The Sun is Coming, The Sun is Coming!
Trip Start
Oct 24, 2005
1
48
150
Trip End
Ongoing
Hanoi,
Vietnam
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Ba Trieu Temple
. Unfortunately, the move meant that my schedule had to suffer a bit, which has been a bit of a headache. To accommodate, I've been doing a lot of "covers" -- subbing for vacationing or sick teachers. Perhaps things will iron themselves over the next few months. I've also learned the downside of teaching kids -- I contracted something a bit like pink-eye this summer. Most unpleasant, as I'm a contact-wearer, one who has atrocious vision, and who, when forced to wear glasses, has a difficult time seeing. It seems this problem is not limited to children either -- scads of adults seem to be afflicted as well. A rampant red-eye problem....A new school was built across the street from our house. As if the construction noises weren't enough, now we are jerked from our slumbers every morning (except Sundays) by the sound of a big kettle drum being banged. We assume it signals the beginning and the end of each class, as it's played about every 45 minutes from 6:30 AM until 5:15 PM. And every Monday (remember, our only day off), we're treated to what sounds like drum and bugle practices from 6:30 until about 8:00. It's delightful. So are earplugs. It seems they've also decided to upgrade the speaker system on our street, so the Voice of Vietnam is louder than ever, and can no longer be ignored when it blasts through our window Saturday mornings at 6:00.
I finally found an affordable gym, so I joined, and recently convinced Konrad to do so as well. Most of the gyms here are in the ritzy hotels and cost over a hundred dollars a month (for not that much, I must say), so I bought weights and was just workin' it in the living room. This new place is great -- a bit archaic, but it's cheap (a three-month membership was only 360,000 dong -- about $22) and it's got everything we need (plus eight aerobics classes a day!) -- and it's only a five minute walk from our house
Ba Trieu Temple - Vendor
. So it seems everything is coming together here.......while everything is falling apart at home! I won't comment on all the events of the past few months, but I will say that we have registered as absentee voters, so we'll be exercising our right to vote from halfway around the world. Speaking of politics, etc., have you watched "An Inconvenient Truth" yet? It's Al Gore's movie on the state of the environment, and if you haven't seen it, do so. It's chilling, but also inspiring. After watching it, I was ready to join up and do what I could to make a difference. But then I realized I was in a perfect position to do so: I'm a teacher in a country that has very little green sense. So, I've been taking my message to the classrooms. Would you believe that in one class, when I asked the kids why the Earth was getting warmer, they all said that it was b/c the Earth was getting closer to the sun?! And they weren't bullshitting me -- that was what they legitimately believed. Fortunately, most of my students have been a bit more environmentally savvy, which makes class discussions about the topic a bit easier (and more productive).
I think that brings us fairly well up-to-date. A reminder to those of you who haven't utilized the awesome invention that is VOIP -- our phone is up and running, call anytime: we're twelve hours ahead of CDT (so if it's 11:00 PM there, it's 11:00 AM here).
Ciao!
