Under the weather

Andy's got the flu with cough and fever, and his back is strained too from the cough. He's in bed and in pain. Please lift him up. Thanks! And we've been kept indoors most of these couple days with Typhoon Ketsana hitting the central coast of Vietnam. Looking forward to some dry weather soon...

Cho Da Lat

We visited the big famous market in Da Lat the first week. The lowest floor has vendors for all kinds of food such as rice, beans, fresh veggies, dried goods etc. I've taken the xe om here a few times for groceries (no more biking to the market for me!). The upper balcony that overlooks the market has eateries that serve rice dishes for a dollar. I was hesitant in the beginning about eating there but bit the bullet and am still alive. Hopefully I'll post more pictures of it and the "town" in days to come. For now, just a few snapshots.

First Day of Class

Yes, class finally started. The freshmen come in quite late, 8 weeks after the other students. And some more are still coming, so the classes have not been solidified yet. As of this week, there were only two freshmen classes with 60 students in each, and I taught one of them. Next week there will be another one with 50 coming in. Then the week after that, I was told that these three classes will be reorganized into four classes, and I will be teaching three of them. What does this all mean? It means some the students I taught this week may not end up being my students, and vice versa. Some will have missed one week of class.

I walked into a big class this past week. I asked how many students were supposed to be in this class, and they said 60. But I counted around 80! Since I didn't have the roster, I had no clue who were supposed to be there and who weren't. Where did the other 20 come from? How do you teach speaking to a class of 80 students? You try your best, I guess. My goal for the first week was just introduction, getting to know each other, loosening them up, creating a fun and non-threatening environment, and encouraging them to open their mouths. There were some students that understood virtually everything I said, and some were just totally in the dark. Who do I aim at? What do I do, what do I do? This is probably the most challenging thing for me.

Class started at 1pm. Each period was 50 minutes. I taught 3 periods. There was a 10 minute break between second and third periods. So I calculated that class should end at 3:40pm. When it was 3:40pm, I didn't hear the bell ring and wondered if I did the calculation right. So I asked the students what time class was supposed to be over, and they all shook their heads saying they didn't know. I then went for 10 more minutes and told them it was time to go. They packed up their bags but still sat there, so I asked them what they were waiting for? I finally motioned with my arms and shooed them out of the classroom. Here are two pictures of the class.

Mango Chicken Adventure

Ok, so the 7 of us took a taxi into town to have dinner together as a team. Karen suggested the restaurant Tu Anh because they have the best mango chicken. We showed the taxi driver the business card of another restaurant named Wild Sunflower which Karen knew was a few doors away on the same street, since we didn't have the business card for Tu Anh. It turned out that where the driver dropped us off, we had to walk past Wild Sunflower to get to Tu Anh. But why would that be a problem, you may ask. Well, we know the owner of Wild Sunflower, and he is always standing out in front of his restaurant inviting (persuading, pulling, begging) guests to come in. There are a few restaurants of the same sort on this small street, and all of the them do the same to compete for the same western customers who often walk this street because it's recommended by the Lonely Planet.

Sure enough, we ran into the owner of Wild Sunflower and he asked us to come in. Karen had to turn him down skillfully, saying that we have had other plans for the evening. After exchanging a few words and polite smiles, we walked on and got to Tu Anh. We opened the door and walked in. It's a small little restaurant with about 6 small tables, and there were customers at three of them. The woman owner, very open, friendly, and talkative, greeted Karen in a loud voice from the back of the restaurant. Seeing that there may not be enough tables for all 7 of us, Karen said to the owner, "Do you think there is enough room for us?" The woman responded with a big smile, "Sure!" She then told her assistant in Vietnamese that she had to go show us to our room and will be back. She opened the door, and asked to follow her out. We were all wondering what was happening. While she was taking us across the street and up a small street, we were asking one another if she had an overflow room, and how she would bring the food to us all the way from her restaurant. We kept on following the woman until we got to a building, where she entered and was greeted by another woman. She said something to that woman in Vietnamese, and I caught enough of the conversation to start realizing that she had just taken us to a hotel. Then I thought maybe she wanted to put us in a small room and would bring the food to us. Karen then told her that it was ok, and that we could just order the food first and then walk around while waiting for the restaurant to clear. Now, the restaurant owner was puzzled, wondering why we talked about eating at the restaurant. Then I told her in Vietnamese that we came to her restaurant to eat dinner, not to look for a hotel room. At that point, she broke into loud laughter, screaming that she heard the word "room" from Karen and thought we had wanted a hotel room for the night. We all had a good laugh walking back down to the restaurant.

We all learned an important lesson from that incident--avoid using the word 'room' at a restaurant unless you're really looking for a room for the night. It was also wonderful that a restaurant owner actually took us to a hotel herself--what service!

We all had mango chicken, except me. I wanted to be different and ordered lemongrass chicken instead.

Bug hunts

Being in the mountains, we get lots of creepy crawlies. One of Caleb and Isaiah's favorite activities is going on bug hunts. Here are pictures showing them hunting for miniature snails, Caleb holding onto a stick bug, and a caterpillar attempting to make its cocoon in Caleb's bug jar.

Modes of transportation

Unlike Haiphong, Da Lat has a hilly landscape making it more difficult to get around on a bike (at least for me). So my new mode of transportation so far has been by foot, on a xe om (motorbike taxi) or taxi. It costs about 50 cents for a xe om ride into town and $2 on a taxi. I got myself a yellow helmet and rode on a xe om for the first time in Vietnam last week! I didn't get initiated with a burnt mark from the muffler but did get a bruise on my shin when I swang my leg off the seat against the metal bar behind the seat. As for Andy, he bought a bike from one of our teachers here last year and it has worked well. Here's a picture of Caleb on the back seat.

Caleb biking in the backyard