Holiday Celebrations in Hanoi

For about 2 ½ weeks Ryan was gone on a little vacation around Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Laos. He finally returned on December 17^th – his birthday. I decided to throw a little shindig at Highway 4 to celebrate both his return to Hanoi and his 24^th birthday.

Since then we have been through a whirlwind of holiday parties. First of which was on the 20^th. The Institute of International Education held a Winter Holiday party to celebrate Christmas and to promote the center. A few days before, I was asked to teach a few of the volunteers some Christmas songs to sing at the beginning of the party.

About fifty people came. We played a few games and almost everyone went home with a gift. At the end I taught everyone how to sing “Feliz Navidad”. It was quite embarrassing because their music didn’t work so I did it acapella style and I think that I sing terribly.

The next evening Language Link held their End of the Year Gala. A few people who attended the previous year's gala told me that this one was much better. The space was so big, and the food was great!

Finally, on Christmas day, Ryan and I went to the "Orphans Christmas Party" at the Green Mango organized by De, our HR lady.

At first I thought that the money we had to pay to go to the dinner went to orphans, but apparently we were the orphans - those who had no where to go for Christmas. There was free flowing champagne with strawberries, mulled wine, and an amazing buffet with (mostly) traditional Christmas dinner foods. They even had a turkey! With cranberry sauce no less! That alone was very exciting because I hadn't had turkey since before I left the States.

We stayed until the early evening and walked up the street to this little cafe called Cafe Pho Co right on Hang Gai street. It's easy to miss this place because all there is is a little sign and nothing else. You have to walk through a souvenir shop and a small hallway before it opens up into the cafe. We ordered two egg coffees (egg whites whipped and then mixed with coffee) and walked up two flights of stairs. At the top of the cafe offers an amazing view

of Hoan Kiem Lake.

When we finished we walked through the streets of the Old Quarter while eating roasted chestnuts.

Just to mix things up and recognize the other side of my upbringing, last night my friend Mikka and I held a little Hanukkah dinner with matzo ball soup (my mother sent me a box of of the mix) and potato latkes!

All in all I would say it's been one of the most enjoyable holidays I've had.

Another lesson in intercultural relations

This evening I began a new Adult Elementary 1 class and I just so happen to have one of my old students, Trung, from an Adult Beginner course I ended about a month and a half ago. Trung was always a bit of a pain because he was way more advanced than the other students and he acted like he knew it. He would purposely ask questions and say things that the other students could not understand to prove that he knew more than they did. Somehow Trung had been placed in the wrong level from the start. Another issue I had with Trung was that since he felt like he already knew everything that was being taught he would talk to the other students while I or another student was talking. That always kind of pissed me off. I told him to quiet down, and he would for a few minutes, but then he'd go right back into it.

Anyway, when we both found ourselves again in the classroom together I thought, "Oh boy, not again." As in the last class before, he talked to the other students while I was trying to explain an activity, or while another student was talking. I decided that I was going to nip this one right in the bud! Because it was the first day of class I let them go ten minutes early, but I asked Trung to stay behind. I told him that just because he was in my class before does not mean he can just talk while I or the other students are talking. I explained that it was impolite and I asked if he would "please" not do it anymore. He stopped me and said, "Vietnamese teachers never say 'please' to their students. They just tell them." I thought about that for a second and repeated myself without saying "please". He appologized, said he would stop, and walked out.

I felt somewhat triumphant after that. I walked into the teachers' room and told the few that were there what had just happened. One teacher explained to me that in Vietnam people rarely say "please". They bluntly say or ask whatever they want without trying to be polite about it. Good to know.

Kristi

About a month and some odd weeks ago my friend Kristi, from the States, arrived in Hanoi. She had just finished her CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults) course in Saigon and she was up in Hanoi checking out the place to see if this is where she'd like to settle and teach English.

Since then she has luckily decided to make Hanoi her home and she now lives just a few blocks down from me!

I met Kristi in October of 2001 when we both found ourselves in Sacramento, California on the same team in AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps. At first, I didn't really like Kristi because I didn't get her sarcasm. I thought that she was always trying to offend me in some backhanded way, even though she really wasn't. According to her, I actually flipped out at her over a shovel while we were cleaning up at a barn on some farm. I don't really remember that, but I'm sure it happened. However, after we were placed together in the same cabin at Kahili Mountain Park on the island of Kauai we started to hit it off quite well.

We were in Kauai for 5 weeks volunteering with Habitat for Humanity. Our next project was for 3 months working at an elementary school in Sacramento tutoring kids and setting up an after school program. After that we volunteered at the Oregon Garden in Silverton, Oregon for 6 weeks doing garden maintenance and teaching environmental education to school groups. Our final project was in Salt Lake City, Utah at Camp Kostopolous - a camp for children and adults with various developmental disabilities. We worked as camp counselors doing all sorts of activities with the campers like horseback rides, swimming, camping, a ropes course and the campers would perform little shows for one another Thursday nights for our "Thursday night skits".

We graduated from AmeriCorps in August of 2002 and I will always consider that time I spent in the Corps to be the best year of my life. What was so special for me wasn't just the community service projects we did, or the travelling we had the opportunity to do, but the people I met along the way. Kristi was one of those people. I know that no matter how long or how far we're apart we will always come together like no time has passed. I said the same about my friend Youa, who I also became good friends with that year.

Since we graduated Kristi expanded her horizons a bit more in the Peace Corps on the island of Kiribati (pronounced: kiribas) in the South Pacific. Even though she was away for quite some time we remained in contact. When she came back to the States in October of 2004 we made plans to see one another that Thanksgiving. She gave me some great tips on my trip to India that I was to go on that December. In the Summer of 2007 we came together yet again in upstate New York to attend Megan and Nathan's wedding - two other team mates of ours. Then the last time I saw her in the States was last Fall when I drove up to Vermont, where she was living at the time, to hang out for a weekend.

When I found out that I got the job at Language Link this past January, I called Kristi because I knew that she would really appreciate the fact that I was moving abroad. When I told her that I was moving to Vietnam she said, "Me too!!!!!" Neither of us could believe it. Anyway, 11 months later and we're together again doing extraordinary things.