Settling In

The past few weeks, for the most part, have been more of the same. I’m continuing to get to know my students, my colleagues, and the town. Overall, I’m enjoying myself. As I’ve mentioned before, Cao Bang really seems to be a small and tight-knit community. Everyone I meet does their best to make me feel welcome and to get to know me. As a result, I’ve been invited into the homes of students for dinner, been on many bike rides with students, shared meals with colleagues and community members, and played lots of basketball. I’ve loved getting to meet new people and I continue to be impressed by the friendliness of most people here. A few highlights include: going to breakfast and coffee this past weekend with a local doctor who interrupted me while I was running to say that he had studied in Hawaii and that he wanted to get to know me, joining one of my classes for a lunch that they cooked themselves, and befriending the owner of the local pizza shop (for Vietnam, it’s pretty good).

The flip side to all of these newfound friends is that most of the relationships feel superficial. It’s not that they don’t mean well, of course they do, but there are a number of factors that I feel have been really inhibiting my ability to develop deep relationships.  With my colleagues, the language barrier prevents me from carrying a conversation (let alone developing a relationship) with all but two of my fellow teachers (and I feel closer with those two than the others, though teachers are very busy between school and their families).  With my students, the age difference is difficult, but they are also incredibly busy with school (7am-4:30pm and sometimes night classes). However, hanging out with students in the little time that they do have has been great and I’m enjoying getting to know some of them better.

The time commitment of the students has also made it hard to organize any activities outside of school. Part of my job description is to facilitate extra-curricular opportunities for the students like an English Club or American Movie Night, etc. The students’ lack of free time makes this difficult and potentially impossible.  The school is supposed to be helping me to organize an English Club that will begin soon, but I’m not holding my breath—a lesson that I’ve learned repeatedly here. In the meantime, I’ve given a few students The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snickett, a book that I loved when I was younger, and have been discussing it with them as they make their way through it.

Teaching continues to be fun and interesting, but the school decided to change my schedule so that I’m teaching 18 different classes (every class in the school) for 45 minutes once per week.  This was in contrast to my first few weeks when I taught 18 lessons to 15 different groups of students (I taught the English majors twice per week).  Now, not only am I teaching about 600 students, but I’m only spending 45 minutes with them per week. I really don’t feel like this schedule is a good use of my time, or of the students’ time, and I’ve voiced my concerns but to no avail so far (I have hope that it will change back next week).  Once again, though, I’m not holding my breath, mostly because I can’t express my concerns to the “decision-makers” because they don’t speak English well enough. That being said, I’m starting to sense that some of my classes are making some progress and it’s always fun when students surprise me with ability that I didn’t think they had.

Despite plenty of frustrations, I’m really looking forward to the next few months. I’ve established a level of comfort here and have settled into a nice routine. I’m also hoping to travel to some of the famous places around Cao Bang as I haven’t gotten outside of the town since I’ve been here. In addition, I’m excited about trying to work out the kinks in my teaching responsibilities. Mostly, though, I’m looking forward to developing the relationships that I have made (however superficial they may feel now).

Speaking of relationships, ever since I found out that I would be coming to Vietnam, people told me that this would be a “life-changing” experience. I never knew exactly what those people were talking about, and I guess they didn’t necessarily have anything specific in mind either, but what I did know was that they would prove to be correct. As I’ve gone through this experience so far (and I guess it also helps to have plenty of time with only my thoughts), if I’ve noticed anything that has been profoundly “life-changing” it has been the way in which I approach relationships here. Mostly, I think that as an outsider, I have reason to (and do) feel vulnerable sometimes, especially when I meet new people. But this vulnerability shines a light on those who are just genuinely nice people.

For example, on one of my first days here, a man basically assaulted me in the street after he had stopped me to talk and shake my hand (while true, it sounds worse than it was, but it makes the story better—the rest, I promise, won’t be embellished).  As I was running away from the guy with whom I had the encounter (who was following me), and after ducking into a store and successfully losing him, I was walking past another store and looking over my shoulder to make sure that I had gotten away when I heard someone say “Hello.” I turned around and a different man was extending his hand to shake mine. I’ve never been so hesitant to say hello or shake someone’s hand in my life. I was terrified, my adrenaline was pumping, and I came very close to just ignoring him and walking away. I didn’t and as it turned out the man just wanted to say hi. As we were standing in the street talking, he eventually invited me to eat dinner with him some time. It was a contrast that I’ll never forget.

To borrow a sports saying, my head is “on a swivel” here like never before and I’ve found myself skeptical of some people whom I've met. What I’ve realized, though, is that the smallest and most seemingly insignificant gestures can transform someone in my mind from potential assailant to new friend. So, I’m not quite sure how that’s “life-changing,” but if nothing else, it’s clearer to me that it doesn’t take much to be nice and when you are you’ll often have no idea that you were.

Finally Teaching

Since I last wrote, I've continued to get more comfortable in Cao Bang.  Meeting new people and discovering new places to eat, places to hang out, and things to do has been a lot of fun.  Two weeks ago, I spent the week observing classes.  I only saw one 45 minute class a day (which left me with a ton of time with little to do), but the observations served as a nice introduction to the teaching styles of my co-workers, the classroom environment that students were used to, and the level of English among the students.  I was not surprised to see that the teachers, for the most part, simply did exactly what their textbooks told them to do.  There was little student participation, little student-to-student interaction, and no critical thinking.  The students would listen to a recording and fill in some blanks or practice saying a scripted conversation and that was pretty much the extent of the "learning" that went on. There is also a huge amount of time wasted on things that just don't matter.  For example, for some reason handwriting is really important and even accounted for in students' grades.  Another example of something that doesn't matter is the enormous focus on pronunciation. Obviously English speakers need to pronounce things in such a way that another person can understand, but beyond that, "correct" pronunciation not only doesn't exist (there are a million different accents and people pronounce things differently), but it is totally unnecessary. The goal for students should be the ability to communicate as opposed to sounding like a native speaker (whatever that even means). In addition, though this also wasn't a surprise, the teachers used way too much Vietnamese in their classrooms.  Granted, sometimes and in some classrooms it's appropriate and necessary to use the native language, but repeating every direction in Vietnamese only reassures the students that they can just tune you out when you're speaking in English!  The teachers were not only unwilling to explain things or rephrase things in English, but most of them simply can't. Almost none of the English teachers are anywhere near being fluent and there are students in each class whose English skills are far better than their teachers.  Needless to say, this is a HUGE problem. And not only is it a problem for the students, but it's a problem for me when it comes to communicating anything to most of my co-workers.  As a result, scheduling issues, concerns of mine, expectations about teaching, and everything else that I need to talk to people about is very hard and often impossible.  This has been really frustrating, but on the flip side, ignorance is bliss and it gives me an excuse to just play dumb and do things however I want. The one exception to all of this is my direct host Tuyet with whom I do not struggle to communicate and who teaches with a more interactive style. It's definitely refreshing to be able to work with her and my experience here would be infinitely more difficult without her here. My final observation was that the physical construction of the classrooms, also not surprisingly, reflects the style of teaching.  Permanent desks are squeezed into two rows in classrooms barely big enough to fit them with one small aisle in the middle. Obviously, this limits the ability for any teacher to do any activity that requires the students to stand up, let alone move around!

Watching the classes combined with ample free time also allowed me to take some time to think about and prepare for my first week of teaching.  I should also note that until Wednesday or Thursday of the week in which I was observing, I didn't have my teaching schedule for this past week!  When I did finally get my schedule, it was only for one week so I didn't know whether I would have the same students consistently or whether I would have a completely different schedule every week (although once again, I only know my schedule for the upcoming week, it appears that I'll have the same classes each week).  Anyway, I'm teaching 18 45 minute lessons each week to 15 different groups of students.  I teach the section of English majors from each grade twice per week (6 lessons) and then I have three sections of non-English majors per grade per week (12 lessons). All this means that I'm teaching hundreds of students which will make it difficult to measure progress, build relationships, and give more individualized attention. My suspicion is that they wanted to expose as many students as possible to me as a "native speaker." This brings challenges, but it also allows me to meet more people and to work with some really talented students who happen to major in subjects other than English. While it's frustrating that I was told that I would be teaching mostly students majoring in English and that's turned out to be far from true, I've learned that the best English speakers aren't necessarily the ones who major in English.  The English students are more consistent in their ability (sections of English majors have less of a range of ability within the class), but they aren't necessarily the most developed. Anyway, teaching was fun and definitely challenging, but I think it went pretty well. The biggest things I think I need to work on are: time management, balancing how much I rely on the textbook versus how much I just do my own thing, making sure everyone participates, measuring progress, and dealing with a wide range of abilities (both from class to class and within each class). An example of the latter is that one highlight of the week was having a great discussion about the positive and negative effects of economic reforms, but I also walked into another class and said (probably a little too quickly) "How's everybody today?" and they looked at me as if they didn't have the faintest clue as to what I had just said.  Overall, though, students seem to be less shy than I was expecting and many of them are also much more advanced than I was expecting.

It was also interesting to have my co-workers observing my classes this past week.  I'm really thankful that they took the time to come to my classes and they gave me some great feedback on the students and my teaching. However, in a few classes (two teachers in particular) would almost translate everything that I said.  Not only that, but they would often sit in the back and give students the answers to the questions that I was asking them. It really blew my mind that they actually thought that they were helping the students and, in fact, the students really didn't need their translations or help with the answers.  This was just another reminder of this environment where getting the right answer is all that matters.  It's really a shame that failure does not seem to be seen as part of the learning process here. Teachers come down HARD on students who don't get the right answers or act out of line and it's clearly surprising to both students and teachers when I try to embrace students' failures in the classroom. What those teachers who translated my directions don't understand is that I want some students to turn to the person next to them and ask their friend what I just said. I want to be able to rephrase directions until students can understand, I want students to disagree on answers, and I want them to think for themselves. While I probably need to do a better job of politely expressing my displeasure with my co-workers, I'm hoping that this does not continue to be a problem.

Part of my job is supposed to include organizing opportunities for cultural exchange outside of the classroom.  While this is proving difficult (getting things done in Vietnam is just generally difficult), it's in the works. I am trying to revive what seems to be an inactive English club and hopefully host some American movie nights. We'll see how it goes, but I really hope that I can make these things happen.

In my free time, I've been hanging out with both teachers and students and just exploring by myself. It has and I'm sure will continue to be difficult to build close relationships here.  Teachers are mostly busy with work and their family lives (not to mention me not being able to communicate with them), and the 4-6 year age gap between my students and me isn't ideal. However, many people have gone out of their way to look out for my well-being. Teachers often invite me to have meals with them (I've seen some interesting dishes--congealed buffalo blood on one occasion and bees on another) and students have shown me around town and included me in many activities. 

All in all, I'm really enjoying being here and continue to be thankful for all of the incredible experiences as well as the rewarding challenges.

The view from one of my classrooms. Also, I live just behind the building on the far left.

One of the rivers that runs through the town

A fun activity that I did with my students

The other river that runs through the town

One of my students took me to play badminton--never have I felt so athletically inadequate. These guys are really good! It was nice of them to include me, but I had no business being on the court with them.

Another Move

My time in Hanoi flew by and it's hard to believe that I've now moved into my new home for the next 9 months in Cao Bang.  I definitely felt like I was starting to feel really comfortable in Hanoi just in time to leave.  And while Cao Bang has been amazing so far, all of my fellow ETAs (whom I've neglected to write about in prior posts--apologies for that) and I got really close over the last month and it was disappointing to say goodbye to everyone (I was also the last one to leave).

The last few days in Hanoi were really a highlight for me.  As soon as orientation ended, all of us ETAs headed out to a neighboring province where we had been invited to the wedding party of one of the wonderful women who works at the hotel at which we were staying.  Not only did we feel so privileged to be invited, but it was a really fun and culturally informative opportunity.  

For the second half of our last week in Hanoi, my good friend Frank and his girlfriend Talia were in town enjoying the last leg of their 10 week tour around the world!  I got to spend two great nights with Frank (unfortunately Talia was sick for the second) which provided a much-needed breath of fresh air after a month of just about everything being new and foreign. 

On Saturday, I went to the Hoa Lo prison, otherwise sarcastically known as the "Hanoi Hilton."  The prison was built under the French occupation and housed Vietnamese political prisoners/revolutionaries.  During the "American War," as the Vietnamese call it, the prison was home to American pilots who had been shot down--including, famously, John McCain.  Interestingly, the entire museum seemed to be a comparison between the vicious French treatment of Vietnamese prisoners and the warm and hospitable conditions under which the Vietnamese permitted the Americans to live.  I'll leave my observations to that, and I'm overall glad that I went, but it leaves much to be desired.  I admittedly don't know a lot about what went on at the prison, but I will say that the exhibits certainly fall short of a balanced depiction of historical facts.

I really wanted to try to use my last few days in Hanoi to see all of the tourist sites that I hadn't gotten a chance to see yet.  So, on Sunday morning, my friend Ophir and I set out to see the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum.  When we arrived, though, it seemed as though all of Vietnam was standing in line to pay their respects to their deceased leader.  This past Tuesday was Vietnam's National Day and we soon learned that many Vietnamese travel to Hanoi to visit the mausoleum each year on that weekend.  Ophir and I walked for at least 20 minutes and we never saw the end of the line as it wound out of the complex and down blocks of roadway.  I'll have to visit the mausoleum on another trip to the capital city.  

That night, though, Ophir and I did get to the famous water puppets show.  The water puppet show is a traditional Vietnamese art and is basically what it sounds like--people wading in the water behind a screen controlling puppets.  The puppet show was accompanied by traditional Vietnamese music and I would highly recommend catching a performance to any visitor to Hanoi.

Wednesday was the big travel day.  And by big, I mean really, really long.  My host here in Cao Bang Chi Tuyet (Chi is a pronoun for "older sister" and it's supposed to be used when addressing any woman who is older than you by 12 years or fewer--basically the equivalent of Ms.) travelled to Hanoi to pick me up and we left for the bus station at about 10:30am.  We got on the bus (which we almost missed because it left early) and set off for Cao Bang.  The bus ride was quite the experience.  I think I counted about 19 real seats and at one point I'm pretty sure that there were close to 30 people on the bus!  We were picking people up along the way, cramming them wherever they could fit.  Apparently, since it had been a holiday weekend, many people had travelled to Hanoi and needed to get back to their hometowns.  The ride was beautiful, but it took about 7.5 hours so I was really glad to get off the bus when we finally arrived in Cao Bang just after 6pm.  

I was wowed by all of my first impressions of Cao Bang.  First of all, the town itself is much bigger than I was expecting.  By no means is it big or would I describe it as a city, but I was expecting a lot less in terms of people, stores, restaurants, etc.  The town is also really beautiful as it is surrounded on all sides by mountains.  In addition, the room with which the school has provided me has far exceeded my expectations.  I'll have to post pictures another time, though, because there are some men working to install a door right now.  

Although the town is bigger than I thought, there's a very tight-knit community here.  However, I discovered this through a pretty embarrassing episode.  I went out to buy some water last night but the store had run out (I think).  I tried to communicate with the woman who ran the store and who, I think, was offering to sell me water that she had boiled herself, but it was a complete failure and I didn't end up buying anything.  This morning, though, all of the teachers knew that I had gone to buy water and was unsuccessful.

Another highlight of Cao Bang has been its people.  They have gone above and beyond to make sure that I feel welcomed here.  They have taken me out to lunches and dinner, invited me into their homes for dinner, and shown me around the town.  I spent all of Thursday afternoon with Chi Tuyet (who speaks very good English and has worked amazingly hard to make sure that I am comfortable and feel welcomed here) and another English teacher who showed me all of the grocery stores and markets where I could buy things (I even saw Heinz ketchup in one of the stores).  Then, yesterday was the official opening ceremonies to mark the beginning of the new school year.  School has been in session for about a month already, but for whatever reason, the opening ceremony was yesterday.  Anyway, the ceremony was really, really nice and very professionally executed.  Both students and teachers sang songs and performed dances in front of the rest of their classmates and teachers.  There were a lot of speeches made and it was overall a really joyous and exciting event.  

I have also been surprised at the level of English among the students.  Most adults here speak no English, but while I haven't interacted with all of the students whom I'll be teaching, I have met a handful who speak very, very good English.  That discovery was really exciting for me and I hope that I continued to be impressed by the students' speaking abilities.

One thing for which I thought I was prepared, but has still caught me off-guard is the celebrity treatment that I'm being given.  Not only did all of the students want to take pictures with me at the ceremony, but political officials and other important people from around town came to the celebration and to the lunch afterwards so that they could meet me and talk with me.  Also, I've noticed that when I walk around, everyone (even people unaffiliated with the school) stops their conversations and points me out to say hi.  It's actually really funny because they often speak to each other in Vietnamese as if to say "there's the English teacher from America," but little do they know that I know enough words in Vietnamese to understand when they're talking about me.   I'm so honored that everyone is excited to have me here, but I find myself having to walk a very fine and difficult line.  On the one hand, I feel very undeserving of the attention and it often makes me uncomfortable, but on the other hand, I don't feel like I can reject it for fear of embarrassing or offending anyone.  In addition, I am trying very hard not to let this kind of treatment get out of hand by politely refusing offers for things and treatment that would be totally unnecessary. 

That's all for now.  Tonight is the Mid-Autumn Festival which is a traditional festival for kids.  The festival is supposedly on the night on which the moon appears closest to the earth and is said to date back as many as 20,000 years.  I'll report back on the celebration in due time. 

All the best,

Jonathan 

American Pilot's uniform in Hoa Lo Prison

Water Puppet Show

The puppeteers after the show

The school decorated for the opening-day ceremonies

Students performing a dance at the ceremony

I must've taken hundreds of these photos with students

Chi Tuyet and I (she is wearing a traditional Vietnamese dress called an Ao Dai--pronounced ow zai)

One side of the schoolhouse from the courtyard

Another side of the school

Another side

Panoramic view of the school buildings/yard (sorry about the sun)

Orientation and Weekend Excursions

Hello again from Hanoi.  Life is still good here and it has been filled with meeting new people, trying new foods, exploring northern Vietnam, and trying to learn as much about teaching and Vietnamese culture as I possibly can.  My time in Hanoi has gone by quickly.  It's hard to imagine that I've already been here for three weeks and that in just a week and a half I'll be moving up to Cao Bang to begin teaching.  Quite a lot has happened since I last posted, so I'll try to organize this post by topic.

Orientation

Our weeks have been filled with a combination of teacher training in the mornings and Vietnamese lessons each afternoon.  Learning how to teach (or should I say, trying to learn how to teach) has been a very difficult process.  There's so much thought and so many different considerations that go into planning each component of every lesson.  I am quickly learning that as a student I completely took for granted the ways in which activities in the classroom related to each other, served specific purposes, and accomplished very defined goals and objectives.  I don't mean to say that I didn't appreciate the preparation of my teachers, but learning about lesson planning has given me a much greater sense of the reasoning behind many common classroom practices and methodologies.  

Learning how to teach has been made especially difficult given the fact that we have not been given much information on our schools or the levels of our future students.  While this largely seems to be a cultural issue, I think that our time would have been even better spent if we had more of an understanding of the environments in which we will be teaching (more on the cultural aspect of this later).

One major challenge presented itself last Thursday when we were given the chance to teach a model class with actual Vietnamese high school students.  I prepared my lesson plan, giving it quite a bit of thought and several modifications, but within five minutes of actually teaching, I realized that the activities that I had planned were far too advanced for the group of students whom I was teaching.  I decided to scrap my lesson plan and basically "wing-it" from there.  While I was happy that I was able to adapt on-the-fly, the experience taught me a valuable lesson about preparing for classes and the importance of always having a back-up plan.  

It has become abundantly clear that there is a serious lack of emphasis placed on critical thinking skills in the Vietnamese education system.  Students are taught in a very traditional manner, often having to memorize what they learn and simply regurgitate it on exams.  Not surprisingly, teachers almost always teach in a lecture style and straight from their textbooks.  While there used to be and, no doubt, still are many schools in the United States that follow this traditional method of teaching and learning, we were all surprised by the apparent shyness of the students, the almost uniform resistance to participating in class, and the visible discomfort when interacting one-on-one with the teacher.  Clearly, some of the shyness and discomfort was due to never having met us before, but the experience really showed us the importance of building trust with our students and creating a welcoming and comfortable classroom environment.  While I have always felt incredibly thankful to have gone to lower, middle, and high school at an institution that places such value on critical thinking, the free expression of ideas, and close relationships between students and teachers, never have I seen tangible proof, to this extent, of the importance of those ideals.

I hope that I don't seem too negative about my experience teaching the sample class.  Although it was an incredible challenge, it gave me the perspective that I needed before I begin to teach full-time.  Being in front of a classroom and interacting with students was fun and reminded me about what this job and the mission of this program are all about--building relationships.  When you sit in a classroom all day and learn about teaching it becomes very easy to lose the sense of connection to the reason that we're all here.  Teaching the sample class allowed me to regain that sense of connection and to get more excited about the job that lies ahead.

Weekends

The first weekend that we were here we decided to go to Ha Long Bay.  One of the most iconic places in Vietnam, Ha Long Bay sits about three hours southeast of Hanoi in the Quang Ninh province.  We expected our trip to be beautiful, but the scenery far exceeded anything that we had imagined.  Ha Long Bay is known for its odd rock formations that protrude from the water and are scattered throughout the bay.  We spent the first day kayaking, swimming, hiking, and hanging out on the small ship on which we spent the night.  The next day we explored a famous cave in one of the mountains in the bay and then headed back to Hanoi.  For anyone who is traveling to Vietnam or even to Southeast Asia, Ha Long Bay is a must!

Last weekend, Fulbright organized a trip for us to the Mai Chau Valley.  The Mai Chau district is about  four hours southwest of Hanoi in the Hoa Binh province and, as such, the trip served as our introduction to the mountainous and rural regions of northern Vietnam.  We stayed at a beautiful resort and spent Saturday and Sunday bike riding through the rice paddies and exploring the Thai villages (the Thai community is one of the 53 ethnic minorities in Vietnam).  

This weekend, I had the opportunity to stay with a host family in a suburb of Hanoi.  The family was incredibly nice and I really enjoyed the opportunity to see what life was like for their family.  The host mother cooked some amazing food and I got to spend a lot of time talking to the father about life in Vietnam and the relationship between Vietnam and the United States.  Since he works at the American Embassy as an advisor to American Political Officers, and often, high level American visitors, he spoke perfect English and had a unique perspective on the relationship between our two countries.

Culture

I am very much still trying to learn about and adapt to the Vietnamese way of life.  People here are, for the most part, incredibly friendly.  They seem to genuinely care about their fellow citizens.  For example, on Friday night, the hotel staff threw us a big party at which they cooked us a huge dinner and then rented out a room in a nearby bar for Karaoke (which for some reason, definitely unbeknownst to me, is a Vietnamese obsession).  We all had an amazing time and it was so nice of the hotel staff to treat us to such a nice night.  I should also note that as Americans, the Vietnamese are even more concerned about making sure that we have a positive experience here.  Interestingly, I have yet to feel any war-related resentment about being an American.  The Vietnamese have a remarkably admirable attitude that seems to be a combination of forgiveness and a desire to put the past behind them.  

The younger generation in Vietnam (or what we've seen of them and been told about them so far) has a palpable hunger for productivity and a real desire to connect in a more meaningful way to the world around them.  This is not to say that Vietnam has been or is disconnected, but for a country that, until about 40 years ago, struggled for over a thousand years with wars and occupations, there is an opportunity now for Vietnam to grow, prosper, and connect, that did not, until recently, exist.  The sense that I've gotten so far (which is admittedly limited) is that the Vietnamese recognize this opportunity and are making strong efforts to seize it.

On the flip side, getting things done, getting questions answered directly, and getting information has proven very difficult.  For example, although I am supposed to start teaching in about two weeks, I still do not have an academic calendar, a schedule of the classes that I'll be teaching, or any information on my students.  Not only do people seem to dodge responsibility for delivering on requests or for solving problems, but they often do not have the power, information, or organizational structure to do so.  This way of doing things is good in some ways and bad in others, but is often incredibly frustrating for me as a foreigner and will definitely take some getting used to. 

Despite these challenges, life here has been new, exciting, and lots of fun.  Anyway, I look forward to many more new experiences and adventures in Vietnam in the coming weeks and months and I'll do my best to keep you updated!

View of Ha Long Bay from lookout point

Our rooms at the resort in Mai Chau

Sunset on Ha Long Bay

Rock formations in Ha Long Bay

Biking through the rice paddies in Mai Chau

Our resort in Mai Chau

Thai woman weaving by hand

Traditional house on stilts in a Thai village

I came all the way to an ethnic village in Vietnam to find this!

The Start of Orientation

After a very long trip, four of my fellow ETAs and I arrived in Hanoi on Saturday night.  We were immediately greeted by the staff at our hotel (all of whom already knew our names) and shown to our rooms where we all got some much needed sleep.  On Sunday, those of us who had already arrived spent our day exploring downtown Hanoi.  Some highlights of the day included a trip to a cafe that overlooks Hoan Kiem lake which sits in the middle of the city, trying Vietnamese Egg Coffee (a sweet cappuccino sort of drink that is made by somehow whipping an egg into a cup of coffee) at the cafe, walking around the lake, and visiting a huge cathedral.  My first impressions of Hanoi were extremely positive.  Vietnam's capital city is a place rooted in history and tradition that is rapidly modernizing.  From old women selling fruit on the street outside of a KFC to skyscrapers that overlook the 19th century temple that sits in the middle of the lake, the juxtaposition between the old and the new is everywhere.  

One thing that any visitor to Hanoi must quickly learn to embrace is the traffic.  To say that there are no rules of the road in Hanoi is an understatement (and quite literally so, given that it is not uncommon to see motorbikes and even cars on the sidewalk).  Cars and bikes drive wherever they want whenever they want.  The only common theme about the traffic seems to be that drivers try to avoid hitting pedestrians and other vehicles.  Needless to say, given that there are virtually no lulls in the traffic, this makes crossing the street an exhilarating endeavor.  For any westerner, it feels as though you are putting your life on the line every time you cross the street.  The prevailing strategy seems to be to simply look straight ahead, walk out into the street in front of the oncoming motorbikes (you aren't supposed to walk in front of cars or busses), and walk across the street at an even pace.  The key is not to stop, speed up, or slow down because drivers swerve around you based on the speed at which they see you walking.  Apparently, you also aren't supposed to make eye contact with any drivers because doing so may give them the idea that you are aware of them and might therefore yield to them.  In addition to crossing the street, riding in a taxi gives you a great appreciation for the skill of Vietnamese driving.  It's almost like all of the drivers are just playing one big continuous game of "chicken."  

Aside from playing in the traffic and exploring the city, yesterday was our first day of official orientation.  We spent the day being briefed by embassy officials on: the Vietnamese political system, the Vietnamese economic system, U.S. interests in Vietnam, health, safety, and security in Vietnam, and the Vietnamese education system.  We were very lucky to be able to meet with all of the State Department officials and I found them all to be very interesting and informative.  While each of the briefings claimed particular focal points, I found there to be a common theme within each.  Overall, it seems that while Vietnam has slowly recovered from an extremely long history of occupation, war, and conflict, they are beginning to think very critically about their up-and-coming role in both Southeast Asia and around the world.  Due, in part, to an extremely young population, excellent and rapidly developing diplomatic relations with the United States, strong relations with other countries around the world (particularly in Western Europe and Southeast Asia), and an electric sense of opportunity and ambition, Vietnam is currently on the cusp of becoming a major player in both geopolitics and the global economy.  What's clear is that, right now, the country is going through a period of intense introspection and while its future remains to be seen, both the Americans and the Vietnamese have high hopes and expectations for an extremely bright future for Vietnam. 

Today, we began what will be our regular schedule for the rest of the orientation: teaching lessons in the morning and Vietnamese lessons in the afternoon.  More on those parts of the orientation to come!

On the way to the cafe, we had to walk through a silk shop and up through, what we think, is someone's house

Vietnamese Egg Coffee

Hoan Kiem Lake

French Cathedral

Much to my surprise, the O's were on in Vietnam, too

Heading Off

It's hard to believe that in just 36 hours I'll be on my way to Vietnam where I'll live for the next 10 months.  My name is Jonathan Hettleman and I recently graduated from Johns Hopkins University where I studied Political Science and English.  I have always seen law school in my future, but while I was at Hopkins and thinking about what I wanted to do next, I realized that the best time to work and travel abroad would be in the year after I graduated.  So, I decided to apply for a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship (ETA) in Vietnam and after an application process that took about 9 months I found out that I had been accepted.

Since having been awarded the scholarship, the most frequent question that I have been asked has been, "Why Vietnam?"  The answer, while true, is fairly boring but since you may now be wondering too, I'll share.  First of all, Vietnam lies in a part of the world about which I know very little.  Second, I have always felt like my education on America's involvement in the Vietnam War has been embarrassingly inadequate.  While I'm not expecting to become an expert on the Vietnam War in the next 10 months, I would like to get a sense of the conflict, its lasting impact on the country, America's role in it, and its impact on the relationship between the United States and Vietnam.  Beyond the reasons that Vietnam is intriguing to me, I am charged by the Fulbright Program with the task of fostering mutual cultural exchange.  This responsibility is something that I will take very seriously and the opportunity to forge genuine relationships with citizens of a different country and members of different cultures is incredibly exciting to me.

After I arrive in Vietnam on Saturday (yes, it's going to take me about 25 hours to get there), I will be staying in Hanoi for all of August.  The other Fulbrighters (yes, that's what they call us) and I will be staying together in Hanoi and participating in an orientation that will include (among other components) intensive language and TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) training.  After the month in Hanoi, I will be setting off to a small town of about 50,000 people just south of the Chinese border called Cao Bang where I will teach English at a "Gifted High School."  As a cool side note, the waterfall that is the background picture for this blog lies about 50 miles northwest of Cao Bang City and straddles the border with China.

For now, I'm continuing to prepare for my departure.  Emotions abound, but for the most part I can't wait to get to Vietnam and to begin what I hope will be an amazing 10 months.  I will do my best, during my time in Vietnam, to offer consistent updates on this blog.  Please feel free to contact me via the blog or by any other means--I really would love to hear from you.  I look forward to keeping in touch over the course of my adventure!

All the best and next time from Hanoi!
Jonathan


Also, as I'm obligated to tell you: This blog is in no way affiliated with the U.S. Department of State.  All of the views expressed here are my own and do not represent the views of the Fulbright Program or the Department of State.