An Ode to the American Taxpayer and a Little R.E.S.P.C.E.T

Last Friday (August 10, 2012) the Fulbright ETA’s had our first teaching experience, and it ROCKED! The 15 of us were broken up into groups of 3 and our smaller groups each wrote an entire lesson plan and carried it out for 20 Vietnamese students. We taught at the American Center, which is a branch of the US Embassy in Hanoi (the US Consulate in HCMC has it’s own American Center). The student’s who frequent the AC are the go-getters. They come after a full day of university and use the English language library and attend sessions on English and American culture. Thus we were teaching the cream-of-the-crop. Our lesson was on Facebook and when it’s appropriate to use Facebook and how to handle delicate social situations with social media. The kids got really into the lesson and I am sure I saw some burgeoning young actors. It was great to put into practice two weeks of intense training and interact with students. I am totally PHYSCHED to start working with my own students in Dong Thap.

Notice the first day glow. It's a glow of pride and relief, not sweat. The air was on. Thank you sweet Jesus!

Queue the orchestra because here comes the promised ode, written entirely by yours truly. (A soft trumpet playing in the background) To all of those hard working Americans who pay their taxes to the Intrusive Revenue Snoopers (A.K.A the IRS) I thank you. For it is you good citizens who support our diplomatic havens abroad (A.K.A Embassies). And it is they who funded a weekend to Mai Chau. The Ode has ended you may be seated (BTW I am aware that being a classical composer is not in my future). Pat yourselves on the back for being good citizens and getting through this paragraph.

Mai Chau is located about 4 hours west of Hanoi and is where a large community of Hmong peoples has settled. The Hmong people are an ethnic minority in Vietnam with largely Thai descent. Mai Chau is incredible. You enter the valley from the top of the mountains and below you spreads out a canvas of green rice paddies from which jut huge mountains covered with jungle fauna. The green fields are broken only by streams and lakes covered with lily pads. If you thought I just described a Hollywood sound stage, you would be forgiven. When we arrived a monsoon was barreling down on us so we quickly dashed from our bus to our very posh hotel. Inside we were greeted with cinnamon tea and cool towels. I love the Vietnamese hospitality.

After settling in we had an incredible lunch, which ended with chocolate cake (God how I have missed chocolate). Then we took a tour of one of the Hmong villages and then toured a local cave. Like Ha Long Bay this cave was used to store munitions and officers during the American War. Unlike Ha Long Bay this cave had thousands of bats who where flying very close to our heads. After our interaction with Mother Nature we returned to the resort for a Vietnamese BBQ dinner and a display of Hmong dances. The next morning we had a quick breakfast and went bike riding through the “streets”. Streets in Mai Chau are elevated sidewalks between the paddies that are wide enough for 1 car and 1 motorbike. These streets connect the nameless villages and it was stunning. This place is just stupefying. If you ever come to Vietnam Mai Chau MUST be on your list.

The lily pads of the lake abutting our resort.

The view from the resort dining room. Amazing right?!

Unlike the glow at the AC, this glow is all sweat and sunburn. Pics from biking are below.

The view of Mai Chau and Hoa Binh Valley from the highway, which in Vietnam is a two-lane road.

Upon our return to Hanoi we began the next phase of our orientation training, Vietnamese lessons. I will not bore you with the details; rather I will try to amuse you. It should come as no surprise that in Vietnam age equals respect. As such there are at least 7 first-person personal pronouns for men and 7 more for women. The system works by comparing the speaker’s age to the age of the listener. Assuming I am speaking there is a different way for me to say “he/you” for a man my own age, 15 years older then me but younger then my father, my father, older then my father but less then 60 years old, a grandfather over 60 and a 70-plus great-grandfather. In addition to at least 2 ways to address people younger then I am. Then multiply that by four to account for the female pronouns and a separate set for male teachers and another for female teachers. As you can imagine this is daunting and using the wrong pronoun is a serious offense. So far not so funny right? What if I told you the wrong tone could put you on the curb? For women who are grandparents and over the age of 60 the personal pronoun is bà. If you use the wrong tone and slightly foreign tongue and say bò instead of bà you just called a grandmother a cow. In an attempt to be respectful you could be in some serious trouble. As I was told and I quote “it would behoove you to practice, practice, practice”…an utterly serious piece of advice wouldn’t you agree?! (All puns intended).

On a lighter note I got tickets to the Hanoi Opera!!!!!!!! This Saturday on the 18^th a bunch of us ETAs are seeing Rachmaninov (who I am listening to as I write this post). The Vietnamese National Symphony Orchestra is playing his Piano Concerto No. 2 minor Op. 18 and the Symphonic Dance Op. 45. Then on the 23^rd we are seeing Beethoven’s Namensfeier Overture and The Creaturs of Prometheus along with Brahms’ Double Concerto for Violin and Cello. I am over the moon and can’t wait to get my culture on. The best part, the tickets were $10 and $11 respectively. Also I booked my trip to Sapa for two weekends from now with 10 of the other ETAs!

That is all for now my readers. Xin Chao (goodbye in Vietnamese).

Isn't this great! I also saw two men carrying a glass door on a motorbike. It was wedged between the back of the driver and the belly of the passenger. Who knew motorbikes could be so efficient?

Rain, Rain Go....Nowhere

So it happened today, my first time caught in a Vietnamese downpour. I was coming back from a half day of touring the major sites in Hanoi (more on that later) and saw these dark clouds, the temperature dropped, the wind picked up and the sky opened. I have rarely seen rain like this I am talking biblical rain. I would have snapped a photo if I wasn't so busy running awning to awning and cowering under my inept umbrella. I have photos below of me after I got back inside my room. NONE of me was dry at best my head was moist. I also turned my shower into an umbrella and clothes drying station. I thought it was rather creative.

Last weekend 14 ETAs (myself included) and our TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) teacher went to Ha Long Bay. We rented an entire junk boat for 1 night with meals included and the best part was the cost $94.65 USD. Thank God for the power of a dollar. Ha Long Bay is located Northeast of Hanoi and means "descending dragon". It has an area of 600 square miles and consists of nearly 2,000 islands of limestone formed after nearly 500 million years of erosion. It was incredible and huge, so huge you can't even comprehend its scope. I have included a video and pictures I took of the Bay since words are inadequate.

Entering Ha Long Bay. So awesome. It's like Uluru times ten. I was truly god smacked.

Some of the limestone islands. There are over 2,000 of these islands and they can climb hundreds of feet into the air.

Some of the other junkboats making their way out to Ha Long Bay.

We started the weekend by having a wonderful multicourse seafood lunch and then slowly made our way into the bay. After we anchored we went and explored some of the caves located in some of these islands that during the American War (AKA the Vietnam War in the US) were used to hide officials and store medicine and munitions. We took a glided tour through the cave that ended in an outlook above the bay.

After seeing the caves and returning to the boat we kayaked to another island where we swam in a netted beach (jellyfish also live in the Bay), hiked to the top of the island and some ETAs partook in a Fulbright Vs. the rest of the beach volleyball game while the rest of us cheered them on. We lost, but had a good time! Ambassador role: check. The next morning I got up to see the sunrise over the Bay. The Bay was silent and the haze from the previous day was gone. I will let you be the judge, pics below.

Once the sun had risen to finish up our time at the Bay we took a small flat-bottomed rowboat into another island, which is a doughnut, and is accessible by traveling under a very low bridge. On the other side is a monkey colony! They come down out of the island's jungle to greet the boats and hopefully find food. I got some great shots of the orange-faced monkeys.

A mama or dada and a baby! So so cute!!!

Today we had the day off from orientation so I took in some of the major tourist sites in Hanoi, the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and the Temple of Literature. The HCM Mausoleum is very soviet and clearly built around the cult of personality. You are not allowed to bring cameras inside. In lieu of a picture take the final scene of Evita where she lies instate embalmed and people are walking around the glass coffin and replace Madonna with a small man. There is great respect and reverence for the man most poeple call their Uncle Ho. Vietnam has been independent for 65 years, which means that there are Vietnamese who have lived under colonialism and through the war and transition to independence. What's odd is that the capitalist kitsch being pushed on you the minute you leave the tomb juxtaposes this near-sacred respect. I felt like I was observing a pilgrimage. Perhaps this is the new Vietnam? I think it's clear that right now Vietnam is still working to exist in both worlds, politically communist and economically capitalist. The culture is trapped somewhere in-between. The HCM Mausoleum is connected to the former Presidential Palace, which was the seat for the French Indochina colonial power. The Palace is French so it's stunning and overdone, but I LOVE that style of architecture so I was agog. When HCM (BTW HCM is Ho Chi Minh and HCMC is Ho Chi Minh City in case you hadn't caught on) won freedom from the US he moved into the Palace but quickly built a traditional silt house in the gardens as the new seat of power for Vietnam.

Rather austere, the Soviet influence is a bit heavy handed. The inside is covered with marble and red tile. Fitting I suppose.

So so French. C'est maqnifique.

After we finished the mausoleum we went to the Temple of Literature, which is a Chinese Confucian temple and the oldest university in Vietnam. It's beautiful in its symmetry and structure. It features a number of gardens and various temples, pictures are below.

The gates to the Temple.

Turtles are lucky in Vietnamese culture. These stone markers have the names of every person who has earned their Ph.D. from the Temple. The Temple awarded degrees from 1070 to 1778.

This is the third courtyard temple. Great detail in the temple.

One more thing. I have described the traffic and I have posted a video of it. Now here is the video taken by one of the ETAs as we crossed the street. This is what it's like on a GOOD DAY!

This was a large blog post with lots of photos and two videos. That should hold y'all over for a while. Next weekend the Embassy is taking all the ETAs on a retreat to Mai Chau (Hoa Binh) Valley. I must go and try to finish these medical school apps. In the past week I have returned 16 apps. I currently have 6 more plus 2 for joint MPH programs and I am waiting to get access to 3 more. I can see the light! The light of nightclubs I mean. Maybe I can go out with the other ETAs next week and not be boarded up in my room working. Come to think of it very little has changed since I graduated. Go to class all day and work all night. But I can't complain too much. You just read about what I did last weekend!

American Sweat and Snails

Tomorrow is a big day. All the ETAs are meeting our hosts at our placement institutions for lunch at the Hanoi Opera Hilton. It’s exciting and nerve-wracking all at the same time but it will be nice to make contact and have some discussions about the kind of work I will be doing and hopefully my teaching schedule.

I have spent sometime in Hanoi now and perhaps the most noticeable thing about Hanoi and Vietnam in general is the humidity. One of my fellow ETAs described it as Vietnam hugging you in warm embrace. If that is true I wish the Vietnamese climate would be less friendly. The moment you step out of air conditioning you sweat. Your face, back, feet, shoulders, knees, nose, elbows all sweat and by the time we finish our walk from our hotel to the orientation site we are all drenched and dripping. Then you continue to sweat for about an hour in the air conditioned orientation room. But here’s the thing. The Vietnamese locals don’t sweat. Seriously it’s like they don’t have sweat glands. Just picture it. Americans dripping in sweat with clothes that are completely (I mean completely) darkened by damped sweat surrounded by perfectly happy and dry locals.

On the up side I have had some great food. Even the snail noodle soup dish was good minus the snails. The snails didn’t have any really discernable flavor but their chewy, rubbery texture was not the most appetizing dish I have ever consumed. I can cross snails off my list. I made up for it with lunch and dinner today when I had the best fried rice, eggrolls and wantons with mango, cilantro, onion, tomato salsa (which was cooked so it was safe). I have noticed however that the Vietnamese diet is very low in dairy, vegetables and protein. Most the dishes are rice based or rice noodle based served either alone or in a water-based broth. With meat dishes there is relatively little meat compared to the nutrient-deficient rice or noodles. I did learn today of a Vietnamese dairy company Vinamilk which produces relatively safe milk and yogurt.

The vendor who sold me the snail noodle soup. We sat on tiny stools no more then 10 inches off the ground packed in the sidewalk along with the rest of the customers.

The snail soup. The broth was excellent, the pork sausage was great and the tofu was to die for. It would've been great if the snails weren't there. But I tried some snails and after my testing most stayed in the bottom of my bowl.

Here are some shots of Hanoi's Old Quarter which is the area our hotel is.

Hanoi Opera House. It's currently hosting open auditions for So You Think You Can Dance Vietnam.

Footbridge to a local temple. The shots above are from a local park around a lake in the old quarter where our hotel is located.

One more thing. I have included a video (forgive the poor quality) of a typical street in Hanoi at rush hour just in case my description was not apt enough in the last post. One of the ETAs I was with has video of us crossing the street from our perspective and I will try to get a copy of it so you can feel like you are here.

I must get back to medical school applications. I will post pics from Ha Long Bay sometime next week. Until then have a good week readers!

Welcome to Vietnam

30.5 hours, 9,131 miles and 11 time zones. I am happy to report that me and all my luggage made it safely and in one piece to Vietnam yesterday. Since then a lot has happened so here is a short list.

1. My first day of orientation (Day 2 for the rest of the group) and it was all day on teaching English as a second language. This topic runs for two weeks and the gentlemen teaching it is very knowledgeable. The basic premise is that you are perhaps slightly inept (or grossly depending on your own self-image) but qualified. Take a deep breath and breathe.
2. I met the other ETAs (English Teaching Assistants) and they are wonderful. Such an open and easy going bunch with awesome stories and experiences. This weekend all 15 of us are tentatively planning on going to Ha Long Bay.
3. I have converted all my US dollars into dong (pronounced dun) and I am rich and official. Today 1 dollar = 20,866.87 dong. Currently I am a millionaire. Yippy!
4.  I have learned how to cross the street. Here is the basic overview: Tonnage determines right of way. This means that a bus or car will NOT stop for you. In fact nobody will stop for pedestrians, but smaller vehicles can swerve if they so choose to avoid you. A bus or van or truck can’t swerve without knocking down a palleton of motorbikes, Vespa’s and bikes triggering a crash like those seen in the Tour d’France. So don’t leave the curb if a car to bus is in the area. A tangent to this rule is that driver’s don’t stop so from the moment you leave the curb to the time you scurry shaking to the other curb NEVER STEP BACKWARDS. Vietnamese drivers assume a constant forward motion and try to avoid your future path, which means in the moment they are aiming at you. Thus if you move backwards you will most certainly die, if you walk diagonally you may die, if you stop you have a slim chance of living, and if you move forward head down you may live.
5.  I learned how to say watermelon, coconut, strawberry and pineapple. All are the same word, just different tones. Pineapple is Dứa (note the up-tone), coconut is Dừa (note down-tone), watermelon is Dua (no tone) and strawberry is Dâu (note the fat or round-tone). The good news is I like all these fruits so no matter what I say at the market I am good. Unfortunately this doesn’t work for Ca. The up-tone means fish, the flat tone means cup, and the down-tone means bad (which is something of an insult…or so I'm told). This could end badly.
6.  Also the food is GREAT.

I have to end this as I have homework to do tonight. That’s right our teacher assigned us readings. You can imagine our stunned looks at orientation today. I think our teacher enjoyed dispensing the assignment very much, as is his right. I'm off to hit the books. I will post photos at some point in the near future. I promise.

So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen

Me and my loving parents at Mario's. Heaven on Earth!

I must preface this blog post with a warning: I am writing this while in a deep and wonderful food coma. Hence the Sound of Music titular reference, it's wholesome and fitting. Deal with it. 

Two long-time and very close friends, Maddy and Corinne.
We all figure skated together for essentially our entire childhoods.
Such good times.

I just returned from my farewell dinner with my parents at Mario’s tonight. Those from Rochester know Mario’s. For those who don’t...I'm sorry. Mario’s is the best restaurant in Rochester (besides Richardson’s Canal House, another personal favorite) and is an Italian steakhouse to end all steakhouses. We started with bruschetta and fried taleggio. Then I had the grilled Caesar wedge salad, the New York Strip steak (with a side of lobster mac and cheese), part of my mother’s lobster raviolis. OMG! OMG! Between the huge chunks of lobster, fresh ricotta, homemade pasta and bisque-cream sauce I thought I was going to die. It was so rich I could barely chew it. Then just because dinner wasn't gluttonous enough, a slice of seven-layer chocolate ganache truffle cake. All of this was washed down by an incredible bottle of Vermentino wine. A perfect summer white, I think it’s my new favorite. Just to be clear the table shared the bottle, and a shot of limoncello, which I am proud to say was not shared. Tomorrow I should run to the west coast and then swim to Vietnam while towing my luggage behind me. I also bumped into one of my former skating coaches at Mario's, Judy Ferris-Brunett. Her patience and grit got me through my golds, and that damn Argentine Tango. There is a pair of angle wings for her in ice dancing heaven.

Now that you're hungry (or perhaps slightly nauseous, like me), but most certainly jealous I arrive at the topic of this post, my last full day in the USA for a long time, and my last day at home for an even longer time. The packing is done, though it was hampered by my cute but useless companion (see below). Now all I have to do is make to my gates on time. I am feeling very relived that the preparation is over, it was an exhausting and extensive process stretching well over a month.

I had an undocumented travel buddy. I think she is a bit overdressed for the tropics. A fur coat...really?! She is going to schvitz like a pudding at a picnic and the wet look is very unbecoming on her. I am going miss my buddy. Love you Sterling!

I also found out today that my primary applications for medical school were verified by AMCAS and ACOMMAS! On Monday they will be transmitted to the schools I applied to and secondary apps will be rolling in (I have already completed two and returned one of them). Yeah! In addition I received word from the US Embassy in Hanoi that at the end of orientation they have set aside a day for me to go to the embassy, meet the people who are presenting on day 1 that I will miss, and receive a personal briefing of all the information I missed. Basically my own day 1 on day 30! Way to go US Embassy!

In preparation for the impending emotional departure I have spent the last two weeks seeing friends in Philadelphia, visiting campus, taking in some local sites in Philly and spending time with friends in Rochester. At this point I feel ready, or as ready as I will ever be for this. I know that I will have an awesome time and learn an incredible amount about myself, the changing world we live in, the human spirit and the role the US has on the global stage in a direct and very personal manner. I also know that this time abroad will make me appreciate the US, my family and the blessings in my life in ways unknown to me. Absence certainly makes the heart grow fonder, but this endeavor will be eye opening. I can’t wait. It’s time to grab for the brass ring and embrace every bit of this no-doubt once-in-a-lifetime voyage. I will end this final US-based post with an apt quote from Jeremey Bentham. Godspeed!

    "Create all the happiness you are able to create: remove all the misery you are able to remove. Every day will allow you to add something to the pleasure of others, or to diminish something of their pains. And for every grain of enjoyment you sow in the bosom of another, you shall find a harvest in your own bosom; while every sorrow which you pluck out from the thoughts and feelings of a fellow creature shall be replaced by beautiful peace and joy in the sanctuary of your soul."

Sunday brunch in Manayunk, PA. On the left is Dr. Jeff Ashley, my academic and research advisor at PhilaU. On the right is Dr. Marcella McCoy-Deh the Honors Program and Fulbright Director at PhilaU. Both were instrumental in my academic career. I am proud to say that both are my colleagues and dear friends.

A Trip to Vietnam

I went to Vietnam today. Not the country, but the Vietnamese restaurant in Philadelphia called Vietnam. I am in Philadelphia this week visiting some old university friends, professors and relaxing. Anyway, I had lunch with two wonderful and dear professors and an extremely close friend. According to the restaurant’s menu all the dishes are created from the owner’s family recipes starting with his grandmother who was from Vietnam.

The food was incredible; so fresh, light and flavorful. If I starve in Vietnam it won’t be for the lack of good food, but for my subpar chopstick skills. It’s not that my chopstick skills are bad, they are respectable and I can manage, but I had a few cases of the food not staying on the chopsticks long enough to make it into my mouth. Especially the smaller pieces. Whoops!

The table shared an appetizer sampler of which I could not tell you exactly what it all contained; perhaps the most memorable item was the grape leaf wraps. For lunch we ordered lemon grass chicken, sweet and sour chicken, curry chicken and pho (beef noodle soup). If the food today is any indication I will be a very happy and lighter man, especially if my chopstick skills plateau. On the plus side my love of ginger and basil will be very satisfied J.

Delinquent Already

Somewhere on this blog I had stated my intention to write weekly (perhaps a bit overzealous). This is my second post in 3 weeks…not a great start, but it should be noted that I have spent the past couple weeks fighting through a visa/plane flight quagmire. I will not bore anybody with the minutia but I will provide the condensed version here.

The issues started three weeks ago when the travel company who books travel for the Fulbright booked my flights and then failed to inform me or send the itinerary to my program director for approval. They realized this clerical error when I called them to follow up on my travel since I hadn’t heard anything from them in three weeks. After a few more calls and e-mails between travel agents, myself and the Fulbright SE Asia regional director in NYC my fights were booked. Meanwhile I had not heard anything about the status of my visa, which was the last piece of this puzzle. On Friday I received an email from the US Embassy in Vietnam with my visa code, sans one small detail.

My visa dates were valid starting the first day of orientation and the flights that comply with the Fly America Act arrive in Hanoi at 9:40 pm each night, which means I would miss the first day of orientation. At this point my contact in Vietnam at the Embassy was exploring options to get a new visa, I was calling the travel agency to move the flights, and it was Friday, which means that nobody will be doing business on either side of the pacific for the next two days. This uncertainty and back and forth lasted through Monday afternoon. Despite everybody’s best efforts I will have to arrive the night of the 30^th in Hanoi and miss the first day of orientation (which will be videotaped for me). Unfortunately the first day of orientation is full of lectures from the staff at the US Embassy on topics including politics, economics and sensitive issues in US-Vietnamese relations.

This is perhaps my first real interaction with international communication, or miscommunication. Part of this journey is learning to operate in a new culture with different norms and rhythms. As a result I am trying to learn to go with the flow, which is not natural for me. Adopting a slower and more relaxed lifestyle might be challenging but I can’t really complain about slowing down.

As I near my departure in less than two weeks I am most worried about the teaching. I have never lectured an entire class before and the mechanics of teaching a foreign language are elusive to me at this point. A large part of the orientation is devoted to teaching the ETAs how to teach English to non-native English speakers. That will help, but I am wondering if 2 weeks will be enough to make me an effective lecturer. I think of the professors and teachers who had an impact on me and who were effective in the classroom and I am wondering how they did it. I want my students to feel comfortable to make mistakes and try speaking the language. In a culture where saving face is highly valued and rote learning is the most common lecture method I am wondering how I can get my students to open up, be expressive, communicative and critically analyze the rules and grammar they already know. Plus the thought of writing my own syllabus, midterm, final exam, assignments, lesson plans and managing my own classroom looms large. Given my limited practice executing these tasks Nervous Nelly and Trepidation who took up residence in my head a couple weeks ago are growing more pronounced on a daily basis and will continue to do so until I touchdown.