School trips were last week (by the time I'm posting this, 3 weeks ago...). Each grade in middle school went to a different location and high school had their pick of trips. I went on the Da Lat trip and it was DaLata fun . . . get it? (*Disclaimer: I did not come up with that glorious pun) Some quick numbers: 1 student cried 2 buses 3 high school couples 4 nights 5 days 6 teachers 7 leech bites 51 students lots of amazing tour guides (Thank you Phat Tire Vietnam!) Day 1Successfully got everyone through airport security. Our boarding time arrives ... and our flight is delayed. Không sao (no problem) ... the kids just go to Burger King while we wait. We arrive in Da Lat an hour later than we're supposed to but the PTV guides are awesome. They have lunches packed for us on the bus and have plan B ready. We head to Dantanla waterfall where we take an alpine coaster down to the water. I had to threaten to fail a student if they didn't put on their breaks (they were going to run into me/Laura otherwise). After the waterfall we head to a cable car that goes over the town through some amazing scenery (this is where I apologize fr not taking pictures until day 4 . . . I'll try to steal some from other people's facebooks later). After the cable car, we try to go see a local pagoda but get there 5 minutes after it closes to the public. So we head down the hill where we load our stuff onto boats and ride across the lake to our campsite (home for the first 2 nights). Once the kids calm down after finding out we do not have flush toilets (gotta put the water in them to manually flush out your poo), hot water, or showers, we get set up into tents and head to dinner. Much to the Korean students' disappointment, we have a wonderfully prepared Vietnamese dinner (and almost all subsequent meals) followed by a bonfire with marshmallow roasting. Day 2Morning - we've broken up into our small groups (each teacher was assigned 8 - 10 kids to be in charge of) and participate in some team building activities. There are 6 activities including spider web (standard low ropes stuff), a variation on "the floor is lava", and one where you had to pour one bucket of water into another bucket without touching the bucket. The other three were either less exciting or more frustrating. Either way, the girls in my group did great. I made sure they tried everything once their own way before offering any suggestions but their basic ideas were pretty spot on. #Koreanstereotype Afternoon - it rains after lunch so we're all just chilling in our tents waiting for it to stop before we go build rafts. Once that happens, we go down to the lake and each group gets ~10 bamboo poles, 6 big plastic jugs, a buttload of rope and 1 hour to build a raft. 45 minutes pass and it starts pouring rain again. By the time we all get to the closest shelter, most kids are soaking wet. By the time it stops raining an hour later, the kids have learned many games to pass the time. They put finishing touches on the rafts and get them ready to race. . . One group's raft stayed above water. Every other group was sitting half underwater and trying to paddle. It was both sad and hilarious. My girls came in 3rd or 4th. Groups that got off and started kicking were DQ-ed. Evening - after getting into dry clothes and relaxing for a bit, we have a cooking lesson. Our guides have prepared the batter for Bahn Xeo, a rice flour pancake type thing ... think Asian savory crepe. Out of my 8 students, about half were successful in making something that looked good. It was all edible, but some of them came out looking a hot mess. After dinner, a local village from Langbiang mountain came for a minority music and dance show. It was pretty cool. We saw lots of bamboo instruments and got to participate in some of the dances. ... Watching Korean children awkwardly dance around a fire is great. But don't worry, I joined in too. I'm sure I looked just as awkward. Day 3 We pack up before breakfast to leave camp. On the boats back to the other side of the lake, some of my girls are curling their eye lashes and doing their make up . . . I will never understand why. We split up in to two big groups with different students. The first group (my group) leaves first to go hike up Langbiang mountain and rappel (here called absailing) down the mountain. The second group will take a jeep up the mountain, rappel, then hike down. My group rocked it! Most of them had never hiked that far in their lives (only 9-10 km) and there was a fair bit of complaining but they all made it and were good sports about it. I got to talk with some students that I don't teach. One told me he wanted to go back to Hanoi so he could have a bia (beer)! ... there's no official drinking age in Vietnam. Another one was constantly complaining until I told him the 8 step trick ... count out 8 steps (that wasn't so hard, right?) ... count another 8 .... and another ... and another... hey look, we're at the top of this hill. I caught him doing it on his own later. When we get to the top, we break for lunch. Our wonderful guides have carried our lunch up the mountain for us and man, was it a big spread. We had fruit, banh mi (sandwiches) with at least 8 different things you could put in/on it, and banana bread. After lunch we learn how to rappel/absail down a 5 m cliff then head to the big (25 m or 82 ft) one in small groups. A couple of students had to do the baby cliff a couple of times before being approved for the big one but everyone more or less got it. On the big cliff, they had a second belay rope attached to us in case we lost control or anything. Everyone made it safely to the bottom though some screamed more than others (you'd swear some of them were facing an axe murderer). One girl didn't stay leaned back and ended up ramming her knee into the rock face, tore it up pretty badly. But no tears here. After jeep-ing down the mountain, we load up the buses and head to our hotel. Everyone is appreciative of the showers before dinner. Dinner is a pizza party where we eat I think 35 of the 40 pizzas. The kids have a chance to chill and hang out before bed checks and all the adults are asleep soon after kids are taped into their rooms. Day 4 and 5 ... Quick Summary because it's 3 weeks later . . . * Ropes Course: - got bit by a leech while standing in grass - monkey bridge, leap of faith (I chickened out and just jumped down at the top instead of jumping out to the trapeze bar), and zip line - Joshua (another teacher chaperone) could be heard from anywhere when he got up on an obstacle ... he does not like heights. It was hilarious * Tea Farm: - we picked some tea for 2 minutes before it started raining again - we learned how to properly prepare and drink tea - one of my students, Ken, did a pro job acting as translator for the tour guide at the farm * Talent show and awards from the week's competition - my group won - imagine 5 Korean teenage boys dancing to a KPop girl group song . . . priceless * Night market - I bought a rubber chicken and got to use the phrase "mac qua" (with some accents on there somewhere) which means "too expensive!!". I got my chicken for 40K instead of 55K * Weasel poop coffee - not as odd tasting as one might think. crazy expensive though - got to see the weasels, they were large and cuddly (with each other, not us ... we couldn't hold them) * Elephant waterfall - Niagra falls of Vietnam (or at least looked like it after all the rain) - very steep and slippery decent to the view point at the middle of the falls . . . thank god no one fell - lady at gift shop spoke English and was very excited to talk to me ... asked all about the school and where we'd been ... very huggy too * Silk factory - saw whole process from silk worm to silk - separating the cocoons from the silk worm smells horrible ... two kids almost barfed ... I'm glad my sense of smell sucks
1 Comment
anh le
26/10/2018 05:05:55 am
incredible trip!!! Would you trade your trip with my teaching job in the trailor?
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