Settling in to Vietnam and new routines
Good morning, all. I have been here less than a week and yes, Jessi, I have crossed the street successfully many, many times. We have managed to find our way to the market, which is three stories high and several blocks square. I could not, however, find a bug to eat, Nathan, so we must wait for another time.
We have started to settle in at the university. Bob and I will share an office in the administration building. It is a large room with many cubicles, but no other teachers seem to be assigned to the office. I am struggling with their expectations of me. They want me to commit to a schedule, but I want to remain free for our company! I did sit in on a few classes on Thursday. I was then asked to critique the teachers and tell them how the lesson could be improved. That's awkward on day one- but those who know me best will appreciate that I offered very little criticism. However, I did note that neither teacher could call the students by name. Also interesting to me was the fact that next week those same classes will be taught by teachers from the Philippines. They wanted me to teach those classes, but I begged off to observe again next week. As my guide reminded them several times- I am not the Fulbright scholar. Thursday evening I co-taught a club meeting. As nearly as I could understand, this is a voluntary organization led by an instructor. He said they usually have 70 students at the meeting. You will see- I hope- on the You tube video- that we were reviewing pronunciation and teaching phonics with gestures. I was impressed by the energy and excitement of both the students and the teacher. You will see in the video that there are several students with red jackets- they seem to be the student leaders of the club.
The campus is very nice and it seems to be undergoing a series of beautification projects- including extensive gardens that I will be sure to show you in the spring.
Bob really enjoys the professor that he will be working alongside and he is excited to really get started. He thinks he will be teaching seminars and guest lecturing.
The most exciting news is we found an apartment yesterday on the east side of the Red River- the same side as the university so our travel time will not be so long. It is a beautiful neighborhood called Eco Park- complete with stores, schools, and free bus service taking us into Hanoi central! This will be so nice for our guests that are coming. The apartment is newly decorated and it feels like we will be living in a resort. We will start to move in early next week.
The most striking irony of this first week is that we have moved from an acreage in SD to a city of 8-10 million people and I wake each morning to the sound of roosters crowing! Hmmm...
We have started to settle in at the university. Bob and I will share an office in the administration building. It is a large room with many cubicles, but no other teachers seem to be assigned to the office. I am struggling with their expectations of me. They want me to commit to a schedule, but I want to remain free for our company! I did sit in on a few classes on Thursday. I was then asked to critique the teachers and tell them how the lesson could be improved. That's awkward on day one- but those who know me best will appreciate that I offered very little criticism. However, I did note that neither teacher could call the students by name. Also interesting to me was the fact that next week those same classes will be taught by teachers from the Philippines. They wanted me to teach those classes, but I begged off to observe again next week. As my guide reminded them several times- I am not the Fulbright scholar. Thursday evening I co-taught a club meeting. As nearly as I could understand, this is a voluntary organization led by an instructor. He said they usually have 70 students at the meeting. You will see- I hope- on the You tube video- that we were reviewing pronunciation and teaching phonics with gestures. I was impressed by the energy and excitement of both the students and the teacher. You will see in the video that there are several students with red jackets- they seem to be the student leaders of the club.
The campus is very nice and it seems to be undergoing a series of beautification projects- including extensive gardens that I will be sure to show you in the spring.
Bob really enjoys the professor that he will be working alongside and he is excited to really get started. He thinks he will be teaching seminars and guest lecturing.
The most exciting news is we found an apartment yesterday on the east side of the Red River- the same side as the university so our travel time will not be so long. It is a beautiful neighborhood called Eco Park- complete with stores, schools, and free bus service taking us into Hanoi central! This will be so nice for our guests that are coming. The apartment is newly decorated and it feels like we will be living in a resort. We will start to move in early next week.
The most striking irony of this first week is that we have moved from an acreage in SD to a city of 8-10 million people and I wake each morning to the sound of roosters crowing! Hmmm...
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