My apologies for a very long blog post!!

Just got back from an amazing dinner. The food was great at a com ban dinh or "people's meal" (I like to call it a "rice-and-point" restaurant because you get a plate of rice and point to the proteins that you want) that was just around the corner from our hotel.

As per usual, I ordered my favorites of egg, tofu, pickled/sauteed morning glory shoots, and crunchy peanuts.

The food, as I mentioned, was great, as 99% of Vietnamese food has been so far, but the company tonight was even better. Who was the company? Myself, and my Vietnamese textbook. In the United States, I get so much pleasure out of going on "dates" by myself- taking myself out to lunch or on a solo adventure, and generally just revelling in my own company, which I tend to enjoy.

Here in Vietnam, I feel stifled by the my lack of Vietnamese language and sense of direction, so I feel much more dependent on others to accompany me to wherever I'd like to go. However, everyone seemed to be doing their own thing for dinner tonight, so I braved up the confidence to embark on my first solo adventure in Vietnam. I greeted the shop-owners in Vietnamese, ate my food, spoke French with some tourists and told them about what I was eating (in French!! although I admit to not knowing the word for "morning glory" in French!), haggled for my price (from 35,000 dong to 30,000 dong- the equivalent of $1.50), and then left, all on my own!

I know this is only a small victory. I mean, I exchanged a total of 10 or less words in Vietnamese with the shop-keeper, and the restaurant is just around the corner from the hotel. In terms of levels of adventure, this is the equivalent of a little kid "running away from home" and then just hiding in their backyard because they are too scared to leave afterall. However, in terms of me, the small-town homebody who loves routine, this is actually huge! Leaving the restaurant, I felt so exhilarated that I had successfully completed my first solo mission here in Vietnam. I also know that these kinds of accomplishments don't come overnight. Tonight I went around the corner and said 10 words in Vietnamese, perhaps next week I will go all the way around the block and exchange 20 words. I enjoy the concept of baby steps because it leaves room for anybody to accomplish just about anything.

I don't need to be fluent in Vietnamese, and I don't need to obtain the wisdom or serenity of a Buddha. However, I would like to be able to order food, ask for directions, and exchange pleasantries, all while living on my own and going about my daily life independently. I think these are attainable goals.

Okay, now I will begin working backwards to describe the LONG, JAM-PACKED, EVENTFUL weekend that I had starting on Friday. My apologies in advance if your eyes glaze over while you're reading this... but hey, at least you've been warned!!

Friday night we had a reception with our hosts from all of our individual universities in Vietnam! I got to meet Mr. Duc, who is the Dean of Foreign Language Faculty at Ha Tinh University. He is so incredibly friendly and warm, and his English is very easy to understand. He sounds like he is really eager to accommodate my requests, and he sounds very excited to have me teaching English in his department. It sounds like the English majors in Ha Tinh University, and most universities in Vietnam in general, are trained exceptionally well in grammar, reading, and writing. This makes sense (especially the grammar part) because their school system seems so based on rote memorization and repetition, that I feel like grammar must be easy to memorize and regurgitate on an English test. However, Mr. Duc explained to me that students don't get much in the way of practice with listening/speaking because no one is a native speaker of English. Thus, my role as an English Teaching Assistant is particularly important to give my students an opportunity to practice listening and speaking, the aspects of language learning that you cannot simply memorize alone in your room. My responsibility will mostly be to teach classes based on conversation, which sounds so much more fun and appealing to me than simply teaching my students grammar rules!

Here are the Fulbrighters on the bus en route to meet our hosts. I know that I was absolutely nervous, and I think everyone else felt similarly. We were all incredibly concerned about making a good impression on our hosts and giving them the sense that their students are in good hands.

Here is me and Mr. Duc. In reality, it appears that I had nothing to worry about! He was so pleased to meet me, and I, him, that I no longer feel too worried about his expectations for me. One thing I do need to worry about, and I hate even having to think about or mention this (it is the 21st century, after all!) are his expectations for me in a different way. I understand that Vietnam is still a particularly patriarchal society, and it sounds like a lot of female English Teaching Assistants have faced difficulties in being taken seriously by male colleagues. I need to establish my capability from the get-go in order to demonstrate that I am qualified, despite being a woman, and that I do not want to be hit on or ignored. These are all challenges that I'm sure you will read more about as this year goes on.

After meeting our hosts, we were all shuttled to a very swanky reception at the house of the Public Affairs Officer with the US Embassy. We schmoozed with Embassy employees and donors to another Vietnamese-American teaching exchange program, and overall, I felt very important. Hearing various US Embassy officials praise us for our accomplishments and the work that we will be doing here in Vietnam feels amazing, and reaffirms my desire to be here in order to improve intercultural ties between the US and Vietnam, as well as to offer English resources to students who want that ability for their professional lives.

The next morning, we woke up early, and I walked with MJ, Violet, and Kelly to Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum. This was an experience in and of itself, for more reasons than I can even begin to articulate. I have never been to a mausoleum before, nor had I ever seen an embalmed body, and I was fascinated to witness the amount of awe, reverence, and respect that Uncle Ho is given by the Vietnamese people. After going to his Mausoleum, we went to the Presidential Palace which was erected during the French Colonial period. When Uncle Ho was finally elected President, he moved into the Palace but felt that it was too grand for his tastes, so he built a small peasant's house on stilts on the grounds to feel more like he was still "of the people."

Here are Kelly, Violet, and MJ on the grounds of the Presidential Palace.

Here they are walking up to Uncle Ho's house on stilts!

Here is a peak into Uncle Ho's minimalist bedroom!

And here is my refreshing Pepsi Light (and fascinating accessories for holding drinking straws) in the museum cafeteria. There are a million things that I wish I could say, and a million things that I don't even know how I would begin to express them. Enough said.

After the Presidential Palace, we met up with some other Fulbrighters and walked to the Tran Quoc Pagoda which is on West Lake.

Here are Brittanye, Adelina, Violet, MJ, and Kelly in front of West Lake!

Here is one of many amusingly-translated signs at public monuments. I know I shouldn't poke fun, but I just really find the mis-translations so endearing!

These are a couple gems from the outting to Tran Quoc. 

After Tran Quoc Pagoda, we went to the Temple of Literature.

  

(The second photo is of me walking through the Gate of Great Success. I walked through here after lighting incense at the One Pillar Pagoda, which is dedicated to health and fertility. So that day I was particularly healthy, fertile, and successful!)

 

After the Temple of Literature, I was exhausted, hot, tired, and thirsty, so on our leisurely walk home, we stopped to get some fresh-pressed sugar cane juice!

 

I would say that sugar cane may be one of my newest guilty pleasures. It is so refreshingly sweet, and they usually throw a lime into the cup at the very end to zest up the juice just a bit!

After a lovely post-adventure nap, I went out for dinner with Kelly and MJ to an upscale Vietnamese restaurant. I ordered something whose name I forget but NEED to remember because I plan to order it a hundred more times while I am here in Vietnam. It was a make-your-own-spring-rolls plate that came with rice paper, herbs, and vegetables, as well as shrimp mash baked onto a sugar cane skewer. The waiter came and cut the shrimp mash off of the sugar cane into small pieces, and then I got to chew on the sugar cane stalks for dessert!!!!!

(Whew, I just need to make a note that this may be the longest blog entry I have ever written! I am so exhausted just from writing it and uploading all the pictures, but I promise I am SO CLOSE to done.)

On Sunday morning I woke up very early and met Tanner, Kelly, MJ, and Sasha for an all-day excursion to the Perfume Pagoda, north of Hanoi on Huong Son Mountain. This entire day was simply magical, and I know I don't possess the words or photography skills to do it justice, but I will try to give you even the briefest glimpse of what I experienced.

First, we arrived at a river bank where we were rowed upriver about an hour by the tiniest, skinniest, youngest Vietnamese girl you could possibly imagine. 

 

   

Then we arrived at the base of the mountain and first climbed to the Pagoda at the base, which is called the Chua Thien Chu ("Pagoda Leading to Heaven"). 

 

 

After exploring Chua Thien Chu, I hiked with Sasha and MJ to the top of the mountain to see the famous and splendid Perfume Pagoda (perfumed by the frangipan flowers that litter the path). The hike was steep and difficult, as I am not that experienced of a hiker, but I am proud of myself for taking on the challenge instead of opting for the cable car alternative to the top. When we arrived at the top, we were confused to a see a down-leading staircase. I was expecting yet another 17th century pagoda with curly-cue rooftops and dragon emblems. What we found instead, though, were these stairs that descended into a mountaintop cave.

 

When we climbed down these stairs (more stairs?! Seriously? I just hiked an entire mountain, and now there are more stairs?!) we entered into this enormous cave that was filled with incense smoke and steam from the humidity. The whole cave was filled with light from candles that were reflecting off of golden altars and Buddha statues. 

 

I know that these pictures or descriptions do not do the experience any justice whatsoever. But I must confess to you, my loyal readers, that this was one of the most majestic, spiritual, and awe-some experiences I have felt since I was much younger, going through my religious phase. I feel lucky to have seen such beauty, especially after hiking up that steep mountain for it. I felt like, by the time we entered this cave, I had truly entered the experience.

This was followed by the hike back down the mountain and then the boat ride back to land, followed by the 2-hour drive to Hanoi. All in all, it was a VERY long day, but well worth it. I don't think I will soon forget this weekend, as it was so jam-packed and exciting.

Today I had to come back to reality, though, as we had our first day of teaching! We were volunteered to lead a conversation session at the American Club at the American Embassy. Vietnamese students of all ages (12 through 25) showed up to practice their conversation skills, and Adelina and I co-led a group of about 30 students in a discussion of why they want to learn English, what aspects of English learning they struggle with, and what are some good ways to work on those struggles. Afterward, we played a few games of Hangman (the students chose the words: "Personality," "American," and "Missionary..." curious, huh?), and a few games of 20 Questions. With about 20 minutes left in the session, Adelina and I had the students go around the circle and each tell us one thing about their culture that they wanted us to experience in our time here. Some of them told us foods to eat (everyone laughed when someone suggested that we eat dog meat- I think they love to see the freaked out reactions of foreigners to the suggestion of this peculiar delicacy!), some of them told us places to visit, some of them invited us to their home towns, and some of them told us about their families. Overall, I was so pleased with the success of the conversation class, and I was pleased that we had encouraged everyone to speak. Helping to run these groups totally reaffirmed my reason for being here, and got me VERY excited to move onto Ha Tinh and to do this full-time.

Wow.

This entry has been long, and I am SO GLAD that I have finally finished catching everyone up to date. Now it is time to fold my newly-cleaned laundry (thank you, Rising Dragon Hotel staff!!) and put it away, and then tidy up my room a little bit for the week ahead. I think I will put on some corny Vietnamese TV to have as background noise for my domestic tasks.

Goodnight, all!