Seafood hotpot

Yesterday was Elsbeth's 23rd birthday (one of the Minnesota girls. There are as many people from Minnesota at ILA as there are from Australia!)

Last night we (Elsbeth, Ellyn, Steve and I) had a great seafood hotpot at Ganh Hoa restaurant, along the road around Big Mountain driving away from Vung Tau town on Front Beach side. We also saw two cruise ships setting out from the Saigon River.

30,000 VND haircut

today I had a haircut.

here's the 'before' shot on the left
and the 'after' one on the right.

Yes, I know you're asking what's different! well I felt my hair looked messy and I have to get photos for my work permit!

Deluge

well, it is the wet season ....
Last Friday morning 24 October we had a very heavy storm and then continued rain. When I woke up the rain had eased but a drip - not much of one - had started from the ceiling over my bed. Just an occasional drip. Then another one started. I put a glass under the drip and found there wasn't much water.

Got up and ate some breakfast. Sat at the desk looking out the windows and started thinking about the lessons I needed to plan for the weekend. Heard a sound of running water and turned around to find that there were waterfalls down the walls, including one over the wardrobe and into a drawer!

Went and reported it to the hotel management. Hmm .. is anything going to happen? Hung around, came back to the room, and eventually the 'attendant' (this is his title - he tightened up the power socket for me the other day so that the plug converter would stay put!) came and looked and started drying out the puddles. Hmm ... is anything more going to happen?

Went back to the reception and suggested that I move out. Could I stay put while the attendant fixes the leak? We don't think we have another room for you. Hmm ... it's still raining and if fixing means going outside and putting sealant on some holes then I know he can't fix it today. Attendant eventually gets a ladder and looks in the ceiling. Gets off the ladder, goes and gets a screwdriver and pokes a hole in the ceiling over the bed! Holds a bucket under the hole! Water is pouring out!!

Went back to the reception and said that I am moving into another room. Ah - room 304 is available, same price. Ask for the key and go and look to make sure I'm not jumping from frying pan to fire, or from bucket to lake!! Agree to take the room and move. This requires not inconsiderable packing first.

So much for a day dedicated to planning my 6 lessons for the weekend!

First week of teaching

I've already posted briefly about my assigned teaching schedule. Now for the gory details!

Tuesdays and Thursdays
A Seniors class which is ages 11-14 from 5.40pm to 7.25pm
This class has 12 students - 6 boys and 6 girls. They are graded as pre-intermediate, but they are in the second half of the coursebook. I will be teaching them this course through to mid-January next year. These students still have plenty of energy at this time of night, though they are not so keen on concentrating! Some real characters in this class.

An Elite class which is ages 15-18 from 7.40pm to 9.40pm
this class has 8 students - 4 boys and 4 girls. They are graded as intermediate and are at the end of the course, sitting their end of course test next week. Students of this age are already studying for long hours at school and at their teachers' houses. By the time they get to us in the evenings they are often tired and lethargic. Getting them energised and participating in the lesson is a challenge.

Saturdays and Sundays
3 Juniors classes which is ages 6/7-10
The classes I have are at different levels.

Level 1B start at 7.45am to 9.45am
The students in this class range a great deal in age and in size! I have a little roly poly student in this class called Hellen. On Sunday we started with a warmer called Bonk! The kids were in a circle around me and had to quickly think of the names of animals. If they were too slow or if they repeated the last student's word they got bonked on the head with a soft toy and had to sit down. Hellen won the first round and almost one the second one!

Level 2B start at 10.00am to 12.00noon
This is one of my favourite classes. They love singing and luckily the course book we are using has quite a few songs. When I did introductions on the first day I used a little toy koala holding a boomerang and a little toy kangaroo. The koala almost went home in Harry's pocket - he fell in love with it. This is the smallest of my Juniors classes - 12 students, only 3 girls who are very quiet but starting to come out of their shells.

Level 4A start at 2.30pm to 4.30pm
Another class with a big range in age and size. Katy is my little student in this class and Stella is the biggest girl. Then there are sisters (maybe twins?) Mary and Maria, dressed alike but very different in personality. And John who, alone out of all the students in all classes, stands up whenever he is asked to respond to something. This is something the kids have to do in school, and it's obviously drilled in to him.

On Monday I (foolishly) took 2 fill-in classes for someone who had taken a few days off. So today (Wednesday) has been a long-looked for DAY OFF!

update on Getting set up - transport to school

I have a new driver, Quang. At first I thought this was a temporary arrangement but Lao has decided that he is too busy to drive me and has passed the job on to his friend (I'm sure there is a commission involved). Quang does speak more English which helps, and is reliable and punctual. And I continue to see Lao around the streets to chat!

teaching schedule

firstly a note that I've been off air for a couple of days due to internet failure at the hotel. This morning they seem to have reset the whole network - wasn't able to get an IP address before - and maybe changed provider as well.

On Wednesday I finally got my teaching schedule, which has me taking over from a teacher who had a baby girl on Thursday morning!

My schedule is Tuesday and Thursday evenings - 2 groups on each day - and Saturdays and Sundays during the day - 3 groups each day. So I am teaching 5 groups altogether, all kids. There seems to be relatively little adult teaching from this centre at the moment. Some classes may be coming up later in the year. This is basically a full-time schedule although with comings and goings, there will often be cover teaching to give on top.

In theory then I have 3 days off per week. In practice I'm using a lot of time, including today (a day off) for lesson preparation, 'cos I'm painfully slow at it!

some numbers

the number of times I had to sign a form today - 11
the number of forms I had to sign - 3 different forms in duplicate, and one other
the number of ILA teachers I met - 8
the number of classes I observed - 1
the date I am likely to start teaching - 16 October
the number of induction meetings still to go - 2
the number of class observations still to do - 2

Getting set up - a place to swim

Have found a swimming pool/sports centre nearby to the Lam Son Hotel, on Quang Trung near Front Beach. Went there for the first time this morning. Cost is 12000 dong (about $1 AUD), and the pool is about 20-25 metres long. It is open for swimming most of the day, then has sports like water polo in the evening, and kung fu in the courtyard next door.

Swam for 40 minutes then stopped off for breakfast of bread, omelette and iced coffee on the way back to the hotel.

Getting set up - living arrangements

Over the weekend I've looked - at no great pace - into various options available for longer term accommodation - house, apartment in a villa, apartment in a large block. Getting started in this not easy without some contacts.

The search started by riding around with Lao looking for signs on houses and for posters on walls advertising places for rent. Not the most productive way of doing it, although it did yield a $300USD per month 2 bedroom house in the Vo Thi Sau area back towards Vung Tau town from Back Beach. Currently rented by an Australian guy who came to teach English in a primary school but is now moving on to the Mekong delta. Bit too dark and dingy for my liking but is a fairly good price.

I chanced on an agent outside a 4 level, 3 bedroom house for rent in the same area . The house was $800 USD per month, plus electricity, bottle gas, etc and out of my budget. Hanh has since shown my a very large studio apartment in a villa and secured a reduction in rent from $400 to $350 USD per month, but it is still rather a lot to pay for 1 bedroom. The price reflects the mod-cons that come with the place.

Also showed me something more suitable - $400 USD for a 2 bedroom apartment in a large complex directly opposite ILA Vietnam on Nguyen Thai Hoc and above Coop Mart Supermarket. Has some great views over Vung Tau from Front Beach, across Nui Lon (Big Mountain) and the Thich Ca Phat Dai temple complex and across to the port. The only downside is that this area is a fair distance from Vung Tau town and either of the main beach areas. Besides I've lived close to work before and we all know what happens then!!

Another option in the same area is $200 USD for a 1 bedroom unit in a smaller complex.

However, knowing that I'm a teacher is getting some favourable response. Hanh's son is a student at ILA Vietnam, and she understands that our salary is comfortable rather than big-end of the expat spectrum.

The intermediate decision has been to stay on at the Lam Son Hotel for one month at 4 million dong plus electricity and take a bit more time getting settled.

PS are you bored yet? How can I dress up this story? Well, the end of the round of visits was that Hanh took me for breakfast - banh khot - and then for coffee. At both stops we were joined by Vietnamese clients of hers, including a couple from HCMC, the husband being a feng shui consultant. At one stage talk turned to the SOS Villages in Vietnam, and I was able to say that I did know what they are via my involvement with IVP because we have been sending volunteers to work in them - check the list of workcamps available through the SCI workcamp search engine.

geckoes and Buddha

taken at Thich Ca Phat Dai temple complex, Vung Tau - reclining Buddha statue

geckoes and Buddha
Originally uploaded by DaveRick

Front beach and Back Beach 1

There are a number of beaches in Vung Tau but the two prominent ones are Front Beach (Bai Tam Truoc) and Back Beach (Bai Tam Sau).










Front Beach is at the front of Vung Tau town centre, and is the more picturesque. It is here that people go in the evening to promenade or more often to sit and talk, even to picnic. It faces towards the west so it gets some beautiful sunsets.

Back Beach is the main resort/swimming beach, approximately 10 kilometres long and at the back of Vung Tau town. Along the road behind the beach there are many hotels and restaurants. Further back are many newer houses and villas.

Internet access

One of the attractions of Lam Son Hotel is that it has free Wifi. However, the actual wide-area network access is extremely variable. That is to say you can hook into the LAN no problem but then not get any internet connection. While we (me, Ellen and Elsbeth, other new ILA recruits) were told this morning (Friday) that Wifi is free throughout Vietnam, that doesn’t mean it’s going to work all the time!

PS and just for the record the sign outside the hotel actually says Wireless Free.

Getting set up – transport to school

First thing to say is that as yet (10 October) I have not yet set foot in ILA Vietnam premises. Courtesy of a combination of my arrival date and a management meeting in Hanoi on 9 and 10 October, I am not due to have my first induction meeting until Monday 13 October.

Second thing to say is that the school is some kilometres from the hotel where I’ve been put up for the first week. The options are – walk (not an option even for this little black walking duck), take a taxi, hop a ride on the back of a motorcycle, hire/buy one myself, or go by bicycle (loan, rent, buy).

I’ve been doing a lot of walking and must be a familiar enough sight now that the calls to use a motorcycle driver are declining. On Wednesday afternoon I was walking in Ward 3 (the town centre area of Vung Tau) and had stopped near a Catholic Church and the American English college to look at the map because I kept missing the signs for a street I was trying to find. Approached to talk by a guy (whose name I’ve forgotten at the moment but have waved hallo to again since). His friend the motorcycle driver happened along (name of Lao) and continued the conversation. Interestingly no overdue pressure to hire him or take a tour, and we ended up going for coffee (free ride for this!)

Well, I wondered the same thing, especially when Lao paid for the coffee as well and offered further free rides. Of course our conversation did come round to the need for transport to work, to go shopping/banking/sightseeing, look for accommodation etc. but any idea of cost was elusive. “You tell me” was Lao’s constant response. The trouble for someone 2 days in the country is that I don’t know what is reasonable to propose.

So swapped phone numbers, got a ride back to the hotel – still free – slept on it, did some research (based on ILA info on what it costs to hire a motorcycle for a month and advice from hotel staff on the possible cost of transport to school), then contacted Lao to take me to the bank. (Did I mention that the exchange rate for AUD has been declining since I got here! Well I’m watching enough BBC World News to have an idea of why). When he realised I wanted to change money Lao took me to a jeweller’s shop instead. A point in his favour as David would be able to tell you. Then time to discuss an arrangement. On request Lao tried to get one of his other teacher clients for me to talk to but in the end we made a deal without this. Then in the afternoon I got a call from Lao – he had seen one of his past clients (also a teacher at ILA) and I got the reference I needed.

Oh and the ride to the bank/jeweller’s shop and back to the hotel was still free!

Did I mention the heat?

I bet I continue to do this!! It gets extremely hot from quite early in the day. This is a fact of life, and the only way to cope is to slowwww dowwnnn. And to seriously embrace the concept of siesta whenever you can.

The nice thing about Vung Tau – at least at the moment – is that it gets a great seabreeze from late afternoon, making the seaside the place to be if you can. Just to hang out, take a leisurely walk and watch people – families arriving in pairs and threes on motorbikes, groups of friends, people fishing – and because I’m a westerner, be watched.

Ho Chi Minh City – 7 October 2008

Due to arrival time I have a little bit of time to fill in Ho Chi Minh City before moving on to Vung Tau.

The welcome pack of information from ILA Vietnam is mainly geared to getting set up for life in HCMC rather than elsewhere in the country. Some of the info is useful regardless of where you are, so I follow the directions given, find a phone shop and buy a SIM card with credit. My VN phone number for those interested in such things is +84 (country code) (0) 935417269. (Because I’m still under contract with Optus I’m using the Aussie number for international texts – cheaper for you and more cost effective for me!)

Then ‘what to do, what to do’ to fill in time until I’m collected from the hotel and taken to the ferry wharf. Bought some cut pineapple (germophobes avert your eyes here!) and went into the park on Pham Ngu Lao to eat it in the shade. Was approached here by Ny to practice English. She is studying fashion photography at one of the technology universities in HCMC, and is a native of Danang in central Vietnam. Has been in HCMC for the last five years and has one year to go in her course, with designs on taking an MBA after that. She says – and perhaps it’s true – that I’m the first person she has ever approached to practice English having always been too nervous and shy to do so before. My unassuming demeanour and good looks obviously have done the trick!

Back to the hotel to be picked up by Luke the Teacher Welfare Coordinator from ILA Vietnam and delivered to the ferry wharf. Luke is from Canberra, has been working for ILA Vietnam for two and a half years, and speaks (to my dull ears) passable Vietnamese to converse with the street vendors at the wharf. Not for the last time I regret travelling with such a heavy set of bags. On to the hydrofoil at 12.30 and it’s off down the Saigon Riverto Vung Tau.

Arrival in Vietnam - 6 October 2008

Well, how should this story start? After a very busy time balancing packing the house, packing to travel, discarding, still helping David and Bruce out at the surgery, still finishing up at IVP, trying to say goodbye to everyone (and not quite succeeding), I left Sydney with my baggage only 20 kilos over the allowed limit of 30 kilos, and with one bag officially too heavy to carry!

The plane was not full - but it did contain a large contingent of women soccer players from the Australian Institute of Sport and a large group of high schoolers. The flight was uneventful but because it is an older plane (as are all Vietnam Airlines planes) only business and first class had individual entertainment units. So it was a rather boring trip especially when the second movie came on. It was a Vietnamese comedy called The cook and the boss, which is one of those stories where one character gets mistaken for another. It probably was a good laugh but all the dubbing was in one person's voice so it was just a bit too much work! I've since found that this seems to be the usual method of dubbing films here in Vietnam.

HCM City from the air is much larger than I remember and just seems to stretch forever, rows and rows of buildings without much green space to break it up, and the Saigon River winding through. We landed in an atmosphere that threatened a storm but never quite broke. And so began my introduction to the heat and humidity of the wet season.

Getting the visa was a little more involved than I had expected - more forms to fill - but went without a hitch. The arrivals hall at this new airport is huge but most of the channels were closed and there was not the volume of passengers and planes to require them to be open. Given there are only 5 or 6 baggage conveyer belts and a very small customs area I wonder if there is any need for such a gargantuan immigration area.

I was quickly met by Gemma from ILA and taken off to a hotel in Cong Quynh Street in Pham Ngu Lao area of District 1 as it was too late for the last ferry to Vung Tau. From then I was on my own until midday the next day. Off for a short walk in Pham Ngu Lao - many more businesses than I remember from 9 years ago but all the landmarks from that time still there: the Giant Dragon Hotel, Sinh and Kim travel cafes. The construction area across from Pham Ngu Lao street is now a long park. Had pho ga for dinner and a soursop juice then back to the hotel, a bath and bed. (the time is now 4 hours different to Sydney thanks to daylight saving starting there on the weekend).