Ending with a Bang

For my last weekend in Vietnam, I flew up to the north to the North of Vietnam, to spend 1 night & 2 days aboard the Bhaya cruise. The cruise sets sail on Halong Bay, which is about a 4 hour drive from the city of Hanoi (which is the city I flew into).

Ha Long Bay a popular travel destination, located in Quang Ninh province, Vietnam. The bay belongs to Hạ Long City, Cẩm Phảtown, and part of Van Don district. The bay features thousands of limestone karsts and isles in various sizes and shapes.

After flying into Hanoi, my teacher friends and I stayed 1 night at Hanoi Elegance (a great hotel in Hanoi with staff who will pamper and attend to your every need). Then early in the morning, we drove for about 4 hours to port.  The cruise itself, Bhaya was really nice and all the staff on board really did try their best to make you feel at home ...
from handing you wet towels as soon as you got on the boat to finding you a deck of cards to play with!

I shared a room with Michelle and we couldn't believe the view outside of our window! It was just breath taking and it really felt like we were in paradise even if it was for a night!

All day & night, our ship the Bhaya Classic #4 sailed along the bay except for a couple of times when we stopped & docked to check out a fishing village, swim, and of course for the night.
We did lots of things such as participating in a cooking demonstration(learned how to make fresh spring rolls!), sunbathing, swimming off of the boat, and visiting a cave. We also had nice buffet lunches of crabs, shrimps, and various other foods along with a nice 5 course dinner.

(vino on the the top deck of our boat) 

(our chef on board)

(one of those crispy spring rolls is by me!)

(view from up high on one of the limestone karsts/cave)

(inside the cave)

(after we climbed down from the cave, making our way back to our boat!)

(squid fishing on the boat.... )

(dipped my feet right in!)

I don't think any words can truly describe the beauty that is of Halong Bay. It was incredible to witness one of the 7 wonders of nature. I do hope that I can return one day or one of you reading this entry can also witness this for yourself! This weekend was a great way to end my Vietnamese adventures with a BANG! 

GRADUATION!

Today, 159 students graduated from SEAMEO's Summer Fun program. All the students had caps and gowns with little white bows. How cute are they?!

I think every gown in the world should come with a bow tie! Haha. 

The auditorium was beautifully decorated with balloons & flowers. 

The ceremony started off with a welcome speech by the deputy of SEAMEO. Then we (the teachers) were called up on stage to receive certificates. Felt like I was graduating too... :). All the students received certifications as well. When all the paper work was handed out, the fun began!

My kiddies receiving certificates!

Each level performed a special song or skit, which they have been practicing all summer long~ It was really awesome seeing them perform on stage AND it made me realize that they have grown a lot this past month! I felt SO proud of them. 

Though it was a short time with them, 
seeing their little mouths mouth the words to songs such as...
Take me out to the ball game, 
Heal the World by Michael Jackson,
and act out plays such as...
The Ugly Duckling,
and The Shepherd Boy in English made me smile from ear to ear. 
The best part was that they were having a lot of fun as well. 

Doing the Hokey Pokey led by Dennis teacher. 

The students I've met this summer have REALLY TRULY grown on me and I will definitely miss them a lot! It was towards the end of work week #3 that I started thinking that I've fallen head over heels for my Vietnamese students. I will surely miss their cheerful "HELLO TECHA!!!" and smiles as I make my way back to New York City. 

Some of the artworks that the students produced over the past month were displayed throughout the auditorium and it's a great feeling to know that I helped create these projects. 

(all of us teachers would like to bring this cute little munchkin, JULIE back with us... 

not sure how her parents would feel about that, though :P) 

BUT, I don't have to start missing them YET because we still have 1 more work day tomorrow!

All the teachers of SEAMEO Summer Fun Program 2012

Review of "The Foodie Tour" by XOTOURS

During my first week here in Ho Chi Minh City, I had learned about a motorbike food tour through tripadvisor (a great website to reference when you're traveling pretty much anywhere in the world).

Riding a motorbike was definitely on my to do list and food? Well, let's just say that I live to EAT! haha. 

As advertised online, XO TOURS is the "first tour company in Vietnam to offer affordable motorbike tours with beautiful female tour guides dressed in traditional Vietnamese Ao Dai."

There are a couple of different tours available such as the foodie, shopping spree, saigon by night, and sights. The foodie tour is the most expensive tour ( $65) they offer. I had called a couple of days in advance to book the tour and come Thursday around 5:20pm, 3 tour girls showed up in front of our school to pick me up along with Michelle & Jason.     

We were a little bit worried because it was drizzling but we had the option of canceling if we didn't want to tour in the rain. We decided to suck it up and let the tour begin.

Michelle is ready to go!

The tour guides introduced themselves to us and we were assigned to one guide. They handed each one of us a rain poncho + helmet and put us on their motorbikes and we were quickly on our way to our first stop. This was the first time that I had ever been on a motorbike. Within the first 5 minutes of being on the bike, I decided that I felt safer being on a motorbike than when I walk around as a pedestrian on the streets of HoChi! 

Feeling VERY safe, and like a giant next to my petite tour guide, haha

1st stop an outdoor noodle shop in an alley way (XO tours focuses on the STREET foods of Vietnam that tourists normally DON'T get to try, and promises no Pho, Banh Xeo, or Banh Mis). When we arrived at the shop, we were greeted by the owner of the tour company along with a few other tourists who had signed up to do the foodie tour. 

The noodle dish we had was "BUN BO HUE" which is quiet different from Pho. The tour company owner told us that this is actually the more traditional Vietnamese noodle dish. The broth is made from beef bones, lemon grass, and fermented shrimp. It was a whole lot of lemon grass and beef flavor but I thoroughly enjoyed it! It was refreshing to know that there is more to Vietnamese noodles than PHO itself. I'm hoping to have this one more time before I leave! 

2nd stop was a quick sight seeing stop at Binh Tay Market in Ho Chi Minh's version of Chinatown, located in district 5. We had already been to Binh Tay Market through another tour so this wasn't very exciting for us and there was no food to try! Boo. 

3rd stop was at an outdoor restaurant in a district that was well known for goat breast meat. Of course, we were served goat breast first. Each of our tour guides sat down next to us and served us beverages, cooked our meats, and practically spoon fed us. We quickly learned that you don't have to lift a finger on this tour!  

After the goat meat, we also had squid, frog (or jumping chicken!), quail, and prawns on a stick. All was pretty delicious but I think I was more amused that my prawn was completely peeled and my meats cooked for me by my guide than the food itself. 

4th stop was in district 7. It was another sight seeing stop with a bunch of high rise apartment buildings that a lot of foreigners buy real estate in. It was a part of Ho Chi that I never saw before. There weren't any motorbikes around nor street vendors. 

5th stop or the final stop was in district 4, well known for fresh seafood. 

We stopped at a busy outdoor restaurant and were served lots of seafood such as scallops, crab legs, and clams in lemon grass soup. This was also the stop where they offered us BALUT or fertilized baby duck eggs. In the very beginning of the tour, my guide had asked me if I had ever tried BALUT, of course I had no idea what it was. She explained what it was and quickly became VERY excited about me trying it later on. Jason, Michelle, and I all tried a spoonful or two, but it definitely wasn't one of my favorites.... You could see the shape of the baby duck forming that is until they cooked it and it stopped growing. 

(thought about inserting an picture of the BALUT cracked opened... but decided that I would spare you the gag. if you're interested, you can google it yourself! ;) 

At this final stop, we were also served street desserts such as coconut jelly & flan in a cup. 

Overall, I really enjoyed my FOODIE TOUR experience. The foods that we tried definitely were things I probably wouldn't have had a chance to try if it wasn't for the tour itself. I don't think that $65 is worth just the food you eat. However, I think a lot of the money goes towards the experience of being with a personal tour guide who services you and informs you about various things around the city. 

My guide was very informative while she drove me around on her motorbike and she was genuinely interested in getting to know me. She answered all of my random questions and told me a lot about herself. I really enjoyed my time with her. The tour was a little over 4 hours so it was a lot of hours that we spent in VERY close proximity of one another! 

After the tour ended, the guides drove us back to our school building and that was the end of our foodie tour. Glad that I experienced this and would recommend it to anyone who loves to try new foods and wants to be driven around the city without lifting a finger!

Greatest Place on Earth for Kiddies

This week, our field trip got moved up from Friday to Wednesday because the amusement park, Kizciti wasn't going to have any electricity on Friday. What good is an amusement park with no electricity!?
Anyways, the teachers didn't complain because it would be a nice break in the week to be out of the classroom.

All I knew is that we were going to some sort of an amusement park just outside of district 1 in Ho Chi Minh City. I honestly didn't expect much. I imagined a fair type of a setting with a couple of rides, games, food, etc. Boy, was I wrong!

We drove about 15 minutes away from our school and arrived at Kizciti. As we pulled up to the gate, the kiddies started cheering and screaming. I figured that was a very good sign was excited to see what Kizciti had to offer.

Once we unloaded the 100+ students off of 3 buses, we waited on line to get a electronic bracelet, which they had to scan to enter the park and also gave each student their paper wallets filled with fake money. The kiddies were REALLY excited and as soon as they were scanned and in the park they all ran to various different buildings located in the park.

As I entered the park, I learned that Kizciti isn't like any amusement I've ever been to or know of.
At Kizciti, students can have hands on experience role playing a doctor, nurse, model, fire fighter, technician, race car driver, airline pilot, farmer, just to name a few. There is a fire department, hospital, ice cream factory, a real runway, bank, art studio, airplane, race track, and many more!

Students can choose to get a job in any area they choose.
For example, if you wanted to be a fire fighter, you go to the fire department building where inside there are two adult trainers waiting for you. The kiddies get trained for about 15 minutes and they put on fire fighter costumes, go down a slide, and get on to a small imitation fire truck, which drives them to another part of the park where a "burning building" awaits them.

They get to hold on to real water hoses and hose down this burning building. There is even fake smoke that is released from the burning building.

(picture by Ahn, our director)

Once the job is complete, they are cheered for a job well done and get back on the bus to return to the fire department! I couldn't get over how amazing of an experience this must be for a child whose dream really is to become a fire fighter! After a job well done, students get paid in fake money and they move on to the next occupation.

I also got to watch a fashion show put on by a couple of our students. Those who wanted to be a model, went to modeling school where they learned to pose in various different poses and at the end, they put on a 15 minute show for a real live audience! One by one the kiddies came down the runway and strutted their stuff! I was so glad I got to catch the show because for most of the jobs on the park, adults are not allowed to be in the building with them. We watch from glass windows outside. Haha.

(Inside the SONY studio. I think this one was more about playing with SONY gadgets than anything else... haha)

(learning to be a good farmer...)

(how adorable are these hats?! another picture taken by Ahn)

(car design school- how many car lovers would have died for a place like this when you were younger?!)

(future nurses!)

I conclude that Kizciti is like the greatest place on earth for any youngster! Michelle and I were discussing that we would have died for a place like this when we were growing up. 

Home Cooked Meal for a Buck Twenty-five

Since I've arrived in Ho Chi Minh, I have been eating out at least twice a day. I take care of breakfast in the room since we don't have too much time in the mornings.

It usually consists of cereal and milk. Sometimes I add in a fruit if I want to make it REAL fancy, haha.
On my 2nd day here, I  also bought a cereal bowl and silver spoon for about $2 to make my stay here feel a little bit more homier.

Nothing feels more official in terms of settling into a new place than getting dishes and furniture. In fact, when I arrived in my room, I noticed that there was no desk. I asked for a desk and they (SEAMEO- name of the school we are working for) brought up a desk right away.

In the words of my lovely suite mate Michelle, "Ask and you shall receive".

It's now our 3rd week here and I've tried a lot of different eats from snails to Vietnamese pancakes. But I have to admit, you can only eat out so many times before you start missing a nice home cooked meal.

It was probably towards the beginning of the 2nd week that I  started to crave mama Kimpop's home cooking!

And thats what led me to the Canteen located on the 3rd floor of our school building. Basically, it's a cafeteria that serves the students and the workers of SEAMEO. I've walked by it countless times and seen the kiddies inhaling a bowl of noodles or rice covered in some marinated meat.

Some days it smells like something magical is cooking in the kitchen, some days not. But it's a family owned place and most of what is cooked and served looks like something your Vietnamese mama would cook for lunch or dinner.

Last Wednesday, I had taken a nap before my afternoon intensive course and when I awoke, there was very little time before I had to be downstairs to teach for 3 hours.
I figured that now would be a great time to check out what the Canteen had to offer.
None of us had eaten there at this point and so I was excited to find out.

When I got downstairs, they were cleaning up but luckily they still had food and served me right away. I got a plate of rice, veggies, and meat with a bowl of soup. They even gave me a piece of fruit for dessert! I was pleasantly surprised by the meal and how good it was. When it came time to pay for the meal, I was expecting to pay at least $2-4 since that seems to be the going rate for a meal here in Ho Chi but to my surprise, the owner asked for $1.25 or 25,000 dong!

I couldn't believe how cheap it was to eat a nice home cooked meal right in my school building. S
ince then, I've returned 2 more times. Once for lunch and then for dinner.... in the same day. Haha.
I predict that there will be a couple of more canteen meals in the near future!

Last night's dinner @ the Canteen.

White rice with pan fried tofu in lemon grass, 

some cucumbers and tomatoes and a vegetable soup.

Piece of dragon fruit for dessert! 

Half Time in Ho Chi Minh City

Today marks the beginning of the 3rd work week, which means that there are only 9 work days left.
It is officially HALF TIME! Can't believe it.

In the first 2 weeks,
I was having some trouble managing the kiddies and having them quiet and calm enough to follow my art lessons.
I found it especially harder to control the younger ones whose English proficiency is the lowest in the building.
But today, I saw a lot of progress in terms of them being able to follow rules & routines of the classroom.

As I walked into class today, something felt different.

The students seemed a little bit more welcoming and used to me.

Today I walked in and said,
"Good morning boys and girls" and they in reply say,

"GOOD MORNING MS. HELEN!!!!!"
(kiddies like to scream on top of their little lungs. i find my students here a lot more energetic than any other group of students I've ever had. it could be the sticky rice they eat for breakfast or perhaps its the crazy amount of milk they drink. students here drink milk like water! and if not milk, tea)

Anyways, the lessons went really well today and it gets me excited for the lessons to come this week.
Some of the projects that my students have worked on since the last update are:

Paper Bees by Level 1

They came out pretty stingy cute! Haha. 

Ice Cream Word Art by Level 2

Looks yummy enough to eat!

Hand Print Flowers 

with adjectives to describe each student. 

Some of the adjectives they used were: smart, funny, pretty, handsome, tall, short, loving etc.

One of my students raised his hand and asked,

"Teacher, how do you spell handsome? 

I am very handsome." 

Cuties.

More to come! 

Have a great week, everyone. 

Very quick update

I just got back from a 1 night 2 day trip to the Mekong Delta. 

The Mekong Delta (Vietnamese: đồng bằng sông Cửu Long “Nine Dragon river delta”) is the region in southwestern Vietnam where theMekong River approaches and empties into the sea through a network of distributaries. The Mekong delta region encompasses a large portion of southwestern Vietnam of 39,000 square kilometres (15,000 sq mi).^[1] The size of the area covered by water depends on the season.

It was definitely a VERY different scene from Ho Chi Minh City!

We visited 

-a family who makes a living by making coconut candies, 

-a fruit garden where they grow all kinds of tropical candies aka fruits, 

-floating markets (people selling goods from their boats),

-a brick factory where they make and bake their own bricks,

My favorite part of this weekend was riding a small boat (only fit 4 passengers) down one of the rivers.

It was so serene and I couldn't believe that people actually LIVE on the river. Their houses, markets, and all other life's necessities were only a boat ride away. I will have to do a more in depth post later!