Roommate March

There are so many reasons that I'm thankful for my roommate. I've listed a lot before this and I'll list a lot after this, but today, I'm going to do something a little different.

I reeeeeally wanted to show you the picture I took of Jenni napping (that she doesn't know about), but I don't think she would appreciate it. So, I thought a video of one of my favorite stories would be better.

I hope you can understand. It's about Jenni getting on a motorbike. I laugh every time I hear it.

Jenni subbed for my worst class this week.

We played soccer with a bunch of Vietnamese men and the only time I got knocked down was from Jenni. Now I have a sweet turf burn on my knee and Jenni is jealous.

Also, I believe I forgot to mention that Jenni bought me a new pan for Christmas. I was beginning to doubt my ability to make pancakes because I had been making them on the gas stove on a little metal slab of a pan and they never came up in one piece. I just never knew that the pan made such a difference. New pan, my pancakes are beautiful again and my confidence has returned. To think that I doubted myself!

Thank you Jenni!

A friend of mine

I looked up "friend," in an online dictionary and I promise you, one of the definitions is, "v. to add (someone) as a friend on a social networking website." I know it makes sense that someone might look that up, but I still think that's ridiculous.

And apparently the other definitions don't make it difficult to label someone a friend. An aquaintance. Someone you trust. Someone with whom one knows. Really?

Well please allow me to tell you about one of my friends here, who has been so much more than a "friend." She has been an invaluable ally here in Vietnam. My tour guide. My supportive sister. A listening ear, a wise advisor. She's just so good at loving people. I honestly don't know if we would have survived here without her these 2 years-- and I'm not just talking about her having an oven and letting me use it...

So anyway, Janell is leaving for a couple of months and then coming back to work in Vietnam for a little longer. I was not a very supportive friend because it would have been much more convenient if she were in North Carolina a while longer. She's so adventurous. There's her blog-----> on the right there (Another stamp in the passport). Check it out.

She'll be back, but it will be right before I leave to go home. I am really going to miss her. She has a higher paying job than me, can do anything, and lives such an exciting life, that I've never felt like there was anything I could do for her. No way for me to ever repay her for everything (i mean this literally too, gosh she's paid for so many meals and taxi rides). So, I'm going to use the only means at my disposal to tell you about Janell: my blog :)

Here's Janell:

(u.s. citizen)

She was our first non-Vietnamese friend in Vietnam. She remembered our names. She remembered my birthday (though we only barely knew her). She told her roommate and Aletta picked up a piece of cake for me.She was friends with the team who was here in HCMC before us, and she sought Erica and I out to be our friends. And she made a point to seek us out again this year and meet Jenni. She goes out of her way to let us know that she wants us to succeed. Everyone needs a Janell in their life.

Janell, this picture was a sacrifice. I am only putting it on here because you look so good in it. And look at your hair! Wow!We went to the tax center one day and they were having some kind of convention in the lobby. The only words I could understand were, "áo tráng," (white shirt). And it was true. Everyone was wearing a white shirt, except Janell and myself... and apparently that lady in the plaid back there.Here is a vegetarian lasagna that Janell made. Hands down, best vegetarian lasagna I've ever had. Maybe the best lasagna. I'm not just saying it.Fun fact: Janell's a twin. So is my roommate Jenni by the way. A lot of my favorite people are twins. I should have known immediately that we would be friends (but she didn't preface with, 'hi, i'm a twin,')(Actually, she just said, 'Hi, I'm Janell and we're going to be friends!').

Janell and I have been hanging out on Monday nights at her apartment to eat dinner and watch "So You Think You Can Dance." So fun. I'm very upset that I must watch the rest of the episodes without her.

Thank you Janell for being such a friend to me over here.

I know you will be so blessed for the way you love people.

Something Cool

With no credit to me or to my organization, some cool things happened about a week ago.

Friends of mine, who were in Vietnam for reasons I cannot discuss, have been a great source of encouragement to me. Actually, I met them here last year because someone knew someone who roomed with my uncle in college and got my Vietnamese cell phone number from someone else and called me. They met up with me and encouraged me here. Then they brought me into their summer program and encouraged me during the summer, letting me lead small groups and share about what's happening in Vietnam.

This year, we met up and hung out and had lunch. They were busy with their own things, but had some free time and some books that they bought to share here. One of the books is called, "The Road to Success." It's fantastic. It's in English and Vietnamese (a great study tool) and it's all about how to be successful, which is a great hook here, because that's what everyone wants.

The beginning is about teamwork, direction, purpose. Recognizing influential people, writing a resume, choosing a goal. Then it gets into ethics, responsibility, and finally the pathway to truth: the good news. Without reading very much of it, I think it's kind of genius.

So, my friends had a bunch of these books and a free night. It happened to be Women's Day (March 8th), so I took my students out to a coffee shop to celebrate and to practice speaking with foreigners. My friends, 2 guys and 2 girls, met up with us there. They were so great, and talked with my students about anything they could. They handed out a few books at the end to students who were interested.I brought my first class and required that all the students come and talk. They are only level 3, but they are the highest level 3 I've ever taught. We went over questions that they could ask the foreigners. A couple of the boys joked that they wanted to go home, but EVERYONE remained way past the time that I required.We just all talked and drank coffee and fruit juice for a while. Finally time ran out and I had to leave to get my 2nd shift class. I ran out to go meet my next class, only a level 2 (but all 18 or over). They all came and all talked and we had a great time. A couple of boys in each class ran across the street and bought flowers for all of the girls for Women's Day.This is Sunny, 18, one of my best students. She was in the first class, but stayed next to me all night. We had a great time. She hates this picture.We both had a coconut sinh tố (smoothie), so delicious. And they bring out the coconut milk in an extra glass. That's the first time I've seen them do that at a coffee shop. Classy. And of course the straws make a heart...

My friends were great and they talked slowly for my students to understand. I KNOW my students enjoyed practicing English with foreigners. It was really a great time had by all.

Afterwards, my friends said they had a great time and gave me some extra copies of the books. They also gave me some NT's too.So, unexpected and undeserved, but much needed encouragement arrived and I didn't even have to lift a finger. I am so thankful for these people and the work that they do.

I'm fine

Before I forget, I need to let everyone know that I'm totally fine. Everything feels better. No more bumps, or joint pain, or cough. Anything! Maybe that medicine worked after all!

Since I'm blogging... and who likes a blog without pictures... This is a doughnut shop downtown in district 1. I've never been in. I just liked the name.


Not that funny I guess. But in case you aren't sure if the coffee is good, rest assured. It's as good as their donuts.

cough again

So not only did I wake up, but I still had a cough.

I've had some testing today and I went to my aerobics class for the first time in a long time and barely made it through. I made some no bake cookies for a friend of mine who I like to talk with-- she always brings me Vietnamese goodies. There's a bonus promotion on my particular sim card brand where I get 100% free of what I purchase. I bought 400,000 minutes. 800,000 should definitely last me 3 more months.

In the cell phone store, I recognized some men in the back drinking beer. One man drinks tea outside my apartment every night, one is a motorbike taxi driver, the third owns the cell phone business, and the other man just looked familiar. They offered me a beer when they saw me. I declined, and they went around shaking my hand (I've found that a lot of Vietnamese men like to shake my hand when they're drunk).

One man was trying to tell me something while I bought the minutes on my phone. I didn't understand, but by the time I finished, I understood that he was going to buy my minutes for me. Oh! Thank you! Next time.

That same man was very offended that I didn't remember his name. We argued for a little while about why I forgot his name, which always makes me feel good to be able to argue in Vietnamese. They shoved a beer into my hands for the 2nd time, I took a sip and one man motioned that I was supposed to drink it all. I apologized and told him I can only drink a little. Oh, a small drinker? he said. They laughed. I shook everyone's hands again. They tried to get me to sit and eat some chicken.

I tried to make my exit again and someone brought up my occupation. She's a teacher. English. They all went around saying what they could say in English. How are you? Shook my hand again. I finally made my way out.

Earlier, while i was testing, I looked down and was alarmed to see what I thought was a zit on my chest. I inspected further and realized that my entire chest was covered in little bumps. I ran to the bathroom and wondered why it wasn't on my face or arms; my stomach and back were covered too! I don't know the rules on blog ettiquette, but here's a picture of my back (is that ok?).

They're just tiny little bumps, hard to see. I almost didn't put the picture on here because I didn't think it will elicit the sympathy I'm after.



I showed by friend and she didn't seem alarmed. She just nodded and said it was because of the heat. Um...... no, I don't think so. Today's not the first time I've been hot.

It doesn't itch really, and it's starting to work it's way to my arms. Needless to say, I won't be finishing the reccommended dose of medicine.

p.s. lot of people affected by the earthquake and tsunami, but news is saying that Vietnam won't be.

I have a cough

I have recently wasted a great deal of time trying to upload videos on here. The long one didn't load, and the short one didn't load, and I'm honestly not even sure why I just tried another medium sized one (it wasn't 'just right'). Maybe I should just take a hint.

I have been kind of sick for about a week. Actually, a week ago, I wouldn't have admitted that I was sick. I just lost my voice. It was touch and go in the classroom, which is a lot of fun for me and even my students liked it! One class told me that my voice sounded, "cool," and they hope it stays like that forever.

I walked into anpther class and my students heard me talking and one immediately asked, "Did you eat too many hamburgers? or sing too much karaoke?" I also get advice from all of my students, and everyone I talk to actually. Everyone wants to help me get well. It's annoying though because it's all the same and it's all told to me as if I've never been sick and I'm sitting at home wondering what I can do to help myself.

Anyway, other funny things my students have said.... One boy was reading the text and he got to a part that said, "No...." He read it, "Noooooooooooooooooooo...." And looked up at me, as if I would let him know when he needed to stop. I thought it was funny so I never said anything about it (don't judge my teaching methods).

In that same class, I was trying to teach the group of 12-13 year olds to say my name correctly. I've had a few people call me, "heroine," so I wanted to nip that in the bud... (please read this, "buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuud). And I heard a few of the boys try to say my name and said, "Ca rót" instead, which is Vietnamese for carrot. They thought it was hysterical and laughed the entire class any time someone said, "Cô Ca Rót (Miss Carrot)." It made me feel a little like Anne of Green Gables.

And one last funny thing, which I don't think will come across as amusing in the written form (dang, I knew I should have caught him on video!), happened in another class of 12-13 year olds. I was playing Simon Says with this class of 11 girls and 2 boys. One of the boys has an almost unnaturally low voice and every time someone was caught doing the thing that Simon didn't say, he would announce that he didn't do it. "Didn't," he would say, though it sounded more like "Dnnt." Every single time, "Dnnt," and he would giggle like a girl each time.

This whole past week has been kind of funny, with my voice acting up and everything. I think I got more flowers on Women's Day because of it too! Below are flowers that I bought this morning; only the carnations, rose and flowers in the mug in front are from students. The rest I bought because I couldn't choose between the two, and when I asked the prices, I realized I didn't have to.

So, all this to say, now I've got a full blown cough. For a few days now. And-- I'm SICK OF COUGHING. I cough in my sleep and I dream about coughing. I'm out of cough drops, I've had about 72 cups of tea this week, lemon, salt water, blah blah everything except go to the hospital, which I'd like to put off (though it's the only thing my insurance covers, so if I'm going anywhere, that's where it would be).

The hospital is the last resort, but there is a 2nd to last resort. Something that I've never done here, and I've always dreaded. I have no reason to dread it I suppose... but I'm going crazy. I need a decent night's sleep; I'm at the end of my rope, I HAD TO DO IT!!

I went to a Vietnamese Pharmacy.

3 unlabeled (and colorful) pills in a little baggy. And I have 3 baggies. I received advice that I should take these today, 3 more tomorrow, and the last ones on Saturday and by then my cough should be "finished." I'm not gonna lie, I'm a little nervous about this. That's why I'm blogging. If I don't make it, I just want to say that I love you all and thanks for reading. Those of you who don't read regularly might just be too late this time.

I was told to take them early and with food. Then another friend of mine told me I should wait 2 hours after eating. And just now, someone advised me to take them right before bed and go to sleep after. All of the contradicting advice is just making the whole experience more thrilling.

I'm taking them now. Goodnight. This is Carolyn, signing off.

Birthdays thus far

Recently we celebrated the birthday of one of our own, Holly, in Biên Hoà. We went to a Restaurant called "Bud's" that just opened and we were pretty psyched about the menu.

I'm not kidding, they had Australian beef burgers for less than 60,000vnd (a good deal for a good burger). The others were interested in salads and pizza and pasta. Austalian beef burgers had me drooling the whole way over.

So, we get a table, check out the menus, talk it over, ask the waitress for a few more minutes, finally decide what to order. Jenni orders pizza and the waitress explains that there's not pizza today. Groans around the table. Change of order. Discussion.

The next order isn't available either. Finally the waitress explains that there's no food at all; they're only serving icecream.

Nice. I hadn't eaten in like 7 hours because I was hoping that this expensive lunch would taste better on an empty stomach. We toasted with our ice teas and had some icecream.
She had a lot of Vietnamese friends take her out for icecream again and then come over later to celebrate with cake. Happy 25th Holly!

We celebrated Ashley's birthday in December. But apparently we didn't take any pictures. I stole this from her facebook from another day at her school. Apparently she had no shortage of cakes. I think she had 3. Happy Birthday Ashley!

For Steph's birthday, back in September, everyone met in HCMC and we went to chrch. Afterwards, we went for pizza and beer, then took a taxi to district 1 to go shopping or do anything Steph wanted to do.

It was the first cake that I've bought and had customized here in Vietnam. I was very proud of our selection even though we couldn't tell if they were polar bears next to a river, or snowmen in a tropical setting. Happy Birthday Steph!

For my birthday, we went to Biên Hoà and stayed a couple of nights. At the time, the girls were having some housing issues and were still staying in a hotel. They still had a little kitchen and Steph made French toast and they dragged me, pouting, off skype, to sing to me and make me wear the birthday headband.

Then they took me to karaoke. It was a while ago and I mostly only remember singing country songs with Brittany. We sang about our ex's in Texas and our friends in low places and anything we could find by Garth or George. No pop Vietnamese music, Happy Birthday to me!

Birthdays overseas can be hard, but we do the best we can.

Jenni, Jenny, Phượng and me

We still get to see our neighbor Phượng and her daughter Jenny every now and then. I can always remember how old Jenny is because she was born the week before I came to Vietnam the first time. She's over 18 months old! I don't know how Jenni rides the bike with them on it. I've ridden a couple of people around and I really have to focus, and being in traffic like that stresses me out. Here, Jenni's just riding them around the apartment complex.

Going back and forth between writing Jenny and Jenni is confusing isn't it?

I love this picture of Phượng and Jenny (her real name is Châu).

I carried Jenny around for a while and we pretended to hunt one of the cats that lives outside the apartment. Jenny will get really serious about it with me, and we'll peer under cars and run around chasing nothing.It has been really cool to watch her grow.

Some Classes

After 'teaching' Kitty classes (4-6 year olds) for so long, I was finally given an older class (9-11 year olds) on Saturday mornings. It would have been a relief no matter what they were like, but they happen to be really smart and a lot of fun. I gave them some Chick-fil-A hats --courtesy of Tara-- as a prize after a game one day. We were studying giving directions and I told them were to draw the bank, school, cafe, restaurant, park, etc. on their map, and they told me where to draw their house. They could put their house anywhere and it could be any size. I drew my house first and I thought it was big. Then they drew their houses. i don't know if you can tell how big they are from the picture...

Then we gave directions to students. With my facemask over their eyes, we told them to:

GO STRAIGHT,

TURN LEFT,

TURN RIGHT,

STOP,

TURN AROUND,

and just walk around the class without touching any desks or obstacles in the room. It was hilarious.

I had this class, Ket 5, at night recently. I had them last year and they are a goofy bunch of pre-teens, with a little attitude, but like to have a good time. They are too cool to do anything silly, but they like it when I make a fool of myself.

Inflation has raised prices after the lunar new year, and tuition has been going up for a while at our school anyway. The result: smaller class sizes! It's not true for every class, but in some cases, it has been pretty nice.