The past few weeks

Sorry its been so long since I last posted. I have been very busy finishing up my time in Hanoi (I can't believe it's already over) and traveling to Ha Long Bay (pictures near the end).

So first, I'm going to recount my experiences teaching at a gifted high school in Hanoi. The president of my NGO, Oanh (pronounced Wang) has a son in his freshman year at this school, and is close with his teacher. When the teacher found out about me, she asked if I would be willing to come in to give a few talks every week on topics related to America. The first lesson was on the American education system, because many of the students are very interested in studying at a university in the states.

For the first class I brought along Lauren and Jenny with me, to have some help and also because all of us were interested in a new volunteer experience. When we arrived at the classroom, the children were ecstatic to see us, to say the least. After all standing in unison when we entered, they immediately began whispering and giggling and pointing at us, and then quickly took out their cell phones to take pictures of us.

I had prepared a power point on American school, which hooked up to a TV that served as a projector. We started with a quiz on the U.S., and it was very quickly apparent that the children had impressive english skills, and I found that even if I spoke at my normal, fast pace, that they could follow everything I was saying. It was so fun to tell them an interesting fact, because the entire class would literally OOOO and AHHH every time. When I asked them how old they thought I was (their guess was 19) and I told them i was 23, the whole class broke out in disbelieving howls.

Throughout the class we took turns explaining how our grade school system worked, and spent the most time talking about colleges in America, since over half of the class raised their hands when I asked who was thinking about applying to school in the states. We talked about topics we knew most about, so Lauren, who went to a catholic school, covered the differences between public and private school. Jenny talked about her high school in New Jersey and her prom, which was accompanied by a lovely picture from her own prom that I was able to locate. The whole presentation was filled with pictures - thanks to my mom who scanned me a bunch from home. I put in pictures of graduation, swim team, and many other big events associated with school in the US. The kids loved the pictures, especially the one of me when I was five on my first day of school.

At the end of our lecture (nearly two hours), the kids were allowed to ask questions. They all had a lot of very specific questions about the SAT/ACT and top schools. It was very obvious that many of them were pressured by their parents to succeed in the classroom and on these tests so that they may attend a prestigious school in the US. Other children, who seemed interested on their own accord, were more concerned with scholarships, because college in the states could never be a reality for them without significant funding. I also gave my e-mail address to them so that they could ask me more specific questions, which quite a few of them took me up on. It's great to help them, and funny to read their e-mails. One of the girls wants to go to Stanford, so I told her about my brother, who is trying to help her out (although she is looking for a magic formula to get it, which unfortunately doesn't really exist).

The next week I gave the talk on my own about American culture. This was a fun one because I was able to compare and contrast all the differences between Vietnam and the US, and in the process I could also learn more about Vietnamese culture by asking them to elaborate on certain topics. It was also great because I spend a lot of my timing thinking about all the little differences, so it was nice to be able to discuss them in detail to a very rapt audience. However, by the end of the talk I had almost completely lost my voice. Because all the kids liked our first lesson, the teacher asked if she could add another 25 kids, bringing the total children in the classroom to 55. About 70% of the children can easily understand me, but the others who cannot whisper quite loudly as I try to talk over them. After talking for almost 2 hours straight this results in seriously strained vocals.

Our final week Jenny joined me in talking about famous places in America. Simply because of the nature of the talk, we ran out of things to talk about around 20 minutes before the 2 hour mark. Usually this is filled with questions from the children, but I guess our talk didn't stimulate them as much as usual. Jenny and I got pretty desperate and resorted to a few lame games of hang man, a complicated clapping game, and finally, me giving into singing a song for the class after being begged by a few students. The end of the class was great though, because they had bought us gifts to thank us for coming in to teach them. They bought Jenny black and pink shoelaces, had us deliver a funny Asian notebook to Lauren, and gave me a "Loving Cup", which is a mug that changes colors when it is filled with hot water.

Our first lesson. A student e-mailed me this picture taken on her phone. They love the peace sign here, and everywhere else in Asia. It's actually quite addicting, I find myself doing the peace sign way too much in pictures.

The classroom during a break. Every high school student wears a white and blue jacket, and the design is different based on which school you attend.

My gift!

Last Friday was my last day at my NGO CSIP. They ordered a traditional Vietnamese meal for me, which consisted of Vietnamese salad, spring rolls, rice noodles, and a chili sauce.

The spread.

Huong with the sauce.

My dish.
Huong napping after our big meal.

We had a photoshoot later in the day.

Everyone :-)

At the end of the day, we all sat around the couch and they all said such nice things about having me there. They also unveiled their master plan to have me return to Vietnam: having my honeymoon on a nearby beach town and inviting all of them to come along on the vacation. I promised I would try my best to make it happen. The president ended by telling me they all loved me so much, and then they gave me a journal made by disabled children, filled with notes from them wishing me well and thanking for me my time there. At the end it was pretty hard not to cry, but I had my own little speech telling them how inspiring their work was and how lucky I felt to be apart of it. I also gave them some chocolates.

They also took a lot of their own pictures, and one of them took this hilarious picture of me and Huong. I am grinning so much that it looks like my cheeks will split because they are all saying such nice things, and Huong is sitting next to me, with this huge pout on her face. Hopefully I can get it from them soon.

Huong gave me her own gift. She wrote me the cutest note asking me not to forget her, and she also bought me an owl necklace AND she bought Matt a gift too, a man bracelet of sorts. She also wanted to get gifts for my parents and brother, but she said she didn't know what to buy. I had a huge card for her and some gifts as my own as well. We met up again last night, where we took turns reading Harry Potter to each other, which of course inspired us to actually watch the movie. We ate dinner with her mom and sister, and it was really sad to say goodbye to all of them :-(.

Below im posting some last minute pictures I took of our dorm before leaving, in case you were curious.

View across the street.
Our road.

The dorm.
Road leading past our dorm. The dorm is to the right of where the picture cuts off.
Our bedroom. All of our clothes hanging to dry.
Meal room.
The board in our dorm saying bye to us!

A few other random pictures:

Motorbikes carry EVERYTHING here. I never go a day without seeing ten hilarious things attached to a bike. I really wish I was able to take pictures of all of them and make a picture book out of it.

Store on the street selling this picture with no other than B Spears featured in the middle.
Ho Chi Minh's massive mausoleum.
The view I have from the back of Huong's motorbike when she drives me halfway home every evening.

From Sunday to Tuesday this week, we went on a trip to Halong Bay and Cat Ba Island. Halong bay is the most beautiful place I've ever been, everyone should see it once in their life. We went on a tour that took us to Halong from Hanoi (about 4 hours by bus) and then took us to a boat, where we were provided with lunch, cruised through the amazing rock islands, and finally went swimming and then kayaking. We slept on the boat, and then arranged to be transferred to Cat Ba island, where we stayed in Bungalow huts on our private beach. Below are a bunch of pictures to try to capture some of the beauty of the area, but really it is impossible to show just how amazing the scenery is until you are the middle of the bay, swimming around the huge rock pillars in clear seagreen water!



Above are all various pics I took of the bay. Below are pics from kayaking.

Jenny, my kayak partner!
Cove we found.
Floating village - these houses were in the middle of nowhere, so crazy.
More of the village.
Cave we got off at.

Our boat.
top of the boat.

Our second day/night at Cat Ba island, about 40 minutes from Halong bay:

Our beach. It was enclosed by rocks on either side, so only the part I'm facing with camera opened up into the ocean.
Our resort behind the beach.
Lighting candles on the beach at night.

Phew alright that took forever to throw together. Tonight I am taking an over night flight to Seoul, South Korea, to see some of my good friends from college who are teaching english over there. I am very excited to see them. Then, next Thursday I will get to see my parents and their friends the Lythbergs in espana!! So excited for the next few weeks. In May I will spend a weekend in Paris before flying to Douala, Cameroon for my next volunteering adventure. Thanks for reading my blog thus far, and I hope to add a lot of other interesting experiences here.

Also, as of this morning, I have decided to commit to Georgetown for graduate school. In the end, I was actually deciding between Georgetown and a school in Geneva, because Columbia was just too expensive and a little too rigid in their coursework. Geneva is hard to pass up, considering its excellent location for international affairs, but Georgetown can allow me study abroad there for up to a year if I choose. I have developed a slight neurosis trying to decide between schools, and I am so happy to finally be done choosing. Huge thanks to my parents, who patiently sat through all of my agonizing over schools. They have been a huge help and I can't really imagine having more supportive parents :-). Also thanks to my friends who have heard me out on my choices many more times than they would have liked to. All of your advice and opinions really helped me with my final decision. Also thanks to my brother, who has listened to his fair share as well, especially now that we have found eachother on gchat. So, if anyone knows someone looking for a roommate in Washington D.C. for the next year, let me know!