We're alive!

We don't have internet yet,, but we are alive and well. We've been at the beach in Vũng Tàu with our friend's family, but we're back in the city now and I teach TONIGHT! No access to facebook yet, but maybe soon. carolyn and jenni signing off

Top Ten

Now that we're reflecting on Vietnam and preparing for another year, let's discuss my top 10 favorite things about Vietnam. Well... actually, let's do my top five least favorites first. But let's be optimistic and call them Challenges:

5) Pollution- I really don't notice for the most part, except for my bloodshot eyes at night. It can't be healthy though

4) People not understanding my Vietnamese- Right when I'm feeling confident, someone looks at me like I'm dressed like bigfoot.

3) Comparisons/Bluntness- She is more beautiful, you are fatter, you look pregnant, you are so tall, your face is so splotchy, his vietnamese is better. Sometimes there are compliments, but it's a gamble.

2)Durian- I wish I could describe this fruit to you. It smells so bad that people wear gloves when they eat it so their hands won't smell. It's prohibited in most closed-in public places.

1)Bargaining- gosh I hate it. I'd rather pay more then have to deal with it, except that I can tell they don't respect me when i do that. And I feel good about a good price. Just hate gettin there.

I've had an ongoing list of my favorites throughout the year. I have lost that list. I'm just pulling these out of the air right now. It's so easy! The order is really not that important:

10) Old Women- they're just so darn cute. I usually can't understand them, but they will pat or squeeze me on the face, the stomach, the butt, whatever they want. They ride motorbikes, and sit on the floor. They wear what they want, go where they want, do what they want. I want to be Vietnamese when I get old.

9)Low expectations -Many people have never spoken with a foreigner and often they don't expect me to even try to speak their language. So, frequently the compliments begin flowing as soon as I say Xin Chào.

8) Coffee. Coffee shops. Coffee with milk. Coffee with mint. Coffee with friends.-I'm back in America now and I don't like coffee here. And my friends don't come pick me up on their motorbikes to take me to get it.

7)Hailing the Bus- I want to wave buses down forever. I love it. I wave and they pull over. Genius. Granted, sometimes they don't, but it's still fun and makes me feel like a local.

6)Strawberry Juice- oooh and pomelo and apple and pineapple, and any smoothie I've ever had here

5)Fish sauce- Apparently most foreigners don't like it. I can't really describe the taste. It smells terrible though. But if you have just the right amount of chili (and sometimes garlic), it makes any meal better (but don't overdo it).

4)Phở -Noodle soup with beef. Sounds boring. But it's not. MMmmm.......

3)People speaking to me in Vietnamese- I love it. Even if I don't understand, or accidently agree to marry someone's tall cousin who lives in the mountains, I always like when people speak to me in Vietnamese

2) Getting my hair washed- they scratch your head and massage your neck for 20 minutes.

1) Motorbike taxis- anyone riding a motorbike with an extra helmet might pull over and ask you. And they'll take you anywhere you'd like, and they'll take you fast

Dang, I have a lot more...

Back in America

I have officially been on US soil now for over 24 hours. The first thing I heard was a racial slur made by one of the immigration officers in Los Angeles. Welcome to America.


The last week in Vietnam was FILLED with many people (whom I love) and goodbyes (which I hate) and some gifts (which I also love, but there was just no more room in my suitcase). I am not sad to leave temporarily, not sad to be at home in America, though it is possible that I'm allergic to Griffin, Georgia.

So... I'm back... Too much to blog about... Where to start...

Here are some pictures of people who took some time to call me up in Vietnam. They always made my day. They weren't all, but were the only pictures I got. Thanks to all! I hope you don't mind your pictures being put up here...

Laura and Ryann. Ryann wasn't really sure what to make of me, and she did not want to tell me what sound a rooster makes. Then she had to go pee pee and take a nap.

I love this picture of Helen--who met me at the airport with my parents! She and Luke read me a children's book and made me laugh. Sorry I didn't get a picture while you were there Luke. Total oversight.

A wonderful surprise to have a few minutes with Ryann, Erin, and Kris. And seeing Ryann jump off the coffee table.

Erin trying to have a cool headset like me.

Talking to Katie was totally unexpected and great!
I even got to hear Anna speak!

Anna and Katie

Erin and Anthony making me laugh. I don't know why you're so blurry. However, the other picture was inappropriate for my blog.

Thank-you Anna!

I needed to share this

Last night I ended one of my favorite classes. I think I've talked about them before. They are chock-full of personality, which makes teaching them hilarious and challenging. They can make any game work, or they can ruin any lesson that they don't deem worth their time. If they knew how much power they had, I would be in big trouble.

Last night I gave them Chick-fil-A hats that Tara gave me. They loved them. Before that we played a game. The "Reaction Game," the students are supposed to write situations on a card and then we bring them up and people must act out their reactions while everyone else guesses the situation.

For example, You see a hurricane. The student must act how they might act if they saw a hurricane. As a class, we went over a bunch of examples, winning the lottery, getting bitten by a shark, I was excited about the potential of this game with this class.

I knew there was way too much laughter while they were writing them, but when I received everyone's slip of paper here is what they said:

• Kevin went to be at the hospital
• Kevin wears a pregnant dress
• everyone see Kevin kiss an old woman
• I see Kevin hit police
• You see Kevin play dolls
• Kevin has a diamond
• You see an accident
• Violet wearing a pregnant dress. I hate Violet.
• Kevin has a baby
• Kevin falls in love with old woman
• Kevin wears a dress
• I see Kevin marry with Nancy
• You meet a Korean popstar
• Kevin pees in the class
• Kevin hangs out without clothes
• Kevin dies in the toilet

I was slightly horrified, and I looked over at Kevin who was laughing. I asked him if he thinks it is funny and he said, "Don't worry, I don't shy." They wanted to act out each one with sputtering and choking at the thought of seeing Kevin having a baby (I have no idea how Kevin became the butt of all the jokes). I added my own slips of paper and we played the game for a little while. Good grief. I'm going to miss them.

Steph and Brittany

Our friends Steph and Brittany are the first of us to fly home from 'Nam. They are actually in the air as we speak (well, as I speak, maybe not as you read).

So, in their honor, here are some pictures from their last visit.

They came to HCMC to go shopping and we were HOT and cranky. So we went for pizza! Steph and I split a huge pizza. And it was big. The napkin was supposed to be a reference point of how big the pizza was.

Brittany and Erica were not told about this picture. This was another reference of how big our pizza was compared to their puny personal-pan pizzas.I told Steph that her mask was cool. She said, "Yeah, but it's a little small," and this is the face that she made to demonstrate. We all agreed that she looked like the vulture on Robin Hood-- Nutsy or Trigger, I can't remember which one...

We're pr@ying for safe flights for our sisters, and a wonderful time at home... before coming back.

EVERYONE on team Vietnam will be returning in August. Oh my, is that the first time I've said it? I am planning on coming back to Ho Chi Minh in August. One year is not enough.

Long blog with words and no pictures

I just stopped by Yem's juice shop and sat with them as they watched the end of a Korean movie. I ate some banana and sweet potato mush (that was actually really really good) and got some strawberry juice for the way home. My first sip made me involuntarily utter, "holy cow that is wonderful," and I wanted to blog.

I wrote that last week.

This week just ended (or next week is beginning, depending on where Sunday falls in the songs you sing). I am coughing from the fizz of my (non-alcoholic) ginger beer. I imagine that it will make my stomach feel better, but it won't. I drink it anyway and I like it.

I burp really loudly, forgetting that our door is open and our neighbors can hear, and when our neighbors walk by, I act like I'm disgusted at my roommate in another room (though she's not actually here). One of the children in a nearby apartment has shoes that make a loud squeaking sound with every step(--by design, these shoes are very popular here). She can't be more than two, and she always comes to the door and shyly waves at me when she's waiting on the elevator, and today is no exception. Goodness, she makes me smile!

Last week, Erica and I joined a few other teachers in giving Caimbridge tests at local primary schools to (a bazillion) 7-11 year olds. It was fun, and tiring. I'm not sure that those tests should be given on such a large scale for such a long period of time. We only gave the tests for a little over three hours a day, but that was excessive.

For three hours I said:

"And what is this?" "Good!"

"What is this?" "A table."

"Point to the table." "Good!"

"How many chairs?" "Two, very good!"

...And very little else.

It was actually how I pictured that teaching in Vietnam would be. Beautiful, rustic, open air schools with plants hanging from the balconies. Fans giving me my only relief from the heat, cooling my sweat soaked shirt. Smelly, uniformed kids with beautiful curious, dark eyes (and some with cavities and strange rashes), waving at me excitedly, then suddenly terrified upon entering my presence and unable to speak.

Some students answered me in Vietnamese. Some just repeated what I said, "What is this." Some looked on the verge of tears. And some, sweaty from their break, dripped sweat on my papers and made them wrinkle. I was always put in the seat near the window so that everyone could see that there was a foreign teacher. I'm glad it's over, but I really really liked it.

So my point in saying all of this is that I fulfilled my hourly teaching limit for the week early. I was gone for five hours in the morning, came home, planned my lessons, then five hours in the evening every day, after meeting my friend Oanh to study together. It was EXHAUSTING. So I was finished by Friday morning and in the afternoon I left for a women's retreat with my fellowship!

This is a long blog. Are you still with me? My main goal was to make some more friends in the fellowship, and I definitely feel more connected now. Mission Accomplished, and then some. And thanks to friends who are much smarter than me, I have a much better understanding of some of these women, and more respect for what they do (that I should have had all along).

I'm still processing the retreat and what I learned and how I am supposed to apply that to my life. I'm also busy trying to ignore the fact that we must disassemble our lives soon and move again.

(pardon me while I kill a roach)

I'm back... Saying goodbyes, saying hellos. Reading the totally convicting (and totally hilarious) Prayer and the Art of Volkswagon Maintenance by Donald Miller. A couple of other issues in my life that are not blogable.

Emotionally, I'm a rock( at least about Vietnam). Spiritually, I'm pensive, stubborn, longing for betterment, but unsure which parts to prune. Physically, I have been better. Two weeks left and I want to live every day, not counting the hours, like I do on bad stomach days like today.

I would like to end with some quality quotes from the week (to reward those of you who made it to the end):

"If we cannot poop right, there is no joy." -Nancy, from the Women's retreat

"I'll beat you right now." -Phượng, when I dropped her shirt on the wet floor in the bathroom.

"I'm fine thankyou and you?" -about 75% of the students I tested when I asked, "How old are you?"

"I know you from American by your face." -student I tested

"To the most unAmerican American I've ever met." -letter addressed to me from my very cool South African roommate at the retreat.

"No one wants to leave." -Chris (my student), after the bell rang when we were still playing a game. A quote that I wrote down and will reread every day if necessary.

"If Kevin pees in his pants, his underwear will be wet. And if his underwear is wet, then his prince will be cold. -Simon (my student) during an IF/THEN lesson.

"Prince?" -me

"You know! Girl, princess. Boy, prince!" -Simon