Introducing the Cast of Our Story Tour Group: Myself - no introduction Justin - friend and English Teacher at my school LeeAnn - friend of Justin from Oregon, USA; legal advocate Aicardo and Elizabeth - couple from Miami, FL, USA; he has a business dealing with pharmaceutical trials; she has an online business (I think) Stephanie - Med Student/Resident for trauma medicine in Atlanta, GA, USA Sanshiro - Japanese Marine Merchant; lives on a boat 6 months out of the year, has stories involving Somalian pirates Rory - Austrailian (Sydney) studying to be a maths teacher Hung - Electrical Engineer from Hanoi, Vietnam Tham - Welcome person from Oxalis - she picks up everyone from the airport/train station and gets them to the first homestay; We were supposed to have a full 10 people but one dropped out at the last minute so she was invited to go on the tour. She had never been in Son Doong before. Oxalis Team: Howard - British Caver who helped discover Son Doong Dat - Vietnamese guide, originally from Hanoi 5 Vietnamese safety assistants including Dang, Quang, Hien, Linh . . . I feel really bad that I can't remember the other name. These guys were in charge of making sure we didn't bust our asses and helped us through the more technical sections of the cave (rappelling, sharp rocks, loose rocks, steep incline/decline, etc) 19 porters who carried all the gear including tents, extra clothes, food, and all our shit (literally, they had to pack out all of our poo). The only one who's name I know is Bien since he played cards with us every night. Chef Cuong - absolutely delicious food the entire trip. Ranger from the National Park - he didn't seem super excited to be there but we're required to have a ranger with the group at all times. Before the cave:
We all arrived at the homestay at different times. Justin, LeeAnn and myself did some biking around Phong Nha, ate some good food, had a couple swims in the pool. We only met Rory and Shanshiro before the welcome briefing that evening. At 5:30, we all got on a van together and went to the Oxalis headquarters for our briefing. We got an overview of the cave, what to expect, what injuries to try and avoid, what to make sure we packed in our day bags and what stayed in the dry bags for the porters to carry. We signed our lives away on a release form and chowed down on some delicious dinner. We head back to the homestay with full stomachs ready to leave at 9 am the next morning.
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It's the end of my first year at St. Paul American School Hanoi. I've had the great honor to teach a total of ~95 students over the course of the year. Quite a few students have moved on to other schools or returned back to their home countries; I ended the year with 83 students. It doesn't get easier over time to lose students. Teaching abroad is so different to teaching in the States. With English being many students' second or third language, I've found myself teaching just as much vocabulary and English as I do math content. Explanations must be adjusted and reworded 17 different ways depending on the student. Talk slower. Draw more pictures (#notanartist). But the students are genuine ... or at least really good at faking that they care about math. They at least care about the grade enough to put on a good show. When you do get the occasional student who just does not give a rat's ass about their grade, you have the time to dedicate to making them pull it up anyways. Didn't turn in your homework today --> lunch in my room. Failed your quiz --> I'll see you last period for Beyond. It doesn't take long before the student changes their attitude and surprisingly learns to love you for it. Some of my best students this year started out not great at math. Some of them are average (Asian average not American average... the stereotype holds for most students) until they're caught cheating. They then see that, indeed, I am smarter than them and they will be caught. They learn to love me for my sass and actually try to understand the concepts moving forward. We're still working on the independent creative thinking as that's more of a Western educational concept than an Asian one. I hope next year can make some real progress in that direction now that I know what to expect from my students. A couple pictures from the school's STEAM day. Students worked for weeks/months on projects in a variety of classes. The photo on the left is from students who analyzed various brands of bottled water available in Hanoi to see what was in them. What we learned is that LaVie has the most particulates (could be minerals, not necessarily bad) and Aquafina/TH are basically just straight water (no minerals, no bacteria, etc). The photo on the right is a GIANT vat of obleck (cornstarch and water mixture). It was large enough for students to run across. It was a huge mess by the end of the day but super fun. Another part of the STEAM day exhibits were these amazing artworks by students in the Art Beyond Class. Phenomenal work!
Perfume PagodaA few of us went up to the Perfume Pagoda. It's a sort of pilgrimage site for many Vietnamese people. After taking a bus from Old Quarter we arrived at a river full of boats . . . and I mean FULL (see pic below). According to our guide there are ~4000 boats in the river and it's normal to see tens of thousands of people there on a busy weekend. After our boat trip, we walk through a market area to the first temple area. We're told that there are two options to get to the top of the mountain where the actual Perfume Pagoda is. Option 1: sky tram. Option 2: walk ~ 1.5 miles up stairs to the top. He said people who choose to walk always regret it and many of them have to give up. He doesn't know us like that. We chose option 2. He looked skeptical. We laughed to ourselves. 6 avid hikers, 3 of which have done half marathons in the last 6 months. Pft. We got this. The walk up is 98% stairs with very few "flat" sections. The entire way is lined on both sides with vendors. Some sell clothes, some sell food, some have areas where you can nap, some have ice cream, some have mia da (sugar cane juice). All of them stare at us and/or talk about us (we know enough Vietnamese to know when they're talking about the foreigners). For reference, we saw maybe 6 other white/non-Asian people while we were there. We make it to the top and enter the cave of the Perfume Pagoda. On the way down the steps into the cave, we pass another member of our tour group who had taken the sky tram. We get into the cave and see our guide. He seems surprised to see us and expresses how impressed he is by our ability to climb a mountain . . . to be fair, it was difficult and really frickin' humid. We were disgusting by the time we finished. LidecoMy housemate Clare had read about a development a little bit outside of Hanoi. The project had been started in the early 2000's maybe and for some reason (funding or market crash ...) construction had to stop. So basically, there was this whole development of abandoned houses to explore. As we arrive, we find the place busier than expected. Apparently construction has restarted but there are still loads of unfinished projects to explore. Some houses are lived in - we see a family unloading groceries. Some small shops and dining are on the main street through the development. We drive around finding the undeveloped areas and eventually stop at a house we don't think the workers will see us enter. It was super interesting to see the juxtaposition of the finished projects right next door to totally abandoned houses. In the center, is a lake where they have a brand new playground and outdoor gym area (not pictured). Children are playing. A few adults are exercising. In the background is construction and empty homes. Girls' TripDuring the 5 day weekend for a Vietnamese holiday, most of our house went on a trip to Hoi An and Qui Nhon (both central-ish Vietnam). Spent a lot of time on the beach. Did some clothes shopping and a lot of reading. Ate a lot of delicous food. Absolutely gorgeous locations to relax for a few days. The only non-relaxing part was the 5 hour bus ride from Hoi An to Qui Nhon. It was supposed to take 6 hours but our driver had a need for speed. I think I prayed more on that car trip than I have in a long time. Who doesn't love going 150-200 km per hour in the passing lane with oncoming traffic? Assorted Hanoi AdventuresWent for a run with Justin, Steven, and Liz in Soc Son, just outside of Hanoi. Beautiful area but so frickin' humid that day. I feel like Justin and I almost died (mostly because we were both already a little injured from other stuff) but on the plus side, the reservoir was actually clean enough to go for a swim afterwards. Totally worth it but probably won't go back until it cools down again.
The summer storms are back. It took us two weeks to actually make it to 5 star rice! First time we tried, we didn't even make it half way to the end of our main road when it started raining. On the plus side, we just hopped from cafe to bia hoi during lulls until we made it home. Traffic is terrible as always but seems like it's really picked up on Doi Can (my street). Glad I wasn't taking my bike out when this picture was taken. On that note, I finally bought a motorbike of my own. Honda Vision 2015. Rides like a dream. Been bowling a few times, I still suck but it's fun anyways. |
ShannonMath Teacher living and working in Hanoi, Vietnam Archives
February 2022
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