look alike

So I have a student named 'Jacky (yellow shirt)' who looks like Zach Blew (friend from college). I totally stalked Zach's facebook just now looking for a photo that did justice to the likeness that I saw. Maybe Jacky's mannerisms add to the picture for me... Does anyone have a picture of a younger Zach Blew? Does anyone see what I see?

We are on our way out the door to visit our friends in Bien Hoa (Steph and Brittany). I feel like I sound annoyed in this video, but actually this class is one of my favorites. They like to play pretend games and clap and laugh, and I bribe them with Finding Nemo stickers. They have so much energy that I start class with a little exercise. Many of them are very smart, and one kid named Yang has incredibly good English. He says it's because he watches Cartoon Network, and you can tell because when I ask him questions he answers with, "Ladies and Gentleman, boy and girl, right back after these messages..."

The hand I'm holding in the video is "Ranger." I would like to staple him to his chair. He's sweet, but he is constantly walking around the classroom, jumping, bothering others. And then when the bell for the break rings, he falls on the floor and sits.

Stardom within Reach

In Vietnam, there are no copyright laws. Some examples include our teachers' books, which are black and white copies from the printer all bound together with a little red plastic band. Also, we see Jennfer Aniston plastered on a wall on our way to school every day. And Kiera Knightley's picture graces the front of the hair salon across the street. I have wondered if these celebrities know how often their photos are reproduced when they don't receive compensation.

I used to wonder what it would be like to be famous. I feel like we have gotten a taste of that life here. People stare and point and wave. Others nudge those next to them and call the children to come out and see us. Some smile, some frown. We feel very scrutinized, people notice our habits and schedule, they want us to be seen eating at their resturants.

And NOW, we might get to experience that other part of being famous. I received an email and a text about coming to district one to take pictures. Our school, VATC, doesn't have a yearbook, but I didn't question it and we took a taxi to the school's headquarters. It turned out to be this intense photo shoot! Lights, cameras, and a notebook full of absurd poses to choose from.

(None of my actual students have laptops for the record) I was so embarassed doing what they told me to do, and there were people watching! It wasn't long before they realized how much more they liked taking pictures of Erica than of me. I think there might be a career change in her future.

Aside from that acting reality t.v. show Courtney Thurston, Andrew Roberts and I tried out for in 2004, this might be one of the more ridiculous things I've ever done. We are really hoping that our pictures get put up on a billboard somewhere. Fingers crossed.

For the record, the book I am holding here is called "Michigan Profeciency (does it teach people how to talk like Michiganders?)." And I would also like to add that we joked and laughed a lot, even though this picture makes it look very painful. It WAS painful at times, but i would have felt much more ridiculous if I wasn't laughing through all of this.

I was sooooooo thankful they had Erica do this pose instead of me.

This video isnt funny

Here is a video I took tonight on our walk to school. Normally the traffic flows pretty really fast and everyone just zooms by, but around 5:15-5:30, the school on our street gets out and motorbikes come from every direction to park and pick up their children. We were really smooth tonight and we just walked right through. Sometimes we have to weave through the maze and watch out for the masses of tail pipes. I'm a little upset that no one yelled "hello!" to us during the video. I'll try to get that on tape later.

The streets in our neighborhood are lined with different shops and food stands. And Erica and I have ambiguous names for local places but we both know exactly what the other is talking about. For example, “the rice place (every place has rice),” “the omelet lady,” “the Latino guy (ok please don’t be offended by this, but there are a hundred sandwich stands and this helps us distinguish a good one),” and “Our coffee place.” It is OUR coffee place. It consists of a little room with an awning spread over two plastic kiddie tables and a stack of kiddie chairs. All of this in a small alley. We love it, and our loyalty has many benefits: they never misunderstand our order, we are never shocked by the price, and the couple that runs it takes care of us like their own children.

On Friday our school was closed for some kind of fumigation, for the N1H1 flu virus. Erica and I went to our coffee place and had our cà phê sũa. It started to rain and the woman ushered me to a chair away from the edge so I wouldn’t get dripped on. It rained harder and the woman and her husband motioned for us to come inside and we motioned that we weren’t getting wet and were ok. Her husband stood and said, no longer smiling, “Come now.” So we did.

The rain intensified and the little alley flooded almost immediately. Some boys who were walking to school stepped up on a ledge out of the water. The woman brought in the chairs before they floated away. The thunder and lightening came and the power went off. We sat in the front of the room with the couple and the husband used his few English words to tell us that it was raining and teach us how to say it in Vietnamese. I had a dictionary and the woman took it to look up the word. She gave it back to me pointing to a word in Vietnamese. The definition stated: to drizzle.

Later Erica and I walked down town to find a market. We found that after this "drizzle" the streets were flooded. We were very clearly the only fools on foot, and there were places where the water was up to our knees. There was a strong current in places and when big trucks would drive by, waves were created. At first it was funny, but after walking through it for a while, I wanted to get out. I couldn't see my feet at all and I couldn't see holes or slopes and trash kept getting caught on my shoes.

At one point we walked on the median. Now the medians are usually manicured very nicely and kept well. There was another man walking on the median and he walked off the grass, balancing on the curb like a trapeze artist. Erica and I thought that it must be bad to walk on the grass since no one else was doing it, so we copied the trapeze man. A few others came behind us and did the same thing. Here we are, a line of us now, walking and balancing on this narrow curb, inches away from speeding traffic. There aren't any pictures of this because we had to concentrate pretty hard to be successful.

"Take a load of your feet"

After fellowship today, Erica and I went to District one and walked around. We saw a place called 'Wayne's Texas BBQ and Steak' and the neon "Cowboy Wayne" was waving to us and directing us inside. We decided to celebrate being here for one-month and experience this American food. I had a hamburger and Erica had a quesadilla. We were disappointed in the guacamole, but my hamburger was delicious. Sadly the portions were Vietnamese and not American. The atmosphere was delightful, and we sat next to pictures of The Duke and sang along to the country music.

District One is very different because there are foreigers everywhere and people don't even seem to notice us. We actually find that we miss the attention.

Then we saw some a group of Japanese women taking pictures in kimonos in front of the Opera House. They seemed to enjoy me taking their picture.