Vietnam - Day 3

Today we went to see the "The Temple of Literature" which had crazy amounts of Korean tourists. Most of the Korean tourists are in huge travel tours. It's slightly entertaining. Plus, Jaclyn, Meghan, Andy & I all like to yell at each other in Korean. One needs to be a little careful with what one says in Korean near the tourists.

I stopped in the gift shop to look for a Vietnam War book, but didn't have any luck. However, I could have bought the new Harry Potter in Vietnamese. I resisted that temptation though.

The temple was very tranquil. It had the works of Confucius, Mencius, and other Confusion disciples. It was built in 1070 to honor Confucius. In 1076 Vietnam's First University was erected near this site. There were things carved into large scrolls on turtles all in stone - I don't know the significance of this, other than that the turtle is very revered and respected in Vietnamese culture.

We had a nice talk in the coutryard with an Australian women. Apparently while in South Africa, she caught malaria. She said it wasn't fun - not that it matters, we don't have the medication for it.

At dinner I started to feel sick. Both Andy and Jaclyn had been feeling ill yesterday. Our theory is that there is something strange in the coffee. It was very VERY strong coffee - and very thick. Tomorrow I'm not drinking any - and I'm not going to let anyone else drink any either. So, I ended up chilling at the hotel while everyone went out. Oh well

Greetings from Vietnam

Well, today is Day 3 in Vietnam. I thought I'd blog and let you guys know how things have been going so far. It's been really interesting. I'm really glad that we decided to come here. Arriving in Hanoi was no problem whatsoever. What really surprised me here was the humidity (must be around 80%-- it's actually raining right now). The temperature has been moderate. I actually got cold today and had to use my spring jacket.

I have been surprised by the Vietnamese people. The travel guides I have read all stated that they would be very pushy. The only pushy people so far are the pedicab drivers, fruit women and booksellers...oh and the restaurant employees. For the most part, everyone leaves us alone.

It's still weird that US dollars can be used here. We haven't figured out the exchange rate yet, but our guess is that it's around 15,000 Vietnamese Dong to $1. But everything is sooo cheap here...breaking a $20 here is like breaking a $100 on a value meal at McDonalds. Luckily I figured this would happen so I didn't get any bills over 20s--- though the airport people tried to give me 100s!!!

Another weird thing - it is winter here. So while I walk around in a skirt and t-shirt, the Vietnamese are wearing scarves, hats, and jackets. They look at us like we are insane-but hey, I'm guessing most of them have never seen snow.

We have already seen multiple Korean restaurants and most of the TV channels in our hotel room are Korean channels. I find this both odd and entertaining at the same time. This morning we watched the Vietnamese version of The Price is Right...it was funny.

French is still commonly used here, even though French occupation ended after the First Indochinese War in 1954. Many of the signs are still in French. There are also French restaurants and "Ici on parle francais" can be seen at many stores. Luckily, I have yet to need my spoken French (which is pretty horrible, but I can still read and write fairly well).

Things I have found here that aren't readily available in Korea: Colgate toothpaste, Tide laundry detergent, Red Bull, a lot of liquors, Tang (though only orange), Clinique beauty supplies, and Juicyfruit and Doublemint gums.

The air is surprisingly clean - considering everyone rides mopes (and I mean everyone). I'm not sure of the current population, but in 2000 Vietnam had 80 million people.

Vietnamese appears to be difficult to learn how to speak. It has 6 tones, a ton of consonants & vowels & there are dipthongs (combos of 2 vowels) & triphthongs (combos of 3 vowels). Haven't learned how to say anything yet, which is sad.

The fruit is amazing. Pineapple, papaya, mango, multiple types of bananas, starfruit , and things I don't even know the name of, can be found everywhere. Carambola, durian, green dragon, jackfruit, longan, mangosteen, pomelo, rambuttan, star-apples...those are the names of the fruits I have never heard of before (taken from a Vietnamese phrase book). Oh, and a heads up...Vietnamese wine is NOT WINE!!!!

Ok, that's all I have time for right now... hope you are all well!

Vietnam - Day 1

We caught the 7:00am bus from Suwon to Incheon International Airport. Our flight left at 10:15am and we arrived in Hanoi at 1:15pm (Hanoi is 2 hours behind South Korea). We decided to take a $2/person mini-bus into Hanoi. We had to wait FOREVER for the bus to leave as it waited until it was plump full of people.

On the way we got our first glimpse of Vietnam. All allong the 4-lane "highway" were rice fields. There were water buffalo plowing the fields. Throughout our drive the water buffalo would wander onto the road. There were groups of weird brick buildings. They had no windows, no walls and were empty. It was strange - I think they were new buildings being constructed, but they looked like ghost towns. Oh-- we also saw about 15 piglets crammed in a cage on the back of a moped. So cute, too bad they were probably on their way to the butcher.

The mini-bus driver asked us if we had a hotel and like stupid naive tourists, we said "no." We wanted to be dropped off near Hoan Kiem Lake, but instead we got dropped off at someone's brother-in-law's hotel. We didn't want to be there, so we wandered towards the lake, which is funny 'cause we didn't have a clue as to where the lake was! Eventually we asked and got turned in the right direction. We looked at a couple of places before settling on the "Thanh Binh" hotel at $12/night. To get to the reception area of our hotel, you have to walk through a clothing store- it's kinda funny, but it's cheap and I get my own bed (though I'm sharing a room with Meghan).

After finding a hotel, we went to get food. We ordered a TON of food and it only cost us $22 total! After dinner we walked around Hoan Kiem Lake. Since it was pretty early, we decided to go somewhere for drinks. This is where the Vietnamese waitress recommended the Vietnamese "wine." Once again, this is NOT WINE...more like bad soju or cheap vodka. Exhausted by the day of travelling, we went to bed early!

Winter break!

Well, winter break in Korea has officially begun. My school decided this year that they weren't going to hold a camp. Luckily, my friend Jaclyn's (the one who dressed up as me for Halloween) school decided they could afford to hire a 2nd native speaker for their camp. So, all of this week I've been teaching at Jaclyn's all-boys middle school. Things are going pretty well, the only downfall is that I live about an hour away from Jaclyn's school, so that means I've been staying with her. Neither of us have a had a roommate in over a year, needless to say, neither of us have never had to share a bed w/our roommate either! It's been going pretty well though. I sleep here (at J's) Sunday and Monday nights. I go home Tuesday after Taekwondo to make sure my apartment is still standing and that my pipes aren't frozen. Wednesday I don't teach because I thought I would like 1 day off during the week...and some time at home^^ Wednesday nights and Thursday nights I sleep at J's and then Friday after camp I plan on going home.

Camp is from 9-12 every morning. There are 2 classes. I teach each class for 70 minutes. My theme is "Harry Potter." Each class has 15 boys in it and they speak excellent English.

Today we ordered Dominos and spent the evening "planning" my lesson for tomorrow by watching "Harry Potter 3." I'm showing the Boggart scene to my kids then making them write about what most scares them and how they would change it to make it funny--- yeah, I'm an awesome teacher, aren't I.

Oh...I forgot to mention our Vietnam Visa problems. So...American's need a Visa to enter Vietnam (you don't if you are visiting Korea though ). We dropped our visa information off at the travel agent Dec. 28th. My friend Andy called there yesterday to see if he could pick up our finished passports only to find out that the travel agent sent them in YESTERDAY! It takes 6 business days to process and mail it back! That means the earliest we will be getting our passports back is next Wednesday (WE LEAVE NEXT SATURDAY). So, Andy has started freaking out that we aren't going to get our visas and our passports in time. And while that may be the case, I have decided just to go with the flow, considering there's nothing we can do about it anyways.

Well...I think that's all the updates for now!

Annyeong!