First Month in Lao Cai

OK. I lied. It has really been more like a month and a half (this is week 6!). But, now that I have some more perspective on life in Lao Cai, I can start to paint a more accurate picture of what life is like here day to day.

Teaching

Teaching. The reason I'm here! There is good news and bad news on this front. The good news is, teaching has gotten a lot  easier and more consistent. For most teachers, they have a completely different schedule every week, but mine has solidified and is the same every week (thank god). I teach 5 classes twice a week, for a total of 10 periods (which is about three quarter time for a VN teacher in Lao Cai).

Monday:
2nd Period (8:05-8:50)- 10 Physics (Lý)
3rd Period (9:00-9:45)- 10 Literature (Văn)
4th Period (9:50-10:35)- 10 Maths (Toán)

Since these guys are all non-majors, I typically just teach the same lesson 3 times, with a decrease in difficulty for 10 Literature because they are less advanced. The skill level in these classes can vary pretty wildly. Some of the kids are near the major level, while some struggle to even understand the directions (like "stand up and point at the person next to you.")

Tuesday:
2nd Period (8:05-8:50)- 10 Maths
3rd Period (9:00-9:45)- 11 English
4th Period (9:50-10:35)- 10 English

I usually teach 10 and 11 English the same general thing, but I increase the difficulty for 11 English (for example, today I went over the difference between discreet and discrete for 11 English). I might make 10 English analyze a poem, but then make 11 English analyze it AND create their own verse, or something like that.

Wednesday
2nd Period (8:05-8:50) - 10 Literature
4th Period (9:50-10:35)- 10 English

I usually just chill in the teacher's lounge and decompress during my break during 3rd period. 10 Literature is (by far) my least advanced class and 10 English is very advanced, so it takes a big mental shift to switch between them.

Thursday
2nd Period (8:05-8:50)- 10 Physics
3rd Period (9:00-9:45)- 11 English

Thats it! While it might not seem like a lot, I often pick up "extra" assignments, like working with the national team (the 6 best students in the province who will compete in the national exam) or helping English teachers prepare for their recertification exams and stuff like that. A lot of it is just explaining idiomatic expressions ("Getting the hang of it" or "As right as rain") or coaching pronunciation.

Instead of just having discrete lessons (Get it? haha), I've divided my classes into 6 lesson units (covering about 3 weeks each) where we examine a topic through various avenues. So, we might do a reading lesson on the founding of America, a music lesson with the Star Spangled Banner. Or, for the "Body and Me" unit (I'm following the textbook for the non-majors), we did some body-related vocab then played Simon Says. Then, the next lesson we did a debate with various medicine/body rights related problems.

So, on the positive side, teaching is getting easier. The students can understand me better, I know their capabilities better, and I can start designing more interesting lessons.

On the negative side, it is hard to be creative and energetic all the time. Students can always tell when I'm exhausted or in a bad mood and they feed it back to me. They've also started talking more (a good sign) but now they won't shut up. They have the bad habit of talking when their peers are talking. They don't talk when I speak of course, but they will often talk over their peers, which can really cripple their friends self-confidence. (Many, many, many) Vietnamese people struggle with confidence with regards to their English. I've tried to boost their confidence by telling them stories of me making mistakes in Vietnamese, but it only has a limited impact. (For example, one time I said: Tôi thich ăn bun instead of: Tôi thich ăn bún. The difference, of course, is saying I like to eat mud vs. I like to eat rice noodles. :0 )

Again, it has only been 5 and a half weeks of teaching so I'm still learning a lot about classroom management and effective lesson planning. Overall, I'd say I'm pretty "meh" about teaching. I don't hate it (getting the class to learn something or have fun is pretty fun for me, plus I've started to like public speaking), but I don't love it (it is stressful to create lesson plans every week and public speaking can be emotionally draining).

You have to learn pronunciation!

We had a color war. As the only teacher...I got targeted. This was only 1/3 of the way through.

Living

As you might have noticed, I have a lot of free time! I spend most mornings teaching, then have lunch and catch up on what is happening in America. I eat lunch with students maybe twice a week and eat by myself the other days. In the afternoon, I either lesson plan, nap (especially the day after 1 am Packer games), watch a movie, or go into Lao Cai city work out or to hang out with Olivia and Pauline.

The weather is stellar here. It is in the high 70s or low 80s most days (apparently it will never get below 50). It doesn't rain much- maybe only twice a week for an hour or so. No big deal. Last week we had a storm and it rained continually for 3 days, but some weeks it hasn't rained at all. Definitely not your "tropical jungle" experience that most people think of when they imagine Vietnam. If you're trying to imagine Lao Cai, it looks a lot like a developing, small city in West Virginia than it looks like Tropic Thunder. Lots of construction (re: development) and lots of trees and mountains.

There is not a ton to do in Lao Cai other than play sports with students (every day from 4:30-6!), work out, or hang out with Pauline and Olivia. While I hang out with students and teachers some, hanging out with students is undeniably awkward- they are 15 and my students! Teachers are better, but they often have their own social calendars with their Vietnamese friends, or are just busy working. While I'm not by any definition lonely, I definitely wish I had more social interaction, it just may be on me to initiate it!

Street shot of Lao Cai

Heading to the market

Travelling (and getting Sick)

I do wish I have travelled more. I've only been to Sapa, Yen Bai, Tuyen Quang, Bac Ha and Si Ma Cai so far. This weekend, I will go to Ha Long Bay, and I have arranged for trips to Hue and Dien Bien Phu before I return home for a short break in December. Twice the night before I have been due to depart, I have gotten sick. The second time my dehydration was so severe I required hospitalization and an IV. While I quickly recovered, going to the hospital was not a particularly fun experience! Especially when no one spoke English (an English teacher from the school accompanied me and helped me translate!) Also- to my horror- when they put my IV in, they didn't use gloves! I'm still trying to recover from that. Finally, the night in the hospital and the IV ended up costing 1.1 million VND (or 50 bucks).

Cross-Cultural Exchange

Since I know you want to know (I keep getting asked): what are the weird cross-cultural things I didn't expect!

As I've noticed them, I've jotted a few down for you to ponder.

1. Arm Hair- Vietnamese men, women, and children are fascinated by my arm hair. While I'll admit I'm a fairly hirsute guy, it is way beyond that. People- at dinner, at coffee, on the street, at random- will come up and touch my arm hair. They rub it, pick it up, stare at it. They just look amazed- they don't looked impressed or horrified, just fascinated.

2. Putting food in my bowl- In Vietnam, it is my understanding that it is a friendly, loving thing to put food in my bowl for me. Typically, this is the pattern. My bowl is somewhat or mostly empty. People, anywhere around the table, will pick up my bowl and use their (used) chopsticks to put food in the bowl. They are saying, "You are hungry/might be hungry, let me help!" While I appreciate their loving help, it annoys me because it is their used chopsticks, and typically they choose something I wouldn't have chosen for myself (aka food I don't like such as tofu!). Or, they wait until the end of the meal when I'm full! This one does have links to America, as I've been told my whole life that my great-grandmother's famous quote was "Eat! What does full have to do with it?"

3. Staring and "Cao qua!" In Vietnam, I'm the tallest person. That is just a fact. I have not seen anyone within 5 inches of me since arriving in Lao Cai. No tourists, no teachers, no students. I'm just taller than they are. While I'm much taller than average (6'3") in America, I'm more like Lebron in Vietnam, as I'm like 10 inches taller than average here. I'm the tallest person most people have seen in a while. So, they stare. There are only 4 Westerners in Lao Cai city (me, Olivia, Pauline, and a 54 year old American woman named Debbie), period. Like, thats it. Of course they stare! It doesn't bother me. I just smile and engage them (in my limited fashion) in Vietnamese, which usually causes them to break into applause (no, seriously). As soon as they find out I speak (a very little) Vietnamese, they ask me (if a woman) if I have a girlfriend or (if a man) what I think of Vietnamese woman/will I marry one.

On that note, I did not realize how much Vietnamese people idealize Westerners as beautiful. No BS, I know I'm a fairly average looking dude. But, here in Vietnam, I'm crazy good looking. I was warned it would happen in Hanoi, but I didn't believe the people who told me (looking at you, Diane). In Lao Cai, virtually the first thing everyone tells me, after telling me how tall I am, is how good looking I am. Literally every single woman and most men too. Little girls, middle aged women, old grandmotherly ladies. Interestingly, teenage girls don't tell me that I'm good looking, but they blush furiously and refuse to speak to me. For a while I wondered if being handsome was just the extent of their English language compliments, but I frequently get it in Vietnamese too (dẹp trai). Whatever. I'll try not to enjoy it too much, haha

4. Car Sick. Weirdly, many, many Vietnamese people get horribly carsick when they travel by car or bus. Every time I've travelled by car, I've been asked if I get carsick (which I don't). In America, I feel like getting carsick is fairly uncommon. At least, I've only known one person who got carsick. Here in Vietnam, it appears to be very common. On my trip to Bac Ha and Si Ma Cai with 12 English, over a third of the class got sick (either vomited in the bus or immediately upon exiting). The word for it is xe say, which combines the word vehicle (xe) and the word drunk (say). Its pronounced "say say" except you say both "says" slightly differently. But, apparently, getting carsick is a very common thing in Vietnam!

Moving Forward

Overall, I'm doing OK. I wish I liked teaching more/was a better teacher (it'd make my life easier), but I figure that it will all come with time! I'm just trying to improve my Vietnamese every day (I think its pretty bad, but the director of the Fulbright program in Vietnam, Chị Nga, told me it wasn't bad when she visited last week!).

I want to travel more (but I will) and connect with Vietnamese people more (aka have more friends), but I'm confident that I will. I'm not really where I want to be right now, but I have confidence I can get there! (My having too many/too large expectations is probably no surprise to you).

I'm headed to Ha Long Bay in less than 48 hours so I hope to have some pretty pictures (dẹp qua) when I come back.

Onwards. Always Onwards.
Daniel

A grocery store

Everyone (and their mom) has a motor bike here!

Goals (More accurately, why I'm here)

So, as of last May, I was all set. I had deposited at Columbia, had a job for the summer, and had wrapped up a (by my standards) happy and successful college experience. In late May, I got accepted off the waitlist to spend a year in Vietnam on a Fulbright. Needless to say, it was a drastic change in planning.

I went from scouting out cool apartments in Morningside Heights to checking out weather patterns in Vietnam. I went from worrying about how'd I do in school (as a student) to how'd I do in school (as a teacher). I went from worrying about "learning to love the law" to worrying about learning Vietnamese. It was a tectonic shift in my thought processes.

Many people (including my parents, relatives, and close friends- but interestingly, never my brother) wanted to know "Daniel, why the heck do you want to go to Vietnam?" People asked, "Isn't this a step laterally career-wise?" People asked, "Why teach?" and they asked "Why Vietnam?" People asked me "Daniel, why do this at all?"

In this post, I want to outline, for you and for me, my goals for this year. I've tried to have has few as possible (maximizing my chances of achieving them) but of course, the longer I've been here, the more I want to do!

1. Take a Year Off/Gain Work Experience

Boom. Done. I am very young for my grade, and if I went straight through from college to law school, I'd be even younger. While I was prepared to do that, it was not preferable. Being 21 and competing with highly mature, successful, and intelligent people in their late 20s and early 30s- people with substantial work experience and work ethic? Yeah, I saw that as a losing battle too,

Basically, the idea was to get older, work for a little bit, and come into law school having already had a full time job (or, in my case, three quarter time). I'd still be one of the younger students, but instead of being in the bottom 2%, I'd be in the bottom 35% (Columbia has about a third of its class come straight through from undergrad). While I still won't compare to the 30 year old father of two, at least I'm not at the very bottom any more!

I consider this goal achieved. I've now been a 3/4 time teacher for about a month (well, 5 weeks) and I will continue for the next year (well, 8 months). I'll have work experience and I'll be a little bit older.

2. Travel

I love to travel (have I mentioned that I did Semester at Sea yet?). I love it, I love it, I love it. Unfortunately, travel is both expensive and time consuming. So, when I deposited at Columbia, I knew I was putting the kibosh on any international travel for a while, surely the next 5-6 years. I couldn't travel in law school, and I would need several years afterwards to pay back my loans (hard to justify travelling internationally with massive student loan debt, I think). I was OK with this reality. Law school is what I want to do. (When I watch documentaries like Gideon's Army, or envision life as a District Attorney or Public Defender, I get excited and energized!)

Still, I was a little sad knowing I was closing the door on travel until my late 20s. So, when the opportunity to have someone else (Uncle Sam) pay for year of international travel, it seemed like a great opportunity! I had never been to East Asia (the only country in Asia I had been to was Israel, if you count that as Asia) and Vietnam was definitely way farther out of my comfort zone than anywhere I had been before. Plus, a year was a lot longer than I had spent anywhere else (the longest in any one country was Israel, at two weeks).

Boom. I consider this accomplished. I have traveled!

Before coming to Vietnam, I was very strict in not compiling a list of places to "check off" because I didn't want to feel disappointed if I didn't get to any. Of course, now that I'm here, I definitely have a list!

• Hanoi (DONE)
• Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)
• Hue
• Da Nang
• Da Lat
• Ha Long Bay
• Hoi Ann
• Sapa (DONE)
• Fuqua
• Dien Bien Phu

Needless to say, I have a long way to go! I have plans to go to Dien Bien Phu, Ha Long Bay, Hue, Hoi Ann, and Da Lat this semester, and I'll probably save the rest (plus some more cool places) for next semester.

Unfortunately, I can only leave Vietnam with permission, and only for 14 days of the 10 month grant (which makes sense, it ends up being like 5% of the total time- the U.S. Government is paying me to be here, they don't want me gallivanting around SE Asia). However, afterwards I want to check out SE Asia (Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Malaysia) and Oceania (Australia + NZ -got to get that 6th continent!)

So, this is my list, I'll come back to it in January and see how it looks!

3. Personal Growth

I feel like I'm a generally alright dude. I have no complaints with who I am, but I also know that I have room to grow! I figured that this year would be a perfect proving ground for doing so. I'm on my own, doing a bunch of new stuff- growth is inevitable, right?

Mostly, I want to better tolerate uncertainty and known unknowns. I hate not knowing stuff and in Vietnam, thats all the time. I understand only 4% of what I see and 1% of what I hear so I'm guessing most of the time.*

In America, uncertainty and being wrong drive me insane. I love being efficient and planning ahead. In Vietnam, all you can do is be early because almost assuredly a) I'm in the wrong place, b) they misunderstood me, c) class was cancelled/moved, d) something else. Nothing is ever on time or on schedule- partially due to language barriers, but partially due to Vietnam's flexibility. Nothing is ever set in stone.

One story on that. I had been invited (and accepted) to dinner at a teacher's house. 30 minutes before, the Vice Principal of my school called me to invite me to dinner. I told him I already had plans and he asked with whom. He hung up, called her and told her to invite me a different day. So, he called me back and told me I had dinner plans with him and his family now. Power dynamics man. Power dynamics.

Or, consider the fact that I get my schedule for teaching on Sunday morning (for the week starting on Monday)- and still I have multiple classes get cancelled/moved the day of, every week. So far, I've been diligent about asking, but I've heard many stories of people going to class only to find it cancelled.

So, hopefully this year I get more mature (whatever that means) and better able to tolerate change/ become more flexible.

*I still worry if I am getting the "full" living abroad experience if I don't understand whats going on! I've resolved that, mostly, by understanding that even if I don't understand everything, I'm still getting more than I would have this year at Columbia in terms of understanding Vietnamese culture.

4. Minor Goals

• Get shredded. Workout all the time!

• Learn Vietnamese at a conversational level. We'll see. its a very difficult language. Right now, I can speak and listen if someone speaks very slowly and we stick to very basic topics (classroom stuff, my family, America, the weather, how my day is going, food, etc).

• Transition from undergrad to postgrad- basically, sometimes this feels like a study abroad semester. I need to realize and focus on the fact that undergrad is over, and expend energy maintaining the friendships that I want to keep

Conclusion

It kind of seems like I've already accomplished these goals just by coming here! And thats true- I don't really have any goals for the year. I'm just here to get older, get some work experience and see where the experience takes me. It s a very new, somewhat frustrating concept for me- I'm usually very goal-driven, very future-oriented. I'm just here to experience what I can and try to enjoy it. The more checklist-y I get, the more stressed I'll be.

Coming soon- a recap of my first month in Lao Cai!

Onwards. Always Onwards.
Daniel

The Mid-Autumn Festival in Tuyen Quang

12 English and I got stuck on the way to Si Ma Cai

We made it!

Apparently everyone knows the dance to "Timber" (everyone but me!)