The Charades Game

Week three! That’s a wrap! This is the first time in my life where I can say I have experienced the living versus the holiday. Saigon is literally unreal and everyday continues to be a full blown adventure. It’s the little things about this city  that gets me sometimes. Like how the dogs – I kid you not, look both ways before crossing the streets of saigon. Last night I dropped into a quick mart at 2am in the morning to have Vietnamese children congregate around me. Starting with two kids to about fifteen of them. Please just try to picture me sitting on the floor of this 7/11 type store teaching them how to give a high five and  take a selfie. This is literally my everyday.  I walk outside still and it’s I am famous for literally being the only white person in this town.  I went to order a smoothie yesterday and yes, of course, it turned into an hour production. Combining two different fruits is like asking them to make me a cake topped with 100 dollar bills. Everyday life has turned into playing the charades game as the locals do not even know the word “hello” in English. I end up taking so much time to find ways of communicating with these locals. I have to  point to what I want behind their cart, physically put the fruits into the blender and act out blend. When all was said and done my smoothie was amazing and the ladies probably wanted to kill me. There was a little left over, she was about to give it to me but I acted out “you try” to have them  taste my concoction (avocado, apple, banana, and yogurt) and everyone was saying “yum” and rubbing their tummies with smiles and laughs. I am really learning patience and to let go of some of my obsessive behaviors out here (that is besides how I like my smoothies). To be honest the language barrier can be bliss sometimes. I can’t complain about the route the uber driver is taking,  how I like my food prepared, or my nails done, because I do not know the language. You just have to take things how they are which adds a lot of  simplicity to the chaotic town.

Saigon is really starting to become home for me.  My VAS  friends have taken me in like I am one of theirs and they remind me so much of my friends from home. I have these days where I am exerting so much energy I honestly do not know where it ever is ever coming from on  4-5 hours of sleep. I thought I had a lot of energy in general but teaching 50 kids with a language and cultural barrier everyday has taken something else out of me. A dear friend of mine Tim, re-wrote the sports curriculum for me taking it back from  kickball to bounce, catch, throw. During relay races on Friday my kids were physically bouncing a ball for the first time. I know it sounds so silly but these kids did not know those three words (bounce, catch, throw) nor how to physically do it. Two weeks ago if you would of thrown a ball to them they would let it just hit them in the face. So yes, seeing my children properly bouncing a ball was very exciting. In comparison to Philadelphia the learning curve is so different. The major one is street smarts versus academics. In Vietnam, the children are strictly taught to the book. Creative thinking, imagination and again with the physical education is not touched on. Where in Philadelphia these kids come in never been read to a day in their lives but they can survive the rough streets and become the next Allen Iverson. VAS is doing a wonderful job adding this camp program. Team building activities is very difficult for these children. They struggle to be creative and create their own work. We were making journals that are meant for teaching core values. I told them to draw things that represented them. I showed them mine as an example and lets just say I now hold 30  journals with an American Flag, an airplane and a picture of the world. (AKA they just copied mine if you didn’t get it).

 Teaching creativity and critical thinking has truly been an honor these past couple of weeks. In Vietnam, individuality is not as important and valued as it is in Western parts of the world. Anything a Vietnamese does, he does out of consideration for the welfare of the family, rather than for himself alone. They even all hold the same birthday year. They celebrate their birthday on the same day, the Vietnamese new year, despite the day or month one is born.

 I understand how people live here for years and never want to leave. My European (well English now) friends crack me up. There is literally a different word for everything and I love when they mock my American accent.  They think I am such a typical American and everything I do reflects right back onto Americans (sorry guys) haha.

P.S Tim, I hope you are honored that you have been officially mentioned in my blog.

Namaste with me onto week Four!!

From Beach to Brothel

“Are you alive?” “Yes, I am are you?” “Is she satteling you too?” “Yes, can you please just check every 15 minutes to make sure I’m not taken?”Literally the conversation between my friend Jeremy and I this afternoon. Only in Vietnam do you go from flying in from Ha Long Bay back to Saigon to find yourself in an environment that is a massage parlor by day and a brothel by night. The place looked so nice downstairs and was only 4 dollars for an hour long massage so we went for it. The upstairs though… literally was a scene out of the movie Taken. The scummy bathroom, separate rooms, men in uniform yelling something in Vietnamese. Please don’t ask me why we stayed but we did and I am still alive! Ah never again!!!

This past weekend a friend and I took a trip up North to an Island called, Ha Long Bay. Do you see the background of this blog? Yep, that is it. We flew up North Friday night and spent all day on the bay Saturday. Hạ Long Bay,  is known for its emerald waters and thousands of towering limestone islands  (I will let the pictures speak for themselves). The craziest part of this adventure was the picture taking. The Vietnamese and other Asian travelers were obsessed with taking pictures of my friend Kayleigh and I. On our cruise boat, without asking, Mothers  would just plop there children on top of us and start taking pictures. Others would straight up ask if they could take their picture with me, and some would from a distance picture us. It was like they have never seen white people in their lives before. I had a couple people come up from behind while I was laying out and they would pose beside me while having  their friend take the picture from afar. As this would probably annoy most Westerners, lets just say I didn’t completely hate it…   Does Katie not like attention?” HAHA I loved it. I started posing for them with my American peace sign and huge smile. Lets just say, I made a lot of friends this weekend. It’s nice to be back in Ho Chi Minh city now. This place has become such a home for me. When I said, I was ready to go back home my friend thought I was talking about Philadelphia. Nope, It was Da-Blend in Ho Chi Minh that I was referring to.

Namaste.

New friends and new perspectives

Days and now weeks have gone by and I still feel like I am living one big dream. I can’t tell if this is what feeling alive feels like, or if there is crack in my coffee. Either way, I am so completely out of my elements of comfort and normalcy, that my body and mind still can not catch up, leaving me in a constant dreamlike state of mind. I thought after graduating college and finishing my fellowship year was the behold of life challenges. That is up until these past three days. Never in my life did I imagine working at a school  as a camp counselor would be my challenge in this trip to Vietnam. How could it be? Five years of teaching experience in low income schools of Philadelphia, and going and working at a day camp my whole entire life. Little did I know… To put things into perspective “stand in a line” and “hold hands and form a circle” is a foreign language to my first graders. I have spent the past three days teaching kids what forming a line means and looks like. Yes, these students are bilingual but at the age of 6 a lot of language is still developing. Any language related to Physical Education or team building activities has never been introduced into their worlds. Their  focus has been on education and how to behave in a classroom. For many, this is their first time they are hearing such vocabulary.  I thought possibly for sports I could have them do a simple obstacle course, until 30 seconds later I found they did not know the language aspect or the physical aspect of “bounce a ball.” I have also failed to mention—NAMES!!!! Learning Vietnamese is a very difficult language as it is a tone language. You can pronounce the word correctly but if you do not have the correct tone it changes the meaning of the word. So yes, I have 50 students whose names I can not pronounce to save my life. So, on top of my language barrier, and inability to “form a line” I am calling all of my kids by “Hey you.” I have been doing my best to find nicknames for kids like spiderman, pop-star, Elsa etc. I guess coming from my previous camp experiences I didn’t expect to be playing duck duck goose all summer (The only successful activity I’ve had thus far). My cooking teacher today put things into a great perspective for me. She said “Katie, parents drive around on mopeds with their babies not wearing helmets. It’s okay). Since then, I have relaxed a little. It’s camp and the only thing that is important is that the kids are smiling. And that they are. I know it will get better. It has each day. I asked myself back in the states for a new challenge, and sure did I get it. On the brighter side of things, my directors and staff are fn wonderful. I think the concept of adding a camp curriculum into their academic setting is genius for these children. Down the road, this camp is only going to prosper.

I love spending time with my new camp friends and getting to know people from all over the world.  We were talking about the Orlando shooting yesterday. It came to my attention that America is the only country with these mass murders going on. My friends from Ireland, England and the UK never witness this. They say not even police carry guns. No one even knows anybody who owns a gun… it’s just not a thing.  It made me sad that people think of America as a scary place. They are shocked and blown away by the fact that my students have to walk through metal detectors each day before entering school. Times have changed and so should our amendments. How are we still following the same set of rules that were written in 1776?

NAMaste with ORLANDO .

Kindergarten Tables

I walked by myself to camp last Friday without the help of my “two bodyguard” friends. I felt what it was like to be a minority in a foreign country. It was almost like everything stopped and people would without shame just stare at me with an entire 180 head turn. I couldn’t walk past one cart or store front without getting full on looks from the natives. The thing is though, its not scary here. The Vietnamese people are very nice. They appreciate attempted language, gestures and big smiles. They are not bitter about the Vietnam war. At first, it was a bit scary, I think  because of the overwhelming environment and language barrier but a week later I feel very comfortable here. The street food is something else. They are known for their alley ways of pho, banh-mi sandwiches (thank you France for the bread), and iced coffee with condensed milk that comes in a bag. These alley ways crack me up as they are all filled with kindergarten sized tables and chairs. I am thankful for only being 5 feet tall but my 6 foot friends (bodyguards as I call them) are definitely struggling. 

Today, I attempted to ride/rent a motorbike today. You can rent them for $50 a month. I failed terribly on my first attempt and decided it wasn’t the best idea. This is like the worst place in the world to learn. Mom, you can rest easy for now. 

The Camp Life

This week camp has been dedicated to training and preparing for the upcoming next six weeks for when the students arrive. Like any new situation I had to walk into a room full of new people by myself and become adjusted. I soon found out that 90% of the expats (a name they use for international teachers) nearly all new each other. Some have been  living in Saigon for some time and some naturally congregated by their country, making it hard to make friends instantly. For those of you who know me, I make friends naturally and easily, so this was a bit out of my element at first. Anyway, five days later I pushed my way into groups of people, friended all of the newbies and made many friends this week. A lot of effort was put forth this week for team building exercies, that was extremely benificial for keeping the morale high. Life in Saigon has not stopped for a single second. All week we have been training by doing activities verses training via a powerpoint slide. Not to brag but my week has consisted of swimming, doing theatrical drama, playing dodgeball etc. I almost feel like I am away on a rehabilitation retreat with all of the group activities we have been doing.

The camp that I am working at is based directly out of a private school called, The Vietnam Australian International school (VAS). The kids go to class for half the day and then do camp activities for the second or first half of the day—depending on their schedule. That is where I, myself and 50 other camp counselors come in. There are nearly 2,000 students enrolled at VAS this year. I have a group of 25 ( mixed boys and girls) third graders for the first half of the day and then another 25 first  graders for the second half of the day. Compared to the dozens of Philadelphia School’s I have worked at VAS is  nothing like I have ever seen in my 5 years of teaching nor growing up.  It blows me away how under developed our schools are in an established country known as America. So, you may be thinking.. yes this is a private school. However, through networking I have learned that their public schools are just as nice. These kids are basically learning in an environment that is comparable to a beach resort. I look around everyday in awe of the environment. Not only is the school beautified it holds so much respect. I see teachers in full suits and heels, Classrooms with large glass windows, cafeteria food that I would give 4/5 stars to, resources, computer labs, a swimming pool the whole 9 yards. Oh—and it gets even better. Everyday the students and teachers get a two hour break for lunch and nap-time. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I got my schedule today and saw that I had a two hour break. I immediately raised my hand thinking it was a mistake. Here the people  value teachers as they do doctors. The training has been very beneficial and very well run. Overall, this school has really impressed me. I really wish the United States could see this. I mean, I’m sure they do but how do they not get it? How do they not understand the importance of funding schools with equal amounts of money regardless of zip code? It saddens me because we think of the United States as such an established country.. but we lack so much when it comes to education… At least in the city schools that is…

Namaste and Happy Friday evening for me! I can’t wait to see what my first weekend has in store for me!

All pictures of VAs

COFFEE and UBER-MOTO

“COFFEE, COFFEE, COFFEE.” From my British roommate in her accent. AHH the coffee is so good out here I drink it black!! I think the highlight of my day today was sitting in the park of District 1 (The commercial district). A new friend of mine told me about this park where westerners become famous. The Vietnamese are so eager to learn english—it’s great. They pray for foreigners in this park to come speak to and practice their english. A Vietnamese girl asked me to read seven recipes that she needed to practice for her English class. The language is so complex in their english courses,  I couldn’t believe it. She had me record the language into her phone two times so that she could take it home, practice and share with others. I loved being able to leave her with her (the little things).

Oh my other favorite part of this town!! UBER MOTO!! For one dollar you can get to the other side of the town on the back of a motor bike. I have been living on these things recently!! It kind of feels like being in the Lizzy McGuire Paris movie only with an uber driver!!!

So, I didn’t realize how rough I was living it until I visited the different districts today. Somehow, I ended up in a town directly filled with natives, non-english speakers and where I am  the only non- Vietnamese human. I have been eating off the streets for two dollars a day. I have been getting by using gestures and the little bit of Vietnamese language that I have picked up on. Can you guess my first words???? Okay, Iced Coffee  (ca phe da). I think its fabulous getting to live directly with the natives. I would like to move over to some other districts to test out all of the waters, eventually. District 1 reminds me a little bit of home. Skyscrapers, shopping districts and swanky bars, clubs, and hotels.

As some have been asking my camp experience at VAS has been amazing too. It’s too much to rant about now but everything is going very very well on that end too!!!

Namaste and goodnight!!!

How do I cross the street and stay alive???

The craziest 48 hours of my life.  Starting with the airplane ride I met two awesome New Yorkers traveling to Bangkok. The airline “coincidentally” placed us all on the same row in a packed flight where we were the only Americans. I stand out so much with the blonde hair!! Yikes I may have to dye it. The 18  hour flight was not too bad thanks to my awesome new friends. Next, I landed for a layover in Taiwan. Which by the way, the city is named Tapai which wasn’t listed on my itinerary. Long story short—mini panic attack.  “Where is Taiwan!!!???”  From Tapai- Taiwan I had a 2 hour flight into Ho Chi Minh city. When I arrived, I had to receive my visa. WHAT A NIGHTMARE. There was this loud sound coming from downstairs sounding like the Texas chainsaw massacre. I didn’t know what it was, if I was dying, if this sound was normal or what it was. It was just so loud in the mists of unorganized chaos of swarms of people trying to receive their visas as well. Turns out the sound was construction happening from underneath but when your in a foreign country by yourself it wasn’t an easy feeling. You could barely hear names being called for these visas and I had to wait over an hour to get mine. From there, I finally got to step outside into the world of Ho-Chi-Minh previously known as Saigon, Vietnam. WOW—and I thought IKEA was overstimulating. Saigon is like nothing I have ever seen in my life. Try combining Venice California, New York side streets, a carnival, a boardwalk, the Italian Market, and 1000’s of Mopeds into one. That still does not justify this town but there is nothing to compare it to. I can’t even cross the street by myself. The trick is to just walk into the street and the mopeds will go around you. There are just 100s of mopeds and no traffic laws, stop signs or lights its just moped crazy. As I look around I notice that everyone is covered in zip ups with hoods, long pants, gloves, socks with shoes. I ask “how is this possible in 90-100 degree weather?” Turns out they cover up to protect their skin from the sun. It  is okay for foreigners to show skin, they do not have any religious concerns about it. Next, I get in a taxi and am taken to the place I am staying at for 7 weeks, it’s called Da-Blend.  It’s funny because in the description they call it “a calmer area” but there is no way I would ever call this place calm. The hostel like place I am staying in is a great location in District 10 (Yes, towns are broken up into District’s just like in the Hunger Games). It’s basically a huge clean frat house. I am sharing a room with another girl from England. Right from dropping my bags off I had to run to the camp I will be working at as I was already coming in late. This “frat house” that I am calling it is amazing. I have met so many great people. Some of which are working at the International school with me so we have been walking together. Everyone goes out and eats together and I am never alone (I know my dream). I had my first Vietnamese meal today for 2 dollars. AHHHHH I love it out here so much already.NAMaste and goodnight--- I certainly need my sleep tonight!