Since arriving back in Lao Cai on the 10th, I've spent most of the last three weeks here. That doesn't mean I haven't been busy.
Instead of travelling or playing sports, I decided to get ahead on lesson planning, so that after Tet, when I can play sports again (March, I think) and travel more, I will have all my lesson plans done. When I started, I had 14 weeks of teaching left (and I usually use between 3-5 separate lesson plans per week), which meant I had to create about 56 lesson plans. I cheated in some ways, by making my English major students do two different projects and present to the class (classes are huge so even putting them in groups of 4 means that we will take about 2 weeks to finish presenting). However, I have successfully completed the lessons for my non-major students and I have finished the plans (but not the materials) for my English major lessons (making question sheets for listening videos, creating different cards for our mock-Cabinet crisis simulation, etc). I hope to have everything done (or very close to it) by the time I leave for Tet break on the 9th! While I can always tweak my lesson plans, having them all completed will mean that I have finished the worst part about teaching (lesson planning) and can just enjoy the good part (actually teaching).
Science Fair
A couple days after returning from HCMC, I got an e-mail inviting me to be a judge at the provincial science fair the next day. Now, I knew that I had been announced as a judge in the paper (someone told me) like 3 weeks before- they just waited until the day before to invite me. I say this not as a criticism (its not) but just to illustrate the Vietnamese culture of arranging things last second. It was a very typical Vietnam thing to do!
Of course, two Fulbrighters (Diane and Alvin) who as college instructors were on winter break, were due to visit that very day! I asked if Diane and Alvin could attend the science fair as well (was approved) and away we went!
The science fair was deeply, deeply impressive. The projects were just astonishingly brilliant. One group (from my school) had invented a flash-flood warning system (a problem in these parts), another group invented a device to lower the gates at railroad crossings automatically (as opposed to them being manually pulled across). A third group invented software to help learn math/math terms in English!
Out of the 135 projects submitted, I judged only the finalists (the top 10) of which 6 would be sent to Hanoi for the national round. I asked my questions in English (as practice for the national round) and the students from my school answered capably (definitely could tell who went to my school and who didn't).
Interestingly, students from my school came running up to me on the 2nd day, fairly upset. They were mad because many (all) of the projects already exist in America/the West (like the 2nd place prize, a smoke alarm). I tried to explain to them that what mattered was the inventing process, not the originality of an idea but they were pissed. I decided NOT to tell them that none of the inventions were original. I was still deeply, deeply impressed with the ingenuity of the projects (building a BOWFLEX for like 10 bucks in spare parts; or building a insect trap out of a fan and a lightbulb) and it was really fun to be able to show Diane and Alvin around my school/city. (Also, they got to show me up by speaking in their fluent/near fluent Vietnamese!)
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| Lao Cai of the future! |
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| Selfie at my school (clearly my selfie game is weak) |
RELO Visit
Then, the next week, I got a visit from the Regional English Language Officer, Diane Millar. As RELO, she is in charge of all the Fulbright ETAs (like me), and teacher-trainers (English Language Fellow or ELF). Diane, her assistant, and her husband were coming to Lao Cai to celebrate the closure of a U.S. English program and to give a workshop.
In Da Lat, Diane came to talk to the Fulbrighters. Her advice to us? Chill out. Many ETAs (myself included) had been stressed or felt worried because we thought our lessons were not good or not good enough. She told us "If we wanted trained teachers, we would have sent ELFs. We want you guys to be friendly and out-going and do public dipomacy." As you can imagine, this lecture made me feel quite a bit better. While I think my lessons are fine (and in fact, good for someone with no experience and no training) I can see how they pale in comparison to the master teachers at my school (who have been selected for being the best teachers in the province and have way more experience). So, in conclusion- I liked Diane and was excited for her visit.
Diane arrived on a Friday (when I don't teach), and so I just followed her around all day-first to the closing ceremony for Access, a program for students who have few resources, then to a fancy lunch, then finally to a teachers workshop (where I saw many teachers I knew from around the city!). I got a chance to show off my city (the Chinese border, the temple, both parks, my school, etc) and hear about Hanoi/the larger goings-on of the U.S. Embassy/Department of State.
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| Access ceremony |
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| Always got to make sure I get my screen time |
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| We took a visit to my school and met 10 English |
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| Mountain Goat for dinner |
Dong Hoi
James, a Fulbrighter from California, has been stationed in Dong Hoi, a town in central Vietnam famous for its caves (the biggest cave, Son Doong, made National Geographic a couple years back, sadly has a 3 year waiting list). As there were no planes to Dong Hoi in the time I wanted, I jumped on the overnight train and headed down to visit James and see one of the smaller caves.
My first impression of Dong Hoi was of warmth. The week before in Lao Cai...the weather frigid. It was beyond cold. It dropped below the 50s and 40s and hit upper 30s. Now, that might not sound that cold. Go outside in 30 degree weather. Now, get undressed and go to sleep. Wake up, shower, brush your teeth. Get dressed. Spend all your time in 30 degree weather and it starts to get a lot worse. In the States, buildings are heated and insulated. In Vietnam- neither one. Now, I was advised by the the Fulbrighter last year to get a heater.but everyone insisted it would not drop below 50, so I didn't bother. Whoops. Every day, it was only supposed to be cold for another day or two, so I kept not bothering. Eventually, it had been a week of being able to do absolutely nothing (after teaching I would put on silk underwear, two layers of pants, a long sleeve shirt, sweater, jacket, and get under a blanket and in my bed and I would still shiver. It even snowed in Sapa- which sadly killed many animals and I believe some people (but thats rumor).
Anyway, after a week, you can imagine I was pumped to go south! My first morning in Dong Hoi, I went to a speech by the U.S. Ambassador Ted Osius (he was passing through a bike tour from Hanoi to Hue) and got a shout out in the speech (James did too, I was just mentioned because I was wearing the Fulbright shirt haha). A Foreign Service officer came up afterwards and said she assumed I was Jewish from my last name and invited me to her house in Hanoi if I wanted some Jewish food or for Passover haha.
After the speech, we walked around and headed to Phong Nha cave- one of the local (i.e. only an hour or so away) caves. It was definitely pretty cool and HUGE.
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| I'm in the blue shirt in the bottom left corner |
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| Phong Nha Cave |
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| Ice cream with Anna, Kevin, Beth, and Nick (and James not pictured) |
After the caves, James and I met up with the local ex-pats- Kevin and Beth- two Seattlites focused on preventing drowning, Nick- a Canadian college student, Anna- a German cafe owner) for dinner and late night ice cream. I really liked the ex-pats in Dong Hoi. Frankly, I was jealous that James has people who have been living in Dong Hoi for so long (some people over 10 years). It must be so nice to have older people who have been living in your town and know it well (and speak English fluently). In Lao Cai, I am currently the longest continuously tenured ex-pat at 6 months (David has been here on and off for 8 years but he is insanely busy so it is hard to see him).
The next day, James and I toured Dong Hoi city and met the other expats (Doc, a war veteran; Byron, a Filipino English teacher) and mostly just relaxed. James had described Dong Hoi as having a "chill vibe" and he was definitely right. Time seemed to move by quickly- we didn't do much but sit and talk with people as they meandered about, and nothing seemed wrong with that (and drastic difference from my usual frenetic travel style). I also got to see James's school and meet some of his students. I was definitely impressed by both (while my students and school are great, there is a definite differential in the ability of resources).
Saturday night, I took the night train back to Hanoi, stopped at the American grocery store for some essentials (cereal, dried fruit, and chocolate) and headed back to Lao Cai for the last week before Tet.
National Exam
As I've been mentioning since November, I've been working with the English national team and they finally got their results back! While some schools (like Lucas's school in Ha Tinh) had many students get top prizes (Lucas had something crazy like 4 first and 6 second), schools in less well-off districts tend to get fewer prizes.
My school ended up doing much better than last year! Last year, out of 60 students over 10 subjects, we had 25 prizes. This year- 41! (One first, 6 second, 12 third, and the rest "encouraging" or consolation prizes). The English team improved from 3 to 4 (1 third and 3 encouraging) but that might just be random variation, not true improvement. Again- a first, second, or third prize (scoring in the top 5%, 15% or 30%) earns one automatic entry to any VNese university to study that subject (so if you want to study medicine a first in biology doesn't ensure anything, but certainly helps). An encouraging prize awards 0.5 points extra (on top of the 1.5 points people from Lao Cai province get as a form of class-based affirmative action). So, having an extra 2.0 points out of 30 can mean the difference between a top university (requiring a 27 or 28) and a middle tier university (requiring a 24 or 25) or between going to Hanoi (usually requiring a 22 or 23) and remaining in an outer province (19-22 ish). So- my students were happy but simultaneously upset that they didn't all get prizes (again, they are big on solidarity).
Next up, I have a two week break for the Lunar New Year or Tet! I'll post an update on Tet festivities before I head off to Singapore during the "visit your relatives" portion of Tet.
Onward. Always Onward.
Daniel
