School Started...

So today was the first official day of school. I had to be there at 8:00am and stayed until 5:00pm. In reality, I basically did nothing all day but I was there for a long time...lame sauce. First, I was supposed to have the morning free to plan I suppose. However, another new American teacher was sick so they asked if I could just sit in his class and substitute and basically just make sure the kids didn't break anything. It was definitely easy but man, I forgot how boring school can be. The kids are crazy. I guess I expected Vietnamese students to be different from American students but they are not. As soon as I said they had free time they all took out iPads and iPhones and were instantly engaged in their technology. They talked and goofed around a lot as well. The only thing that I didn't like was that they all speak Vietnamese to each other so I have no idea what they are saying. They could easily just be sitting there trash-talking me and I'd just be smiling away, clueless.

My actual first class was English-Language Arts 6. The class is just two little 11-year olds. One of them is super tiny and doesn't talk much but when I asked him questions he smiles and says one-word answers. The other kid LOVES talking. He is actually pretty funny. Out of every student and most Vietnamese staff members I have met so far, this kid speaks the best English. I still kind of suck at pronouncing his name and ironically the other kid in the class, whose English is inferior, has an American name I can call him.

My second class is Language Arts II. This consists of varying grades of high school students. These kids are much more unruly than my two little 6th graders. I asked them to do a little intro writing assignment - tell me about your summer - and their were numerous complaints right off the bat. Apparently other teachers had already had them do this (we aren't very creative, clearly). However, I wanted to see their English writing ability so I made them do it again. I feel like I am not going to be the nicest teacher ever. Oh well! Hopefully I can just get them to listen to me and do their work.

I don't mind having to teach these two classes but I am definitely glad I did not go into teaching...it's kind of a lot of work! I don't want to make lesson plans everyday! I will probably just make them go through textbook each day ... so my class will be mega-boring, sorry kids!

Anyway, besides that, my weekend was quite fun. On Saturday I went to District 1 (the happening district) with Scott and his friend Kelly. Kelly is Vietnamese so she brought us to a vegetarian restaurant for lunch and ordered for us and such - it's very handy having Vietnamese friends. I have no idea what we ate but it was mostly really good. Kelly and Scott were quite hungover from the night before but nonetheless decided we should go split a bottle of wine at this cute little cafe (obviously it would help!). In the mere week that I've been here I've already become even more of a cheapskate because paying 450,000d for wine seemed pretty outrageous to me. In reality, that only equals about $21 which is still pretty cheap for a bottle of wine at a restaurant. We ended up splitting three bottles - we tried each of the red wines they had. Considering in Maine I typically buy $3 bottles of wine, I'd say it was pretty good! Kelly's friend Adrien joined us for the third bottle so for three bottles we each only had to pay about $20...not bad I guess!

On Sunday I did some quintessential sightseeing with a young Vietnamese girl I met. She took me to the key historical sites, as you can see in my pictures! She speaks very good English and tried to help me learn some Vietnamese phrases. Again, I was laughed at for my pronunciation but she assured me people would still understand me. Oh well, it's not like their accents are perfect! I thought it was funny that she found Australian and British accents to be the same. However, I'm sure if two Vietnamese people spoke with different accents I wouldn't be able to tell ... I probably wouldn't be able to tell if they were speaking different languages, lets be serious.

Considering it's the rainy season I don't feel it rains all that much. Maybe I have just been lucky so far? The weather has been very nice, hot and humid, but nice. I thought the school would be air conditioned but only some rooms are. You kind of get used to it though. When I first got to school I was dripping sweat but then again, so is everyone else! So it isn't that awkward. So as of yet, teaching isn't my favorite but I suppose I can deal with the 2hours a day that that happens. I look forward to when kids actually come to me with college application questions and things like that! I feel much more prepared for that. I was told things are a little crazy the first week or so of school so I should just go with the flow. Literally that is this school's staff motto, be flexible and go with it. Allllright.

 This is just a mall food court but I feel like they're so nice...

 There was a parade of people going buy on motorbikes with yellow shirts and red flags ... I didn't capture it well though.

 4D movie ... I tried this out, the moving seats shake you SO hard I thought I was going to fly out of it.

 Pretty school across the street.

 I kind of forget what this place is ... ummm but it was touristy.

 Wedding! And I really wanted to photo-bomb that group in the back.

 My tour guide and her ride...

 Notre Dame Cathedral

 

 Park

 Inside the Reunification Palace

 Outside the Reunification Palace

Reunification Palance

Coffee and work :/ blehhh but the coffee is so addicting.