Trip to Haiphong

Saturday morning I went to Haiphong to visit my friend, Patty. What a treat ... to see my friend and to see a new part of Vietnam. Patty and I both commented that it is very difficult to understand so much about this country ... not the least of which is the relationship between the north and south. I can’t say I am any more informed now than I was before I went to the north, but I certainly did enjoy my time. Before I went, several of my colleagues had said how rough Haiphong was and how unfriendly people in the north were, but I didn’t see any part of that. It is a huge port city and I expected to see a place that was somewhat seedy, but it wasn’t so much. There were parts that seemed rough around the edges ... and I think I went into a massage parlour that offered various types of massages with possibly many options regarding service, but then I know that exists here in Ho Chi Minh City as well. As well as in London, Ontario. Below is a picture of a building near the port.So, it was great to see where Patty lives and her school and the neighbourhood she lives in. I stayed at the hotel where she and most of the teachers at Apollo live. She has to work long hours and while she was able to meet me at the airport, she had to go to work and teach until 7:30 or so ... on a Saturday!! After I walked her to her school, in order to see where to meet her later on, I wandered around the area and followed lots of little streets/alleys and went into little markets or chos. People all seemed very friendly and all the little children wanted to say, “Hello!” and then go running off giggling. Very cute. I was struck by how clean and well-swept these little streets and alleys were, as that is not really the case with many similar districts here in HCMC. It was on my way home that I wandered into the Thai massage parlour ... jajajaja .... so I spent a couple of hours reading instead (#*.*#) until it was time to meet up at the Hong Kong restaurant. Again, we wandered around and so many people know Patty and the children all seem to love her ... as well they should. The next morning we went to the English mass at a church on Lac Tray and I got to meet Father Phong ... dare I say, the famous Father Phong, who works at this church and another one in Nam Phap, which is a district near Patty’s school. He seems like a lovely man and there were students, Filipino parishioners and some Vietnamese parishioners as well. The responses and the hymns were so unfamiliar to me that I hardly knew what to do, but I am so glad we went. As we were leaving, we saw Father Phong on the back of someone’s motorbike ... probably whisking off to say another mass. Patty has been volunteering at the Nam Phap church teaching English and I think she is quite famous for this. Father Phong’s doing. Father Phong has arranged for several people to volunteer and some of the classes have as many as 100 participants. I can’t imagine! He suggested that I consider moving to Haiphong ... After church we went to Cat Ba island, which is in the general district of Haiphong, but is actually quite a ways away. It is a large island in Halong Bay. We took a bus boat bus combo and it probably took us an hour and a half to get there. It was a fast boat. We arrived in Cat Ba Town in the late afternoon and settled into a clean and very cheap hotel right overlooking the harbour. It is not prime season and so there were not a lot of tourists, but the ones we saw were mostly foreigners. We had dinner in a nearby restaurant, which was fine until it came to tea and coffee time. It was very hard to make ourselves understood for some reason. We strolled along the harbour and tried for another drink, but it was not exactly right either ... so sad! We had a lovely view of the sun going down and while my photos don’t do it justice, it was very silvery and shiny. It was so pleasant to be near the water and to hear the sound of the waves and to be in a quiet place. Although Haiphong seems sooo much quieter than HCMC, it was still great to be in a more serene location.
In the morning we wandered around and up and down to see a couple of the beaches. The beaches are white sand and are backed by limestone mountains/hills that are typical of the karsts that are seen throughout the bay. The water was a perfect temperature and nice and clean.. alas, I wasn’t wearing my suit. It was so nice to sit on the beach and just veg for a while, however.
We took the slow boat back to Haiphong. We stayed out on the deck mostly and looked at the boats and islands and the green water. Very nice! We pulled into one port on the way and I had a regular conversation ... I was sitting on a post and felt a tap on my shoulder. The man who needed to throw the rope was asking me to move. I said “xin loi” ... excuse me ... and he said “khong sau” ... no problem. That was the only time my Vietnamese was understood, however!
Patty showed me around other parts of the city when we arrived in Haiphong and the next day we explored two beautiful old pagodas. I enjoyed it all. Mostly, though, it was wonderful to be with my dear friend and to chat about this and that ... kids, friends, books, food, religion, politics, Qatar, and Anthony, New Mexico, where she spent a year since we last saw each other. I couldn’t believe how long it had been since we saw each other last ... I can hardly wait to see her again. In fact, Patty is the one who told me about the job at RMIT, so is totally responsible for my being here. I was lucky to have the time to take two days off, as my stream is in down week mode right now. Lots to do to get organized from last cycle and to gear up for the next. Hope my first foray out of HCMC is the first of many more lovely and pleasurable jaunts! If you want to see more pics, please go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/raven_chick.

An Enchanted Evening

Our 10-week cycle ended on Friday and the students from my Monday/Tuesday class invited Kathy Thompson, their main teacher and me to a picnic. Well, we thought it was going to be a picnic, anyway. We gathered after work and several of them were waiting to take us to the park, which was called the Binh Quoi Tourist Village or Làng Du Lịch Bình Quới. Kathy and I were the responsibility of the two oldest students, Vu and Phat, (with me having the oldest, of course ^.^) and we went in a convoy. Organization was a little loose, and not everyone knew the way, so thank goodness for mobile phones! They were used to good effect. We had to go all the way through Ho Chi Minh City and eventually came to an island of tranquility. I guess the park was set up some years ago by the government and there are often traditional shows, like water puppets and music and weddings, but we didn’t see any of that. Except this was maybe a wedding display. However, there were several photographers, so it could have been a real wedding...I’d love to go back and see the entertainment, however. The park was wonderfully quiet and so we strolled through the gardens and eventually landed up at the buffet. They had so many wonderful Vietnamese dishes and I just didn’t know enough about them. Omigoodness, there was so much of every different kind of soup and salad and grilled fish and noodle and rice dishes. And then there were lots of desserts that I had no idea about ... lots made with beans and tapioca and fruit. As it got darker, they lit and set out floating lanterns on the water. It was just lovely. Of course it was great to be with our students. Theirs was a very strong class and Kathy and I knew by then they had all passed (but we couldn’t say a word, of course!) It took a while to see whose responsibility Kathy and I would be, but in the end Khoa took me and Phu took Kathy, as they both live in District 7. Khoa really wanted to drive fast, but he had been told by Vu (the oldest) that he couldn’t, so he took it easy. He did, however, let me know he had never driven so slowly before! As we left the skies opened up and we were in the midst of a really driving rain. Thank goodness it wasn’t a cold one, as I was absolutely soaked (even with a rain poncho) by the time I got home. It was a great drive home, partly because of the rain, and a wonderful end to a very interesting course. I really wish I had been able to take pictures of Phu ever so seriously driving Kathy home. However, it was really pouring by then. It was a wonderful time and we were so grateful that the students went out of their way to do that for us. Several of them went off to their home provinces the next day, so it was very nice that they took the time to spend the evening with us and show us something new and very interesting.
The next day, Vu called to inquire about my health ... already in his home village. So sweet and made me feel about 75. Khoa texted me to say he was in the hospital having surgery. I was shocked and I am still not quite sure what was wrong ... I think he may have had an appendectomy, as he said he had to cut his extra intestine and he has three holes in his stomach now ... maybe done laproscopically? I will email him to find out. He said he had to stay in the hospital until yesterday, poor kid.

A Cycle Ends

Well, it seems hard to believe that one ten-week cycle at RMIT has almost come to an end. This week is final exams or EOC (end of cycle) exams. We had a class Monday, basically to prepare students for the Speaking and Writing exams on Tuesday. Today was my last day of teaching, as tomorrow is the final Reading and Listening exams. So today was more or less devoted to doing mock exams, encouraging students to get a good night’s sleep, and to stay positive. This week is known as “die week” in common parlance. At RMIT we teach two classes ... one for two days and the other class for three days. The three-day class is called our PET ... I forget what the acronym stands for. But my PET certainly turned out to have a lot of teacher’s pets ... the whole class was sweet and silly, and I became very fond of them. Today I saw several girls braiding and putting ponytails in Dung's (pronounced you + ng's) hair. He obviously loved being the centre of attention ... goofy, goofy... I certainly like my Monday and Tuesday class as well. In some ways they are equally cute and silly ... They are very different groups and I really hope both classes do well in the exams. After my level (6.1) they go into the final advanced level (6.2)and then into their degree programs ... so they will likely be in their business programs right after Tet, at the end of February. One very wonderful thing about RMIT is that all the exams are set in Melbourne, so we don’t have to make up the tests. Yay!! And when we mark, we don’t mark our own PET or Monday/Tuesday classes. Writing is blind double-marked and moderated by different teachers. Speaking is recorded by the interviewer and evaluated by a key assessor (expert second marker )if the student fails. We upload the file onto the shared drive and it gets looked after tickety-boo. I am not a key assessor yet, but next go-round I will be. As Steve, my level leader says, next cycle I will be an old hand ... he might have said hag, but he swears he didn’t (#^.^#) . At any rate, I will have to do more key assessing if there are disputed scores or jagged profiles. I am not sure if I am standardized in my marking ... have always had trouble with that, but I passed the assessment training and so according to RMIT, I am good to go. Self-confidence aside, I like that there are checks and balances, especially as there are just two exams ... a lot of pressure on both the students and teachers Insha’Allah it will all work out and the ones who are ready will pass.
So after exams tomorrow, we put our heads down and table-top mark the Reading and Listening exams and then the results should be all set to send to Melbourne for approval and students will know next week how they did. Like much of RMIT’s ESL program, the exam process is highly organized and very efficient. I can’t imagine how they do it all. We heard today that there are over 950 students in our ESL program, so that’s a lot of students to test, schedule (and counsel if they don’t make it).
Not that I have to worry about that, because on Saturday, I will be flying out to Haiphong in the north of Vietnam to see my dear friend Patty Ryan. So excited about that! I will stay for 4 days and come back to work on various projects for two down weeks (weeks without teaching). As I am the newly appointed resource queen/handmaid depending on whether you look at my sphere of influence (not) or whether you look at the fact that I occasionally have to clean up the resource room after slobby teachers, I have to become more familiar with the resources ... especially the CDs and DVDs. So I have a project. And then there is the desk to clean up. Those of you who have worked with me know what I’m talking about jajajaja. I will be presenting at a conference in Cambodia in February and so I should try and get a head start on that as well. Mostly I will be happy I don’t have to come to school at 6:15 for my 7:30 class ... that will be very nice.
The students from my Monday/Tuesday class have invited Kathy (their main teacher) and me to a picnic after school on Friday. So we are very excited about that. Apparently the park where we are going is about a 40 minute motorbike ride from RMIT. Students will take their motorbikes and Kathy and I will be passengers. I will post pics and a report on that later on. Such a nice way to end the cycle! I hope it doesn’t rain ...
The weather continues to be great here; however, I have heard several reports about the beautiful late autumn weather in Ontario and so I have been missing that golden October light and the nip in the air. I hope those of you in (southern) Canada have a pleasant, and extended fall with lovely golds and purples and beautiful fall foliage. Please let me know how you are doing. I think of you most often and would love to know what is going on with you and yours!

Another Day in the Big City

My Level 6 colleagues and I went to the Tokyo Deli for lunch ... could be the start of a Friday afternoon tradition ... so I ended up having to stay late to do prepping for next week. As the skies were impressively dark, I decided to take the 5:15 Phu My Hung bus home rather than risk getting drenched. As it happens, Jane, our EAP academic manager, was on the bus and mentioned that her friend was stuck in Vung Tau, a beach community near HCMC and wasn’t able to get back in time to go to a concert. Anyway after a minute of to-ing and fro-ing, we decided that I was available and so we changed buses, went downtown instead and thus began a very nice, impromptu evening!
First, we picked up the concert tickets at her friend’s apartment and then popped over to a restaurant, called The Refinery, which is one of several small bars and restaurants located in an old opium factory. I had never been there before, although I had been to one of the nearby places, so a piece of the puzzle fit into place when I actually put 2 and 2 together and realized that I knew where I was! Dinner was relaxed and delicious ... a nice courgette soup with chevre and the Refinery salad with lots of lovely things. Yum.
After dinner we walked around the corner to the Municipal Theatre, or Opera House. The theatre is quite a landmark in HCMC and while it is not very large, it is lovely and newly refurbished, inside and out. Like a dollhouse in many ways, and very, very pretty.
The resident orchestra is called the Ho Chi Minh City Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera and the performance was an artistic exchange with two prominent musicians from the Viet Nam Symphony Orchestra in Hanoi. The program was quite nice, and included a short overture directed by a junior conductor. The main two pieces were the Concerto for Bassoon in F Major, Op 75 by CM von Weber and Dvorak’s Cello Concerto in B Minor. You may know that I am musically illiterate. I had never heard a bassoon concerto before and it was lovely. The sound was not overpowering by any means, and I was struck by how expressive the instrument seemed to be. Somewhere in my ancient past I recall an ESL student who claimed all bassoonists were quite deranged (I think she was married to one) but Mr Nguyen, the soloist last night, seemed perfectly rational to me. He became a little flushed at times, but I am quite sure that was a combination of stage lights and oxygen deprivation (at the end of a long trill, for example). I watched him carefully for telltale signs of instability but, really, I saw none.
The cello concerto was the highlight of the evening and it was masterfully played by Mr. Ngo, who seemed to be very popular with the audience and musicians alike. Lovely young women in ao dais brought flowers to the stage and it was very lovely. Although the audience was small, there were a few others from RMIT there. Apparently, there are performances by the orchestra and/or ballet twice a month, so I hope I will have a chance to attend more concerts while I am here. The next performance this month is called A Norwegian Footprint and features several Norwegian musicians ... and I see von Weber is again represented with a Concertino fu Oboe und Blaser (whatever that is).
For those of you in Canada, I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving and that the weather permits a lovely walk in a park or some time to enjoy the beautiful fall foliage. I hope you have a relaxing time with family and friends and I hope that you all have much to be grateful for. I certainly am very aware of my fortune in being able to teach here for a while and will teach on Monday with an extra dose of gratitude. Here we are still in the midst of the rainy season. Yesterday’s torrential downpour would have translated to at least 25 cm of snow in a cold climate, but then it brightened up 15 minutes later and went on like that for a few hours, until the next set of showers. See ... already more appreciative! Take care, everyone!