Cheking In!

Hola!

It is hard to believe I have been here in Nam for more than two months now! It is officially the longest I have been away from home and while I have my days, I haven't been too homesick yet. I definitely miss my family and friends a ton. Our internet has been down at home (yes, that means I am at school on a Sunday) so it has been hard not being able to Skype. I have missed a few Skype dates which is always pretty disappointing!

I am really starting to feel at home here. I feel like I know my way around a little bit better, that being said, I am still the most directionally challenged person I know! I think after our break in October I will be ready to finally get my own motorbike! I am also starting to explore more. Last Monday Krystal and I went to a tailor and got clothes made. I had two shirts made, a dress, and a CASHMERE skirt. I am so excited to see how they turn out when we pick them up tomorrow. The grand total for all these custom made clothes? $85! At home I was a huge shopper and living here I haven't done any shopping so buying these clothes was a lot of fun and very overdue! I wanted to get more and more made, I think I will be a regular! After getting measured and picking our fabrics we went to eat and got mani/pedis. Getting your nails done in Nam is extremely cheap. For both a manicure and pedicure it costs use $5 (100,000VND). The place we went to was a bit sketchy though and they tried to make us tip them 200,000... 200%, no way! After all was said and done it was a pretty exciting Monday night!

On Wednesday after school clubs started. I am doing a dance club and absolutely loving it! I have 12 kiddos from 2nd-4th grade in my club and half of them are boys! I think it's great how the boys want to dance and there isn't any stigma against it. I think I am going to teach a dance to Stereo Heart and they will get to preform it at one of our Friday assemblies. They are very excited! On Thursday I got paid for tutoring and this week along with my 1.5 mil (haha I love saying I get paid millions!) I got four dragon fruits and a box of Ferrero Roche chocolate!

Saturday was another fun day. Michelle came over and we died her hair using a $5 box of hair color. It was quite the experience, her hair turned out great, but the process was hilarious! There was purple hair dye everywhere! After her hair was done we went to district one with Sara and Ben and met up with Krystal and Kyle at the Tiger street football (soccer) tournament and did some day drinking. It was a lot of fun and kind of felt like I was back home tailgating! We stayed there for a while then went to Amber's before coming back for the championship game. Being there at night was super fun! We made a dance circle and made some Vietnamese friends. We Gangnam Styled with a huge crowd and I turned a horn into a beer bong.... I haven't done one since New Zealand and now I remember why!!

Now it's Sunday afternoon and instead of planning and writing report card comments like I came here to do, I am blogging and reminiscing with Krystal about New Zealand and getting super excited to go back for Christmas!! So with that being said, it is time to get productive! Hope y'all have a great Sunday back home, I am miss you all lots!

With much-o love!
Michelle

Greetings from Nam!

Hello Friends and Family alike,

I hope all is well with you, I feel like it’s been far too long since I have blogged! A lot has happened since then and I am in a super wonderful mood, so what a good time to get to typin’!!(Please note I typed this blog on Thursday, but have been with no internet since, so now it is Sunday and I'm finally able to post it... woo hoo!)

We will start with last weekend. Friday night I grabbed a few FAC (Friday after class for those of you who aren’t good with acronyms!) at one of my favorite places here in HCMC, Patcharans. After heading home for a bit after drinks I went back out with some of the other teachers to watch the Bears, Packers game. Though I’m not a very big NFL fan, it was like a little piece of home which is always a welcome feeling here :) While Friday night was pretty low key, Saturday was jam packed with fun! My roommates, Alex, and I spent the day being ‘tourists’ in Saigon. We headed down to district one on the motorbikes (I am still just a passenger, but I loooove riding on the back, so fun!) We went to the Reunification Palace and the War Museum. It was fun and I took a TON of pictures of the things I see everyday. Since moving here my mom’s number one complaint has been my lack of pictures here in the city, with the exception of my friends and I out and about. While the Reunification Palace was a neat place I am a bit embarrassed to admit I have not a clue what it is. I know, this is a terrible thing to admit, but I really have no clue. I am saving a trip back for when mi familia comes so we can take a tour and I can then by oh so full of knowledge. The War Museum was a crazy experience. I am very glad I went, but I can promise that I will never go back. It was incredibly sad and extremely disturbing… especially for those with a weak stomach. I would recommend anyone who is Nam going to the museum, I am certainly never going to forget going!

Saturday night we celebrated one of our fellow teachers birthday. We ate at an Italian restaurant called Chao Bella and holy cow was it AMAZING! To start off we were given glasses of champagne with strawberries and bread with freshly cooked garlic, humus and pesto. Then after our fab meal we were served lemon shots and the ladies were given real flower bracelets. It was such a fun experience Then one of our other friends who teaches guitar at the high school was playing jazz music at a German bar/restaurant so we went to see him play. This only added to the awesomeness of our night. They played great music and it was fun seeing people we knew playing music in Vietnam!

The next awesome thing I have to share is that on Monday I began tutoring. I am tutoring a fourth grade girl twice a week and helping her younger brother (a kinder student) with things like his ABC’s. The kids are amazing and their mom, even though she doesn’t speak much English, is so nice! So here is how the gig works: At four I ride home with the mom, two kids and their nanny in their private car. Might I mention, their private car is pretty swag-a-licious and even has Chanel floor mats. We then go to their three story, huge house and for an hour we do homework and work on Suri’s English, which is pretty amazing. While Suri and I do homework, Hung works on ABC sheets I give him and then play reading and letter games on my iPhone. Thank goodness for free educational apps! After an hour their driver takes me home and I am in good mood! Today was pay day and on top of my cash, I was given a HUGE bag of cherries, ramaton, and mangoes…. Pretty much made my whole week!

And as always I am loving being a teacher and adoring my class! Their newest way to make me smiling is by giving me a MILION hugs a day! Every time I see them after lunch or specials or break I get at least three hugs, what could seriously be better? My TA also made my day by telling me what a great teacher I am today. It was so sweet and a great compliment coming from her. She has worked with some great teachers so it was a great feeling to have her compliment me like that. She told me how she can tell how much the kids loves me and how I have really great ideas. I almost cried! As a first year teacher it is really great to hear positive feedback from coworkers. Today I also had my first parent/teacher conference and while I was super nervous, it ended up being totally good and it is now done and in the past! Bring on the parents! (Haha… not really, but they are a lot more on your side here!)

Whew…. Okay now that I have gone on and on and on I will stop! I promise to post my pictures soon, but the internet is sketchy and that will take much too long! Hope you all had a good weekend back home, sending lots of love!

Michelle

Another Update.

Xin chao friends!

I have been sitting in my apartment for about an hour looking up ideas for science journals for my kids and I decided I needed to take a break, so here I am blogging!

There is not a whole lot of new stuff to tell about, I am in a pretty normal routine. Everyday I go to school around 7:00. My kids come at 8:15 and I have them until 3:20. I leave school between 4:00-5:00. Then I either workout or go out to eat and sometimes (like tonight) I can squeeze both in. Then I watch TV or read for a while. I am typically in bed by ten (I'm running late tonight) I read for a while and I zonk out. Exciting right?

While my routine may be boring, my students are still anything but. Many of you have said you thought Max (formally known as Phat) seemed like he could be the entertaining one of the class and he certainly has proved to be quite the character! For example, a couple weeks ago we were learning about adjectives. I had the kids fill out graphic organizers about themselves. I was looking over them and about died when I came to Max's. He described himself as....

 

I still laugh every time I come across these photos! We were using the five senses, so the first picture was what he looks like and the second was how he feels inside. 

Another thing that makes me laugh on a daily basis is watching my kids read silently. Everyday we do the daily five where they may choose to read silently. We also have DEAR (drop everything and read) everyday. It is school wide and lasts twenty minutes. I tell my kids that when they are reading silently they may sit where ever and however they like. Lay on the floor, lean against the the wall, stay at their desk... wherever. Some days the kids spread out like crazy. Other days they just stay at their desks. Last week after I reminded them they could sit wherever none of the students left their desks. One student asked me, "Ms. Michelle, can I sit anywhere?" I answered yes and he walked back to his desk and sat in his seat. I was reading my own book (modeling reading for the kids is AWESOME) and I looked up to make sure everyone was reading. This is what I saw...

 

Yes this is Max again.

Today I took picture of my kids progresses from the beginning of DEAR till the end. They get more and more comfy throughout the 20 minutes. 

 

I'll let you guess who asked if he could stand by my desk. He was very curious to see what I was reading!

 

And since I think my class is so adorable, I will end with some pictures of our daily five. This is a literacy block we do daily where students choose between five different activities. Though the week they will read to self, read to someone, listen to reading, working on writing, do word work, and work with the teacher.

 

Read to someone

 

Work on writing

 

Teacher table with our wonderful ESL teacher

 

Listen to reading... Max being silly. Again.

These pictures don't even begin to show the reasons I love my job. Even my 'bad days' aren't really that bad. One my newest reasons for loving my school is that right outside there is a coconut stand. You can go get a cold coconut in the middle of the day for 7000 dong... less then 50 cents. I will be so sad when I can no longer drink fresh coconuts every day. 

Anywho, that is enough for tonight. I hope you all have a fabulous hump day.. thanks for keeping up with me!

Love always,

Michelle

Mui Ne Mini Holiday

Hola Friends,

It is Monday night and I am home from my mini holiday in Mui Ne. I was so excited to get out of the city for a long week and spend some time on the beach! Mui Ne is a small beach town north of HCMC that takes about six hours to get to by bus. It was a gorgeous little town and I loved how quiet it was! A big group of us stayed at a small resort on the edge of town called Mai Am. It was pretty nice, especially considering we paid less then $40 each for two nights.

We arrived on Saturday afternoon around 1:00 and the first thing we did was jump into the ocean. It was a ton of fun to swim and play, and it was my first time in the Pacific Ocean! How exciting! We swam for a while and then rented bicycles for the day. To rent the bikes we paid two dollars picked out a bike and left. No paperwork or signing anything, no nothing. Just pick a bike and see ya tomorrow. So we headed down to eat lunch with some of the other teachers. While we were eating a nice little storm came and went. In fact each day we were there a storm passed through in the afternoon, but I suppose that is what you will find happens during rainy season. ;) Saturday night we rode our bikes to a place called Wax (bar or club? I can't recall). It was a fun bar where you could sit out on the beach and drink or eat. They also had a 'bone fire' at night... I think they were going for bonfire... We had a lot of fun hanging out on the beach and then dancing inside. We also limbo-ed which I found out I am pretty good at.. woop woop!

Sunday we rented motorbikes which was a lot like the bicycle process except you had to pay a whopping $8. Pretty steep for a whole day, I know! It was my first time riding a motorbike and it was so much fun! It was a bit intimidating at first because I have never driven a motorbike in my life, but I loved it. It was also really great practice for when I decide to get a back here in the city. I can't imagine getting one and riding it for the first time with so much traffic! Back to Sunday... after we got the bikes we drove out to see the white sand dunes which were about 45 minutes away. It was an easy drive until a dirt/sand rode. I manged to tip my bike on this rode, but luckily it was in sand and I jumped off first. It was a sight to see I'm sure. I don't think I will ever attempt driving a motorbike in sand again, it was terrible! The dunes however were really cool. It was like seeing a huge desert in the middle of all the greenery. We rented sleds and walked to the top. It was quite the hike in the hot sand, but very worth it. We tried a few times to 'sled' down the dune, however most of us simply sank down right away. Hannah was the only one who got to the bottom. She accomplished this by running and diving head first down the dune. By the time we were done we were completely coated in sand, it was such a windy day! When we got to the bottom of the dunes and as we were walking to our bikes I spotted a sign that had a picture of a girl riding an ostrich. It was the funniest looking thing, so we stopped and asked how much. Well it was only 40,000VDN which would be about $2, so we said why not?! It was so funny, but to be honest those of us who did it felt kind of bad after. The poor ostriches seemed pooped!

As we left we were going to find a waterfall, however when we stopped for lunch the daily storm rolled in and wasn't letting up. So after waiting a while we decided to head home in the rain. At this point I wasn't driving because I wanted a chance to look at the scenery we were driving past, I missed out driving there since I was pay such good attention to the road! This was my second time this weekend (Friday night too) riding on a motorbike in the rain with no poncho and I have decided it it not fun at all and way too cold! Right when we got home we once again jumped into the water. It was so nice to get all that sand off my body! I am still finding sand when I take stuff out of my bag and I am pretty sure it won't stop any time soon!

Sunday night we went to din din at a yummy Mexican restaurant (thought it was NO El Azteca.. not even close!). After we went to a bar called Joe's that had some live music. It was a fun little bar and we spent the end of the night drinking on the beach. It was much more relaxed then Friday night, there was no crazy dancing or limbo! This morning we went swimming a resort that a few of the other teachers were staying at. They had a super nice pool and it was fun to see some of the other people that we hadn't seen much.

I am still having a hard time remembering it is MONDAY night and not Sunday. I have no idea how I am going to teach everything I need to teach this week in only four days. And to be honest, I miss my kiddos! When I told them how much I would miss them I don't think they believed me. I'm a little nervous about how attached I am to them already, I can only imagine what it will be like saying goodbye for our week break in October!

I hope you all had a fabulous (or are still having a fabulous) Labor Day weekend back at home! Once again I will leave you with some pictures from my short vacation. These uploaded in the most random order but I am too lazy to rearrange them at 11:00 on a school night! Enjoy....

 

Riding on Krystal's bike.. note how the helmet is barely on my head. I can't find out that fits.. all too big. :(

 

View driving home on Sunday before the rain set in. 

 

Ahhhhhhh!

 

Enjoying a yummy coconut after nearly dying on the sandy road to the dunes!

 

There were hammocks everywhere! I think I need one...

 

We had a LONG hike to the top!

 

My friend the ostrich and I

 

The beach at our hotel

 

Another view!

 

The view from our room... lovely!

 

Almost all the teachers from the trip at lunch. 

 

Storm on the first day

Until next time,

Michelle

P.S. Please forgive all type-os... as I said before about editing pictures, it is too late to fix them. My students won't be happy if they come to school with a grumpy Ms. Michelle