Fabric, Techno, & Rain

Here comes the rain!!!

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Well I survived my second full week of teaching, it actually went by pretty fast I thought. I am being told I will have my gym after this next week (fingers crossed). I still don't know when my equipment will come but I'm pretty excited about having a gym soon. All of the teachers are busy getting their rooms ready because we have open house tomorrow night for the parents. The ELL teacher made a bulletin board and asked the students in 3rd and 4th grade what their favorite part of ISSP (International School Saigon Pearl) is and three of the students said something about me and PE. It felt pretty good to see that up on the wall. I really needed to see that especially because I'm stressed that I'm not doing the best because of the limitations I have, so that was a great boost for me.

Last saturday we went to an expat bar called Buddha Bar, it was actually pretty dead (we were there thursday and it was packed) so we went across the street to a spanish bar that has a pool, pool table, and foosball (all free). We played foosball with german men in lederhasen (sp?), it was pretty fun. After the bar closed (most of them close by midnight) we decided to try out one of the clubs, Diamond Club. We walk in and are of course the only non asians (minus Frank) there and they take us straight to the VIP area above the dance floor. We had a fruit plate, beer, and a hooka at our table, it was pretty cool. The music was all techno, but we had fun and I did a little dancing. We had a fun time but I still think I could feel the beat when I got home.

Friday we went to Barbeque Garden again (ate here on our 2nd night in HCMC). It is one of my favorite places so far. You cook the food on your table, it is pretty cool and yummy. After we went to this frozen yogurt place where you can pick your flavors and toppings and man did they have a lot. We found this african safari themed bar after for a few cocktails and then headed to a place called The Drunken Duck, where there were tons of expats, including my future husband :-) He was tall, cute, and BRITISH and I totally chickened out in talking to him :-( Next time.

Saturday we went to the fabric district to get fabric to bring to the tailor. I bought fabric for 7 pairs of capris and 4 tops all for $25-$30 bucks. While we were there, the monsoon rain came! Wow, we had to cross the street in 1/2 a foot of water, it was nuts. We saw motorbikes stall out numerous times, it was just crazy. But I learned that you get what you pay for at REI, my raincoat is amazing!!!

Today we went to the tailor to tell her what we want down, there were 4 of us with numerous projects so we have to wait three weeks, but I'm pretty excited to see how the things turn out, we just show her a picture or give her a pair of pants to copy and she makes it all for about $7 to $15 an item.

We only have three days of school before we have a two day holiday break. I am going to Mui Ne Beach with Vicky, Diane, Avis, and Jill. We are staying at an awesome resort in a villa. I am excited to see another part of Vietnam and relax a bit.

First Full Week is in the Bag

I finished my first full week of teaching. It is a pretty cool feeling. I think this week actually went faster than last week's 3 days. I didn't do anything really exciting this week but work on lesson plans and have dinner with a few co-workers. My equipment still hasn't arrived and the floor won't be put down for awhile in my room so I'm still in my little classroom. But I did get some jump ropes and the kids absolutely love them. It is pretty cool to know that I helped some of them learn how to jump rope, among learning other skills. And the fact that most of my students speak little or no english makes it even more meaningful. Our enrollment is growing weekly. Back in June we only had 25 students enrolled and now we are approaching 100. The only down side of that for me is being in that little room with so many children. I'm slowly getting all the kids names down, I thought learning the names during student teaching was tough, man was I wrong.

I am in the process of trying to join a gym because the one in our building is not finished and we aren't sure when it will be (Vietnam time is next month). I think they have been saying next month for about 6 months or so. But the place close by has a big initiation fee that you don't get back. It is cheaper with others signing up but no one seems to want to make the commitment or pay that much money down. I just need to get back on the treadmill, eliptical and pool. I seriously miss it so much! So hopefully this week I will get some others to join with me or bite the bullet and just do it alone and hope that the gym here doesn't open until January so it is a wise decision.

I stayed in last night and watched some bones episodes on my laptop, it was nice to just veg out. Tonight we are suppose to meet some of the guys doing the after school sports program and they are going to show us some of the places they go in HCMC.

So a pretty uneventful week but I can't stop thinking "This is my job" because I absolutely love it.

Sushi

A bunch of us went to a sushi restaurant tonight, everyone was eating sushi, except me. I had chicken, rice, and edamame. I know I know, but the though of eating raw fish/meat makes me want to vomit, i did try a cooked roll from Sophie and I did enjoy it, minus the seaweed (not a fan).

School is going well. I still sweat insane amounts and at times think I cause concern to the other teachers (I blame my parents and being from the Midwest :-)) But I made it through my first 3 days last week and I'm already 2 deep into my first full week. Monday was my longest teaching day of the week and it went pretty well. I still don't have my equipment order from the states or a gym or pool but I'm making it work. It is just so great to be teaching, I love it. But it is exhausting.

The gym in our place isn't ready yet, it's on Vietnam time, which means double what they say and then don't hold your breath. So Vicky and I went to check out another gym in The Manor which is pretty close by, it is really nice and pretty pricey but at this point, I need a gym and the price is worth it so hopefully by next week I can sweat off some stress on the treadmill.

One last note before I call it a night. Jen and Danielle bought their tickets to come visit me in Vietnam for December 28th-January 11th. I'm super excited for my first visitors, we plan on going over to China for a bit to see Beijing and the Great Wall of China, among other things.

Now for some cheap DVDs :-)

First Day of School

Well I made it through my first day of teaching alone. I think I did an alright job, could have went better but definitely could of went worse too. I had five PE classes to teach today: Preschool, 4th/5th Grade, Pre-Kindergarten, 2nd Grade, and 1st grade. I went into the Preschool class at 8:15 to kids screaming and crying, parents everywhere, it was just mad chaos, poor Vicky. So my first PE lesson ever consisted of me helping to get the parents to leave and the children to stop crying and find a game or puzzle to play with. In that 40 minute “lesson” two kids threw up and one never stopped crying. It wasn’t how I envisioned my first PE lesson but I was glad to be in there and helping Vicky out, no one should have 15 3 year olds in a class.

So my first real lesson was my 4th/5th graders, there were only 6 of them so it was a small group, but overall they did a good job. I wanted to have fun with them but also go over the rules and when some of them started to talk out of turn or not lesson I made sure they knew that I was in charge. It was pretty cool to be in the classroom alone with the students, finally felt like I’m a teacher, pretty cool feeling. The rest of the lessons went pretty well too, the Pre-kindergarten class was pretty antsy but did a good job for not being able to move around.

If I haven’t mentioned yet I don’t have a gym or any outdoor space to use for PE. I’m in an empty classroom that has a sink in the corner (???), 4 ceiling fans, and the internet router stinking out of the wall. Also none of the equipment I ordered has come in. I’m using the stuff we bought from another school, which isn’t much. So my teaching creativity is being tested right from the start. I love the challenge but I’m so limited in that little classroom. I want to let the children run and do relays. I really hope that gym floor is put in soon. Please cross your fingers, that classroom gets loud.

After school we were all exhausted but I wanted to do something to celebrate my first day of teaching So Diane, Vicky, and I went and got some Thai food and then went to Zest, our home away from home. We got a 90 minute full body massage and 30 minute fish massage for $20 (with tip). And when I say full body massage, I mean full body massage, it was insane and probably the best massage ever. They did legs, arms, head, back, feet, butt, groin, oh yes. She was walking on my back and kneading it with her knees, I swear her legs could come in front of her arms, it was quite impressive. After, we went back to the “fish tank” for round two of trying to get rid of my heel. They made some more progressive on it tonight.  All in all it was a pretty good day, a long one but I made it through and treated myself to a great spa night.

Fish & Motorbikes

Today was our Student Orientation for all the new students and their parents to come tour the school and meet their teachers. I served as a tour guide of sorts taking students to their rooms and introducing myself to them. It was pretty cool getting to meet lots of the families and really made me excited to start teaching. Today it really hit me that starting Wednesday, I'm in charge of my own classroom, no cooperating teacher, no supervisor watching over, it's mine. Pretty scary but exciting too. Mostly scaring because for probably the first month I'll be in a regular size classroom teaching phy ed. The room has a sink in the corner also and four ceiling fans, so really limits what I can do. But I have faith that the floor will be put down in my "gym" and the pool will be finished in September.

After working 7 days straight we were all pretty tired and my feet were killing me. A group of us went to this Thai restaurant and Todd ordered us lots of dishes to try. He lived there for 7 years and can speak thai. The food was delicious and actually tried everything, even a green vegetable. I really enjoyed all the dishes, well except the morning glory veggie one, yuck!

After Vicky and I really wanted to go try out the fish massage at this place Diane went to. So some people went shopping, others went home and we headed to the fish massage place. Wow, what an experience. It was the weirdest, coolest, creepiest feeling ever. You put your feet in this pool of water and the fish just swarm to you, it is crazy and we just couldn't stop laughing for the first 10 minutes about. It was really funny with two Vietnamese people came in half way through. Watching them experience what we did, was hilarious and we were all laughing together and we didn't speak a lick of the same language. And the fish actually did a good job getting rid of most of my crusty heel, all for 5 bucks for 30 minutes in the water.

Next we walked a little bit, we grabbed some ice cream at this fabulous place that makes your dessert look like a masterpiece, all for about $3.50. Then came the helmet shop. Vicky and I were like we should buy helmets in case we ever ride a motorbike taxi. So I got a cute blue one and her a matching cute yellow one. All for about $11 each. (Don't be mad mom, I bought the more expensive and nicer one). Well then we are like, well we need to take a motorbike taxi home to try out our new helmets (Sorry Mom). So we find two that are suppose to take us together back home. Well when we first take off, I'm like "Oh crap!" But after a little bit, I'm like this is awesome and lots of fun, until we lose Vicky. Soon we are going the wrong way and I have no idea where I am and he stops and is like "Here" and points. I'm like no, and pull out the card for the school. At this point I'm thinking he is going to take me away and kill me or something and start hearing my mom's voice in my head. Well e turn around and stop again and he asks some security guards how to get there and I tell them the address as well. Finally we are headed in the right direction. I figure by this point Vicky is already home and wondering where I am. We are cruising down the road and all of a sudden, "Oh my god, Jenn!" and Vicky goes flying by me. They got lost too. Both of us and our drivers are laughing. Finally we get home, all for $2.50, totally worth it. Needless to say this was a long a stressful week and tonight I laughed more than I have in a long long time and it was a great time.

Texas BBQ & Boom Boom

So tonight Stephanie, Vicky, and I wanted to go out to eat and then just come back home and crash because it has been a long and stressful week at school getting things ready and we will all be working tomorrow and sunday. Linda suggested Texas BBQ and we were like sure, why not. Well I ordered a hamburger, hoping this place wouuld actually give me one, everywhere else a hamburger is a meatloaf sandwich basically. It was yummy. Vicky had her Texas shirt on and me my Wisconsin one so we started to a table of people (one turned out to be the owner) and got some ideas for other places to eat and places to shop for items from home that are hard to find. The place was so much fun, it was kind of like a dive bar back home, even had country music playing. Another man we told us about places to go bought us all a beer and chatted with us. It was just a really friendly place that we definiately want to go back to.

After we decided to walk a little bit in the rain and we were looking at a few cute restaurants and then see this cute little alley and decide to go check it up. I'm looking at the places and thinking wow that places looks cool, I'd like to eat there and check out that place. Then we all realize we are in the prostitution alley. There are ladies in the same dresses in each place and some even had numbers on them. Needless to say it was an eye opening experience. Can't imagine what people thought seeing three tall American girls walking down the alley looking around.

So tonight I had some Texas bbq and got to see the boom boom rooms ;-)

The school is coming along slowly. I found out today that I won't be able to use the mutli-purpose room (gym) when school starts until they put a real floor down and that I need to find another place. Kind of hard when there is no grass around our building or development. But detective Jenn found a ballet studio on the third floor that is almost finished that I can use for the first month of school. The pool also won't be done until at least september so I will have the kids three times a week for pe. When the pool opens up, it will be PE twice, swimming once for all the ages except nursery, they get swimming twice and no PE.

I've been making signs to put up in my room when it is finished but really need to crack down on lesson plans tomorrow. It is going to be tricky having the kids in a little ballet studio and also the older classes don't have many students so that should be interesting. Haven't really made lesson plans for a class of 4 and 6 but I'm up for the challenge. Oh on a high note I got more pe equipment in, not the stuff I ordered yet but some good stuff that I can use. Also they put a floor in my office/storage area and lighting, whohoo!!

Oh and I've discovered that I like Sauvignon Blanc better than Chardonnay!

Vietnamese Hospital Visit

Today I went to the get my health check up for my work permit. Last week we toured a very nice hospital in the city that is covered by our insurance and I’ll be using. But today we went to another one because the school decided to pay for our check-ups.

Wow, it was quite an experience. First we had to get our blood drawn to check for HIV and other diseases and of course luck have it, I had to go first. The girl that is terrified of needles is the first to go. So I go into the room where you can actually see out little blinds to the people waiting. There in the room I have another guy sitting seriously 2 inches away in another chair while I put my arm out to give the blood. The needle came out of a pack and then I just looked away.

After I was given my cup to pee in, I walk down the hall to the bathroom. The bathroom has 3 stalls, 2 are holes in the ground and the third a real toilet with no toilet paper. I take the toilet. There is a lady cleaning the bathroom with a hose when I go in. I am in the stall and you can see out blinds and I can see people waiting in the waiting room, lots of privacy. So here I am trying to pee in my cup and the cleaning lady is spraying my feet with a hose, talk about performance anxiety. After I walk down the hall with my pee cup past everyone still waiting to see the doctor. We also saw the ear, nose, and throat doctor would just took his hand and moved my ear to look into it and then talked to me about where Wisconsin was located in the states. Overall it was an “experience.” But I’m alive and kicking still so that is good.

Last night I went out to dinner with my roommate Sophie, and Stephanie and Vicky. We went to this place that has these pancake meals the size of huge plates. We each got one and two beers, two smoothies, and two waters. After tip we spent $15. It was nuts. We probably could have done with only two of the pancakes too. It was pretty good though. We walked around after and looked at some shops.

My gym is coming along, the floor won’t be put in when we start but the rest should be done but lots to do. There are 4 pillars in there that I told them they must put mats around. Since it is a multi-purpose room they don’t have a “gym” ceiling with rafters. This makes it hard to attach climbing equipment that they bought. My office/storage room is still without electricity or completed floor. Part of the room has a ceiling that is only 3 inches taller than me. But on the bright side I did get some equipment today. I have some soccer balls, basketballs, jump ropes, rubber chickens, soxtail balls, and the savior – the parachute!!!! So I’m feeling better about that but it would be nice to actually have an office and storage area that is finished. But it is coming. Still sweating like it is my job though! 