my future, but for the present, I'd say it's definitely worthwhile.


I would also like to say a sincere and heartfelt "THANK YOU" to all of the teachers in my life--the ones who taught me in school and the ones who continue to teach me outside of school. You are truly remarkable, amazing, generous people and you deserve A LOT more thanks than you get.

Sebastian. Don't you love his cute little grimace/smile?

Santa Babies

Warning: This post is image heavy. Not dial-up friendly.

While there is a minority group of devout Christians in Vietnam, Christmas here is out and out an insanely commercial holiday. It is not a national holiday but it's still celebrated like consumerism is going out of style. All the stores had sales and lights and fake trees with fake presents under them were everywhere. In downtown district 1, there were displays with fake snow, Santa, reindeer, snowmen made out of Styrofoam and lights, and all sorts of other festive decorations. My friend Mike has some awesome pictures over at his blog of one display that included a giant foil cannon. Check it out.

There is also an enormous light display in district 1 that I tried to take pictures of last week, but the lights weren't turned on until the day after Christmas for some reason... Another major fail, in my opinion, was the "tree" made out of giant, fake Corona beer bottles at the beer garden next to my house. Alas, I do not have pictures. It was too tacky and sad to warrant photographic evidence.


One rather odd and interesting fad here is that little kids wear Santa outfits for Christmas. They range from cheap material to nice, velvety ones and can be bought on virtually every street corner. The boys wear actual Santa outfits with hats and belts, and the girls where Santa dresses. I have no idea where or how this started, and I find it insanely bizarre, especially because Santa is supposed to be an old man with white hair and a beard, but I have to confess that my students looked adorable in their outfits. One student (my favorite, actually) even had a little fake beard with his outfit.


We had a Christmas concert at the elementary school I work at last Wednesday, the day before winter break, and all the students wore these outfits. This was too cute not to have photographic evidence of. (Note: I teach at an international school so all the students have English names that they go by... And a few of them actually have English names as their real names.)

All of the students in the school, including the Vietnamese program.

Me with my main class.

Their classroom teacher bought them all presents. They went crazy opening them.

Tram Anh, my little 4 year old who doesn't speak any English aside from what I've taught her.

Kevin. He's my favorite.

Dean and Nick

Sebastian and Colin, with Tyler in the background

Tyler

Bill. He and Colin are twins.

Andy

John

Sebastian, singing in the concert

Somehow I ended up without a good picture of Christine, so here's one of her between Sebastian and Andy while they were singing in the concert.

One of the older classes also did two scenes from A Christmas Carol for the concert. Unfortunately, I don't have very good pictures of that, but here are a two:

Sam as Jacob Marley.

Beth as the ghost of Christmas past and Kevin as Scrooge.

I have a lot more pictures, but this post is already pretty full...


As for me, I spent Christmas day at my house, alternately cleaning my room, my bathroom, and the kitchen/living room floor and relaxing. I was invited to lunch at a friend's house, but the idea of spending Christmas with a room full of strangers made my stomach turn, so I didn't go. I did, however, get to talk to my family, which was brilliant. My dad has finally realized the advantages of turning on his Skype account as both he and one of my grandmas asked if they were seeing me in real time. Haha. Now let's see if he actually ever turns on his account. While my day wasn't exciting, it was still nice. Saturday's are my only days off, so I did what I always do.


I hope everyone had an awesome Christmas and/or whatever holiday you celebrate, and that many good things come to you all in the new year. Much love.

Orange Bananas, Happy Mediums, and Water Puppets

The other day I bit into a banana and the inside was orange. It was the first time I've felt surprised in a long time, which made me realize that I've gotten used to Saigon. All the things that were once weird or out of the ordinary have become everyday, ordinary things to me.

Even things that don't happen that often don't surprise me. For instance, last Monday the power went off at school for more than four hours. This has never happened while at school. It's happened at home, but never for that long. So, I was annoyed, but surprised? Not even close. (My usually lively kids were sluggish, listless and petulant due to the suffocating heat. Suffice it to say, we were all miserable. We ended up making paper fans in class.)

I'm glad to feel so comfortable here that I've mostly forgotten I'm in a foreign place. Of course, I am still aware of the many differences between here and home, but I rarely think about them anymore. This must mean I've found a happy medium, right? I've moved beyond the "everything sucks" phase and have come out the other side unscathed. I must admit that I'm sad to be so far out of the "honeymoon" phase, but I'm definitely happy to be in a more steady space. The highs are no longer as high, but the lows aren't so low either, which is nice.

I suspect having found a middle ground is due in large part to settling into a routine. I have the same schedule, for the most part, every week: I work from 8 to 5, Monday through Friday, at the elementary school, have Saturdays off, and have the same three classes on Sundays. Occasionally, I substitute week nights. It's true that I work too much, but other than that things are good. The only weird thing is that everything seems so normal...

Happily, there are still out of the ordinary days, too. One such day was the Friday before last. My whole school went on a field trip to see a traditional Vietnamese water puppet show. It was so cool!

The school booked a private viewing, so we had the whole theater to ourselves. When the curtains opened and soft lights lit a red temple with a pool of gray water in front of it, I had no idea what to expect. Off to the sides of the stage sat the musicians and voice actors, who began with a song as dragons popped out of the water and danced around the pool.The show was in Vietnamese, of course, but I understood the story to be about a folk festival in a small town. Each scene was made up of different characters in the town, including a quarreling husband and wife, mating birds, water-spitting dragons AND fire-spitting dragons, a boat race, dancing maidens, and several other animated characters. Every part of it was energetic and fun: the voice actors were funny, the music was beautiful, the lights were colorful, water was sprayed onto the audience, and the characters ranged from jubilant to wry. The kids loved it. The teachers loved it. I loved it. All in all, it was a joyful experience and I wouldn't mind going again.

(Pictures to come soon.)

Một, hai, ba, yo!

Seeing as another year in my life has passed, I thought it only appropriate to distill my current adventure into numbers. (This is an exercise I did in a creative nonfiction class once. I shamelessly stole the idea from a friend's blog. Please note that not all numbers are "accurate." It is the idea of the numbers.)

Number of:

Days abroad: 110. Days in Saigon: 94. Trips I've taken: 3. Jobs: 2. Students: 65. Roommates: 2. Days off in a week: 1. People who say hello to me when I go on a walk: 15. People who laugh when I say hello back: 15. Cups of coffee a day: 2. Mysterious foods I've eaten: 12. Pounds I've gained: I don't want to know. Times I've been to the gym: 0. E-mails I've sent: 317. Times I've been sick: 5. Meals with rice: 101. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches: 64. Deaths: 2. Motobike accidents I've been in: 1. Almost accidents: 78. Motobike accidents I've seen: 1 (a surprisingly low number). People who stare at me: everyone. Postcards sent: 18. Letters sent: 2. Paychecks: 4. Dollars spent: too many. Favorite students: 4. Students I don't particularly like: 2. Vietnamese words I know: 52. Vietnamese words I say correctly: 0. Blog posts: 8. Blogs I read: 10. Books I've read: 1 (also a surprisingly low number). People in Vietnam: 86 million. People in Saigon: 7,162,864. Bugs I've killed: 2.3 million. Movies I've seen in theater: 2. Boat rides: 4. Times I've been called "madam": 88. Times I've been called "mister": 10. Days it has rained: 100. Days it has been cool: 0. Times I've thought, "I love it here": 8. Times I've thought, "I hate it here": 10. People I miss: everyone. Times I've wondered what I'm doing here: 0. Daydreams about Scotland: 22. Questions: 1,017. Answers: 2. Possibilities: countless. Years in my life: 23.

This could go on forever and I might come back to it again, but I think this is enough for now.

Note: the title of this post is a Vietnamese drinking toast. It translates as, "One, two, three, drink!"

Getting Away

Last Friday, miracle of miracles, I had the day off. So I went to Mui Ne, a small beach town about five hours from Saigon by bus, for two days. Friday, I took a small tour of the area and saw the nearby fishing village, white sand dunes and yellow sand dunes. On Saturday, all I did was take a long walk on the beach before heading back to the city. Overall, it was a pleasant and much-needed get-away.

Both Friday and Saturday were overcast, so my pictures aren't stellar, but without further ado, I present my weekend in the form of a photo essay:

Unfortunately, I didn't get to go down into the fishing village, but the views from above were impressive.

Close-up of fishing boats.

I thought these small, round boats were just for holding the fish, but I saw a man inside one, using a long oar to move around.

The white sand dunes were soft and stunning.

They were also crowded. Countless footsteps and four-wheeler tracks marred the ground.

The yellow sand dunes were more orange than yellow, but still magnificent.

One tricky camera angle that turned out rather well, even if I do say so myself.

The sun decided to peek out just as it was setting.

Luckily, the tide, which comes right up to the breakers when it's in, decided to go out on Saturday morning.

One of the few strips along the beach that contained people's homes and not big resorts.

Despite the gloominess of all these pictures, the day was warm and balmy, and my walk was one of the most satisfying and pleasant things I've done since arriving in Southeast Asia.

Two little girls who just wanted me to take their picture.

And lastly, just because I feel like sharing, here is a cool picture I took on Friday:

I call this camera effect, "Through the window."

In case you couldn't tell from my last post, I needed to get out of the city for a while and Mui Ne fit the bill nicely. It was so quiet there, and the beach was so nice. I'll definitely be going back at some point.